Ep11: Secrets to Feeling Young, Strong, and Sexy at Any Age with former Emmy-nominated TV Producer Renata Joy | Mindset Reinvented

Secrets to Feeling Young, Strong, and Sexy at Any Age with former Emmy-nominated TV Producer Renata Joy

Host: Welcome to Mindset Reinvented. I'm Jack Trauma. Join me each week as we explore emotional well-being, relationships, health, and prosperity. Get ready to thrive.

Today's guest, Renata Joy, often says, "Live more and worry less." These words capture the spirit of today's inspiring conversation. Renata is the founder of Pure Joy Wellness and is a leading expert on helping women over 50 improve their lives through fitness, nutrition, and self-care.

At 67 years old, Renata is living proof that it's possible to feel young, strong, and sexy at any age. She's here to change the conversation about aging and empower women to take charge of their health and wellness. Renata's journey includes an Emmy-nominated career as a television producer working with some of the biggest names in media. This experience has given her unique insights into the challenges of balancing a demanding career with personal health and wellness.

Renata, I am so excited to have you here on the show today. Welcome.

Renata: Thank you, Jack. Let me tell you something. I'm going to bring you with me every time I need an introduction. I'm going to have you do my introduction for me. That was fantastic. Thank you so very much.

Host: And Renata, just so you know, I'm fully on board with you.

Renata: I'm taking you. I promise. I'm taking you with me. I am so delighted to be here. Let me say that first.

Host: Likewise, likewise. This is going to be a real treat for everybody today. Renata, you've had such an impressive career, from being a TV producer with some of the most respected media outlets to becoming a wellness entrepreneur. So tell us, what inspired you to actually make that transition and start Pure Joy Wellness?

Renata: Well, health and wellness has always been something that was very important to me. When I was a little kid, I grew up in a household where if you ever heard the movie "The Sixth Sense," where they go, "I see dead people," well, I saw sick people. My mom had polio when she was eleven and twelve. She learned how to walk again, but she had arthritis really bad. My dad had kidney failure, was on dialysis. My brothers were both very, very ill, but my family spoke about being sick and going to the doctor as if I were saying, "I'm going to have brunch with a bunch of my girlfriends."

Something about that as I was a kid, scared the crap out of me. And in my mind I'm thinking, I'm going to do everything I can so I don't have to be like that. So I never ate the foods that they ate. I moved all the time. My family thought I was very, very weird.

So my entire lifestyle has always been around health and wellness, because I wanted to avoid getting sick and going through all the things that my family went through. Television - I got into television because my oldest brother told me that's what I was supposed to do. And I idolized him. And if he told me that's what I was supposed to do, that's what I did. So I went into TV. I did really, really well. I like television, but I wouldn't say that I loved it.

In 2001, right after 9/11, I was downtown Manhattan when 9/11 happened and saw the second plane go into the towers. And when you go through an experience like that, it makes you go, "What am I really supposed to be doing here?" So I decided in 2001 to leave television and do what really was my passion, the thing that I live and breathe and how I live my life and take a chance and become an entrepreneur and start Pure Joy Wellness.

Now, keep in mind, I knew nothing about starting a business. I had no business plan, I had no backing. But I was like, how hard can this be, really? It can't be that hard. And I just chalked everything up and started my own business.

Host: You know, it's amazing with what you just said, that you didn't love television, yet you've had such an amazing career. So how were you able to do as well as you did in television without absolutely loving it?

Renata: Everyone that I knew was, "Oh my God, you're a television producer." And that had so much, you know, power and credence and everybody was like, "You're so successful and this is just great." But here's the thing that I learned about TV, at least for me. And, again, I'm just saying this was my experience.

I found television to be a very unhealthy business. You work 18, 19, 20 hour days, you get very little sleep. They have very, very crappy food and everything was about that. And that was the most important thing. But for me, that wasn't the most important thing. So here's how my schedule would go when I was in TV. I'd get up at 4:00 in the morning, I'd go to the office, I'd work for 2 hours. I'd go to the gym, I'd come back home, take a shower, make what I was going to eat that day and then go to the office. So when I decided to start my own business, none of my colleagues was surprised, because I was constantly living that lifestyle.

Host: Makes sense. That makes perfect sense. Which brings me to my next question for you, because when we were talking prior to the show, you had mentioned that when you experienced menopause, which is, you know, I'm a man, so I can understand it in theory, but I've not walked in your shoes. But you mentioned that you were afraid to share with your partner what you were going through, and I think that might be something that a lot of people deal with. Can you share a little bit more about that experience and then, ultimately, how you overcame that and shared where you were at with things?

Renata: So when I was 53 years old, I went to my doctor for my yearly physical, and she looks at my chart and she goes, "Oh, you're 53 now. Let's..." And I was on the pill forever. "Let's take you off the pill." So she took me off the pill, and my body went nuts.

I gained twelve pounds overnight, all in my midsection. I could not sleep. I had hot flashes. But, and can I say this on your show, my libido went in the...

Host: There's no filter. Okay, there's no filter.

Renata: So I had zero libido, and I was always a very somewhat, you know, sexual human being. So I go back to my doctor, and I'm like, "What's happening? This is happening. This is happening. This..." She goes, "Oh, you're going through menopause? Just deal with it." And I'm like, "Deal with it? What does that mean?" She goes, "Oh, just eat less and exercise more." And I was like, wait a minute. No one eats better than me. No one is as diligent as I am in exercising.

So because I had a very low libido and my relationship, we had a very normal, highly sexual relationship, I had no interest in having sex anymore, and that caused a lot of problems. And so he was thinking I wasn't attracted to him anymore and all of that, but I was afraid to tell him that I was going through menopause because of what I believe that it symbolized. And what it symbolized to me was that now you're old. And I was afraid to tell him because I thought he would think that I was old, even though he was nine years older than me.

When I finally got the courage to tell him that I was going through menopause, it occurred to me, as I have spoken to many, many, many women who are afraid to tell men their age. They're afraid to say how old they are in the workplace. They are afraid because they're afraid of being rejected.

I decided that if I go ahead and I claim my age and do research on what I can do to reverse the symptoms that I was having, I could share that with other women, too. And so I decided to start claiming my age loud and proud and not be ashamed of it and not be afraid of what it means to get older.

Host: That is really powerful. That's something that a lot of women and some men struggle with in being very open with that. So I would imagine for you that once you've had that aha moment and you've expressed the truth behind your age and you wore it proud, how did that decision impact your life and also your business?

Renata: Oh, my God, it was so freeing because, first, I got a call from Women's Day magazine that they were doing a series called "Own Your Age." And someone had told them that I would be perfect for it. And so on my 60th birthday, I had a spread in Women's Day magazine that says, "Yes, I'm 60."

And that was like the beginning of me doing a pivot on my business. To decide to focus mainly on women who were over a certain age, who were really upset about the fact that they were gaining weight, the fact that they were seeing wrinkles, and they were seeing all these things, and they really weren't liking themselves much anymore.

And what you can do to kind of reframe that and not make it such like, it's a negative thing, but also to help them understand ways that they could get their bodies back and retrain their mindset that aging is not a negative thing. I mean, let's face it, we're all going to age the moment you start. You were born, you start aging. So what's the alternative? The alternative is, you know, you pass away. So while you're here, let's make the most of it. Let's celebrate it.

I believe in celebrating every single birthday. I'm getting ready to turn 68 years old, and I say that loud and proud, and I celebrate it. And I want every woman and man to be proud of the age that you are. I mean, think about all the things that you've done in your lifetime, and that is worth celebrating.

Host: 100%. 100%. I know it sounds cliche, but we've all heard the saying that fine wine gets better with age. And in your case, it's 100% true. You really do look phenomenal. And it's interesting on so many levels for me to see older folks that look and feel better than they've ever looked and feel. And I think it's because they've realized that they have a choice to make. And that choice is either to get busy living or get busy dying.

Renata: Well, I can tell you that I am much stronger than I am than I was when I was younger. My physical shape is pretty much the same as it was before I went through menopause. And a lot of that has to do with, I started, I've always exercised, and I started lifting weights in my thirties.

This is when I was in TV, and I was always exercising, but I was like this really little, skinny little thing that did tons and tons of cardio. And I was what you call skinny fat. There was a guy at the television station, and he said to me, "You know, you would do really well by lifting weights."

And I'm like, "Lifting weights? What's that?" So he takes me to this gym. It's this down and dirty gym with there was no one there but bodybuilders and wrestlers. This was before women started lifting weights. And he took me there, and the moment I felt the power of those weights, I was hooked.

And so I've always lifted weights. I've always lifted heavy weights. And I think that has a lot to do with why my body structure, while I haven't really physically changed that much since I was younger.

Host: Yeah, well, you certainly look at, and I've heard this many, many times from a lot of women that choose to stay away from weights, which I think is a big mistake. We do need to add on muscle tissue on our bodies as we get older, but I think it's just this misunderstanding that it's going to bulk them up and it's going to create thick necks for them and all sorts of different type of structure, moving them away from their femininity. What can you say about that?

Renata: Well, I think as women, we don't have as much testosterone and things like that in our bodies, in order for our bodies to do that, and you would have to do a lot to bulk your body up a tremendous amount. But the reason that lifting weights is so important, it's so important for your bone health, it's so important for losing body fat.

For me, lifting weights is a non-negotiable as you age. Lifting weights, to me, is the fountain of youth. If you want to keep your muscular structure, you've got to do resistance training. There's just no way around it. And so I tell every woman, like, don't be afraid of it. It's really there to help you 100%.

And just like with anything in life, you know, it takes that initial first step, and then once you do it for a few weeks, a month, you know, I think they say that a habit is formed within, depending on the person, between 30 and 60 days. I think it could be a little bit sooner than that.

And one of the things that you do, which is a great door opener for women, is that you run a walking challenge that's gone international, and that is a great door opener for people that want to be a part of a community. With you as the fearless leader, can you tell us more about how that started and the impact it's had on a global perspective?

Renata: It started during COVID and so, of course, it shut everything down, and the gyms were closed, and we were supposed to stay inside and social distance and all of that. So I'm thinking, what can I do for women to get them to be safe so they don't get Covid, they can still get outside and exercise, but something that's very simple that anyone can do.

So I decided, oh, well, what if we do a walking challenge? So I decided to do a walking challenge twice a year in the spring and the fall. And, so initially, I was like, oh, we're going to... If I can get them to walk for 30 days, for 30 minutes every day, that's simple enough for everyone to do.

I didn't realize how hard it was for so many women to walk for 30 minutes. I was getting messages from women who said, "I know you said, we're supposed to walk for 30 minutes. I can't walk to the end of my block." That, for me, was very shocking because I've always been very active, and I live in New York City, and New York City is a walking city. So for me, walking to the subway, that's 30 minutes.

But what I did was I started a Facebook group. So I had the women document their walks, and I responded to every single person, whatever it was, if they said they could only walk to the end of their block, if they could. And I'm starting to see the progression as they're starting to share what's happening to them.

This one woman, she wrote, she goes, "Oh, my God. I went to my doctor, and my doctor has been trying to get me to lose weight for all this time, and she said, 'What? Wait, you're losing weight? You lost weight and your cholesterol level has gone down? Like, what's happening?'" She goes, "I don't know. It must be that I'm walking with all these women that I don't know."

Another woman whose daughter lived in a fifth-floor walk-up, and when she had to take care of her daughter's cat, she said every landing, she would have to stop and catch her breath. And when she could walk up those five flights of stairs without stopping, it was like, "Oh, my God."

So they started losing weight. Their cholesterol levels started going down. Then they became part of this community. But the most surprising thing for me is because I had them have to take a video, I started seeing the landscape of the country. You know, there were people in Kansas City and there were people in Chicago, and they started showing off their city. And I was like, wow, maybe we should do a book, a coffee table book of, you know, walk across America or walk across North America or whatever it is.

But it really brought a lot of women together. They got to share their stories. They became very vulnerable. And so we're going into our 8th walking challenge starting on September 29, which I'm proud to say. And it keeps growing. It just keeps growing.

Walking is one of the best things that women over 50 can do. And it doesn't require any gym membership, it doesn't require any equipment. You don't have to be some athlete to be able to do it. Everyone can do it. And I say bring your kids, bring your families, bring your dogs. You can walk anywhere. So that's the walking part.

Host: Well, I love that. And it's clear to me that it's just not your everyday, average Facebook group. This is more of a movement.

Renata: Well, it is, it is. But my thing with women is moving is so important, and you should be moving every single, solitary day. If you're sitting all the time, here's what happens. Your hips get tight, you lose your mobility. The thing that we don't want to do as we get older, we do not want to lose our mobility. We do not want to start getting arthritis and all that that requires us to move. And it's so important for every woman to get out and move. So 30 minutes a day walking, that's... It's not that much time, but it's a really good thing for you to do.

Host: It is. And it's accessible to everybody.

It's not a difficult thing to do. And it does get the heart rate up and the, uh, skids greased. Well, it is. And that was my next topic of discussion with you, is making that mind and body connection because they're so integrated. It all starts with the mind. And sometimes if the mind is not putting us in the direction of movement, then like you said, all the challenges start to snowball when it comes to our physical health. And then so physically, in the example you gave before just walking up a flight of stairs, it might be way too much for people. But I think that from your perspective, and I think that you represent mental toughness and sticking through things that are a little bit challenging, pushing yourself, getting you through those more difficult parts of life. What would you share with us about being committed to something that's hard or maybe difficult for us to do? And it requires that mental toughness to push through that, because the success is on the other end of that.

Renata: Well, here's what I tell clients of mine. You know, say if you have 150 pounds to lose, if you focus on that 150 pounds, that becomes extremely overwhelming. It seems literally impossible. You cannot see your way through. How am I going to make this happen? So I think the toughness comes in little teeny weeny increments.

So, say, instead of focusing on "I have to walk 10,000 steps per day," say, "I'm just gonna walk to the end of my block. Can I do that?" And then I check that off. Oh, I'm proud of myself. I walked to the end of my block. I think you have to set goals that are obtainable so that you can feel good about yourself.

If you set goals that are way too big, you are going to fail. And then here's what happens to our minds. "Oh, see, I knew you couldn't do it. You're such an idiot. You're never capable of doing anything." So we start saying those kinds of things to ourselves. So I tell people that I work with in my community, focus on a little small thing that, you know, you're doing to take care of yourself.

So, for instance, when I get up in the morning, the very first thing that I do is I have a cup of warm lemon water. And the reason I have a cup of warm lemon water is because the first thing I want to do is hydrate my body, and I want to get some electrolytes. So I put in lemon, and I just do that every day now. I don't think about doing it. It's just part of... I wouldn't get up in the morning without doing it. And it's the same thing. When you're building any kinds of habit, find that little, little thing.

And what I advise all women to do, take one thing every day that you can do for yourself. It could be, "I'm going to write a page in a journal." It's going to be, "I'm going to stretch for five minutes." Whatever it is. "I'm going to treat myself to reading a chapter in a book." Whatever it is. It's really important that we take that time and do something every day for ourselves, because women of my generation, and again, I'm going to be 68. I was born in 1956. We were taught to be selfless. You put everyone else before you, your husband before you, your children before you, and you put yourself last. And we were taught that when you put yourself first, you're a very, very selfish person. I can't tell you how many times I've been called selfish because I decided to do something for me before I did something for someone else.

So again, it's like flipping how we think about things, like rewiring our minds. Rewiring our mindsets to understand that we are important. And for me, I'm wearing a sweatshirt today that says "love yourself." To me, when I love myself, I take care of myself. And it's all at the end of the day. It's about showing yourself that you are valuable, you are worthy, you are worth taking care of yourself. And that, for me, is non-negotiable. It's crucially important, and it's especially important as we get older.

Host: Yeah, no, that's really, really important. And I take away two very, very important nuggets from what you just said. Number one, as you've just illustrated, making a priority in your life, that health is the number one thing that we can gift ourselves, is not only going to help us with longevity, make us feel good, give us clarity in our minds, it's also going to help us serve others, because if we're at our best, then we have the ability to help others as well in their journey.

And the other piece that you mentioned, too, is the way I look at it is kind of zooming out instead of the whole looking at, let's say, a two mile walk or a five mile walk. And if you zoom out and you say to yourself, okay, this is what I'm going to work towards, but right now, I'm going to eat that apple and take one bite at a time and distill it into bite-sized chunks. Because if you do it that way, it's just easier to reconcile.

Renata: And before you know it, you've hit that goal. And you were... And you didn't even... It just came upon you. It was like, uh, I had a client of mine. I met her for tea the other day, and she said to me, "I just want to thank you." And I said, "For what?" And she lifted up her shirt, and she goes, "Last week, I couldn't fasten this skirt, and I was in Martha's Vineyard, and I had it rolled down. It was unzipped, but rolled down, and I had this big t-shirt over it. And today I put it on and I could zip it up."

And it's like, yes. Or a client who will say to me, who's 75 years old. And she goes, "I was able to lift my luggage and put it into the overhead bin without having to ask the flight attendant to help me." That is like, power and strength. And it makes them feel like, okay, I'm functioning. I'm doing things that... my quality of life is really, really good.

A lot of times, women, society has it, so... And what's frustrating for me a lot of times is women look at social media and they look at Instagram, and here all these women, they're going, "Look, I'm in my sixties, and look, I can fit into this bikini." Everybody thinks "I can't fit into the bikini, so something's wrong with me." We all come in different shapes and sizes, and the only person I will ever compete with is myself. And I think it's really important, really important for us to cherish and value and to accept ourselves for who we are.

I like to tell this story. Like, when I was 18 years old, my body was probably the most perfect it ever was, and I hated her. I thought, this flaw, this flaw, this flaw, this flaw. And now when I look at that, I'm like, "Oh, my God, if I had that body again." And that's what happens with people when we miss so much because we're so busy thinking about what we don't have, instead of focusing on what we do have.

And so I like to tell women, focus on what you have. Focus on the fact that your body can walk up a flight of stairs, that you can lift that suitcase in that overhead bin, that you, you know, like... be grateful for all the things that's happening around you, because otherwise, we miss that because we're so focused on what we don't want or what we don't believe that we have, and we miss all the other stuff.

Host: Yeah, it's a victory. Putting luggage in the overhead bin. If you've never been able to do that before and you do it, that's a sense of accomplishment. Yeah, that's huge.

Renata: Pushing it over. Yes.

Host: Some of them are really packed to the fullest. They're heavy. And you see some of these women just moving them up there, and I'm like, my goodness. You see some of the men, maybe they're not moving around. They're not muscle, you know, building muscle, and they're looking, and they're a little intimidated. Well, you could do the same thing, my friend. We all have the same capacity to improve.

Renata: Here's the thing about muscle. If you're not building muscle, you're losing muscle.

Host: Yeah, for sure.

Renata: And when you lose muscle, that's going to start affecting everything. When you see people and they get older and they start hunching over like that, you know, we don't want that. We want to walk into a room, and your shoulders are back, and you walk into your room, your head is high, and you're walking, you're strutting, and everybody's turning around looking like, "Wow, look how that person is moving." That's what we want.

Host: 100%. 100%. The other thing that is really notable as well, and I know you're a big advocate of sharing positivity to the people around you as you navigate the streets of Manhattan and you're moving around. I mean, your shirt says it all. Love yourself. You wear caps on your head that pass on this positivity. And I think that when you get to a point in life where you feel perfectly aligned with where you are and who you are, then you go outward and share your message. And the parallel that I see for anybody that is on this journey for the first time is get some apparel printed up for yourself, not even for anybody else, but just for yourself. You look in the mirror, and you've got some messages of positivity that's going to help you along. What do you think about that?

Renata: Yeah, I have so many, like, sweatshirts and t-shirts and hats, and I wear them as I walk around the city. And people come up to me and they will say to me, "Oh, my God, I'm so grateful. I was reading your hat," or "I was reading your t-shirt."

And especially in the climate that we're in today, where there's so much negativity, you turn on the TV and it's like, oh, my God. Everything seems like it's doom and gloom. Just to remind people that, you know, we are here to help each other. Everybody here has a gift that they're supposed to be presenting to the world.

Everyone has a gift. Everyone has a contribution. And my little contribution is to one, spread the message of high quality of life, and high quality of life equals health. Spread the message of what you believe. What you truly believe is how you're going to live your life. So if you don't believe it, your behavior is going to reflect that, and that it's okay to be good to other people, you know, that's perfectly okay.

I went out there one day, and I went to this gourmet cookie place, and I don't really eat cookies, but I went to this gourmet cookie place, and I went around the city, and every homeless person that I saw, I opened the box and offered them a cookie. And if you could have seen their face, one guy, he wouldn't put his hand in the box because he told me he hadn't washed his hands. But so I gave him the cookie, and he looked at me, and he was like... So he started asking me my name and what's his name? And, you know, so many people feel overlooked, and just that little gesture, you know, it wasn't a lot, didn't cost a lot for me to go out and buy a box of cookies.

They knew it was gourmet cookie and not like, chips ahoy or something like that. Like, this was something special. But just letting them know that, you know, for that little piece of time, somebody thought they mattered. And that's kind of really what it's all about, right?

Host: It is. That's what life is about. It feels really, really good when you're able to serve somebody in a way that was unexpected, when everybody overlooks them, and then you do something like that. And I personally, in my life, I've committed to doing that for people, and it's been homeless people, older folks trying to cross the street. You see they're struggling, and the light is just about ready to turn green, and people are, you know, they're moving their car. They want to jump off the light. And I would pull off. I would block traffic and help. I would literally help people walk across the street. And it feels good. It just feels really good.

Renata: Yeah, just...

Host: Just segueing out. I want to talk a little bit about the wellness retreats that you offer in different countries. I absolutely adore retreats in so many different ways. The more exotic a location, the more well-balanced the itinerary is, then the more I get engaged. But what inspired that idea and what can people expect if they participate? I know you're doing some retooling around that as well.

Renata: Yeah. So, one of the reasons why I wanted to do the retreats, it started when I was in TV. When I was in television, I worked for NBC News, and I got to travel all around the world, and I saw so many things that kind of opened my eyes as to how other people live their lives. And to me, if you've never traveled before, it's such a huge education.

So I have this idea about what if I produce destination retreats? And what that would encompass is you go to a different country and you learn about their wellness practices, you learn about their cultures, you learn how to cook their healthy foods. All centering around... There has to be walking involved because walking is a part of the brand, so we have to do hikes and things like that. But you learn about people that are not like you.

I remember when I went to India, and I was fascinated by India because one, I had never seen where I was staying in this hotel and looking out the window, there was a village that had no electricity. And it was like, astonishing to me that you could be in such a juxtaposition where they were... You know, this was happening and that was happening at the same time.

But you saw, everybody was doing some kind of yoga. Everybody, their foods were from, they take it from the garden and they go cook the foods. And so I ate so much food when I was there, and I was so sure that when I came back, I had gained ten pounds, and when I came back, I had lost eight. And to me that was fascinating because I was like, what was it about their food versus what happens in our food?

Well, none of their food was processed. None of their foods had chemicals and any of that. So when you go to India, you don't see overweight people, but they ate bread, they ate rice, they ate carbs, they ate all those things that we claim, "Oh, in order to lose weight, that's bad."

I did a retreat to Costa Rica. There are six blue zones in the world, and everybody who lives in the blue zones lived to be over 100 years old. Every single person lives to be over 100 years old. So we went to one of the blue zones to see what is it that they do as to why they live to be 100. They don't die from cancer, they don't die from... And what you discovered is that they're moving all the time. All the time. Not because they're doing formal exercise, it's just part of their lifestyle. They move, they're not eating processed foods. They have very little stress, all of those kinds of things.

So those are the things that I want people to learn on these retreats, is see how other countries are living their lives. And why is it that in America we have this obesity problem and diabetes and all these health issues that they don't have in other countries? Learn their wellness practices. What are their healthy things that they like to do, whether it's massage or yoga or whatever, participate in that, learn how to cook their healthy foods and also learn about another culture at the same time. So that was the premise of the retreats.

Host: Yeah, no, that's phenomenal. And that itself is a movement. I'm very big on movements where there's just this energy and momentum in people that are attracted to that movement. And that's a big one. That is such a big...

Renata: We add in a little bit of dancing, and, you know, we bring in speakers and all that other kind of stuff, too. So it make it so, you know, make it a full experience so women will talk about their... Share it with their friends and be like, "Oh, my God, I have to go on that next retreat because this was so amazing." Now that is where my producing background comes in, because then I actually produce it as if I were going to be producing a TV show. So all of these things kind of fit in together.

Host: Well, I don't know that anybody could find a better leader in the retreats, given your background and your passion behind all of this. And, you know, I meant to ask you earlier, kind of a little bit of a different track, but I've always known a lot of women, and I've had a lot of women in my life, whether it be family and friends, who feel somewhat invisible or less confident as they age. And what message would you share with women today who might feel invisible, who might be feeling just not very confident as they get older?

Renata: It's interesting because I think that we all, at some point in time, don't feel very confident. You know, there have been times in my life when I haven't felt very confident. There are times even now, sometimes I question whether or not this is something for me to do, whether I'm capable of doing this.

But what I have found is that even when I am scared, I don't allow the fear to stop me from doing it. Because I find my biggest growth happens two ways. One is when I have failed at something, there's growth in that failure. There's something for me to learn behind that.

And when I do something where I feel extremely uncomfortable, I know that there's growth in that, in my being uncomfortable. So if you can get to the point, and again, not taking on something so monumental that it's very difficult. But try one thing that scares the crap out of you and do it anyway.

And courage is like me building my bicep muscle. The more I do it, the stronger it becomes. So start with a little thing that you're afraid of and do it. And see, oh, I turned out okay. I survived. I didn't die. All right, so now, so now that gives you a little bit, then try something a little bit more.

I think the more you do it, the more chances that you take, the more risks that you take, and you see that you come out on the other side better, the stronger that courageous muscle grows. But we're always going to have self-doubt. We're always going to doubt whether or not, you know, but that, I think, is just a part of life.

But again, pushing yourself past that. And the other thing that I would suggest is have a person, community of people that believe in you when you don't believe in yourself. My first husband reparented me. I did things not because I believed that I could do it. I did them because he believed that I could do it, and I trusted him. So sometimes when you have that support system that believes in you, even when you don't believe in yourself, because they're seeing something that you don't see, and you trust them enough that I'm going to do it because they believe that I can do it, and then you see that you can do it. That's another way of gaining that courage.

Host: 100%. That's really very important to know. And I think community is incredibly valuable, especially if you feel somewhat isolated and you don't have that support network around you. It'll help elevate you. And I think, and you tell me if this is the case with Pure Joy Wellness. You cater to people who might be struggling with courage or confidence that really need a kick in the pants, so to speak, but in a way that's loving and yet supportive. And then you've got others that maybe they want to just elevate their life. They want to elevate where they're at right now. So you probably cater to both, is that right?

Renata: Yeah. Well, sometimes I find when I'm having conversations with women, you know, I had a conversation with a woman a couple of weeks ago where she was telling me that it was really hard for her to get older, and she felt like she was irrelevant and she didn't matter anymore.

Now I'm looking at this woman, I'm saying she just wrote a screenplay. She just directed a movie. She had just told me that she went to a film festival and got award for best director at a film festival. So sometimes you have to go, whoa. Question. And challenge them on their belief because this is happening.

And again, what I said before, when I was telling about I was 18 and had the perfect body, but I hated her and I wasn't looking at that. Sometimes you got a lot of things going on in your life that's so positive, but you're focusing here and not really looking at all the things that are happening.

So sometimes it's great to have a community just to remind you of how far you've come, what you're actually achieving, so that you can take a step back and go, "Oh, yeah, I am doing that. Oh, yeah. At 75 years old, I wrote a screenplay and I produced this movie, and how many people my age are doing," you know, you have to... Sometimes you have to remind people of that, because a lot of times we're in this loop of our belief systems from when we were kids, and those things don't work anymore. We still fall back on, "Oh, I'm like this, I'm like this, I'm like this." And you have to, like, knock people out of that mindset.

Host: Yeah, 100%. And we talk a lot about that on Mindset Reinvented. We've had several guests that focus on, you know, past experiences, upbringing people that hold influences over us, and we don't even realize it until it rears its ugly head, situations that might rear that ugly head. So, you're spot on, Renata. Joy, you are an amazing human being.

Renata: The best thing about me is my last name. It says everything. It's all about joy. I said the best thing my father ever gave me was my last name.

Host: Well, I am so happy that you spent some space and some time with me today. And I know that our friends of the show are going to get some incredible value out of what you've shared. I'm inspired by your outlook on life, your desire to uplift women and men. Guys, it's not just women. Renata has the chops to take care of us men as well. So, you know, if you need to up level things, Renata is the person. So. And I would love to have you back on another show moving forward. If you'd like, we can dive into certain topics if you're open to it. I think you're a phenomenal guest.

Renata: Yeah. Thank you.

Host: Yeah. And what I'll do is I'll share all your social media links, your website in the show notes, so that our friends can find you and learn more about your work. In the meantime, guys, if you want to go and check Renata out, go visit purejoywellness.com and you'll learn more about Renata. It's a wonderful website, by the way. I love the way it's set up and designed.

Renata: Yeah.

Host: And, guys, thank you for tuning into Mindset Reinvented. And again, as I've always said, if you find value, if you found it here, please pay it forward and share our show with others, because you never know what someone needs to hear right now. And you can be that bridge or that conduit to today's podcast. And so if you're not on our email list, I encourage you to go to mindsetreinvented.com, let us know. Just exchange your email with us, and we'll keep you in the loop when we introduce new episodes, especially when Renata's coming back on the scene. So until then, guys, live your best life. And as Renata says, live more and worry less.

Renata: Yay!