INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I’m Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and business fitness coach. I’ve trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it’s the antidote to fear. Each week, my guests will bring Bold, Executable, Intrinsic and Targeted steps that you can use to out yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It’s a practice, not a perfect. Let’s get started.

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EPISODE

Lesley Logan – 00:01

Boom! Hello, we are recording.

Lesley Logan – 00:04

Oh my gosh, okay. Y’all, I just, just know that you’re this might end up just being like you listen in on two girlfriends having a phone call because I can’t promise that it will be a professional interview for you. And Erika Quest is one of my favorite people. Favorite woman in this planet. She, we met basically, I think she emailed me first. But I remember like jumping up and down when I saw her name on the email, and we’ll talk about that, I’m sure but through the years have just gotten to know each other, and then through the pandemic, because neither of us were flying all over the place. We got to actually have weekly phone calls, and I’ve been able to watch this woman, just take her dreams and make them happen. And we’re going to talk about that here today. Because I think it’s I know her story is going to resonate with a lot of you. And so with that Erika Quest, welcome to the Be It pod. I’m so happy you’re here. Can you tell everyone a little bit about you?

Erika Quest – 01:00

Oh, my gosh, first of all, can I just tell you, it’s so hard for you to not talk over you because usually, it’s Friday night, we’re just hanging out like girlfriends, so I’m trying, I’m gonna try so hard to keep me on my best behavior if you can, because we all know or your listeners are going to know that I definitely have the gift of gab. So first and foremost, thank you so much for having me as your guest on your new podcast, which will be an amazing resource for so many different types of people and entrepreneurs and solopreneurs out there. I’m Erika Quest like Lesley mentioned, we go way back in this fitness and wellness industry, I feel like I’ve lived in my life have said upper 40 somethings at this point in time if you’re listening or watching this, at least, at least nine lives. And maybe we’ll dive into some of those lives during this podcast. But currently, I am an entrepreneur, I’m based in Southern California, I currently still own a brick and mortar Pilates studio in beautiful Laguna Beach, California for a little bit longer. I will have had that for about 18 years by the end. But I do a variety of different things. And I’m sure we’ll talk about that marketing. Just built out a new educational platform, which is in process and all of those good things, but more than anything, it is a joy and an honor to be here with you one of my best friends Lesley Logan. And I couldn’t be more proud of you this podcast and all of the things that you’re doing in our industry and in your life.

Lesley Logan – 02:22

Oh, wow. Thank you, thank you so much. I, I am I’m working on taking compliments and like just like taking them in and like receiving it’s you know, it’s one of those things like, Okay, thank you. And now let’s put it back on you.

Erika Quest – 02:37

Yeah, it’s so hard for me to. So just take it, say things send email

Lesley Logan – 02:42

It must be, it must be the way we were raised. I think (Erika Quest: It did)

Lesley Logan – 02:46

No offense to my parents. They did the best they can. I actually

Lesley Logan – 02:53

I really am. So I want to dive in a little bit like, give people a little because you did say you’ve like nine lives in your, in your lifetime with what you’ve done. And I felt the same like, I mean, I, I worked at a jewelry store. I still think diamond pretzel necklaces, y’all and $500 bags, I had initials on them before the recession. So like I, that was my life. And I thought I was gonna run boutiques and didn’t. You and I became a Pilates instructor. And you, you also had this very interesting thing before you’re Pilates instructor. You, you were in corporate?

Erika Quest – 03:25

Yeah, well, I mean, if we can even go before all of that if you if you want to go way back, but let’s at least start with the 20s. Okay, so I like to preface this actually a good way because this is something that I actually feel very confident for the first time probably in my life in the last five years being very vocal about and not in a bad way. But I’m a proud college dropout. So I think that, that is always an interesting fun fact for people to learn about me because people just meet me and I think, they think that I’ve gone through my you know, college degree, maybe gone on and had a master’s degree. Now I put my husband through his master’s degree and his teaching credential because of my corporate job. And it doesn’t mean that I’m not educated, I most certainly am educated, I have gone to college. And I’ve done, you know, obviously continuing education in my field in education in the field that I currently work in for years and years and years. But one of the things that I did not resonate with was college, it was not kind of like a vehicle for me. In my 20s there was a lot of variables at the time I was a young married woman, I was having to commute to a four year college, I didn’t feel connected. We’ll talk about connections and community I’m sure on this podcast. And so kind of my journey into the corporate world was a bit haphazard but also not because you hear me say this all the time, Lesley, but your listeners probably haven’t or some of them haven’t where I say there are no coincidences. They’re only divine appointments. Right? So Lesley is a divine appointment of mine in my life. There are many divine appointments along the journey of my trajectory in my current career now, we’ll go into that but also for when I was just a mere 23 years old and fell into the world of ad, ad agencies and marketing. I happen to know a friend who worked at an ad agency and I had this thing called a put together resume I was working in a, a senior living care facility at the time and she’s like well let me just submit your resume and we’ll see what happens you know say this all the time loyalty is a relationship. Right? That was a relationship that I had back in the day. And she submitted my resume and there was one word on there that resonated with whoever read my resume and that was put together tv, the word tv was in there and they were looking for at this particular company at the time somebody who could work with the stars on core network team to put together care packages and packages for all of their movie premieres. Right? So I like to say my entry into corporate was in the world of trinkets and trash because I did a ton of promotional merchandise. And that was, that was my first entry and then that trajectory carried me along to selling a whole lot of cheeseburgers and shelf stable. So I don’t want to be labor that conversation but in my 20s I had such a sharp trajectory in the corporate world in ad agencies and I learned on the job which I, it works very well for me to learn that way and I know Lesley you’re the much the same way as I am. It’s like throw me into the fire that’s what works for me I just say yes and I’ll figure it out along the way. I’ll ask the questions that I need to ask but yeah, by the end of my big leap into taking the biggest risk of my life at 30, I, by that time I was my my big clients were in the fast food market the shelf stable market so Nestle I can say all these names Nestle Purina Petcare, you know Unilever’s. So and then also burger King Johnny Rockets and Del Taco, so it’s kind of crazy that I was in my upper 20s managing upwards of $27 million international budgets for these companies.

Lesley Logan – 07:05

I mean, just insane and there’s so much to unpack in there and I but, I want to highlight the college dropout thing because I really do think that so many people hold themselves back from doing the thing that they want to do, be it until you see it. Because they think, oh, I don’t have that education. Oh, I don’t have a college degree. Oh, I can’t afford that kind of education. And today like you can get an MIT degree for free online. You don’t get the actual certificate but you can get the education. And, and I joke all the time, like no one ever asked to see my Pilates certificate. No, no one ever does. 

Erika Quest – 07:37

True. Actually no one even asked to see your college degree these days too. And, and that’s the thing is, is that it’s, it’s and I’m not like I said I’m not dumbing down a college education, I think that it is absolutely for certain people. It was for my husband. He’s a teacher. He needed a teaching credential. He wanted to get his master’s degree in cross cultural education. For me, I consider myself a scrapper. Right? So if this is something that is innate and inherent in my personality, it doesn’t become a, it doesn’t happen, it didn’t happen because I wasn’t raised well. I was, I grew up thankfully and gratefully in a very nice upper middle class family but I was also talk to have morals, to have ethic and to have grit. Right? So I had a job by the time I was 13 years old, I had already been babysitting, I was a lifeguard. They actually let me be a lifeguard at 13 back in the day isn’t that crazy (Lesley Logan: So crazy) and so I just kind of have this work ethic piece to me and then in addition to that, I just, I’ve never, I don’t know if you will relate to this Lesley and maybe you haven’t heard me say this but I’ve actually never worried about having money and I know that might be a different story for you so but let me explain the having. When it comes down to me and having to make money I’m a scrapper. I will literally if my brick and mortar studio which in the last year if you’re listening to this we’ve been in a pandemic and the last year brick and mortars have been up and down and open and closed and that was a good stream of my income along with my travel. I usually and typically the first person to say, great, that’s not working. In this case I developed another platform but oftentimes, you would find me selling used cars on the side of the road if I had to. Like I’m not that kind of a person where I’m, I worry about, oh my gosh, what am I going to do? I’ll figure it out.

Lesley Logan – 09:32

Yeah, I resonate with that in a different way like I do believe I can create money now. And but I was raised without it. I was raised with it always being gone and so I, I’m a great scrapper because like I had to be, like I was (Erika Quest: Yeah) like okay like the shoe just dropped like how to go into gear and like even when the pandemic happened and people were like, oh my god, what’s happening? I’m like, okay, what can we do like? I like, that’s like my superpower, oh ish to hit the fan. Alright, what, how I gonna fix this. And so that’s survivalism Manson, I mean, but uh, but in the last few years of working for myself, only, I have seen the power of, how I can create money based on the mindset that I have and the grit that I have. And if you’re willing to take action, and you can do anything, and, and I do agree, if school is for you, I have a college degree cost $80,000, I got to pay it off.

Lesley Logan – 10:26

And I remember, (Erika Quest: That’s not a big deal.), oh my god, that’s not a big deal. I remember, that I remember when I became Pilates teacher. And like the, you know, the tuition for that was like, I don’t know, $8,000 at the time, not cheap, but like, compared to my, compared to my private school education for college. That’s a drop in the bucket. And I remember thinking, gosh, like, I really wish I just discovered Pilates at 18, I would have saved myself a ton of money. But going back to your divine appointments, because I think that is so good. And I think we have to really hit on that. You know, they say people are in your life for a reason, a season or a lifetime. And divine appointments. Like I feel like you and I have just given it back to each other in different ways. But like, (Erika Quest: Yes), there’s a girl, who I hired when I worked in retail. And she is the reason I discovered Pilates. And I, she invited me to a class and I was like, no, now that’s an infomercial workout. It can’t do all those things. No, no, but I had no, like, didn’t have a lot of friends. Because I stayed in the town that I went to collage in and most people had left. And then I went to a private university. So a lot of them got married. (Erika Quest: Right) Here, I was like 22 single and running a jewelry store. And you know, didn’t have I had like my roommate. And so I was like, well, you know, to have friends, you got to go do things with them. So I went to the class, and I fell in love with it. And I don’t, I haven’t talked to her in since like, probably six months after that. But that’s because of divine appointments. And so, it’s so important like to pay attention to the people that you meet, or the things that people say that make your ears perk up, like notice that because that happened for you.

Erika Quest – 11:59

Yeah, it’s happened all along my trajectory. I mean, I can connect the dots a lot, like even jumping into the Pilates wellness fitness thing, which I’m sure will go that direction and moment, I can connect all the dots, all the way through on a three line. And I think it’s really important. Like I think oftentimes, you know, people say the term, don’t leave any leaf unturned. I totally get that. Right. So there’s, but there also comes a point in your life where like, Yeah, I know, I don’t need to turn that leaf over. You know…

Lesley Logan – 12:25

I’ve seen that leaf before. I know what that leaf does.

Erika Quest – 12:28

Yeah, we talked about, you and I talked about a lot, about, because we spit ball together and mastermind together and just be girlfriends together. We talk a lot about the difference between prospecting and free. Right? (Lesley Logan: Yeah) And so I like to really put that leaf that I don’t need to turn over, over in the free category, it doesn’t mean that I don’t do charitable things I most certainly do. I do a lot. And it also comes from a heart space. I’m an email right now that just came in today. And I’m like, Oh, yeah,you know, I want to answer that. That’s a, that’s, that comes from a heart space place. But there is a difference between prospecting and free and prospecting is part of that kind of like seeking that aligning with your touch points along that trajectory of your journey. Are they all going to be defined appointments are no, absolutely not. Right? So but it still is, in my opinion, worthwhile for you to put yourself out there to be like, yeah, okay, this works. This put me in front of a group of people that could have potential in the future, and or this is a great relationship that could have potential in the future. And then also, sometimes, sometimes that prospecting is just gonna fall by the wayside. And that’s fine, too. I think people forget that in this industry, whether you are an entrepreneur or a solopreneur, or a combination of efforts, and you still do work corporate, all just because you, you work for in a corporate environment and or you work for a big box gym, or whoever you’re working for. That doesn’t mean that you still don’t need to take key to relationships and touch points. And we talk about this all the time. And I say it to the ends of the earth in my business coaching and in you know, the, the course that I did for Profitable Pilates. Loyalty is a relationship in every single environment, right? And especially now coming out of a pandemic. Hopefully, I read that super, super awesome article that I told you guys about and if you didn’t hear it, I’m gonna repeat it here. If people want conversations, they don’t want campaigns.

Lesley Logan – 14:19

Yeah. Yeah, I love this. Um, you know, I think um, I think, I think a lot of people who are listening who are trying to do something, maybe they’re somewhere in their journey, maybe they’ve started the thing or they’re gonna start the thing or they’re thinking about thing. It’s boundaries becomes an issue and like prospecting free heartspace. And it’s important to know that no is okay. And also, but also knowing that like, you might say yes to something that doesn’t pay you, that does like as you say, it’s a prospecting thing. It puts you out there allows you to meet other people. I like to think of everything we do as like a kind of a rep, right? Like, it’s like, you know, do you got to get your reps in. The first time you do something isn’t always going to be the thing, right? (Erika Quest: Right) It’s not going to be perfect, it’s not going to hit it out the ballpark. And so, you know, be okay with starting at the beginning and being where you are. But then also for those of you who are not at the beginning, you got to recognize like, where you are and what you’ve done, and like what you know, and own that, because otherwise, we get a little bit resentful, I think of doing things that may not be in our price point, or what we feel as as what our worth is. It’s like, well, did you but did you put those boundaries up? Because typically, you know, we don’t put our but especially for women, like boundaries are really hard, we think, Oh, I gotta say yes to everything. Oh, I don’t want to offend anyone, you know? And so how do you like, what’s your process for like boundary setting for yourself?

Erika Quest – 15:47

Well, so it has to ladder up to my value system. So that’s a, that’s a big one for me. And a lot of people in our industry and the larger industry, especially in the entrepreneurial set, are talking a lot about finding your why, which is great. It’s, I’m not trying to change that conversation, that’s a great way to try and figure things out. But in my world, as you know, Less, I have value propositions and so if, if my value propositions are in what I call my system to thinking actually not what I call give credit, or credits to Erika, what Dr. Susan David calls system to thinking. And so my value propositions lie in a system to thinking environment, where it is a response based rubber meets the road environment. And so if I’m being asked something, if I’m being wanted or needed, or can you do this Erika? I usually think a variety of different things. But I, I think long and hard does this ladder up to my value propositions or what I’m doing with not only myself, my brand, my brands and my businesses? And if not, that it’s okay to be okay with that and still respond and or not react, hopefully, but react or have that kind of system one thinking conversation if that does happen. So for me, I, like I said, it’s it’s an internal conversation with me before it’s an external response to somebody else, because I really feel that if you have aligned with your value propositions, your value statements, because they can shift and change, and they should shift and change and metamorphosis, along the trajectory of your journey. Yes, it is kind of like a more distilled down version of your mission, vision purpose, it’s a little bit like lesser, it’s not lesser thinking. But it’s a more condensed way of thought. And it helps you keep your blinders on. Because your blinders can come off real fast, especially now because of media and because of lack of focus because of social media. So the first thing I ask myself is, is does this align with your value propositions? And then if I say yes to that, then I’ll start to move forward and see how I want to respond to whatever I’m being asked to do.

Lesley Logan – 18:03

Yeah, I am, I really love that, that internal conversation before an external one, I think a lot of people don’t have the internal one. They just think about how they’re responded that with the external one, and then they there’s regrets or like, Oh, I should have said this instead. And I definitely, as a doer, as like an activator kind of person. It took a lot of practice for me to like, read the thing and be okay with hitting it as unread. (Erika Quest: Yeah), you know, taking some time and like asking myself, why do I feel like this? Why, why is this making me feel like this? Because sometimes those reactions have nothing to do with the person who sent the email. It’s the co like, collision of other ideas and other feelings (Erika Quest: Oh, 100%. Yeah.) they’re having… And that person like, you know, triggered that or, like, got in there and like, maybe it’s an excited thing, but also like it sometimes you get to accident, like, wait, this was not the thing to get excited about. (Erika Quest: Yeah) It just sounds like the thing to get excited about can go either way. And I, so I really, I really like that I also, you know, that the whole starts with why or what’s your why, you know, when I first became a Pilates instructor, you know, which was like my first real business, you know, actually I used to design shoes, but that’s a whole other thing. I used to (Erika Quest: … shoe line girl) I know, shoe line, I saw girls and Bloomingdale’s wearing my shoes. It was so fun. Anyways, but, but my first time actually thinking I had a business and was starting something. I, the best I could say was that I just really loved Pilates and it made me feel really good. And I want other people to do that. And I think a lot of people like but it has to be deeper than that. It gets deeper over time. Like you don’t always know why you’re doing something like with the depth of like a Dean Graziosi, seven layers of why. It took me until last year, I finally was able to get like really down in deep. Like you’re I don’t know 13 (Erika Quest: Yeah) 14 in my business, it took that long for me to go. Oh, whoa, all of that stuff. My job. This is why I do what I do. (Erika Quest: Yes) So I feel like we people I love what you said there because like just take the pressure off, like what are your values? Like those you should know and (Erika Quest: Totally) then like they’ll change with you and that’s good.

Erika Quest – 20:07

Yeah. I mean, I mean Lesley Logan as I met her you know 6,7,8 years ago with the start to the book with you know, Profitable Pilates everything but the exercises it, isn’t not an entirely different human being authentically. Authentically you’re still the same person but if we look at even just a year trajectory with your business says that you have developed you know, be it retreats about that be it you know, your membership based platforms be it you know, your coaching business, like if you think about from then to now your value propositions would have to metamorph besides because if they didn’t, then you would be stuck, you know, and I think people get so hooked into this like, oh okay, well then I know I’ve figured it out. Now I can’t deviate. No, famous last words from Lesley Logan to me all the time. When I was on the road with her and or without her and or we would meet up in said city and I was like, What am I doing? I want to do this thing. She just looked at me and go just get started. Just get started. Yes, she’d give me advice, kid, go to your room right now. Go to your hotel room, not in a bad way. Go to your hotel room. Go and go Daddy, look at these URLs by them. You know, like simple just get started advice. And honestly, I feel like the actionable steps are what are in the system to thinking and we will be talking about system two and system one thinking, this is a tease and this podcast will be up now and forever more but Lesley and I have a program coming out where Susan David’s work is going to really drive hard in my mindset piece. Because system one thinking is very very necessary. And we didn’t talk about system one thinking. System one thinking is your pleasure center it is that reaction it is that, oh my gosh, I want to have a glass of wine. It is that oh my gosh, I really want to have that bag of potato chips right now. And honestly, we need that system one thinking at times. It’s fun, it’s like really enjoyable. It’s that dopamine dump that we want and you should let yourself happen you also should realize that there’s consequences to system one thinking and be okay with that as well. We’ve all had them nobody’s perfect, right? (Lesley Logan: Yeah) I’ve had consequences to my system one thinking whether that’s a glass of wine that I probably shouldn’t have, and I got bad sleep that night. And or, you know, maybe a conversation that I just wasn’t ready to have and I was in my system one thinking when I had it if that makes any sense. System to thinking? I know this is a tangent but I think it’s really important for people to hear this. This is system to thinking is when you can get actually emotionally granular. You can actually get out of the hole. Oh my god, I’m so effing pissed off phase into Okay, what’s, what’s the value behind why you feel pissed off? Right? So I’m pissed off because I feel agitated that I didn’t give myself enough time to be able to accurately respond to said conversation. And now I’m on the under the gun of a deadline. That is a whole different way to approach something in your life, then system one, does that make sense? Or am I confusing?

Lesley Logan – 23:07

It makes some… No, you’re making too much sense. Because I also think that so many people when they’re trying to figure out or trying to do something when you want to. So let’s just say like, whether you want to start a business, or maybe, you, maybe this, maybe it’s like, you want to have more time for your spouse, and you get frustrated because an email comes in, and then you snap at the pissed pause, but that’s the person I spend time with. It’s actually because if you were to take the time the system to thinking it’s, you haven’t given yourself enough time, to do the things that matter to you (Erika Quest: Yes) that so now you’re frustrated and, and just like any frustrated person, you’re snapping at what’s in front of you. (Erika Quest: Totally) And so I, I really, I really encourage like, if you can give yourself time for this, why am I thinking this? Why am I feeling this way? You’re going to notice patterns. So my, my amazing therapist is a leadership coach as well. And she’s somatic. And she’s like Lesley your brain. Like, there’s tons of studies on how like our brain just likes the easiest way because it, to do things because it takes the fewest calories once it’s already created the response to something, it knows that response and it’ll just do it. So you have this groove in your brain. When x happens, I react this way. And it just over your years, like you can look back and go, that’s why I can go zero to 60 over something. It’s because the group is so deep and ingrained. It’s in there. And so system to thinking makes us pause and reflect on like, why you’re feeling the way you’re feeling? What is it that you want taking the time and you can actually, probably realize, wow, I’m actually just not giving myself enough sleep.

Erika Quest – 24:38

Yeah. And or I need to challenge myself and get out of that groove and address the issue at hand because most people will just revert back to what your coach said and what you said, the easiest way out and actually, we’re not supposed to be fully joyful and fully happy a 100% of the time. For that for our lives to actually be sustainable. Lovely, fully flourishing, we actually need to move out of the groove into the wave and wade into the weeds and learn from that and challenge ourselves and get out of that kind of just simple thinking mentality, the system one mentality and you actually put it very well to in a way where I pick up on things that you say all the time and vice versa. So when I talk about system one, system two, you talk a lot about, like, the space of being an observer and the space of being a judger. Right? So would you agree that and here I am being the host of the podcast, sorry, that I like being obser and observer is where you’re really in that system to space. Being a judger is when you’re in system one, let’s put that in the super pedestrian way because I’m, I, I’m at fault for these types of things over you know, the Instagram generation to where it’s like, you’re scrolling on your Instagram feed, and you’re in that system one and you’re like, Oh, my God, what is this person doing? And or should I be taking my clothes off and jumping around on said piece of fitness equipment, so that I just have a bikini on and I get more indebted up, right? Well, maybe if that’s part of your value system, it’s not part of mine, personally, but if it’s part of your about value system, or their value system, it’s okay to observe that and go you know, what good on them, right? There’s a space where you can observe it and just put it away and, and kind of almost be like, root them on the go person, go human. Like if that’s working for you. And that’s part of your value statement, your value propositions, awesome. That would be coming from a space of observation, a space of judgment, would be taking the blinders fully off and being like, should I be doing that? Look at this person, that’s, that’s, that space of judgment, when you put yourself back in that dopamine space? You know?

Lesley Logan – 26:51

Yeah. No, I love, I love the observer, judger. Actually, there’s a episode we did with Joanna Vargas, and you would love her. She’s been in the fitness industry forever. She’s like a multiple entrepreneur, and she plays the questions game all the time. And in that podcast, we were talking about judgment and the question and curiosity, which I think observation is curiosity. Right? Like (Erika Quest: Totally) mean and like, and then like, letting your mind see what it is, right? And to me, she, like when you put a period on a sentence, that’s a judgment, right? So like, Oh, look at what she’s doing. That’s ridiculous period, right? Like, but if you’re like, Oh, I wonder like, I wonder what, I wonder why she’s doing that. I wonder how that’s working for her. I wonder, I hope she’s having fun. Like, I wonder if she’s having but like questions observing, like, over time. (Erika Quest: Yeah). Curious to it? And also, but if you find yourself scrolling, and you’re in that judgment zone, that is the time to hit mute. The time to get off, turn your notifications off. Because if you are in that space, again, it’s a groove you’ve made and if you are, if you’re listening to when I would love to be more insistent to, then you have to know you, it takes time, you’ll get faster at it. They’ll go, Oh, and system one thinking, Oh, I’m being a judger right now, oh, I’m reacting. When you notice that take moment, don’t get mad at yourself, (Erika Quest: Totally) because your brain only the things. And so if you are trying to change a habit or a mindset, and you get mad at yourself, when you don’t do the thing, your brain recognizes that as stress. And it’s like, oh, let me avoid stress at all costs every time (Erika Quest: Yes) I get stressed out so I’m going to not think about that. So you actually have to go. Good, good job. Good job lol. You thought about you just recognize how you were judging in that moment. So (Erika Quest: Yep), good job, you’re not going to know now what can we do, right? And so just (Erika Quest: 100%) like you and you can change, you can, you actually can pave over those grooves in your brain just takes time. And again, if you’re trying not to judge, that means you can’t do it yourself.

Erika Quest – 28:51

Totally! And also, you know, by the way that really helps with BDNF, which is based brain derived neurotrophic, the brain derived neurotrophic factor because you know, I’m obsessed with brain health. (Lesley Logan: You are) And so BDNF starts to go way down as we age, right? So if we stay in that groove all the time, our BDNF is going to end our neurogenesis is going to continue to deteriorate. So it’s really important, whether it’s, you know, conversations, whether it’s going for a little bit of a harder hike and or taking the dirt road instead of the paved road on your walk. That’s really, really important because that in and of itself will change and move you out of the groove. And you can do it safely. You know, I feel like oftentimes people feel like, oh my god changing things or challenging your routines and those kinds of things. And I’m listening, I’m not saying flip your routine because I have a heavy duty routine. So does Lesley they’re very important, but that you can also get stuck in that as well. And what Lesley was talking about a moment ago is that awareness piece. Right? As coaches and also as movement coaches, like I’m a movement coach and a movement

educator. Pilates based exercise is my mainstay, but I kind of like go across the board in a variety of different modalities. And program for a variety of different companies and modalities. It’s that awareness piece that we teach people as our clients as movers to be aware in their own body. And that’s something that’s very translatable to life. If I’m asking somebody to be aware of their posture, aware of what they’ve just done in this hour session of time with me and take that out into the world so that they can move better to live better, that should also be applied in daily life as far as conversations, as far as emails, as far as you know, the phone in front of your face all the time, and all of those types of things as well. And I think all of them are interchangeable. But I think there’s a saying in a recovery program out there that awareness is the first step to recovery. And it’s actually very, very true. So..

Lesley Logan – 30:45

Yeah. I, well, I think, like, in anything, you’re doing it anytime you’re trying to make changes in your life for, for, or start working towards something, you know, we all want to skip that beginning part because you don’t want to be in the beginning. No one’s behind. But the beginning is like, it’s the foundation. And if you are, if you allow yourself to be in that beginning spot and have that awareness and go, Okay, what are the things that I want to change? And what is this? Like? Yes, I, you and I, like I live in my routine for the morning starts the night before my whole day, like I can do shorter versions of my routine, I definitely have that. And I coach on that and how you can go, it’s okay, if like, you only have an hour to do your three hour routine, like week, (Erika Quest: Right) It’s work. But, a lot of people I think have routines that they’re not choices, like they just kind of fell into, and this is a habit, not by choice. (Erika Quest: Totally) And so awareness is the first key and making changes to that, you know, like, oh, wow, do I have, to have three cups of coffee in the morning? Or is that just the habit that I’ve created for myself? You know..

Erika Quest – 31:46

Yeah. And even that can change throughout your timeframe as well, like, don’t, don’t think that lovely in my routines haven’t drastically changed in the last year due to a pandemic, right? You know, so I’ve been out of my brick and mortar, the majority of time we both been off the road for a year now. And so our routines have drastically changed. And that’s another value piece where, you know, because you know the time work that we’ve lived in in 2020. And now 2021 of a pandemic. I just felt like when the rubber met the road for me, and I started building out level up movement, you know, my educational platform, I was like, I was back in it to win it. I was in a flow state. So I was actually, I allowed myself to not have a routine. But now that I’m establishing a cadence with the platform and setting boundaries with the platform, and bringing on a staff with the platform, I actually had this aha moment. And it was just a couple of days ago, I was like, you know what, Mondays are my day, because oftentimes I’m working all the way through the weekend. So Monday, is it like I am not scheduling any meetings, that’s my day to sleep sleeping. Fun fact about money. And I Lesley and I are early birds, I joke about her. It’s like she’s the only person that I can call it five o’clock in the morning and know that it’s actually up. So (Lesley Logan: Up) But, yeah, so it should absolutely those types of things should change as well, your values change with your life.

Lesley Logan – 13:15

That’s it, like, I think, if you’re an observer, then you’re able to notice like, Oh, I want to add this to my routine, or actually, this isn’t serving me anymore. And it’s okay. And it’s also okay to change them, like, you know, more frequently than annually, you know? (Erika Quest: Oh, totally!) Like, but yeah, it’s true. I mean, am I, I mean, with the pandemic, I did my very best to keep to like, do the morning routine that I had the night routine that I had at the time that was working for me, and then see how I could enhance it because I really was like, you, this is not the time to relax and let your guard down. This is a time to lean in, you’ve been wanting time, like specifically is having time, you have time but like keep your routines up so that you can stay alert and attuned to what’s happening. And then when I moved, that was so hard because I was like, Okay, well now I don’t have my run and it’s 100 degrees, so I can’t run. And like so like so it’s okay, if you’re in a place of transition right now to again, go back to the observation, like see what you want to keep from your old routine, see what you want to add in, have some fun with it. But like I can’t, I can’t stress enough like what I’m really loving about this is that system to thinking of that, that, that internal conversation of just really being an observer in your life and seeing how you can make changes to do more of what you’re wanting. I want to talk about level of movement a little bit because (Erika Quest: Oh), I really, I really what I loved about it, more of like how you got it, how you started it. And that because I think a lot of people might might be pretty much slain in their career, which is you were, we’re already like you things were going really really well. Your brick and mortar was going on while you’re traveling. It was playing well. And yet you had this inner desire to do something else to do something more. And so you and I were in Chicago or outside of Chicago, and it was a beautiful day or walking. And we had that talk. And what I loved or I want to talk about that was that I think a lot of people forget that like having a friendship, where you can like, share what you’re working on. There’s something really good about that, because you can get the words out and soundboard off someone. So do can you share a little bit about like, that time? And what made you want to start something new, even though like to the outside, I things are going really well?

Erika Quest – 35:34

Oh, yeah, well, I’ll give the cliffnotes of the Marketing Leads to brick and mortar. So that was when I was 30. And I thought I was done. I was like you’ve made it, Erika, you opened a brick and mortar studio, and then another divine appointment, walked into my life. His name is Jay Blahnik. He’s a mentor of mine, he’s happened to have his offices across from my Pilates studio and became my client. And he mentored me and said, Erika, there are way bigger things for you out there because of your public speaking background because of what you used to do. And he was the one that kind of pushed me into the education side of things, and applying to present at big conferences and those types of things. So again, power of the touch point, right, somebody that I met along my journey. And so that’s sort of how the conference presenting trajectory started to happen, relationship building, along that line. And that has spanned since 2009. I opened my brick and mortar in 2006. So this is kind of a good little timeline for you. And so there’s been, you know, relationship building along that whole entire thing. And then as I was working in the education field, developing curriculum for a couple of brands out there, as well as my own workshops, and CECs, I started to think when I was on the road, I was like, Where am I sending these people that I’m meeting all over the world, they can’t get to me unless I get to Korea, or they can’t get to me unless I’m in Dallas, right. And so I had had a vision to have an educational platform for a very long time, virtually, I just didn’t have the time to do it. And so with the pandemic, it again gave me the time and the space to really get started, as Lesley said, and our mastermind calls always held that we just schedule as girlfriends because also observing others such as Lesley, who has been in the virtual space much longer than many of us in the fitness in the wellness industry. She’s laid some really great foundations and ground rules that she’s happy to not only share, but you can watch her do and you can learn from them. Are you going to use some of her tactics? Sure. Are you going to not use some of the tactics? Sure, it doesn’t mean that she’s doing it right. And you’re doing it wrong. It’s just, it don’t play that game of comparison, guys. Like that’s the biggest thing, right? Comparison, (Lesley Logan: No, that’s judging) joy, right? Yeah, so don’t do that. But learn from other people. And I’ve learned so much from Less. And I’m so grateful for our friendship because of that, because of that. And that’s basically how level up movement was born, I thought it was going to be basically a pre-recorded standalone course online website, where when I wasn’t in Korea and or I was back on the road, you can just come back over there and get said course from Erika Quest, or said course on my active aging stuff, whatever you wanted, that I had put out there. But it turns out in this pandemic, that we’ve all learned that people want you in real time for real results for real information as much as possible right now. So my current business plan is to honor that market and honor the time that I have. And so I’ve created a livestream cadence around that. So I’m technically content curating in real time, because I’m doing the live stream events, once a month or twice a month, if possible, recording them and also then flipping them over into a pre-recorded course afterwards, kind of similar to what you’re doing on Profitable Pilates for your business courses. But I also feel really great about what I’m doing because it’s not only Erika Quest, but it’s a bunch of other epic, high level movement instructors and master level instructors, my mentors coming on which is a huge honor for me. And I feel so great. I have to say this, no hating on the fitness world but I am flipping the model. So I am flipping the model that you come on my, my platform and you don’t get paid. You come on my platform, you get paid for your content and you make a really good you know, good bit of money to do your live stream piece. And then you have the opportunity to double dip down the line if you should like to because I am sick and tired of people doing things for free because it’s dumbing you and I down and I’m not doing it anymore.

Lesley Logan – 39:33

I love this. I, I really love that about you like you, you had this idea. So this is why I want to highlight it’s that you had this idea of what it was going to be and then as you got into it and because of the circumstances we were in you, you observed and you had some, some thinking in your head and then you and you kind of made it possible to be a little bit different than what you had anticipated. I think that’s something really important that, you know, I’m a big fan of like knowing where you’re going like have (Erika Quest: Yeah) a picture of what you want, you have your value statements, like have a picture of what you want, why you want it, what it’s all about, like as best you can and then as you’re working towards that. Right? Like as you’re working towards that thing being okay with like, huh, well actually the people that I want to help need this right now. Because this is what’s happening right now and, and, and you know you have to system to think that you have to take some time because if you’re in reaction mode then you’re gonna actually just start doing things because you think that’s what everyone is doing. But you, so you have to be really mindful of yourself there if you’re someone who tends to like change ideas on a dime like then stick with your original plan. (Erika Quest: Yes) But if you’re if you’re in a place in your life where you can actually like observe and think and filter those through, like, I make decisions all the time like people like people wonder why took me so long to put a podcast. I’m like, well, it’s not like I haven’t wanted to do it, it’s just, it’s just that it took time for me to observe and figure out like where would this podcast live in my business is. Who are we serving? Wow are we serving them with that? And how is that coming along? And so I’m so glad that I waited, because, now it’s ready to be born, it’s reaching people on all things like I’m not just coaching business and I’m not just coaching Pilates, I really want to make sure that every woman out there every person listening to this is, like able to take something out of it for themselves and like maybe, maybe you don’t want to own your own business. But you could like take the idea of like system to thinking like, oh my gosh, my spouse or my partner or my children on system when thinking and, and, and you know and doing that so what, what I really love is that your, your, your experience, everything you’ve experienced is being brought into this thing and so I think a lot of people tend to look back at like their life and they they feel that, you know, the people that the jobs that they had. They are like all over the board, like you were with Del Taco and then you were at this and he had a brick and mortar. I mean some people might see those ping pong and you’re like no actually this is the weave that we made and (Erika Quest: Yeah) this thing and I think so many people if they would just take a moment to like acknowledge, how much they’ve learned in their lifetime and see it as a gift and how it’s actually the blanket that is, that is setting the stage to do a lot more with that.

Erika Quest – 42:18

You said something super important to that I want to touch on is that you know my trajectory my trajectory, your trajectory is your trajectory. And it’s very important that people also pay attention because I get the question a lot and I’m sure that you do as well. How do I do? What you do? And I throw it back to them and I say do you really want to do what I do? Because oftentimes people are not they think that they’re built for the presentation seeing they think that they’re built for teaching education developing education programming and or being on a stage but that actually might be an untrue statement for them. It’s just what they’re seeing and it might be what they’re comparing and or judging and or it might be what they’re observing. All of those are valid ,all of those are great but I oftentimes throw the question back to them and say, you know, you need to truly think about that from your value proposition, your value statement perspective because it might not be your trip trajectory might not be that you’re owning a brick and mortar. It might be that you’re like such a kick ass instructor in three brick and mortars and or you have a home studio. So it’s really about also compartmentalizing what works for you in your environment. I talked about this in my education. Think about your moving environment. How could you do these things that I’m teaching you using a stability ball in the moving environments with which you teach and right. You have to get creative as far as that’s concerned and I think that people also need to get creative and thought on not only what works for them but what they don’t want. I think they see you know your journey, my journey as like, oh that’s where I’m supposed to go. It’s actually technically not and also this is something that has taken me 18 years to get to in this industry. This is not an overnight sensation. I’ve applied for every single thing that I’ve done. I’ve paid money for my education. I have gotten turned down multiple times. I’ve had shit presentation multiple times. I’ve learned from all of that. (Lesley Logan: I’ve been there) And it is not you know, this doesn’t come off and this is not you know Erika Quest is sunny personality that is always happy, always joyful, always thoughtful. I try and stay in that space as much as I can because I am very blessed that I do have a lot of that in me. But it doesn’t come without failure and actually learned way more from my failures than I have from my successes. And I think that, that’s also something that’s very important because people are afraid, afraid to fail and especially the younger generation being married to a middle, middle school teacher. They are so afraid to fail and you know. (Lesley Logan: Yeah) In fitness like you talked about doing your reps. You got to do your reps, right? If you want to have bigger muscles or you want to have better looking abs or whatever it is you actually have to put in the work. And failure is a part of that work and if you think about it from a biomechanics standpoint we call that myelin wrapping. Right? The first repetition isn’t always beautiful sometimes it might be and then maybe you actually need to move on to something else but that myelin wrapping is very similar to doing repetitions. You got to do the work. Right? So Les and I talk a lot about in, in life and just in coaching. It’s like, we can give you all the information but you have to be the one to put to make the rubber go on the road. So…

Lesley Logan – 45:17

That’s just it. Like that’s, that’s the thing so speaking of that because we could look obviously (Erika Quest: I know, I know, I know). We could talk for an hour (Erika Quest: Wrap it up) so we’re gonna wrap it up but before we do so before I let you go we’re gonna, I’m gonna ask you a question about how you be it. How people can be it because that’s, that they have to do the work before we do that. Y’all, we have two ads so stay tuned. After this ad we’re going to actually come back with some things you can do to be it

Lesley Logan – 45:43

Okay. So Erika. I am, I’m, I really want to help people do the work because that’s just it like they can take all this information but just thinking it and listening to it doesn’t actually produce any results. (Erika Quest: Yes) So, I believe that be it till you see it as being bold or having executable goals or intrinsic values targetable situations like, how do you prioritize or what would your advice be so that someone could actually do the work to be in it.

Erika Quest – 46:18

Well, first of all look at your entire schedule and your entire life. That’s part of it. Because there are a lot of people that we encounter that are mothers and fathers or have children and so that’s, that’s a big piece that I don’t have in my life. I have four legged children and I love them but it’s a very different thing than having to homeschool children or you know have that piece of a priority in your life. I have a spouse that has a high priority in my life but I have a wild amount of not free time but time to actually do my own thinking around my schedule and being it. And so I can count on my hand over in hands over probably eight to 10 streams of income that I can have the opportunity to make right now. Did that always happen? No. Those happened over time. So in my scheme of prioritization, there are times when I’m looking at those and I look at them regularly. Right? This isn’t the one to your nine volt battery change in your fire alarms. I look at them sometimes on a weekly basis and I’m like okay this week I need to fan the flame over here because there are deadlines over here for said marketing retainer agreement that I have with a brand. And so I have to meet those deadlines. Then there are weeks where, that’s kind of you know that’s null and void. And Erika you have to present at these conferences. You have to get this, this and this done. So it’s, it’s about constant prioritization and then I’m not going to lie when you’re also starting to try and build a new stream of income. This is something I learned back in the day in my marketing and advertising world. Sometimes it’s about smoking mirrors. And what I mean by that is, it’s about talking about it and verbalizing it even though it’s not ready. Right? (Lesley Logan: Yeah) And so I’m not saying like sell somebody snake oil, I’m not saying that at all whatsoever but sometimes you actually need to verbally speak it and get out get it out of your mouth. I will give you a real time example for a program that Lesley and I are starting to launch very very shortly. Right. So this is a movement business and mindset coaching program, it’s going to be dynamic, it’s amazing. We’ve been talking about this verbalizing it with each other for about a year now. Right? (Lesley Logan: Yeah) We have known that we want to do something together, we’ve been talking about it the timing hasn’t been right for a variety of different reasons. Moves, pandemic, remodels all of those kinds of things but it took us that length of time to begin to talk about it and then at three o’clock in the morning Lesley knows that I get my most creative moments and I try and wait until five o’clock in the morning to send that text or that voice message. And about five months and five months ago the spark hit and so it took almost a year of talking about it, about six months and talking about it, the spark hit and now we’ve been in strategic development on this thing for the last 45 months. Writing strategy documents going back and forth on what we want to do with the whole theming and everything like that. And we’re getting ready to finally launch it. So if you think about that, that’s a stream of income that was lowly percolating a long time ago. But it was a lot of hand waving for about six months, seven months, eight months then the rubber started to meet the road when I got a spark, when Lesley got a spark and now we’re ready to launch. That’s a year and we haven’t even pulled in any income yet.

Lesley Logan – 49:39

Yeah. Erika, I love that because it’s true, it’s like you know I think a lot of people are afraid to say that what they are until they’re, they’re fully it. (Erika Quest: Yeah) Like someone has to deem them the thing (Erika Quest: No, don’t) I know, I don’t and and I will say like when I, oh yeah, when I wanted to teach workshops, you’re like I want to teach workshops, how did you get started I’m like I literally told people I teach workshops. I had created them. I can teach them. I teaching these workshops and I got my friends to let me teach workshops at their places so that I was doing that. Right? So you, I really love that advice. It’s so great Erika, where can people find you? Follow you from more…..

Erika Quest – 50:19

You can find me at my name, my name is Erika Quest is Erika with a K on Instagram. I don’t really do Twitter. I pick one and I do it as well as I can. You can find me on Facebook as well. And then the educational platform that is launching and scaling is levelupmovement.com and that movement is spelled m-v-m-t so it’s levelupmvmt.com.

Lesley Logan – 50:43

Perfect! We are going to have all of those amazing things in the show notes below so it’s super easy. Also everyone because I’m super super big fan of, of hearing what inspired you? What stayed with you? What, what caught your ear? Please screenshot this. Share this. It’s a way we actually get the podcast out but also, I know Erika and I very well. We love hearing what resonate with you. So screenshot tag us both on Instagram and your stories. Tell us what your takeaway is so that we can hear it and we will DM you back and and give you some more love. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you everyone for listening. And thank you Erika for taking the time. I’m sure we’ll have you back. You’re amazing. I just love you.

Erika Quest – 51:19

I love you so much Les and congratulations on all things for the podcast. Yey!

Lesley Logan – 51:24

Yes!!!

—

Lesley Logan

That’s all I’ve got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It podcast!

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Lesley Logan
‘Be It Till You See It’ is a production of ‘As The Crows Fly Media’.

Brad Crowell
It’s written, produced, filmed and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan and me, Brad Crowell.

Lesley Logan
Kevin and Bel at Disenyo handle all of our audio editing and some social media content.

Brad Crowell
Our theme music is by Ali at APEX Production Music. And our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.

Lesley Logan
Special thanks to our designer Jaira Mandal for creating all of our visuals (which you can’t see because this is a podcast) and our digital producer, Jay Pedroso for editing all the video each week so you can.

Brad Crowell
And to Meridith Crowell for keeping us all on point and on time.