Today we’d like to introduce you to Aly French and Erica Stein.
Aly and Erica, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
After experiencing a cancer diagnosis in her twenties (Aly) and a sustained 50lb. Weight loss and self-love journey (Erica), we created a platform to interview real people about their personal journeys in health and wellness. From physical wellness, to emotional and spiritual, we hear courageous stories and focus on why it is important to share them.
Our story of starting the podcast is definitely not linear. We met in 2014 and became friends through practicing Buddhism. Aly then moved to Japan for a year and a half for work, and while she was there, we reconnected over Instagram after we noticed we were reading the same book on blood sugar and nutrition.
When Aly returned to the states in mid-2018, we started sharing our own personal health and wellness stories with each other. We were shocked that we had been friends for years but didn’t know so much of each other’s personal wellness journeys. As we continued to discuss our own experiences, we realized so many people have their own stories to share and from that felt empowered to create a platform for individuals from all walks of life to share their journeys too.
We are now committed to de-stigmatizing conversations in the wellness space and celebrate the experiences and lessons of our courageous guests — and have released over 80 episodes. When we started, we just had a deep passion and mission for telling these courageous stories — and are so blown away by the response and the growth in our community. We also both went back to school and are now certified holistic, integrative nutrition health coaches!
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
The majority of the roadblocks we have hit along the way have been internal battles. Balancing our responsibilities as we grow Courageous Wellness can at times, feel overwhelming and learning to practice what we preach and prioritize our own wellness and self-care. We have found that our own personal wellness can be the first thing to go on the back burner when building a business. It has been a lot of late nights, early mornings, working while on vacation, and not having days off.
Erica has always battled with anxiety, and Aly struggles with finding balance — as a team, we have created a supportive partnership so that we can take turns carrying the weight at any given moment. We both feel so passionate about what we are doing. The mission to share stories in wellness is bigger than just a passion, and it is a joy to get up every day and do this work.
As far as advice for young women, the biggest lesson for us in our work has been to never make a decision based on fear! Also, career journeys are not linear. Sometimes you experience many things that don’t seem to be connected, but you never know how a series of experiences and lessons will inform your future career choices. Being open to opportunities and trusting your gut will also never fail you!
We’d love to hear more about Courageous Wellness.
Courageous Wellness is a podcast that interviews real people, influencers, and doctors, about their journeys in health and wellness. From physical wellness, to emotional and spiritual, we hear courageous stories and learn why it is important to share them.
What sets us apart is the wide range of stories we share through the diverse individuals who come on our podcast. We are also not afraid to bring up topics that can seem taboo or uncomfortable in the wellness space. We talk a lot about accessibility, affordability, and privilege and how we believe health and wellness should be a right for all people.
We are most proud of the outpouring of response we have received from many of our episodes. These stories have helped so many people in their own health and wellness experiences. We have had listeners tell us they have connected with stories of overcoming cancer, doctors who share our podcast with patients who are in treatment, young women finding self-care practices for the first time, and even people finding solutions to years-long gut issues and becoming proactive by taking their health into their own hands.
We’re interested to hear your thoughts on female leadership – in particular, what do you feel are the biggest barriers or obstacles?
The wellness space in Southern California is a fairly saturated market. We think that can often create the barrier of feeling something that needs to be perfect before you put it out into the world. This can create analysis paralysis where you become your own barrier in business. In general, women are conditioned with this perfection mythology which men don’t necessarily experience in the same way.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.courageouswellnesspodcast.com
- Instagram: @courageouswellness
Image Credit:
Annie Vovan, Jessica Sattelberger
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