the bossbabe podcast - 19. Using Your Menstrual Cycle to Perform Even Better in Business, Post-Birth Control Syndrome & Healing Hormone Imbalances with Dr. Jolene Brighten

Episode Date: June 26, 2019

In this week’s episode, Natalie Ellis interviews Dr. Jolene Brighten. Dr. Jolene Brighten is a Functional Naturopathic Medical Doctor and nutritional biochemist with a focus in women’s endocrine health. She is recognized as a leading expert in Post-Birth Control Syndrome and the long-term side effects associated with hormonal contraceptives. Dr. Brighten is the author of Beyond the Pill, a 30-day plan to support women on birth control, help them transition off, and eliminate symptoms of post-birth control syndrome. Dr. Brighten shares insights into how you can work with your hormones and leverage the superpowers they give you, the importance of tracking your menstrual cycle and how to heal your hormone imbalances. Get your free gift: https://drbrighten.com/pbcsdiet, free Hormone Starter Kit (which includes a 7 day meal plan and recipe guide) and book bonuses: www.beyondthepillbook.com This episode is brought to you by the BossBabe Insta Growth Accelerator. Download your free 90 minute training to discover how to grow your audience with 10,000 of your ideal clients in the next 30 days: bossbabe.com/ig-growth.

Your natural hormones actually fuel your brain in so many positive and beneficial ways. Being on birth control is being on mute, shutting down your entire reproductive system. And yet, we do that and think that there's no consequences. If you want to have higher productivity in work, like everything you do for your hormones, everything you do for your lifestyle, that can 10x your growth right there. Welcome to the Boss Babe podcast, a place where we share with you the real behind the scenes of building successful businesses, achieving peak performance and learning how to balance it all. I'm Natalie Ellis, co-founder and co-CEO of Boss Babe and your podcast host for this episode. Okay, so imagine if I told you that you could actually use your menstrual cycle to your advantage in business. That's exactly what we're going to be talking about today in an interview

with Dr. Jolene Brighton. We dive in deep to talk about how you can use your period to perform even better. So we get really, really specific on this from when to record videos to the days you should actually clear out your calendar to be in creation mode. On top of all of this, we talk about energy, skin, hormone balances, you name it, we cover it. This interview actually came about because someone DM'd me recommending a book called Beyond the Pill since I've been sharing a lot about my mission to get my period back after being on birth control for 10 years, a journey that I'm still very much on but I will add I'm getting answers and so I will do an update on that in a couple of episodes time but I actually read this book in two days and I was just absolutely blown away. It is seriously one of the best resources I've picked up on female hormones. And I've read a lot of books on female hormones and I've rarely recommended

any of them because so few of them have actually got that tangible advice that works. And so once I read this book, I was in awe and I DMed Dr. Brighton and the rest was history. I was just so eager to get her on the podcast because I wanted you to hear what I was reading. And I want to open up this conversation about contraceptives, hormone, fertility. You know, it's something I talk about a lot and I'm really passionate about. So whether you're on or off birth control, this episode is going to be packed with takeaways for you. I am not pro like for or against birth control. It very much is your choice, but I do believe that if you're going to be making these decisions, you should be informed

about it. Cause I believe if I was informed about it 11 years ago, now, when I was getting the pill, I would have made very different choices. So Dr. Jolene Brighton is a functional naturopathic medical doctor and nutritional biochemist with a focus in women's endocrine health. She is recognized as a leading expert in post birth control syndrome and the long-term side effects associated with hormonal contraceptives. She's also the author of Beyond the Pill, a 30-day plan to support women on birth control, help them transition off and eliminate symptoms of post birth control syndrome. This is the book that I just mentioned earlier, and I've put the link for that in the show notes, as well as a a gift that Dr Brighton's made for all of us which is a quick start guide so if you're

suffering any of the symptoms that we chatted through just hit that link below and you'll get a quick start guide delivered to your email oh and before we dive in let's quickly chat reviews would you like for yourself or your business to be shouted out on the Boss Babe Instagram account to over 1.3 million women? If so, simply rate and review this podcast and then leave your Instagram handle in the review. We're going to be shouting out those who review us every single week on our Instagram stories. These reviews just really help us to know what resonates with you and also lets other people discover the podcast. The more listeners we have, the better. Last year, we actually gave one of our clients a shout out on Instagram and this generated her more than $10,000 in sales directly because a lot of our followers were her ideal clients who reached out to buy. I'm

definitely not saying this is going to happen to you or your business, but what I will say is don't underestimate exposure and don't underestimate by getting out and being seen by your ideal clients. And speaking of Instagram, this episode is brought to you by the Boss Babe Insta Growth Accelerator, a 12-week program designed to help you grow and monetize your Instagram account. If you're ready to grow your audience with your absolute ideal clients who are throwing their credit cards at you, then listen up. I've created a completely free 90 minute training to show you how to do exactly that. I'm taking you through the step-by-step strategy to attracting 10,000 ideal clients as followers over the next 30 days. If you know that growing your audience with ideal

clients who can't wait to buy from you would completely change the game, then this training is for you. As I said, it's totally free. I just recommend turning up with a journal and getting rid of all distractions as we waste no time getting into the nitty gritty specifics. You know that I love specifics. To get started with the training, just head to bossbabe.com forward slash IG dash growth, or hit the link in the show notes below. A boss babe is unapologetically ambitious and paves the way for herself and other women to rise, keep going and fighting on. She is on a mission to be her best self in all areas. It's just believing in yourself. Confidently stepping outside her comfort zone to create her own vision of success. So just before we dive into this, I was actually showing you my notes that I've made on your book,

which is incredible. And it's very step-by-step and breaks a lot of things down. And I love how it focuses on the gut, the adrenals, and not just on the sex hormones, which I know I've been guilty of thinking, oh, all of these hormones are out. Let me go and treat that and realize it just didn't work. And so this book, Beyond the Pill, who is it for specifically? Any woman who has hormones. So the book is really designed to give you a root cause solution to your common hormone imbalance symptoms that women experience. So whether you've ever been on birth control or not, this book can support you. So you went through chapter four, which is the take back your period, which is basically like the decoder ring we should have all gotten with our period.

If you have this symptom, this is what it might be. Here's the labs to get, and here's what you can do right now. And I set out, it's called Beyond the Pill because it's about giving solutions beyond birth control. So many women, they go to their doctor, they have fill in the blank lady part problems, and their doctor's like, here's hormonal birth control. That's the only thing you can do. And this is just what it's like being a woman. And I wanted to show women there was another way. And yet if they do decide to use hormonal birth control, I wanted them to know the side effects, the impacts, how to stay safe on it and how to transition off. It's the very first book my publisher keeps saying like, are you telling people this is the first book in the history

of publishing to actually address women's hormones and birth control and post-birth control syndrome and give protocols for everything. I'm like, no, I should do that. Thank goodness for them. So the way it works for publishing, if anybody listening, you got a bunch of entrepreneurs who are like, I want to write a book. I actually have an article on Forbes, like whether to self-publish or to go with a publisher and the pros and cons. But when you go with a publisher, they are really estimating things. So people get book advances and that's going to be based on like how well have books performed. They're not as agile as most entrepreneurs are in that it's

very slow to change. It's like the Titanic and that's just the book publishing industry, but they don't like to take risks. And with this book, they took a huge risk on me, on the concept and everything, because it had never been proven before and never been tested in the market. So praise to HarperOne. Thank you guys so much, because this book really has been, from everything I'm seeing, I'm like, okay, I thought this was needed and it absolutely is. It absolutely is. And it's crazy whenever I talk to anyone about my hormonal issues and what I'm going through, the amount of times I hear, oh my God, me too, can you recommend? And I'll recommend things that I've heard that are very few books out there,

but I'll recommend podcasts, different things that I've never heard about that. One thing you mentioned was just about women being able to own their health, which I think this kind of information really allows them to do. But what's your opinion on women who feel like they have hormone issues and they go and see their gynecologist who might not know a ton about what they're going through and just says, hey, just go back on the pill. It's the easiest and best thing you can do right now because I know many women and myself included who are in that situation. And we turn up and say, hey, these are the blood works we want to run. And they say, well, it's not really necessary. Just go back on the pill. Yeah. I mean, it's true that it is easy,

but for everybody listening, do you ever get what you want from life by taking the easy path? You rarely do. And what do you want at the end of the day? To feel amazing in your body, to be able to work with your hormones and leverage the superpowers that they can give you. And your doctor's not bad for recommending birth control. Like your doctor's been taught, this will fix everything and quickly. So why wouldn't they want to give that to you? The problem is, is they're not taught about every single system of your body that it can impact. The way is that it can impact your romantic relationships, your work, your physical relationship, how you even mother your

children. It can have an impact on all of these things. Not to mention messing with your sex drive, causing gas bloating and other issues that we see with birth control. But quite frankly, it's a disservice. It's a disservice and it's disrespectful of the women's reproductive track because the idea goes, well, men don't have this reproductive system. Therefore it's negotiable. Like you must not need it. So just shut it down. You don't need it. And we're going to talk about exactly why you need it. And there's a lot of things that we don't know about birth control. We actually have no idea. You know, before we started recording, we started talking about polycystic ovarian syndrome. This is a subset of the population that gets prescribed birth control

with zero discussion about what's going on. Now it presents with hormonal symptoms and we can get into like, where do we need to address to like balance hormones? Because it's not where you think. It's not necessarily the ovaries. But with these women, you know, you have hair loss, you have cystic acne, your period's gone missing. And most of the time doctors pass them the pill and say, now you have a period. Except that's a withdrawal bleed from a medication. It's not a legit period. There's no ovulation taking place. They send them on their way with no conversation otherwise. PCOS is in fact rooted in insulin dysregulation and inflammation. It leads to cardiometabolic disorders as well. So higher risk of stroke, heart attack, high cholesterol, high blood pressure.

And that is something that birth control, high blood pressure. And that is something that birth control in itself can drive. And so when you pass a woman to the pill without discussing what's really going on, you're doing a great disservice because one, she may be trading that acne for stroke risk and saying, okay, well now my skin is clear, but now she has a higher stroke risk. And she was never told that. She didn't elect for that. There's that lack of informed consent, which is like medicine 101. And then there's the other issue of like, what if she wants to have a baby one day? Most of medicine is like, do you want a baby now?

No, shut it down. When you want a baby, then we'll deal with it. But a woman with PCOS, endometriosis, thyroid disease can be one way that you present with irregular periods and then find yourself on the pill, which only makes that worse. And then only to find out years later, oh, we've had this chronic disease going on and that can impact our fertility. I mean, I'm a first generation college student. So like, I'm really grateful to have the pill and it can really help us in terms of our careers and what we want to achieve. We're not entering into it eyes wide open. And that's

really not on the woman. It's on the doctor. The doctors aren't being taught all of this. I'm really excited. So don't lose hope, you guys, because I've had so many physicians write me and say, this is going to change how I practice. This is going to change what I'm doing. And thank you for doing this because I have never actually heard any of these things, not in medical school, not in my continuing medical education. I had one gynecologist I met with and she's like, I've been prescribing the pill for 10 years for all this stuff. And I had no idea. And we as women, we look back and we're like, I want to hate on myself now because I did this thing and maybe I shouldn't have done it with the

information I have. Well, doctors are doing the same thing right now of like, oh my God, what have I been doing all these years? We've all been doing the best we can with the information we have. The problem is, is that the information hasn't been out there. And when I set out and I was like, we've got to change all of this to women's medicine. All my colleagues were like, great, speak at conferences, go to medical schools and teach them. And I'm like, no, if we're going to change women's medicine, we're going to change it by putting the medicine into women's hands. They will prove to the world what is possible. They will prove what they are capable of, and they will prove to their doctor that they can heal their body naturally, and they don't have to rely on these synthetic hormones. And if they

do choose to use it for contraceptive reasons, they'll also be better informed to advocate for themselves in the doctor's office. I love that. Even more reason to grab a book. And also, I think, grab a book for a friend because, you know because as women, we need to be talking more about this and opening up that conversation and take the book in for your doctor. It's totally right what you're saying. They're not doing it because they are trying to harm you. They just don't understand. And so wouldn't it be amazing if we just showed them what's possible? We've totally had women write us and they have taken their book to their gynecologist. So one woman's like, my gynecologist, there's a

group of five of them. I bought a book for everybody. Husband's gifting it on Valentine's Day. That one, I was like, is that a good thing? And all the women were like, I'm so excited. This is the best Valentine's gift I've ever gotten. I'm like, okay, cool. Because I was like, if you're expecting chocolate and then you got this like book, I don't know. I love it. He's like, come off the pill. It's Valentine's Day. I love it. So can we talk a little bit about what hormonal issues look like? Because I feel like there's a lot of women listening thinking, okay, but how do I know if my hormones are off if I've just not had them tested? I will say that we've got a lot of ways to test hormones, but what you actually detect in your body is so much more sensitive.

So what you understand to be your baseline of normal and what's not normal, your symptoms will show up before lab changes show up. So this is very important to be tracking your cycle and noticing like how you're feeling throughout. I think to really understand hormone balance, we should review the menstrual cycle. But for a quick overview, you know, when we talk about sex hormones, we've got estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. Then we've got our cortisol levels. Now the adrenal glands make more than just cortisol. They make epinephrine, norepinephrine, which I call the freak the F out hormones. I hope it's okay to say that. But they hit your brain

and they make you panic. And that's why you're like, oh my God, I don't know why I'm freaking out and I can't stop freaking out. That's epi and norepi. And they also make DHEA and aldosterone, which governs your blood pressure. And then we have thyroid hormone, which once you get into your thirties, you're at very high risk of developing a thyroid condition. So we're five to eight times more likely to have hypothyroidism. And we have our insulin as well, which comes from our pancreas. Not many of us are like, oh, I have an insulin imbalance. It's not like the thing we notice. That's like a little more terminal, more end stage. And otherwise, like insulin dysregulation will show up with things like, oh, because of the insulin dysregulation, now we've got cortisol spiking and dropping, or we've got issues going on in terms of our testosterone levels. And so with all of this,

estrogen, just by the way, all these hormones are awesome and great. And people will get it in their head that like, estrogen's bad. Well, any hormone that's not put in check is bad. It's just like, you know, I call, estrogen's kind of like your diva friend that like you love to go out and you love to party with, but she has too many drinks and you're like, dude, no, no, slow your roll. It's go home, you're drunk, we're done here. So with estrogen, if you have too much of it, you're going to have PMS. So that's where you're going to have swollen, tender breasts. You're going to feel really irritable. You may be gaining weight, but hip size is where that likes to hang out. If it's too low, now your breasts are drooping and you're finding you have

fine lines and wrinkles, vaginal dryness, and your joints are kind of achy as well. With progesterone, that's the predominant hormone of the luteal phase. We'll go all into that the second half of your cycle. And when progesterone is right, we feel chill, calm, in love with our life. We don't have any fluid retention going on and we're sleeping really well. Flip side, if it's not, it's too low, you're feeling anxious. Now estrogen can come in and play as well. But on top of that, you might be having difficulty sleeping. I mean, even with these fluctuations in these hormones, we can find that verbal communication is off. We're feeling a lot more emotional. So progesterone going low or too high

can be you're crying all the time. And how do you know the difference? Well, if progesterone is really high and you're crying all the time, your breasts are also really tender. You wake up, you're super groggy in the morning and you feel kind of bluesy and depressed. And if you're crying all the time, but your periods are horrible, odds are your progesterone is low. Then we have testosterone. Great for the libido. It's also why we wake up, kick ass, and repeat every single day. When it's right, you have energy throughout the entire day. When it's not, you're crying all the time, like all the time, not just within your menstrual cycle. You're just like, every day, I'm prone to tears. I'm fatigued all day.

When it's low? When it's low. These are different than necessarily cortisol and thyroid. And we'll talk a bit about those. And then when testosterone's high, we're losing our hair, growing instead on our chin, chest, abdomen, having cystic acne. If it's part of post-birth control syndrome, that acne's everywhere. It's like neck, knee, chest, knee, butt, knee, you name it, there's acne. So that's the key sex hormones. And, you know, I should say too, that when testosterone gets low, we start losing muscle mass as well. And so that's like, you're not getting gains at the gym. Maybe you wave your hand and your arm

keeps waving and it's because that loss of muscle mass going on. Now with cortisol, too high of cortisol can be that wired, tired sensation. You're trying to go to bed at night, but your mind just keeps racing and won't shut off. If it's too low, you're really tired throughout the day. And the thing about our hormones is they're all cyclical. So you might spike cortisol like you should first thing in the morning, but then it dips down. What's really interesting about cortisol curves is that I can tell if somebody hates their

job just based on their lab tests. And we do a four-point either saliva or a urine test, and it'll be like, oh, you wake up. It's totally fine. Now it spikes and it's crazy. What happened? Oh, I got to work. And that was an hour after I was at work. I'm like, you don't like your job. It's your job stressing you out. When cortisol is too low too, we tend to get sick all the time. Like we're feeling like we can never recover from things. With thyroid, if your thyroid's too high, that's rare. But if it is too high, you'll have diarrhea. You'll be losing hair. You'll feel really anxious. You're sweating all the time. You can't sleep. Grinding your teeth as well. Too low is more common. And in too low, we're gaining weight everywhere. We're super fatigued. We can't

poop. Our hair is thin and brittle and dry. Our nails are splitting. Maybe our joints are really achy, especially like hands and feet. Maybe your voice is changing to be sexier. That's my sexy voice, you guys. And it can get a little gravelly. There's a lot of ways where hypothyroidism can show up because it impacts every single cell in your body. And then we've got DHEA. DHEA gets a little less play. It comes from the adrenal glands and it gets converted into estrogen and testosterone. So it's one way we keep those hormones going when we enter menopause.

So if you're listening to this and you're perimenopause or going into menopause, you need to listen to this. Don't think this is like, oh, my ovaries are quitting, so I'm done. No, you're not. So DHEA though, it is something that when it goes too low, we can kind of have patchy hair loss or hair loss all over our body. It starts declining at 25, and it's an anti-aging hormone. But if it goes too high, depending on the pathway it goes into, we can see issues with excess estrogen and excess testosterone going on. So that's kind of the overview. Of

course, you've read my book. So, you know, chapter one gets right into a quiz. I waste no time. I was talking with somebody about, we do 16 personalities in my company. And when I coach people, I'm like, we do 16 personalities. I understand that like the entire work lifestyle of the United States is set up on men. It's all about men. It's why there's no pause. And then women are like, I get tired before my period and I can't keep up. And like, maybe that's a bad thing. It's like, no, it's not. You're a cyclical female in this static world. Like it's very, very static in that way. But as I was talking about the 16 personalities, it's like, I like it because you're hard pressed to find a work relationship that's just a work relationship

that doesn't bleed into that friendship and to understand that dynamic as well. My 16 personalities is the debater. So I'm actually Tyrion Lannister. I was the debater too. Oh, yeah. We're really fun because people often think we're like arguing all the time with them. And we're like, no, this is how we understand things. We have to argue like 20 different sides, which is when you get into me on the pill,

I think you'll understand. People are like, I don't understand how you're not anti birth control or pro birth control. I'm like, oh, cause I'm the debater. And we come from it of like every single place. And then as my hormones rise in the menstrual cycle and like it stimulates my hippocampus, I'm even more in tune with like, okay, what's this other person feeling and getting into that feedback and putting myself in their shoes. I'm even more in tune with like, okay, what's this other person feeling and getting into that feedback and putting myself in their shoes. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new

favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi. You know, I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place so it makes collecting data, creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business, you know, get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible i definitely recommend kajabi to all of my clients and students so if you're listening and haven't checked out kajabi yet now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering boss babe listeners a 30-day

free trial go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial that's kajabi.com slash boss babe i love that we do 16 personalities as well and it's so interesting you mentioned that we're cyclical females in a static world can we touch on what that means and how as women we can take that and use it to our advantage because i think there are so many advantages to being cyclical and we are just super women. And I think there are a lot of ways we could be stepping even more into our power, especially in business. Oh, totally. So to understand that, you have to understand your menstrual cycle. Now men have like these daily cycles, but they don't have monthly cycles. So we start off day one is the day that you bleed that you see your period so that's the

day one of the menstrual cycle and that kicks off the follicular phase you'll sometimes hear people talk about the four phases of the menstrual cycle there's nothing wrong with that to say like your period's a bit different because there are shifts people are always right me and that's why don't doctors do that here's why because the main main event of your cycle is not bleeding. It's not your period. It's ovulation. And that's where the focal point is. So day one, you're bleeding. But by day two, three, your follicle stimulating hormone, what your brain says to your ovaries to get an egg ready is already rising and so is estrogen. So although you're still having your period, your hormones are already coming back. So that spans the follicular phase. And the follicular phase is going to end when we

ovulate. Now, to ovulate, what happens is generally testosterone starts to rise, and you might be in the mood, by the way. Libido is cyclical as well, and that's normal. It's not like the movies, you guys. That's really set up so that you have sex, capture sperm. It'll live like five to six days. You will ovulate. That egg lives one day. So it's upping the odds of conception. Now, leading up to your period, luteinizing hormone and estrogen are going to spike.

And those spike, again, see, estrogen's not bad. And then that triggers the release of an egg. And as the egg releases, what is left behind, what your body forms in the ovary is the corpus an egg. And as the egg releases, what is left behind and what your body forms in the ovary is the corpus luteum. You must ovulate in order to have progesterone. Without ovulation, there's no progesterone. So I'll hear women all the time say, I want progesterone, but I don't want to get pregnant. Well, you won't necessarily get pregnant just because you're ovulating. Like there's so much you can do about it as I teach in my book. So that ovulatory phase only lasts

about 24 hours. There's been some research it might last 36, but really it's like 24 hours. And then comes progesterone. So estrogen's the main diva in the follicular phase. Progesterone is the diva in the luteal phase. And there's still estrogen present, but it's in balance and it's challenged by progesterone. So it's not over stimulating your cells. That takes you through your luteal phase. And then right before you have your period, hormones drop and it triggers the shedding of the endometrial lining. So the lining of your uterus. So if we take it from the top, when we start our period, so one thing I always tell women is don't make any major decisions or verbalize them, especially

because when you verbalize, people like try to keep you committed to stuff. You can always change your mind, especially as you get new information. But the few days leading up to your period, you may feel a little more sensitive. Your hormones are declining. They're down the first few days of your period as well. You know, actually, it's Marie Forleo who's like, don't engage mean people when you're going to have your period, when you're in PMS and going to have your period. And it's so true because the veil is a little thinner between their stuff and

your stuff. And it's hard to sort the basket in that. And it's really a great time for reflection and going inward. So if you are somebody who's like, wow, leading up to my period, I really feel like I need some downtime. I need to take some time off. I don't want to go out with friends. I don't want to run business meetings, things like that. That's a good time to stand back to journal, to really be quiet and still with yourself. The hardest thing to do, I think, as an entrepreneur, because you're always go, go, go. And really reflect on where you're at and where do you want to go, but don't make any major decisions in that time because if those hormones decline, there are changes that

happen in the brain. You're just not at your strongest point for that. Does that mean at any point in your cycle, you're the lesser? No. In fact, research has shown that women, we communicate left, logical, and right, creative, brain, lobes, all the time. So we do this very well all the time compared to men who are much more focal. And so with that, as you're in that phase, just being really mindful that if you're just like, I don't want to hang out with these people or this is not a good time for me to network, pause and give yourself permission. We think that often women will say, well, I get a little bit tired before my period and I don't think that's normal and I can't keep up at work. So therefore I need

to like drink more coffee, take adaptogens, do all this stuff. And it's like, actually, you're about to shed your endometrial lining. Like you grew that and then you're going to shed it. That's an energetically expensive event in itself in terms of like your stamina. So it's okay to give pause and recognize you're not slowing your role in any way in your business when you take time to reflect. And this is something that I have a practice where at least three hours out of my week is just thinking time, where I just shut it down and I'm like thinking, I'm alone, I'm still, I sit in front of my altar, sage, meditate, pull tarot cards, do journal,

all kinds of things just to think. And I was listening recently to a podcast with Keith Cunningham who was like, yeah, I always spend like just this thinking time. I was like, oh, I'm smart like him. But it was something that more like my menstrual cycle taught me. Now as you are moving into that follicular phase and estrogen starts to rise, your lobes are going to communicate a little stronger. So that's a great time to really start gearing up your strategy. And you've been thinking about where you want to go.

Now let's start strategizing where you want to go. Your testosterone is going to give you a boost of energy. You're going to find you're killing it in the gym. You're killing it in life. And you've got the stamina. So if you've got a launch and you know you've got a push, that's a really good time to do it is do that like, you know, maybe around day eight to 10, like that launch is ramping up and then you've got the energy to see that

through. So once you get into that ovulation phase, it's like when you get away from your period for about a week and then you get on both sides, so really the middle of the cycle, that's where you're going to see that like the hippocampus, the memory center of the brain is getting stimulated. So your verbal memory skills are really, really good. As you pass ovulation, you are much more verbal. That is a great time to have a Q&A because you've got that memory. I mean, that's the time, like if you've seen me, I'm doing Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube live, like simultaneously. That's when I can do that, like my best. And I'm like, here, let's do all the things. Because I'm all about like when we do content, can we do it once and make as much as

possible? Everybody, please do that. Now, the other thing about that is that when you ovulate around ovulation, you're going to look your prettiest self. And there is research. So if your market is men, they will give you more money. They will give you more money. There's research actually showing with exotic dancers or strippers. Is there a PC term for this? I hope I'm not disrespecting anybody. I don't know if there is. But with this in the research around ovulation, they make the most money men pay them the most money Now on the flip side if they're on birth control, they make less money overall. It doesn't even matter if they're on birth control Yeah So if you have a male market understand getting in front of video during that time if it's like a webinar Anything that you want to do sales and convert that male market is more likely to give you money Just by the perception, but also you're going to feel sexier. You're going to feel more beautiful. And that testosterone is kicking confidence your way. And that's going to be like, if you're on your period and you mess up in a

video and you're going to be like, oh, I messed that up. And you're going to keep replaying it when that testosterone is coming up. You're like, I messed it up. I'm going to keep rolling because I'm so badass. I'm just going to keep moving. It's going to be fine. Now, the other piece of this is that that's a great time to bank video content. I will bank a bunch of content and even Instagram stories while I am looking plump. And so your lips get plumper, your hips, your breasts get plumper. And then people are like, you look amazing today commenting on my stories. I'm like, haha, I have my hair in a bun and I'm in yoga pants and like, I'm not even dressed today. But it's a great time to bank content. Now, as you're moving past ovulation, that is a really good time to actually look at customer service reviews. So when both

estrogen and progesterone are high, it's a much easier skill for you to actually put yourself in that person's position and see it from their perspective. By the way, when they're high, I like that too. You're also really good at making up words. So that's a good time to name your brand, to name your protocol, your formula, like whatever it is, because you're super, super creative in that time. And as these hormones rise, understand that like most of us tend to be like left brain dominant or right brain dominant. Although women, we get to access both. But in that, know why it's really important to chart your own cycle is because as these hormones rise, you might find like, this is when I'm most creative. Like that lobe is actually growing in that.

But don't look at your customer service after day 21 of your cycle. This is assuming a 28 day cycle. So when you hit that seven to eight day mark after you've ovulated, just walk away. Put someone between you and them because, again, that's when the veil gets thin. And instead of like seeing it and being in your troubleshooter kind of mind and thinking, oh, because like a lot of times like when we have customer service complaints, it's like a communication issue. And we're like, oh, okay, like I need to communicate differently. And as you get closer to your period, it's a little bit more of like,

something's wrong with me because now you're getting like a bit more emotional in that regard. And that's not always true for every woman. This is why you have to like chart everything and look at it for yourself. But the customer service thing is a really big thing. I mean, I talk about birth control. I get a lot of haters. A few days leading up to my period, I block and delete haters. And I say this because you know my personality is the debater, is that usually I like to come in and try to understand where they're coming from and then try to communicate in a different way.

When the hormones are high that week after your period, but really ovulation in that key week, that's a great time to listen to what your customers are saying and then come up with a language to match that and how you're going to communicate differently. But also you've got that creative spark. I swear like companies that come up with great names, I'm like, I bet she named that around day 18, 19 of her menstrual cycle. That's when that came on. So that's a few ways that you can work with all that. Now, the sad thing is that when you're on birth control, you have none of that. You don't have access to any of that. And there's actually research showing, and we need a whole lot more of it, there's actually deficits that happen in our brain. So our natural estrogen and progesterone

help with neuroplasticity. So your ability to learn new things and learn new skills. If you are on hormonal birth control, you don't have those hormones. So there's a question of, can you actually form like new behavioral patterns? Can you make these shifts and in the same way? The other issue that I see that's very specific to entrepreneurs with hormonal birth control, now any of us can be banana stressed out, but you know how the saying goes, it's like entrepreneurs will work like 80 hours, you know, just to not have to work for someone else. I'm totally that way.

I hear that. But that's a lot of stress. Chronic stress leads to chronic elevations of cortisol. That destroys brain cells. Okay. That sucks. But you can get brain cells back. You can heal that.

Now, the interesting thing about birth control is it seems to be that the way birth control kind of pushes the whole HPA axis, which is hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, how your brain talks to your adrenal glands, is it sets up a state already of chronic cortisol, like chronic stress state. So what does that look like? You're going usually one end of the spectrum or the other. You're anxious and you're flighty and like you can't focus or you're depressed, you're down, you're hating on yourself. And so we want to be in that in between. Stress is not bad. Stress is a good thing, but too much of a good thing is always just too much of a thing. So with that, if you're on hormonal birth control and you're an entrepreneur, you can have these cortisol issues that actually start destroying

parts of your brain. So maybe you're feeling brain fog. Maybe you're feeling like someone just said something to you and you can't recall it. Progesterone helps with that recall and you're not getting that. You're getting progestin. When you're entrepreneurs, you take risks and some of us are risk adverse and some of us have no risk boundaries. But with being on birth control, you interpret social cues differently. So that's going to impact your relationships. It may also impact business deals and transactions you're going into. Women with lower estrogen, so that's postmenopausal or when you're on birth control because that's not the real stuff, they tend to have blunted social skills. So they're not as

social. So it's a little bit harder for them at networking events. It's a little bit harder for them when they go to actually like broker a deal and do things like that. But in addition, while you're on hormonal birth control, it's also creating neurotoxins in your brain. And so this is something I get really concerned about overall when we reflect on the fact that it's estimated 98% of women have used some form of hormonal birth control at some point in their life. And 66 plus percent of the Alzheimer's patients are women. And we have never done a long-term study to see how it impacts the brain. So does that all make sense?

I know that was like a whole lot of information coming at you guys. And like, I mean, when we were chatting on Instagram, I was like a whole lot of information coming at you guys. And like, I mean, when we were chatting on Instagram, I was like, I have a women's business collaborative of like, they're all practitioners who are like, I still want to practice medicine, but there's this online marketing thing I have to do if I want patients. And that's what we focus on. But I really bring in working with your menstrual cycle and being able to leverage some of those strengths. You could do any of these things at any time, but there's going to be times where, and I'm sure you see this a lot in your business, where it's like imposter syndrome, women feeling like they're not good enough.

Let me out myself right now. I think I spent about three years recording YouTube videos and they never saw the light of day. People are like, oh, how'd you get so good on camera? I'm like, can't stop, won't stop. You just have to keep doing it. That's how, when I started to go on video, even having my laptop looking at me gave me such anxiety. I would be like, I have to do a shot of liquor. I have to like do a shot. And I recorded these videos and then I was like,

no, they're not good enough. They're not good enough. They're not good enough. And they never sell a light a day. And you know what? SEO is like real estate in California. The answer of when to get in is yesterday. Like if that is when you want to get in so that Google's crawling your space and YouTube's

ranking you. And so that was a big mistake I made of getting in my own way and like playing it small because I had this little voice telling me it wasn't good enough. You know, there's great experts out there. They'll say like, go back and look at my other videos. Like I tell other clinicians, go back and read my like old blogs that were barely 300 words and they were so awful. And that was like 12 years ago. And now we just wrote a hundred thousand word manuscript. It all got cut down. So don't worry, you don't have to read a hundred thousand words. And people are like, oh, I want to be able to write a book. Well, how often are you writing? Well, I'm not. Okay. You don't have to do that. And again, it's that neuroplasticity. So it's that building of the brain as well. The other thing is that your natural hormones feed into the myelin

sheath of the brain. So we've all seen those ugly orange extension cords. We all try to hide them in our videos so nobody sees them. But without that ugly orange, that electrical current wouldn't be conducted in that straight line and that path and it would be dissipated. That orange ugliness, that's your myelin sheath, except your myelin sheath is beautiful. And that helps with you actually having a thought and it going all the way through. Me, you can see I talk a lot with my hands. That is because I got my myelin sheath. And so your natural hormones actually fuel your brain in so many positive and beneficial ways that there's a lot of experts now saying we probably should be

thinking bioidentical hormones for women's lives. It takes very low dose to be able to protect your brain. We've heard before like, oh, that's a natural progression. It is, but we also used to die in our 30s and 40s and now we're living like, you know, 70s, 80s. And that's what we're here to do. Talk to you about how to live longer and not work so hard and not going to be killing your brain with all that cortisol. Which by the way, if you want to artificially induce, if you're like, I don't want to go on birth control or be banana stressed out, having a baby and not sleeping will totally do that. And that's something too to know as an entrepreneur is sometimes we think more is more and we skip sleep. And then

what you'll actually find is that you're not as efficient. You're not getting as much done. You're actually better to go for a walk, especially as a woman, cross-body action exercises. So when you're moving your arms and legs at the same time, so like Pilates, yoga, walking, that is actually what will help connect your lobes. So left and right will think. So if you have a problem, you're trying to solve a complicated problem in your business, or like your team's not giving you solutions and you're just trying to figure it out, go outside and go for a walk. One, nature will lower your cortisol, which will get out of your brain's way so that you can have those thoughts. But that cross-body action, you as a woman, your brain's already wired to do this, to problem solve. Really, it comes from like being in a tribe.

And, you know, we had to like be the caretakers of the emotions, but we also had to ration the foods and make sure. Like we had a lot on our plate then and we do now. So know that evolutionarily speaking, you are wired to be a badass and you're actually wired to be a multitasker. So when you see these studies that are like, people are terrible multitaskers, they're most of the time they're talking about men. And you're like, of course men are. Like you say this, like my husband, I'm like, I just told you that. Okay. On the sixth time. Okay. I'm assigning this to my assistant and she's going to make sure that like you remember this. Is that because like, oh, he's stupid or bad or any?

No, it's just not his strength. Now put him in front of a computer and have him write code and develop a whole custom thing. Totally his jam. So it's really important to understand that like nobody's better in terms of male and female, but we all have our strengths. And the reality is, is that society as a whole has not been utilizing women's strengths to the best of their ability. I so agree. And it's so funny. If I've learned anything about my husband, it's never text him asking more than one question at a time.

You will not get a response. I will text like six things thinking it's like a checklist, like because that's how I view it. And I'd like screenshot it, send to my assistant, be like, get in a sauna. And I do that. And he's like, I will only read the most recent texts that come in. And I'm like, well, I wrote you a story and it's beautiful. Nope, not going to happen. I mean, there's just things that they're just not set up to do as well as we are and vice versa for sure. But with all of that, it seems to be because the society, it's been set up for men, by men, for men, so to speak, that in that, it's like

what gets said to us is that as women, you have the deficit, you're the problem. And that's not what's going on here. And so just to be fair on the flip side, they don't necessarily have a deficit. It's just not their strength. And the cool thing about women is that pretty much everything is like our strength. It's just that we can leverage those strengths a little more at different times in our cycle. I love it. I also love that you mentioned walking. It's such an easy thing that we can all do. And I try and do it every single day, but I never knew that cross body action is what really like gets me thinking and puts me in a really good state. So I definitely encourage everyone listening to just go through headphones on and listen to this

on a walk. And there's a couple of things you mentioned that I kind of want to touch on. And I think one of them is before your cycle, when you're not feeling like going and doing something, actually giving yourself permission to slow down. I see so many women that do not give themselves permission to slow down. They think they need to be like men and push and push and push. And we just don't, because you've talked about, we have all of these superpowers that if we just give ourselves just a couple of days to think and some space, then we're going to perform even better the week after and the week after. And I really love that and really encourage anyone listening to think about how you can actually give yourself more permission, just be where you're at.

And the second thing you talked about imposter syndrome, which is big. And I know there are so many women listening who are like, oh shit, she's calling me out. And we just launched a program called IGA where we're teaching people how to go their Instagram. And the first two modules, I hit hard on confidence because I'm like, it's like what you say, you can be the most amazing social media strategist, but if you're not willing to actually pull your phone out and record, it's not going to work. And I remember when I was at university, I used to have such bad anxiety. I wouldn't even make a phone call. And now, I mean, I'm on Instagram stories every single day. So it really is one of those things.

Like you say, you've just got to push. You just got to do it. You will never meet anybody who's like, I came out straight out the gate and was killing it. I did podcasts well and interviews well and like, oh, my videos were well, my blogs and like all this. No, you will never meet a person who does that. If you do, yo, hit me up. I want to meet this unicorn. But for like the most part, like you're not going to meet this person. How did we ever get to what we're doing and doing it well? By doing it. Like

you just have to do it. And really like some of the most gratifying things that I have done in my life that I've seen other women are the things that made us so uncomfortable. I used to feel like I was going to vomit when a camera was put on me. And so I just did this documentary. It was Mark Hyman's Broken Brain documentary. So if you guys want to go deeper on brain health, I'm in there talking about that. After I was done recording, there was another doctor there who was helping with the production. And she was like, what training did you do to get good on video? And I'm like, you know what I did? I did it. I got in front of it and I did it over and over. And I channeled Jay-Z. That's like my spirit animal because when he goes in to record, he's like one and done. He goes in,

he records his track and then he's done. And so every time I'm like, be the Jay-Z, be the Jay-Z, be the Jay-Z. There should be like another woman out there. I'm sure there is that I could be idolizing and all of that. But that's just what I know about him. I mean, I feel like Beyonce probably one and done. She just gets in there, gets it done, gets out. I wonder, I wonder. Yeah, I don't know.

I haven't seen the Beyonce documentary, but she kind of strikes me as somebody who would like tweak and perfect and work on it a little bit more. Kay in the corner is nodding. She's like, yeah, that's what Beyonce is going to be doing. Oh, really? Okay. Yeah. I love it. Well, I think that was so, so helpful. So thank you so much for sharing that.

I have a couple of questions before diving into like the last question. So you mentioned a lot of really interesting things, one of them being, you know, bioidentical hormones and perhaps this could be a really amazing strategy for so many women. Where would a woman go to find out about those kinds of things? If someone's listening, they're interested and they think, yeah, I see my blood work, certain things are low, who can I talk to? So I have a whole article at drbrighton.com that's on progesterone cream and it is huge because progesterone cream's over the counter. And any doc who specializes in hormones gets really nervous with over the counter hormones because

if you push things in the wrong direction and it wasn't what you needed, everything is so much worse. And then it's like more damage to undo. So if you get into chapter one of Beyond the Pill, that quiz is going to get you pretty dialed in. If you approach it with like, here's the top five to 10 symptoms I need gone and I would take to my doctor, that's going to work for you. Please don't go through it and be like, oh, I had a headache like a couple of years ago. Let me check the box. Like that's not going to help you. Like it's right now, what are like the things that like somebody asked you, your hormones are off, what is top of mind and all of that. But you want to look for a doctor

who specializes in bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. And so there are, usually their anti-aging doctors are like the easiest to find that insurance will also cover for that. Naturopathic physicians, there are some functional medicine doctors, they're also trained in this as well. So here's the thing, you can get pellet implants and things like that. You're much better off using like a topical cream. Progesterone, I like to use orally if women have anxiety or trouble sleeping because it can stimulate GABA in your brain, which is the chill out neurotransmitter. So if you're epinephrine, norepinephrine, you're histamine, like any of these neurotransmitters are like, we should freak out. GABA is like, shh, it's all good. It's like, it's pretty much like Snoop Dogg rolling out of the green room being like, shh, baby, it's good. It's going to be good. But with that, you really have to do fine tuning.

And so when you work with a doctor, they should be getting your baseline labs and then re-measuring your labs about three months or so later, just to make sure that's right for you. And then also paying attention to your symptoms. The hormone replacement therapy relies so much on the patient's story and like everything hormones, quite honestly, but understanding how you feel and understanding that it's not just about estrogen and progesterone, but also DHEA. DHEA is something I love to use. So like in the pelvic floor for vaginal dryness, low libido, because it also can help with strengthening the pelvic floor and can permeate that. And so that helps with like urinary incontinence and better orgasms. Like

who doesn't want that? Oh, by the way, I have a friend, Emily Morse, who has, Dr. Emily Morse has sex with Emily and she swears by masturbate, meditate, manifest. And she was like, is there anything to that? I'm like, well, then you spike your oxytocin and you actually get all these feel good hormones. And like, what's the best way to manifest is when you're in gratitude, you're in the feel good, not when you're in that, like, I'm freaking out. I have that scarcity kind of thing. So if that's your jam, try it out and let Emily know. I have a lot of friends that do that. They call it sex magic. Yeah. A lot of friends do that. I found that like, I like to fall asleep after an orgasm. Why are you like a man?

So I'm trying to meditate and I'm nodding off. I'm like, okay, I got to work on my game here. But sex magic, I mean, that's really like when it comes to magic itself, like in the early principles, it's the high vibe sensations emotions coming through which is like when you're in imposter syndrome or when like you are running facebook ads and nobody's clicking or when you just invested on something like it's very easy to be in that scarcity place and fearful place and so it may just be that orgasms are the key to snap you out of that business and get you back into being a manifesting maven i love it there. There's an amazing book called Pussy, where she goes into the real magic of women and orgasms and how we should just be taking control of that and making it happen more often

and really creating that great relationship with ourselves. I read that book and I was on a roll. One you would like is Lisa Lister, who wrote the book Witch, but she also wrote Code Red. And it's just a really cool perspective from someone who's a witch and not in medicine. And I'm like, wow, she gets so much right as it applies to biology and physiology. And like, that's the thing I think every woman should walk away with is that you don't need a doctor or a guru or anybody to tell you how to work with your menstrual cycle, how to work out on your menstrual cycle, how to eat with your menstrual cycle, like when you should rest. You intuitively know all of this. Just society has told you that your intuition has no value, except that that's your edge on your male counterparts is that you're highly intuitive. And so as you lead up to your period, as I was saying, the veil becomes thin. You know why it's good to get quiet? Because you're going to start downloading big things, whether that's from God, goddess, whatever you want to call it, or just from your higher self, or you're pulling it from your subconscious, you're going to start pulling those things out, which is why it's really

important to get quiet in that time. And no matter where you're at in your menstrual cycle, so my book, I talk about the red moon goddess and the white moon goddess. And when you ovulate, new moons are really good times to go internal, whether you're ovulating or you're menstruating at that time. And the reason for that, if you just look at the whole planet, when it's really, really dark, it's only the predators that are out. You're not that kind of predator. Predators are like, they go fast and they burn out. And like, you don't want to be that. You want to be longevity here. So, that, everything goes dark, and everything kind of hunkers down, and then a great time to expand.

So if you want to work with moon energy, and you want to launch something, not new moon. That's resting time. As you come out of that, that's a good time to start launching things. On the full moon is going to be full energetic potential. Everything is growing. Everything is expanding in that. And on Thursdays is when Jupiter is in the house, which is money. That's money day. So ever wonder the trend? So many people do webinars on Thursdays. I do webinars on Thursdays, but I didn't know why. It makes me a shit ton of money. Yeah. It's that right there. So if you want to know a day to do a webinar, do a sale, do anything like that, Thursday is like your day. And if it can be a Thursday in the week that you're ovulating, dang girl, you're going to be on fire.

I love it. It's so good. What I will say just on that is my intuition's always been strong and I make a lot of gut-led decisions, but it's never been stronger since when I stopped taking the pill. Oh, yes. So many women notice that. I mean, because really being on birth control is being on mute. And if you shut down, so the way birth control works, the pill specifically, I mean, overall with the IUD, some women stop ovulating as well, but it's suppression of your reproductive system, shutting down your entire reproductive system. And yet we do that and think that there's no consequences. There's absolutely consequences. It's what you got to do right now to keep your body from getting pregnant. And like, I'm not here to judge you. I wrote a whole book on like how to support you to do that. It's so sad to me to

think that all of the potential I wasted in my twenties in a lot of ways, like, yes, I went to medical school. I'm a first generation college student. There's all these things. Yeah. At the same time, I'm like, man, I muted myself during some of the most powerful times in my life. I think about Gary Vaynerchuk. You can tell I just fall off entrepreneurs, right? But I think about Gary Vaynerchuk and he's like, what's your 20s about? I mean, that's when you have no responsibility compared to like, now I have a child, I have a home, I have all these things. You can hustle, you can do all these things. Your adrenals will recover. Once you get in your 40s, your adrenals are going to be like, no, we're not doing this

because menopause is coming. And as menopause comes, it's going to be up to your adrenal glands to really take over what the ovaries drop. And so whenever women are like, well, I'm in menopause or perimenopause and can be on the pill help, one, please read it about birth control and you better not be on it if you're like in your 40s. That's just dangerous. I don't like it. It makes me very nervous. You can see my whole posture change. They're like, oh my God. But you know, with that as well, you still have adrenals, you still have your thyroid, you still have a liver, you still have a gut. You better have a libido. That's a very good thing. You still have all of these things. And you know, one thing I didn't mention, so you talked about how we chase down sex hormones because

we all want to do that. But that's like what we see in the mirror and what we film. And I talk about it like a pyramid. So the base of your pyramid, your foundation is really adrenal glands and insulin, and they interplay together. Right above that is your thyroid. And at the very tippy top is your sex hormones. If you try to build a pyramid from the top down, it ain't going to work. And if the foundation is shoddy and you've got a poor contractor where he's not doing their work, the whole thing will crumble if you try to pile more on it. And so you really have to work on that foundational stuff. And with entrepreneurs, that insulin and that cortisol and those adrenal glands is like everything. So if you're skipping meals, and yes, some people do great with intermittent fasting, but not if you're crazy banana stressed out because

cortisol hits your liver and says, I know you have sugar stores. Now give it up now. I want it. And then those sugar stores come out. Insulin comes out to play. It's like, we've got to get it into the cells, except there's too much of it. Or you're on birth control. Your cells are rigid because you're inflamed. Insulin's knocking. It's like, you know, the cells like that, you ain't coming in. I just like that teaching Chong, keep on knocking, but you ain't coming in. Then the situation, then insulin starts going higher. Now the ovaries are making antigens. Now we're feeling like, okay, I'm losing my hair and I've got acne and I'm not feeling awesome in my body. But really everything your mom told you to do was right. You guys eating your vegetables for sure, but sleeping, drinking water. You know, when I travel, I really am conscious about water,

but I will get into interviews, like interview days. And I'm like, oh, I can't drink because I'll have to pee. And I can't drink because I have to pee. Well, you know, if you get dehydrated, your adrenal glands respond to that as well. You can push yourself into adrenal exhaustion. Now you get to the end of the day, you're fatigued, you have brain fog, all that's going on. It's because you disobeyed the laws of nature, which is you're an animal. So eating regular meals, making sure that you're drinking plenty of water, getting sleep. If you do have to work in the evening, like if you've got a side hustle and you're trying to get out of your job, then you're going to have to work in the evening. And that can be amazing. I mean, I have met so many mommy bloggers who have been like, yeah,

I do my whole day with my kids. And then at night is when I did everything. And like, I'm really good friends with mommy Potamus and wellness mama. They've like done an amazing job, but what can you do if that's going to be true for you? Like, of course we want that to be temporary, set an end goal, wear some amber glasses at night. Seriously. I disobey some of these things myself, not because I'm trying to, because like I'm a human. We do dumb things sometimes, even when you know better. But putting on the night shift on your computer and then putting on your amber glasses, that will actually help your melatonin come up at night. Melatonin,

yes, it helps with sleep, but it's also an antioxidant. So if you are on birth control, this is a must. It's depleting your other antioxidants, but also this is going to nourish the brain and kind of undo what cortisol has been doing in the brain. Like oxytocin, those orgasms make time for sex, undoes the damage that can be done in the brain. DHEA, taking care of those adrenal glands, undoes that damage that can be done in the brain. So there's a lot you can do to still have your side hustle to get done what you need to get done. But I think the other thing that's really big is that entrepreneurs rarely schedule time to rest. It's just like doesn't happen. And I'm totally one of those people. I suck at celebrating my wins. I'm like, cool, done, next, cool, done, next. And I've really, I've like started a board in my house where I'm like, put up your achievements. Yay. We're celebrating it. It's like a reverse vision board of like the proof. I love that idea. Okay. So like here you are coming up to your period and you're getting hypercritical and you're like, oh, I do everything wrong. And should I even be doing this? And I don't excel at

anything. And then you look over to your board and you're like, oh snap, look at all of that. Look at me. Reminders because we can get in our head, which is like one of our powers, but we can get lost in there sometimes. So, you know, having that board is a really powerful thing, but also scheduling time of like, okay, I'm going to do this big thing. Maybe this big thing is going to take you six months and you're going to push it. Where's your vacation? Where's your time off? Even if it's a staycation, what are you going to do to reboot and recharge? Because if you're not doing that, then the signal that your environment you've created is sending your body is that the environment is dangerous. And if the environment

is dangerous, now we've got belly fat, brain fog, and we're not ovulating. So we're freaking out. We can't handle stress. So if you're somebody that's like, I feel like I'm at the mercy of stress, that's likely your adrenal glands. And if you get towards your period, like the week or two before your period, and you're like, I might break because of stress, you don't have enough progesterone. And so what's the answer there? Sure, I can tell you take rhodiola. It's an adaptogenic herb that improves mental and physical stamina.

So it's the go, go, go herb. I can tell you to bring in B vitamins and vitamin C, especially B5 and vitamin C so that you can nourish your adrenal glands. But really the answer is you have to change the lifestyle. The lifestyle is what has to change. And there have been studies. So I love work. Like I can definitely be a workaholic. I love what I do. However, there are studies that show that you'll get more done in like a 30 hour work week. It's so interesting when people get into that 50 hours or more, they actually get less done, like significantly less done. And so if you ever find yourself and like, I'm not judging anybody, I do this as well, where I'm like on my computer. I actually keep my business coaching group out of Facebook. We created a whole different platform because it's such a distraction. And the thing that I would find is I would get on there. I don't even like being on Facebook. And I would get sucked in and I'd be looking at stuff and then 30 minutes go by and I'm like, I should have used that time to meditate or to go walk or go make myself

some food or do something else. And instead of getting in the should have's, because that's what we all like to do, is be like, you should have done this. I'm like, okay, how can I disrupt this pattern next time? How can I do better? And understand this goes back to those neuronal pathways. So that neuroplasticity that you might have a habit of doing something, habits don't mean that like, this is you and this is who you are for life. You can always break that. And the first way you break any habit or really make a change is just to

turn up the lights on it and be like, I see it. I'm calling it out. I'm calling it out in myself. And I think it's really powerful to write things down or even say things out loud to yourself. I promise myself that next time I come into this, I'm going to do X, Y, and Z. Like I promise myself the next time I go onto Facebook to do this thing, I'm going to set a timer for 10 minutes. And when 10 minutes goes off, that's going to check me so that I know. Or maybe you're someone who needs to put a timer on how long you work. I used to do Pomodoros when I was in school. My husband is

great with those. I actually do better to just go Jeep and I'll be on PubMed for like three to six hours. Go, go, go, go, go. I'm like, yeah. That works really well for me, but it doesn't work really well for my physical body. And as the research comes out, we're like, oh God, that's like this bad as smoking. Like what? So recognizing that if you want to have higher productivity in work, like everything you do for your hormones, everything you do for your lifestyle, like that can 10X your growth right there. And like we said, just going for a walk, there are studies to show that people get more clarity out in nature and their stress drops. So if you can do something really simple like that,

if you're like, there's no nature around me, I live in like New York City, can you get a house plant and go touch a house plant and like be with it? Even these little things can make such a big difference. And by the way, if you surround your workplace with plants, people who have lots of plants in their workspace, as we sit in a place with, this is not your workspace but they have lower stress they feel less burnt out and they have lower blood pressure so they actually don't have that and blood pressure is a physiological response to the stress I love having plants around so many things I'm just like yes yes yes I'm a big fan of amber glasses I'm actually going to put a link in the show notes for anyone that wants to see the ones that I wear. I just came back from a flight to Hawaii and I wore them the entire flight. So

when I got home at midnight, I was straight off to sleep. Also a massive believer in that work-life balance. I used to be the biggest hustler, the Gary V train I was on, all of these things. And I actually realized I achieved so much more when I work less. And all of my clients, I'm like, when you're launching, work less than you've ever worked because you need to show up in your best, best possible way. That's not going to happen if you're tired. And let's keep in mind that Gary Vee has a wife. And this is something very, very different about being women in the workspace is that even though we're out there, we're making the company, whatever we're doing, we go home and we still have so much responsibility. And whether you have a child or not, you are a caretaker in some capacity. You've got siblings, you've got parents, there's all these things going on. And so that's

the other thing I like women to understand, especially like I will be talking with female doctors and they're like, I don't understand. I can't move as fast and I feel so tired and all this stuff. And like, and this doctor, him over here, like he was able to do it. I can't move as fast and I feel so tired and all this stuff. And this doctor, him over here, he was able to do it. He had a wife who also ran the front office and made sure that all of the patients, everything was taken care of, the staff was taken care of. And then there was dinner for him at home and someone picked up the kids and did homework with them and cleaned the house. And not to say men don't do that as well, but traditionally speaking, it's mostly women. So I think it's also something where we have to hold space for that as well. Is that yes, Gary Vee out there hustling all the time, also has a wife holding down the fort at home. If you are the wife or

the woman holding down the fort at home, don't hate on yourself because you can't hustle like that. And also if you don't like that, he loves it. He like loves that. Like that's like his jam. He like totally feeds off of it and it feeds his energy. If that's not true for you, nothing's wrong with you. You just need to figure out what's true for you. I know that so many women listening to this right now are just going, amen, amen, amen. Seriously, hit the nail on the head there. I love it. And you touched on a few herbs and things, but we didn't go into too much detail about it. And I really encourage anyone listening, if you are wanting to get a list of supplements that you should be taking, grab the book. I did the quiz in the book and I just recently had my

blood work back and every single result in the quiz reflected my blood work. I was like, this is amazing. It was just fully reflective. So go in the book, do the quiz, and then obviously all of the supplements are at the end. So just to wrap this up, 100% go and buy the book. I actually bought the book and then you sent me one, which is amazing. So what I'm actually gonna do is give away a free book to someone who's listening to this podcast.

So- Woohoo! I know. I love giveaways. I know. So if you're listening, I encourage you to buy it. And then if you win it, you can give this one to a friend

who you know would love it. So if you wanna win, all you need to do is take a screenshot of you listening to this podcast right now and just map your biggest takeaway and tag both of us at bossbabe.inc at I am Natalie and your handle is? At Dr. Jolene Brighton, D-R-J-O-L-E-N-E-B-R-I-G-H-T-E-N. Perfect. Tag us all. Give us your biggest takeaway. And we're going to select one of you in the next week or so to win the free book. And I'll post more specifics on Boss Babe. But yes, go get the book. And where can everyone else find you? And I know that you're generously gifting everyone an actual free hormone kit too. So where can they find you and the hormone kit? Yeah, you can find me at drbrighton.com, B-R-B-R-I-G-H-T-E-N. So it's Brighton like the sun, not like the jewelry.

And DrBrighton.com slash hormone kit. And we've got you locked and loaded with a meal plan, recipes, helping you understand progesterone, understanding birth control, really getting into all of this. So you can make your hormones work for you. And as we said, you can find me on Instagram. I love Instagram. It's one of my main places. And also YouTube, because I know we all learn differently. And so for those of you who really enjoy listening to videos and watching content, I am there as well. I love it. Thank you so much.

Thank you. If you loved this episode, please subscribe and be sure to leave us a review. We want to hear what you enjoyed, what your main takeaways were, and also really want to know who you want to see on the show. And speaking of reviews, I've also got a little something on my sleeve for you.

So I want to send you a copy of the Boss Babe 25. This is a brand new resource that we've created. And trust me, you are going to love it. So the Boss Babe 25 is the 25 essential resources you need for personal

and professional growth. Seriously, this little resource is like a little Boss Babe holy grail. You are going to love it. It covers everything from must-have products, our favorite books, rituals that we do daily, and little hacks to help you grow. So if you want a copy, it's really easy. Just leave us a review, screenshot that review, and email it to podcast at bossbabe.com that is podcast at bossbabe.com and we'll send you a free copy over within 24 hours we love bringing you experts and interviews from other successful business owners so they can talk about their experiences and share information tips and what has worked for them however remember

that the opinions or advice of our guests and as the hosts should not be taken as personal actionable advice and is given as general information and education only please always remember to consult a qualified professional before implementing any medical financial legal or other business advice to ensure it will work for you or your business boss babe is not responsible nor liable for your decision to implement anything you hear on the podcast. Please listen and act responsibly. The opinions of our guests do not represent the opinions or views of Boss Babe, Danielle Canty, or Natalie Ennis personally

and are meant as information and general education only.