Wandering Roots: From Corporate Life to Transformative Retreats with Anna | DFS 321

Jennifer Takagi: 00:00:00

Alright, let me up. Welcome to Destin for

Jennifer Takagi: 00:00:04

success. I'm your host, Jennifer Takagi, and today I have a new

Jennifer Takagi: 00:00:08

interesting friend, Anna. I'm going to get this right. I'm

Jennifer Takagi: 00:00:11

going to just pause a second. I'm going to do this right then.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:00:14

Op mail, yes, close, and she's with wandering roots. That's her

Jennifer Takagi: 00:00:19

business. I cannot wait to hear more. Anna, welcome to the show.

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:00:24

Thank you. Thank you for having me

Jennifer Takagi: 00:00:26

on this show. We like to talk about success,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:00:29

your journey to success, what you're doing, what you're up to

Jennifer Takagi: 00:00:31

in the world. So tell us what's going on. Sure.

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:00:35

So I have been at wandering roots, or I founded

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:00:39

it in 2018 so I've been at it for almost six years, little

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:00:44

over six years. And before that, I was a manager in a molecular

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:00:51

diagnostics lab. I quit a 13 year career in corporate. I just

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:00:57

I ended up having neck surgery, and I had a lot of time to sit

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:01:01

with my thoughts and be humbled by my own mortality. And I

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:01:04

thought, Gosh, I really wish I was more jazzed about my life. I

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:01:09

had everything I thought I wanted, and I really wasn't that

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:01:11

happy. So I started doing things that terrified me, and I took

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:01:16

yoga teacher trainings to sort of heal from the chronic neck

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:01:20

pain after surgery, and I thought I could take my love of

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:01:24

travel and yoga and combine them and host retreats. And so that's

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:01:29

what I did. I have hosted over 20 we usually go international.

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:01:35

We've been all over the place. And in the last two years, I've

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:01:40

been helping other entrepreneurs plan and host their own

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:01:44

profitable

Jennifer Takagi: 00:01:44

retreats. So where are you physically

Jennifer Takagi: 00:01:48

located? Like, where do you call home? Yeah,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:01:50

home for me is Michigan. Oh, okay. And

Jennifer Takagi: 00:01:54

when you go international, where is

Jennifer Takagi: 00:01:58

international?

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:02:00

So normally Europe and over there, mostly

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:02:03

we've hosted in Costa Rica five times, Sicily, Ireland,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:02:08

Scotland. Next year we're going to Belize the Dolomites and

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:02:12

Iceland fender Banff. We've done a couple domestic like Antelope

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:02:20

Canyon, Grand Canyon Olympic National Park in Washington, and

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:02:24

then we host one a year in northern Michigan in the fall

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:02:28

for a little smaller long weekend offering, because all of

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:02:30

those are seven days.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:02:37

That sounds so much fun. I'm writing that down

Jennifer Takagi: 00:02:39

because somebody's gonna ask me, and I'm gonna go, Oh, I know.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:02:44

Hey, appreciate

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:02:46

it. Yeah, no, it is fun. It's like, traveling

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:02:48

with friends. It really is,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:02:50

yeah, and I travel a lot, and I told you,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:02:54

when we were in the green room that I have a friend who went to

Jennifer Takagi: 00:02:57

Italy on a yoga retreat. Yeah, he was like, wow, it was super

Jennifer Takagi: 00:03:01

fun. And they had excursions every day and did yoga, yeah,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:03:04

had their own chef and whatever, yeah, and so I love to travel. I

Jennifer Takagi: 00:03:09

love to try new things. So this sounds just very interesting to

Jennifer Takagi: 00:03:12

me. I have several people to refer to you when I find out

Jennifer Takagi: 00:03:15

when you're really into it. I i I'm intrigued that while you

Jennifer Takagi: 00:03:25

were down and had down time with your neck, I think I want to do

Jennifer Takagi: 00:03:31

yoga, and I think I want to travel. I think I want to make,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:03:34

yeah, I'll just do retreats, because that is a bold leap.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:03:39

Like I Yeah, you know, nine to five. What are they? I just

Jennifer Takagi: 00:03:43

learned this term recently a w2 I went from being a w2 employee

Jennifer Takagi: 00:03:47

healthy life to be an entrepreneur, which was a leap,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:03:51

but, like, I stayed in my comfort zone. Like, I Yeah, a

Jennifer Takagi: 00:03:55

little bit yeah, but I think, like, adventurous yoga retreats.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:04:00

Like, wow,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:03

yes, I am. It took me a little more time than,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:07

like, a year. I I was my last job. I was sort of given the

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:13

opportunity to be an entrepreneur without the

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:16

financial risk. I was the first hired employee besides the

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:19

executive. So, like, I built the lab, I hired the staff, I bought

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:23

the equipment, did the inventory, all the things, and

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:26

had to make all of the decisions, but at no financial

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:30

risk to me, because I wasn't funding the bill. So I tried to

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:34

quit, and I thought I was going to take a different direction,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:37

in the same as a w2 employee, but in sort of a more like, um,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:42

kind of director of sales role, which I hate sales. So that

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:45

would have never worked out. But anyways, I tried to quit. I got

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:48

a lot of money to stay, and I went to my husband, and I said,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:52

I think you should start your own landscape business, because

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:55

he had been doing it for like, 15 years. And I thought I still

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:04:59

didn't know. I wanted to do, and I maybe was still being a

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:05:02

coward. Obviously, I was like, you do it so and then after he

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:05:07

did it for a year, I thought, okay, I I can figure all of

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:05:14

like, make a website, you know, be an accountant, you know,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:05:17

things that are all ancillary to running a business, right where

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:05:20

you actually almost spend a lot more of your time than doing the

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:05:24

thing you love. But anyways, I thought I had enough confidence

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:05:30

and had learned some skills that I could just try something

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:05:34

completely different, and so I side hustled it for two years

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:05:37

before I quit my job. So got but I did quit right before COVID.

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:05:42

So that was terrible timing, because I had to cancel all my

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:05:46

events. But it was, it was a good test from the universe and

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:05:50

still here. So

Jennifer Takagi: 00:05:52

you're still here. And in the year,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:05:56

initially, I was doing around six. This year

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:06:00

I turned 40, and I had a lot of trips I wanted to do on my own,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:06:04

so I only did two, and next year I'm doing three, because I'm

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:06:08

starting to plan other people's more and just kind of pivoting a

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:06:12

little in my business. So scaling back a little bit

Jennifer Takagi: 00:06:17

well, one thing is an entrepreneur that has been

Jennifer Takagi: 00:06:20

a very eye opening. Interesting thing for me to witness with

Jennifer Takagi: 00:06:24

other people is the ability to make those pivots and shifts.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:06:31

And obviously I have a podcast, because we're doing a podcast

Jennifer Takagi: 00:06:35

interview. And if you go back to the beginning of my podcast, it

Jennifer Takagi: 00:06:39

was called new manager. Media managed right from the start,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:06:43

because all it was all about leadership development, and I

Jennifer Takagi: 00:06:47

made a pivot shift in my business when I learned how to

Jennifer Takagi: 00:06:53

do energy healing. And that's a super fun thing, and corporate

Jennifer Takagi: 00:06:59

would probably really benefit from it, but they may not hire

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:02

me to come in and talk about, yeah, hard sell. Yeah. I was

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:06

like, I don't know. I struggled sometimes with the leadership,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:09

because, you know, they think everybody already knows how to

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:11

do it, and guess what, they don't, and they suck at it. But

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:15

heaven forbid I open that curtain right, Pandora's box.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:22

But I was like, Yeah, I want to make this shift, and I want to

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:27

focus on healing, and now I'm a high performance coach through

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:33

Brendon Burchard, and put it like the energy healings part of

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:36

it, you can't perform at a high level if you've got all the

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:39

totally baggage going on, right? So it all that I can make go

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:43

together real beautifully. But when I was I contacted the gal

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:47

who helped me get my podcast going, Michelle Abraham, and I

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:50

said, Michelle, like, what am I going to do? Like, how do I make

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:54

this shift? And she said, she's very intuitive and brilliant.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:07:58

And she goes, Oh, well, I think destin for success, because

Jennifer Takagi: 00:08:03

that's an easy transition. Cool, because you're going from new

Jennifer Takagi: 00:08:07

Manor to your destin for success, she goes, then you can

Jennifer Takagi: 00:08:12

go either way. So I find it very easy to interview people,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:08:16

because I've got people who are very structured, strategic type

Jennifer Takagi: 00:08:22

entrepreneurs. Typically entrepreneurs is who I

Jennifer Takagi: 00:08:24

interview, and then I've got the people who are totally Woo and

Jennifer Takagi: 00:08:28

out there. But it all works, because it all leads to your

Jennifer Takagi: 00:08:31

success. But I really thought I would have a big drop in my

Jennifer Takagi: 00:08:36

listeners and my growth would slow down. There are all

Jennifer Takagi: 00:08:39

different ways to measure podcasts. The only way I know

Jennifer Takagi: 00:08:41

how to measure mine is unique downloads, yep, and they keep

Jennifer Takagi: 00:08:46

getting downloaded and they it keeps growing, yeah, so, um, and

Jennifer Takagi: 00:08:52

then I a gal that I knew in a group, I got a request to have

Jennifer Takagi: 00:08:58

her on my podcast, and I thought that's very interesting, like

Jennifer Takagi: 00:09:01

she was kind of high up in this networking group. And I was

Jennifer Takagi: 00:09:03

like, Wow. I didn't even know she knew who I was, much less,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:09:07

yep, I guess. And she they sent me all her background

Jennifer Takagi: 00:09:12

information. I was like, I don't even know who this woman is.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:09:15

Like, this is not the woman I met. What the What the hell I

Jennifer Takagi: 00:09:18

like? I don't understand. And she came on, she goes, Oh yeah,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:09:22

I just burned it all to the ground. I decided I didn't want

Jennifer Takagi: 00:09:24

to do that anymore. So now, yeah, yes. And I was like, wait,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:09:28

what? So I love that there can be pivots. Your pivot is, like,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:09:33

even within the same area. And grasp that a whole lot easier.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:09:38

But it's interesting to me that, oh, well, you know this is, this

Jennifer Takagi: 00:09:43

is working well, but I think I would enjoy this more, yeah,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:09:47

yeah. I think sometimes I think you're always

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:09:51

led to where you're supposed to go. I'm sure you believe that as

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:09:53

being, yeah, you're writing and don't energy healer. But um, I

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:09:59

um. Um, had gotten asked a lot if I would plan other people's

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:03

retreats. And initially I said no, because I I didn't know how

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:07

that would look. And I was like, I don't know what I would do,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:10

you know, like, whatever. And then when I had to cancel all of

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:13

my events, I was like, Well, I just received all of this time.

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:17

What a gift. And so I made a course so people could DIY it,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:21

because I would get, you know, just people at different price

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:24

points and different backgrounds that wanted to do different

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:27

things. And then I started a one on one service as well, and I

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:33

ended up loving it way more than I thought. I get to talk, even

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:37

if you booked a course like I do a 16 minute zoom limit, because

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:41

I want everybody to feel confident moving forward and not

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:43

have any lingering questions. So we zoom all the time. And I love

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:48

hearing how they got into hosting retreats, and I love

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:51

hearing what content they want to share and and there are, I

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:54

mean, I'm a psychic medium. I have food photography. There's

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:10:56

just so many women doing so many incredible things, and a lot of

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:11:01

them are pivoting, too, if they or putting out a new branch of

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:11:07

their current brand. So I think, I think it is stupid to think

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:11:13

that you're going to grow and develop as a person, as a human

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:11:16

being, and then that your work wouldn't follow that that's just

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:11:19

so weird to me, right? I mean, it just seems odd like if you're

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:11:26

gonna like shift and change, why don't, why wouldn't your

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:11:29

interest shift and change? Why wouldn't your goals shift and

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:11:32

change? So I don't know. I um, I think you can get a little hung

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:11:37

up on, like, maybe quitting or like stopping something, even if

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:11:40

you are having success, because your brand can feel pretty

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:11:43

personal. But I also think there's a lot of power in

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:11:45

quitting and just pursuing something that excites you and

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:11:48

lights you up. So

Jennifer Takagi: 00:11:50

I was in my 20s, and all my friends had a

Jennifer Takagi: 00:11:54

master's degree, and I did not, and so I went and signed up for

Jennifer Takagi: 00:11:59

a master's program, and I got in, and it was a Masters of

Jennifer Takagi: 00:12:04

French literature, and I'm in my first class, and it ends up

Jennifer Takagi: 00:12:09

being 16th Century French theater is the topic. Well,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:12:18

it's, it's like reading Shakespeare, but in French, I I

Jennifer Takagi: 00:12:25

struggled, and I called my high school French teacher, I tracked

Jennifer Takagi: 00:12:30

her down, and I was like, Hey, could you tutor me? She goes,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:12:33

Why don't we meet first and see what you need? And yeah, so we

Jennifer Takagi: 00:12:38

met. I guess you could back then. Now they charge for it,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:12:41

but you could check out a carousel at the local library

Jennifer Takagi: 00:12:44

that we're little office type space. And she goes, Why do you

Jennifer Takagi: 00:12:48

want a master's? And I say, because all my friends have one.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:12:50

I just like, that's a good reason. And she goes, Okay,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:12:56

well, what's happening to the class? And I tell her, and she

Jennifer Takagi: 00:12:58

goes, I think you should quit. Yeah, quit. She goes, Well, who

Jennifer Takagi: 00:13:07

said you can't quit? I said, Well, in my family, you don't

Jennifer Takagi: 00:13:10

quit anything, yes, oh, my God, yes. But, but you don't like it,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:13:20

and she is. You're on a path. You picked a path. You've got on

Jennifer Takagi: 00:13:25

the path, and as you're going down the path, you decide you

Jennifer Takagi: 00:13:28

don't like the path, so you turn right, turn left, you just get

Jennifer Takagi: 00:13:30

off that path. Just get off you smart alec, tell me what to do.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:13:39

So simple,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:13:39

when you break it down like

Jennifer Takagi: 00:13:43

that, I went home and I was single, and I

Jennifer Takagi: 00:13:46

thought that's a bunch of crap. I'm sticking with it. I'm not

Jennifer Takagi: 00:13:49

just going to be a quitter. I may not hire her to help me, but

Jennifer Takagi: 00:13:52

I'm not going to be a quitter. Maybe I'm going to be a quitter.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:13:55

I don't know. To the class, and there were, I don't know eight

Jennifer Takagi: 00:14:00

or nine people in the class. I'd already gone to the library to

Jennifer Takagi: 00:14:03

check out all the books on the list that you had to only get

Jennifer Takagi: 00:14:06

from the library, and they were all already taken because they

Jennifer Takagi: 00:14:09

all lived on campus, and I did not, because I had a full time

Jennifer Takagi: 00:14:13

permanent job. And so I'm sitting in the class and one of

Jennifer Takagi: 00:14:19

the gals, and this is all in French, and I've now been out of

Jennifer Takagi: 00:14:22

college for six or seven years, right? So I'm very rusty, yeah,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:14:27

but she said, and everything's in French, and she says, I

Jennifer Takagi: 00:14:31

thought it was hilarious when Julian said, blah blah blah, and

Jennifer Takagi: 00:14:37

she blah blah blah. And I was like, Wait, Julian is a girl. I

Jennifer Takagi: 00:14:43

thought that was a like, I didn't need to do the gender,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:14:47

the characters, yeah, I'm out. And, yeah,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:14:52

this is it. How many more signs do I need?

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:14:56

Yeah,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:14:57

that was the final sign. And I called. My

Jennifer Takagi: 00:15:00

high school Spanish teacher and said, Okay, you win. You're

Jennifer Takagi: 00:15:03

right, like I quit, versus having one class on my

Jennifer Takagi: 00:15:08

transcript for a master's, and I got a F, oh, man, gender, the

Jennifer Takagi: 00:15:13

people, I had to withdraw. But I think it can be hard, and I I'm

Jennifer Takagi: 00:15:19

in a program right now, and she spent a lot of time helping me

Jennifer Takagi: 00:15:25

map out what I was going to do and what I did so FYI listeners,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:15:30

12 minute gift.com that's my thing, and you need to go get

Jennifer Takagi: 00:15:33

it. And it's a three part audio series training for my audience

Jennifer Takagi: 00:15:39

that is something they should be interested in, like, typically

Jennifer Takagi: 00:15:43

would be interested in, and I've had a lot of really great

Jennifer Takagi: 00:15:45

response to it, but as we're putting it together, she said,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:15:51

once you get this recorded, and once you get this out there,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:15:54

Jennifer, you have to stick to this for one year. And I was

Jennifer Takagi: 00:15:58

like, what? And she said, as it goes along, if we need to make

Jennifer Takagi: 00:16:05

changes or tweaks, we can, but most entrepreneurs stop too

Jennifer Takagi: 00:16:12

soon, and yeah, they're really going to get traction. So what's

Jennifer Takagi: 00:16:17

your advice on that? Like, because you alluded to before I

Jennifer Takagi: 00:16:20

started my Yeah,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:16:22

I actually kind of love that, because I

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:16:24

think also entrepreneurs can be really creative and just sort of

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:16:29

get bored with something and kind of like, you know, want to

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:16:31

move to the next thing. So I am a spreadsheet data nerd at

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:16:37

heart, so I do like to just track things for a specific

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:16:41

amount of time to at least see if it's working or not, and not

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:16:44

just give up because it's hard or, you know, you've given it

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:16:47

one week and it didn't blow up like you thought. It probably

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:16:50

one input you hoped it would so. But I, um, I think that, well,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:16:57

first of all, your body always knows. So if it's not aligned

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:17:00

with you, there's something probably going on with your body

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:17:02

if it's really not for you, like, if you're really supposed

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:17:05

to quit. But I also think that sort of giving it some time to

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:17:12

grow and nurture something, and just not getting upset that it,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:17:17

you know, like I said, didn't take off right away, is you got

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:17:20

to live in the middle of those two things. But, um, I think

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:17:25

that. I think there's always signs. There's always signs if

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:17:29

you're supposed to sort of wait it out, or if you're supposed to

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:17:32

pivot and move, and the more I mean, you're the energy healer,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:17:36

the more in tune with that stuff, the better, right? Well,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:17:40

it Yes, and not everybody, really, you know,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:17:43

goes with that.

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:17:46

Lots of people don't,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:17:48

not everybody's bag, obviously, I don't know

Jennifer Takagi: 00:17:51

it's not, but Brenda Burchard, you may or may not have heard of

Jennifer Takagi: 00:17:55

him. He's, like, really big in the personal development space,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:17:58

and I'm in his mastermind group, and he was on a stage and

Jennifer Takagi: 00:18:05

physically started on the far left and said, I did my first

Jennifer Takagi: 00:18:10

online training, like a webinar, and and I didn't sell anything,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:18:15

and I I got a better camera, so I at least looked a Little

Jennifer Takagi: 00:18:19

better, and I did it again, and the camera was better, but then

Jennifer Takagi: 00:18:23

I had a problem with this, and I fixed that. And he said, Yeah, I

Jennifer Takagi: 00:18:27

did it every month, and every month I made a change, I made a

Jennifer Takagi: 00:18:30

tweak, I got better, yeah, and I didn't make a sale till like

Jennifer Takagi: 00:18:36

month 11, but I was, you know, pivoting along the way. And it

Jennifer Takagi: 00:18:41

was like, yeah, oh, I did one one time for three months, and

Jennifer Takagi: 00:18:45

then I quit.

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:18:47

I actually did a live workshop when I first did

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:18:50

my course, I tried to do those live workshops, and I think I

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:18:54

did three, and I quit, and then probably about three months, but

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:18:57

left the course up. And I was like, Maybe I should try

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:00

something else. But he's he's right here. I if you actually

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:07

one of my favorite yoga teachers always says, Consider some

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:10

everybody in a class, if you go to like, a 60 minute class in a

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:15

studio, everybody's been a beginner at one time, so you're

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:19

never gonna be the woman doing the handstand in the front

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:22

corner on your first class, right? You gotta, you have to be

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:26

able to differentiate between if you're being a beginner slash

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:29

student, and not take yourself too seriously and be willing to

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:33

look stupid and grow and learn make mistakes and carry lessons

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:37

forward. But, um, yeah, yeah. I I wonder what the best?

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:44

Honestly, this is such a good question, like, such a good

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:47

indicator of, are you quitting because it's hard and you don't

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:51

like being humbled by feeling like a student, or are you not

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:55

an expert, because everybody kind of wants to skip to the

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:19:58

good part. But. The journey is the part where the magic

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:01

happens. So I don't know. Jennifer, I don't know the

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:06

answer. I think you should give it a shot. I think you should be

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:11

willing to try. And if it really doesn't work out and it really

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:15

just not happening, then maybe, maybe that's when the power and

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:19

quitting happens. I think that every seven years I'm going to

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:22

do something different. No, I don't know. We'll see I just

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:30

like to, like, pay attention. I think if you one of the things

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:34

that my brand, I try to encourage all of the women that

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:39

go on retreat to like, build the life that they love, that they

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:42

like, think about daily, what they want. Like, what do you

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:45

want out of life? I think sometimes we get so caught up in

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:48

the hamster wheel, or all of the hats we wear, or the decision

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:51

making and things like that, that we forget that we're here

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:54

to enjoy it, you know. And it's fleeting, and we're not here

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:20:57

forever. It's not guaranteed. So, um, I mean, it doesn't mean

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:21:03

you're going towards the excitement all the time. There's

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:21:07

hard parts too, but I think the more you can kind of be aware

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:21:13

and make decisions based on that, then you're probably doing

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:21:16

it right. I

Jennifer Takagi: 00:21:18

love that, and it cracks me up. You're going to

Jennifer Takagi: 00:21:20

do something new every seven years i i worked for the federal

Jennifer Takagi: 00:21:24

government, and oh god, one time said, Because I followed in his

Jennifer Takagi: 00:21:28

footsteps in the federal government, and he's my French

Jennifer Takagi: 00:21:32

degree wasn't getting me very far. So there he goes. How'd

Jennifer Takagi: 00:21:37

that work out for you? And I said, you asked my mom, I ran

Jennifer Takagi: 00:21:39

the government, so it looked out pretty well for me. What about

Jennifer Takagi: 00:21:43

you? I have health insurance, I mean. About you?

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:21:46

Oh, that's amazing. But

Jennifer Takagi: 00:21:48

my dad, hey, every seven years, people need a

Jennifer Takagi: 00:21:51

new job, because they get in one job for so long, and they get so

Jennifer Takagi: 00:21:55

comfortable at it that they're no longer effective. And I ended

Jennifer Takagi: 00:22:01

up staying in the same branch my entire career. I was in one

Jennifer Takagi: 00:22:07

section for two years, and then I moved to another section, but

Jennifer Takagi: 00:22:11

I did one job for two or three years, and then I stepped into a

Jennifer Takagi: 00:22:15

different one for a number of years, and then I was a

Jennifer Takagi: 00:22:17

supervisor for so like I did, I was in the same division with

Jennifer Takagi: 00:22:22

the same premise, if you will, but I was very different tasks

Jennifer Takagi: 00:22:28

and responding different things. So I think I did that, and then,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:22:34

oh my gosh, I had been an entrepreneur about seven years

Jennifer Takagi: 00:22:37

when I switched to the training. So maybe I've done it

Jennifer Takagi: 00:22:41

unintentionally, maybe, and it just worked. So tell me the time

Jennifer Takagi: 00:22:47

when you felt the most successful? Because we have

Jennifer Takagi: 00:22:51

those times where we're like, wow, this is it. And it could be

Jennifer Takagi: 00:22:54

right, yeah. Like, when is your

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:22:57

I felt the most? Um, yeah. So I think that

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:23:01

last year I took the summer off. I had been like grinding hard.

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:23:06

I'd been in a hustle for a long time, and I just decided to

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:23:14

trust that I could take something off, and I was going

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:23:18

to come back, and I was going to work four hour days, there were

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:23:21

going to be days that probably, if I was in the flow or I had to

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:23:25

catch up, it would be longer, but that would be my intention,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:23:28

and I wanted to be better about work life balance. And I have

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:23:33

done really well at that. I think that I've had a lot of

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:23:40

success as far as numbers and profits and selling out retreats

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:23:43

and things. But if you're not feeling a life that you love and

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:23:48

want and enjoy, I if you're dying at your desk and you're

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:23:52

making seven figures, it's not worth it. So I think that, yeah,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:23:59

success. I don't actually believe in balance. I think

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:24:02

there's like peaks and valleys to life and work, and seasons of

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:24:07

where that's a little bit harder, a little bit heavier,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:24:10

and then there's lighter seasons. And I just think trying

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:24:16

to take care of yourself, stay true to your values, and living

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:24:19

there and making time just to enjoy it. I think that's a good

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:24:24

place to be. I think that's success to me. I I don't know. I

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:24:29

don't think it's a number.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:24:31

Well, it's so much, because if you have

Jennifer Takagi: 00:24:34

financial success, the question is, what do you do with that?

Jennifer Takagi: 00:24:37

Yeah, I was in a group call the other day, and we were doing a

Jennifer Takagi: 00:24:44

visioning exercise, and one of the questions was, if you're

Jennifer Takagi: 00:24:47

more successful, what would the marker be? Which typically it's

Jennifer Takagi: 00:24:52

money, right? Because when you're doing things, you make

Jennifer Takagi: 00:24:55

money. And it was like, Well, why does that matter? And so as

Jennifer Takagi: 00:24:58

we went through it, it was. Like, what would you do if you

Jennifer Takagi: 00:25:01

had all the money in the world and you could do anything that

Jennifer Takagi: 00:25:03

you're not doing now? And I thought I would be more

Jennifer Takagi: 00:25:07

philanthropic, me to bring more clients in, to have more money,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:25:14

so that I can be more philanthropic. I am, but not to,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:25:18

like, a scalable degree, yeah, yeah, being philanthropic. But

Jennifer Takagi: 00:25:24

that was like, oh, but that was a very different way to look at

Jennifer Takagi: 00:25:28

it 100% like, I want more so I can do this. Like, what are you

Jennifer Takagi: 00:25:33

going to do with them more? Well, yeah, I don't know. Like,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:25:36

oh yeah, I want to be more, yeah, yeah. And

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:25:39

some people are just like, they need more, but they have no idea

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:25:42

what that even looks like. Like, what like a number, even

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:25:45

sometimes people can't even tell you. And you're like, well, and

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:25:48

you're always playing a losing game,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:25:50

yeah, yeah. You may or may not hit that, but

Jennifer Takagi: 00:25:54

we'll see, yeah, oh my gosh. Well, this has been such a fun,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:25:58

interesting conversation. What is next on your agenda? Because

Jennifer Takagi: 00:26:04

you've, you've gotten it down to four hours a day. I was gonna

Jennifer Takagi: 00:26:09

say a week, but a day, which is much more reasonable. See, I'm

Jennifer Takagi: 00:26:12

trying to not work Mondays and Fridays. Oh,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:26:15

perfect. Love that I'm working on. It's kind

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:26:18

of the same. Then I'm getting closer. I love it. You'll get

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:26:22

there. Um, yeah, I think I just pivoting more into the planning

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:26:28

other people's retreats, because I really love that. And, um,

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:26:33

seeing how next year goes, with hosting half and seeing if I

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:26:37

want to do it less or more. I'm just like, kind of seeing how it

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:26:40

feels. But I don't know. I don't have any. Right now I'm running.

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:26:48

We're renovating our primary resonance, and that has taken

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:26:52

out most of my headspace that I don't have to live in a shoe box

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:26:56

any longer. But other than that, I think that I post COVID, I

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:03

wasn't networking sort of like this feels so it's so fun to

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:06

like, hear your story a little bit and get to know you and see

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:10

what you're up to. And spending time with other entrepreneurs

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:14

just fills my cup so much. It's really inspiring to me to hear

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:18

other people that are really chasing their dreams. So thank

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:22

you.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:27:23

If someone wants to get hold of you, Anna,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:27:25

how are they going to do that?

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:27

My website's your wandering roots.com.

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:31

There's a lot of resources there. There's a lot of free

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:34

things. We still have some openings for retreats, and then

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:38

also, we're taking clients all the time for our course or one

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:42

on one services. I'm also on Instagram at your wandering

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:45

roots. I travel with my best friend that's our chef, and my

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:48

friend that's a photographer, and my friend that's a

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:50

photographer makes some really funny reels. So if you're

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:53

interested to see what it's like, you can check me out

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:27:55

there.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:27:56

Oh my gosh, I'm going to Instagram. I'm going to

Jennifer Takagi: 00:28:00

see what's happening there. And if I understood correctly, you

Jennifer Takagi: 00:28:04

do any kind of retreat, it doesn't have to be a yoga

Jennifer Takagi: 00:28:06

retreat.

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:28:07

100% yes, we do. Like I said, I had a psychic

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:28:10

medium food photographer. She's teaching people how to do

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:28:13

photography. I have a lot of coaches that are just teaching

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:28:17

their content. I have a nutritionist that it's all about

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:28:20

food. So there's, I mean, you literally can do anything. So oh

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:28:26

my gosh,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:28:26

I love it. Well, Anna, I look forward to

Jennifer Takagi: 00:28:29

connecting with you again, because I got more questions.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:28:32

This is awesome being here.

Anna VanAgtmaeal: 00:28:34

Thank you for having me.

Jennifer Takagi: 00:28:36

I'm Jennifer Takagi with destin for success,

Jennifer Takagi: 00:28:39

and I look forward to connecting with you soon. Bye, bye.