THE 60-DAY RESET WITH TESS MASTERS

Hey you guys, welcome to the Karen Kenney show. I am super

duper excited today because I'm talking to my friend who I know

you're gonna love too. But here's the thing, you guys know,

how picky I am about having people on my show. I almost

never, ever, ever, ever have guests on so when I do, you know

that there's a good reason why. So if you remember, I don't

know, last year, sometime, I let everybody know that I had just

been on my friend Tess's podcast, and I am now having her

on my podcast, and I can't wait for you guys to hear all about

her, one of the cool things. So first of all, say, hi, Tess, hi.

I'm very honored to be a guest, because I know how picky you

are.

Okay, first of all, you're going to be obsessed with her accent

like me, because I could listen to her all day long. But we're

going to talk about like your programs, like there's all these

things I want to get into, but one of the things I love about

you is you're also like me, a multi passionate, what I

consider like a multi passionate person. So you don't just do one

thing. And I know like you guys, if you listen to the intro,

right, she's a she's an actor, she's an author, she's a coach,

she's a podcaster, she, like, does a bunch of shit, is what I

basically was saying. So you do a lot of different things, and I

kind of want to dive into all of these little nooks and crannies

of like how you serve and how you show up in the world, and

like what lights you up. So first of all, just thank you for

being on the show, and I'm super duper excited to have you here.

Thank you for having me. This will be fun. You and I can talk

for hours,

and we have look it. So one of the things whenever I do have a

guest on, though, I like to ask them a question in this realm.

So, what were you like as a kid, like, as a kid, like, were you

like, quiet, nerdy, like, big, like, what was your vibe as a

kid, and do you think that your childhood and how you were and

the shit that went down in your life, that it informs or

influences or inspired the work that you do today? Oh, 100%

okay.

Tell I was thirsty, I was curious, I was adventurous. My

parents helped me believe that I could do anything and be

anything. We traveled the world together. We lived in a bunch of

different countries. My mother speaks a lot of different

languages. My parents. You know, some people spend their money on

houses and cars. My parents spent it on experiences. So we

had season tickets to the ballet, season tickets to opera

and plays. And we were constantly experimenting with

different food and cuisines from around the world. And my mother

was doing all these amazing stuff. We traveled, you know, to

different countries every year. My mum was a teacher, so they

would pull us out of school. My dad would take extra vacation

time, and we would immerse ourselves in a culture. And we

weren't allowed to say we didn't like something until we tried

it. So, oh, I don't like that, you know, like a food, you know,

that maybe you hadn't tried it. Didn't look very attractive or

something, and they would go, Well, how do you know you

haven't tried it could be the best thing you've ever tasted.

So we just had to have one bite, and then once we had one bite,

then we could exert our free will, but we didn't like it.

Okay, great. Thanks for trying. Maybe we want to revisit that

down the road, you know, like so, for example, raw tomato and

avocado when I was a kid, just now, I can't get enough of it,

you know. So it was just being open to all possibilities was

really the name of the game in my family. And we, you know,

come from a very creative family, you know, we have

literal rock stars and judges and, you know, big, big,

achieving family, but it's sort of no big deal at the same time,

meaning you just do what you're passionate about, what you love,

and you share it with the world. So from a really young age, I

was taught that my voice mattered and to put it out

there, and that people wanted to hear what I had to say, being my

parents, and then, by extension, anybody that we chose to invite

into the conversation, and I think it's just a really

important message to share and to hold and to carry with you.

So my upbringing, in my childhood continues to resonate

and play out in everything that I do.

This is so fascinating to me, because one of the questions I

wanted to ask you, and then I was like, Nah, like, I don't

know but, but I do think it speaks to what you just said.

Well, first of all, before I ask the question, this other

question is, so what did your dad do for work?

Yeah, so my dad worked for the airline, so he was a flight

engineer, so he flew and was gone for days at a time. And,

you know, then he went long haul when we moved to Singapore. He

started with Qantas, which was, you know, back then, it was

called something else, but then it got absorbed. And then we

went to Singapore, and he worked for Singapore Airlines, and so

that explains, off of some of the travel, okay, yes,

absolutely, yes. And then my mom was a flight attendant for

Qantas. That's how they met back in the day. But she had been a

teacher prior to that. That was. What did she teach? What subject

she taught primary school, and then she became a special needs

teacher. So she became an integration specialist. And so I

think that really informs a lot of what I do as well, in the

sense of, you know, I then volunteered, you know, she was

volunteering sat on the, you know, different charities and

things. And so social service was a very big part of our

family as well. And then I started volunteering myself. And

then I worked for the government, for the Department

of Human Services with intellectually disabled people,

people with acquired brain injuries, et cetera. Worked in

hospice, things like that. So that was a very big part of what

our family did, and other members of my family as well. So

yeah, that's where the flying comes into it. So my mom has

also done a bunch of different things, because she's constantly

wanting to explore the next frontier. So I get that from her

for sure.

Yeah, I love that. Well, one of the things when I first met you,

and then I had the we were on, we were on a zoom, catching up,

and your mom came into the frame, and we were like,

chatting, and I was like, but you're really close with your

family. And I think something, something that is really

beautiful, and I think a lot of people don't have this is, first

of all, it sounds like you still have a really healthy

relationship with your folks, but one of the things that you

said that they really instilled in you, because one of my next

questions into your creative work, it kind of is already

leading there is that they told you that a, you had a voice, B,

that it was worthy of being heard, that you had something to

say, and just that foundation, that really healthy kind of

foundation to launch yourself from. Because, you know, I

remember meeting you and thinking like, this is a really

confident person. And I'm not saying you sometimes don't get,

you know, you know that you don't have fear. Sometimes you

get, oh, every day, every day, every day, but you present as,

like, very confident. And I'm like, it's beautiful to grow up

in a family where you're being told and that you actually,

like, feel in the marrow of your bones that you are seeing, that

you are heard, that you're worthy, that you're mad, that

you matter, and that you're loved. And it sounds like, and I

look, I'm not saying your family didn't have things. I don't

know, I didn't grow up in your house, but it sounds

every, every family does, every family does, but I will say that

I really hit the jackpot with my parents. We are a very close

family. And you know, we were the family that everybody else

wanted to be around. They would tell us, you know. And my

friends wanted my parents as their parents. And you know, all

my friends just adore my parents, and they're very much

included in a lot. And you know, I'm close with my sister, and

there's just, I've just had one sister, so there's four of us.

So we were very tight knit group of four for sure. So yeah, I was

extremely fortunate, and I, like my parents, I would choose them

as friends,

and they're both still alive, yes, yes, yeah,

they're both in excellent health, which I'm incredibly

grateful for. And that's why I chose to return to Australia for

a while. You know, after living in the United States for over 30

years, because my parents, because my parents are with it,

and they're ambulance and they're still cognitively

active, and they're still curious, and they're still up

for things. And, you know, while I, you know, I'm single for the

first time in my life at the moment, and I wanted to return

while I didn't have a partner, didn't have to uproot their life

and just spend this really precious time with them before

getting the call from my sister. Oh, you better come home, you

know. So, yeah, it's a it's a really special time, because

they're in their 80s.

So it's beautiful and it's rich, and it also just like, I just

got like, oh, I wanted to just cry when you were talking about

that. I I think it's so beautiful that you're aware and

awake enough that, because when we look at it, you know, and

you're like, okay, my parents are this age, or whatever

meaning yours. And if you were living in LA or still living in

the States, and you think, well, how often do I see them? And

then you're like, Well, if you only go home, let's just say you

only went back to Australia once a year or twice a year. And they

have, like, this much time. When you break it down like that, it

would literally be like, I'm only going to see my parents

like, four more times or six more times. And when you think

about it like that, it's like, oh my god. So I just love that

you're all there, like, living your best life together. That

makes me so happy.

It's, yeah, it's really, it's, it's really been a really fun,

as you say, rich time. But I want to just pull up on

something you said before, because it really went into my

heart. In the you present as a really confident person, and I

do when I'm in an arena where I feel confident. So right now, I

just have to show up as me. So I am confident presenting as me.

If I'm coaching, I feel very confident in what I'm doing, if

I'm doing a voiceover, if I'm on stage or you know, but as you

know, Courage isn't the absence of fear, it's acting in the

presence of fear, and we build a different relationship with it.

So I am constantly in pursuit of refining my relationship with

fear or self doubt or whatever labels we want to put on. It,

and I certainly experience it on a daily basis. So, you know,

just for for listener, you know, if you're thinking, gosh, she's

balls to the wall, she thinks she can do anything, I am often

in a fetal position. I'm often meditating. I'm often going, I'm

a fraud. No one's gonna want to hear that from me. I mean, I

feel that just like everybody else you know. And then I pull

out my bag of tools, and I work through it just like we all do.

Well I want, yeah, well, that was leading to my next question

about you being an actor. Some people would say old school

actress, whatever. But I say actor, right, but I remember

actor, actress, right? So you have a podcast. It has to be me,

which I was lucky enough to be on. We're going to talk about

that, but I you were fabulous. Thank you so much. I had, I had

great help with you as a fantastic interviewer, but I

remember when I went and listened to your podcast, and I

don't know if it was in the first or second episode, and

this is all pointing back to the confidence question. You told

this great story about, I don't know if you were 1617, or

whatever, and there was some director on campus or something

who saw you and thought you were beautiful or whatever, and

wanted to cast you. And there was this other girl. There was

this whole situation. I know the story, but it kind of speaks to

this, because I think that's also something that I don't want

to speak for you, but that was a really big lesson that you

learned in that, do you want to tell a little Yeah?

Yeah. I love that you remember that story within the context of

what we're talking about, because it was a very, very

pivotal moment in my life, because it was an example of me

choosing to be crippled by fear and running with the narrative

of I'm not enough, that I somehow have to be different to

meet the moment. So I had been sitting on the benches outside

of the theater department, and I was talking with my TA and some

other people about a play, and we were sort of just analyzing,

just having a really, you know, yummy, delicious conversation

about story. And this director was sitting there, and I

actually didn't see him at first, very famous director. If

I hadn't seen him, gosh, I don't know what I would have done, but

anyway, and he actually was just listening, you know. And he was

there sort of scouting for people for his next movie as as

they did, you know, because this was in LA I was at UCLA, and,

yeah, he just came up to me and said, Hi, you know, I just was

just listening to you so, so on board with what you were saying

and your analysis of that. And you mind if we just chat for a

little bit? So we had this fantastic conversation. And he

said, You know, I just have a feeling that you would be just

really fantastic to work with, and I would really love you to

audition, you know. And it was the opportunity of a lifetime.

And I just said in the moment, if you can believe this, I still

cannot believe I did this. I mean, it's just baffling to me.

I could kick myself. I want to go back and wring this girl's

neck like, literally, or love her, or say, just go for it.

Come on, you know. And I'd already had the big lead of the

season as a freshman, and everybody else in the show was a

senior and a graduate student, like, I already had some stuff

under my belt, you know, that I was enough at this school, you

know, or in life, or had the talent, or whatever, and I was

getting the lead, the lead, you know, it was it just, it wasn't

sort of an unknown sort of thing. And I just was completely

terrified. And just said, you know, I just don't feel like I'm

ready, and I just want to stay at school, you know, I wanted to

stay in that safe bubble where I was the big fish in the little

pond. Basically, I was terrified, terrified that I

wouldn't meet the moment and I would humiliate myself. And he

said, Are you sure about that? And it was almost like, now

that, I think back, it was a bit of a test. In that moment. He

went, No, you're actually not the girl that I thought you

were, you know. And he said it very politely, but now that I

think about it, oh God, anyway. And so he walked away. And this

other girl that I knew, she saw and heard all of this, and I

had, you know, beaten her for some roles. And I've beaten her,

I know, if that's the right but, you know. And she just walked up

to him, balls to the wall, and said, I'd like to audition. And

she looked pretty similar to me, you know. And it was a, was a

movie that became a really big movie, really big movie, and she

got a role in that movie, and I don't begrudge that of her. I

don't I mean good for her, because she went, it has to be

me, and she went for a ball store and put her hat in the

ring and gave it a go. And that was a very painful lesson, but

not for her, yeah, and I think about that a lot. Is, you know

that you what is that old adage of you miss 100% of the shots

you don't take. And I may not have got that role or a role in

that film, but now I'll never know, and I would rather know

than not know. I would rather regret what I did as opposed to

what I didn't do. So I did things very differently after

that. So, you know, we are the sum of our experiences. And you

know, you know I love a quote, but you know, I love the Nelson

Mandela quote, you know, I never lose. I either win or I learn.

So I didn't lose that day, but gosh, did I learn. And learning,

you know, is winning, but it was, it was a painful lesson.

But the great things, the great thing about the lessons that

come wrapped in dog shit, so to speak, the really painful ones,

is that we can't ignore them, and we don't feel and they end

up being our greatest teachers. So everything that happens

serves us as we know, but gosh, did that serve me? It really,

really did. So yeah, yeah,

yeah. That was a big and powerful and painful in its own

way, lesson. And I think you know, what's beautiful about it,

though, for me, is that I see it as kind of like one of those,

you called it a pivotal moment, but it kind of lights that

little fire under your ass, like, never again. Like, never

again, like, I'm gonna go after what I want. And you also said

in there, you know, that girl not begrudging her and saying,

because she said it has to be me, which means I can't skip

over the fact that you just beautifully segued us into and

like I said we're gonna get into, because you have your own

level of fame in so many different ways.

Gosh, it's very generous of you. I don't know if I would view it.

Don't be a weirdo. We're gonna talk about it. But you recently,

last year, you started your podcast. It has to be me

podcast. And what do you for people who maybe haven't

listened to it yet? We're gonna point them in the right

direction, but like, what's the hot beat of that? And like, why

it has to be me, and what, what? Where did the name come from?

And what does it mean to you? Because I look at your podcast,

just for those of you who haven't, haven't listened to it

yet, maybe, maybe dia listener, you listen to my my episode that

I was lucky enough to be on, but I see your podcast is a really

beautiful, like, accompaniment. I can't even say that word like

it's an extension of, I feel like your programs, because it's

so rich with resources and things that help people, like,

live better, feel better, like with with all different kinds,

whether it's mental, emotional, physical, somatic, like, there's

so many great guests on but tell me what inspired you like to do

that, and what, what it has to be me means,

yeah. I mean, I've wanted to do a podcast for many, many, many

years, and I just didn't have time, and not because I chose

that I didn't have time out of fear, because I think that often

that's an excuse for I don't think I'm ready. I just was

traveling the world. I was the spokesperson for KitchenAid. I

was, you know, consulting with companies. I was speaking at

events all over the world. I was writing books for Random House,

all the things, you know, I just, I had a full roster, and

there's only so many hours in the day. And as you know, to do

a podcast at a high level and really research your guests and

be present and be ready to have the kinds of rich conversations

you want to have with somebody. You know, somebody's got a book.

I read all their books, if that, you know, you know, it requires

a rigor, it requires a presence, and to do it at the level that I

wanted to do it at, I just knew that I literally did not have

the

time. Oh, look, I look, you don't do anything half ass. No,

I really don't. You pour your heart into whatever you're

doing, because if

it's not as as Do you, and that's why we get on so well.

Why we met? It was like, Oh, we're sisters from another

mother. This is amazing, but, but you know, you know that

thing where so it has to be me. For me means, you know, when you

just know in your gut, this is what I want to do. This is what

I meant to do. This is what I have to do. And it doesn't

matter how afraid you are. It doesn't matter what anyone says

you go and do it. That's what it has to be me means to me. And so

when it was really inspired by the office hours for my 60 day

reset in skinny 60s. So every Thursday, any member can come

in, and it's just a free for all, meaning anyone can ask me

anything about anything. So it could be anything from, oh, I

don't like broccoli, but I know I want to eat it. How do I make

it taste delicious, too? I can't get my kids to eat vegetables,

to my husband and I want to eat different things. What do I do

to then it gets quite a bit deeper with other people, of the

motivation, the core beliefs, limiting beliefs that in that

inform our food and life. Lifestyle choices, our

relationship with food, relationship to dieting, maybe

not wanting to eat and, you know, maybe feeling like you

need to starve yourself. I mean, it goes into you've been on one

it can go to many, many places, which is what's so beautiful,

and so it has. The podcast was, was really inspired out of those

office hours, right on of what I realized was the through line

for all of us is we know that the I'm not enough, slash, I'm

too much story. I used to think they were opposites. Now I

realize it is the same story, just coming at self doubt from a

different angle and a manifestation. It's what holds

us back from believing that we can meet the moment believe, you

know, from stepping into where it has to be me claiming our it

has to be me going after it with the force of thunder, believing

that we can have it actually, right? And so when I was

thinking about the phrases, you know, I'm, as you know, in

business, I'm very, very strategic, and as a business

mentor, I reverse engineer everything. So I'm very, very

into research. I make data driven decisions about

everything in my life, except for feelings of love and things

we can't quantify, you know. But if it's a business decision, a

health decision, I'm going to move I'm going to apply for that

job, I've got to look at all the data, and then my intuition

kicks in, and that's what, you know, I put the two things

together. So when I was thinking about what I was going to call

it, you know, I went around and around and around, you know,

this went on for weeks and weeks and weeks and months and months

as I was mulling this over in my head. And then finally I got to

a place where I went, what is the phrase where every single

time I take action, what's the phrase that I hear in my head?

And it's, it has to be me, that's the phrase. So I went,

Oh, that that's, that's it. That's the anthem and, and it

was the it has finding it has to be me, was it? It has to be me

moment in the sense of the minute, I went, Yes, there was

no turning back. And then when I got on board with podcast

producers, they said, so the name? Open to changing that? And

I went, nope. I said, I'm open to anything else that you

suggest. But for my podcast, this is the name, and I had this

three hour Think Tank session with them, and 10 minutes into

explaining it, they're like, oh God, we get it now. We so get

it, that's the name, and then everybody was on board, and it

was, it's been really amazing. But because I was afraid at

first that it has to be me, anyone that saw it at face value

would be thinking that it was just me waxing poetic about how

fantastic I am. It has to be me. I'm amazing, right? And that was

a really deep core fear in me, you know, particularly as a

coach, you never want to make it about you. You know, it's always

got to be about how you can be in service of the other person.

And it's not to say that I don't share personal anecdotes and

stories where it's applicable, just often, mainly, the reason

I'll do it is to show somebody I struggle with this too. I know

that you're sitting with me as a facilitator and as a leader of

this experience, thinking she's so confident I can't believe

that she could ever feel fear. Oh, believe me, I do every

single day, you know. And I say this often to people when I'm in

conversation with them, if we accept the premise that we're

all failing all the time, meaning, though in the moment,

we believe we can be doing it better. I just mean, for the

purposes of that conversation, in the beginning, it's a very

inconvenient truth. It's very uncomfortable. And then when we

realize that every other person on earth is having the same

experience in a different way, then it then it becomes a

liberating truth. And I actually start to laugh when I realize

that the person I'm talking to is feeling it too their way. And

I often say that to people, you know, and they're like, oh my

god, I can't believe that you it doesn't even It's unfathomable

to me that you're so confident that you could be feeling that

too. I said, Oh, believe me, I struggle with that too. And I

use, Yeah, you too, right? And we all do. I just, that's why I

continue to put tools in my toolbox, and I keep using them

so that I can show up like this today with you, and I'm going to

give some of them to you right now. You know, so I know that

you're very much a coach of that ilk as well. We practice what we

preach, because you don't ever want to be a fraud like the F

word. People think the scariest F word is fuck. The scariest F

word for me is fraud, right? Yeah.

Well, yeah, I totally, totally get it. And I think, you know

when we when I was on your show, and we kind of talked about

this, it's like, you know me, like I said, there's a reason

why, like, A Course in Miracles really spoke to me. And so much

is about moving from fear to love. Because, like, I'm a

person that spent a lot of my lifetime in fiia, and still to

this day, I think people often also read me as somebody who's,

like, always wicked confident. And one of the things we talked

about on when I was on the show was, like, feeling safe enough,

right? I just have to be like, I just have to get over that lip

and be like, Look, we're gonna do this. Thing. So we can either

do it like terrified, or we can try to find some fun in it, and

just feels enough safety in my nervous system where we can,

like, get out of that fight and flight experience. So yeah, I

mean, I do think it's really beautiful, and I've seen you in

action, coaching, in your programs and stuff like that,

which is kind of where I want to start to lean in, because I made

that comment, like, You're famous in your own way, like

people who don't know you know, you know you are going to be

like, What are you talking about? So when I read the you

know, told people about your bio and who you are, like, one of

the first things is that you're an author, and you've written

three books. What? And not only did you write three books like,

man, these were like, bing, bing, bing. 2014 2015 2016 I

like back to back to back to back. That is no joke number

one. And this is your, your first book, right here. It's

beautiful, right? The Blended girl, I'm holding it up, yep.

And so this book, the blended girl, so here's the thing,

though, in your first book, in this one, the blender girl, you

said, So the first book is the blender girl, the second one

from 2015 is the blender girl, smoothies. And then the third

one that came out is called the perfect blend. And like, I could

spend just so much time talking about this, I'm going to try to

not, like, drag it on. But here's the thing in in your

first book, The blender girl, you have this great story in the

intro where you say, like, I became the blend of Girl by

accident, and you find that take us, right? I mean, isn't that? I

mean, I can read your exact words. Yeah. I

love speaking to someone that's so detail orientated, as I am,

because you just don't forget anything. So it's fabulous. That

is exactly what I wrote,

yeah, and so. But it goes back though, to when you were telling

us about your childhood, and I said, you know, did your

childhood like influence the work you do now and as a kid

like I think, please forgive me if I'm getting this wrong,

because I'm like the little guys in my brain. It's like a little

it's a little library up there, and I'm having them go through

the Dewey Decimal system right now, pulling some things up. But

I almost could have sworn that when you were a kid, your father

called you mouse, yes, like you love cheese or something as a

kid, and then that all changed, though, right? So, Epstein BA,

like you were diagnosed, and then it started this whole

journey, and like you were, like, even a perfectionist

around your food, like you said something like, if I'm going to,

I'm gonna, I'm gonna heal myself, even if it kills me, or

something like that, wicked. But is what I said, okay, so take us

back to like, because look at you guys, just for one second.

It might be a little you might feel a little cringey saying

this, but I want people to understand the scope of your

influence. The blend of girl had, like, millions, I'm not

making that up, right? Like millions of like followers and

like the whole thing. Yes, that it started out of your own

desire to feel better in your body, in your like, literally,

like walking around the world feeling kind of like shit,

feeling lethargic. All this stuff started when you were

younger, and then, like, it took you on this whole journey, and

then you become, like, this massive success of the blender

girl, three books from Random House. You know, it started,

like, with the blog, blah, but, but tell us that journey and,

like, how we get to be the blender girl?

I know it's, it's, it's, it's amazing. You know, if you had

said to me 15 years ago, you're going to become this, this

expert in blenders and write all these books about healthy

living, I just would have gone, I'm sorry, are you talking to

the same person, you know? I mean, it just life takes you on

a journey, and you just go with it, like water, you know. You

just go with the flow. That's what I meant by I became, you

know, it found me, but I also was looking for it at the same

time. So, yeah, I, you know, grew up in a pretty conventional

meat and three veg, you know, family, my mother cooked food

from scratch. We didn't eat a lot of fast food, you know, we

had a lot of healthy food, so that was ingrained in me at a

young age. But we enjoyed our food. You know, I ate cakes and

two minute noodles, just like everybody else, and then when I

was a teenager, I just became debilitated with extreme

lethargy. And as someone who always had a lot of energy, this

overlook, yeah, right, yeah. And it was, it was really, really

debilitating. And I did, you know, I told this story, you

know, in the first episode of my podcast, where my family is a

family of singers and performers, and my one of my

favorite thing to do in the world was stand around the piano

with all my relatives and belt out tunes. And this one day, I

just couldn't do it. I had to go and lie down. And life was

running away from me, and my mum came in. Said, What is wrong?

Like, you love this. I said, I know. And I just burst into

tears. I was diagnosed with Epstein Barr Virus, which is a

similar disorder to chronic fatigue. You're just, it's

debilitating. You just want to sleep all the time. And this

was, you know, I'm 52 now, so this was many, many years ago.

And so my mother, to her credit, you know, the doctor said,

there's just nothing you can do but just sleep. And my mum said,

Oh, no, we're not we're proactive people. No no. So she

just left no stone unturned. I will thank her to my dying

breath for this. She took me to a naturopath. He suggested that

I change my diet to empower myself my body to feel better.

So suggested that I refrain from eating gluten and dairy, refined

sugars, go into a really whole food, clean diet. Look at my

protein. I am not a celiac. I'm not, you know, dairy intolerant,

necessarily. In that sense, lactose intolerant, let's say,

but that's, there's, that's only one form of dairy intolerance.

But I felt better within 48 hours, and then I just continued

to feel better and better and better as I moved into a more

nuanced place with what I was doing. And that really was the

impetus into a revolution, into the way that I ate. So then I

became obsessed. I mean, obsessed I was, you know, we all

know someone like this who finds the answer every six months and

wants to recruit everybody that they know, you know. So I became

quite dogmatic and preachy and oh my god, I was vegan, I was

vegetarian, I was gluten free, I was pretty can. I was keto.

Before it was free, I was macrobiotic. Yeah, I was

macrobiotic for a number of years. Me too, yeah, yeah,

really beautiful. And then when I turned 18, my old age of 18,

but yeah, with your dad right where, yeah, yeah, I, you know,

we went to this really fancy restaurant. We'd all been

dreaming of going to super expensive, you know, blah, blah,

blah. And then, you know, the waiter comes, wants to tell us

the specials. And I said, Oh, look, um, you know, thank you,

but I can't eat this, and I can't eat this. And my dad goes,

Can you, can you just give us a minute? And my dad just said,

Okay, you're 18 now. So there's something I've been wanting to

say to you for a long time, and I think you can finally handle

it. He said, we are exhausted. Watching you eat, watching you

order, watching you deprive yourself, and watching you tell

the waiter for 15 minutes all the things that you can't have.

What about all the things that you can have because life and

love and hope and and joy is about what you add, not about

what you take away. And he said, food is one of the great

pleasures of life. It should be fun, don't you think so? Let's

try this again. And it was really hard to hear, but he was

right. He was right. And again, it was another tent pole in my

life that health is not about dogma. It's not about rigidity.

The keys to health and happiness is about flexibility. You can be

committed to your choices, but flexible with your approach. And

so from that moment, I realized that all these different things

that I was obsessively buying into that that was the answer.

Now that was the answer. All of them had something to offer, but

none of them was one size fits all. And as we age, our needs

change our hormones, change our activity levels, change

medications we might be on all these different things. So of

course, we have to be fluid with it. So that was I was incredibly

grateful that I learned that from a very, very young age. So

then flash forward when I was living in Missouri, in

Springfield, Missouri, in a smaller city, and, you know, I

was fortunate. I was married, you know, to the love of my

life, and we had a lot of money, and I didn't have to work, you

know, but I wanted to work. I'm a worker, but at that time, you

know, I didn't have my green card. I wasn't an American

citizen. I couldn't legally work there, so I was flying back and

forth until we were married, and I couldn't actually work. So

when I was there, I was volunteering and being active,

but, you know, I wasn't working as much. I was doing voiceovers,

you know, remotely, and things like that, but I wasn't had to

have a full time job. And he said, why don't you start a

blog?

This was your win, your

husband at the time, my husband at the time, you know, who was a

brilliant, brilliant man, an entrepreneur, you know, always

an early adapter or a forward thinker, a visionary. I mean, he

really, really was an impresario in many, many respects. I

learned a lot from him about business. For sure. Said, Why

you start a blog? And I said, Excuse me. And he said, Well,

just sharing your journey with food. I went, I'm not a chef.

What have I got to show he goes, Well, every. Time you've got

people over for dinner, everybody asked, what you made,

because it's so delicious. So just share your journey with

food. Find a unique perspective, something that's not being done.

And I went, Oh. And so then I went into full research mode,

and he helped me, you know, and I was always using my blender

for all these different

things. Can I ask a clarifying question? Yeah. Okay. So when

you were trying all of those different diets, and you said

you were getting a little dogmatic, and every six months,

it was like, now, this, now, this, now, this was it still in

service to trying to feel better. Be like, Yes, right? So

that was the thing, though, it wasn't just like you then

became, you became obsessive, or obsessed about discovering

things, learning things, trying things, but it was still in

service to trying to feel better, because I think so many

oh gosh, yes, no, I just wanted to. I wanted to have energy.

Yes, I wanted to have energy because I was just so thirsty

and wanted to do every single thing that I wanted to do,

right? So I still didn't have as much energy as I wanted to have.

I'm with you now. Okay, yeah, thank you for asking me to

clarify. Yeah, kind of like continues and like, so you're

trying all these things, and so even when you say to your I

would say your sweetie at the time, like, I'm not like

whatever. But does some part of you get that you are really good

at preparing food? Like, did it not clock to you how every time

you had people over, like, they loved what you were making in

your recipes, and they wanted to know what it was like, could,

did you

just not? But I did. I did, but, but, but, you're right. You

know, I still thought, oh, it's in my little, small circle of of

the world, my little, small circle of friends. And, you

know, it wasn't until much later that I realized sometimes the

best teacher for a third grader is a fourth grader. And we don't

have to be the world's foremost authority on something for our

voice to matter. And so in that moment, I wasn't embodying the

lesson that I had learned, you know, way back when, what we

talked about, and the lessons that I've been accumulating

that, yeah, my friends, if my friends were interested in this,

odds are hundreds of 1000s of other people would be too, and

they were, you know. So it was a real lesson, but thank you for

clarifying, because it was born out of a real need to want to be

the best version of myself, that I wanted to have energy. I

wanted to really live life fully and take it by the balls and

suck the marrow out of things, and I still was quite tired, and

it was because I wasn't meeting my protein needs, and I wasn't I

hadn't found the test diet, just like you want to find the Karen

diet. You know that I was looking to put myself into a box

that I didn't fit in, which is, I think, the biggest mistake

that most people make, that they think that there's one one size

fits all with diets, and there is no one diet that works for

every single person. We all have different we're bio individual

beings. And so once I embraced this concept of bio

individuality and really started to move with it, the more I

realized, Oh, the blender is a metaphor for that. Yeah. I

was just gonna ask you that. Yeah. Next question, yeah. So

let's tell them talk about that. Yeah.

Like I was sitting there in my house looking at all these

different ways I use my blender, and then I went, that is

actually how I live my life and how I believe we all live our

lives. We blend different notes and flavors, philosophies,

cultures, experiences, lessons, hobbies, relationships, etc, to

find our perfect blend for health and happiness, and that

perfect blend changes, and it can change, and we want to keep

giving ourselves permission for it to change. We're not chasing

static goals. And the thing I also love about the blender is

you can't screw it up. We're going to blend it anyway, right?

And I think it really levels the playing field in the kitchen,

that if you can read and you can pick things up and you can throw

them in the blender, you can start cooking. And that's what I

really sort of democratizes things, and it makes healthy,

healthy fast food, possible. And so I'm making it's not just

smoothies, it's not just soups. You don't coat check your teeth

at the door with Blender cuisine, as I like to call it,

I'm using the blender for an element of the dish. So it might

be the source that goes on, something I might be, you know,

smooshing the burgers. I might be, you know, there's all kinds

of, you know, full meals and snacks and appetizers and

desserts and everything else, drinks, etc. So then, you know,

flash forward. I started this, this blog, and again, this is

where the strategy came in. I literally ready for this. I

backdated my posts for a year. I did a year's 52 posts. I

launched the blog with 52 posts because I didn't want to look

like I only had one post, right? And I seoed the shit out of that

website. I mean,

to the listeners who don't. Who aren't business.

You know, before the land of AI search and stuff like, it's

changed dramatically. But, you know, I really optimize that

website for internet search. So if somebody was searching for

blender recipes or what to do with my vitamins, I would pop

up. And so I did, you know, with Rob's help, did very well with

that. And so very, very quickly, you know, chow.com and CBS

interactive reached out to me, and it was sort of off to the

races from there. They just said, Who's how do we not know

about you? And I literally said, because I've been blogging for a

nanosecond. And she went Tell me about that. I said, Well, I

backed my post because I didn't want to look like I had nothing

to offer. And she goes, what? And she goes, Oh, we've got to

interview you about this. This is incredible, right? So I was

just very honest from the any other way to be, but I was very

honest. And I went and I did some videos with them. I took my

Vitamix and then Vitamix came to me and asked me to do all their

videos for the Vitamix 750 we launched that with Jody Berg,

the CEO of the company. And then then then I then that's where my

work with companies started. And then I didn't realize that I had

that ability to be strategic in that way. So that opened up that

whole strategic part of me where I didn't realize that that's

what I was doing quite in that way. Okay, and can

I interrupt again? I'm being rude, I know, but please,

I can just sort of go on and on and on,

but you keep using this word, like, strategic. And sometimes

we look at that word and we think, like, like, so like,

what, like you were being strategic, like you just wanted

to whatever. But when you're using that word, like, what was

going through your head, because you're like, I started, like,

sitting in my house, in my sweetie, saying, Stata, blog,

like all things test, you don't just write one, you write two,

one a week, and you dump it on the internet, which all sudden,

Google's like, whoa, we can find this girl. So you get found and

you're in. La, yes at this time,

no, I'm still in Springfield, Missouri, Missouri. Okay,

yes, you're in Missouri. So somehow, so, like you said,

Chow, or whatever, chow.com. CBS, they start to pick it up,

and then Vitamix is like,

No, I went and did some videos. I flew to San Francisco and shot

some videos, and they put them on their platform. You must be

like,

your head must have been spinning, like, what is

happening? But, well, yeah, my point is, when you say

strategic, what was your end goal? Like, what were you

strategizing towards in this strategy, strategic thinking

that you were doing? Like, what did you have an idea or a dream

or a vision?

Absolutely so in the beginning, it was just to share my

relationship with food and to do something meaningful, help

people with their health, help people to cook delicious plant

based recipes and make vegetables taste delicious and

like anything that I do, then I have to do it at the highest

level. No, you know, that's just, that's just who I am, and

I've learned to not apologize for that, you know, I am an

ambitious person. I want to always be doing things at the

highest level. And so then, yeah, I was going to turn that

into a huge thing. And then I also decided I wanted to bring

the blending and juicing space out of the 1970s and turned it

into a really chic, aspirational thing, you know, and be. And at

that point, nobody was really doing anything beyond juices and

smoothies with it, and I was using it for compost and

cleaning products and burgers and all these other things. And

so I kind of really, really wanted to revolutionize the

space, and we did. It was very exciting. And so I didn't had a

lot of opportunities. It was really, really a fun time. And

then I got to, you know, work with the designers and engineers

on blenders. And it was really, really cool, you know, because

then I started, I bought pretty much every blender that was sold

on Earth, you know, because I wanted to test all my recipes on

a bunch of different blenders, not just a $700 Blender. I

wanted to do it in a $70 blender, you know, so that

anybody could make these recipes on any budget and any lifestyle,

you know. So I test my recipes at least 50 times before they go

into my books, because they have to work for anybody with any

kind of blender, you know. So in any situation. So I was, I have

a very rigorous recipe development process. So, you

know, I when you use them all, you start to really notice the

difference between different machines. And that's when that

part of my life started to open up, because I was sort of

unofficially giving feedback to companies, and then they started

coming, coming to me, going, um, our engineer wants to speak to

you. Would that be all right? Because they're just really

interested in that feedback, because it's pretty bang on and

that's when, that's when, when you said, if you told me that

companies were going to pay me an insane amount of money to to

to consult about developing product, I would have just

laughed, you know, but you what do we get better at what we

practice? And so I just was blending, you know, 100 times a

day when I was developing. These books and these recipes for the

blog and recipes for companies and whatever, whatever. So I was

using a lot of different machines a lot, and so it became

very clear to me what made a good blender and what did not

make a good blender, you know. And so I sort of came up with my

own methodology around that, you know, it was very much. I was

very much self taught, but, but the feedback was useful,

thankfully, and a bunch of different companies have used

it, which is amazing.

What I think is incredible is I can look back at your childhood

and I can see all the pieces, all the pieces. A normal,

average person who is first of all, just writing a blog at home

is not most writers I know are like, don't put a fucking camera

near me. I don't want to do video. Most podcasts, a lot of

podcasters I know, are like, don't turn on a camera. I'm not

posting this to YouTube. Most writers are like, Oh, I got to

take a picture for my author picture at the back jacket.

Like, but when these people came knocking, first of all, you're

an actress, they're like, make a video. You're like, sure, you

know what I mean? Like, yeah,

look, I was very, very fortunate. You're right, you

know, because I Yeah, place

which is beautiful. It was like your life was preparing you for

this moment. It was like the divine had dropped these

breadcrumbs that like when the time came. And also by virtue of

you and your own hard work ethic and who you are, and the fact

that you're a bright light, and you're, first of all, easy on

the eyes, easy to look at, easy to look at, great to listen to,

great. I mean, you're a voice over actor. For people who don't

know that, want to tell a little people what that act I know,

most people do know, but for people who might not know you

also do that work, which is, I don't want to speak for you, so

you

will, no, no, it's okay. No, you're right. At that point, I

had been the voice of, you know, Clairol, and I'd done ads for

target and Motorola, huge companies, you know, I'd done

1000s of commercials. And so, you know, voicing commercials, I

later on, you know, have voiced characters in video games and

short form narration, long form narration, audio books, all

kinds of stuff. So I was very comfortable on camera and very

comfortable public speaking. And, you know, that's, you know,

most people that they're more afraid of that than death, yeah,

so I, but I wasn't a writer. I didn't consider myself to be a

writer like we all. We are all writers, by the way. We're all

writing emails and writing notes to ourselves and all the things,

you know, but I hadn't done any real formal writing at that

point, but everything else I had done at a high level. So I was

very, very fortunate that I had the whole package, so to speak,

which is how people were phrasing it when they were

coming to me. You know, that I had a skill set that I could

leverage to be the spokesperson for KitchenAid to, you know, do

the videos for Vitamix, to do videos for these other companies

to work with, you know, different hotel chains and

restaurant chains and all the all the companies that I've

worked with now, it did serve me very well. My I was able to

bring all of my talents and skills together in service of

this, you know, because we are in, you know, an age where video

is the king of content, you know. So I was extremely

fortunate that I already had

that skill. Oh, my God. I mean, there's so much like, I feel

like I'm like, and I know we have a hard stop, and so I want

to definitely talk about your programs, but I can't pass it

by, because, hello, just curious person. And when you when

somebody drops bread crumbs in a conversation, I My brain's kind

of like putting the pieces together. So you mentioned Rob,

right? You mentioned your your sweetie, who was instrumental in

helping you kind of kick off this thing. And you also

mentioned that he was an entrepreneur, and that he was

brilliant. He was this brilliant man. And I seem to remember a

story of, like, how you guys first met, like, didn't you meet

a friend? And then the friend called her brother and said, I

met the woman you're gonna Oh, yeah. I mean, that's him, yeah,

he called it that, right? The system your friend, you met a

friend, yes, and that friend was the sister to your future

husband, and then you also mentioned, I'm single for the

first time in my life, so robbing you that's no longer

like, can you tell

like, yeah, yeah, no. I mean, I

did he get to see you become really famous and kicking

you know? I don't, I don't know. I don't know if he ever really

knew about that, because I had not. He has passed away now, but

I don't know if he ever saw my books. I would imagine that he

did, but I don't know. We didn't have an I didn't have any hadn't

had any contact with him for 15 years prior to him dying. But he

No he he he was an alcoholic, he was a drug addict. He was an

addict of every description. And he had a troubled childhood. He

was running away, you know, from a lot of things and not being

honest about what he wanted. And yeah, he. You overdosed, and

there were, you know, he was in and out of treatment centers. It

was really, really traumatic, and he was in a lot of pain.

And, oh, I would have stayed with that and and run that

marathon with him, but he just didn't want to be married.

Didn't want to be married to me. And, you know, basically came to

me and told me that, and I just didn't want to let it go. And I

was pushing and pushing, we're meant to be together, you know?

And finally, it just wasn't any use. So I was devastated,

utterly heartbroken, the most pain I've ever been in in my

entire life, and that story was gut wrenching, and that's why I

moved out to LA, and because I thought, You know what? I I love

LA. I love America. You know, I've spent more of my life here,

you know, more of my life in America than I have anywhere

else at this point in my life. But back then, I went, you know

what? I didn't get anything from this, but a broken heart and a

lot of lessons. I'm taking this for a spin. I'm not ready to

return to Australia, so I decided, you know, this is, this

is the land of opportunity and entertainment and story and all

the things. And I'm so glad that I stayed, because it was

extraordinary and but that that experience was the making of me

in so many ways. And I think for the rest of my life, he will be.

And that story, that chapter of my life, will be one of my

greatest teachers, if not the greatest teacher.

It's such a tender thing, and it still is and always will be.

Yeah. I mean, it was a beautiful beginning. It was like Kismet.

It was like divinely, you know,

God, we have the same, we had the same birthday. So crazy.

It's like

I and I try to picture him in my head. Was he also really? Was

he? Was he nice to look at? Was he a good oh, he was gorgeous.

He was gorgeous, and he was sweet, and he was kind, and he

was gentle, he was brilliant. He struggled brilliant, and he was

so troubled, all at the same time, all at the same

time, and how, what were you? What age were you guys, when you

were together, when you were

partnering? Yeah, I was 30. I was 30 and and then when we

separated, I was 37 Yeah, but we, but we had been friends for

seven years prior to that, so I knew him, yeah, the phone calls,

yeah, I knew him. You know, really, I knew him since I was

22 so we fell we fell in love over the phone. We spoke on the

phone for seven years,

okay? And then you finally met in person

in Hawaii, he said, let's meet halfway. Let's just meet

halfway, and just see what this is. And it was an it has to be

me moment. I didn't even hesitate. Like my friends were

like, Are you sure you want to do this? I went, Yeah, I'm

really sure, because otherwise I'll never know. And when I saw

him and I met him, and we were together in person, it was just

electric, like it was like, my body, my soul, belonged to him,

and he felt the same way. And it was just, I have to be with him

no matter what it costs me, no matter what I mean, I literally

gave up so many things in my life to be with him. And I don't

regret it. I don't regret it because even though I missed out

on a lot of very big opportunities in my career, I

the lessons that I got, and I wouldn't be where I am today

because of it. And this was clearly the path that I was

meant to be on in this life. And I just trust it. And like I

said, it brought me to this moment and and I will say, as a

coach, because you know, you know you and I have spoken about

this, we're both very, very intuitive. So that intuition in

me, those intuitive hits that I get when I'm coaching people,

they're getting stronger and stronger. And I really, truly

believe that it was that chapter that really was the beginning of

me honing those skills, even though I wasn't really listening

to them as much as I should have been back then, because I was

just in so much pain, and I wanted to see what I wanted to

see. You know, as we, as we all, do when we're in pain, but when

I'm coaching somebody else, you know, you can see it a lot more

clearly when you're not inside of it, you know. And I believe

that I'm able to be present with people and meet them with

compassion, because I truly understand what it's like to be

on your knees and want to die. And prior to that experience, I,

I would say I had a pretty charmed life, you know, I had an

amazing family. There wasn't a lot of tragedy in our lives.

Unlike you, Karen, you know, we you, you met that tragedy very

early on in your life. I did not. And so, you know, I could

imagine I was, I had a lot of empathy, and my imagination was

very powerful as an actor, you know, I could imagine what it

felt like to have a broken heart, but I'd never had one.

And so now I have a visceral relationship with that pain.

And, you know, addiction, when you put alcoholism, drug

addiction, sex addiction, and all these addictions on top of.

It. They're all diseases of denial. And going to Al Anon was

really life changing for me because, you know, right? Yeah,

because, you know, you went before you go, you think the

addicts, the one with the problem, I can fix things. I've

got my shit together, and they're a hot mess. You know,

that's kind of seriously. I was very arrogant. That's how I

felt. Oh, poor Rob, he's got all these problems. Then you go to

Al Anon, and you realize you're just as sick as the addict.

You've got a different kind of addiction, you've got a

different kind of addiction, and a different kind of your code.

You're playing into the codependence in a different way.

So being in the program was, was a huge, huge series of it has to

be me's as well, you know. And I credit that every day, you know,

I still have hope for today, courage for today by my bed, you

know. And they're beautiful reminders, you know. And the

Serenity Prayer, you know, is a beautiful way to move through

the world as well, but you know. And then another phrase that I

think about from Al Anon is worrying is like a rocking

chair, it gives you something to do, but in the end gets you

nowhere. And I was a chronic worrier, and now I'm not,

because I want to put my energy into manifesting and making the

things that I want come into fruition, not spending my time

feeding what I don't want to happen. And so yeah, it was, it

was, it was a beautiful gift in my life that came accompanied

with a lot of pain, and now it's just incredibly liberating, and

it's it, it carries me. It carries me with everything I do.

I, first of all, I'm so sorry to hear that he's no longer with

us. And yeah,

he killed himself. He finally killed himself. He tried many,

many times before we were together, while we were

together, and then he finally did it. And you know, I'm just

grateful that on my watch, so to speak, I was able to save his

life. I mean, what a privilege to be able to save a human

being's life. You know, I had to wade through water. I almost

drowned. I was in the ambulance with him. He died three times on

the way to the hospital. I watched them intubate him and

cut his clothes off. I mean, it was just harrowing. And then he

was in intensive care. It was, was really full on. And then he

finally

survived that. And then it was after you, after you were

divorced, or after you were split up,

after we were divorced, yeah, many, many years later, by the

way, many years later. So, yeah, yeah. Three years ago, three

years ago, he he killed himself. Oh, just three years ago. Yes,

yes. Oh, my God. And, you know, I knew, I knew, like, I felt it,

I felt it, you know, we were that connected. So, yeah. And

then my friend called, and the minute I picked up the phone,

yes, yeah, yeah, I'm so sorry, yeah.

I mean, you know what that's like with your mother? You know

it's,

I mean that. I mean, yeah, I mean that loss and pain of that

magnitude, it totally brings you to your knees. And I also think

it can be when. I always say when and if it's not. I can't

speak for other people. It's their journey. But for me, it

can be an incredible doorway as well. It can open a door to, oh,

absolutely different way, many doors living, way being, in

thinking, and it clearly has for you. And I think that, like,

it's so interesting, right? I sometimes think this about

coaches, you know, like, one of the things I love, Mr. Rogers,

Mr. Fred Rogers, I told you that before. And you know, there's

that great quote from his mom, like, when scary things happen

or big things, traumatic things happen in the world, look for

the helpers. They'll always be helpers. And I often think that

coaches are just like, I jokingly say it like, you know,

but we're like, kind of codependent helpers, like we

love to help, like we love to fucking help. You got a problem?

Like, problem solvers, anonymous, I should go to a

problem solvers. If there's a problem I'm there, like, I'm in,

you know, drama. I'm not into drama, but I love solving a good

problem, right? Let yo you got a thing. Let me help you, right?

Okay, which leads us kind of into, you know, Blender girl,

all this stuff, fame, Vitamix, this that you're still doing

some acting. You're doing all these beautiful things, and

then, like, what happens inside of you when you go from talking

to the masses on mass scale with like, books and a blog and the

videos and the representing and the speaking on stages, and I'm

doing all this stuff to going like, I want to get intimate

with people. Like, I want to get in a program, in a group where

there's like, people can talk to me, people can talk to my

dieticians, because, again, you don't do anything half ass. And

I think so many programs, right, there's, there's nutritional

coaches and whatever, but dietitians is a whole other

level. So you created these programs to help people. And I

don't want to speak, I was lucky enough to go through one of your

programs because, you know, we've talked about it. I. Never

like to really talk about a thing or promote a thing or

share a thing unless I've had the experience

myself. I'm the same way. I'm exactly the same way. I have so

much respect for you in that regard, because I'm exactly the

same way. Yeah, speak about something with any kind of

authority if you haven't experienced it. Yeah?

And I want to know, like, what's it like to be in that face

group? What's it like? And I can just say, and I can share my own

thoughts about, I can share, I can talk about you to your face

in a few minutes. But like, what happens when you go from this

massive success of the three books and all the things like,

what does something shift inside of you? Or does something where,

or is it like again, your brilliant, strategic, you know,

business mind, like, how do we get to the skinny 60? And

caveat, I gotta put a little thing please talk about that

name, because I know people like, will hear skinny and go

like, Wait, what's that

about all of this opportunity? Yeah, yeah. No. So you know, I

was incredibly fortunate that my books were very, very

successful, and they've sold hundreds of 1000s of copies. And

I went on international book tours, and I met 1000s and 1000s

of people, which was such a joy, because I actually prefer one to

one or very small groups. I love speaking to huge crowds and

1000s of people, but I really, really love to meet people one

on one, and hear their story and connect with them heart to

heart, and really get a sense of things. So it was a great

opportunity. You know, William Sonoma made my book their

featured book for May and Mother's Day, and every store in

the country cooked their way through my book. And I had a lot

of other brand partners and lots of opportunities to meet people

around the world. And everybody loved the recipes. They were so

excited about it. They were making the food I was I did a

lot of events where I was cooking with people, and we were

tasting the food, and I was teaching people how to tweak

things and make it their own. And, you know, riff off of

recipes, and that was really fun. And, you know, in the

blender girl book, specifically, there's a big, you know,

narrative section where I go over all the tent poles of

health and nutrition, what I believe are the most important I

was gonna ask you, right, yes, yeah, and how it feeds into the

philosophy behind the book and how I develop recipes and why I

include certain ingredients and not other ingredients and etc.

And that is developed beyond the first book as well, by the way.

You know, as we learn more about ingredients, etc. So as I was

meeting all these people, the same things kept coming up. Was

the people wanted more guidance, and they wanted expert guidance

that the recipes weren't enough. It was a huge piece of it to be

able to eat delicious food and get excited about eating

vegetables, but they needed more guidance about these other

aspects of their health, and it needed to be very tailored and

personalized, because there isn't just one blanket way, as

we were saying. And so whilst I have studied health and

nutrition, I'm a huge Fact Finder. I know a lot about this.

I don't have a medical license. I In a previous, you know, life.

I could have been a dietitian or a doctor, you know, I was

thinking about being a doctor for a little bit, you know, but

I always just wanted to be part of story. I wanted to be on the

stage. I wanted to be but, you know, I wanted to be doing all

these things, and you can't do everything. So I didn't go and

do that. So it's very, very important to me that if I was

going to create programs. They were people were going to be

under the care of people with medical licenses. There's just

so many influences, people on Instagram, people that have a

lot of followers. And even though, yeah, I have, you know,

we've got, what, almost 2 million followers. You know, in

social media, particularly on Facebook, that doesn't mean

anything, you know, it doesn't mean anything. You could have

one viral post and, you know, a celebrity talks about you, or a

media outlet talks about you, and then all of a sudden you've

got all these followers, you know, that was certainly the

case for me. I've spoken to Google and Facebook and been at

all these big events, and I had all these strategic partners,

and that's how I grew my following, in addition to being

on these tours, you know. But okay, that doesn't mean I'm

qualified to tell you about your health, a medical practitioner

is qualified to do that, and dietitians are the medical

practitioners that eat, sleep and breathe, how to use food as

a functional tool for better, like medicine. Like food is

medicine Exactly. And just like a cardiologist is who you're

going to go to for your heart, an endocrinologist is who you're

going to go to if you have diabetes, etc, so they've all

got their different specialties, but because we're all eating

multiple times a day, Mo, the average medical practitioner

gets three hours or half a day, day at the most of nutrition

training in their entire medical career, unless they go and

actively seek out further training. So they don't really

understand the nuances of how, how to use food. They know the

basics, but they don't know anything beyond that. Whereas

dietitians, and then dietitians go into specialties, you know

they you have dietitians that specialize in oncology and

breast cancer, you've got people that specialize in diabetes,

people that specialize in digestive health. So that was

really important to me. So everything had to be based in

science. I'm a very, very science, science driven person.

And if it's not under Indian undeniable, indisputable

science, I'm not interested in it, you know. So it has to be

that way. So when it came time to develop the skinny 60 and

seek the 60 day reset, we had to have dietitians facilitating

that program. So I really stay in my lane. And I help people

make it delicious. I help but make them work in their

lifestyle. I work on the mindset piece of it, that's my

specialty. And then all the all the nutrition education and

guidance comes from medical practitioners. So when you put

those different elements together, that's where the magic

happens. So when it came time to think about it, you know that

it's a very methodical, strategic way why it's 60 days,

because it takes, you know, that long to really implement

different strategies and make them start to become habits.

You're also going to go through two hormonal cycles, because

that inextricably affects your metabolism, your metabolic

function, your blood sugar, all the things, and then a digestive

reset. Really takes that much time and more for some people,

so we need that amount of time strategically to really make a

difference. And then the skinny part of it, skinny 60. We're all

so obsessed about our weight and wanting to be thin and skinny

and beautiful, we're brainwashed into thinking the only way that

we can do that is to deprive ourselves, to starve ourselves,

to diet, to be thin and beautiful. You can't have a

fuller figure. Weight is only one measure of health, and I

would argue, the least reliable indicator of health. So we're

wanting to really re educate people on our relationship to

skinny, our relationship to weight and that we're looking at

your blood sugar, your sleep and energy, your bowel movements,

the inflammation markers in your body, your blood pressure, your

blood sugar, your cholesterol, etc, there are so your mood

stability, you know whether your hormones are optimized. There's

so many other markers of better health that are more important

doesn't mean that we don't want to be a healthy weight. I'm not

discounting that, but we're not leading with that. And so, you

know, in other circles, skinny is another term for getting the

information, absolutely getting the skinny on something. So for

me, it was like, Oh, we want to help people get the skinny on

how their body can function in an optimal level at this chapter

in their life, at this age, because what's going to work for

you at 40 is different than when you're 70. So we're wanting to

work with every single person on a bio, individual, personal

level. It's a very, very, very personal program. That's why

it's not a guy. It's not a self guided program. We have to get

in there with every person. So everybody gets a questionnaire,

very detailed, you know, we give them a very, very detailed

response on how to make our program work for them. And then

we got to keep tweaking and working with each person to make

sure that they're going to find the Karen, the Karen way of

doing, you know, using our bag of tools. Because really, it's

just a bag of tools. We're not pushing any one diet. So we've

got vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians, omnivores,

whatever you choose to do that, that's, that's, that's your

choice. But everybody should be plant based, meaning our diet is

based in plants, and then we supplement with other quality

foods, about choice, and so that's really where we're coming

at it is wanting to help people put the different pieces of the

puzzle together. You know, pieces of the pie. Everybody's

got a different way of saying that, but, you know, and that

takes that takes training, and it takes help. We can't do it on

our own, you know, because we're not medical practitioners, most

of us, and even, you know, we have a lot of doctors and a lot

of medical practitioners that take our program as participants

and that, you know, you can't diagnose yourself. Yeah, so,

yeah, it's a really, it's a really exhilarating process. Is

the word that I would choose to use, because it's really fun to

get in there and figure out what's going to be the things

that move the needle for every

person. Okay, so let me, let me ask a follow up question. So

somebody who's listening to this and they're like, Okay, Tess is

amazing. I love her energy. She has these programs. Can we kind

of just get into the nitty gritty a little bit about it,

like, so ideally, or not even ideally, like somebody might not

have Epstein Barr or the whatever, but it's somebody

who's like, I've been feeling like, not that great, not

feeling like myself. You know, the menopause middle, we call

it, right? I'm getting a belly. I'm like, perimenopause. What

are these hot flashes? Right? All these things that are like,

going on. So I want, I have just a very specific questions,

because I know we only have, like, 10 minutes, and I want to

make sure somebody who's listening to this can identify

if something working with you is going to be helpful to them. Do

men and women do the program? So the 60 day reset is the one

that's coming up. I don't know when people are going to listen

to this, but I know in January 2026, you have another, a new 60

day session coming up,

correct? Yeah, we lead it four times a year so, and maybe at

some point we might lead it more, but at the moment, we lead

it four times a year.

Okay, so you have one coming up in January. So somebody's

listening to this, and is there, kind of like, how do I say this?

Okay. Are, is there certain groups of people that tend to

want to take this program? Or why do people come and take the

60 day reset? Like, what's usually going on with them?

Like, what part of their oh,

gosh, it's, it's, it's so many different people from so many

different walks of life. So our main demographic is women over

40. Okay? Women their 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. But we do. We have

health people in their 20s and 30s. We do have men doing the

program, but it's primarily women. But a lot of husbands do

it with their partners. You know, because you've been in the

same food, you're eating the same food, yeah, and they get

the benefit, which is great. We do have a lot of siblings, a lot

of co workers, a lot of you know, a lot of husbands and

wives or partners. You know, wives and wives, husbands and

husbands, whatever. We have a lot of that going on, but it's

people that just want to feel better. So it's people that have

low energy. Their hormones are all over wicked. Got really

chronic menopause symptoms. They're not sleeping through the

night. They can't lose weight no matter what they've been doing.

A lot of doctors and practitioners will send people

because the a one sees they're pre diabetic, or they're already

diabetic, they're high they've got high blood pressure and

cholesterol. They need to regulate all that their numbers.

And

so people are able to things that come with having a body

Pretty

much, yeah, yet, people that are constipated, people that have

diarrhea, people that have digestive health issues, a lot

of people that come in with Hashimotos, graves, thyroid

disease, fatty liver. I mean, look, if you've got any kind of

health issue, or you're just not feeling as good as you want to

feel, or you just want to feel better, we do have people that

come in, like, I don't really have any health issues, but I

don't want to get any, you know, Mike, we've got a family history

of XYZ, and I don't want to get it. I want to be proactive. And,

I mean, that's amazing, too. So, you know, people are able to

regulate their numbers in 60 days. You know, it's quite

remarkable. So we're really big on blood work, you know, you

don't have to do it, but we do recommend you get that data and

have blood taken, you know, within six months of starting

the program, and then you get it taken three months, you know,

later, and the results are dramatic that you know, the

blood is the truth serum of the body. It doesn't lie. You know,

you can't lie. You can't argue with those results. So it's

really extraordinary. What happens when you start to eat

strategically for your body, meaning, what's going to work

for you is slightly different than what's going to work for

me, you know. So we have the same general principles, but how

you would implement it would be different.

So just and blend, blend in the different approaches. Okay,

yeah. So what can they kind of expect? Like, I know it's a 60

day program. I can just say, from going through it, you guys

the amount of love and care that I know you have poured and I'm

not just saying this, those daily emails alone, like, again,

because I look at everything as, yes, somebody who's going

through the program and experiencing it. But my other

part of my brain is like, out here watching and going like, Oh

my God, just as a coach, a fellow coach, and a business

owner, and whatever, the amount of time, the amount of attention

you had to pay to really understand, oh. Day three,

they're starting to get nervous. Day 10, this is what's going on

inside them day 14. And each day they're getting these it's like,

literally, not only you holding their hand and meeting them each

day with an email over those 60 days. Then there's like, what

the weekly calls with you, the group calls where they can ask

questions. So can you just kind of tell them, like, what they

might experience in the program so they can envision themselves

if it's a good fit for them. Yeah,

yeah. And look, you know, anyone that has any questions can

always get on a 15 minute call with me. You know, you can flip

that through the website, because you do want to make

sure, if you're going to spend 60 days on something, it's not

just a financial commitment, it's an energetic heart song

commitment. And people have been so burnt by so many things, and

then you start to think that nothing's going to work, and you

don't want to spend time and money on something that's not

going to work. So you want to know it's the right fit, you

know, because you want to be excited about being there. So

yeah, you know, we it's a lot of hand holding. It's very

personal. So you come in, there's a Live prep week where

we have three live video calls, and everybody says they feel so

much better after those calls, which is why we add that prep

week. And then we start day one a week later. And then we all go

through the program. Everybody in the world goes through it at

the same time for 60 days. You get a daily email. And you know,

after having done this for six years now this particular

program, we just know what the trajectory looks like for the

average person. So those daily emails are just their

motivation. You know, it's things you want to be looking

at, and those can be really helpful. And then we have two

live video calls, one with the dietitian every week. It's a Q

and A we cover a different part of the program. It's a nutrition

education and then anybody can be on Zoom and ask any questions

about anything. So it's a really great opportunity to speak to a

dietitian face to face and ask any questions you might have.

There's also unlimited email support, so you can email our

team at any time and ask questions about anything. Then

there's the Facebook group where you can also interact. Then my

office hours is that open, you know, call that lasts for

several hours every week. Or anyone can come in at any time

and you can watch the recordings if you can't join live and then,

but it's, how are we getting they can get their personal

questions answered, like to get all.

Ways You have to be able to do that. You have to. So, yeah,

everyone gets a questionnaire at the beginning of the program.

You do some evaluations, so we can really help you customize

it. And then we supply meal plans and hundreds of recipes,

but you don't have to follow them. You can eat out and

travel. You can cook one meal and eat it with your family.

That's why it has to happen live too, because everyone's in a

different situation. Well, I've got my dream trip to Paris for a

week. I can I do the Yep, you can. Let me show you how you can

do it, you know. And it's all about balance. I can eat. We eat

out a lot great. Like, we've had people that haven't made one

single recipe, and, like, we've got people that were there doing

kitchen renovations, and they they just stop off at the

grocery store on the way home and pick up food at their

favorite restaurants. And we can help people. Okay, what do you

like to eat? Where do you like to eat? Blah, blah, blah. Okay,

let me I mean, I can do this at Golden Corral to Marie calendars

to Chipotle, you know. So, I mean, this can be done. So it's

just figuring it out, and also the personalities of each

person. Everybody learns differently. Everybody's got

slightly different obstacles, things they're dealing with. You

know, you might be caring for elderly parents. You might have

teenage children who are picky eaters. You might have, you

know, athlete, you know, 18 year olds that need a lot of

sustenance. I mean, there's just so many different situations,

and so that's why it has to happen live as well. So it's

very, it's very customized, but, yeah, I mean, that's what's fun

about it. I'm, you know, my dietitians and I, we always love

it when we get a question we haven't been asked before, we're

like, yeah, we're like, yeah, let's get into this, you know,

because it's just, it's just so interesting to to work through

that with people.

Well, I mean, I can feel your passion for it. And I have,

like, I said, I went through it. I've been in the grooves. I've

seen you on the calls and, like, the the variety of questions.

I'm like, and, man, you can just answer them like, and what I

love too, is you're like, if you don't know an answer, you're

like, we're gonna find out, and we're gonna come back and we're

gonna be able to help you, and we and

if we've got to bring another expert, we will, yeah, so, I

mean, that's what's great about that, being connected to

practitioners at the highest level, you know, like Megan, our

lead dietitian sees, she's the Director of health

communications at the celiac disease Foundation, and she

they're using, you know, the study in celiac disease to study

all other autoimmune conditions, because it's the only autoimmune

condition where we know the trigger gluten, you know. So

she's on the forefront of all of that, that that research, you

know. And she's at gastroenterology conferences all

the time, you know. So that we've just got a lot of people

that are, you know, really on the forefront of what's coming

out right now. We also, you know, update our website every

single December to make sure it's in line with global health

recommendations and the latest science and research. So it's a

very, it's very much a living, breathing website. We've got to

make sure that we're giving people the most up to date

information. So that's fun, too. You know, science is science is

fun.

Oh my gosh, there's so much. And it sounds like it's totally

like, the opposite of like a diet, like that diet culture, it

feels like we don't want you hate you're like, not a fan of

diets,

not a fan, not a fan. I mean, I love to eat, and I love to eat a

lot, and that, you know, that is the biggest thing that we find,

is most women in particular are under nourishing themselves.

They're actually not eating enough, and that gets in the way

of better thyroid function and better metabolic function. And

so then you can't maintain a healthy weight or lose weight

when you're not optimizing your body function. So it's look, if

I had $1 for every person that says to me, I'm losing weight

easily eating more food than I've ever eaten in my life

before. I can't believe this, and I'm like, isn't it awesome?

Welcome to the Promised Land, my friend. And

all those questions that you have and get so confused by

because, like you said, the influences in the internet. It's

like, you know, why is the gut microbiome so important? Why is

gut health so important? Am I eating enough protein? What am I

supposed to be doing now I'm in menopause. Like, look like, it's

a, you're like, a one stop shop. Like, people can come in get the

support they need. Like, learn. So, like, that's the exciting

thing too. It's like so many programs. What makes one of the

things that makes your program so different is that it is so

individualized. A lot of people, like other programs just kind of

dump, like, like, like, pray and spray, you know what? Everyone

pray and pray and like, hope you can figure it out. But there's

so much, like, individualized and from experts, like, true

experts, not just like, Oh, my sister went through the

nutritional coaching program over the weekend. You know it's

like, and I think the other thing too, is that you're, I

mean, first of all, you guys, come on. You can't be around

tests and not have a good time. But like, you're making healthy

choices and sustain. You're making it sustainable and wicked

important. You're making it fun.

Oh, it has to be fun, and it has to be sustainable. Otherwise,

healthy habits don't stick. Okay, got to want to keep doing

it, and it doesn't mean we do it every minute of the day. That's

the other really important thing. You know, our superpower

is our Achilles heel. When not held in balance, we don't want

to be living in extremes. We're all going to eat the potato

chips or the donut or the whatever your, your, your, you

know, lovely, yummy. Food of choices, comfort food of

choices. We just don't do it every day. Yeah, so it's about

finding a place for all of it. And I don't believe in saying I

can't eat that unless you're anaphylactically allergic to it

or something, then for sure, right? No, don't, please don't

eat it. But most people, you know, we don't want to be

feeling guilt about and shame about food, I choose to just not

feel that way, and I encourage everybody else to feel okay. I

ate it. So what'd you learn? What'd you learn? Did you enjoy

it? Did you have fun? Great. So next choice we get to, we get to

make a different decision, you know, and whatever. And

sometimes we eat the doughnut, and it was a delicious Did you

laugh with your friend? Did you make a happy memory then

Awesome. That's a great reason to eat the donut.

I'm so lucky that here in New Hampshire, we have an incredible

bakery that makes vegan donuts that, Oh, you just can't, you

just can't. Even if you ever come here, we will go to lumber

deal you're on. I know you gotta go. But two super fast

questions, if somebody is, like, interested, and they're like, I

want to learn more. All your ways to find you are going to be

in the show notes and all that you can just, we can rattle them

off too here, if you want to. But my question is, if somebody,

like, wants to start something, they don't want to wait till

January, they're not ready, maybe to do 60 days. Don't you

have, like, a seven day program where they can get their feet

wet?

Yes? Yeah, we've got a seven day kickstart, which is kind of a

one week taste of the program. So a lot of people do that. A

lot of people do that. And I will, I do do guided versions of

that too. So periodically throughout the year, where you

can come in and actually get coached with me for a week. And

we would that that has three live video calls as well. So a

lot of people do that because it's it's quite extraordinary.

What can happen in a week, which is unbelievable, I know, but

then you feel it in your body, like there's one thing to know

it intellectually and kind of buy into the science of it, or

the, yeah, I understand the gut health piece. I understand

needing the protein, but regulating my blood sugar, etc,

but then when you feel it in your body, you can't go You

can't deny that. You can't get away from that like, Oh, my God,

I'm all of a sudden sleeping through the night when I haven't

for many, many years. I've all of a sudden lost a few pounds

when I didn't think that was possible. I think that's what

holds a lot of people back, is this, oh, I've just got one of

those bodies where I just can't lose weight at this age or their

spinal body, right? I'm 70 and I'm always going to have to get

up multiple times to pee. We've got women in their 70s who are

sleeping through the night for the first time in their lives,

right? So these myths that we hold on to just just don't have

to be true. You know? We there's many things we can do, and we

are in control of how our body feels. I know that if you've got

diseases and disorders and you're born with things, that

you've got to deal with that, but you can improve how you feel

and often eradicate things. You know, people that have had acid

reflux for years or constipated their entire lives, all of a

sudden, going to the bathroom several times a day, or at least

once a day. No acid reflux anymore, or whatever it might

be, food is powerful and strategic. Nutrition is

powerful, and there's a huge difference between healthy

eating, just eating all the things on the Healthy Foods

List, and being strategic, meaning eating foods in a way

that's right for your body, and that there's a world of

difference. And when you start eating strategically for your

body and your needs, your body starts responding, and it is

spectacular. And that is why we do everything live, so that we

can help you figure that out. Now, some people, they start

flying in the first week. Other people, we got to do a bit of

trial and error and back and forth and help figuring it out.

And then all of a sudden, oh my goodness, we find, you know, the

pieces, and it's quite exhilarating. So

okay, and I know somebody out there who's listening, who's an

athlete, is saying, Can she help me as an athlete as well?

Oh, of course, of course. Yeah, no. I mean, look, that's, that

is the thing. I mean, we spoke to you about this, didn't we,

Karen, is that a lot of athletes, they're really, really

motivated, and they've got their routines down, but they may not

be nourishing themselves for each particular workout, because

the way that you would choose to nourish yourself for a 10 mile

bike ride is very different than a Pilates session or a swim

session, and then what you eat after the workout, and then what

you eat during the week when you're not working out. You

know, we all think that the strength happens during the

workout, we're actually tearing the muscles down, and the

regeneration and the strength building happens after the

workout. So we just feel, you know, we find that a lot of

athletes just aren't fueling and nourishing their bodies

adequately in order to support all the wonderful work that

they're doing. You know, from working out to, yeah, we have a

lot of triathletes and athletes and people, you know, we have

people of all works of life. So again, that's why it has to be

tailored to each person. Because somebody who's, you know, 60 and

sedentary working on the computer all day compared to an

athlete, what you're going to need is different. So yeah,

we've got to completely customize it to each person.

All right, I could talk to you like all day, and. And I have

all these questions I still want to ask you, but here's the same

Is there anything I didn't ask you that you wish I did? Or is

there anything that's on your hat that you feel like you still

just want to say or share, and you can totally take a moment if

you

Oh, thank you for asking me that, that you are in control.

You're in control of what happens to your body. You know,

yes, there we get diseases. Yes, there's things we're born with

in genetic predispositions and so forth. But for the most part,

you can control how you feel, and even if you have a disorder

or a health condition, you can feel better with

it. And this is the emotional that

is absolutely true. You know, for women going through

menopause is I don't have any menopause symptoms because I've

really got my nutrition and my hormones dialed in. And I, you

know, we help people on HRT or not? HRT, that's a personal

decision to be discussed with your practitioner. So you know,

whether you're on a GLP, one medication or not, we help both

kinds of people, you know. So you there are so many things

that you can do, and food is in food and lifestyle choices are

so powerful. And so you know, if you're sitting listening to this

thinking, Oh, I'm one of those people, and I'm too far gone,

you're not. You're absolutely not. And it just, how do we eat

the whale, one bite at a time? So it's just, we make one

choice, then we make another one, then we make another one.

We don't eat the whole whale. We may decide we don't like that

particular whale. We want one little bite and go, Okay, I want

to eat a bit more of that, you know. Or we might just like we

want to go over there and eat that whale, you know. So we just

do it step by step by step. I mean that really, that would be

the thing I would close with. Is, in our the mantra in our

community is good, better or best, not perfect. So we're not

aiming for perfection. We're just aiming to make the next

choice. I used to say the next better choice, but now I just

say the next choice, because going back to Nelson Mandela, if

we if we never lose, we either win or we learn, every choice

serves us. So just make a choice and then look at what you're

going to learn from it, period, and just have fun.

Well, look, I hope a bunch of people make a choice to join

your programs, because I know they are life changing. I've

seen the testimonials. I've been through the program. I know what

people are sharing. I've heard them on the calls, getting

emotional and writing in the group. This is the first time

ever that, and it's like, oh my god, like, you can't help but

get like, wicked

excited. So it's an honor to be a part of

that, for sure. I mean, yeah, I mean all of the best of you,

like all of your skill sets and the way your brain works and

your acting and like all the parts of you have come to create

and serve this community in such a beautiful way, and you are

making an impact, and you are making a difference, I would

even go so as far to say is, not only are you saving lives, you

are you are helping people shift the qualities of how they feel

in their lives, which affects how you parent, how you love,

how you show up in your business, how you show up in

your relationships and your marriages. It's not just food,

you guys, this is a whole exponential like all areas of

your life, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual are

affected by what we are putting in our bodies and how we're

thinking about things, and that support in that community. It's

like your parents giving you that safe place as a child like

you matter. You're kind of recreating that now for so many

adults, like little kids in adult bodies who didn't get

their hands held, and you're creating a really beautiful

healing community. And I hope you really like get that.

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, it we we have a beautiful community

of incredible people, and everybody just celebrates and

elevates each other, and it's extraordinary. It's an honor to

be a part of it. And so thank you. You're part of that

community now too, and thank you for the work that you're doing.

There's so much synergy. And I remember the first time we

spoke, we spoke for four and a half hours, and we just

couldn't, Me too. Me too. Oh my goodness. I mean, it was like,

you know, I'd met a soul mate. It was extraordinary. So I feel

so honored to be on your podcast. I know how picky you

are, so thank you for giving me this time. I loved it.

I loved it, and I love you. And will you please just tell folks

in your own in your own voice, I want to make sure they're going

to the right places. I have all your links, but will you just

tell them how to find you, how to join the program and like all

that,

yeah, you can go to skinny sixty.com at skinny and then six

zero.com you can go to the blender girl, if you just want

some yummy, delicious, easy recipes. And if you Yeah,

anything's at test masters.com so I've got a bunch of different

websites. I love to create websites. You know that, yeah, I

know you're holding up the book. You're so beautiful. Yeah, you

can get the blender girl. The blender girl. Smoothies or the

perfect blend on Amazon, anywhere books are sold, and

then it's just fun. I mean, come on, isn't just eating yummy food

the best.