August 30, 2024 • 36 mins
In this world we all have some kind of difficulty or trauma to work through. But where does one start? Talk therapy isn’t for everyone but everyone needs help sometimes. Kayla Logue was a professional professional with many different skill sets but she too found herself needing to work through some things. With some great advice from a sister, she began journaling and opened an entirely new world, not only helping herself but starting something that would help many.
Kayla is offering our listeners an exclusive discount on her book! Use the code WEE10 to get your copy of Always Squeezing Lemons!
Connect with Kayla:
Like the show? Be sure to Like, Subscribe, Review and Share! Interested in being a part of WEE? Reach out to our group liaison, Kelli@WomenExcellingEverywhere.com
Kayla is offering our listeners an exclusive discount on her book! Use the code WEE10 to get your copy of Always Squeezing Lemons!
Connect with Kayla:
Like the show? Be sure to Like, Subscribe, Review and Share! Interested in being a part of WEE? Reach out to our group liaison, Kelli@WomenExcellingEverywhere.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hello, Hello all you amazing women Excelling Everywhere. I am
a Julie Anderson, and we are here to help you
and all women excel wherever they are at, doing whatever
it is that they are doing and leading their passion
and their role in life. And one of the ways
that we do it here at Women Excelling Everywhere Podcast
is to introduce you to other wonderful women who are
(00:31):
doing just that. Whether they're at the beginning of their journey,
middle of their journey, end of their journey, whatever it
is that they are excelling in their passion, their desire,
they are going to help share wisdom and I can
introduce them to you. And that is what our amazing
guest today is Kayla Low. Kayla, thank you so much
for being on the Women Excelling Everywhere podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Absolutely I'm looking forward to this conversation. As I was
prepping for this and looking over your website and reading
about you, you have some really interesting background and I
will get into that and ask some specific questions. But
let me introduce you formally to our audience by reading
(01:16):
the bio and I'm going to have to put my
glasses on here else I'll really mass up.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Kayla has a diverse and accomplished background in multiple professional fields.
She graduated from University of South Carolina, Beaufort Beaufort Sorry
with a BA in Communications, earning high honors. She is
experienced in broadcasting, corporate communications, HR project and fitness studio management.
Now you what you did in twenty twenty one was crazy.
(01:44):
In twenty twenty one, she joined a land development real
estate company as a property specialist, and within four months
she obtained real estate licenses in four states where the
company holds property and quickly became a powerhouse in the
real estate industry, claiming the crown of their top number
one sales producer in her first full year. Now she's
(02:07):
on a mission to help individuals sculpt their own destinies
and redefine success. She recently founded a nonprofit organization, Move
into Words, and that initiative aims to establish a supportive
environment advocating for sustainable mental and physical health habits, enabling
young professionals to provide to thrive. I applaud you for that.
(02:29):
This nonprofit raises awareness about the impact of journaling to
empower individuals in search of purpose. Kayla says that we
are all experts in our own experiences, and her diverse
background reflects the importance of continuous learning from everyone that
we encounter. Kayla, welcome again to the Women Excelling Everywhere podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Thank you so much. I appreciate a very formal introduction.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Well, it's always it's always we like to get to
know because that's going to be my next question for you.
It's always good to know a person's education and their
background and kind of the things that they've accomplished. But
we want to get to know the real Kalas. So
you your background, I mean, it's it's really it is
truly diverse. I mean, good grief. You you have the
you know, communications, broadcasting, HR fitness studio and then into
(03:23):
real estate and now into the nonprofit. What drove you
into doing so many vast things like tell us a
little bit about Kyla's background before she you're running the
nonprofit that you're running today.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, so, I mean really the nonprofit kind of came
to light when I started writing my book, And my
book is a lot about the diverse experiences not only
in my professional field.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
It's more so about personal development. You know.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Actually, in twenty twenty COVID hit. We all have our
crazy COVID stories. I was married and divorce young and
really it was just a relationship. Everything really wasn't working out.
And the entire book it's called always Squeezing Lemons, and
in one sentence the subtitle is taking Responsibility to define
your own success, And it really starts at kind of
(04:15):
the beginning of that moment when I realized I felt
like I was kind of conforming a life to society
standards rather than asking myself the deep, hard questions of
what do I want, you know, what do I want
to be doing, Who do I want to be? And
how do I get to that point of the person
that I want to admire as the version of myself.
And the book's really kind of about that journey of
starting completely over and figuring it out and using that
(04:38):
diverse experience, you know, obviously professionally, but then using it
personally to define resilience and kind of overcome those fears
and create success for myself not only on the surface
level but also internally.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And you know, move into words.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Became such a passion of mine because I realized one
how important journaling was, and that's a really underlying message
I put throughout my entire book. At the end of
each chapter there is a journaling prompt, and for me,
I realized as an I played at esports my whole life.
I've been an athlete my whole life, so I always
had that, I say, athlete mentality, you know, when it
(05:13):
came down to working out, it was physical activity has
always been a priority of mine. But mental stuff are like,
oh tough enough, you know, it's fine, rub some dirt
on it. Whereas you know when you do have things
that are you know, underlying problems or issues and can
cause trauma and dysfunction in your life. So journaling became
very therapeutic for me. It was a practical tool that
(05:33):
truly was an absolute game changer, and I believe anybody really,
at any stage in your life can benefit from journaling.
But that was one main thing when the move into
words is how it came to light. So the physical
activity combined with flowing into the creativity and you know,
the processing of you know, whether it's unresolved traumas or
(05:54):
just create figuring out what you really want to do.
So that's kind of how move intowards came to life
and start to form in a long, roundabout way.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, no, no, no, that's it's interesting because as as
brain Lady Julie right, a lot of people know me
as the brain Lady, and when I speak to that,
there's there's a couple of things that you had on
exercise being incredibly important for mental health, that movement piece
and the I call it brain dumping people. Sometimes I
feel get a little scared with the thought of going,
(06:23):
oh my goodness, I have to journal, which means I
have to write a paragraph with it's in it. I
have to be because we go to school and that's
what we learn. Right, If you're going to write something,
write it right, write it correctly. And it doesn't have
to it doesn't have to be that way. Journaling can
just be getting the thoughts, getting the hamsters off the
hamster wheel, so to speak, in your brain.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I think absolutely.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I saw your book The Brain the Brainstorm Journal, Am
I correct? Yes, that's when I was reading kind of
like the little underlying message, and I absolutely loved it
and I agree completely with you. And I think a
lot of people are fearful of journaling because they do
like they have to be a good writer. It has
to be a sortain format or something like that. And
I always say, be vulnerable with the pages. Just write down,
(07:07):
be honest with what your thoughts are. And to me,
that's where I've noticed the most results in growth, Like
I write down the things that are kind of sticky,
and I obviously don't even sometimes want to admit to myself,
and I definitely don't want anybody else reading about. But
the most results come from that vulnerability because the pages
aren't going anywhere. All they're there is to do is
to help you. So not fearing the pages, that really
(07:28):
being vulnerable with them is or I've found. And the
most unstructured writing is where real help comes from.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
That I've found.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, probably that's where you experienced a lot of your therapy,
your self therapy right in doing that. Yeah, because it
isn't it's important. Sometimes we get so in our head
that we can't get out of our head, and I
should say, fun, I can see how journaling is definitely
a part of this. So, now, was you talked about
(07:59):
or in the bio and discussed the fact that you
were doing it kind of in that twenty twenty one No, wait,
that was when you got into real estate. Is that
when did you start journaling? Was it kind of around
the same time or was that around your divorce?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
It was around my divorce. My sister was the one.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
She's very smart, she's a double major in psychology and Spanish,
and she was constantly hinting to me that I should
start journaling, and I, honestly, I was very reluctant. I
kind of thought it was a stupid idea. I was like,
there's no way in me writing down my thoughts as
a twenty five year old was going to make anything better.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And I was obviously very wrong.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
So it was the summer of twenty twenty when I
really started journaling, and it became.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
A daily practice.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Like when I finally gave in, Like, I'm an all in,
all out kind of person, so if I'm going in,
I am you know, I am putting my.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
One hundred ten percent in it.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
So when I finally committed to just giving the journaling
a try, I wrote down everything I possibly could think
of and everything that I found myself kind of trying
to outrun. And there's actually a chapter of my book
it's called catch Me if you can, and I reference
how for a long time I was just trying to
outrun my thoughts and I.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Wasn't really processing I was just running from them.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
And I really break down what that looked like and
how writing it down and journaling I was able to
really process that. And it's interesting as I started writing
this book, I didn't even realize how.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
The whole even writing the book process was very healing.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
But I unfolded a lot more as from the journal
pages but then also through the experiences and really turning
them into like really valuable learning lessons and practical tools
for readers. But that is one chapter of kind of
how I like really broke that.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Down to like that, you know, it's funny, Okay, I'm
going to date myself here.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I love So you may not be as familiar.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
With this movie reference, but Gone with the Wind, which was,
you know, this major movie in its time, and one
of the things that the main character in the movie
she said it several times that I won't worry about
it today, I'll think about that. So that really resonates
with what you just said in they Catch Me if
(10:04):
you Can chapter, which I think that's brilliant because we
all do that, right, We're like we're like, okay, you
know what I'm stressed about this particular thing, but I
can't think about it right now. So I'm just gonna
go clean my house or wash my car, walk my dog.
I'm going to do something right. I'm not gonna take
the time to sit in and really process why am
(10:25):
I feeling the way I'm feeling and what am I
You know, what's behind it? So I think that's it
does doesn't it?
Speaker 2 (10:34):
And that's yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
And that's kind of how I realized, like I just
hit like a massive just wall, like I was everything
was just it was just too much right. It became
overloading and I was like, I can't. I can't keep
doing this. I don't know what to do, but I'm
just and I became practically addicted to running, Like I
was just running every day way too long. And I'm
not really a runner, but you hear that a lot
(10:56):
of times from endurance athletes. They just have a lot
of time to think and they think and mhm. That
was It was really interesting how during that time, when
I was just constantly out running my thoughts, I decided
to start journaling, and it became very clear why I
was running so far, because I was just trying to
outrun it, which didn't work.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
So right, because it will catch up with you. We
have more more brain when we're younger, we have more
brain energy, and then when we get older, that energy
bank starts to deplete, and that can lead to if
we don't address the emotional mental trauma issues because most
(11:34):
people nowadays do have trauma somewhere in their life that
framed some of their own internal thinking, which isn't healthy oftentimes,
and we if we don't stop and do that, that
face of it, it will continue to control our lives
on some level.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
That's that's brilliant. So journaling became important to you during
that time in twenty twenty you began to see the
benefits of doing it. When did you take it one
step further and start to share this practice that you
(12:13):
did with other people and the importance of this practice.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Well, So my book was published in May of this year,
so it's kind of still a new release. It was
actually a Bescillari Amazon, so went out with a nice
little bang right off.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
The rip, which was great.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
But like I mentioned, at the end of each chapter
there is a journal prompt, so it was naturally really
kind of integrated into my writing. And at first, I mean,
fortunately I worked with an amazing editor and you know,
had some really good mentors kind of going through this
entire process, and at first it wasn't something that I
was going to integrate. And then as I started writing,
I was like, wait, I'm able to pull so much
(12:51):
stuff from just journaling and recreate them into stories and
experiences and again practical takeaways for readers. Why am I
not going to give them an actual tool to be
able to to use while.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Reading the book.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
So the book was definitely obviously, I mean, it's there,
anybody can buy it's it's there and shareable. But during
this time is when I really started thinking about how
can I take it not only just in the pages,
but how can I really cultivated community? And really, like
for me, I find for really missing connectivity nowadays, you know,
I mean it's nice that we have the resources we
do to be able to do the things we do
with technology, but there's nothing like being in a group,
(13:24):
a strong environment, a good community, with you know, the
right same growth mindset. And I knew journaling is something
that no matter where you're at in life, it's it's
a lot of times, as we mentioned, people fear it,
they don't want to do it, they avoid it, and
I was like, there's got to be a way we can,
you know, create something that's not like cool, but at
a place that people want to go, place that people
(13:45):
will have opportunity to meet people, network and be the
best version of themselves. And that's how Move into Wards
came about. And we did our first event at the
beginning of this year. We did our second event in
the middle of this year. We've been doing more kind
of like outreach, connect working on sponsorships, growing the actual
nonprofit itself, and getting kind of all those things in
(14:06):
line through the summer, and then we have another event
coming up and then some pretty big sponsorship stuff going
into the end of the year. So it's really our
first full year in action. But I would say journaling
really was the main driver behind it, and it gave
me more clarity of what I felt like, you know,
as a young professional, and a young professional jour from
twenty up to forty, right, so it's a large range,
(14:26):
but I just found a need for a community that
was missing, you know. I mean, when you're going to
meet people or you're moving around places, it's like go
to a bar go here, and it's like, no, let's
create something that really can be beneficial, not only as
a community, but also individually.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I love that. I love that message because that's a
lot of what we're doing with women excelling everywhere right
to create something ours is more gender specific, obviously, but
doing it across the board is so so beneficial. And
I love, love, love as my generation looking down at you,
I so admire. Okay, that sounded wrong when I said that,
(15:06):
looking looking at how.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I know Ach, I know what Ach.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Look next generation, there's there is a gap I feel
in in some of those some of those uh areas
and the area of support and uh, we talk a lot.
I think your generation is very it has been good
about being willing to talk about trauma or talk about
(15:35):
some of the mental health challenges or neurodiversity. I've seen
that a lot with the platforms, the social media platforms,
TikTok and primarily it. But it's I should say, and
it's beautiful to see that you're taking it to the
next step. Right, Let's take it beyond just this uh,
you know, brief little thirty second videos or two minute videos.
(15:56):
Let's let's put it into an actual community where we
can together, and the prey or the foundation you're using
for that is the journaling.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, and I.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Mean I can kind of exactly what you said. It's
like bridging that gap between talking about it and being
open about it.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
But actually creating something to work to solve it.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
And I think nowadays, like you know, we're used to
kind of instant gratification, right, we can read a thirty minute,
thirty second post and be like, yeah, I feel better.
But how can we incorporate the discipline, the consistency, and
of course the environment that supports that. So really like
our equation is your environment plus your habits equal your output, right,
So your habits and.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
The people surrounding you.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
You know that it can either make and break you,
and your output is going to be projected based off
of that.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
So we really do focus on I.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Mean mental health, you know, I mean we've evenen doing
tons of research on it, kind of putting it together, proposals.
It's it's talked about more, but it's definitely decreasing. And
I mean I think a lot of that has to
do with, you know, the pros and cons of technology,
and one of the cons being we're constantly comparing ourselves,
constantly judging ourselves or constantly putting ourselves up against things
that quite frankly aren't real, and it's really unfortunate. And
(17:06):
I mean, I'm you know, I'm twenty nine, I turned
thirty soon, and I I kind I would say I
have an old soul in the sense that I really like,
you know, writing things on paper. I like, I like
really bridging back the gap. Like I mean, I think
back when I was a kid and my sister and
I would run around outside. We would never come inside,
you know. So the idea of all these new things
I wrong. I like it, and I'm tech savvy, but
(17:27):
at the same time, like dang, I would just love
to go back to just like being like a little
ranch and hang it out.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Also, yeah, I want to continue to instill what I.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Call like the old school values with the new technology. Right,
it's an inner person, like I said, connectivity and the
strong handshake, the firm eye contact and all those things,
but also still being able to communicate in the way
and you know, with moving towards this really values that
were incorporating in general too.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
I love that. I love that, So I applaud you
for doing it. It's wonderful, wonderful thing to do, and
take it beyond just the first step that mental work,
emotional work, neuropsychology shows us. It takes work. It's not
just as a simple a simple fix. So in your
(18:18):
book you talk about how you have your story and
then the journal prompts. When you're encouraging someone to journal,
if they don't have I mean, I encourage them to
get your book. I would like to see it, you know,
I'll definitely look into it. When you're encouraging them to journal,
(18:39):
if they don't have something that prompts them, how do
you suggest I know what I tell people to do,
but how do you suggest to help get them over that?
Oh my goodness, I don't want to have to sit down,
Like journaling is either frightening or I sit there and
I stare at a blank page and I don't really
know what to write. How do you suggests that someone
(19:02):
embraces that that habit and makes it something that becomes
a positive emotional thing as opposed to, oh, I have
to go sit down in journal now? Like what's your
suggestions on that?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
For sure?
Speaker 3 (19:19):
And I mean I think it's kind of different for
anybody because I have a couple different ways that I
approach it, and I think each individual persons different. And
one thing is, you know, finding a good time of day.
Some people are more morning person, to be more more
a night person, you know, So pick a time, Pick
a time that you know you definitely can dedicate five minutes,
(19:40):
five minutes, I say, start five minutes.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Start simple. Don't think of it as a feat. You're
not writing a book. You are writing something down, right,
even if it's like.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
For me, I think is a really great practice, and
I'm sure multiple people hear it. But just writing down
three grateful thoughts, three things you're grateful for, right, It
can be as simple as that, one thing that I
have found is worked really well for me and also
for other people when I've given them the same advice.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
I actually heard it in the book The Gap and
the Gain.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
And if you write down three wins for the day
and then three wins for the next day, so one,
it simplifies your mind for what you know, what you
have to do tomorrow, but also gives yourself credit for
the things you accomplish today, and it allows kind of
things to I mean, for me, I've noticed because I
I'm a thousand different directions all the time, but if
I write down those three things that need to get done,
(20:29):
then they're the priorities and have to have more time.
You know, great, but it's it's it's interesting how you're
able to also give yourself credit for that day. If
you felt like, oh, I don't anything accomplished, it makes
you think about it. It's the same thing with gratitude, right,
Like if you don't think about you're grateful for a
lot of things, but if you don't actively think about it,
it's easy for you know, negativity and things to start
to pop into your mind.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
So I think.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Practical ways of that is pretty easy to start. You
don't want to have to overthink starting about it. But
then I always again I say be vulnerable to pages
people that feel like they just have too much going
on their mind and they want to.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
They want help, and I'm like, just write it down, right,
even if you're just thinking about coffee, write down about
the coffee you're thinking about. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Just get like almost the muscle memory of it and
commit to those five minutes and you'll be interesting. It's
interesting how those five minutes will change and.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Add more value.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
You know. It's I think everyone's different from me. I
don't like I like prompts, but I don't love them.
I don't need prompts to journal. I like free flowing
into it. And that's why I like it even in
my book and write or not. But like with the book,
I'm very like strategic about the prompts that they're in depth,
they're very well thought out, and with the chapter that's
(21:40):
in front of it, I do at the end of
the chapter to a lemon drop, So it's the key
takeaway from the chapter, which then flows.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Right into the journal prompt.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
So it's kind of one of those things that if
you aren't wanting to journal or it's hard for you
to think about it, you're reading my really raw, vulnerable
experience with the key takeaway and then an opportunity for
you to talk about your own you know.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
So I think it's just it's different for everybody.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
But yeah, start simple is the one main thing. Don't
put pressure on yourself to have to make it pretty.
You're decorated, nice sentences, and.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
You don't have to be dazzled your journal.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
No, and I have a published author in mine is
a is a colossal mess, you know, so it's there,
there's no structure, there's no grammar to it.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
So yeah, I think that's very helpful. And I really
like what you what you're saying about doing starting with
the three things. I think that's a brilliant idea. One
of the things when I work with I teach mindfulness,
and I teach my clients, you know, to take their
mindfulness time, and I might include, you know, grabbing a
journal with it, but I tell them to at the
(22:50):
end of the day when you're doing your mindfulness, your
book ending your day, you do it in the morning
in a specific way, and then you do it in
the evening in a specific way. In the morning, you're
setting your three intentions for the day in your three
main areas of life. And then in the evening you're
doing your three gratitudes. And I always or three celebrations,
three gratitudes through thankfulness. I always say, I want you
(23:11):
to include in there something you're proud about yourself, something
that you accomplished that day, because a lot of us,
a lot of individuals struggle with that self esteem issue.
They struggle with I mean, how many times does someone
hand you a compliment you know, Oh that's a beautiful
DIRESSI like, oh this thing, Oh I got it wherever
it right? You know, instead of just simply saying thank you,
(23:32):
thank you, I appreciate that, you know, we just don't.
Women especially have a hard time doing that. And that's
that's part of that training the brain to accept compliments,
as you giving yourself a compliment, like at the end
of the day, saying, you know what, I did this
this thing. Even if you feel like you didn't accomplish
anything during the day, you find something I put on
(23:52):
my shoes today, I got out of my pajamas whatever.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
You know, it's interesting. It's reframing the mind. And I'm
the same way, like I have a hard time giving
myself credit.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
You know, it's rather than chasing the ideal, it's being
present and really focusing on you know, hey, you're doing good.
Give yourself a little put of the back. Might not
have been your best day, but you're still doing great.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
I think it's important. As you said, I really like
that you do that in your practice too.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yeah, it's important and when people and journaling is a
great way to do that because then sometimes you can
when you're in that blank spot if you've written it down,
you can go back and you can get inspiration from
your own words as well as you can notice how
far you've come when you're completing a journal and you
(24:41):
can go back and you know, look and read at
some of the things that you wrote in the beginning
versus your attitudes and your growth at the end, and
that's also oftentimes very empowering to see how you yourself
have grown. So that's that's a beautiful thing. So what then,
I mean, we kind of we kind of discussed it,
(25:02):
how to get started? What happened? How do you manage
the busyness of life? And maybe it's your five minutes
that you just talked about, but how do you manage
the busyness of life and making sure that you don't
allow that to jump in and stall out your journaling?
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Yeah, I mean by no means to my perfect You know,
there are days where I even actually avoid it too,
and I find myself up I'm avoiding practices that I
do find the most benefits from, such as journaling. I'm
usually avoiding something that I need to unravel, you know,
So going back to the running thing, so very aware
of that, but honestly, my mornings are my time.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
I am a very early morning person.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I really like to be up well before the sun
comes up, So I mean anywhere from four to five AM.
I like to be out of bed drinking my coffee.
That's really the hour that I wrote my entire book,
you know. So I mean by no means do I
spend two hours journaling. I do a lot of my
own deep thought work. But there's a big difference in
being you know, a creative person and like artist, and
(26:14):
then also being a salesperson, right like, the personalities and
the mindset is completely different. So if I want to
have my creative life, I have to wake up and
do that.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
So I really do think it's about prioritizing what you value.
For me. I value my morning. I value, you know,
working out. I value being able to get my mind clear,
and I also with journaling.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
For me, what I realize is between that and working
out in the mornings, I set myself up for the
best version of me, which then gives the other people
I'm around all day the best version of myself too,
which I find if I don't do that for myself,
I'm also causing a service to other people, you know.
So I really do think, you know, you could be
a dead horse until somebody to journal all over and again,
(26:55):
but they don't want to. If they don't want to
get better, then it doesn't matter, right. So but I
do truly think that people want to if they want
to change or they want to add a better practice
or something. It's it's just finding the right time. It's
committing to doing it and really kind of blocking that
time out. And you know, when you value something enough,
you don't let other distractions get in the way.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
You know, at least that's for me.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
I realized, like, if I want to do this, I'm
going to do it and I'm going to carve the
time out to make sure that no matter what time
it is, it's there. If I have to cancel something
else to make sure that I get my time in
that I need, I do it.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
So that's you know, And do you you've accomplished a
lot and even since twenty twenty, you know, because we're
just You've done the book, you went through your a
big amount of growth, you started your nonprofit, you've done
all of that. It's twenty twenty four, so you've done
it in you know, four years. Really, so do you
credit your journaling to helping to provide you with clarity
(27:57):
that led you to success and growth.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
One hundred percent. I mean, truly, it was interesting how much.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Started to unfold when I really started to journal, when
I made it a practice, And as you mentioned actually earlier,
I got chills when you were like, oh, going back
and looking at the journals, and I guess the best
part it's so interesting to see one you can pick
up habits or things that you're like, oh, don't really
like that, we need to fix that. I can tell
by my writing when I'm more sad or when I'm
(28:24):
more happy based off the way it's written.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I can pick up stories.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
That I don't even remember, and I'm like, oh my gosh,
wait what and the amount of growth and what I
manifested through pages of my journal. And when I you know,
I had I didn't have any money. I was pretty
much like bouncing around like living like a modern day gypsy.
And I was like, I'm going to write a book,
I'm going to live in a little house in the water.
I'm going to do all these things. And I did
it like I've already done it, you know, And I mean,
(28:48):
now what my journal pages look like are different than then.
But it's interesting how the growth and the self awareness
and the values and the things that you start to
write down that you truly do want. Like don't don't
get me wrong, you just write down, it happens. Right,
There's a lot of like inspired and true action that
has to be taken, but when you write it down
it becomes real and you're committed to it and that's
what you really want. It's crazy how what may seem
(29:10):
delusional and the moment becomes not delusional, Like you're right,
actually I can do that, and then you start doing it,
and then you accomplish it, and I'll like even like
when I had my book launch party, I was like,
oh my god, I can't believe this is actually happening.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Yeah, so it's it's yes and a round about one
hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Yes, it's why I'm so passionate about it'shy it's incorporated
my book, it's why I've built an entire platform almost
surround it for a nonprofit that I think can benefit
many people.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
And we do have big plans for expansion.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yes, absolutely, yes, wonderful, wonderful. Now you mentioned as we're
going to wrap it up here in just a minute.
But you mentioned the events, tell us a little bit,
and you've got one coming up in the fall or
winter to you know, throughout the rest of the year,
sometime before in the rest of the year. What are
those what are those events? Like? I saw a video
(30:01):
and I'm assuming that the video on the website and
everyone for it will give give everyone Kayla's website and
how to stay in touch with her and connect with
her and get her book. In just a minute. But
on your website there is a little three minute video
that looks like it's talking about the events. Tell us
a little bit about your events.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Yeah, so we've done quarterly events.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
So we did one in more of like the earlier
winter the beginning of this year, and then we did
one going into the spring, and then we're doing a.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Kind of thing towards the end of the summer here
coming up. But what it looks like is.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Really like our main mission is again cultivating a community
to really bridge the gap of advocating for mental and
physical health habits. So we do about a forty five
minute workout. Our first event was a yoga, The next
one we did was boxing and hit and then we
bring a motivational speaker to really kind of like you know,
get the juices flowing, create connectivity, allow people to kind
(30:54):
of speak on that behalf the first event we talked
more about like self awareness, self consciousness even in relationships.
And then the next one was about knocking out anxiety,
so to kind of go with the tie and there
so practical ways to overcome anxiety.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
And then we provide journals.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
We bring like really like dive into practical tools of
why journaling is important. So then they start writing stuff down.
We obviously with mostly the networking portion of it, we
bring a ton of people that have obviously never met
become good friends.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
They bring friends.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
So really it's really just about like creating a really
cool opportunity to bridge the gap with everything that you'd
want and be able to take something away, grow from it,
get a good work out in, but also take a
tool that could become life changing for you practically home.
So we want to really I mean this is I
would say this year it's not really been like a
proof of concept, but also the same time kind of
(31:44):
proof of concept working out the King's kind of figuring
out how we want to structure it, getting feedback building
off of that and going into next year, we want
to really expand to bi monthly events. So we want
to be able to bring on some people whole time
that have more experience in the nonprofit world. We want
to really take over Charlotte with those events, but then
we want to take it to other cities.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
So we have a really good plan.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
We have some amazing connections that we're working on building
out sponsoring and partnerships.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
But yeah, so that's that's kind of what it looks like.
And at the very.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Moment, I love it. I love it. I love the
whole theme and the whole movement, and I have absolutely
loved having this conversation with you. Kayla. Thank you so
much for bringing this to the world. So let me
tell you everyone how to stay in touch. So her
Kayla's website is kaylalogue dot com. So it's k A
(32:39):
y l A if you're listening ka y l A
l O d u E dot com and you can
find out all all about her, her her book. You
can order the book from the site. You can see
the video that I referred to earlier. Sign up to
stay in touch with her about her event.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
If you're there in the area of North Carolina. Then
by all means check her out. If you're not still,
check her out and connect with her because she's going
to take this great places and she'll be where you're
at at some point in time. So you can send
her an email at Kayla at Kayla loagu dot com.
So it's kay l a at Kayla Logue dot com.
And of course all of this information will be in
(33:22):
the in the show notes. She's on Instagram at Kayla
log Underscore, back forward, slash and move into words as well,
so she's uh, move into words and Kayla Logan. Then
on LinkedIn, she is Kayla Loge with your bunch of numbers,
but we'll put that on. We'll put that in the
show notes.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
You can find me all on the website. It's easy.
I try to keep it as easy as possible.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
That's good, and they can they can get the book
from the site, correct, I was right about.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
That, Yes, yeah, So the book's very I mean there's
like a bunch of different buttons you can collect order
the book, and if you go there, you can also
just sign up and you can read the introduction and
first trap it for free.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
So love it. I love it. Beautiful. Well, Kayla, thank
you so much again for being the guest guest on
the Women Excelling Everywhere podcast. I look forward to staying
connected with you and watching the big, amazing things going on.
And there's a little special place in our heart for
North Carolina. My husband was out there in the Boon
(34:21):
Sugar Pine area of North Korea.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Familiar.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Oh, we might have to talk, We might have to talk.
Thanks so anyway, thank you so much for being on
the program today and sharing your story and your wisdom.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
It was so great, happy, so great speaking with you.
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Absolutely absolutely so. I encourage everyone watching or listening to
be sure to stay in or get in contact with Kayla,
stay in touch with her and watch as she does
amazing things moving forward and find out about the amazing
things that she's already done. And of course stay in
touch with us at Women Excelling Everywhere. Our Our website
is Women Excelling Everywhere dot com are If you want
(35:04):
information about the group or about membership, we have several
level levels of membership that you can jump into. You
can simply have your presence for your business on the website.
In the membership and have an entire page devoted to
you on Women Excelling Everywhere dot com or you can
join us in our private membership Women Excelling Everywhere Success Collective,
(35:25):
and that is a we have daily activity in that.
It's kind of like a cross between face. It's like
your own private Facebook group. Like it's no advertising, right.
We do a lot. We do a monthly theme challenge
every month either business health, business growth, personal health, relationship health.
That's all we include in there. We do weekly activities
connected to the monthly theme and then a daily prompts
(35:48):
to just kind of help you get your brain in
the right place and engage. So we'd love to have
you join us in that group as well. Have any
questions again, please send it to info at Women Excelling
Everywhere dot com. As I like to close every one
of the shows, I want everyone to take a nice
deep breath in, go out there and simply enjoy every moment.
(36:12):
Thanks for being with us.
Hello, Hello all you amazing women Excelling Everywhere. I am
a Julie Anderson, and we are here to help you
and all women excel wherever they are at, doing whatever
it is that they are doing and leading their passion
and their role in life. And one of the ways
that we do it here at Women Excelling Everywhere Podcast
is to introduce you to other wonderful women who are
(00:31):
doing just that. Whether they're at the beginning of their journey,
middle of their journey, end of their journey, whatever it
is that they are excelling in their passion, their desire,
they are going to help share wisdom and I can
introduce them to you. And that is what our amazing
guest today is Kayla Low. Kayla, thank you so much
for being on the Women Excelling Everywhere podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Absolutely I'm looking forward to this conversation. As I was
prepping for this and looking over your website and reading
about you, you have some really interesting background and I
will get into that and ask some specific questions. But
let me introduce you formally to our audience by reading
(01:16):
the bio and I'm going to have to put my
glasses on here else I'll really mass up.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
So.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
Kayla has a diverse and accomplished background in multiple professional fields.
She graduated from University of South Carolina, Beaufort Beaufort Sorry
with a BA in Communications, earning high honors. She is
experienced in broadcasting, corporate communications, HR project and fitness studio management.
Now you what you did in twenty twenty one was crazy.
(01:44):
In twenty twenty one, she joined a land development real
estate company as a property specialist, and within four months
she obtained real estate licenses in four states where the
company holds property and quickly became a powerhouse in the
real estate industry, claiming the crown of their top number
one sales producer in her first full year. Now she's
(02:07):
on a mission to help individuals sculpt their own destinies
and redefine success. She recently founded a nonprofit organization, Move
into Words, and that initiative aims to establish a supportive
environment advocating for sustainable mental and physical health habits, enabling
young professionals to provide to thrive. I applaud you for that.
(02:29):
This nonprofit raises awareness about the impact of journaling to
empower individuals in search of purpose. Kayla says that we
are all experts in our own experiences, and her diverse
background reflects the importance of continuous learning from everyone that
we encounter. Kayla, welcome again to the Women Excelling Everywhere podcast.
Speaker 2 (02:52):
Thank you so much. I appreciate a very formal introduction.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Well, it's always it's always we like to get to
know because that's going to be my next question for you.
It's always good to know a person's education and their
background and kind of the things that they've accomplished. But
we want to get to know the real Kalas. So
you your background, I mean, it's it's really it is
truly diverse. I mean, good grief. You you have the
you know, communications, broadcasting, HR fitness studio and then into
(03:23):
real estate and now into the nonprofit. What drove you
into doing so many vast things like tell us a
little bit about Kyla's background before she you're running the
nonprofit that you're running today.
Speaker 3 (03:40):
Yeah, so, I mean really the nonprofit kind of came
to light when I started writing my book, And my
book is a lot about the diverse experiences not only
in my professional field.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
It's more so about personal development. You know.
Speaker 3 (03:54):
Actually, in twenty twenty COVID hit. We all have our
crazy COVID stories. I was married and divorce young and
really it was just a relationship. Everything really wasn't working out.
And the entire book it's called always Squeezing Lemons, and
in one sentence the subtitle is taking Responsibility to define
your own success, And it really starts at kind of
(04:15):
the beginning of that moment when I realized I felt
like I was kind of conforming a life to society
standards rather than asking myself the deep, hard questions of
what do I want, you know, what do I want
to be doing, Who do I want to be? And
how do I get to that point of the person
that I want to admire as the version of myself.
And the book's really kind of about that journey of
starting completely over and figuring it out and using that
(04:38):
diverse experience, you know, obviously professionally, but then using it
personally to define resilience and kind of overcome those fears
and create success for myself not only on the surface
level but also internally.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
And you know, move into words.
Speaker 3 (04:52):
Became such a passion of mine because I realized one
how important journaling was, and that's a really underlying message
I put throughout my entire book. At the end of
each chapter there is a journaling prompt, and for me,
I realized as an I played at esports my whole life.
I've been an athlete my whole life, so I always
had that, I say, athlete mentality, you know, when it
(05:13):
came down to working out, it was physical activity has
always been a priority of mine. But mental stuff are like,
oh tough enough, you know, it's fine, rub some dirt
on it. Whereas you know when you do have things
that are you know, underlying problems or issues and can
cause trauma and dysfunction in your life. So journaling became
very therapeutic for me. It was a practical tool that
(05:33):
truly was an absolute game changer, and I believe anybody really,
at any stage in your life can benefit from journaling.
But that was one main thing when the move into
words is how it came to light. So the physical
activity combined with flowing into the creativity and you know,
the processing of you know, whether it's unresolved traumas or
(05:54):
just create figuring out what you really want to do.
So that's kind of how move intowards came to life
and start to form in a long, roundabout way.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, no, no, no, that's it's interesting because as as
brain Lady Julie right, a lot of people know me
as the brain Lady, and when I speak to that,
there's there's a couple of things that you had on
exercise being incredibly important for mental health, that movement piece
and the I call it brain dumping people. Sometimes I
feel get a little scared with the thought of going,
(06:23):
oh my goodness, I have to journal, which means I
have to write a paragraph with it's in it. I
have to be because we go to school and that's
what we learn. Right, If you're going to write something,
write it right, write it correctly. And it doesn't have
to it doesn't have to be that way. Journaling can
just be getting the thoughts, getting the hamsters off the
hamster wheel, so to speak, in your brain.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
I think absolutely.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
I saw your book The Brain the Brainstorm Journal, Am
I correct? Yes, that's when I was reading kind of
like the little underlying message, and I absolutely loved it
and I agree completely with you. And I think a
lot of people are fearful of journaling because they do
like they have to be a good writer. It has
to be a sortain format or something like that. And
I always say, be vulnerable with the pages. Just write down,
(07:07):
be honest with what your thoughts are. And to me,
that's where I've noticed the most results in growth, Like
I write down the things that are kind of sticky,
and I obviously don't even sometimes want to admit to myself,
and I definitely don't want anybody else reading about. But
the most results come from that vulnerability because the pages
aren't going anywhere. All they're there is to do is
to help you. So not fearing the pages, that really
(07:28):
being vulnerable with them is or I've found. And the
most unstructured writing is where real help comes from.
Speaker 2 (07:35):
That I've found.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Yeah, probably that's where you experienced a lot of your therapy,
your self therapy right in doing that. Yeah, because it
isn't it's important. Sometimes we get so in our head
that we can't get out of our head, and I
should say, fun, I can see how journaling is definitely
a part of this. So, now, was you talked about
(07:59):
or in the bio and discussed the fact that you
were doing it kind of in that twenty twenty one No, wait,
that was when you got into real estate. Is that
when did you start journaling? Was it kind of around
the same time or was that around your divorce?
Speaker 2 (08:15):
It was around my divorce. My sister was the one.
Speaker 3 (08:17):
She's very smart, she's a double major in psychology and Spanish,
and she was constantly hinting to me that I should
start journaling, and I, honestly, I was very reluctant. I
kind of thought it was a stupid idea. I was like,
there's no way in me writing down my thoughts as
a twenty five year old was going to make anything better.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
And I was obviously very wrong.
Speaker 3 (08:33):
So it was the summer of twenty twenty when I
really started journaling, and it became.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
A daily practice.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Like when I finally gave in, Like, I'm an all in,
all out kind of person, so if I'm going in,
I am you know, I am putting my.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
One hundred ten percent in it.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
So when I finally committed to just giving the journaling
a try, I wrote down everything I possibly could think
of and everything that I found myself kind of trying
to outrun. And there's actually a chapter of my book
it's called catch Me if you can, and I reference
how for a long time I was just trying to
outrun my thoughts and I.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
Wasn't really processing I was just running from them.
Speaker 3 (09:06):
And I really break down what that looked like and
how writing it down and journaling I was able to
really process that. And it's interesting as I started writing
this book, I didn't even realize how.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
The whole even writing the book process was very healing.
Speaker 3 (09:22):
But I unfolded a lot more as from the journal
pages but then also through the experiences and really turning
them into like really valuable learning lessons and practical tools
for readers. But that is one chapter of kind of
how I like really broke that.
Speaker 1 (09:34):
Down to like that, you know, it's funny, Okay, I'm
going to date myself here.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
I love So you may not be as familiar.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
With this movie reference, but Gone with the Wind, which was,
you know, this major movie in its time, and one
of the things that the main character in the movie
she said it several times that I won't worry about
it today, I'll think about that. So that really resonates
with what you just said in they Catch Me if
(10:04):
you Can chapter, which I think that's brilliant because we
all do that, right, We're like we're like, okay, you
know what I'm stressed about this particular thing, but I
can't think about it right now. So I'm just gonna
go clean my house or wash my car, walk my dog.
I'm going to do something right. I'm not gonna take
the time to sit in and really process why am
(10:25):
I feeling the way I'm feeling and what am I
You know, what's behind it? So I think that's it
does doesn't it?
Speaker 2 (10:34):
And that's yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:35):
And that's kind of how I realized, like I just
hit like a massive just wall, like I was everything
was just it was just too much right. It became
overloading and I was like, I can't. I can't keep
doing this. I don't know what to do, but I'm
just and I became practically addicted to running, Like I
was just running every day way too long. And I'm
not really a runner, but you hear that a lot
(10:56):
of times from endurance athletes. They just have a lot
of time to think and they think and mhm. That
was It was really interesting how during that time, when
I was just constantly out running my thoughts, I decided
to start journaling, and it became very clear why I
was running so far, because I was just trying to
outrun it, which didn't work.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
So right, because it will catch up with you. We
have more more brain when we're younger, we have more
brain energy, and then when we get older, that energy
bank starts to deplete, and that can lead to if
we don't address the emotional mental trauma issues because most
(11:34):
people nowadays do have trauma somewhere in their life that
framed some of their own internal thinking, which isn't healthy oftentimes,
and we if we don't stop and do that, that
face of it, it will continue to control our lives
on some level.
Speaker 2 (11:50):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
That's that's brilliant. So journaling became important to you during
that time in twenty twenty you began to see the
benefits of doing it. When did you take it one
step further and start to share this practice that you
(12:13):
did with other people and the importance of this practice.
Speaker 3 (12:17):
Well, So my book was published in May of this year,
so it's kind of still a new release. It was
actually a Bescillari Amazon, so went out with a nice
little bang right off.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
The rip, which was great.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
But like I mentioned, at the end of each chapter
there is a journal prompt, so it was naturally really
kind of integrated into my writing. And at first, I mean,
fortunately I worked with an amazing editor and you know,
had some really good mentors kind of going through this
entire process, and at first it wasn't something that I
was going to integrate. And then as I started writing,
I was like, wait, I'm able to pull so much
(12:51):
stuff from just journaling and recreate them into stories and
experiences and again practical takeaways for readers. Why am I
not going to give them an actual tool to be
able to to use while.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Reading the book.
Speaker 3 (13:02):
So the book was definitely obviously, I mean, it's there,
anybody can buy it's it's there and shareable. But during
this time is when I really started thinking about how
can I take it not only just in the pages,
but how can I really cultivated community? And really, like
for me, I find for really missing connectivity nowadays, you know,
I mean it's nice that we have the resources we
do to be able to do the things we do
with technology, but there's nothing like being in a group,
(13:24):
a strong environment, a good community, with you know, the
right same growth mindset. And I knew journaling is something
that no matter where you're at in life, it's it's
a lot of times, as we mentioned, people fear it,
they don't want to do it, they avoid it, and
I was like, there's got to be a way we can,
you know, create something that's not like cool, but at
a place that people want to go, place that people
(13:45):
will have opportunity to meet people, network and be the
best version of themselves. And that's how Move into Wards
came about. And we did our first event at the
beginning of this year. We did our second event in
the middle of this year. We've been doing more kind
of like outreach, connect working on sponsorships, growing the actual
nonprofit itself, and getting kind of all those things in
(14:06):
line through the summer, and then we have another event
coming up and then some pretty big sponsorship stuff going
into the end of the year. So it's really our
first full year in action. But I would say journaling
really was the main driver behind it, and it gave
me more clarity of what I felt like, you know,
as a young professional, and a young professional jour from
twenty up to forty, right, so it's a large range,
(14:26):
but I just found a need for a community that
was missing, you know. I mean, when you're going to
meet people or you're moving around places, it's like go
to a bar go here, and it's like, no, let's
create something that really can be beneficial, not only as
a community, but also individually.
Speaker 1 (14:44):
I love that. I love that message because that's a
lot of what we're doing with women excelling everywhere right
to create something ours is more gender specific, obviously, but
doing it across the board is so so beneficial. And
I love, love, love as my generation looking down at you,
I so admire. Okay, that sounded wrong when I said that,
(15:06):
looking looking at how.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
I know Ach, I know what Ach.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
Look next generation, there's there is a gap I feel
in in some of those some of those uh areas
and the area of support and uh, we talk a lot.
I think your generation is very it has been good
about being willing to talk about trauma or talk about
(15:35):
some of the mental health challenges or neurodiversity. I've seen
that a lot with the platforms, the social media platforms,
TikTok and primarily it. But it's I should say, and
it's beautiful to see that you're taking it to the
next step. Right, Let's take it beyond just this uh,
you know, brief little thirty second videos or two minute videos.
(15:56):
Let's let's put it into an actual community where we
can together, and the prey or the foundation you're using
for that is the journaling.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Yeah, and I.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Mean I can kind of exactly what you said. It's
like bridging that gap between talking about it and being
open about it.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
But actually creating something to work to solve it.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
And I think nowadays, like you know, we're used to
kind of instant gratification, right, we can read a thirty minute,
thirty second post and be like, yeah, I feel better.
But how can we incorporate the discipline, the consistency, and
of course the environment that supports that. So really like
our equation is your environment plus your habits equal your output, right,
So your habits and.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
The people surrounding you.
Speaker 3 (16:36):
You know that it can either make and break you,
and your output is going to be projected based off
of that.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
So we really do focus on I.
Speaker 3 (16:43):
Mean mental health, you know, I mean we've evenen doing
tons of research on it, kind of putting it together, proposals.
It's it's talked about more, but it's definitely decreasing. And
I mean I think a lot of that has to
do with, you know, the pros and cons of technology,
and one of the cons being we're constantly comparing ourselves,
constantly judging ourselves or constantly putting ourselves up against things
that quite frankly aren't real, and it's really unfortunate. And
(17:06):
I mean, I'm you know, I'm twenty nine, I turned
thirty soon, and I I kind I would say I
have an old soul in the sense that I really like,
you know, writing things on paper. I like, I like
really bridging back the gap. Like I mean, I think
back when I was a kid and my sister and
I would run around outside. We would never come inside,
you know. So the idea of all these new things
I wrong. I like it, and I'm tech savvy, but
(17:27):
at the same time, like dang, I would just love
to go back to just like being like a little
ranch and hang it out.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
Also, yeah, I want to continue to instill what I.
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Call like the old school values with the new technology. Right,
it's an inner person, like I said, connectivity and the
strong handshake, the firm eye contact and all those things,
but also still being able to communicate in the way
and you know, with moving towards this really values that
were incorporating in general too.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
I love that. I love that, So I applaud you
for doing it. It's wonderful, wonderful thing to do, and
take it beyond just the first step that mental work,
emotional work, neuropsychology shows us. It takes work. It's not
just as a simple a simple fix. So in your
(18:18):
book you talk about how you have your story and
then the journal prompts. When you're encouraging someone to journal,
if they don't have I mean, I encourage them to
get your book. I would like to see it, you know,
I'll definitely look into it. When you're encouraging them to journal,
(18:39):
if they don't have something that prompts them, how do
you suggest I know what I tell people to do,
but how do you suggest to help get them over that?
Oh my goodness, I don't want to have to sit down,
Like journaling is either frightening or I sit there and
I stare at a blank page and I don't really
know what to write. How do you suggests that someone
(19:02):
embraces that that habit and makes it something that becomes
a positive emotional thing as opposed to, oh, I have
to go sit down in journal now? Like what's your
suggestions on that?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
For sure?
Speaker 3 (19:19):
And I mean I think it's kind of different for
anybody because I have a couple different ways that I
approach it, and I think each individual persons different. And
one thing is, you know, finding a good time of day.
Some people are more morning person, to be more more
a night person, you know, So pick a time, Pick
a time that you know you definitely can dedicate five minutes,
(19:40):
five minutes, I say, start five minutes.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
Start simple. Don't think of it as a feat. You're
not writing a book. You are writing something down, right,
even if it's like.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
For me, I think is a really great practice, and
I'm sure multiple people hear it. But just writing down
three grateful thoughts, three things you're grateful for, right, It
can be as simple as that, one thing that I
have found is worked really well for me and also
for other people when I've given them the same advice.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
I actually heard it in the book The Gap and
the Gain.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
And if you write down three wins for the day
and then three wins for the next day, so one,
it simplifies your mind for what you know, what you
have to do tomorrow, but also gives yourself credit for
the things you accomplish today, and it allows kind of
things to I mean, for me, I've noticed because I
I'm a thousand different directions all the time, but if
I write down those three things that need to get done,
(20:29):
then they're the priorities and have to have more time.
You know, great, but it's it's it's interesting how you're
able to also give yourself credit for that day. If
you felt like, oh, I don't anything accomplished, it makes
you think about it. It's the same thing with gratitude, right,
Like if you don't think about you're grateful for a
lot of things, but if you don't actively think about it,
it's easy for you know, negativity and things to start
to pop into your mind.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
So I think.
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Practical ways of that is pretty easy to start. You
don't want to have to overthink starting about it. But
then I always again I say be vulnerable to pages
people that feel like they just have too much going
on their mind and they want to.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
They want help, and I'm like, just write it down, right,
even if you're just thinking about coffee, write down about
the coffee you're thinking about. It doesn't matter.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
Just get like almost the muscle memory of it and
commit to those five minutes and you'll be interesting. It's
interesting how those five minutes will change and.
Speaker 2 (21:17):
Add more value.
Speaker 3 (21:19):
You know. It's I think everyone's different from me. I
don't like I like prompts, but I don't love them.
I don't need prompts to journal. I like free flowing
into it. And that's why I like it even in
my book and write or not. But like with the book,
I'm very like strategic about the prompts that they're in depth,
they're very well thought out, and with the chapter that's
(21:40):
in front of it, I do at the end of
the chapter to a lemon drop, So it's the key
takeaway from the chapter, which then flows.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Right into the journal prompt.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
So it's kind of one of those things that if
you aren't wanting to journal or it's hard for you
to think about it, you're reading my really raw, vulnerable
experience with the key takeaway and then an opportunity for
you to talk about your own you know.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
So I think it's just it's different for everybody.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
But yeah, start simple is the one main thing. Don't
put pressure on yourself to have to make it pretty.
You're decorated, nice sentences, and.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
You don't have to be dazzled your journal.
Speaker 3 (22:20):
No, and I have a published author in mine is
a is a colossal mess, you know, so it's there,
there's no structure, there's no grammar to it.
Speaker 1 (22:29):
So yeah, I think that's very helpful. And I really
like what you what you're saying about doing starting with
the three things. I think that's a brilliant idea. One
of the things when I work with I teach mindfulness,
and I teach my clients, you know, to take their
mindfulness time, and I might include, you know, grabbing a
journal with it, but I tell them to at the
(22:50):
end of the day when you're doing your mindfulness, your
book ending your day, you do it in the morning
in a specific way, and then you do it in
the evening in a specific way. In the morning, you're
setting your three intentions for the day in your three
main areas of life. And then in the evening you're
doing your three gratitudes. And I always or three celebrations,
three gratitudes through thankfulness. I always say, I want you
(23:11):
to include in there something you're proud about yourself, something
that you accomplished that day, because a lot of us,
a lot of individuals struggle with that self esteem issue.
They struggle with I mean, how many times does someone
hand you a compliment you know, Oh that's a beautiful
DIRESSI like, oh this thing, Oh I got it wherever
it right? You know, instead of just simply saying thank you,
(23:32):
thank you, I appreciate that, you know, we just don't.
Women especially have a hard time doing that. And that's
that's part of that training the brain to accept compliments,
as you giving yourself a compliment, like at the end
of the day, saying, you know what, I did this
this thing. Even if you feel like you didn't accomplish
anything during the day, you find something I put on
(23:52):
my shoes today, I got out of my pajamas whatever.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
You know, it's interesting. It's reframing the mind. And I'm
the same way, like I have a hard time giving
myself credit.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
You know, it's rather than chasing the ideal, it's being
present and really focusing on you know, hey, you're doing good.
Give yourself a little put of the back. Might not
have been your best day, but you're still doing great.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
I think it's important. As you said, I really like
that you do that in your practice too.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Yeah, it's important and when people and journaling is a
great way to do that because then sometimes you can
when you're in that blank spot if you've written it down,
you can go back and you can get inspiration from
your own words as well as you can notice how
far you've come when you're completing a journal and you
(24:41):
can go back and you know, look and read at
some of the things that you wrote in the beginning
versus your attitudes and your growth at the end, and
that's also oftentimes very empowering to see how you yourself
have grown. So that's that's a beautiful thing. So what then,
I mean, we kind of we kind of discussed it,
(25:02):
how to get started? What happened? How do you manage
the busyness of life? And maybe it's your five minutes
that you just talked about, but how do you manage
the busyness of life and making sure that you don't
allow that to jump in and stall out your journaling?
Speaker 3 (25:25):
Yeah, I mean by no means to my perfect You know,
there are days where I even actually avoid it too,
and I find myself up I'm avoiding practices that I
do find the most benefits from, such as journaling. I'm
usually avoiding something that I need to unravel, you know,
So going back to the running thing, so very aware
of that, but honestly, my mornings are my time.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
I am a very early morning person.
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I really like to be up well before the sun
comes up, So I mean anywhere from four to five AM.
I like to be out of bed drinking my coffee.
That's really the hour that I wrote my entire book,
you know. So I mean by no means do I
spend two hours journaling. I do a lot of my
own deep thought work. But there's a big difference in
being you know, a creative person and like artist, and
(26:14):
then also being a salesperson, right like, the personalities and
the mindset is completely different. So if I want to
have my creative life, I have to wake up and
do that.
Speaker 2 (26:24):
So I really do think it's about prioritizing what you value.
For me. I value my morning. I value, you know,
working out. I value being able to get my mind clear,
and I also with journaling.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
For me, what I realize is between that and working
out in the mornings, I set myself up for the
best version of me, which then gives the other people
I'm around all day the best version of myself too,
which I find if I don't do that for myself,
I'm also causing a service to other people, you know.
So I really do think, you know, you could be
a dead horse until somebody to journal all over and again,
(26:55):
but they don't want to. If they don't want to
get better, then it doesn't matter, right. So but I
do truly think that people want to if they want
to change or they want to add a better practice
or something. It's it's just finding the right time. It's
committing to doing it and really kind of blocking that
time out. And you know, when you value something enough,
you don't let other distractions get in the way.
Speaker 2 (27:17):
You know, at least that's for me.
Speaker 3 (27:19):
I realized, like, if I want to do this, I'm
going to do it and I'm going to carve the
time out to make sure that no matter what time
it is, it's there. If I have to cancel something
else to make sure that I get my time in
that I need, I do it.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
So that's you know, And do you you've accomplished a
lot and even since twenty twenty, you know, because we're
just You've done the book, you went through your a
big amount of growth, you started your nonprofit, you've done
all of that. It's twenty twenty four, so you've done
it in you know, four years. Really, so do you
credit your journaling to helping to provide you with clarity
(27:57):
that led you to success and growth.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
One hundred percent. I mean, truly, it was interesting how much.
Speaker 3 (28:04):
Started to unfold when I really started to journal, when
I made it a practice, And as you mentioned actually earlier,
I got chills when you were like, oh, going back
and looking at the journals, and I guess the best
part it's so interesting to see one you can pick
up habits or things that you're like, oh, don't really
like that, we need to fix that. I can tell
by my writing when I'm more sad or when I'm
(28:24):
more happy based off the way it's written.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
I can pick up stories.
Speaker 3 (28:27):
That I don't even remember, and I'm like, oh my gosh,
wait what and the amount of growth and what I
manifested through pages of my journal. And when I you know,
I had I didn't have any money. I was pretty
much like bouncing around like living like a modern day gypsy.
And I was like, I'm going to write a book,
I'm going to live in a little house in the water.
I'm going to do all these things. And I did
it like I've already done it, you know, And I mean,
(28:48):
now what my journal pages look like are different than then.
But it's interesting how the growth and the self awareness
and the values and the things that you start to
write down that you truly do want. Like don't don't
get me wrong, you just write down, it happens. Right,
There's a lot of like inspired and true action that
has to be taken, but when you write it down
it becomes real and you're committed to it and that's
what you really want. It's crazy how what may seem
(29:10):
delusional and the moment becomes not delusional, Like you're right,
actually I can do that, and then you start doing it,
and then you accomplish it, and I'll like even like
when I had my book launch party, I was like,
oh my god, I can't believe this is actually happening.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
Yeah, so it's it's yes and a round about one
hundred percent.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Yes, it's why I'm so passionate about it'shy it's incorporated
my book, it's why I've built an entire platform almost
surround it for a nonprofit that I think can benefit
many people.
Speaker 2 (29:35):
And we do have big plans for expansion.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Yes, absolutely, yes, wonderful, wonderful. Now you mentioned as we're
going to wrap it up here in just a minute.
But you mentioned the events, tell us a little bit,
and you've got one coming up in the fall or
winter to you know, throughout the rest of the year,
sometime before in the rest of the year. What are
those what are those events? Like? I saw a video
(30:01):
and I'm assuming that the video on the website and
everyone for it will give give everyone Kayla's website and
how to stay in touch with her and connect with
her and get her book. In just a minute. But
on your website there is a little three minute video
that looks like it's talking about the events. Tell us
a little bit about your events.
Speaker 2 (30:21):
Yeah, so we've done quarterly events.
Speaker 3 (30:23):
So we did one in more of like the earlier
winter the beginning of this year, and then we did
one going into the spring, and then we're doing a.
Speaker 2 (30:30):
Kind of thing towards the end of the summer here
coming up. But what it looks like is.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
Really like our main mission is again cultivating a community
to really bridge the gap of advocating for mental and
physical health habits. So we do about a forty five
minute workout. Our first event was a yoga, The next
one we did was boxing and hit and then we
bring a motivational speaker to really kind of like you know,
get the juices flowing, create connectivity, allow people to kind
(30:54):
of speak on that behalf the first event we talked
more about like self awareness, self consciousness even in relationships.
And then the next one was about knocking out anxiety,
so to kind of go with the tie and there
so practical ways to overcome anxiety.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
And then we provide journals.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
We bring like really like dive into practical tools of
why journaling is important. So then they start writing stuff down.
We obviously with mostly the networking portion of it, we
bring a ton of people that have obviously never met
become good friends.
Speaker 2 (31:22):
They bring friends.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
So really it's really just about like creating a really
cool opportunity to bridge the gap with everything that you'd
want and be able to take something away, grow from it,
get a good work out in, but also take a
tool that could become life changing for you practically home.
So we want to really I mean this is I
would say this year it's not really been like a
proof of concept, but also the same time kind of
(31:44):
proof of concept working out the King's kind of figuring
out how we want to structure it, getting feedback building
off of that and going into next year, we want
to really expand to bi monthly events. So we want
to be able to bring on some people whole time
that have more experience in the nonprofit world. We want
to really take over Charlotte with those events, but then
we want to take it to other cities.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
So we have a really good plan.
Speaker 3 (32:07):
We have some amazing connections that we're working on building
out sponsoring and partnerships.
Speaker 2 (32:11):
But yeah, so that's that's kind of what it looks like.
And at the very.
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Moment, I love it. I love it. I love the
whole theme and the whole movement, and I have absolutely
loved having this conversation with you. Kayla. Thank you so
much for bringing this to the world. So let me
tell you everyone how to stay in touch. So her
Kayla's website is kaylalogue dot com. So it's k A
(32:39):
y l A if you're listening ka y l A
l O d u E dot com and you can
find out all all about her, her her book. You
can order the book from the site. You can see
the video that I referred to earlier. Sign up to
stay in touch with her about her event.
Speaker 3 (33:00):
Uh.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
If you're there in the area of North Carolina. Then
by all means check her out. If you're not still,
check her out and connect with her because she's going
to take this great places and she'll be where you're
at at some point in time. So you can send
her an email at Kayla at Kayla loagu dot com.
So it's kay l a at Kayla Logue dot com.
And of course all of this information will be in
(33:22):
the in the show notes. She's on Instagram at Kayla
log Underscore, back forward, slash and move into words as well,
so she's uh, move into words and Kayla Logan. Then
on LinkedIn, she is Kayla Loge with your bunch of numbers,
but we'll put that on. We'll put that in the
show notes.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
You can find me all on the website. It's easy.
I try to keep it as easy as possible.
Speaker 1 (33:47):
That's good, and they can they can get the book
from the site, correct, I was right about.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
That, Yes, yeah, So the book's very I mean there's
like a bunch of different buttons you can collect order
the book, and if you go there, you can also
just sign up and you can read the introduction and
first trap it for free.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
So love it. I love it. Beautiful. Well, Kayla, thank
you so much again for being the guest guest on
the Women Excelling Everywhere podcast. I look forward to staying
connected with you and watching the big, amazing things going on.
And there's a little special place in our heart for
North Carolina. My husband was out there in the Boon
(34:21):
Sugar Pine area of North Korea.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Familiar.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Oh, we might have to talk, We might have to talk.
Thanks so anyway, thank you so much for being on
the program today and sharing your story and your wisdom.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
It was so great, happy, so great speaking with you.
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (34:41):
Absolutely absolutely so. I encourage everyone watching or listening to
be sure to stay in or get in contact with Kayla,
stay in touch with her and watch as she does
amazing things moving forward and find out about the amazing
things that she's already done. And of course stay in
touch with us at Women Excelling Everywhere. Our Our website
is Women Excelling Everywhere dot com are If you want
(35:04):
information about the group or about membership, we have several
level levels of membership that you can jump into. You
can simply have your presence for your business on the website.
In the membership and have an entire page devoted to
you on Women Excelling Everywhere dot com or you can
join us in our private membership Women Excelling Everywhere Success Collective,
(35:25):
and that is a we have daily activity in that.
It's kind of like a cross between face. It's like
your own private Facebook group. Like it's no advertising, right.
We do a lot. We do a monthly theme challenge
every month either business health, business growth, personal health, relationship health.
That's all we include in there. We do weekly activities
connected to the monthly theme and then a daily prompts
(35:48):
to just kind of help you get your brain in
the right place and engage. So we'd love to have
you join us in that group as well. Have any
questions again, please send it to info at Women Excelling
Everywhere dot com. As I like to close every one
of the shows, I want everyone to take a nice
deep breath in, go out there and simply enjoy every moment.
(36:12):
Thanks for being with us.
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