Christiane [00:00:00]:
Well, hello there, and welcome back to the Happy, healthy Hustle podcast. I'm your host, Christiane, and I'm really excited to be here today with Michelle Abraham. Let's introduce Michelle. I'm so glad you're here. Thank you for coming.

Michelle Abraham [00:00:14]:
Well, thank you so much for having me, Christiane. I had so much fun having you on my podcast, and so I'm excited to be on yours today.

Christiane [00:00:23]:
Well, tell us a little bit about yourself before we really jump into your superpower. Who is Michelle?

Michelle Abraham [00:00:30]:
Sure. So I. Oh my gosh, where do I even start? But I can tell you quick 30,000 view is that I have a lot of fun in my life, and I've always, my tagline's been, I want to get paid to play. And so I've managed to do that a lot in my life. Currently, my husband and my kids and I live off the grid on a six acres on a lake in the Pacific northwest. So we're up outside of Vancouver on the Sunshine coast, and we have an off the grid lifestyle. So we live off the grid. But previous to moving here, I've been able to run my business from this small, little off the grid place.

Michelle Abraham [00:01:05]:
For the last few years, I've been in the podcasting space. So for eleven years I worked in podcasting, helping people launch the show, helping people manage their show, and helping people get booked on other shows. And so podcasting has been my world until sometime last year, where I just felt a little bit out of alignment with it and I wanted to spread my wings a little bit. So I decided to jump into things called aligned adventures and retreats and, and masterminds. So with my high vibe leaders program, so that's what I've been doing for the last year, which has been so much fun. We're doing retreats all over Costa Rica, Mexico, so much fun on cruise ships, all that fun stuff. But I still love podcasting. Still talk about podcasting is so a big part of what I do.

Michelle Abraham [00:01:50]:
And before any of that, I was in a, in the wellness industry. So I was a personal trainer at a gym, and I had ten boot camp locations across my province, and I did that for a long time before I had kids. So I've done a lot of crazy things and traveled to over 54 countries in the world, and I'm just all about having lots of adventure, fun, and helping people get their voices out there in the world in a bigger, better way.

Christiane [00:02:14]:
Oh, I love that you are connecting the off the grid together with podcasting. Because sometimes we think podcasting is that we need all this technology to really get started to make it a really good show, and that's what the success is directly tied into. And you are an inspiration that maybe that's not necessary at all. So let's get started with your superpower. Michelle, how would you describe your superpower?

Michelle Abraham [00:02:40]:
Well, I think this is a really funny question, because my superpower is connecting people, and I live in the middle of nowhere, so it's like, thank God for the Internet and Zoom, because this would be a really hard superpower to keep doing if I didn't have access to the worldwide web in front of me and, like, access to so many people in the world. So my superpower, and I've been doing this ever since I was a little girl, where I would bring my soccer friends together with my friends from school or my girl guide friends with my baseball friends, and we would go somewhere together. So I just love connecting other people and then sitting back and watching the magic happen when they find, like, they have something in common and they find, like, you know, in fact, two of my friends, I both got them jobs at a ski resort that I was company I was working for. They ended up getting married. So it's so fun. I just love connecting people in all sorts of different ways.

Christiane [00:03:31]:
I like that I can kind of, like, see, it's like Tinkerbell with her magic little wand.

Michelle Abraham [00:03:36]:
Yeah. And I just get to sit back and watch the magic happen as people connect.

Christiane [00:03:44]:
And, you know, sometimes people are actually more connected than what they believe. We sometimes underestimate, really, how close we really are to people around us. And I love that you're kind of, like, overcoming this feeling of isolation and loneliness, especially given that you are pretty isolated. It is an absolute amazing thing that you superpower is to connect people. Again, just as amazing as the podcasting on this place right there is also the connectivity.

Michelle Abraham [00:04:16]:
Love it.

Christiane [00:04:17]:
So what has been your biggest challenge in your life? Because it sounds like you enjoy fun, and you're definitely a very joyful person. But if you kind of think back what has been maybe a darker period in your life.

Michelle Abraham [00:04:30]:
Yeah, I think. Well, I think, like, on the surface level, my big challenge has been with focus because I have so many ideas and so many things I want to do. And it's like, I think it's an entrepreneurial, like, kind of a lot of entrepreneurs problems that focusing on, like, one thing where it's like, you know, I get bored of something quickly, and then it's like, when you get bored of something is usually when people are just starting to find out about it. Right? So focus for me has been a big thing, but that's like kind of the surface level big challenge. So I want to take you a little bit deeper. My real big challenge right now is something that I think is very much in alignment with what you do and with your work in this podcast, which is why I want to bring it up. So I was, like, mentioned before, I was in the fitness industry and I was personal trainer and had all sorts of fun adventures, having my own business and my own gym and everything. And then I had kids, and when I became a mom, I did, like, what? You know, you hear people do this and you're like, no, I'm not going to do that.

Michelle Abraham [00:05:30]:
You know, where I gave everything to them and I put myself at the bottom of the barrel. And so my kids are nine and twelve right now, and for the last, like, not twelve years, I put all my focus on them and have totally neglected myself. And I've gained a lot of weight and as a result of that and I've still managed to do everything and have fun and, you know, but my weight starting to get to a point where now it's like starting to affect my ability to do fun things with them. Or, you know, like the other day it was like, you know, was gonna go on a paddle board and then I'm like, I think I'm gonna sink the paddle board. Like, I don't think. I think I'm over the weight limit for the paddle board. And it's like, oh, if those things are now stopping me from doing fun things with them because of now where my health's gone to, that's a big problem. So, you know, it's always something that I knew I needed to address, but now it's just been glaringly, like, obvious, like, we really need to.

Michelle Abraham [00:06:23]:
When I start saying no to things because of my health is not a good thing. And our health is so important. And I know that because I was in that industry for so long. And so that's been my biggest challenge in the last few years, is just trying to not have guilt around taking time out for myself to take care of myself. And now it's become like an absolute, necessary, necessary piece. And I know my business is just going to explode more. So, you know, I have the success already, but it's going to get even more successful when I do pay attention to that health piece as well. I've been focused on all the other pieces except for the health piece, and I know it's the missing link.

Michelle Abraham [00:06:59]:
And I know it's the key to this success and everything else.

Christiane [00:07:04]:
Yeah. Actually, you're bringing up a point that me, many of the audience members will probably connect with and feel that they have in common with you because we're all struggling and not putting ourselves on the back burner. But then when you have children, how can you not right that kind of focus of your attention and you want to make sure that they are healthy and thriving. And by doing that, you frequently completely forget about yourself. So I really appreciate that you bringing this up, and I also really appreciate your honesty and sharing that with us. I always say that when you start saying no to others, that's really when others might not enjoy you as much anymore. But that is what I feel. You're on your journey now to doing.

Christiane [00:07:55]:
You're saying basically no, and I hope you're going to say no to the things that you feel are going to give you your time. Saying no to certain things so that you get the me time and improve your wellness will be your best path right now. And not say no to things that will actually increase your fun. So I love that response. And I think that by sharing that, many of us are probably nodding that, like, yeah, I am in that boat, or maybe I haven't been in that boat, very literally speaking, given your location right there.

Michelle Abraham [00:08:29]:
Yeah.

Christiane [00:08:30]:
What or who will help you and overcome that challenge? I feel that you have thought about this, and I also can't wait to hear what your plan is.

Michelle Abraham [00:08:41]:
Yeah. So, you know, it's funny because. And you'll like this answer because I think it's, it's. I think it's really aligned with what we're, what we're doing right now. So obviously, I have the knowledge and the experience to do it myself. Like, obviously I have. I have the background in that, but to do it for yourself is a whole different thing. So reaching out to other people, obviously, is going to be really.

Michelle Abraham [00:09:03]:
Is really going to be helpful for, you know, keeping on track and not feeling. Also not feeling guilty for taking that time out for yourself. Right. That's a whole other layer of, you know, knowing that now my children watching me go out and be active and going out to the gym is actually going to help, and it's going to help my, me better. I'll be a better person at home. So it's going to do everyone better when I am getting healthier, too. So my friend and I are kind of in the same boat, and her and I decided a couple weeks ago, maybe a couple months ago now to start recording ourselves once a week, we're just jumping on the. And we're recording ourselves talking about what are the things that we're doing this week to improve our health.

Michelle Abraham [00:09:45]:
And so we're calling it the joy diet because it's all coming back to how are we bringing more joy into our life? And as we're doing that, it's like, okay, things are unfolding. Okay, this is making more sense. I'm enjoying this process. So we're trying to bring the joy into it instead of making it feel like this huge amount of weight loss that needs to happen. That's, you know, when you call it weight loss, it finds its way back. It's not. We don't want it to. To find its way back because it's not.

Michelle Abraham [00:10:12]:
We don't want to find it again. So we're turning it around and making it something a little bit more fun. So I think, first of all, just having that accountability person to check in with and talk about things with every.

Christiane [00:10:23]:
Week, accountability is important. And I really love the name, too. It totally resonates with.

Michelle Abraham [00:10:29]:
Yeah, and we might publish it as a podcast one day. You never know. Right now, we're just private recordings. But, you know, when we get to the end of our journey, we might just be like, hey, I think people need to hear this whole journey as an honest perspective.

Christiane [00:10:43]:
Yeah. And just to the audience earlier, Michelle and I, we started kind of plotting a little surprise that will be coming out soon. So I would encourage the audience in staying tuned for some collapse that are coming up with regard to creating memories. And for you also maybe leaving legacies, but with that, that's all the seed I'm going to plant at this point. Point. How can we get in touch with you, Michelle, if the audience wants to find a little bit more about you without traveling across the country or the world or find you and taking a ferry to get to your location, how can we get in touch with you?

Michelle Abraham [00:11:23]:
Exactly? Well, thank goodness for the World Wide web, right? Love the technology we have right now. So you can find a little bit more about the ventures we take at aligned adventures, or you can take a look at our, you know, our high vibe Leaders podcast is just about to launch, and I'm all over LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and Michelle Abraham. So find me there.

Christiane [00:11:45]:
Thank you so much for being here today, Michelle. I would love the audience to check out the previous episode as well, which focuses on making memories and how we can maybe connect with family members through podcasting, which might be something you might not have thought about, but in the previous episode I share a little bit about the joy of making memories and with that share below what was maybe the most surprising thing you learned on today's episode and connect with me if you have any questions or if you have any suggestions for future episodes, I would love to hear from you. Stay healthy and happy and keep hustling. Thank you so much.