Living from the Capital S Self

Embodying Transformation: The Limitless Journey of Nancy Perry

In this episode of 'Leap 2 Empower,' host Shaila Lalani dives into the transformative journey of Nancy Perry, a teacher, writer, yoga guide, entrepreneur, and creator of transformational experiences. Nancy shares how she overcame personal challenges, from dropping out of college and battling an eating disorder to becoming an influential yoga instructor and entrepreneur. Her story emphasizes the power of reconnecting with oneself, embracing vulnerability, and the importance of mindful practices like yoga. Through her book 'Little Shifts for a Big Life' and her current endeavor with Valor, Nancy continues to inspire others to take leaps of faith, embrace their true selves, and live their fullest lives.

01:40 Nancy's Early Life and Struggles

05:05 Discovering Yoga and Transformation

07:59 Journey to Entrepreneurship

11:44 Reconnecting with Self and Overcoming Victimhood

17:17 Embracing Challenges and Personal Growth

17:42 Journey into Yoga and Fitness

19:14 Writing and Publishing a Book

21:33 Understanding Empowerment

25:34 Balancing Life and Work

27:37 Transition to Valor

31:08 Self-Worth and Final Thoughts

33:29 Rapid Fire Questions and Conclusion

Thanks for tuning into Leap 2 Empower for real stories of real people who dared to leap.

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If this episode moved you, share it with someone who needs it. And remember your leap doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be yours.

Transcript

Shaila 0:00

Hello Leapers and welcome to the new episode of Leap 2 Empower I'm Shaila Lalani, and this podcast is to honor the real life stories of people who dare to leap into the unknown. Today I'm joined by someone who embodies transformation and love in every part of her journey. Nancy Perry is a teacher, writer, yoga guide, entrepreneur, and creator of transformational experiences. For more than 15 years, Nancy has dedicated her life to helping people return to themselves, reignite their dreams, and remember their power through love. Her authentic resume speaks to the depth of her wisdom from being an eating disorder survivor and college dropout to becoming an entrepreneur through a global pandemic. She has turned every challenge into an opportunity to rise, teach, and remind others of their own light. Nancy's book, little Shifts for a Big Life and daily blogs are invitations to reconnect, and remember that choosing yourself is choosing love. Her work has touched individuals, organizations, and communities leaving behind footprints of transformation and hope. I'm so honored to sit with Nancy today and dive into the leaps that shaped her story. Welcome Nancy. It's so great to have you on the show today. I look forward to our conversation.

Nancy 1:19

So do I, Shaila, thank you so much for having me. This is so fun. I've been looking forward to this forever.

Shaila 1:23

I'm so glad you finally made it here. So let's get started. Tell me who is Nancy and what kind of leaps has she been through to get to where she is today?

Nancy 1:33

Wow, that is such a good, and a such a big question. That's like the eternal question. And I guess I'll answer that in two ways. So who is Nancy One is, well who I'm not and who all of us aren't, is I'm not my past. I'm not my personality, neither are you. And that truth when we look at who we aren't is the thing that helps us leap. And thing that kept me from leaping from for so long, I feel like that's what transformed my life so much was the discovery that I could make a big leap and I could take control of my own life and I could like actually enjoy being alive was the fact that I couldn't leap for so long. And, I as a young person, so child, teenager, which was like, could be good, could be annoying, depended on the day, right? I thought I was my past. I also thought I was my body, right? I inferred along the way that all of those things, my personality, my past, and my body. If I could try to control and fix and manage those things, then I could maybe somehow be happy. But unfortunately you can't really control, fix, or even change any of those things, you can allow them to evolve and transform. But the more we try to fix them, the more we lock them in place. So all that to say who I am now is a woman who evolved from a young girl who had a deep sense of possibility and purpose. I remember we were so close with my cousins growing up. They lived in the DC area. My cousin JB, shout out if you're listening to this, he was like my bestie. And I remember we were just sitting in like we were supposed to be going to sleep. And I was laying on the floor of his room and he's like, you are like, what do you wanna be when you're an adult? And I remember just having this thought like, I just never wanna be something normal. Like why would I waste my life trying to sit in a box. I was like, maybe I'll be like the president. That was just the only example I had in my mind of something that was like out of everyone else did every day. I also had a deep pull to be of service. I always wanted to help the underdog. I was an empath and those two things I knew I wanted to help people. I knew I wanted to do something totally outta the box, like maybe be famous. But then as I got older, I inferred from the world around me that it wasn't okay to stand out. Mm-hmm. And that I was too much. And also if I just let myself be how I was, like I weighed too much and like I needed to be skinny to be accepted, and I needed to get good grades and I needed to be liked, and I needed to. So I started living really inside of a box that I created for myself to try to be happy and that didn't go well. So as I entered into high school and then into college, I suffered from eating disorders, mental health, all that kind of stuff. And by the time I was gonna say graduated from college, I never graduated from college. By the time I failed out of college on purpose, dropped out of college. I had such a horrible relationship with myself because I believed I was my past. Mm-hmm. I believed I was my body and I believed I was my personality. Wow. Which was like untrustworthy at that point. I had so much shame, so much brain blame, like crippling myself and others. That experience really limited what was possible for me in my early twenties. And that's when I, that's finally when I, a friend of mine was like, Hey, you gotta come to yoga with me. And that one choice like changed everything. And I realized I'm not my personality, I'm not my past, I'm not my body. All of those things can help inform who I wanna be and they're amazing resources and tools, but they're not who I am. I am a completely limitless being. So you say, who am I? Some very long answer to question, who am I? It's like there's Nancy, like the lower personality, lowercase s, then there's like that capital S self and that's who I am. And that's who you are. That's who we all are.

Shaila 5:26

Wow. That's beautiful, Nancy. I don't think anybody's ever put it this way. I love it. I am not my body. I am not my personality. I am limitless. So you mentioned that this person talked to you about yoga. Yes. And so tell me more. How did that leap go for you?

Nancy 5:42

At this point I am 20 years old. I'm working in Chili's in West Philadelphia. So I went to Drexel University and dropped out, like I said, and, but I still lived down there. I was living with my friends and it's like horrible season of my life. Horrible, just like abusing my body, overeating, overdrinking. So far from that little girl, who is just total athlete, total possibility. I'm just like so disconnected from myself and, struggling because of that. cause that's when we all struggle, when we're disconnected from who we really are. Yep. So deep struggle. Deep struggle. Friend of mine, Tanya, shout out to Tanya but she had been through a lot also and had navigated some similar challenges when it comes to body image. And she was like, you've gotta come to yoga with me. It's gonna change your life. So I was like, all right, fine. Well, whatever. I'll go. So the night before I was out until like two or three in the morning doing the Lord knows what, I set my alarm and it went up. I was like, oh my God, I can't believe I'm gonna go. I went at six in the morning with her. It was like this hot, sweaty thing, and I went, and on the other side my heart was beating so bad. It was like the hardest hour of my life. I'd been so disconnected from my body at that point. I was easily 30 40 pounds heavier than I am right now. And for anyone listening, I'm only five feet, some and change. So it's a lot of weight on my frame. And I was so outta shape and mentally, spiritually, emotionally, physically, but at the end of that class I was like, what was that I've never experienced anything so a awakening. Mm. Right. On every level. And though I still wasn't ready it was so powerful for me, but I was not in a place where I could commit to something that powerful. So it wasn't until a few years, I kind of dabbled, kind of went back and forth and maybe two years later, it was two years later that I had hit an emotional rock bottom that, that day I was like, I'm going to yoga. I need it. And then I never stopped going after that. And there's like the day that I first went and then there was like the day that I decided this is what I'm doing. Two years later I was 22 and now I'm 40. So that changed in trajectory of my life.

Shaila 7:38

Okay. So you decided that you were gonna do yoga as part of your practice at that moment. And then what led you to become an entrepreneur?

Nancy 7:48

Great question. So I was living in Philadelphia at the time, like I said, and my now husband, Justin, shout out to Justin. We have a hashtag for him. It's called hashtag thanks Justin. Justin's just the best. BIG wouldn't exist without him. So, we met right before I hit that rock bottom. So lucky him and, we started dating. He's a musician. He had moved up to Philadelphia to be in a band. I was based outta Philly from Texas, so he's from Houston, which is how we ended up here. And, he had left for tour and I was devastated. He was gone so much, and my identity was also very wrapped up in that relationship. Oh, that's another thing. Maybe I'm this, maybe I'm this attached to this. He had left, we had a big fight. So the next day I was like, I'm going to yoga. By the time he came back from tour a few months later, like my life had totally changed. And this was like just, this isn't like the dawn of the iPhone, so there's no FaceTime. There's like, people aren't doing that. Maybe Skype was around. I can't really remember. But when he came home, I looked different. I was different. He's like, what are you doing? So he started coming over with me. And this practice and getting in our bodies and getting, it was just really the practice of getting in our bodies and getting present opened up a lot of possibilities. So he ended up deciding to make a career change and leave the band that he was in. So we decided to move back to Houston. And when I moved to Houston there was not the community that had changed my life that I had in Philadelphia. It was like the two things I was worried. I was like, where's my yoga studio and where am I gonna get my hair done? Yeah. Because I had an adorable n pixie cut at the time. I had to find the right person. So when there just wasn't that, the community, in addition to being in my body and getting present, it's like what changed my life? So, long story short, I was a victim about it for a while. Mm-hmm. Blaming Justin, blaming Houston until finally. A friend of mine. So in the meantime, when before I made the decision to open a studio, I've been teaching at a bunch of different studios. Okay? I got lucky enough, I did my teacher training right before I moved here, but I experienced myself as a total flake, a total failure based on my past. I failed outta school. I wasn't reliable. I lied to people. I lied to myself. I didn't think I knew enough. I thought I was bad with money. Just I had every reason. Ever. Not to open a business and create the thing that I needed and I knew other people needed as well. Mm-hmm. So a friend of mine, I had been asked to be a Lululemon ambassador during this process, and she worked for Lululemon and we were out to breakfast one day and I mentioned Lululemon because their culture is very rooted in a vision and goals work. And she said, Nancy, if you had to give a speech to high school students today and tell them one thing, what would you say? And it came right out and I said, fear is gonna try to stop you go anyways. I was like, well darn it, talking to myself. Stop talking to myself, which we always are. Right. If the only thing that's stopping me is fear, I've gotta do it. It was such a big leap of faith. It was such a huge leap. Yes. And I just decided to do it. So people started saying, so what are you up to? And I was like, I'm opening a yoga studio and just, we were talking about the power of our word before we started the podcast. Just starting to say that. My friend said, okay, well do you need to find a space? I was like, I need to start somewhere. Yes. So let's look for a space. Then once we found the space, took out a personal loan then I got together with my business partner, Laura. There was just the decision. We just said, okay, let's do it. And at that point, I also had nothing to lose. I was 20. Seven years old, not married, not no kids. And it was just like, okay, I can I can leap into this. Yes. So that was the beginning. And, I think that in the beginning, having, being like totally naive Yeah. Is a real big blessing. True. Yeah. There's a Florence Skov quote she says. Thank God I couldn't look or I would never leap. We don't get to see all the challenges, but that's ultimately what helps us grow. So yeah, that, so then we opened big. Mm-hmm. Years later, we've been through so many seasons and about a year ago I was ready for a shift and it changed and. The business model where I was putting my energy. So now we've got that. Yeah.

Shaila 11:28

So inspiring. Nancy. I do wanna go back a little bit Sure. Regarding your leap about this disconnect that you had, and I know many of us face that disconnect with ourselves. Yes. Because if we face it with ourselves, we face it with everybody That's right. In life. What can you say to them to empower themselves for that connection? For you, it was yoga.

Nancy 11:48

Totally. So I think the most important part of connection is reconnection. Mm-hmm. Right? So it's having a, just an awareness of oh, I'm just disconnected. Right. And just being kind and compassionate with yourself and then being able to come back to the truth and give yourself permission to start fresh where you have to be able to forgive yourself. Yeah. And forgive other people. I'm right here. That is the past. The future is completely unknown. All I have a choice about is right now. Right. So I have this distinct memory in yoga. I think in my direct experience and what I know is that being embodied is a huge part of being connected, having a powerful relationship with your body and not just oh, I like my body, or I love my body. Like that. Those things are great and it's being able to really understand your body as the communicator that it is. Like our bodies are always talking. Talking. And they don't lie. Yeah. So just understanding that our bodies are always communicating to us and they're telling us all the time when they don't like stuff. Mm-hmm. They're telling us when they don't like someone else that we're with, and we have a bad sense about someone. If I'm being cruel to myself internally, my body's not gonna feel good. That's how I know that what I'm saying is a lie. So our bodies are always telling us when something that we're doing is harmful, including our own thought. Okay. But then on the opposite is awesome. This is great. This is really life giving. I like being around this person. When I listen to all the possibilities that are available to me, I feel good. We do have to be embodied. And we have to be able to spend time in our bodies that is not just pushed through, not just fight or flight, not just throwing heavy things and pushing heavy things. We also need to be able to rest in our bodies, and yoga really gives us both of those things. So I have this memory of being in this hard pose, it's called extended siding. I feel like I was holding it forever, and it was in one of those first yoga classes. And I had this thought of I can't do this. I can't, like it was that loud and it was factual, and, but I was like, but wait a second. I'm doing it, but my mind is saying I can't. And that was the first moment that I was like, my mind isn't always telling me the truth. I don't have to believe it. And in that moment I forgave like my whole past. And it took some work from there. Yes. But I was like, I'm not a failure. Just 'cause my mind says that doesn't mean it's true. And then from there I was able to be like, okay, well what choice do I wanna make now? So like I re-enrolled in school. I started thinking about what I wanted to do or did I want, you know what I'm, then I, once, then I was able to be successful in school. 'cause I realized I could give myself a fresh start. I wasn't my past, I wasn't hooked by those old behaviors anymore. Of course that was a process. But yeah, so reconnection is connecting to the truth of who you are. If we go back to, like you asked me, who am I and it's that capital S self and we are all that. Mm-hmm. Capital S self, so. It's taking responsibility for it. It takes a lot of work to forgive yourself and to wanna grow.

Shaila 14:38

Yeah. And you talked about the victimhood also. Mm-hmm. How did that play for you?

Nancy 14:42

Oh man. So one of my teacher's quotes, I just shared about it the other day on social media, was that a victim's power is their powerlessness. So I had felt like such a victim, like I was a victim of. All the people that taught me that I was my body. I was a victim of our patriarchal culture where men get to be however they want, and women have to be skinny and pretty. And I'm a victim of my parents. I'm a victim of my relationship. People don't gimme what I want. I'm a victim at the place that I work, and they won't let me succeed. But looking back, I'm like, oh, that's 'cause I was looking for a sense of power. Yeah. Identity. Yes, exactly. Identity. Mm-hmm. And our true power comes from our creativity. Yep. So once I finally saw like, oh, I just wanna take responsibility for my life, our vulnerability. A hundred percent.

Shaila 15:29

You were talking about the power of the mind versus what your body can do. I can tell you that when I came to big yoga first, right? My mind said, what is this? It was my mind saying, get outta here. I don't wanna feel any of this. Yes. But my body was doing it. Yes. And that makes a lot of sense. So I had to go outside, take like a five minute checkout Totally. And then come back in and be like, I can do this. I'm gonna survive this class. And it was my mind trying to resist all these emotions that my body was going through.

Nancy 16:01

That's right. I don't know if you were the same way, but I I was not taught to accept it all. Yes. I feel like feelings bad. Shut it down, keep it together. Don't cry. Be on point So the idea of oh yeah, I should accept and welcome everything I feel it's like no sensations bad. Shut it down. Mm-hmm.

Shaila 16:17

Or sensations equals fear. Exactly. Oh my God, what's happening? Exactly. Why is this hurting? Why is my nervous system like acting like this? Right. It's, it's fear. It's like the unknown fear of what's gonna happen after I feel this. That's right.

Nancy 16:31

So what I also often say is if anything feels hard, it's just 'cause it's a new sensation. Yes. So I'm think, oh my God, this is so so scared. Is this so hard? Yes. So how can I give myself some grace and some compassion? And those are the ways that you reconnect to yourself again and again and again, grace, compassion and be vulner vulnerable with yourself, forgiveness, fresh start. Also humor. Super important. You have to be able to laugh at yourself. Yep. Okay.

Shaila 16:53

Agreed. And aren't you glad, looking back that you, well, not that you went through this, but the challenges and the leaps that you took to where you are today?

Nancy 17:02

A hundred percent. Yeah. Yeah. Every single challenge that I've been through, there's many of them like ones you were talking about earlier. I'm like. I would never wanna go through that again. Yep. And I would never want anyone to take it from me. Yeah. Like I just, I would never change, I would never want to trade who I've become as a result of the challenge

Shaila 17:17

and you probably wouldn't have gone through those challenges with so much grace if you didn't have that moment, that present moment in your life. A hundred percent. Where yoga changed everything for you. Totally. And so is that when you took the leap towards yoga and fitness? Because if you know Nancy, if you know Nancy Perry, when she walks in a room, you cannot notice her. You're so kind. Nancy has this energy with her. She just has this aura. And I feel like she's changed many people's lives. I know you wrote a book that was a huge leap, how did it go after you got into BIG.

Nancy 17:54

So it's funny when you say getting into like yoga and fitness, I'm like, yeah, I like to exercise, but I don't consider myself a fitness person at all. Like, I consider myself like a yoga, personal development, spirituality person. But fitness is a big part of my life. Very well put together. Because being embodied is such I've discovered, is such a big part of my life, and back when I had lost connection with myself. It was. It wasn't, but now it is. But anyhow, when we opened big, what was so important to me is to create a space where people could be in community. Yes. And learn about themselves and transform. Yes. That community was huge. The BIG community was huge. So, yoga really opened up that like personal development slash spirituality and, that became just a huge part of what we did at Big. Mm-hmm. Right? So all of our classes were interwoven with these opportunities to look at your life in a different way. 'cause how you are in one place, how you are everywhere, how you are on the mat, like that's the point of having an embodied practice. So our goal at BIG, our mission was to empower as many people as possible to live their biggest lives possible. So we've had all different sorts of programs and challenges and classes and personal development things. So, eventually I started writing every day. Just became a huge part I just love, I love oh, that's a cool way to look at it. I love like epi. Yeah, epiphanies. Exactly. I love those epiphany. And getting to share those in class is something that I've just lived for. So I just started writing 'em down and collecting them. And then I'm a huge fan of Seth Godin and he writes a daily blog and I just love his work. And I was like, I would love to do something like that. So I just started doing it, just started writing a blog every single day. It started to get a pretty big response. I was like, oh, cool, this is really fun. And people were like, oh, when are you gonna write your book? I'm like, oh, hell no. I'm not an author, don't you know, I'm a college dropout. But enough people kind of planted that seed with me that, when I needed to do a fundraiser, I was going to Ethiopia with an organization called Imagine One Day, and I needed to fundraise $10,000. So I was like, okay, what's a way that I can contribute to people and they can donate? I was like, well, let me, I'll, I'll put my writings into a book format. And people can purchase it ahead of time. Okay. So I, I put that out there as a fundraiser and I was like, 200 minimum. And I put, and they sold out. Like, I was like, okay man, I just put myself on the hook for writing a book. In my mind I was like, it's just gonna be like, I'm like gonna go to Kinko's and print it out and bind it and mail it to people. There's my book and I said it was gonna be like a 365 day compilation and it evolved. And then in that process, that's when I had my daughter prematurely. And got surprise pregnant again. So it got postponed a little bit and I had so much going on and there was a pandemic right when my son was born. So I ended up outsourcing it to a publisher who helped me and they helped me refine it and they helped me like put it into these different categories, write some new pieces, adding journaling prompts and make it more of a whole cohesive thing, and it's called little shifts for big life. So it's all these little changes and it's, it's meant to be like, you can read one a day Oh, cool. Or pick it up in the middle of your day and be, oh, that's a cool way to look at it. Put it back down. That's, I live for that. And that's the reconnection, the recommitment that we were talking about. So that's, that's how little shifts for a big life evolved. From big. From big. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Shaila 21:01

Oh, that was pretty cool. Little shifts for big life. Very inspiring. Thanks. Thanks so much. It's a great New Year's gift or a Christmas gift for anybody. Yes, absolutely. It's a great gift. 'cause it's not all you have to read it all the way through type book. Yep, yep. And it's also a really fun book club book to do with friends I've heard. From friends that have done it. So you mentioned Empower. So tell me a little bit about empowerment, right? What does empowerment mean to you and how did you leap through the whole financial empowerment aspect?

Nancy 21:28

Yeah. So for me, empowerment is like agency, right? It's like I know what I want. And I can do it, like having that faith in myself is empowerment and supporting other people and finding that faith in themselves that's how you empower someone else. And, we all have that power in us. So it's just harnessing it. And when I say faith in myself, what. If I look to my past or I relate to myself, like my personality, the lowercase s I'm like, it. It's not like faith in myself like that, like Nancy is so cool. It's just like I know what I'm created from. I know who I am and my essence, which is the same thing that you were created from what you are and who you are at your essence, and that thing is infinitely powerful. And I believe that wisdom within us can help us see and do anything. The source. The source, exactly. And my teacher says that the source would never ask us to do anything that we already know how to do. Agreed. Yeah. And I'm gonna discover it. I'm gonna discover the path. Yeah. And even if I don't end up exactly where my mind wants or thinks, I'm gonna learn so much along the way and I'm gonna trust that journey. So that's empowerment. And of course a huge part of that is just self capital S Self love. Self love, yes. It's the hardest part. Mm-hmm. Oh, yes, yes. And you know what? What's helped me with that is relating to it and just the way I'm saying it, like I don't need to always love my personality. I don't need to think that everything I did today was perfect. My body can change, my mood can change, I can react with my kids and though I can forgive myself 'cause I know I'm a human being, I'm flawed. And that who I really am is the source, God, universe, whatever you want to call it. Universal intelligence, bliss, quantum field, whatever you wanna call that. My job as a humble human being is to love that thing that's greater than me. Right. And that thing that's greater than me is within me. Yeah. So I have to love myself. That's my personal responsibility. And the hard parts of myself. Yes. Not just the good parts. Yes. Yeah. The the whole human. The whole human of me. Yeah. I have to love all of it and include all of it. Especially if I wanna love and include everyone else. I have to do that for myself. Yeah. And then, yeah, I feel like all that flows over into the financial unit. Finances are really a mirror of how we relate, I think, relate to power and personal power. So whether we have a little bit of money or a lot of money, we need to say to it, like when we're spending it, thanks for coming to visit. Go out there and do good work and come back and bring all your friends. It's like we have to be grateful to money. Yes. And and what it provides us. And just like anything else, not let it define who we are. Just like we're not our bodies, we're not money. Yep. But the more empowering of a relationship that we can have with money and the more we can allow money in, and the more we understand how our investments make a difference. The bigger of a difference we can make. So we wanna have a strong and powerful relationship with money.

Shaila 24:33

Okay, so I asked this question to everybody. If money was to walk into the door. What kind of relationship would you have?

Nancy 24:39

Well, on a good day, I am like, oh my gosh, I've got all sorts of other money here that you can hang out with. Yes. You're gonna feel right at home here. Take a nap. I'm gonna treat you so well. When you're ready to leave. Then go tell your friends how great it's here. Come back. It's like you wanna give money like a huge party. Yes. And you want it to be like a family member that wants to come and visit, not like, don't leave. What? What do I need to do to get you to stay? Yeah. You don't wanna be desperate. You just wanna be appreciative and then know that it's meant to come and it's meant to go. And when you're providing it a great space. It is gonna go tell its friends and then you're gonna attract more money in. Yes. So that's the way I love to look at money.

Shaila 25:19

So how do you balance life? You have so much going on your, how do you balance it all?

Nancy 25:25

Well, I think it's a great question. I'm very interested in this conversation. For women in general, especially women who are entrepreneurs, but women in general, we all hold so much, energetically, and I've heard it said many different ways. What I've learned from my teachers, that balance is dynamic. And what that means for me is that balance is actually an in the moment phenomenon. It's not doing exactly the same amount of work, exactly the same amount of hours at home, having that be perfect. That's just not it. It's sensing what is required right now that's about anything else is just recreating the past. So. I'm always listening for where is my energy most needed in the moment? And giving myself permission to know I'm gonna hold multiple things that are important to me, my marriage, my kids, my work, my friendships, my health, like things I do for fun, my hobbies. And really the ultimate thing that's most important is honoring, so the source is the highest and most important and, and then it's like taking care of my family and contributing to others. And that is, work is a part of that. Right? So there's no separation. Mm. So I feel like balance implies that there's a separation. I'm very blessed. I'll bring, like my daughter will come to work with me all day on Saturday and she'll check people in the studio and she's like doing yoga and learning all of that. Like tonight I need to work late. And my kids don't love that. But then, another day I'll be able to take off randomly and pick them up from school early and go do something fun. So it's all about being present in that moment and managing your balance in that moment. Yes. 'cause otherwise I'll just get too, I'll just get too stressed. 'cause my mind, I can be a very rigid person. Like I gotta do X, Y, Z has to fall on the plan and then I'll beat myself up if I don't. And life feels a lot better when I let it be a dynamic spinning, think about a top. That you spin. When the spin is going, that's balance. So just keeping everything spinning, it's balance.

Shaila 27:21

Great way to put it. So I know as now you're working with something called Valor. And that itself was a big leap for you. What made you take that leap?

Nancy 27:30

Well, I'll say there's a few reasons and they all aligned, which is what made it a clear choice. One of them is, I'm a big proponent of this idea that there's a psychologist named Gay Hendricks. He coined this idea called The Zone of Genius, and we're all the most fulfilled when we're living into our zones of genius. And for me, my zone of genius is gonna be teaching leading, creating experiences, creating content, like those types of leading people through experiences curating community coming together. Big had over the years and as big as it had become, I wasn't getting to do as much of that as I wanted to do because it, when you're managing a big business, you're spending a lot of time managing a big business. So lots of other people, lots of other minutia there. I wasn't as fulfilled as I wanted to be. Spending time with what I feel like I'm truly good at. Mm-hmm. And my way to contribute at my highest level in the world. And you had evolved by then as well? Yes, exactly. Exactly. And the pandemic changed the nature of our business so much. The model before the pandemic was like, fit a hundred people in a room. Mm-hmm. The nature of things has changed. Yeah. So the model, the old yoga studio, fitness studio model it's not sustainable. So we decided to transition to valor. And so for me, I knew I wanted to make a shift to focus more on delivering what I love to deliver, making it smaller, making it more intimate. Mm-hmm. Increasing the price because that's how much it costs for me to do what I do. And to make it sustainable and make a living. So then I started going down that path. And then Nick, who's my new business partner at Valor, he used to work with us at BIG, he was our director of operations for many years. A dear friend of mine and he was sensing into some changes per in his career too. We synced up and then we created Valor, which it's not a luxury experience, right? It's on the higher end of pricing for yoga studios and people are like, oh, why is Valor so expensive? It's like also why people are like, yoga shouldn't be expensive. And I'm like, well this is just literally how much it costs for us to do what we do. Yeah. And it's more than yoga. Yeah, exactly. It's yoga, personal development, spirituality and then vitality, wellness, recovery. Yeah. It's a community. We've got this gorgeous garden. It's this indoor outdoor space. And we're working on right now upgrading a whole video and live stream so we can keep our intimate space and then expand virtually. So yeah. So we made that leap and it was a huge change 'cause BIG was talk about identity. It was such a big part of my life. Yes. And so start and others. Yes, exactly. It was, that was the absolute hardest part for me. Yeah. And then, so what I've also discovered about leaping this year, it's like starting things is important and the way that we complete things might even be more important. So completing BIG was a huge part of that leap and feeling like I did it in a way that totally honored it. Mm-hmm. And also honored me. So it was a very, very powerful experience.

Shaila 30:42

It became an identity for a lot of people. Kudos to you for that. Thank you for creating that. And we hope that valor will be even more. Thank you. So how do you stand up for your self worth?

Nancy 30:54

So here's self-worth. One of my teachers taught me this so I'm gonna say the G word, which is God. But you can say any word you want in that, that the source place, right? Yeah. Whatever. God, source, universe, bliss, infant intelligence, whatever you wanna call it. You say, God said it. So when it comes a wholeness, God said it. I believe it. That settles it. And. It's from that place of, it's my responsibility to own my worth, and I don't have to argue with anyone about it. I don't need people to agree with me about that. I don't need people to agree with me about anything. I don't need people to approve my decisions. Do I want them to? Totally all the time, but I don't need them to. I'm not gonna waste my time battling, arguing, confronting. It, there's nothing to prove. So my kids before I put them to bed. I say, you're perfect. You're perfectly imperfect. Imperfectly perfect. God said it. We believe it. That settles it.

Shaila 31:43

I feel like I can't say anything after that. It's been settled. Yeah, it's been settled. What advice would you give to a woman who is about to leap?

Nancy 31:52

All we need to do is do what there is to do right now. And if you do what there is to do right now, so maybe it's like research how to get the book published. Buy the domain, have the conversation. Use your word to tell people what you're creating. When you take the leap that there is to take right now, that quantum leap, that tiny leap. You're gonna end up over time completely amazed by the journey. And we go back to what we said. Thank God you didn't look or you wouldn't leap. Leaping is just that, like you can't see what's gonna happen and you're not supposed to. And most people feel very scared of the unknown. If you look up uncertainty in the dictionary, possibility is right, is like a synonym. Oh, really? Yeah. So you cannot have possibility without uncertainty. Yeah. They only coexist only. So it's totally leap. Your leap is a continuous present moment choice to do the next thing that honors that capital S self within you. And that capital S self that you have and that we all have has a unique zone of genius. And you are, you're a unique snowflake and no one else will ever be born like you, so you just need to go and do your next right thing. And if you do that again and again and again, you will die in awe of the process.

Shaila 33:09

Beautiful. I feel it. It's from deep. So now we'll move into our soul sparks, which are rapid fire ready questions. So here we go. What's one daily ritual or practice that always brings you back to yourself?

Nancy 33:24

Yoga.

Shaila 33:25

What brings you joy?

Nancy 33:26

My kids.

Shaila 33:27

Who in your life can make you laugh until your stomach hurts?

Nancy 33:30

My husband.

Shaila 33:31

What's one piece of advice you'd give your younger self?

Nancy 33:34

Oh, just relax and loosen up and have some fun.

Shaila 33:37

One bold thought you want to leave our listeners with today.

Nancy 33:40

My bold thought is that when, especially when you don't understand. The only helpful way to respond is with love.

Shaila 33:48

Nancy, thank you so much for joining us on this podcast today. It has been divine. Thank you for coming down and sharing your story with us.

Nancy 33:56

Thank you so much for having me. This is so fun. I love being to be with you.

Shaila 33:59

If there's one thing Nancy reminded us today, it's that we're not our past, our stories or our fears. We are love, we are limitless, and every leap, big or small is a chance to come home to ourselves. If this conversation sparked something in you, share it with someone who needs it. And remember, your leap doesn't have to be perfect. It has to be yours. Your story is the light someone else is waiting for. Until next time, keep leaping. Keep believing in your magic.