July 4, 2023

Exploring the Power of Pilates and Light Therapy with Jennifer Pilates

Exploring the Power of Pilates and Light Therapy with Jennifer Pilates

In this episode, Jeff interviews Jennifer Pilates, a resilient and inspiring individual who has overcome adversity and found her calling in the world of Pilates and holistic wellness. Jennifer shares her journey, starting from a traumatic car accident that transformed her life and led her to discover the healing power of Pilates during her rehabilitation. She opens up about her experience in the corporate world, feeling unfulfilled despite climbing the ladder of success. Jennifer's accident ultimately became a blessing in disguise as it prompted her to pursue a career in Pilates, aiming to help others avoid the pain she had endured.

As the conversation unfolds, Jeff and Jennifer delve into the significance of listening to life's messages and following one's passion. They discuss the importance of customer service and connecting with clients on a personal level, drawing from their own experiences in different industries. Together, they explore the notion that sometimes unexpected detours can lead to greater fulfillment and purpose.

Tune in to this engaging episode as Jeff and Jennifer Pilates discuss resilience, transformation, and the power of Pilates and light therapy in achieving a balanced and vibrant life.

About Guest:

For over 20 years, Jennifer has been a leading voice in the health and wellness industry, helping clients all around the globe achieve their goals and unlock their full potential.

As a spiritual thought leader, Jennifer has helped countless individuals not only improve their physical health but also to nourish their minds and spirits. Her celebrity status as a trainer and empowerment coach has earned her a reputation as one of the most sought-after professionals in the field. And as an internationally renowned intuitive medium, Jennifer brings a spiritual dimension to her work that sets her apart from the rest. Her approach is both practical and spiritual, and she has an innate ability to see things that others can't.

Jennifer is a multi-passionate entrepreneur, detail-loving, and stubborn-as-heck achiever. Her unshakeable optimism and philanthropic spirit have significantly impacted countless people's lives, and she is a self-care activist who encourages people to take care of themselves mentally and physically.: 

Social Media and Website:

https://jenniferpilates.com/

https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.pilates.1

https://www.instagram.com/thejenniferpilates/

Fast Five Questions

  1. If you woke up and your business was gone, you have $500, a laptop, a place to live, and food, what would you do first? "Im definitely going to go on the internet to see if the world is still there. I'm immediately going to go into entrepreneur mode."
  2. What is the biggest mistake that you have made in business? "I was renting 500 square feet. And I took it to a friend of mine who was really good in business, and he said this to me, "if it started out like this, I can promise you it's gonna get worse". I was like, it's gonna be fine. It ended with police."
  3. What is a book that you would recommend? "Connected to Goodness by David Meltzer"
  4. What is a tool that you use everyday that you would recommend? "Descript"
  5. What is your definition of freedom? "Freedom is being able to live your life on your terms. Freedom is being able to wake up and go with the flow and do what you're called to do that day, because that's what your heart is saying to do."

About Jeff: 

Jeff spent the early part of his career working for others. Jeff had started 5 businesses that failed before he had his first success. Since that time he has learned the principles of a successful business and has been able to build and grow multiple seven-figure businesses. Jeff lives in the Austin area and is actively working in his community and supporting the growth of small businesses. He is a board member of the Incubator.Edu program at Vista Ridge High School and is on the board of directors of the Leander Educational Excellence Foundation

Connect with the Freedom Nation podcast at https://freedom-nation-podcast.captivate.fm/

Connect with Jeff:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/freedomnationpodcast/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/JeffKikel

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffkikel/


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Transcript
Jeff Kikel:

Hey everybody, it's Jeff here once again with the freedom nation podcast and I cannot wait to share this interview with you with Jennifer Pilates. Jennifer is just an absolute joy to interview and has such an inspiring story of starting out in a car accident 23 years ago, which ended up changing her trajectory of life, her career, and really how she affects the world today. Please stay tuned for this it is a fantastic interview with someone that I truly enjoyed having conversation with.

FN Intro/Outro:

Welcome to the Freedom Nation podcast with Jeff Kikkel. On this show, Jeff shares his expertise in financial and retirement planning from a different perspective, planning for your Freedom Day, which is the first day that you wake up and have enough income or assets and do not have to go to work that day. Learn how to calculate what you need, how to generate income sources, and listen to interviews from others who've done it themselves. Get ready to experience your own Freedom Day.

Jeff Kikel:

Hey, everybody, it's Jeff here, once again with the freedom nation podcast. And today, we're going to have one heck of a lot of fun. I'm interviewing Jennifer Pilates. And she is just an absolute joy to talk to. And she's a lot of fun. And she's getting ready to be moving here pretty quick. So we're the last interview before she hits the road. So Jennifer, welcome to the show, my friend.

Jennifer Pilates:

Oh my gosh, Jeff, thank you for being here. This is I'm so excited. And I want to say thank you so much for having me on the show. I know it's taken a minute for us to get together. And I'm just so grateful and honored to be here today.

Jeff Kikel:

Well, I'm so glad to have you on. So let's let's kick ourselves off with your story. How'd you get to where you're at today?

Jennifer Pilates:

Yeah, well, that takes us back to this amazing traumatic car accident. And I say amazing, because it truly was one of the biggest blessings in my life and disguise. And I had no idea. I was fast tracking through the corporate world at a very young age. In my early 20s, in the senior living industry, okay, I had all my ducks in a row, right? Like, I had the 401 K, I knew, you know, how much money am I putting aside. So by the time I'm 31, to buy a house, this that in the other thing, really going for it. And at the same time, I'll be honest, though, if I'm, I wasn't happy. Internally, I was not happy. And I had transferred because the company that I was working for, they had said, look, you've climbed as far as you can with us. We need you to go to another company get seasoned come back, pick where you want to go. And I was like, Oh, this is like Cinderella. Awesome. So excited. So I picked Colorado, you I did all the things that I tell people now don't do don't pick a job for the location and don't pick it for the salary, pick the job for the location. And I picked it for this. Right. They knew what they were doing. They could get me for a bargain. But their bargain was a really big deal for me, you know, shortly thereafter come out of college. I mean, it was a lot of money. And

Jeff Kikel:

so yeah, not really, everybody else gets paid a lot more money to do what you were doing. Yeah, oh,

Jennifer Pilates:

a heck of a lot more money. And, you know, it was one of those things where it was really set up for failure. You know, going into an executive position. So Young, it didn't matter what I knew, there was no respect that was going to come from the place that I went to, versus where I was where it was already established, and trusted in you know, admired, in some respects for everything that I had done. And so I did my best. And I think that that's, you know, one of the things you could do, I would call my mentor every day and literally crying. And, you know, again, it goes back to, I guess, be careful what you wish for and how you can manifest. And so I knew there needed to be a change. But I didn't know how to make that because this is what I was supposed to be doing right horse, of course. And so, you know, God bless the man who came up barreling behind me at a red light and six lanes of traffic and slammed into me. You know, I ping pong back and forth. And long story short, I end up in and out of doctors offices for like eight hours a day for months and months, not able to work by the way. And the blessing was this was in Boulder, Colorado. So back in that day, we're talking 9097 huge, like holistic wellness center, amazing. Every alternative health care I was experiencing and coming from Cape Cod, I wasn't I had never had most of this. Yeah. And it was just so. So eye opening, but I just didn't get the message. I didn't get the memo.

Jeff Kikel:

And I gotta get back to work.

Jennifer Pilates:

I gotta get back to work, right? Like, I gotta get back to work. And so I eased my way in it. And God was like, Girl, what do you think him? Yeah. And so the company goes public, they're not doing well. I knew there were layoffs coming. And I don't know who spoke but out of my mouth came. Take me you need to lay someone off lay me off like I'm thinking I'm doing like The big thing? Well, a little bit of time goes by my regional manager shows up HR lady's like, Hey, you want to go to lunch with us? And like, Yeah, let's totally do that. No, some people would have thought it was coming. Not.

Jeff Kikel:

Now I'm gonna free lunch out of this. This is awesome. I love these guys, everybody.

Jennifer Pilates:

These are the two nice people to me, right? Like, let's do this. And you know, lo and behold, I was laid off that day, and you would have thought that I hadn't seen it coming. And it was just so because there was right that ego, that I felt like just shot like, Oh, my God, I'm getting laid off that I do have that. No, you asked to be laid off. And you actually

Jeff Kikel:

see volunteer for this.

Jennifer Pilates:

Volunteered, I see someone else, right, who really needed to be and wanted to be there. And so from there, I continued my rehab, I again, didn't get the memo, and attempted to go back into the industry with another company. And that was very short lived, because I physically couldn't do it. I mean, I was in neurological therapy. If you handed me an apple, I'd be like, this is the best orange ever. I mean, wow, I was not okay. And I didn't even know at that time how not okay, I was, I don't think I knew for years until I look back and went Wow. Like, that was that was just not okay. And so through that. I began rehabbing with Pilates, and rehabilitation. And it was wonderful. I had an amazing trainer. And so we did this for a good year. And it was at that time that someone had said to suggested, hey, you know what, you're great at this, you should really go to school for this. And long story short, the little bit of settlement that I got out of the car, actually would have covered the school. So I got the memo, when and paid for the school, went to the school. And the next thing you know, you know, my mission was that I wanted to be able to keep at least one person out of pain. I didn't want anyone to feel what I had felt, which was all soft tissue damage from the base of my skull down my spine. So I mean, you're talking a lot of pain on top of the neurological and everything else was going on and emotional. And so coming out and knowing that I could help someone else that was my mission. And it snowballed from there. And I ended up going back to the East Coast. I was Cape Cod at the time, I opened up a studio in osterville, and that was wonderful. And then I came back to Colorado again, because I missed another memo, opened up a studio there went back to the Cape, you know, I've lived all over, I've traveled cross country eight times. The last time I said Never. I did it again last week. And as you know, I'm about to do it again. So my as I have said, you know, yeah, this is really fun. I'm blessed to live in all these amazing places and be an entrepreneur. And it has not been easy. Has it been harder? Probably yeah. And I wouldn't, I wouldn't trade it, I wouldn't trade it for the world, being able to show up and serve, and help people literally body, mind and spirit to transform themselves. And that has been my mission since day one. And I'm blessed to continue to do that. I think it's like 23 years now.

Jeff Kikel:

That is brilliant. I mean, absolutely brilliant. You know, so once again, another story of someone that, you know, it's amazing, the amazing twists of fate sometimes that put things in your way. And I mean it. God has funny ways of showing it when he kind of bounces around a car for a bit and then says, Okay, now learn Pilates so that you'll feel better.

Jennifer Pilates:

Right? Right, exactly. I mean, it's just an even through the years even through that. I mean, when you look at all of it, I literally became an entrepreneur while I was in Pilates school, because I started to my specialty was sales and marketing in the senior living industry, and I specialize in Alzheimer's disease. So I met people that needed help with their business. So I started doing sales and marketing. So I was an entrepreneur hitting the ground running. Yeah, before I even knew what the word entrepreneur I knew. I didn't grow up with that. I grew up in a military family, or in a retail family and I had no idea. So yeah, in between that, like I did what I needed to do. I also was a wedding coordinator, I worked in an Italian restaurant, but don't think I was your waitress because I promise you I was not. I was just behind this little bar handing out glasses of wine. You know, I had all these amazing experiences that really taught me what I liked. What I didn't like, what lit up my soul, and really just what I wasn't great at right like I knew I wasn't great at as being a waitress, but I could be a great hostess. Yeah, you know, so it's those little things along the way that really just

Jeff Kikel:

not always Yeah, it's the way the way Robert Kiyosaki talks about it. You know, you don't need to make money to learn, you know, to make money, or you don't have to make money to learn. You know, you can learn from you can try something like that and realize, hey, I suck at being a waitress, but I'm damn good at making people really happy and comfortable there and you know, I can do that. Okay, how do I then flip that into something else later?

Jennifer Pilates:

Right? It was always customer service. And from day one in the senior living industry that was my passion Sure, was serving and showing up for the residents and for their families. And that got lost as I climbed the corporate ladder. Yeah,

Jeff Kikel:

I got farther and farther you get away from the end client. Yeah,

Jennifer Pilates:

I was. Oh, it was I was so sad. So sad in the companies hated me. Because they would call and be asking questions and be like, Oh, Jennifer's in the kitchen helping out before Jennifer's? Because that's how my mentor taught me. Yeah, all hands on deck at all times. And so yeah, I didn't play well.

Jeff Kikel:

I mean, it's, it's largely why I ended up selling, you know, my interest in the financial practice I was in, because I just felt like, every year as the practice grew, I got farther and farther away from the end client. And that, you know, what, literally made me happy was that interaction with the clients, and when I wasn't having that I just wasn't happy anymore. You know, and it was better for me to go off and do other things and get to talk to people like this and, you know, build build a practice that I want to build going forward. So tell me a little bit about what the plans are as you make this move again? Is it open another studio on the cape or?

Jennifer Pilates:

Um, well, I, I don't know if I'm, if I'm going to have a brick and mortar studio again. Okay. So I'm not going to say never, but I will say my most favorite Pilates studio of all times was on the Cape, I am aware that I believe the building is not being used. So I will say that I don't know. I mean, God still has that in my heart, we shall see we are narrowing down the areas still sodas. So we'll see. But you know, on demand Pilates studios, and the private clients, rehabilitative clients that I work with there, I've continued to do so that's been huge. Bringing the light therapy into my business has been amazing.

Jeff Kikel:

So share a little bit about that, for people that aren't aware.

Jennifer Pilates:

So light therapy is amazing. It's something I've done personally for 13 years. And what it is, is it's actually stem cells activating in your body through a tiny patch. So nothing goes into your body is activated by your own infrared light and the heat from your body that activates these nano technology. And what that does is that then kind of I don't want to say shoots the light, but it turns the light back to you. So it begins to regenerate stem cells. So literally nothing is going into your body, it's working with your body's meridian, or your body's infrared light to heal you from the inside out and to regenerate cells. So how that is different is that if you were to go to for stem cell surgery, right, you know, say you're, you're 70 years old, they're going to use 70 year old cells and transfer them from point A to point B. Wouldn't it be better to have brand new cells? So that's what this light therapy does. And I can say personally, for me, it has removed significant amount of anxiety and stress, pain. I will say, after the first month on this newer patch that I've been using, my girlfriend said to me, what are you using on your face? And I said, Well, I said, Well, nothing, you know, just the usual. And then like your face is so taut. And I will tell you, Jeff, like it's the little nuances for me like being pain free sleeping through the night, my hormones are balanced. My collagen is out of control. My face is so tight, like I don't know that it can get any tighter. You know, and this is 50 high 50 Like super excited. No pain, SI pain is gone. And you know, how many soft tissue damage? You know, regardless of use, you know, over the years, it peaks its head up. Like if you've broken bone, it heals. It's much better if you've got going that route. But if soft tissue damage, I have sensitive areas, it takes care of that. Wow. So it's become this amazing, you know, practice to build into my business to help people to say hey, look, you don't have to be in that pain. Yes, Pilates helps you and we continue to progress. But if I can literally take you out of pain in the next five minutes, are you willing to put this patch on your body? Yeah, and then let's continue Pilates. So the light therapy, stem cell activation patches have been amazing, have been a complete game changer. And again, I've been on them for I've been on them for 13 years. The newest one I literally started this past year and like I said, it's just it's just been amazing for Microsoft for me and for my family. And again it goes back to if I can share something to help you to help you no longer be in pain to help you not have stress and to get you out of a panic attack so that you don't need knee surgery. You don't need soldier soldier surgery you you're not having migraines anymore. I want to do that for you. And I'm super like I don't like to ingest things. My first half of my life I was you know I was very sick, I was on everything you can imagine. And this half of my life I'm on nothing. Right? I use my, my light therapy patches, and I use whole food capsules. And, and Pilates Of course, you know, but you know that that's my life. That's my lifestyle.

Jeff Kikel:

You know, it's not like you're sitting there in the gym for, you know, eight hours a day or something like that. You're I mean, you're just doing basic things to take care of yourself. Yeah. Yeah, that work.

Jennifer Pilates:

Yeah, I walk, I do Pilates. I pack a lot of boxes. Right and that exactly. And now, you know, so I don't I've never I've always worked out for the majority of my life. But if you ask me if I like to workout, no, that's why I like Pilates. Because Pilates is low impact. And especially like with my clients who majority are 40 and over, okay, that have something going on. I've always been that person that has attracted someone that needs something fixed. I was always known as the fixer, because that's also how I got into the industry being you know, through rehab. So I became well, but yeah,

Jeff Kikel:

you also have a story to tell that I went through this myself. You know, I'm, I rehab myself this way. So you have you have street cred with them. Also, that if I'm coming to you, and I'm in pain, you're Yeah, you're somebody that understands where I'm coming from?

Jennifer Pilates:

Mm hmm. Absolutely. I understand pain, physically, emotionally, I get it spiritually, I get it. And that's, you know, that's my mission to help all my clients near and far to be able to transform body mind spirit, be able to tune out so that they can tune in, and they can really heal from the inside. Yeah.

Jeff Kikel:

So now let's kind of talk a little bit about how you typically work with clients, is it in person is it over the internet now with all the craziness that we have, that we've had in our world?

Jennifer Pilates:

Right, so it can be a little bit of both, depending on where my clients are, right now, with just the influx of where I am, every everyone is virtual, all my training is virtual, my coaching, you know, the readings, everything that we're doing. So that's all virtual, which is really fun. And I've been doing that for the last I don't know how many years now, since I haven't had I think the last studio I had was in Scottsdale. So you know, that was about four years ago. Because you know, the whole world, there was like that blip of a few years that we lost. Everything has been virtual since then. And it's been wonderful. And what a blessing, you know, again, blessing in disguise, look at how many more people I'm able to serve. Yeah, I'm like you my podcast came out of that, too. So that was another way to show up and serve. So yeah, everything is very virtual. If it's not zoom, a lot of people were using Voxer we're using the phone. It just depends on what the comfort level is of my client. Because again, everyone likes zoom.

Jeff Kikel:

Yeah. Well, I think the good part is now you know, regardless of what age your clients are, everybody understands zoom now. Yeah, you had grandparents that, you know, it's like, okay, the only way I'm gonna see my grandkids is to jump on Zoom and all that. So, you know, I think that's the thing I've noticed is most of my clients, you know, it's become like Kleenex, or, you know, whatever. It's just that that's the general term, whatever platform you use, it's zoom, you know, and the end result, so people understand it, and they they make it happen and make it work. So I love that. What's the what's the future look like? I mean, we've talked about it a little bit here. But you know, what's, what's kind of dreams and aspirations for you, as you as you make another move?

Jennifer Pilates:

Does that make another move as I make another chapter, an adventure in my life, I'm really looking to put down roots, okay, and I've never wanted to do this before. I've never had a desire to do this. And I desire to really put down roots and to be rooted with wings. Nice, so that I can fly and do whatever I want to do travel. But I have that home base. And I haven't had that before, nor have I wanted to have that before. Now I do desire to have that. So I'm excited for that. I'm excited to be in the East Coast again, of which my heart has always been in New England. I'm excited with all of the friends that I have there in the healing community to be able to actually get out and get with people and do in person retreats. And there's so many of my podcast guests and friends that you know, we want to put together these wellness opportunities for people to be able to come and get together because it's time people really need that right now. We need some love and light desperate. Yeah. So I'm looking forward to all of that. I'm looking forward to really sitting on the east coast with my feet in the sand and looking at the ocean and healing right going going back is healing it's very healing there's a lot a lot of healing to be done with that so I'm really really oh your it's

Jeff Kikel:

where your heart is so you know it's you catch back up to your heart sometimes when you do that stuff and, you know, like, it's like we were talking about I mean, I've spent a lot of time on the East Coast and and Massachusetts. So I know where you're coming from. I mean, it's just it's a different kind of world. And certainly the ability to be right next to the ocean is a wonderful thing. So that's a, that's a healing thing for me as well.

Jennifer Pilates:

Yeah, it really is. It's so important. And I spent nine years in the desert. So yeah, nine years in the desert. And then I don't know, we just call these blip years from all the time that I've been between Florida and Arizona. It's yeah,

Jeff Kikel:

yeah. And it's shocking to me how fast three years went. I mean, it's like, it's like this last period of time in my life. But I'm like, Jesus, they went by so fast.

Jennifer Pilates:

It did go by so fast. And I agree with you. It's like, Hey, I don't get it. It's like, literally, there was some sort of time warp. There's some sort of glitch in the Matrix going on. Because suddenly, here we are, and it's like, nothing ever happened. Yeah. And, yeah, it's confusing to me.

Jeff Kikel:

It's funny, I think it affected the younger people much, much more. And I was talking to a friend about I worked with a local incubator program. And, you know, it's so funny that the kids are almost more neurotic about it. And, you know, you've got 17 year olds wearing masks still and all this and, you know, I was talking to somebody, and they're like, I just don't get it. And I said, well understand that for us, you know, I'm 55. So that three years was not even, you know, 5% of my life. For them. It's like, 20% of their life was spent dealing with all that stuff. So that's that monkeys with your brain a lot in the end, so, you know, I think we're gonna have a year you're gonna have some people to fix for a long time. In the end, the younger category. Mm hmm.

Jennifer Pilates:

Yeah. And it is, you know, and it is, and not only were they having to navigate their own little world, they were trying to navigate their brothers, their sisters, their parents, their grandparents, they didn't understand why they couldn't see grandma, grandpa, you know, they didn't understand what was going, you know, all they knew literally was fear, fear, fear, as we, however, some of us have a greater ability and a greater opportunity to get through it. Because no rising, this isn't a rise above this is everyone was getting through this, you know, and so, you know, I saw a neighbor today and with a mask on and what you normally thought was, is there something going on that I don't know about? Is there hold on, hold on? Hold on, I need to call China. Like it's something up that I didn't, I did. No one told me. You know, and it was just kind of just like, Oh, are we doing this again? Like, Yeah,

Jeff Kikel:

hold on, glide. I live in Austin. So if you go past the, there's a dividing line between the city I live in in Austin, you'll see a lot more people and it's just kind of weird, but But yeah, it's Austin's weird to begin with. But yeah, I'm feel the same way. You see somebody now and you're just like, that's going on. So I don't get it.

Jennifer Pilates:

But I also at the same time, you know, as I have those thoughts, and then it's like, okay, you know what, God bless them, whatever they've got going on. I hope they feel better soon. And let's move on with our day. But it does always kind of like give me a month. It's a

Jeff Kikel:

little off. But yeah, it's a little off putting yet still where you're like, I don't quite get it. Now we're back to the only people you know that Rob places, again, are wearing masks. But I mean, other than that, I don't know what

Jennifer Pilates:

I this is gonna sound crazy. But I read something. And this is in New York, of course, that they said that they didn't want people that were going to be robbing people to wear masks because they couldn't see that.

Jeff Kikel:

Okay, well, yeah.

Jennifer Pilates:

I get it. I was like

Jeff Kikel:

if you'd please take the mask off before you rob the place because we need to be able to see your face. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that would be nice. And it would be nice before that, too. But, unfortunately,

Jennifer Pilates:

I mean, laugh like, I want everyone to know, like, you have to have a sense of humor with all this at this

Jeff Kikel:

point. And I think we all had to have had a sense of humor to get through all the craziness. We went through for three years and yeah, now we're on the backside of it. We're all wiser and and hopefully, hopefully we never see that again in our lifetime. And yeah, seems to be about every 100 years in our world. Something like that happens but all right, you ready to jump into the Fast Five questions now?

Jennifer Pilates:

I'm ready. All right.

Jeff Kikel:

So we start off with you wake up in the morning business is totally gone. Yep. 500 bucks in your pocket a laptop computer, place to live? What are you going to do first? Is there internet? There is internet. I will give you internet.

Jennifer Pilates:

Okay, so I'm definitely going to go on the internet to see if the world is still there. Okay, good start then I'm going to so my business is gone. I'm immediately going to go into entrepreneur mode. And I'm gonna start you know, talking with people about Health and Wellness and transforming body, mind and spirit, I'm probably going to do a new, nice challenge that is going to include light therapy and pilates and Reiki and show up for everyone because there's got to be someone else's going through what I'm going through, and I'm gonna hustle, I'm gonna flow while I hustle. But I'm gonna Yeah, I'm gonna turn that page and be the entrepreneur that I am. I love

Jeff Kikel:

it. Absolutely. What is the biggest business mistake you've ever made?

Jennifer Pilates:

Oh, I love this question. So there's this thing, and I want everyone to really heed this advice. If something starts out difficult, it generally doesn't get better. I don't care what it is, whether it's a relationship, a contract, whatever it is, it doesn't get any better. And so I was negotiating a Pilates studio in a town in Massachusetts, years ago. And it was not going well. And it was like, it was like a book. I was renting like, 500 square feet. Like this wasn't a big deal. And I took it to a friend of mine who, you know, he was really good business. And he said this to me, because Jen, if it started out like this, I can promise you it's gonna get worse. I was like, it's gonna be fine.

Jeff Kikel:

I just know, it'll be perfect.

Jennifer Pilates:

It ended with police. I'm gonna say. So yeah, that wasn't, it was a great learning lesson. I don't think it was missed. You know, I would like to not call them. It wasn't the best of plans. But it was an incredibly good learning lesson.

Jeff Kikel:

Yeah, well, I mean, often mistakes are the best learning lessons. I mean, you've got to, they teach you, okay? Don't do that again, cuz that's not a good plan. You learn better the next time if my landlord is being a complete thought about it, he's probably going to continue to be that way forever. So

Jennifer Pilates:

I've taken that advice into all areas of my life. Yeah. And I always bring that back home.

Jeff Kikel:

I love that. What's a good book that you'd recommend for our audience? Oh,

Jennifer Pilates:

so we had a funny story of how I am packing and had to pull out books to flip up my computer, make sure it's higher. But the one book that I've kept out and David's gonna love this, it's called connected to goodness by David Meltzer. Okay, this is all about manifesting everything you desire in your business and life. So for those people who are like, Oh, this sounds a little woowoo, I want you to know, I don't even like that word. Okay, first of all, I don't go with Woo. But I do go with manifesting your heart's desire. And I do believe that what is placed in your heart is meant for you and cannot pass you by now, doesn't mean it's going to be there today. But however, it is gonna get there. And his book is it's very simple. It's a quick read. And I just love it. And there's one quote in here, if I can read it to you, because I actually pulled it, I was like, Oh, I've got to share this with him

Jeff Kikel:

the bonus plan. The bonus,

Jennifer Pilates:

right. So authentic empowerment is the knowing that you aren't on purpose, doing God's work peacefully and harmoniously. And that's actually he quoted Wayne Dyer with that one. And so I think that that's really important. And it gives you a basis of where this book is coming from, like, what's in your heart, what's in your business, what feels right, it always comes down to what feels right in your heart and your gut. And you can make that happen. Or you can really, you know, work and manifest. And so it's it's a great book that really works with business, and the work of manifesting in a really great way so that people don't feel that they're going to write or to left, so to speak.

Jeff Kikel:

Love it. What's a tool that you use in your business that you might recommend to our audience?

Jennifer Pilates:

Oh, descript Okay, use describe. So descript is really great. Love to script. I absolutely adore it for podcast. I know. I only use it for podcasting. And I will say this, I am not the most technically inclined person. Yep. However, if you have a podcast, and you need to edit video, well, I use it for editing my podcast, and for my Pilates videos. is flipping amazing. And I love it. I know I can do 3000 more things with it that I don't know how to do but I do those two things and it is worth every penny.

Jeff Kikel:

I am right there with you. We started using that with our podcast and and the YouTube channel and I don't know how we did stuff without it. I mean, I just simply for the simple fact of getting rid of the the hums and ahhs out of you know, we could edit that out before but it would take us hours where this thing just you hit a button and it goes boop like that and you're done. It's all gone. It can come back Yeah. And instantly have a transcript and instantly you have everything else that you need which is just absolutely amazing. I totally agree with you and hadn't heard of it until my my virtual assistant found it. So we are we are well using it. We're making up for our time with

Jennifer Pilates:

Yes. How have you figured out how to add like if you're doing a video to like add a picture in the front or a picture at the end? I haven't figured out how to do that. Yes.

Jeff Kikel:

Figure that out. It's all about that little the the right hash slash thing. That's where it gives you the ability to do any of that stuff and drop it in there. And but yeah, it's that that took us a while to figure it out. And I'm not a big instructions guy. So I didn't watch all the videos that told you how to do that. So I just kind of figure things out as I go as I need them.

Jennifer Pilates:

Yes, that's my definite. And then I will say, if I can give a second thing. Yeah. So you know, all this AR stuff that's going on? Yeah. Yeah, well, I have mixed feelings with AI. I think that they're just like anything, right? There's beautiful things with it. And then there's really scary things with it. And so I was really hesitant, and I and I was listening to this business coach, and he was like, if you're not doing this, no, it was like fearful. You're gonna lose everything. And I was like, Oh, crap. So I pulled up one. And what I've been using it for is taking the old verbiage that was on my website, this is how I'm testing it, putting it in and seeing what it came up with. Oh, my gosh, love it. Yeah, it's called right, Sonic. That's all I'm using it for. That's all I've used for thus far. And love it. Like, I was like, I couldn't have written this any better if I wrote it myself.

Jeff Kikel:

I know what it says. I was talking to somebody earlier today as like, you know, I use it, I use chat GPT. And I mean, I literally used it to write portions of the book that's coming out in about six weeks. I mean, it writes, I use it, you know, and people, I think mischaracterize what it is, and say, Oh, well, you're using AI, and you're just cheating. And I'm like, No, it's just getting the ideas on paper. And, you know, the beauty of it is I've trained it now. Because it does learn, and I've trained it now, on my terminology that I use, because the problem is, a lot of the things that I created, they're not they don't exist, you know, the terminology doesn't exist in the world, it exists in my head. And so I had to train it, my my terminology and have it understand what things are. And now that it's trained to do that, I can literally just punch something in really short, and it'll go boop, like that. And it's exactly like it's pulling it from my brain in those cases. And, you know, I mean, it's, it allows me to get more information out to my people, in my audience, much, much faster than I would if I was sitting here with a blank page in front of me.

Jennifer Pilates:

Oh, no, I redid my website in two days. And in two days, because I was being OCD. And I was would give me like three examples. And I, I would mash the three together and make it my own. Like, I'm not just going to use what it gives me now. But I yeah, I

Jeff Kikel:

have to say, just think of how much time it would have taken you to come up with those three, it

Jennifer Pilates:

would have paid someone to like write my bio, like I do, I really need to see, you know, there's, God needs me to do bigger things than writing my own bio right now. Ya know, for that, like, that was something really cool. And I was I had not been pro it. And I think, yeah, I can see the goodness, like I said,

Jeff Kikel:

I it will be used for good, it will be used for bad too. Everything is but you know, I think I think people need to open their minds to it a little bit and say, Okay, this is how I can use it. I mean, if you're a business owner today, and you're not, at least trying to use some of this AI in your business, I think you're gonna get left behind, quite frankly, I personally think

Jennifer Pilates:

yeah, I mean, yeah, it did. I asked it, what did I ask her to write, I asked her to write a article on, like the five benefits for women over 40 or 50 to do Pilates. It was like a huge essay, it was way more than I even asked for. And then I looked at it. And I was like, Well, this is damn good. You know, I haven't used it yet. I didn't use it. I really just want to go through and make it my own. But I thought wow, this is

Jeff Kikel:

what I mean. Imagine once again, the amount of time to do all the research to come up with all of that, to do all the Google searches to gather that material together. I mean, that could take a month. And I can use that as a tool to go out and grab all this information. Like I said, and you know, in the cases of somebody like me, I mean, it's not like I've created absolutely new concepts that have never existed before these concepts have existed. They've just not been put together the way I have. And they're not called what I call them. But once I was able to train it to say okay, this this means this and it then is able to go okay, well here's how I think you should put this together. I don't necessarily like that. But I could flip this around Bum Bum Bum Bum bum. And you know what, what takes 30 minutes could have taken me weeks and months. Oh, for sure.

Jennifer Pilates:

I don't know if you saw this not to get off track but If I host my website through Buzzsprout Yeah. And they literally sent out an email today that said, Oh, we they're integrating AI. Now, it will give you you don't even have to think of your title for your podcast anymore, or write the description anymore. Nice. And I just again, I was like, Do you know how much time that saves? Do you know how many more interviews I can do? And how much more information I can bring to the world? Because of that?

Jeff Kikel:

Yeah, just that one simple thing. Yeah, just that one

Jennifer Pilates:

simple thing. Because, you know, we get in our heads, and we want it to be perfect, and nothing is perfect. And all you know, you want to do right by your guests. And I thought, oh, my gosh, this is, yeah, it really is a game changer. Again, yes. When you're using it the right way and adapting it to yourself and your personality, and so on and so forth. Absolutely.

Jeff Kikel:

Okay, last question for you. Okay, what is your definition of freedom?

Jennifer Pilates:

Hmm, freedom is being able to live my life free and breathe, I can work when I want to work. I choose my schedule. If I have a schedule, whatever I want to do that day, I am able to go with the flow of what I'm being able to call called to do. That is freedom. Being able to pack my bags and go move cross country, that's freedom. A crazy freedom.

Jeff Kikel:

A little bit of a psychotic freedom, but okay, we'll go with this.

Jennifer Pilates:

What do we do? And this is the number eight number nine. I mean, yeah, what's another time? I mean,

Jeff Kikel:

going back to Massachusetts, so that says that you should be there eventually. And it's a great place to put down some roots.

Jennifer Pilates:

And absolutely. So yeah, freedom is being able to live your life on your terms. Freedom is being able to wake up and go with the flow and do what you're called to do that day. Because that's what your heart is saying to do.

Jeff Kikel:

I love it. I love it. That's such a great answer. Thank you. It's been a while since we've been trying to do this. And it was it was absolutely what I expected it was going to be. So thank you for your time today. I know, this was a busy day, and you're trying to get packed to get out of there. But I'm so glad we got to spend this 30 minutes together and get to know each other more and share your story with the audience. So I thank you for your time today.

Jennifer Pilates:

Thank you so much, Jeff, this has been so much fun I I knew in my heart that I could not let you down and that we were gonna have a blast and, you know, bring enlightenment and bring empowerment and bring those around the world. So thank you for letting me be a part of your show.

Jeff Kikel:

You're more than welcome, Jen, what's the best way if somebody wants to get in contact with you or learn more about you what's the best way

Jennifer Pilates:

the best way is heading over to my site, which is Jennifer pilates.com. And that will have everything about the Pilates, the coaching the readings, the stem cell activation patches, and you can also continue the conversation if you'd like to and reach out to me right through the site.

Jeff Kikel:

I love it. Love it. Well, folks, make sure that you reach out to her she is a joy to be around and and she's a wonderful person that is in this world still who's putting out just wonderful things every day. We do the show twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays make sure that you are showing up by subscribing and hit that little notification button wherever you're watching or listening to this. We are dropping a ton of stuff on our YouTube channel right now. We're building the YouTube channel and we're dropping a video a day for the next 60 days. So make sure you are on there and subscribe because the Freedom Day book is coming. And it is coming soon to share a lot of these people's stories and also the story of Freedom Day. So thanks a lot and we will see you back here the very next time.