049: how to take a chance on yourself | dr. nicole garlit on entrepreneurship, burnout, & self-belief
This week, we welcome our first ever guest (!!): Dr. Nicole Garlit, physical therapist, entrepreneur, and founder of her own private practice.
Nicole joins Nins & Arns to talk about the emotional reality of building a business, navigating uncertainty, and learning to trust yourself when there's no guaranteed path forward. From chronic stress showing up physically in the body to the fear of leaving stability behind, Nicole shares the moments that pushed her to take a chance on herself and shape a career aligned with her values.
Together, we explore entrepreneurship, burnout, perfectionism, emotional health, asking for help, self-trust, motherhood, physical therapy, and the courage it takes to build something of your own.
To all our crybabies who are dreaming of starting a business, considering a career change, or simply trying to believe in themselves a little more: this one's for you. (And to anyone interested in working with Dr. Nicole, enter code "BRBC50" on the contact form of her website for 50% off your initial assessment!)
Content warning: discussions of stress, burnout, anxiety, chronic pain, and emotional overwhelm.
Chapters
0:00: preview
0:30: welcome to brb crying's first-ever guest
3:36: how we know our guest
6:38: welcome to Dr. Nicole!
12:16: Dr. Nicole's sob story: crying after school drop-off
15:55: can emotional stress cause physical pain?
22:02: what healing and emotional release actually feel like
34:47: Nicole's "why": pursuing PT & leaving traditional healthcare
38:41: building a business and betting on yourself
46:00: overcoming imposter syndrome
54:20: advice for anyone chasing a dream
1:00:57: Nicole's cry rec + where to find her
Referenced in this episode:
The Notebook (2004 film)
Bonus cry rec: "Heartbeat" by James Arthur
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If you're injured, it doesn't just affect your physical health, it affects everything around that. It's so easy to get lost in what you're doing, but to like take a step back and just be like, oh my gosh, like this is beautiful. I would work out at the gym listening to your pod and I would be crying between sets.
You're not the first person who's told me that, like, oh, I used to listen to the gym, but then I couldn't anymore. Like, why are you listening to the gym? Yeah, I'm really gonna amp me up today.
This is BRB Crying.
Hello everyone, and welcome back to BRB Crying. I'm Arns. And I'm Ninz.
And your two favorite content criators. Do you like that one? Are back at it again. That's pretty good. Okay, I'll pause so you can um compliment that one. Like seven out of ten. I would have rated it higher. But anyway, um, your two favorite content creators are back here to get into the feels once more. We do it all the time. Uh, but this time we're just recording it for you to hear.
Yeah. Welcome. If you're new here, welcome. If you're old here, welcome back, Cry Babies. We have something very special planned today, but before we get into that, really quickly, want to plug ourselves as we must. Um, we are at brbcrying.podcast on all socials. Go ahead and follow us there. Send us your sob stories. We love to hear from you.
Yeah, we're gonna keep it short today because we have the best ever episode planned for all of our listeners today. You may have noticed, if you're watching us on YouTube, that there's another chair in the studio here today.
Yeah, you may have noticed that I am taking up only one third of this camera angle because today we have our first ever guest. Yes, we're so excited. We for a long time now have been so excited to have a guest on because we know we love hearing ourselves talk, but why do other people cry? You know? And we get the sob stories, but it's a little different when there's someone just in person sharing. So, for our first ever guest, we knew that they had to be so special, they had to be a crybaby from the beginning. So a day one, they had to be super open and vulnerable and kind of give that same kind of vibe as us. And um she also had to be stunning. Yeah, only beautiful people. Sorry. Sorry. Uh yeah. So if you're thinking about being on the spot, uh you know, I'm not gonna go there. I'm not gonna go there. But yeah, so so there was only one answer. There was only one answer, and that is our dear, dear friend, Dr. Nicole Garlet, doctor of physical therapy and orthopedic clinical specialist. OMG. Yeah. And before we bring her on, we're gonna gas her up a little bit, obviously, because she's sitting watching, a little bit nervous. So we're gonna talk about how great she is. We're gonna talk about how we know her.
Mm-hmm.
How
do we know her?
Do you want to start? Oh gosh. I I knew of the legend of Nicole. Same. We whispered three of us. You've you've heard all three of us have grown up in the same town in the South Bay. I never met her, I just knew of her. And then our high school friends, like half of us decided to go to one college, the other half went to this other college. That's really confusing. Half of our friends decided to go to USF, University of San Francisco, and that is where they all became friends with Nicole. And I was like, Honestly, I was still in high school, dude. I was like, I would I'm a year younger than all of these people. So I was literally like going to prom and they were like going to house parties, and I was like, drinking. So I actually didn't know Nicole until probably after college when some of our friends started getting married and going on bachelorette parties and stuff, and I got to know her for real. Yeah. And it's been really wonderful. And it's just been nice to uh see her fire flame selfies on Instagram. Yeah. Yes. Like stunning people only reminder. Yeah. But yeah, that's that's how I know her. And I mean, I'm sure we're gonna get into this, but the moment that you and I decided to venture on this project and really get into our feels, she's been the fucking best.
Like she left a review before she listened to the fucking podcast. She was like, This is my favorite podcast. And I was like, girl, dude, day one. Yeah. She's a fan of us, I'm a fan of her. Same. Same. So I would say something really similar, knew of her, but didn't really know her. But I will say when we started going to weddings, we were in different bridal parties together. I knew we were gonna be friends when she had like an eyelash in her eye, and she asked me to take it out with my fucking finger. I reached into her eye and I was like, this is it, y'all. We're actually friends now. This is it. So yeah, yeah. Core memory for me. Yeah. So I don't have anything intimate like that. Okay, we're here to make the memory. This is to rip my eyelash off. Yeah. Yeah, we could do that. Yeah. Um, but yeah, she, and we will get into this during the episode, but she has been on her own little entrepreneurial journey. I say little, I mean massive. And it's just been so inspiring. And that's why I knew. Yeah. You know, we both knew we were like, oh, vibes, vibes are up. Yeah. We're so aligned right now in our journeys and like wanting to share our fullest selves. So we had to have her.
She is truly a gem, and we are so excited to share her with our community today. Yeah. So here we go. Here we go. Without further ado, here is our conversation with Dr. Nicole.
Hello, Dr. Nicole, and welcome to BRB Crying. Oh.
She cried.
Hi, girls. I'm so honored to be here. We are honored to have you. Oh my gosh, this is like a dream come true. Is it? No, seriously. I've been a fan for so long. So it's it truly is an honor to be here.
Yeah, well, thank you.
Thank you for coming. I'm really excited about this one. And honestly, thank you for all your support on our show. Since, again, like we mentioned from the beginning, you've been there to just fucking hype us up every step of the way, and we're so appreciative of it. But um, there must be a reason why the message of our pod resonated with you. I'm I love crying. I'm a big crier.
Have you always been? Yeah.
Oh, okay.
Yes, I have.
Really? Yeah.
Okay. And I just love that you share what made you cry and you actually cry on the pod. It makes it like for some reason it's healing to me to see other people cry because it makes me feel less alone in my feelings. So that's why it resonated so much with me. Yeah. It never fails. Every time I see someone else cry, I start crying. Me. Like immediately. Yes. So it just feels good to let it all out. Yeah. Every every week I listen to you guys. I get to let out the emotions, which feels really nice. Love that. I'm so flattered.
You know, this is funny because this brings me to the question that I wanted to ask all our guests. Because you said that you have always been a big crier, but I know for a fact that you are a Capricorn. So what we wanted to do with our guests was guess their astrological placements. We know you're a Capricorn. Do you know your don't tell us if you do know. Do you know like your rising hands? Oh no. That face is showing me.
That face is showing me no. No. I don't. I mean, I I have looked it up before. It is in my notes somewhere.
Okay.
I do have a patient right now who's like very into astrological science. And so she goes over this stuff with me, but I can't remember it. Okay. Okay, okay, okay. But I want to say like cancer's in there. I was gonna fucking sit down.
Yeah.
We're both Capricorns and I'm a cancer moon. So I think that's what it is.
We're the same person. Oh my god. I was gonna say that you seem like you had some sort of water in your chart because you said that you are so deep in your field. Then that's so the cancer, if you are in fact, we could be making this up. It might not be true. But if you are in fact a cancer moon, then I feel like that checks out to me.
Dude, I think I am. Because I remember, I remember looking at it and I was like, cancer? Like, I don't know if I resonate with it, but then my patient started kind of going over like what it means. I was like, oh wait, yeah, that's totally me. Yeah.
Oh, I love that. You know what though? I also heard I saw a TikTok. Um, but there was talking about like the evolution of Capricorn and how like in any astrological sign, there are those stereotypes that you see with every single zodiac sign, basically. Virgo, uptight, right?
It's like, okay, calling me out.
Okay, Capricorn, bossy and like, you know, unaffected. But there is this transition where like you see this evolved Capricorn that is no longer afraid to be vulnerable. And maybe that's just where we are in our lives right now.
Yeah. I think we'll probably get into this later, but I think growing up, I did feel like I had to hold in a lot of emotion and a lot a lot of feeling. And even to this day, I feel like now that I have kids, I have to, you know, show up a certain way all the time, like be on. Um, but I'm learning how to be vulnerable in those moments where it's really important to and to show up as I am and not have to like have this facade all the time. Like, it's okay to not be okay. It's okay to cry in front of my kids or whoever, yeah. Complete stranger in the parking lot. Um so yeah, I think this is like the stage that I'm in right now where I'm I get to really just be who I am.
And what a treasure for your kids who are so young and still so impressionable to be able to see you grow into that. Because I'm gonna guess that's not the kind of parenting most of us had, right? And I try to do that too, right? Like be intentional about like, yeah, I wanna hold together, but at the same time, it's like where can I show these pockets of vulnerability and like show my child that it's okay to cry? So I'm guessing you you do a little bit of crying in front of the kids.
I do, yeah, and I normalize it for them too. Like it's total I have two boys, and I want them to know as a boy it's okay to cry too. It's totally okay to cry. I always say it's okay to cry.
Love it, love it.
Alright, so I know we could keep going with this, but we did ask Nicole, our very first guest, to prepare a little sob story. Just because, you know, every week me and Nins over here share our sob stories. So we wanted to give our guests a chance to share themselves however they want, in whatever way they want. So with this segment, our goal is to give Nicole the chance to share, share her story, share maybe something that made her cry. Could be related to her work. We don't know. We actually are not sure what she's gonna share, and I think that's part of the excitement for us to hear it live. Yeah. Just like you. Just like you. Okay.
Okay.
Are you ready? I'm ready. All right.
I'm so excited. I'm so excited to. I'm so excited to watch her cry.
It's crazy. Y'all are excited. I'm nervous. Um, today I'm going to share a personal story about me crying in the car after dropping my kids off to school. Okay. But before I get into the meat and potatoes of the story, a little bit of kuc-ka-ka context.
That's a fucking cry baby. She's a fucking stand dude.
She knows. As we've already alluded to, I am a mom of two beautiful boys. They are three and five years old. And two years ago, shortly after my youngest celebrated his first birthday, I started my own physical therapy practice. Something I've been wanting to do for years, but never had the courage to do so until I became a mom. After opening my own business, it honestly felt like I was raising three children. If it's one thing you should learn about me, it's that I thrive off of structure and routine. I'm talking calendars, schedules, weekly tasks, yearly goals, daily mantras, Capricorn Energy.
Earth Science Baby. Yeah.
So when I'm off my routine, things feel really chaotic and I don't feel quite like myself. A few weeks ago, my kids had spring break, and whenever they have a week off, we do what most families do. We go on vacation. And this time we chose Legoland in San Diego. The boys are obsessed with Legos right now, so we thought it was the perfect place to take them. So the first day of their spring break, we flew out to sunny San Diego and started our adventure. Legoland itself was insane. Tons of rides that they could actually ride at their age, play structures where they could burn energy for hours, and even a water park and an aquarium on site. What? There's an aquarium? It was dope. You should go. Dang. We stayed at the Legoland Hotel to top it all off. That was steps away from the theme park entrance. It was also insane. Was the floor made of Legos that you just step on?
No. Every once in a while, a parent would step on like a loose Lego.
Um, there were six-foot-tall statues made of Legos, Lego themed rooms, dance parties, and events for kids to enjoy every single night. And even the elevator had a disco light and party music that turned on when the elevator doors closed. Oh my god. That was a straight-up party. I gotta go. Holy shit. Don't get me wrong, Legoland was fun, but when I came back, I felt completely drained. I was overstimulated. How many days were you there? Two days. Two days? That's two days too. Two days. Four days altogether in San Diego, two days in Legoland. It was the bright lights, the loud music, hundreds of people everywhere, drawing roller coasters, and the pungent smell of chlorine. It was a lot. My kids had the time of their lives, but I was honestly feeling so depleted. But it's not like I had the luxury to rest and reset. It was straight back to work on top of a whole week of entertaining the kids while they were still on break from school. I was straight up in survival mode.
Consciously, I didn't feel stressed, but my body started to show me signs that I was. I noticed myself feeling more tired than usual, and no amount of caffeine could save me. I felt off my game at work, I was short-tempered, I was short on patience, my body felt sluggish, and suddenly I felt my neck start to stiffen up like a board. For years I've had this chronic neck issue that started in college. Shout out USF.
Shout out USF for the neck issues.
Sponsors.
Yes, I remember distinctly waking up one day and having this extreme kink in my neck, and I couldn't turn my head at all. I literally had to turn my body like this to talk to the person next to me. And since then, I would experience flare-ups of this pain, interestingly, around times of intense stress. A few examples are when I was studying for my physical therapy board exams. That exam was so hard and so stressful. Um, another time was when we were first went on lockdown due to COVID-19. Shout out. Shout out to fucking sponsor us.
Oh my god.
Yeah, that was a time we had no clue what the fuck was going to happen, and I was terrified out of my mind. And the most severe episode was about a year and a half ago when I was in the thick of entrepreneurship. I remember that specific time I woke up in the morning at 3 a.m. with one of the most intense pains I've ever experienced in my life. And I've experienced childbirth twice. Every step and movement that I made led to sharpshooting pains going all the way down my arm.
Oh my god.
I was paralyzed by the pain, and it took more than six months to fully recover. What? Um what? It's interesting that my body shows me how I'm doing mentally before my conscious self can even recognize what's going on. Fast forward to the end of spring break, and it was the kids' first day back at school. Of course, since we had the week off, the first day back is always super rusty. The kids had a hard time waking up in the morning, and the morning in general was much more rushed than usual. So we were running late. My husband was in the driver's seat, and I was in the passenger seat, and the kids were in the back. We were about to turn left on the light, and as we were approaching, the light turned yellow, and my husband stopped abruptly. I raised my voice. Go, go, go! Why did you stop? My husband replied, Whoa, it's okay. We still have time. I raised my voice even louder. We are going to be late. My husband's voice matched my volume. No, we aren't. Relax. I screamed, I can't relax. My five-year-old screamed in the back, it's too loud. There was so much tension in the car. My heart was beating fast, my body temperature was rising, and all of a sudden, streams of tears began running down my face. It's the kind of cry that feels as strong as a 10-foot wave, but I was holding it back because I didn't want my kids to worry. We park the car, my husband does drop off because there was no way I was going to get out of the car. But once we left the parking lot, I just let it all come out. Waves of tears streaming down my face. It was a really good cry. You know what's interesting though? Hours after I let my emotions out, I noticed the tension in my neck start to let go. It's as if I was carrying all these pent-up emotions in my neck, and crying was the thing I needed to release it from my body. And what I've learned as a physical therapist is that physical pain doesn't always mean your body is damaged or injured. When your brain detects threat or stress, it responds by putting you in flight or fight mode. Your muscles and joints start to stiffen up to protect you from danger. And oftentimes we can chalk this pain up to, I don't know, having bad posture or maybe I did something wrong in the gym. But no one talks about the mental and emotional connection to physical pain. And that's usually the missing link. If you're someone who has pain that keeps persisting no matter what you do, you're not alone. I see it all the time in my practice and in my patients. People who have been to multiple doctors, tried everything under the sun, massage, acupuncture, physical therapy, chiropractic. And you just feel like you haven't found any answers or permanent relief. Your body isn't broken. Your system is just overwhelmed. Whether it's taking a walk in nature, talking things out with someone you trust, or maybe it's a good old cry. These are the actions that tell your brain that you're safe. And when you feel safe, your body can finally let go.
Oh Nicole, that was more than I could have ever hoped and dreamed for in terms of your story.
Yeah, thank you for sharing that. I could feel your emotions. Like I could picture exactly how you were feeling in those moments, like when you were in the car.
I know you're gonna have a completely different perspective on what Nicole just shared because obviously you two are both mothers and you're both raising young children. I'm clearly not.
But I have been thinking a lot, Nicole, about how the feelings that we feel, if there isn't any sort of release, it will find a way. It will force its way out. Like I've been doing a lot of work in therapy right now, kind of going over some childhood traumas and like just things that I didn't even think were still affecting me. And it's strange because we're doing kind of all these different techniques to like find a way for me to release. And when I do finally release, it is such a strange feeling. I noticed that when you had mentioned when you finally broke down in the car and you were like releasing everything. I don't even know if you could even express what exactly in one short, simple sentence, like what you felt as you were crying. But I have been trying to be super conscious when I am releasing. And I noticed that, like, oh, I'm not even sad. Like, I don't even feel like depressed as I'm crying. It's more of just like, oh, it just feels so good to let it out. It's it's strange because, like, you know, I think when most people think about the act of crying, it's like, oh, she's really sad about something, or she's really hurt about something. And maybe and I I don't want to speak for you, but that's kind of what I was thinking where it's just you needed to find a way to let go of something.
Yeah, for me it was a combination. Like that specific time was a combination. That whole week after we came back from San Diego, there was just a lot of small things that started piling up. And the fact that I was already exhausted from that trip, I think I was in a state where my capacity to tolerate certain things was so much lower. And so it just kept building and building and building, and I kept trying to play it cool. I kept trying to have this facade. And like when you're working with people like in my profession and what I do for my job, I have to be present and I have to be on for them. So it just felt like I didn't have the in-between moments, or I didn't give myself the in-between moments to really release all of the stuff that I was feeling in my body. Yeah. So when that cry happened in the car, it was a mixture of both, oh my god, I just needed to let this out. And it felt so good. And yeah, it was kind of this feeling of like, like I mentioned in the story, like a wave just took over me and it just all came out and it just felt so big. But at the same time, there was a sense of like sadness, and there was a sense of overwhelm. So I would say in that specific instance, it was both, but it just I could just remember when I did let it all out the feeling of how I felt afterwards, which was so much relief.
Yeah. Yeah. When you were talking about like your neck hurting and stuff, it brought me back to just like a few days ago. I woke up and my neck was like, it was so stiff, it was so sore. And like it was funny because, you know, this is like right after spring break happened, and I was like, okay, I'm gonna treat myself to like a must, I'm gonna get a massage, I'm gonna go to the sauna, you know, I'm gonna like work out, I'm gonna like do these things that I have not had the time to do. And expecting like myself to feel like so much better, but you know, that night my daughter is like crawling into bed. She's waking me up like three or four times, right? And it's this sense, exactly what you're saying, of like, I am trying like so hard to keep it together. I am trying so hard to like be patient when I speak to her. I'm trying so hard to like be level and like be understanding and to know that like when she's fucking screaming at me, like I know she doesn't mean to, and like I've been trying really hard to say, like, even when you yell at me, I still love you. Even when you're angry with me, I still love you. Like, there's all these mantras, like things that I didn't necessarily hear growing up that I feel like I would have loved to. That's what I show, but but it doesn't negate the fact that I'm still fucking tired, I'm still overwhelmed, I'm still stressed out, like no amount of doing things to my body is gonna help. And then I thought about well, what what made my next stop hurting? It was like at one point I reached like a breaking point, I started like I was like sh I think sauna was like either sleeping or in another room. I was like punching a pill, I was like screaming, I was released, like crying so hard. And like after I finally released that, I was like, oh my god, like I didn't even realize how much we don't even think about how much we're holding in half the time. We're just like so busy trying to play it cool, and then our bodies start to fucking show us, and then we're like, oh okay, now it's too late because I can't like turn my head. I I I totally resonate with everything that you're saying.
What do you usually do, Nicole? Like, I know that this particular week was you kind of off your routine and all of the chaos from the travel and whatever, but what do you personally try to do to like help yourself when you need to take a moment for you?
Such a good question. There's a there's a couple of things. I have been taking up running recently, and running has been a really great outlet for me. I mean, I grew up running track and playing basketball, so there's like running in that, but legend, Nicole, you guys.
I'm telling you.
Legend. But this like longer distance running was never in my repertoire. But now that I'm doing it, I can see why people love it. It's just that outlet, and you your mind just goes off, and you're not just you're not constantly thinking about all these things that are on your to-do list or what you have to do next or um what tomorrow needs to look like. But it just gives you the moment to just be present. I love running outside, so it's nature, listening to birds. Sometimes I'll like run without any music at all. Oh, really? Yeah. It's amazing. No, it's yeah, it was very uncomfortable for me to do that at first, but this is kind of going into my story. Like, I feel now that when there's just so much extra noise and sounds and lights and all this and all that, it really makes me like makes me anxious. Like it's a lot of overwhelm for me. And so sometimes now, like, I'll try to find moments where it's complete silence or where I'm just listening to what the natural noises in the world are and not this like music that's playing in my ear. Like I used to go on walks and like listen to podcasts, like which one?
Interesting.
No, I'll give you a right answer. Seriously, no podcasts plural and then like excuse me.
Oh my gosh. Wait, really quick aside, off topic, kind of, but still on topic. I used to listen to your pod at the gym. Oh. I would work out at the gym listening to your pod, and I would be crying between sets.
You're— the crazy thing is you're not the first person who's told me that. Like, oh, I used to listen to the gym, but then I couldn't anymore.
Like, why are we listening to the gym?
Oh my god.
Yeah, I'm really gonna amp thing up today.
Oh my god. That's crazy. Um, yeah, I had to stop doing that because people were like, the fuck? Like, good idea. It's normal, okay. Um, but yeah, I would now I just love like not listening to anything because it gives me a little bit of that peace and that like silence that I think my body is like craving right now. So that's something that I do. I also go to therapy. That helps just talking things out with my therapist. Shout out, Mara. Thank you, Mara. You're definitely not listening to this, but thank you.
You never know. You never know. I know we shout out our therapists all the time. Like, I don't know if mine listens.
Um and yeah, I think those are like the main things that I do, but I have to be really intentional. Like, if I don't give myself the space and be very intentional about, okay, right now is just time for me. And it's not perfect. Like I'm still working on it. It's still really hard to like make that time in my schedule for me.
You schedule it? Like, do you purposefully block it off on your calendar? Now I do because my therapist told me that I should.
Ooh. Yeah. Because it's if it's not if it's not in my calendar, it's not happening. Yeah. So now I just block it off. And some weeks I hold to it, some weeks I don't. Sometimes it's a little bit we're human. Chaotic. We're human. But yeah, I think that's really helpful having it in the in the calendar.
I love that. And and I feel like oftentimes we judge ourselves like, oh my god, I can't believe I have to like pencil in like me relaxing. But sometimes you gotta fucking do that. Like, especially when you're it's as packed as it is for you.
Yeah, I mean, it's not even relaxing. And uh thank you, Nicole. I know I just put you on the spot with that question, but it was really me trying to allude to the fact that there is no right way, right? Everyone has their own way of releasing. And when you mentioned running, I was like, that is not how I do it. What do you do? What is yours? Okay, I was gonna say, like, the fact that you are able to change the narrative on running to be something that's relaxing to you. Because I think for me from a Capricorn perspective, I'm like, I gotta be my fucking time from last time. So, like, that has what it's been for me. It's like find the most like amped up music so I can be a little bit faster. But then it's like, who the fuck cares? No one cares if you're faster today than you were last week. But personally, for me, it's been more like honestly, I bought a speaker for my shower and like I will take my long ass showers and like curate an incredible playlist and like just sing and just like sing in the shower and like dance a little bit and just take that moment for me to like be present and feel good, you know. And I think that's really what it is about. It's like pencil and relax or go on a run and turn off the music. At the end of it, it's just you saying, I'm gonna have this moment for me and no one else. Out of all the other things that you pick and choose every minute of the day, like let this time be for just me.
So much easier said than done.
I don't know, it's pretty easy for me.
Oh my god.
I love what you said about dancing though. I think that's also just like the physical release, too. It's the same thing that running gives me. It's just like that physical movement just gets all of that out. I love that.
Yeah. I'm also really good, so not show us. Yeah. You want a demo? Prove it. No, no, no. That's it's just for me. So how about you, Arnes? What do you do?
I would say a little bit of like all of that. I love dancing, running. I've been running more recently too. Um, but every single morning I will put in my headphones and I'll listen to like 528 Hertz or like one of those high vibrational frequencies. And I'll listen for probably like maybe 20 or 30 minutes with my AirPods in, and I will just think about all the things that I'm grateful for, and I will I'll sit there and I'll cry like in bed alone, and like every single morning, it's like I will do it until like the tears are like overflowing, and because to me it's like if I can start my day with that, like if that can be the basis of my day, it's gonna be a fucking good day. So it's it's it's kind of an emotional release in that way, but it also is just really, really grounding, which I feel like is kind of what both of you are doing in your said choice of activity. I I actually have a question. Uh Nin's just like, I'm just gonna let it flow. I'm like, but I have a question I want to ask you. This is kind of going into your practice because I'm sure like everyone listening is gonna want to know a little bit more about your journey, especially everyone who who's thinking about like starting off on your own. And I know that you've said that there have been many tears in that process alone. But I am I'm curious about what pushed you to make that leap? Was it a definitive thing that happened in your life, or was it a culmination of a lot of different things that made you want to take that chance on yourself?
How much time do we have?
No, all the time. All the time in the world. Dude, all the time in the world.
Ooh. Okay. I'm gonna go kind of deep here. And no, don't do that. Okay. So I believe we're all put on this earth to serve at some capacity. I feel like my personal purpose at the core is to help others live the life that they want to live. At its core, that's what I I feel like I'm put on this earth to do. And the way that I do it is by helping people heal their physical bodies. And if you think about it, our bodies are our vessel to be able to experience the world, to be able to make memories with the people we love, to be able to show up in the workplace, in our relationships, in our communities. So the way that we can move our bodies is a big part of that. So you can imagine, like if you're in pain or if you're injured, it doesn't just affect your physical health, it affects everything around that. It affects your relationships, it affects your ability to show up at work, it affects your ability to make those memories, and it really affects your quality of life. So when I became a physical therapist, I knew, oh my God, I get to help people in this really beautiful way, to be able to feel strong in their bodies, to be able to do all the things that they want to do. And after graduating physical therapy school, I quickly realized that working in the hospital and corporation type settings, I couldn't provide the care that I really wanted to provide. Like when I would have appointments with patients, they're very short. These are high-volume clinics, so I would see people back to back to back to back. And insurance can only cover so much. So people would get partially better, and then they would go back out into the world and do the things that they love, and then they would reinjure themselves because there was no transition for them to get back to those higher level activities. And that started to burn me out because I knew that I could do so much more for them. But I felt like my hands were tied. Like I still loved what I was doing, but I felt slowly over time that the flame that was burning inside of me was slowly dwindling away. And I just knew there had to be another way. And it's funny because when I was trying to pick my major at USF, I was choosing between biology and business because there was something inside of me that knew that I was gonna have my own business one day. I just didn't know what. But I was like, nah, you know, my parents' voices in my head, go the medical route, go the medical route. So I decided to become a biology major. Fast forward, became a physical therapist, and it's so beautiful that now I have blended the two together. And it wasn't until I had my second child that I was ready to make that leap because there were so many voices inside of my head telling me, you don't know enough, you're not good enough. What are you doing? You don't know anything about business. And those voices were so loud that it really stopped me from making that leap. For how many years now? Six years I've been a physical therapist, six or seven. Six, seven.
Sorry.
She had to do it.
She had to do it.
Um,
but yeah, those voices were just so loud. But when I had my second, I wanted the freedom, I wanted the flexibility, I wanted the ability to both show up in the workplace, but also be so present and so loving and caring at home. I wanted both, but I just knew I couldn't do it staying in the corporate realm. So I thought, if I'm not gonna do it now, I'm never going to do it. And I don't think I ever told you guys this, but you two were a big reason why.
Shut the fuck all up.
Got my tissue ready.
All right, I'm ready.
God damn it.
Ready to hear that.
Okay.
Yeah, like seeing you two venture off and do this project, this like dream project of yours, something that you both are so passionate about. I was like, if Angela and Ariana can do it, why can't I? So thank you for doing this because it allows people like me who are also yearning to step out and totally bet on themselves but are too afraid to. You guys show us that it's possible. I think oh my gosh, I was listening to the other the last episode, was it, or the maybe the episode before, where I think um, Angela, you said there's people walking around in this earth not even knowing how they inspired you or how they affected you. And I didn't want to go, you know, today without telling you guys how you inspired me.
Hold on.
Okay.
Oh you're so well spoken. I was like, she didn't use any filler words. She didn't even have it like ready. Could not be me.
No. Um wow. Thank you for sharing that. It can often feel like we're talking to not a wall, but you know, we're we're so I mean, we're having so much fun doing this, but when we hear people, like listeners share the way it's affected them, it's just like the most beautiful reminder that what we are doing matters. And it's funny that you say that we inspire you because I feel like for both of us, it's very much the other way around, too, where at least for me, like watching you go out and do your thing and go viral, guys. Like this this girl, she's gone fucking viral, but like to watch that, like you are continuing to inspire me to show up and do this. And I love that word you used, yearning. The the year the yearn. I there's that is like the most beautiful word to me. Like, there's no other word that captures that feeling in my chest of like, oh my god, like with every fiber of my being, I need to do this. I need to do this. And I think that when it came to our podcast, there are so many times where I've had like ideas, like, I want to do this, but I want to do this, and nothing has ever stuck. But this podcast has been the one thing for me where I was filled with so much yearning. Like, I I need to do like for for my soul, I need to do that. But it's beautiful to watch you find the thing. Because I know that's that's a hard part too, right? Like, what is even the thing that I am yearning to do? But for you to find that and then to to go after it and to believe in yourself. And thank you for sharing that entire journey about how you even got there because it's comforting to know that those demons in your head. We all hear it. We we all we all experience that. And so it's really comforting for me to hear that it wasn't like you were running into this with like, okay, like it's gonna be, you know, uh it's gonna be perfect and amazing and like no doubt in your mind. But like to know that you felt that and kept going because you had to, because you felt that yearning, like that's just that's so beautiful.
Yeah, I think I what I loved hearing when you were kind of going over all of these little things that kind of happened in your life that led you to that moment. There were so many parallels that I could see in our journey to do this podcast. It's like it makes me feel so like in awe with the universe because it has been guiding us all this time, and it's up to us to really like be brave enough to listen and allow it to move us in the way that we are meant to. And it's just really cool to see that it's basically the same story, it's just a different flavor or a different color, you know. But wow, I'm really in awe of you. Like even what you were saying about you know, healthcare's fucked, and like just being like, but okay, maybe I can't change it systemically, but I can change. change it in my own in my own realm, in my own reality, and here's how I can here's how I know I can do this. Like, oh my God. That's incredible. I hope you I hope you are so proud of yourself. Like I hope that you I hope that you realize how amazing you are okay.
I think that's something I'm always working on is taking a step back and looking at what I've done and what I've accomplished and being like wow you really did that like it's so easy to like in the day to day to get lost in what you're doing and to be like oh okay waking up every day and like this is another day this is what I'm going to do but to like take a step back and just be like oh my gosh like this is beautiful let me pencil that in too yeah for real I think we all could use that reminder you know because like ours you just said like oh no one's listening to us you know it's like that's the thought that you have it's like what am I really doing?
And then you kind of connect with your community and they show you like girl you're fucking doing it. Yeah I think we should all take a moment to just and now we will take a five minute break where we will all silently tell ourselves that we're proud wow yeah I feel amazing I don't know about you guys I feel really good this has been such a wonderful conversation I know so what do you do
what gives you the strength to keep going or to like squash those voices?
Like do they do they still pop up or like do you feel like you're in this place now where you really believe in yourself and you don't really let those voices get to you I definitely still have those voices and it usually comes when there is growth happening like every new level those voices kind of start coming back.
And it's not that I I mean I think I've just learned to not let it affect me as much or there's enough proof in what I've done so far. Like taking that step back and just seeing how far I've come there's enough proof now to know that if I could do hard things in the past I can do hard things now and I am just I believe in what I can do and I'll figure it out and it's not gonna be perfect. It's not gonna be beautiful but if it's one thing about me I'm gonna try and if I fail I'm gonna take that as a learning lesson and just keep moving forward. So those voices do show up but I think I've just built a lot more confidence in myself by putting the reps in and putting myself in really uncomfortable situations where I'm forced to grow and I'm forced to just go all in and believe in myself.
Yeah they still show up.
How much of it do you feel is like you honing your craft versus you kind of letting go and trusting the universe I feel like it's more of letting go and trusting the universe because that's kind of how I ended up here with you know having my business is I leaned into the uncomfortable feeling the other voices in my head the little whispers that was like you should do it go try your own practice once I started to just lean into that discomfort all of these doors started opening for me it's like when I stopped being so resistant towards the things that I knew were out there for me when I just let myself open up and let those things in is when all of these things started just like pouring over me and I'm like ah and that's how I know like I'm on the right path.
I love that idea of like you only grow when you're uncomfortable and I just think about how scary like so much of this has been for us. Like we were just telling Nicole before the recording because she was like I'm nervous and she was like girl the first time we sat in front of these mics we literally did not sleep the night of the recording I was just like lying in bed like holy fuck I can't believe I just recorded an episode. Yeah and it's just like your body just learns it just feels comfortable and now we can sit here and feel really confident about what we're doing and that's exactly what you're doing with all these different amazing opportunities that come your way yes it's gonna scare us and then we decide to be brave anyway and do it and then we expand over time, you know? Yep exactly exactly the that mindset is like oh I gotta be perfect before I feel ready to do that. I think that is such a learned behavior that I've had over the years of like oh I can't do that until I am flawless or like I don't want to try because I won't be flawless at the beginning but just having the courage to fail has been so eye-opening for me.
Yeah yeah it's a complete game changer you can only learn and grow through failure like that's literally how our brains learn is by failing. Our brain does not learn when you get things 100% right. It learns when we have to course correct and you know like learn from the little errors and you know learn better ways to do something. That's how we grow so the more that I think that we can lean into the discomfort the more that we can lean into the fear uh the quicker we can grow and the quicker we can learn more about ourselves and be better.
Yeah I love that reframing it right so it's not failing so much as like opportunities to learn and opportunities to grow. Yep exactly that incredible do we hit all your questions I could I could pull up the fucking iPad I was like there are so many things I want to know there are so I'm I'm really pulling up the iPad Can I ask y'all a question?
Yeah yeah um since we're on the topic of growth what do you you feel like you both are growing in right now like what are you afraid of or what do you feel like you're up against right now?
Receiving receiving goodness I think that I have had a lot of resistance to the idea that abundance can find me if only I let it and I don't necessarily have to work hard for it but if I can just I saw someone put it this way on TikTok it was like like imagine a plane landing on a runway you are not trying to ask for like the bigger planes. You're trying to expand the runway so that more planes can land and I was like holy fuck I think that I have I have these feelings in my mind about like what what kind of abundance can I have what what am I worth right like what what can I let in like what what is possible right based on like the people around me like what what they've seen is possible on the way it's like been ingrained in me like oh that's too much right but I I'm really working on like letting letting those down if that does that make sense and just like being able to being able to receive how's it going it's going it's going there always needs to be something yeah I would say very similar but in the lens of I think what I'm really trying to tackle right now in therapy is like feeling worthy and I feel like so much of that is tied to building this like rock solid what is the word when like you you love without any restraint.
Unconditional yeah rock solid unconditional self-love and I think that I have always been my harshest critic my meanest voice and so like I really want to just be kinder to myself because I think that is what's really putting in this block of like oh you can't have this because you need to fix this first that is something that has always kind of been a lifelong thing that I have been very very intentional about trying to understand like where did this come from? Why are you like this and what can we do to heal that part of you so let you know how it goes. Yeah.
But it just happens slowly I feel like with every story that we share I get a little bit closer you know just having all like being open to all these different experiences like we said has gotten me closer but yeah it's something that is gonna be ongoing and that's okay you know yeah that's beautiful I love both of your answers they are very similar right yeah because we're the same person so that makes sense I don't know me and Nicole are both Capricorns and Cancer Moon Oh that's true you are a cancer moon too I'm a cancer moon yeah and I'm an earth sign okay I'm an uptight Virgo I I did have well I just wanted to ask like for anyone listening and feeling that that yearning and is kind of thinking about going out on their own or maybe it's a distant dream what what advice would you give them?
My advice would first be to let go of the fact that it has to be perfect before you start that is one because I feel like I also have that perfectionism in my character trait and I was really harsh on myself. I was like this is not perfect you can't start if it's not perfect. But entrepreneurship is like building the plane while it's flying yeah it's not having the plane already built in order to fly. It's like you fly the plane and then you start building it while while you're going. And I think that if you can just let go of that like perfectionism in the beginning and just get going, it'll allow you to take the step towards the thing that you actually want to do. And then it starts to snowball after that. So I'd say that's number one. Number two is I think you have to be really comfortable. I think we're kind of hitting all the all the points already but like being really comfortable with being uncomfortable that's the second part is just knowing that failure and opportunities are all part of the journey and as long as you can take them in stride and learn from them you're only going to get better. And then I'd say the third thing is surround yourself with people who are going to motivate you, who are going to support you, but also people who may have done it already. Like surround yourself in groups of people who are doing the thing that you want to do because being around like minded people will give you the motivation and the encouragement to keep going when the times do get tough and there will be tough times. Like being an entrepreneur is hard. It's very very hard so if you can surround yourself with other people who can be like I've done that before I totally get what you're going through.
Hey it's gonna get better it's so comforting knowing that you're not alone so those are like the three main things I would say and when you surround yourself like that network is it specifically of other PTs that has helped you or is it just like other people who like energetically are kind of doing you know what you're doing?
I'd say both like being in your guys' presence right now and just listening to your pod all the time just again it like gives me so much motivation and so much hope that I could do it too. So anyone energetically in this space that are like go-getters or like following their hearts, following their following their dreams and doing it with purpose and integrity. Like if you can surround yourself with people like that, at least that's the people that I vibe with. So that but also it's also nice to have a people that are doing the thing that you're doing too like those kind of support groups because they could kind of be your mentors and tell you how to save yourself some heartache by doing these things a little bit differently. So yeah.
Yeah. And I love that you brought up that last point because community is such a big part of it. It's such a big part of feeling the appreciation of what you're doing but I know it is so hard because essentially what you're saying is don't be afraid to ask for help, right? But it's like we all do that, right? We're so afraid to inconvenience inconvenience or to accept that we need someone else to kind of help carry us in that moment. And that's okay. But I think that if the actual question can you help me is really scary and I get that it is there's other ways to kind of open yourself up to that and it's just living authentically and just being okay with showing your vulnerability because then that attracts the people who see themselves in you and want to lift you up.
Yeah yeah I think it goes back to what you were saying about receiving and allowing yourself the ability to receive things in abundance. I'm in this coaching group and one of my one of the other business owners in the group asked me for some help to like mentor her and I did we had like a Zoom call where I was helping her with a couple of questions that she had and then afterwards I we were in a coaching group called together and one of the things that we talked about was how are we gonna give back to ourselves today or some or this week or something like that. And I was like you know what I feel guilty for resting most of the time so this week I'm just going to give myself an hour lie in bed and just rot and just watch TV and then I always order like crumble cookie and just like rot in bed and and just like not think about work or having to be productive or whatever it is. And so later on in the day the person that I helped texted me and she was like did you rot? And I was like I was like um I did but I didn't get the crumble cookie because the door dash fees were so dang expensive and I was not trying to do that. And then she was like send me your address I'm gonna I'm gonna door dash it to you right now. Oh my god and it took every ounce of me to like give her my address because I was like no I was like you don't have to and I was like no you know like it felt so uncomfortable but I was like no Nicole like lean into it like lean into the fact that other people want to show you love and want to help you. Yeah and I was like all right I'm just like typing like I was like oh I was like okay here it is and like she sent it to me and I enjoyed it and that was so it was so beautiful to feel like there's other people out there caring for me too it felt so nice.
They want to people want to take care of you if you let them yeah people want to help you if you let them also psychology fact if you ask people for help it actually gets them to like you more. Oh because they feel inclined to do this thing for you because they themselves view themselves as good right and so it kind of you want to manipulate people that's how you do it. Damn oh I love I love that though. Were they good cookies?
They were so freaking good and she got me like the 12 pack too called the little minis and I was like oh just triangle and everything. Shout out CJ Livia oh my god oh I love that so much so much goodness okay
we'll end it with a fun question then okay what is a show movie song or whatever that you want to leave our crybabies with a recommendation that cry yeah a cry recommendation you're really putting me on the spot um of all the questions that were hard I know just like speaking flawlessly about her entrepreneurial journey oh my gosh what is something I can leave the crybabies it doesn't have to be recent it could be like a go-to something that like um an old movie that always makes you cry whenever you watch it oh my gosh I mean uh have you guys watched the notebook yes okay of course I'd see the notebook I mean it's a classic if you haven't watched it what are you doing the notebook every single time makes me sob.
A bunch of Gen Z people have not seen a lot of the things that we consider classics so that might be a really solid recommendation.
Go watch the notebook please make sure you have a box of Kleenex ready every single time makes me cry. There's one specific scene every time I'm not which one it's the scene where they're dancing in the nursing home and then shit goes down. Yeah that part really broke me that like quick switch between like I remember you and I now I don't like oh that hurts. It breaks my heart I personally love what do you want?
What do you want? Um yeah okay solid rec.
Thank you solid I do have one more question where can people find you ooh people can find me on Instagram at DrNicole Garlet and if you want to work with me I have a button on there where you can click in my bio to sign up to get to know me. So I'm in the East Bay I'm located in Oakland so I have people traveling to see me from Fremont and San Leandro and San Francisco and Berkeley so like surrounding cities in Oakland but I also do virtual PT so if you can't get to Oakland we can do things online.
Nice that's so cool I didn't know that. Okay we have one more thing that we would like to leave you with we have one more thing one more thing one more this is so long overdue but you'll see we have a little hat here we are so honored to have you wrap our hat yeah it looks good on everyone for those of you that aren't watching our video we are gifting our first beautiful guest with our BRB crying hat.
It looks stop are you kidding zoom in we need the zoom dude I mean so cute so cute wow I hope you enjoy it well thank you so much for coming thank you so much for having for having us I think you had me sorry what a dream of a first podcast episode with a guest like this was amazing incredible I had so much fun thank you for having me I felt so safe and so welcome in this space too so that's what we want thank you yeah thank you thank you so much to all of our listeners too if this inspired you to do at least one thing differently than we'll have done our job for today if you're interested too in being a guest maybe you'll get a hat.
But reach out to us if you have you know a different take on tears that you want to share with us you feel like you have some like perspectives or insights we would love to hear that. Maybe you don't even want to come on as a guest maybe just a sob story kind of like what Nicole shared at the beginning but as you can see we can now accommodate wonderful guests in person.
So okay well that is our show for today thank you again for tuning in we've had the best time the best and we're gonna soak in all the good feels for the next two weeks and then we'll be back but until then BRB crying
Until next time…brb crying :’)