0:04

hi there i'm board certified  professional organizer kathy burns  

0:08

i'm really glad you're here this podcast is  designed for busy entrepreneurs just like you  

0:13

who want to take better control of your  business and move forward with less stress  

0:17

and more success if this is your first  time listening then thanks for coming  

0:22

the organized energized podcast is produced for  your enjoyment and show notes are found at   

0:29

podcast.organizedandenergize.com come back  often and feel free to add this podcast to your  

0:33

favorite rss feed or itunes you can also follow  me on twitter at organized energy and facebook  

0:39

all links are in the show notes  now let's get into the show  

0:46

hi everyone i'm back with robin baldwin robert is  the founder of autoimmune thriving and is an ms  

0:52

thriver her mission is in life is to empower those  living with autoimmune disease to thrive and not  

0:59

just survive thriving includes an online program  on healing lifestyle audits and a treatment fund  

1:05

for those in need of holistic healing assistance  i'm excited to hear about the the fun so thank  

1:10

you for being on the show rob and i can't wait  to jump into this conversation awesome thanks  

1:16

so much for having me absolutely so i understand  that this is a side hustle so tell me what you  

Robyns side hustle

1:22

do and tell me how you jumped into this i know a  lot of women out there are thinking about doing  

1:26

exactly what you're doing so how does it work  and how do you come up with that magic formula  

1:33

so i work full-time in marketing i've been  a marketing director for several years now  

1:38

i've worked technically i think it's like over 16  years of my my career now is in marketing um and  

1:45

over the years i get passion projects and  i'm like oh let me do this ooh let me do this  

1:49

so in 2014 i was diagnosed with ms otherwise  known as multiple sclerosis and that became my new  

1:58

health sidekick as i like to call it and so i  spent a lot of time and i still do constantly  

2:05

researching and learning how to take care of  myself i like to say differently not better  

2:11

than before because that's discrediting  how i was before but i like to take care  

2:16

of myself differently and so i shared my  entire journey from the day i was diagnosed  

2:23

in the hospital i was sharing i was talking  about what i was researching i was asking for  

2:29

opinions i was asking for resources from different  people and i'm so grateful that i did because it's  

2:35

how i found a lot of the information that  has helped my body heal and and live well  

2:41

with the disease um and so as i was sharing  i started getting a ton of questions um and  

2:48

every single time somebody in my circle um knew  someone that was diagnosed they were saying like  

2:54

can i introduce you and so i was constantly then  taking all of my resources packaging it up for  

3:00

other people and i said okay um i'm really good  at organizing let me organize some information  

3:05

so i've put together little guides um and that's  how it all started was simply being asked over  

3:12

and over again if i could help other people who  were diagnosed with ms or autoimmune diseases wow  

3:18

that's a fantastic story and i think that people  that can do the same exact thing uh you don't have  

3:24

to have an illness to start a side hustle but you  do have to have a curiosity and i think that you  

3:30

know your curiosity runs deep because you really  needed the solutions and you needed the other way  

3:36

to look at yourself um and you know a new way to  get on the journey of taking good care of yourself  

3:43

but everything that i find don't you think that  no matter what you're really interested in there's  

3:50

10 other people that are interested in the same  thing that have more that they can provide to you  

3:55

yeah and for sure and i think when you're getting  started in a side hustle you're gonna see what  

4:00

else is out there and you're like oh i can't do  it like this person and there is always someone  

4:05

that's going to need your message from you because  it will land differently than from someone else  

4:11

so even though i do not have any health care  degrees i know how to organize information  

4:17

and then provide it to somebody so that they can  become the best healthcare advocate for themselves  

4:22

they can do the research themselves find  the best healthcare team that they need  

4:27

um and go from there absolutely and there's  no one way to do anything and i totally agree  

Robyns organizational strategy

4:33

being a marketing expert that you are you  know i know that we all have our own voice  

4:38

and some people will be appealing to one person  in the same exact situation the same stereo but  

4:44

you're gonna you're gonna be attracted to the  words and the nuance and the and the voice of  

4:50

a certain person and that's why i think too that  there's more than enough business for everybody no  

4:55

matter what you want to get into you know whatever  side hustle don't worry about competition because  

5:00

there's so much out there of people searching for  you right they're searching for you and your voice  

5:07

and that's obviously true with you and what you've  done so talk to me a little bit more about um your  

5:14

organizational strategy so how do you do this  work life um i called it balance what did you  

5:20

call it work life work life harmony so i actually  hosted a podcast called the alpha female podcast  

5:27

from 2016 to around 2020. i had twins in 2020 so i  put the podcast on hold um but i was interviewing  

5:37

highly ambitious women but my one caveat is that  they had to know how to take care of themselves  

5:43

and we talked a lot about work-life um balance  in the beginning and then i had a guest come on  

5:48

my show and she said work-life harmony i was like  oh that makes so much sense because it's how you  

5:53

integrate work in life there's no equal amounts  you can't actually balance it out um so you get  

6:00

to pick your work hours you get to pick your life  hours um and then as long as you stay true to  

6:07

what lights you up um then you'll have  achieved this work-life harmony so that's how  

6:12

i kind of coined it and it's been so important in  my life even before children i was very adamant  

6:19

about how i wanted to spend my time outside of  work hours and setting boundaries in terms of  

6:25

when i would look at email when i would answer the  phone when i was going to be in the gym training  

6:31

when i was going to be outside spending time with  loved ones um so i i've always kind of had that  

6:38

um sense of organization around my  life and then it just became like  

6:44

twice as important as i had twins uh literally  figuratively four times probably yeah um it just  

6:52

became that much more important um in terms of  how i structure my life especially when i returned  

6:59

back into the the working world i think i went  back to work um in canada we have a year off  

7:03

but i went back to work around 10 months um  wow so so yeah it became really important  

7:10

in terms of how i structure my day and how i take  care of myself because the stress of having twins  

7:15

on my body with ms was definitely something uh  new that i had to learn i had to kind of like  

7:20

relearn how to take care of myself um and setting  boundaries in terms of you know what side hustles  

7:27

am i gonna keep i actually you know um the podcast  i no longer do i had to say goodbye to that side  

7:32

hustle because other things are now more important  than the season of my life absolutely um so how  

Robyns schedule

7:38

do you handle your schedule do you use a digital  calendar to use a paper calendar do you write down  

7:44

everything that you want to do what how's that  work uh oh she's gonna show us something coming  

7:50

out yeah those that are working are watching  the video like i do paper calendar um and i do  

7:57

digital so what i'll do on sunday i usually do it  sunday nights is i open on my phone my schedule  

8:02

and i'll pull up my calendar and then i'll i'll  actually physically write down everything because  

8:08

the act of writing it down again really helps me  kind of solidify what's happening for the week  

8:15

and then i'm a big proponent of monthly and weekly  goals um and then daily tasks so i don't let  

8:22

myself do more than three things a day outside  of the work environment um so for example if  

8:29

it's like schedule doctor's appointment for um the  twins schedule play date like i try to keep it to  

8:35

threes they seem to work really well for me um  so the combination of the the digital planner  

8:41

and the paper planner really help and my paper  planner is always open on my desk which is um  

8:48

my my side hustle zone as well as my i work  full time remotely and so i can always kind of  

8:54

reference that throughout the day oh okay so you  work full-time remotely too that's that's awesome  

Working remotely

9:00

that helps you as well i guess that's how you  could come back after 10 months instead of a year  

9:05

with twinsies and yeah yeah that's pretty and  we hired um we hired a nanny because that was  

9:14

really important that someone obviously be taking  care of the the babies full-time um and it's very  

9:22

interesting in terms of the the shifts that i  have to make throughout the day like i um they  

9:26

just woke up from their nap so i literally  hear them crying upstairs and usually i run  

9:30

upstairs to help the nanny um as they're getting  up um so i shift in and out of mom and work mode  

9:37

quite a lot during the day and i think that's the  biggest lesson i'm learning right now is how to  

9:42

how to manage that how to allow my nervous system  to manage that as well yeah and a lot of you know  

Dual remote workers

9:49

that that's what many people are facing as remote  workers is how do you strike that uh non-reaction  

9:57

when things outside your work zone are happening  you know it's like like i hear people walking up  

10:03

above me i'm like stop walking you know and how  do we all how do we all live together too within  

10:09

the same house and many people are doing dual  remote workers does your husband work from home  

10:15

as well or is he out and about he does he's  a he's an entrepreneur so sometimes he's in  

10:21

a vote sometimes he's home we've started reviewing  our schedules at the beginning of the week  

10:26

um and we also kind of review the day first thing  in the morning before we get the twins up just to  

10:33

make sure everything is kind of covered like he  uh one of the things that i asked for because i  

10:40

was having meetings always leading up until dinner  was i was asking him if he could prep dinner and  

10:45

so like that was one of the things where i was  trying to do everything i was trying to rush  

10:48

upstairs make dinner for everyone i was like i  just i need you to make dinner for the family  

10:52

he's like i got it and so he's been making dinner  for for the past nine months and and i just like  

10:58

i just needed to ask yeah yeah because you know  people are willing if they know what you need  

11:04

and and they don't know what you  need until you know what you need so  

11:07

i applaud you standing back and just saying  okay this is what it's going to take for me to  

11:13

feel well to feel whole and to give my best  back to my family and my job right and my  

11:18

side hustle and all that stuff i have a lot of  you you have a lot going on with that for sure  

11:24

so um i am your glad for my own heart as far as  looking at your schedule and planning your week  

11:30

before the week begins um and also having a  certain amount of tasks throughout the day  

11:36

and you know we're all different on how many tasks  we can handle because you're working time and  

11:41

you're doing your thing and your mom and your wife  you know you know your limits and i think that's  

11:46

so very important for us to all to know how many  tasks is if can i do a day you know i can't do 15  

11:53

tasks a day it's not going to happen but how many  can i do maybe i can do five maybe i'm at three  

11:58

maybe i can do one big thing this is a big  thing i'm gonna get accomplished on monday so  

12:02

i think you're you are right in uh you're  right on task you're organized girl  

12:08

and i'm also um according to human design i'm a  generator and so if i'm working in my passion i  

12:15

will generate endless energy to get that thing  done which is also technically detrimental to  

12:21

my health so um this is kind of a little bit  of a segue into autoimmune thriving i'm a big  

12:26

proponent of i call it the six pillars of health  and one of them is stress management and even if  

12:32

you figure out the other ones so there's nutrition  and supplementation and sleep and reducing your  

12:38

toxic load i think stress management is something  is that you're always going to be working on it  

12:43

and there is so much information around  the nervous system and the vagus nerve  

12:50

and how it regulates our gut health um and how we  react to stress um and it's so important because  

12:57

you know if you're not getting your task done  or you've given yourself way too many tests or  

13:03

if you're a generator and you're working working  working you've got that workaholic mode on um  

13:08

you're not taking care of yourself and that stress  management is just not a pillar of health so i  

13:16

um always that's the area that like will always  suffer for me because i can get into workaholic  

13:22

mode and i can just like continue and then i'm  like oh it's five o'clock i've gotta run upstairs  

13:27

i didn't have time for like a quick five minute  meditation before switching into mom mode like  

13:32

um so those are the things that i think are just  so important and um i will like be my be the first  

13:38

to raise my hand and say like i still don't have  it figured out still working on it still working  

Starting small

13:43

on it we're always still working on it so what  else can you talk to me about as far as thriving  

13:48

with autoimmune what other tips would you like  to give uh listeners here so one thing that i did  

13:55

um is as i was kind of researching all of  these because i have this like workaholic um  

14:02

generator energy i will do all the things all  at once and when someone was approaching me  

14:09

after a diagnosis they're like i have  to change my nutrition i need to find  

14:14

a naturopath to work with to find the right  supplements for my based on my blood work  

14:19

um i need to get enough sleep i need to reduce my  stress i need to reduce my toxic like it's a lot  

14:26

um and it really overwhelms people so something  that i constantly find myself saying over and  

14:32

over again is you have to start small  like you have to start with baby steps  

14:36

because the person that tries to do everything um  is usually the one that will get get overwhelmed  

14:43

um and that was me you know i had a list  of all the things that i needed to do  

14:48

and i would beat myself up if i didn't do it um  and so it's so key in terms of figuring out what's  

14:54

the like the low-hanging fruit what's the area  of your life that you know you'll have the great  

15:00

um greatest chance of making changes in um and  then that will make you feel really successful  

15:07

you'd be like okay i've got this i'm now sleeping  eight hours a night this is great now let me  

15:11

tackle nutrition um usually i recommend nutrition  first because that's where people have the most  

15:18

impact in their lives so that's usually  where i recommend people start because that's  

15:22

um from my personal journey that's where  i had the most impact in terms of changes  

15:29

but i've started to learn that not everyone has  my generator energy so it's you know start small  

15:35

small start with one area and then tackle the  next and then tackle the next and then tackle  

15:41

the next that's really good advice and i think if  you do more than one modality at the time anyhow  

Nutrition

15:46

you don't know which one's really helping you or  benefiting you you know do one pause right and  

15:51

then see see is that really working especially  with nutrition i know nutrition has a lot to do  

15:56

with uh autoimmune and a lot to do with our health  definitely but unfortunately i don't think it's  

16:03

as easy as just figuring out one thing i truly  believe that we have to take care of ourselves  

16:10

holistically so even if we have really great  success with nutrition if we're not tackling  

16:18

our mental health and how we handle stress then  even if we're eating a really really clean diet  

16:24

our nervous system is going to be at war so  unfortunately i do believe that like life changes  

16:30

and holistic changes all work together absolutely  so throughout this uh well throughout your life  

Most Valuable Advice

16:37

what do you feel is the most valuable piece of  advice that anyone's ever given you it could be  

16:41

about life or it could be about business what's  the one aha moment that you've had that you're  

16:46

like i'm gonna keep that one forever so at the  beginning of my ms journey i was recommended to go  

16:55

to a healing center in toronto it no longer exists  but the owner um he had um he has an amazing  

17:07

journey but the the reason why he had created the  center is his wife uh was diagnosed with cancer  

17:13

and he went around the world to find all of these  different healing modalities so that he could help  

17:18

her heal and unfortunately she passed away before  he was able to actually like create this center  

17:25

and so he's made it his mission to really impact  as many lives as possible and he sat me down in  

17:30

my first session and he looked at me and he said  you know you can heal yourself and i was just like  

17:37

yeah yeah yeah i can heal myself and i was like  oh i can heal myself and he spoke that belief into  

17:45

me and i think that was the most valuable thing  because so much of um taking care of ourselves  

17:52

is mindset based and when we approach things from  a positive perspective and that doesn't discount  

18:00

grief i truly believe that we need to grieve um  especially when going through a health challenge  

18:06

but it's then what do you do with that those  feelings after so there's no negative feelings  

18:12

anger sadness those aren't negative feelings it's  what we do with those feelings it's how we process  

18:16

them that can be negative so um the fact that he  spoke that belief into me um and i was just like  

18:23

okay i'm gonna be the best healthcare advocate  i'm gonna like assemble this huge healthcare  

18:27

team around me i'm going to go to this person  for this this person for this it was just like  

18:32

this reinvigoration of energy that i needed to  be able to tackle my healing process and you can  

18:40

heal yourself reminds me so much i keep thinking  louis hey as you're saying that you know heal your  

18:46

life um love that yeah that that's huge and  you're like oh sure and then you're like wait  

Robyns Passion Project

18:52

a minute that's true i love that that's  the aha moment right yeah so talk to me  

18:59

about there there's a fund for those in need of  holistic healing so talk to me about this fun it  

19:04

sounds like a passion project for you yeah so um  i started autoimmune thriving i would say 2019  

19:14

and so in 2019 i held um a few yoga retreats so  i had just gotten my yoga teacher's certification  

19:22

another another side hustle um and i thought  this was a perfect way to bring a community  

19:28

of people together in my local area i live in  ottawa um and so i taught you know really slow  

19:36

um just nourishing yoga class we had a curated  lunch um following the autoimmune paleo protocol  

19:45

um i had a guest speaker as well so i i held a  couple of these retreats and then i took 10 of  

19:52

the proceeds and i put it towards this fund um and  this was actually very interesting for me because  

19:58

i was like i'm going to put together this fund and  then offer it to people that don't have benefits  

20:03

um because here in canada we technically have free  health care um but if you are self-employed for  

20:09

example and you don't have a benefit plan then  you have to pay out of pocket for acupuncture  

20:14

naturopath stuff like that so i wanted to be able  to offer to that to somebody who didn't have those  

20:19

means um and i put out posts and i said you know  who wants this you know these funds like i would  

20:27

like to pay for um i started small i was like  let me pay for somebody's massage um and nobody  

20:36

raised their hand and literally like i couldn't  get anybody to say like i would like that money  

20:41

um and so when i ended what i ended up doing  is at this time i was getting my eyelashes done  

20:48

and um my eyelash tech was talking to me about  how she is dealing with a new autoimmune diagnosis  

20:57

um and i started asking her a couple of questions  of like have you been able to go to like  

21:02

um a massage therapist just to like de-stress and  she was just like no i can't afford it i was like  

21:08

can i pay for a massage and she was like really  and i didn't even tell her it was from the fun  

21:13

i just said can i pay for your massage she  said yes and then afterwards i told her  

21:17

that it was paid for by the yogurt she that  i hosted and she was just like thank you that  

21:22

is so kind so that's kind of like the hope  um it hasn't grown uh since then uh because  

21:30

coped then happened and all yoga retreats have  been paused um but now that i've launched these  

21:37

lifestyle audits um every single time  i sell a lifestyle audit i'll be taking  

21:43

some proceeds putting it away in the fund and  when i have enough for you know an acupuncture  

21:48

treatment or a massage therapy then i'll be  putting the offer back out so that's how it's kind  

21:53

of starting very very small oh that's fantastic  what a good give back so um definitely keep us  

Free Resource

22:00

in the mill on when that happens and talk to me  about a valuable free resource what would you like  

22:05

to give the listeners and because we're going to  put links below so that you can uh so that you can  

22:10

connect so i put together an autoimmune thriving  healing guide and it's basically a road map so  

22:18

it covers the six pillars of health and it gives  you kind of questions so i'll ask you a question  

22:24

um so you can think about oh like this might  be something i might want to do oh i haven't  

22:28

really found a naturopath i haven't looked at my  blood work okay this is something so it kind of  

22:33

gives a little bit of a road map so if you go to  autoimmunethriving.com yes i bought the dot-com  

22:41

it's right on the top page so  you can download that guide  

22:45

for free there oh that's fantastic uh is  there anything that i should have asked you  

Robyns Mission

22:50

about your work and about your mission and  your passion that we haven't discussed yet  

22:57

um i think it's just a little bit more around  becoming your best healthcare advocate and this is  

23:04

something that i learned in my journey um you know  i i truly believe in holistic healthcare i believe  

23:12

in the allopathic system and i also believe in  alternative healthcare um and not one person  

23:19

is going to manage that for you like you have to  manage it for yourself and i don't think people  

23:24

really understand that until they start dealing  with the healthcare issue like you have to you  

23:29

have to know who you go and see for what i go and  see my family doctor to get blood work done i go  

23:36

and see my naturopath to get supplements based on  my blood work i go and see my acupuncturist for  

23:44

right now i'm dealing with some liver enzyme  issues and i'm going to see them to reduce my  

23:49

liver enzymes i go to see a registered massage  therapist to reduce my stress and take care of  

23:55

my body i go to see an osteoporosis so like  you have to know who you're going to go to  

24:00

how you build your healthcare team and then  you have to keep track of it so i have a  

24:04

i have a massive binder of every single blood work  that i've had since my diagnosis um because i can  

24:10

you know when i go to see a new practitioner and  they ask a question i can be like oh here's the  

24:15

history over the past three years of this so that  you can then help me with this issue so um it's  

24:22

just knowing that like it is overwhelming it can  be exhausting but it also can be very empowering  

24:28

so when you take it from an empowering standpoint  that's when the magic happens i totally agree with  

Keep A Notebook

24:35

that and keep a notebook a running notebook going  is a great suggestion because it's so complicated  

24:41

and there is going to be no one who's going  to look at your your overall life of medical  

24:47

care and and and you know any kind of care  really besides yourself you're the one that's  

24:53

there every single day um and having uh keeping  track of it i think in a notebook is brilliant  

24:59

especially if you have a lot of different people  helping you from a lot of different modalities  

25:03

then because people what i don't understand i  don't know about uh canada but in the us doctors  

25:08

do not talk to other doctors it's really kind of  crazy like um you know i went to the dentist and  

25:14

and i went to a specialist and the dentist hadn't  even told the specialist what i was there for  

25:19

and only because i had a note of what  tooth they were talking about was i even  

25:23

able to get care because it was like  crazy it's like didn't they tell you  

25:27

you know they just referred me out you know so  who's going to be in charge of your care besides  

25:31

yourself right what was this show it was like  a spin-off of grey's anatomy private practice  

25:37

and it was this place where all of the  doctors talked to each other and i was like  

25:41

i remember watching it i'd be like oh this is  amazing like why can't this exist everywhere  

25:45

and i believe that there are other private clinics  that exist not only in the us but also in canada  

25:51

obviously they're they're you have to pay  for them which canadians are not used to  

25:56

um but like that i remember watching it on tv and  be like that doctor talked to that doctor and they  

26:01

figured it out together and like why can't that  exist here that's crazy i know so that would be  

26:08

really great in the future so healthcare industry  get on the hollywood bandwagon seriously or at  

26:15

least at least have some kind of network work and  they can read each other's reports you know but  

26:20

because a hipaa i think that's that's been a thing  you know you're not supposed to disclose anything  

26:24

but within the community they really need to get  themselves organized and streamlined if you ask me  

26:31

i totally agree with that and that's uh that's  really good to know so take that away you guys be  

26:36

your own advocate and keep your own journals and  know who you're using for what modality that is  

26:44

really really good really good um okay cool so  is there it i don't know if there's anything  

Outro

26:50

else that we need to cover do you feel like we've  missed anything i know that you're a huge resource  

26:56

um for those and i love the fun that you're  that you're putting together uh that's brilliant  

27:02

especially and i think would that reach out to  anybody in the united states or is that a canadian  

27:07

fund no because what i can do is i can you know  paypal the amount or i can pay a practitioner  

27:15

directly if they want to invoice me so i think  it can be um much larger and i'm educating myself  

27:22

on crypto right now so technically this should be  something that could be much wider than just north  

27:26

america um but the one thing that i will say is  in terms of the lifestyle audits that i'm offering  

27:32

um this would be for somebody that is a little  overwhelmed with their journey so they're  

27:38

doing x y and z um and they don't know how to  incorporate a b and c um so what i'm really good  

27:45

at is organizing and i'm really good at mapping  out days so what i do is i sit down for an hour i  

27:52

send them a questionnaire ahead of time and then  i literally send them back a report where they can  

27:57

it literally says like tackle nutrition first  tackle supplementation second so i kind of  

28:02

map it out for somebody that wants a little  bit i'm kind of like a healthcare tour guide  

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um i love to explain it yeah i love it i  love it love it love it love it okay so  

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absolutely reach out and click the links below to  learn more and i so appreciate you having me on  

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the show thanks so much uh i am so impressed  by you and all that you do so good luck yeah  

28:26

good luck with me oh you're very welcome and  good luck with your journey thank you [Music]  

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hey thanks for listening to this podcast i  hope you enjoyed this episode and if you want  

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to hear more feel free to subscribe on the  platform of your choice also if you feel so  

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inclined i would truly appreciate a good  rating from you to me have a stellar day