Transcript

#82 Balance Your Hormones: Boost Your Business with Angela Henderson

[00:00:00] Welcome back to episode of the Hormone Hub Podcast, where we talk all things perimenopause, menopause, and have the conversations no one else is having. Sit back, relax, and enjoy this episode. 

Kylie: Hello, hello, and welcome to the Hormone Hub podcast. I’m your host, Kylie Pinwill. And today I am super excited to introduce you to Angela Henderson. Now, Ange is a mentor of mine. She’s also become a friend, we have been away together, we’ve worked together, and we’re about to go to Bali together, which is very exciting.

Ange is an international award winning business consultant and coach, a podcaster who helps women around the world make more money by creating a personalised business strategy, helping you master your mindset. So you can create a business and life that you love and want [00:01:00] to show up for every single day.

Hey, Ange, welcome to the podcast. 

Ange: Hey there, my friend. Super excited to be here today. I know. 

Kylie: It’s, it’s been a while. We’ve talked about this for a while and here you are. 

Ange: And here I am. Dun, dun, dun. I believe we’re all right on time. So this podcast is happening at exactly the right time and I’m just thrilled to be here and support your amazing audience.

Kylie: Yeah. Thank you so much. All right. So Ange, do you want to tell us just a bit about who you are and what you do? 

Ange: Yeah, absolutely. So I live also in Brisbane, Australia, but I always say I’m a proud Canadian, so don’t mix me up there, people. Uh, and I love the color pink. I love eating Nutella straight from the jar.

I’ve got two delightful kids, Finley John and Chloe Glenella. Um, that’s just kind of like some fun little facts. I love the color pink, but not just pink. You splash a little bit of glitter on that and life is pretty amazing. In regards to business though, I guess even if we were one before business, I’m an ex mental health clinician of 15 years where I used to diagnose people with schizophrenia, bipolar, [00:02:00] autism, anxiety, et cetera.

And then I had my first little, um, child Finley John. And that’s when I created my first business, which was creating childhood memories through play, love, and travel. We were one of Australia’s leading educational toy stores. I was also signed with Netflix. You know, Whole Foods, uh, Coles, Woolies, Hilton’s, yeah, Club Meds, et cetera.

So that was really cool. And yeah, now I get, you know, every day to show up and help amazing women around the world make more money. So life is pretty good, my friend. 

Kylie: Yeah, it sure is. Yeah, it’s been beautiful to watch you just go from strength to strength to strength. So, yeah, and you’ve got a pretty interesting backstory.

Which, you know, you may or may not want to get into. 

Ange: Well, I always think, well, what part of that backstory would you like me to talk about? Because I’m an open book. Like, there’s no, you know, for me, as I’m very big about just being wrong, being real, and letting people just kind of know, like, you know, whatever.

So whatever questions you have for me today, I’m happy to, yeah, just, I’m here to be open and honest any way that I can. Yeah, perfect. 

Kylie: And this will [00:03:00] be, such a great episode for, you know I know a lot of our audience does, have their own business, they’re professional women, and you’re trying to hold it together, through this beautiful transition that is perimenopause and menopause.

So, Ange, do you want to sort of share a bit about your experience of, running a, very successful business, but also at the same time, you’ve got this, like sideline gig of the hormonal. 

Ange: Dance? Absolutely. And I guess. I kind of knew early on that the hormonal stuff was going to impact me because I had to go through IVF with Chloe, my youngest one.

And it was then when they did a test in Australia called, I believe it was the AMH test, where they basically said like, listen, your eggs are rotten sister, you know? And they said, you might be ovulating and releasing an egg every single month, but it’s dead. And they said, so we would predict that based on how you know, infertile you are per se, that you probably, they hypothesize that I potentially would go into perimenopause earlier than say, quote unquote, what [00:04:00] the research shows us.

And so for me, I went into business like 10, 12 years ago. So yeah, 12 years ago. And at the beginning, I had two young kids, you know, you’re tired, you’re whatever. But then over the years, you know, and I also have ADHD. So for me, it was like, well, how much of it is I’m just motherhood and I’m tired? How much of it is just ADHD?

And then maybe five years ago, I’d have to say, so that would have put me at 39. I was like, something else isn’t quite right here. I was like, something isn’t. And I was like, Oh, remember what those doctors said? Paramenopause. And so the fatigue, like the brain fog is what was really getting to me. And it was different to what I had in ADHD where I like, I’ll leave my keys say in the bathroom and don’t know where they are.

That’s been going on for years. But it was just like this subtle forgetfulness sort of like, like my daughter’s birthday parties that she was going to. I was like, why am I forgetting this? Like, I have, I had a routine in place, but I’m still being super [00:05:00] forgetful. Also, I would go through these, like, I didn’t have the hot flushes per se at that particular stage, but it was more of the brain fog has been the biggest.

And then I started to notice like the weight gain and I was like, well, how much of the weight gain is because my husband, I believe was like toxic. And what I mean by toxic, he wasn’t bad. He didn’t harm me, nothing like that, but just his energy. Do you know what I mean? He wasn’t a high vibrational. And I was like, how much of this am I, am I holding from this?

And I was like, yeah, I think a little bit, but I was like, I think a lot of it has to do with these hormones. And then I found. Obviously you and then I did one of your programs too and it was through that program that I was like, nah, this isn’t the ADHD. This isn’t the ex husband. Do you know what I mean?

Like that heaviness, that energy. I was like, this is definitely the hormones. Because once I got on your program, for example, Like I’ve now been able to keep 30 pounds, which would probably be about 13 kilos Australia. Do you mean, depending on what metric you’re off? And I was like, okay, no. So for me, it was a real eyeopener because as a business owner, I was [00:06:00] like, well, people don’t talk about this as a business.

We’re talking about. You know, periods for girls. We’re talking about sex, do you know what I mean? For the teenagers and how to get condoms. And then even now in our world that we live in is like, I think organisations are only just getting really good at just helping people who are pregnant. But I was like, there’s no one in my opinion out there really helping us as business owners to navigate this world of perimenopause and menopause.

Yeah. Well, at the same time trying to hold your shit together. So yeah, I was grateful to have found you because it really changed things in many different avenues.

Kylie: Yeah, yeah. And that’s so true, and I think one of the things that, I want to do with the Hormone Hub podcast and I’ve been doing is, just opening up that conversation and getting it out there.

Because I think when you are a mom, when you are juggling a business, when you, you know, there’s a partner, you, parents might be getting older, so their needs are changing. And then you just. you’ve got this load of life. So it is a busy period of life, but [00:07:00] it’s you know, and so much of it just is, we don’t take stock of how we feel and we don’t take stock of what we’re going through.

So it’s just, we keep pushing through, pushing through. But it’s like wading through sand and be like wading through sand. And a big part of, you know, perimenopause is, you know, being prone to burnout as well. So, you know, there’s a lot of crossover there. And, I know that you see burnout in a lot of business owners, in, you know, your coaching business as well.

I

Ange: see burnout a lot. And for me, one of the things that I think people are getting, and I know I did that was, I would say like the brain fog was big for me, but the fatigue was like the worst. And I couldn’t understand why I would have to have like afternoon naps. And then I would wake up in the morning and think about being tired and I go to bed.

And the reason why I talk about the fatigue is sometimes I was like, am I burnt out? Yeah. And I was like, well, how much of it is, am I actually burnt out? And how much [00:08:00] of this is actually the hormones are just so out of control that the fatigue is there. So for me, when I work with business owners and they start coming to me and I don’t diagnose them obviously, cause that’s not my role.

That’s where I’m like, “Hey, speak with Kylie” or whatever. But for me, when I speak with these owners, I’m like, we really need to be able to differentiate. It’s going to mean it starts off as stress. It then goes to burnout. And then it goes to a whole mental health diagnosis, reversing. Is it actually burnout, right?

The traditional way we look at burnout, or is it that you’re actually so freaking fatigued you can’t put one foot in front of the other? Your brain fog is there and it’s just like, it feels like burnout, but it’s actually just your hormones. Does that make sense?

Kylie: Yeah, a hundred percent. And that’s, you know, that’s exactly the sort of pattern that, that happens and what I see too.

And that’s it. And a big part of, of perimenopause and menopause is that overwhelm and just anxiety that kicks in as well. So, you know what I sort of do with my clients is we [00:09:00] start working on, you know, Supporting your hormones as opposed to, you know, just keep pushing through, just do all the stuff you’ve got to keep going.

It’s sort of like, how do we step back? How do we take a break? And I know you as a coach, you’re very big on, slowing down to speed up the mindset stuff, taking a step back. So what sort of things, are you doing with your clients to get them to slow down? (Ange) Well, I think- it’s going to be helpful for a lot of people listening.

Ange: Yeah, well, I think first of all, we have to normalise not thriving to start with. I think there’s so much pressure that we just have to, as business owners, as career women, as, or just women, whoever you are, that’s listening. And that we’re always, there’s always something else that we’re supposed to be thriving towards.

Thriving to this thriving to, you know, the next job thriving to the next launch thriving to like, whatever it is thriving to have another kid or whatever it is. And I think the one thing that I asked my clients to do is like, just sit and not thriving, normalise not [00:10:00] thriving, like just rest. Yeah, when was the last time that you just had the opportunity to sit on the couch and actually rest.

And I think in a world, especially in first world countries that we are taught just to keep on going. So the first thing that I talked to my clients about is really understanding the importance of rest. I remember when I was pregnant with my first child, they said to me, even if you can’t sleep at night, rest when I was getting ready to deliver type scenario, and they’re like, we know you’re uncomfortable, you know, like that, but they just said, lay down and rest because your body will still repair itself the way it needs to.

So I encourage the women that I work with to also be looking at how do you, they’ll be like, well, what can I do next? How can I make more money? And I’m like, actually, no, you’re going to need to slow down in order to speed up because if your health goes out of whack. Your business will go out of whack.

Your relationships to yourself and to your family will go out of whack. Everything else. So the first thing is how to slow down to speed up. And what I say to them is, a lot of women that I start working with, and also when I was in my 9 to 5, is that they don’t have a team. So I [00:11:00] start to talk to them, Carly, about the importance of how can you start to build Your team, not just in business, but also around you, because women also don’t like to ask for help.

We’ll just continue to pile on more and pile on more. So I also get them to start thinking about who is actually your support network. Who can you lean on to help take the kids for an extra night to help the school pickup, for example. How can you potentially ask your partner to start doing a little bit more and communicating with him or her?

Do you know about what’s going on with your body changes? Because also, we train our partners over the years. So if you’re the one that does the dishes every single night, and you’ve been doing for them that last 10, 15, 20 years, guess what? Your partner knows no difference. They’re just like, Oh, Angela is just going to go and do it.

But you might have to educate them. Like actually come six 30. I’m so fricking tired that I came early to this. I’m going to need you to step in. So first of all, do you mean? Understanding where to slow down in order to speed up and rest. Second of all, I talked to you about how do you build your team? So obviously [00:12:00] building your team out, is it that you also need to maybe get a cleaner in to help you with cleaning for a little while, is it that you need to again, ask the parents for help?

And if you have a business, for example, who do you mean, do you need to hire a VA. Do you need to hire an ads person? Do you need to hire, like, I don’t know, an online business manager? Who do you need to hire that can start to do this? Because the sooner you can do this, the sooner you can allow your body to rest, for example, the sooner that you can, do you mean, find ways to pivot and navigate what’s going on with your hormones will still keep your business successful.

Kylie: Yeah, yeah. 

If you are a woman in business, you cannot afford to miss our upcoming masterclass. Balance Your Hormones, Boost Your Business. It’s perimenopause and menopause mastery for women in business. So you can be more productive, more profitable, and reach your potential without your hormonal symptoms killing your business.

Make sure you sign up at kyliepinwill. com. Com [00:13:00] slash free dash masterclass. We’re running the sessions Tuesday, the October 10 and Wednesday, October 11. Check out our show notes for more details.

And that’s it. And so you can do the things that you’re really good at and you let go of the things. I’m really just on the home front. I’m really big on training up your kids to do the things. (Ange) Yes. I think of it as a double whammy.- You know, we’re doing our kids a favor by creating them to become more independent.

They should be able to cook a meal. They should be able to clean up the kitchen afterwards. They should be able to put on a load of laundry, you know, those sorts of things. I’m all for child 

Ange: labor every time. Yes, dude. 100%. And that’s the thing, like, I think we have to pick our battles.

Right. It’s like, you’ve got to be comfortable with, you know what I mean? Picking the battles and you’ve got to be comfortable too, that sometimes, even if you’ve trained the kids or you’ve got the nanny or you’ve got whatever it is that you’ve got to help with support. [00:14:00] Sometimes you just have to be okay with the kind of like, thrown in the towel, I guess.

Like you might just have to be, I’m so exhausted. I need to do this. No, you just need to go and rest. (Kylie) Yeah. Yeah, definitely.- Everything else will wait. 

Kylie: Yeah. And I think sort of lowering the standards as well, just because we’ve always done it a certain way, pay to, to drop the standards. My standards have dropped significantly when it comes to housecleaning.

Ange: Oh gosh, 100%. But again, I think that’s the pressure that we’ve put on ourselves, the societal pressure that has been put on us, family pressure that has been put on us, generational pressure that has been put on us. And I think too, like I get a lot of grief, you know what I mean? From people going, Oh. Like I had a very big article went live here in Australia, and then it went kind of viral international when people knew that I had a cleaner, um, a gardener and a house manager.

I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs, I don’t smoke, I don’t have tattoos, I don’t like shopping. So I chose to spend more extra money on getting help. Yeah, yeah. But that allowed me to be [00:15:00] able to… Again, pay other people to be able to feed their families to start with, but it allowed me to free my time to be able to go and sleep in if I needed to.

It allowed me time that I didn’t have to worry about cooking dinner, for example. You know, there’ll be some people out there, oh privileged. Do you know what I mean? White person. But again, the reality of this, Kali, I didn’t spend it towards alcohol. I didn’t spend it towards high heels. I didn’t spend it towards dresses.

We just did what everyone else is doing, but I just allocated my money differently because that’s what I needed to do because I was so tired.

Kylie: Yeah, a hundred percent. And that’s it. And if you want something, you will make it a priority. (Ange) 100%.- Yeah. And I think, if you want help, you need to make it a priority.

If you want to help yourself, you need to make it a priority. If you want something to change, you need to choose to prioritize that, to make that change. Um, yeah I totally agree. 

Ange: I often say to people like, whatever you are not changing, you are choosing. Yeah. So I see people who, for example, I [00:16:00] know are women in business and I know are struggling doing with probably also accepting that they potentially are perimenopausal or menopausal, right?

Yes. I’m like, go see your doctor, go get the test and they’ll be like, okay, yes, they’ve confirmed and I’m like, okay, but then they’re like almost in denial because they’re like, there’s also this grief that we go through, right? And it is the loss of who we are or the loss of who we’re becoming. Also the loss of, do you know what I mean, say our youth, if that’s what people look at.

And so I also think in a world where we live in, it’s a complicated situation for women. You know, we already have to bear, potentially being mothers. If that’s what we chose to do. Now we’ve got to weather this, you know, of us. And we, again, we don’t ask for help. Uh, we’re in a societal, like there’s so many things that are stacked against us, but whatever you are not changing, you are choosing every single day.

When you wake up, your day gets dictated by how you choose it. Yeah. If you’re not happy and the reason why I said this is I see so many women who will potentially not reach out to [00:17:00] you, right? But yet I see them at the bottle shop. And I’m like, well, don’t bitch and moan that perimenopause and menopause are kicking your ass, but you’re choosing to drink it away versus getting the help that you need.

You’re choosing that. No one’s coming to save you. You know, I think back about Christmas. Two years ago when I asked my husband at the time for a divorce, so that’s not what I had planned to do, but it just happened after he kissed me off the final time. And I looked in the mirror, it was 11 o’clock in the morning.

And I looked in the mirror and I said, I’m not entering another year like this. I’m not doing it. Yeah. You know, and I made that pact and I was like, you’ve got till March to get out. And he left March 14th. It wasn’t hard. Yes. But again, we can do hard things. Yeah. And so these are the things that I encourage women to do similar with like your hormones.

If it’s hard, ask for help, if you don’t ask for help, you’re choosing not to ask for help. So don’t bitch about it. Then when you’re so exhausted, if you know that again, someone like you, Kylie can help them for example. And they’re like, Oh no, I’m going to go spend say [00:18:00] 500 on X, Y, and Z. Okay. Well, you’re choosing that, but don’t get shitty again when your hormones out of place, right?

Like it’s whatever you’re not changing your choosing. And I think it’s really important that women start taking radical responsibility for their lives. Yeah. Yeah. 

Kylie: I couldn’t agree more. And yeah, and I’m the same. I sort of see it, you know, women choosing, you know, Oh no, I don’t have time to exercise. Well, you do because you’ve got time to spend on Facebook, you know, asking all the questions on Facebook and I’ve offered you support and yeah, it’s not followed through.

So it’s. Yeah, I think that’s, yeah, whatever you’re… 

Ange: No, whatever you’re not changing, but yeah, whatever you’re not changing, you’re choosing. 

Kylie: Yeah. Yes, exactly. And yeah, if you choose to make it a priority, you will. And I always sort of get my clients to reframe it when they’re like, Oh, you know, I feel a bit stuck.

It’s sort of like, that’s okay. You know, you can choose not to exercise today, but it also means you’re not making it a priority today. You can choose not to have downtime, but if you put it, change the [00:19:00] sentence, I’m choosing not to make that a priority today. I’m choosing not to eat well today. I’m choosing not to rest today. So it’s when you reframe it that you kind of go, ah, actually I need to already. 

Ange: I think that’s also a good point there too, is that like some days, you know, and this is what people say, some days you might just be having a shit day.

Um, Yeah. It might not have anything to do with hormones. It might not have anything to do with your work. It might not have anything to do with anything other than today’s just an off day and being okay with that too. I think we’ve, we’re looking in today’s society that everything’s got about, is it T1 trauma?

Is it T2 trauma? Is it work? Is it as no man, I’m just fucking tired. Do you know what not tired even from menopause. I’m just tired from life and being okay with, again, slowing down, resting, putting yourself first and doing whatever that looks like. It might mean you don’t exercise. It could mean that you eat McDonald’s that day, but that’s again, trusting that that’s what you need.

Because [00:20:00] instead of keep going, keep going, keep going, or it’s something labeled, it might just be that you’re just having an off day and being okay with that. 

Kylie: Yeah, yeah, that’s right. It’s okay to eat shit. It’s okay to not exercise, but yeah, it’s not something we want to make a habit. But if you accept it for what it is on that particular day, and then just let it go and move on.

So, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing either. 

Ange: Absolutely. 

Kylie: Alrighty, Ange, thank you. This has been such a good conversation. And, I want to have more of these conversations because I think, if we keep it real, then, that you’re not going through this alone.

You know, you’re not going crazy. There are other women out there going through this, but there’s also a lot you can do to turn it around as well, for sure. 

Ange: Oh my goodness. There’s so much hope. I mean, that’s the thing is you provide so many resources with this podcast, for example, with doing your doing free programs, your paid programs, like there’s all again, ask for help is what I would say.

And so if you’re a business owner, ask for help at home, ask for help in your [00:21:00] business and make sure that you’re getting rest, make sure that you’re putting yourself as a priority. And again, reach out to you, Kylie, if they, you know, if they want to be able to work on things from a more holistic angle. But at the end of the day, again, just remember whatever, you’re not changing your choosing and that you can run a successful business, be an amazing woman, and still conquer genamine and get through perimenopause and menopause.

Kylie: Yeah, hundred percent, hundred percent. Now, Ange, if people listening want to find out more about you, what sort of, yeah, I know you’ve got a lot of offers through from free to paid to high end and everything in between. So, yeah, if you just want to tell us a little bit about what you do, how you can help business owners and where people can find you.

Ange: Yeah, absolutely. So I guess the best place I would say is head of my website, which is AngelaHenderson.com.au. And from there you can explore taking my quiz, for example, to see what it is that’s kind of lacking within the business and what we could do to make things better. [00:22:00] Um, there is also my own podcast, the Angela Henderson online business show.

You can book a discovery call with me. I’ve got masterminds. I also run a business retreat in Bali every year, retreats in Australia. So there’s a variety of ways to work with me, depending on what you need, your business model needs, and how that will work around your family life. So yeah, head to AngelaHenderson.com.au. 

Kylie: Beautiful. Thanks Ange. And we’ll put all of Angela’s, notes and contact details in the show notes. And I can highly recommend Ange as a business coach. She will kick your butt when you need it, a virtual hug when you need it as well. So we kind of operate in very similar, similar ways.

Ange: Absolutely. Well, thanks so much for having me today, Kylie. I appreciate it. And for all those amazing women out there, continue to be awesome. Continue to put yourself first and yes. Here’s to, all of us getting through perimenopause and menopause together.

Kylie: And we will get through the other side. This does not last forever.

(Ange) Absolutely.- All right. Thanks so much, Ange, for coming on the show today. Thank you everyone for listening and we will see [00:23:00] you in the next episode of the Hormone Hub.

Thank you for taking the time to listen today. You can head on over to the show notes at kyliepinwill.com/podcast where you’ll find all the links. Now, before we go, it would mean the world to me if you’d head on over to your favorite podcast channel, subscribe and leave a review. Don’t forget to share it with your friends.

Then stay tuned for next week’s episode and I can’t wait to see you then.