Inspired by The Sunshine

Welcome back to the Be Inspired blog where our goal is to inspire, inform, and include you. I’m Kati Whitledge, the founder of Be Inspired Salon. I am so happy to be here with you today. When I was thinking about what blog topic would be inspiring this week, I thought—how about Wisconsin weather? Yes! LOL.

Do you feel more positive and hopeful this time of year, and especially this year? Spring is on its way and the sun is shining more often. It feels like a new beginning. A new season. More warmth, sun, and growth all around us. More opportunities to get outside and more opportunities to be with others.

What are the things you’re looking forward to this Spring?

For me it’s the simple things. I’m excited to go for walks, take our son to the park, have BBQs, bonfires, and patio chats with our neighbors. There’s something invigorating about breathing in the fresh air—except now we now live in Waunakee, so the fresh air seems to always have a hint of cow manure here —but we’ll get used to it. Haha!

At Be Inspired Salon, we are looking forward to seeing more guests who are starting to venture out more often. We are excited to see new faces as well. We’re already experiencing more phone calls, interest, and appointment reservations. We are very thankful for this!

Three Spring Tips

In an effort to provide valuable information in this blog, I’ll share my top three tips for a healthy, happy Spring season.

1.       Continue taking Vitamin D

Though we are going to get more sunshine, I’ve learned that we never have enough vitamin D—especially in Wisconsin. Here’s an informative video on why Vitamin D is one of the most important supplements we can take. And if you’re in need of a highly effective and trustworthy supplement source, I highly recommend our friend and neighbor, The Healthy Place! Tell them we Be Inspired Salon sent you and you’ll receive 15% savings at your first visit!)

2.       Remember your Sunscreen

I’ve not been the poster child for sunscreen. I always thought that since I wasn’t out in the sun for long periods of time, or actually sunbathing, that I didn’t need to worry about it. I always wore sunscreen if we were at the beach or at an outdoor event for an extended period, but I never thought it was that big of a deal to skip it on a regular basis. That was until the owner of Aneu Med Spa, Amie Neumaier, handed my rear-end to me. What actually happened is, she told me that my injections and dermaplaning investments were worthless if I didn’t wear sunscreen. It was the worse bad-skin-habit I could make. It was an intense conversation and education—and I loved it! From that day forward I started wearing sunscreen a couple times. LOL. Kidding—I wear it regularly in the Spring and Summer now. Hey! It’s a start.

3.       Breath In, Sweat Out

I’m thrilled that our friends at Dragonfly Hot Yoga have reopened! This is their slogan—breath in, sweat out. I learned the importance of breathing after beginning my yoga practice at Dragonfly. We all tend to breath too shallow and fail to experience the substantial benefits that deep breathing does for our health! And I don’t’ know if you’re like me in that I need to attend the class to do the thing. Meaning, I’m not faithful to taking time to focus on breathing everyday unless I’m in a class and they prompt me to do it. Whether I’m in one of their on-demand virtual classes or in-person. I feel incredible and revived after breathing through a yoga class!

The movement is also so good for our long-term mobility. I once heard a quote that you’re as young as your spine is flexible. I’m not a great Yogi in the sense of looking super flexible or super fly while doing yoga, but I feel awesome—and that’s what it’s all about 😊

Let the Sunshine In

I hope the sunshine inspires you this Spring! Here’s to a bright, healthy, and inspired week, and season ahead.

Until next time.

Stay strong!

Welcome to the Be Inspired Blog

Hello everyone! I’m Kati Whitledge, the founder of Be Inspired Salon. We may or may not have met, but I want you to know I am grateful you are here! I’m beginning an initiative to share inspiration and at times, motivation, because we are all heavily distracted so what’s one more thing to pay attention to? LOL. But, for real, we have many negative distractions and I wanted to have a proactive hand in something positive to lean into, share, and think about. Do you ever just take time to think?

I’m sure we’ve all had plenty of thinking time in the last year, haven’t we? I don’t know about you, but I tend to get paralysis by analysis. I found myself so overwhelmed that I didn’t know what to do or where to start. I lived a reactionary lifestyle and as a result I found myself aged and worn down. But this is not a victim’s blog. This is a blog to rebound ourselves and find the victory we either once had or need to take hold of now.

To live victoriously, we have to choose taking ownership over excuses. Responsibility over denial. And accountability over shifting blame. Only then will we reap abundantly the positive things we sow. Or to put it plainly, we will get what we want in life!

Back to the Basics

I recently met with a friend to catch up and share how things have been going this new year. I’m grateful to share that this year is off to a fabulous start. It hasn’t been without bumps or bruises, but it’s new, it’s refreshing, and it has the potential to be whatever I believe it can be. What do you believe is possible this year?

Meeting for coffee seems so subtle and yet what an impact it is to have face-to-face human connection, especially with someone who knows you—like the real you—and still loves you. When you are with someone who genuinely cares for you and wants to see you win at life, you’re able to gain perspective that you may not otherwise see. Think of it as a thirty-foot view of your life. How often are you taking time to look from that vantage point?

The beauty of our friendship is, we do this for one another. We share our hopes, fears, and challenges with one another and then give each other feedback—never dressed up or down—always raw and honest. My friend has seen me at my best and my worst. Who’s the friend in your life like this?

To give you a backdrop here, there was once upon a time when I had shed over 95lbs of weight. I was a fitness machine and working machine. I was growing Be Inspired Salon while simultaneously starting a software-as-a-service company, and an industry business podcast. I felt unstoppable. That was, until we got pregnant. That was a curveball I hadn’t prepared for. What I mean is, I wasn’t prepared for pregnancy to be a trigger for food. Lots and lots of food. We were thankful to start a family, but I was not ready to respond to the temptation of hiding behind a belly bump. Long story short, I’ve not bounced back from the baby weight and my baby starts 4k next year—so that’s embarrassing.

Fast forward to 2019 and I had trimmed up a bit. I was definitely more active and starting to feel pretty darn good about myself again. But then—Covid. Another debilitating trigger that caused me to spiral down like a kid on twisting park slide. Down and down I went. Or should I say, up and up the scale went.

So here I am at coffee with my friend, not living my best life, and ashamed of the defeat against myself. I shared with her that with all the struggles that presented themselves in the last year, what I’m most upset about is, my self-sabotaging behaviors. And deep down I desperately want to get back to the real me that’s somewhere inside this oversized shell. Do you have behaviors you’d like to eradicate this year?

In such a simple way, as it often is, my friend asked me, “what did you do the first time you changed your life in a significant way?”  Boom! This is what we refer to as a blinding flash of the obvious. Just because we are living in a new season of life doesn’t mean that there’s some new magic process to achieving goals you’ve achieved in the past. Or new goals for that matter! The lightbulb went off.

I shared with her that what I did before was I started reading The Compound Effect, by Darren Hardy. I started writing down everything I ate, every workout I did, and I joined a support group. She listened and lovingly said, “it sounds like you just need to go back to the basics.” And she was right.

I hurried home and opened my Audible app, downloaded The Compound Effect, and started listening. I got out an unused notebook and marked off pages with dates to track food and workouts. I started a little competition with my brother-in-law that if I miss my goal of five workouts per week, I will pay him five dollars per day that I miss. He’s doing the same for his goal of waking up at 5am every day. There was no significant meaning of the number five here, just happens to be a similar trend.

When I started listening to this book again it was a divine reminder of all the most important things I had forgotten about. And having new experiences and years under my belt, it was also like hearing it for the first time. Isn’t it funny how perfectly timed things can be? It has all reinforced my mission. Timing matters. And the time is now.  

Is it time for you to go back to the basics? What one or two positive habits would you love to see compounded over the next twenty-four months? Who can you reach out to that will genuinely support you and hold you accountable?  And again, what do you believe is possible for your life?

Let’s do it!

Until next time,

Stay strong.

What is Your Daily Agenda | Part 2

A couple weeks ago we talked about the book, "Today Matters" by John C. Maxwell. The key to success is found in your daily agenda. In other words, what are your daily priorities? Are you running your day or is your day running you? 

I wanted to share my musts for each day. I literally create an agenda sheet and print a new one each week. It's my version of checking off my goals. Am I the only one who loves doing that? I thoroughly enjoyed having a curriculum in school or when I was off to a sports or bible camp. I found that I struggled with consistency once I became an entrepreneur. It's not that I didn't work. I actually worked day and night. So much so that I lost balance and family time, among other areas, suffered. 

Each day I must: 

• have a daily quiet time/devotional
• post to my own social media sites
• work out
• read or watch an educational video
• write
• plan (blogs, podcasts, mastermind topics, social media, etc...)
• laundry-- ha!  "It's easier to keep up than catch up"

In addition to my daily musts, I have weekly goals and/or restrictions as well as monthly tasks. Oh, and like most of you, I have an ongoing to-do list that is dependent upon upcoming events, speaking engagements, etc... I once was told that I needed to focus on the behaviors that lead to results rather than the results themselves. It's a practice. It's continuous. And it works.

P.S. what I mean by restrictions is I set boundaries for my schedule. Okay, an example would be that I only allow myself to have two one-on-one meetings per week. I know if I go beyond that, the consistency of my daily routine will suffer and other important tasks or goals may not be met. I pre-plan open spots each week for those times when someone wants to get together for coffee. You dig?

Please reach out with yours or share on my Facebook page so we can high five one another and hold each other accountable :)

Practice Makes Permanent

Perfect Isn't Real

Practice makes permanent. Don’t screw yourself out of reaching your potential. You know, we’ve heard forever: practice makes perfect, practice makes perfect. No, because perfect isn’t real. There is no perfection. There’s progress. There’s reaching for better. But the decisions you make every day to either give it your all, hone in on trying to be as precise as possible, doing your very best; that becomes the type of mentality you have, the type of professional you are. Practice is going to make permanent. 

Don't Skip Steps

If you skip steps because you typically run behind or you’re busy or you think, oh, it’s unnecessary, then you’re going to produce results where steps are skipped.

Let me give you an example. When I was younger, I had piano lessons from a genius professor. I don’t even know what it’s called, and I’ll tell you why in a minute. But he made his own music. He was unbelievable. When I showed up for lessons I’d play the song my own way, you know, with my own twist. Which nowadays, if you were on any of the talent shows—like The Voice, and I know this year’s the last year for American Idol—they’re typically like, “Redo that song in your own way.” Well, I was like, “You don’t have to ask me twice. All of my songs are done in my own way.”

And I remember him—his name was Dr. Kushman—and he said, “Kati, once you learn to play this the way it’s written, then you may go and play it anyway you want.” What I thought he didn’t know, but he really knew, is that I wasn’t disciplining myself. I struggled with following the rules. And I didn’t practice faithfully the way I should have. Like most people who have ever played the piano, I can sit down and play a little bit of Fur Elise by Beethoven, and maybe a couple of other things. But it was two years of trying to be a pianist and because I was not committed to practicing as best I could and bringing my A-game every time, what permanently stuck was mediocrity. I didn’t produce great results, and it never led to anything. I never really committed to honing in on the craft. I wasn’t any good and I gave it up.

Practice Makes Permanent

So here’s an example on the flip side: Practice makes permanent. I remember showing up for a work out one day. And I’m a little bit egotistical. I really pride myself—you know, if I can’t be the fittest, the skinniest, then I’m going to be the strongest, the most bad ass. And I remember showing up to one of my workouts and there was this petite, really pretty girl who came with her amazing outfit, and she was a boss. She was lifting heavy, going fast. And I was like “Oh hell no. Okay, I’m not going to let this happen.” So it was Christmas Eve, and I put on all this weight to do a dead lift. Even the coach looked at me and was like, “Oh, that’s a lot.” I think it was like 230 pounds. And he said, “You know that’s 230 pounds?” And I said, “Yeah, I know, I got it, okay?”

And no…I didn’t. The second time around in the circuit we were on, I pulled up and—pop—something in my upper butt cheek snapped. And I set it down and I looked at him, and tears were coming up in my eyes, and I was like, “…I have to go, I have to go now.”

Luckily I called my chiropractor and they were willing to see me on Christmas Eve. So I went in, and I had a herniated disc. Long story short, this was probably a little bit of a tear in my upper buttocks/lower back. So, that was really stupid. And I probably could have been like, “I’m going to give up, because that’s embarrassing and I made myself look like a huge A-hole.” But instead, I decided: I really want to get good at lifting properly. So I scaled it way back, I took my time, and two years later, my deadlift max is 245 pounds. 

And I feel like obviously that’s not perfect, it’s not the best it could ever be. But it’s a hell of an improvement and I do it safely. Why? Because practice makes permanent, and I took the time to scale back and do things step by step.

Reach Your Full Potential

I think sometimes as beauty professionals—especially if you’re fresh out of school—you want to be a Master level right off the bat. You don’t want to be level one! You are in school and you’re subjected to that level and you come into a working environment and you want to get on the floor right away, you want to get after it. I totally get it. I was that same person, no surprise. 

But there’s something to be said for taking your time. Now, luckily, I had skills beyond the technique that brought me significant success, even fresh out of school. And I’m going to get into those in topics to come. But I dove into as much education as possible, because all of the sudden I realized…I am around fantastic professionals. These hairstylists, barbers, they’re doing work at whole other level. And instead of basically faking it until I made it, there are instances where that can happen, but also instances where you need to take a step back and say, what do I need to do to get from here to there?

And friends, do not skip steps. Because if you do, you are screwing yourself out of reaching your full potential.

So let’s end it with this: practice makes permanent. 

Motivation Is A Choice, Not A Feeling

"I just don't feel like it." We've all heard this, we've all said this or have felt this way at one time or another.  But our feelings may need to be ignored if we want to accomplish our goals. 

New Mindset

We must think about motivation differently if what we say we want is actually what we truly desire.  An example is weight loss. Now that the new year has started, many of us are super motivated to change our physique. Bodybuilding.com shared a study that finds 73% of people who set fitness goals as a new year's resolution will give them up. 

When we feel unmotivated we must tell ourselves it's NOT AN OPTION. If you make the decision to increase your profit margin by 5% then the actions necessary to reach this goal are not options, they're scheduled commitments. 

Get Fired Up!

Start each day on purpose. If you worked at a coffee shop and you were opening the store tomorrow, you'd have step by step procedures to make sure everything was ready to go by the time the first customer walked in. We must also treat our personal lives the same by having a consistent process for each day.

Depending on your goal, you may begin your day listening to a sales podcast. If your goal is improving the performance of your team, you may start your day with reading a chapter in a leadership book. If you're like me, you feel very motivated when the right music is on. For some, it's going to yoga to meditate and set your daily intention. The point isn't what you do, it's doing what works for you consistently. 

Just Show Up

Overthinking will kill your joy and waste the time you could've had focusing on achieving your goal and/or accomplishing your tasks. If you're a writer, you may not feel like writing today and on all accounts you're not motivated. But you sit down, you show up and you start to type.  

If you're goal is to improve your physique but today you're swamped, you had an unexpected call to deal with and you're sore from yesterday’s workout, you may start to think that it will be okay to skip today's workout commitment. This is THE moment you become one of the 27% who start a new fitness goal and it becomes a part of your everyday life. Why? Because you ignore the manipulative self-talk and instead you just show up. I believe in hindsight you will say, "I'm so glad I came." 

Accountability

Accountability partners are powerful resources. Personally, I thrive by having to check in with my accountability partners. And I want you to know I have multiple partners for multiple areas of life. I have a fitness coach, a business coach, a financial adviser and a spiritual mentor. When I'm talking to them I'm confronted with a.) how much progress I've made and b.) what obstacles I need to overcome.

And I never want to sound like a child who's asking their parent permission to not have to clean their room. Maybe it's my pride but I believe if you make another person or group of people (social media) aware of what you're working towards, it's unlikely that you fall of the wagon. At least I believe it's much less likely to fall too far for too long.

Recap

Friends, keep the finish line in front of you at all times. Choose to ignore feelings that don't bring you closer to your mission. Get your ass fired up each and every day. Just show up and focus on action. And finally, find someone who has your back to keep you accountable for your life and its direction.