ETR 253: Self-Marriage & Body Image Coaching with Danni “Amapoundcake” Adams

SummerBody Image, Eat the Rules, Self-Love, Self-Worth

Podcast Interview on Self-Marriage & Body Image Coaching with Danni “Amapoundcake” Adams
Self-Marriage & Body Image Coaching with Danni “Amapoundcake” Adams

In this episode of Eat the Rules, I’m joined by by Danni “Amapoundcake” Adams and we’re talking about her recent self-marriage and what inspired her to do this.

We also talk about our Body Image Coach Certification program, including what inspired us to create this course, what we appreciate about the way it’s structured and how we incorporate body image coaching into our businesses.

In This Episode, We Chat About

        • What inspired Danni to marry herself and what that actually looked like,
        • Why she would recommend self-marriage to others,
        • That romantic love and self-love are not the same thing,
        • That self-love work is about shifting the balance so that negative feelings aren’t dominating, it’s not about feeling good all the time,
        • Who the Body Image Coach Certification program is for,
        • How this course integrates intersectionality and acknowledges the history of whiteness in the coaching industry,
        • That there are different beauty standards in different cultures, and understanding that is integral to coaching,
        • How we all learn together,
        • Some of the feedback we’ve received about this course,
        • That we focus on concrete tools rather than theory,
        • That there’s no right way to be a coach, we teach how to take skills and adapt them to your own practice,
        • Plus so much more!

        Listen Now (transcript below)

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        Transcript

        Summer:
        This episode of eat the rules is brought to you by you on fire you on fire is the online group coaching program that I run that gives you a step by step way of building up your self worth beyond your appearance. With personalized coaching from me incredible community support and lifetime access to the program so that you can get free from body shame and live life on your own terms. Get details on what’s included and sign up for the next cycle at summer innanen.com forward slash you on fire. I’d love to have you in that group. This is eat the rules, a podcast about body image self worth, anti dieting, and intersectional feminism. I am your host summer Innanen. a professionally trained coach specializing in body image self worth and confidence and the best selling author of body image remix. If you’re ready to break free of societal standards and stop living behind the number on your scale, then you have come to the right place. Welcome to the show.

        This is episode 253. And once again, Danni “ammapancake” Adams is on the show talking about her recent self marriage as well. We are talking about our body image coach certification program, including what inspired us to create this course, what we appreciate about the way it’s structured and how we incorporate body image coaching into our businesses, you can find all the links and resources mentioned at summer innanen.com forward slash 253. I want to give a shout out to healthy Fit Life J H who left this review I have been working on my body image for a while it’s still sometimes it gets a hold of me and I find Somers tone and info really helpful in my continuing journey to live. As I am. Thank you so much for leaving that review. I really, really appreciate it. I’m so glad that you’re finding the show helpful. You can leave a review for the show, head to Apple podcasts, search for eat the rules, click ratings and reviews or click to leave a review or not or just click to leave a review. From there. You can also subscribe to the show when using whatever platform you use just hit the subscribe or the check or whatever it looks like. That would definitely help out this show. And if you haven’t already done so make sure you grab the free 10 Day body confidence makeover at summer innanen.com forward slash freebies with 10 steps to take right now to feel better in your body. And if you are a professional who works with people who may also have body image struggles, then check out our body image coaching roadmap for professionals, you can get that at summer innanen.com forward slash roadmap. Danny and I wanted to do this show again, we have our next cohort of the body image coach certification coming up. We’re currently enrolling for that you can get more information on that at Body Image coach certification.com I’ll just give you a quick rundown, we are going to be starting our spring cohort on February 14. We are currently enrolling for that this is for professionals who want to be able to help people with body image struggles from a social justice perspective. We are taking applications right now applications are open until February 2, and we have extended payment plans wildly available as well as scholarships for marginalized individuals. So check that out at Body Image Coach certification.com. We will talk about that a little bit. And this episode, in particular why we think our course is so amazing. And what inspired us to do it. And I’m not ashamed to say that as well. We’re going to kick it off with Danny talking about her self marriage, which I’m super excited for you to hear about. So let’s get started with the show. Hello, I’m back with Danny. I’m a pancake Adams and we’re talking about a whole bunch of things today. Welcome back to the show. I’m excited to kind of like CO hosts this episode with you. I guess that’s the best way to put it.

        Danni:
        I’m excited to thank you for having me.

        Summer:
        So, something big happened in your life recently. You married yourself?

        Danni:
        Yes, I do. I really want to talk about that.

        Summer:
        So what inspired you to do that?

        Danni:
        Well, I thought about it for like a very long time for a couple years. I’ve always known that kind of that I wanted to marry myself when I thought about weddings. I just saw only me doing it. And so a couple years ago before COVID I was going to do it and then COVID happened. And so and then I also was having my friend saying that’s a white one instinct don’t do that. Just so I was kind of wary, like, oh, what’s gonna be the perception of me marrying myself? To be honest, like, right? Like, I’m fat. You know, people probably may be thinking, Oh, she’s doing that because no one loves her. And so I don’t even think that people would perceive it as a self love thing that I’m doing for myself. But then I said, it was really for me what the heck, I should really do it. And so in four months, I said, this, this is gonna be the year 2022. I’m turning 30. And I want to get myself a wedding. And I did.

        Summer:
        And so when you say you gave yourself a wedding, like, what was it? And I sort of know the answer to this, because I saw it, but it’s all pictures and whatnot. But like, Was it like a legit wedding? Like, was there like, some sort of vows taken and everything else? Like, what what did you sort of what did you commit to? I guess, is that like, what was the sort of like, ceremony about?

        Danni:
        Okay, yeah, the ceremony, the ceremony gets me all emotional. Okay, so I had a full out wedding bridesmaids, because they were all different genders. And that was pretty cool. They wore white and I wore this you know, beautiful dress that was created by Candice Jacksonville. Beautiful. And my friend, she officiated the service. And that was pretty cool of the pastor that was supposed to be there, his mom had to have surgery, so they couldn’t do it. I said, my friend, I love you so much, you love you, you love me, let’s do it. So during that time, I didn’t do vows publicly, I did my balance and therapy. So I wanted to keep them private. But what I did do was commitment with my audience, my audience, the people who came to my wedding, and they married themselves at the wedding, too. So everyone made commitments together, that when we fall, we’ll be there to pick ourselves up. And, you know, when we need to cry, that will be there for ourselves to cry. And I didn’t write that I said, if I’m gonna speak to my guests, I’m gonna speak from the heart that they love me. I love them. And I spoke from the heart, and then we all just cry for the next five minutes. Wow, I had no idea.

        Summer:
        Oh, that’s beautiful. That’s beautiful. And so is this something that like you would recommend to other people?

        Danni:
        All? Yes, people should do it. I get people saying all the time, like, oh, my gosh, was kind of crazy. Like other night I was at this party. And they kept making like, Where’s your husband references and people keep doing this kind of strange. Women don’t just marry men, either. So that’s kind of strange. But I think that more people should do what I what I was trying to explain. What I tried to explain to people is that romantic love and self love is not the same thing. We kind of promote a marriage is about like losing losing yourself, and sacrificing yourself. And I think that you can be have self love and be married. And that’s what self love. That’s why Self Love marriage is so special. You don’t have to have a ceremony, you can do it in the mirror. Like we talk about mirror work in our certification course. Like, you know, it’s, I think it’s special. And it’s about you and however you want to do it, you should do it. I mean, you don’t have to have like, the perfect, you know, self love this. This. That’s not real. But we all should do something special and dedicate something to ourselves to our process and our journey.

        Summer:
        Yeah, it’s kind of odd. I’m sorry. Go ahead. Yeah, just to our process and joining this last day, but go ahead. Yeah, no, it’s

        Danni:
        kind of odd that like, as a culture, we only reserve certain celebrations for milestones like whether it’s like in very patriarchal milestones, like marriage, or like having a baby or something like that. And it’s like, why don’t you deserve your own celebration? Like, I feel like people who don’t have those things deserve celebration even more? Or just as much, you know, what I mean? It’s like, Why? Why is that the time that you are even like a funeral? Like, it’s like, you’re not even there for that. But all these celebrations are they happen, like within the confines of these certain? Yeah, like patriarchal milestones. And it’s really interesting. Like, it’s, it’s, I thought it was really cool that you kind of busted the walls open on that. And we’re like, no, no, no, like, I’m doing this for me. And this is, you know, so that I can show myself like self love and make it like a whole celebration of of you and, and the work that you’ve done on yourself to

        Summer:
        yeah, there’s something that you say reminded me of a cultural critic that I love Kimberly Nicole Foster. And she said, there’s never going to be a point of time in your life as a woman that you will be celebrated as much as you will be celebrated. For marrying a man. It’s like the biggest celebration that people would ever give you in life. And this is kind of sad. And so my wedding, isn’t it? Yeah.

        Danni:
        It’s very sad.

        Summer:
        Yeah, it’s like it’s like this should be like a this should be like a rite of passage that everybody does for themselves, right? Like, you know, it just seems to me like that would make more sense when you actually think about it. But it just it’s so countercultural that I feel like people have probably have a hard time wrapping their head around it, like, Were you afraid of what other people would say?

        Danni:
        Yes, a little bit. I was afraid a little bit because I am a social media influencer. So immediate people gonna say she’s doing this to go viral. And, you know, I go back and forth about that, too, is Am I not allowed to also mark it the things that I do in real life, but no, but I want people to, like really understand it, who were close to me, it’s kind of why I didn’t make it alive ceremony was very intimate and special. 50 people, it was hard getting it down to 50 people. But you know, I just, I was afraid I didn’t know what people were gonna say. I didn’t know how the Internet was going to respond, which I really haven’t put up most of the content of the wedding, just saving it and just leading it to it and loving on it. And that special moment is led weddings are live. And there are a lot in, they take a lot of emotion. But I think people want to end that are always going to have something to say. But mostly, I get the kind of negative feedback in person when I talk to people about that I’m married to myself, people a lot of questions. How can you do that? Will you marry another man? Will you? Are you having sex with other people? You know, like, all kinds of interesting questions, I think, I think people just don’t understand like self love for real. Some, some people have told, like, if someone told me that, if it’s self love, like, Why did I have to do a ceremony? Well, we do a ceremony for a lot of different things. Like, you can’t measure my celebration for myself and say, just do it that way. And that’s kind of why we struggle so much with self love is because people keep saying doing it, do it that way, and doesn’t work out like that.

        Summer:
        And so I’m curious just like even like taking a step back to how you sort of got to this like, like what really helped you kind of cultivate a practice of, of self love to then move to this point where you wanted to, you know, have this ceremony there.

        Danni:
        Just good old therapy. Therapy was the self care that I did not know I need it. Like everyone’s like, romanticizing it, like I want to give a shout out to to organizations like drinking defenders and bowls have been at my therapy for the past year and a half, like they fund social justice leaders, their therapy, and I’m so grateful for it. And so I have been involved in therapy before, but I wasn’t consistent with it. But I started like tearing down like traumatic walls in my life. And I also just like learning a little bit more about myself, like, who I really was, or like, who I actually am or who I want to be. And even though I had this vision of wanting to just as you know, desire to marry myself, before I got into therapy, once I got in therapy, I was like, Oh, this is now you know, August 7, we made a full year in 2022 that I had been in therapy. And, you know, I wasn’t doing the things that I used to do to cope and I found new things that I actually liked about myself. And so I want to do this wedding to continue the journey. And my therapist was all in it. And I wouldn’t say that I had like a I had to check this off to make this happen. But I the one thing that I wanted to make sure happen is that I felt good about myself. And before I did it, and I’ve never felt this good ever and honestly, I didn’t even know like this feeling was like genuinely possible with all the things that happen in life. And so I had to do it.

        Summer:
        Yeah, I love that. That’s amazing. It’s really lovely to hear kind of the process and how you put in the work because it like obviously, like we teach people to do like, you know it, it’s a lot to unpack and and that’s that’s awesome. I’m, I’m so happy for you. Is this something that you’ve like seen other people do before? Like, had you seen other people do this before?

        Danni:
        no. People told me like after I tell people they’re like, oh, like the lady on Sex in the City. I’m like, what, lady? I didn’t want Sex in the City.

        Summer:
        Oh, I didn’t I don’t remember. I don’t know if I saw that.

        Danni:
        In the city mayor themselves Fantasia married herself. I think people said Dennis robbing Mary himself before. And so I didn’t know that people had married themselves. But I had reached out to people like I started looking and I started seeing they’re like googling people who have married I started reaching out to them before I was getting married to myself. Because when I said what is the ceremony supposed to be? That was like a struggle. Like I didn’t know what it was supposed to say or do. Like I knew certain things that I wanted, but I didn’t know. And I didn’t really get much insight just that people were telling me who did it already that they were proud of me and I said okay, thanks. And they say you can make a ceremony anywhere you would like, like, who’s gonna tell you it’s wrong. How many people have been to a self marriage? They can’t yourself wedding so they can’t tell you what happened was wrong, right. And so yeah, just did it my way like for something unique I did a at a champagne and dessert wedding I did not pay for, for caterers. And I think you know, that’s what makes wedding so expensive the food. And so I did it my way and people have fun just eating cupcakes and drinking champagne. And taking pictures. That sounds

        Summer:
        fun to me. Yeah, that’s great.
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        Amazing, well, thank you so much for sharing that love hearing it. And hopefully it inspires others to really think about Yeah, like doing something for themselves in whatever way that works for them to really honor their relationship with themselves.

        Danni:
        Yeah, you know, the thing is like being a coach, people kind of think that you’re perfect, or that your body image or the what you do for self care that you had some kind of way you’ll perfect, especially having a brand online and or ever or whatever, you’re talking about it. People expect professional from you, but we’re also in a journey as coaches, because we’re human people, you know, we’re humans too. And so I just hope that the people that I connect with the people that I coach or work with also just perceive it that way too. Because, you know, I don’t know, I don’t know about you, some of the people think that I just have the most perfect self esteem all the time. Experience.

        I mean, it’s easy, because you’re you’re taking, like the images that you post and you’re forming this like narrative about that person in your brain. And so, you know, with the imagery that you post, like, you’re like, Yeah, you’re looking like super confident and everything else. So then you would just take that and think, oh, they feel this way all the time when the reality is that nobody, nobody feels that way all the time, unless they, you know, probably have some sort of issue with themselves. It’s not healthy to feel that all the time. But yeah, no, I mean, it’s so true. Like, I see a therapist who I am, like, I’m always working through stuff. And I still have self doubt. And it just like that’s the work isn’t about eliminating that it’s about becoming more resilient, and learning how to manage it and shifting the balance so that it’s not like dominating your life and your emotions and how you show up in the world.

        Summer:
        Yep, I totally agree. Well, let’s shift gears and talk about our body image coach certification program. We have another cohort starting. Yes, we have another cohort starting in February. The deadline for applications is February 2, and we start on February 14 Valentine’s Day. And so this class is for we’ll talk just a little bit about that. And we’re going to talk a little bit more about like what inspired it and, and our own business experiences and things. But this class is for any professionals who work with people who may also have body image struggles. So for example, perhaps you’re a personal trainer, and you have clients that come to you and they’re really struggling with their body image or you’re a therapist and the you know, you’re working with clients around certain things and body image keeps coming up. And you’re not exactly sure how to sort of approach that with them or you’re an educator who works with students and you want to be able to integrate body image lessons and practices into your into your work as an educator. So that’s really who it’s for. We always have a pretty broad cohort, like we’ve had people who are dieticians, or intuitive eating counselors, but we’ve also had people who are like boudoir photographers or educators or people who are just like trying to get into coaching and wanting to expand their their repertoire. So it’s really for that’s I think something I love so much about it is that you get all these different perspectives of the people in the class and yeah, and we’ll talk a little bit more about the details but I wanted to just kind of lay out the the main foundation there. Let’s talk about what inspired the course like what inspired you to want to create something with me about this like what what was it that you would sort of experienced or seen that you were like we need to have like a more concrete training on this.

        Danni:
        Okay, so so mad Don’t shame me, but I’m gonna be publicly honest. I don’t remember our initial interaction. Like, I don’t remember that.

        Summer:
        Oh, that’s okay.

        Danni:
        But I do remember beyond that point. But anyway, so, you know, that was a knee, right? Like we know, for myself, I’ve talked about this quite a bit like the body image coaching certification courses or the coast, the courses that were out there, there were around like body positivity certifications, and, like self esteem things, I think there was something that was really missing, which was specifically like the history of fat phobia. And why we need to as practitioners, why we need to be very clear that like self love is not going to save people that there has to be some type of structural shifts. And also understanding of biases is kind of, you know, why we spent a lot of time talking about the social determinants of health within this particular body image certification program. And so that’s kind of one of the reasons why I want to start with you, because you were so interested in making sure that the people that do this work, are understood that and I think that for four years, you and I balanced our brains off of each other on like, what makes sense? What is new out there? What can people gain in order to help others? And how do we merge our two talents together to make something for other folks, I think, what’s very clear is that we’re both passionate about this community. We’re both passionate about, you know, people getting what they need to be able to survive this, you know, we’re all this constantly gonna be judging us, like, how do we live in it? And also, how do we live and be amongst our own being? And so like, Yeah, I thought it was the perfect match. It’s been going so well, where even though this is our second one this year, this is our fault, fourth cohort. And so we’ve we’ve had students, well, starting fifth, where we’ll have our fourth set of students.

        Summer:
        Yeah, it’s amazing. Yeah. And I think like, for me, when I took other coaching courses and certifications, there was a real, like, it was just through kind of this vacuum of like, you’re the individual. So let’s change your mindset. So you can change your life, which I think is like, that’s great. And if we’re not looking at, like, what is influencing someone’s life, like the, the, the, you know, the macro, like the world and the culture and the structures and the systems that are actually influencing why someone shows up in a certain way in their life and whether or not they can actually make a change because of these, you know, structures and systems. Like, there’s barriers, right? And so, I found that that was always really missing from the conversation. And I think I told you, like, when I took my life coaching course, like, I think it was all white people, like, I think that it was all white people. And so, to me, like the coaching industry is like extremely white. And I think obviously, I know from taking a training called the racist patriarchy in coaching, that was a training that treaty LeBron did, that coaching itself really originates from, like white men essentially, like and from, like, I think, I think even like, integrated with, like Christianity, or something, I might be butchering that, but the roots of it are really sort of, you know, through whiteness. And so if we want to change how people are learning to become coaches, like, we have to integrate this other, this, this other piece of the puzzle and other other voices and, and not just have it come from, like this one perspective. And so that’s, I think, like, what I love about our class, and our course and, and the people who do it is that that’s what they want to and that’s why they chose that course, is for that reason, because it does integrate that from, you know, in, in every lesson that’s kind of integrated in terms of like, you know, even like when we talk about self care how it’s like a privilege and not everyone can access certain things and how to work with clients, and how to speak to those things so that you’re not, you know, perpetuating the same kind of stuff. That’s that’s harming people.

        Danni:
        Yeah. And I think what’s also really good as I said, there are current events, things that we also talk about and pop culture, you know, obviously, you know, being that a lot of us live online and social media is is driving a lot of things that we think about ourselves and also that we think about other people and also our thoughts about coaching, right? Like what is a coach supposed to be as we talk about how is something specifically for white men? There is like a, I would say like a if you’re going to be Your coach, as a black woman, I think the aspiration is to do what white women are doing. Oftentimes, we may be speaking to different people. And the tone may be different, the colloquiums may be different. The social interactions may be different. I think that our coaching certification light brings anything like what is your style? And the people that you’re working with? What do they specifically need? How do they want to be communicated with? Like, I like to think about the difference between Dr. Phil and Ian Lowe, like, who was ialah? Talking to and who was Dr. Phil talking to you? Okay, I know, they’re not on TV anymore. But that’s, that’s, that’s the only thing I can think of.

        Summer:
        I totally know what you mean. Well, I think like one of the things I remember, I remember just speaking to my own sort of like processing this was I remember when we were talking about, like, beauty standards. And I remember you saying to me, you’re like, black women don’t want to be thin, like, that’s not there, you know, like, it’s a different kind of beauty standard. And it’s like, if you don’t understand that, then you’re not like your, your, the way you’re talking to the subject. And the way that you’re working with people is not necessarily inclusive, or you might have sort of like, assumptions that you’re making that aren’t really aligned with someone’s like, you know, lived experience with it. And so you know, that being able to, like, understand that it’s something that we bring into this course, and like, seeing how different groups of people with different identities, like, how that impacts their, their body image. And I know, like you do work with, like, the trans community and things like that, too. And so bringing that knowledge in, and we’ve had some people do the course who are, who are disabled and really integrated into the disability community. And so getting those perspectives to like, that’s, I think, what I love so much about it is that we’re getting all these different experiences that then we’re able to, like, just not see things through this kind of vacuum of maybe our own experience, or the way that we’ve just learned about this through the books that we’ve read, or the social media accounts that we follow. So what do you appreciate about the way that this course is structured? Or the way that we run it? Like, what are some of the things that you like, really appreciate about it?

        Danni:
        I like that it’s really interactive. I’m particularly as someone who’s doing a coach, and I’m learning, and folks are learning together, and just like, you know, he wasn’t there in a chat or they’re coming out from you. And they’re talking and people are explaining like, this is what’s happening to me. And my coaching experience is what I’m struggling with this, especially with Office Hours, like, you know, also that there’s office hours where people can come ask questions that they cannot get answered in the courts, or they practice something. And now they want to say, this is what happened, it’s how do I move forward. So I think that that’s pretty dope, I’ll select that we, we do a lot of demonstrations, that there are demonstrations, or that that that people get to roleplay that come and it’s not as frightening because everyone, you’ve been there for a couple of months now a couple of weeks and not once like a little family or at least I think so you know, like you feel you’re not as shy with everyone else. Come the ones all nervous making jokes to make yourself comfortable. In. And then I also I also like that, we give out like a lot of resources, I love reading. And so like I read three books so far, this well, two and a half books so far this year. And so I love the fact that we just give resources out to people about where they can continue to learn and grow up. They’re like, deeply invested in learning about theory, get there’s a lot of books out there with people who have written about the things that we’re actually doing. And which I think it’s like a great thing to to constantly like learn. I remember my professors in college told me that they couldn’t continue to teach at Florida State, if they weren’t, like deeply invested in being a student of the academic subject that they were teaching. And so I think as practitioners, we also should lean into that, and the resources are, you know, infinite at this point.

        Summer:
        Yeah, I really appreciate that too. And like you said, like, I think that what I really love, and some of the feedback that I’ve heard from other people who’ve done this course, who’ve taken other courses, have said that what they really appreciate about our course is that we really focus on the tools. So we do, there’s a little bit of theory, but most of the focuses around like, how are you going to work with a client in this situation, and like demonstrating it and like, here are the things that you can ask them, here’s the different directions that you can go and like, so that his theory is great, but theory doesn’t necessarily help a client when you’re having that like interaction, you know, like, we have to know what types of questions to ask and like what frameworks we want to use in that space. And that’s really what this course focuses on. More than more than anything. And I think that what I also really like is that people come in who are still struggling with their own body image, which I think like, you know, most people still do. So that, you know, you can still coach someone around something, even if you’re still struggling with it yourself. But the process helps them to, you know, do some more healing with their own body image, because they’re practicing the tools on themselves. And they’re getting different perspectives and participating in the demonstrations and things like that. So they’re getting coached in the process, as well as developing their coaching skills. Because I think a lot of times people call themselves a coach, but they’re actually just consulting or advising, they’re not actually coaching someone which is, which looks very different. And so that’s, that’s really what we’re helping people to develop and integrate in this in this course. And so yeah, those are the things that I will I just love our course I do, I think it’s the best.

        Danni:
        So the unique thing about it is that there’s always like people, someone else doing something different. You know, I think that this certification course, while we teach tools, like people are also learning about, like, what makes what works best for them. Belfie summer, you’re a coach, I’m a coach, and we, we do the same thing, but differently, right. And I think that’s what makes our core so so unique is people are getting perspective from two different coaches. But our foundational work is still the same. And so that that’s what makes the content, you know, beneficial.

        Summer:
        Yeah. And I think like, there’s, I always say, like, there’s no right way, like, there’s no, we’re not saying like you have to do something this way. It’s like, you know, we’re teaching people how to take the stuff and adapt it to their own practice and what works for them and their own clients. Like, there’s no like, you know, x plus, this equals this. It’s like, that’s, that’s not how coaching works at all. It’s like very much like fluid and inner in goes based on the interaction and things like that. One thing I wanted to quickly talk about was just like our business experience with it. And, you know, I know you do a lot of like community work and group work and things like that, like, how do you integrate your body image coaching into the work that you do?

        Danni:
        Yeah, um, so I think, well, first, I want to say that I started off by the image coaching, like mostly doing one to one coaching, like mostly. And so with that, I was doing a lot of one on one coaching. So we go back to my conversations about therapy and self growth, I decided that I wasn’t going to work a full time job and also do this work. And I just, I took some like, time to myself, and I did not want to stop coaching. So I shifted from doing one to one coaching to doing more group coaching, because I already was doing some work in groups, and specifically with LGBTQ community, and I really love it. I’m actually like, just working with folks and groups of people are funny, just building off each other’s energy. You know, just hearing like the stories, people are collectively like healing together. Also, folks are saying, Well, I’m not alone. I’ve experienced that, you know, even myself and say, Ooh, I’ve experienced that. I forgot that memory. But actually, yeah, that happened to me too. Or I felt that way about myself too. And so you know, that I really like to do the group coaching. Now, most recently, something that’s very new is this going beyond my the Central Florida region, I’ll be doing a lot more like traveling this year. I think I’m in St. Louis, for girls conference in LA for Women’s Center. And so I’m taking the coaching and going to different cities, and just wanting to talk to more like women and girls. And I know that there’s like a need for it. The body image community isn’t that big. And also, there are a lot of like, black and brown folks who are in in a lot of these nonprofits that do direct service work, they are directly working with women who are just like me. And so I’ve been partnering with some nonprofits, I think the black women’s Wellness Center on February 13, they made it possible so I can come and coach it, it’d be free for a black woman who wants to come, but there’ll be we’ll be doing like doing something around self care and body image. So that’s kind of the work that I do now is like partnering with eat with WIC organizations, or doing a group sessions at different facilities on retainer.

        Summer:
        That’s amazing. I love it. And I feel like that is also great for the people who take our course because they can sort of learn from you in office hours. Like if they were like, how do I like approach organizations or things like that, like, I feel like that’s amazing because my experience is a little bit different from yours. Although I do do a lot of group work. It’s just it’s more centered. Online. And I think that like, yeah, groups groups are just, it’s super powerful and, and you can use this stuff to like integrate it into facilitating groups, as well as using it with one on one as well. But having that body image expertise is really important, because not a lot of people have that. And it really can help you, like just make a bigger impact with with other people, whether it’s just like in your community or in whatever space you work.

        Danni:
        I agree. I agree. Yeah.

        Summer:
        So our class is starting in February, or next class. And the application is, if you go to body image, Coach certification.com, you can get all the details and fill out an application form. We also have partial and full scholarships for individuals with marginalized identities who experienced financial hardship. And yeah, I’m just like, super excited about about our next session, we’re still wrapping up the current session. So I’m still excited about that one, too, but then we’re going right into the next one. And yeah, was there anything else that you wanted to say about it?

        Danni:
        Um, no, I’m just looking forward to the to see you down to our next group, especially now that we’re starting this new thing, where we’re gonna have some classes in the middle of the day, and then some classes in the afternoon, just testing to see how that actually works for different folks schedule, we sent out a survey. And that’s kind of where people landed either midday, or afternoon where we’re trying to make these courses more accessible. And so we can get more people who are working, more marginalized people who can’t take a course in the middle of the day. And let’s try to see what you know, having some in the daytime some of the afternoon what it’s going to do, especially since we don’t have like a specific group and one time loan, lock, timezone summer, you and I are not in the same timezone thing. We’re like three hours apart, right, two or three hours apart. And so we’re

        Summer:
        Yeah, three hours apart.

        Danni:
        It’s tricky. Yeah. It’s tricky, tricky. So we try to be as accommodating as possible. So I’m looking forward to see how this turns out. Yeah, and everything’s recorded too.

        Summer:
        So that’s the lessons are sent out within 24 hours. And you can always ask a question, if you’re like, I, you know, why, why did you say this thing? Or how would I do this? And we would answer it in session two, because it’s like, it is literally impossible to pick a time that would work for every time zone in the world, because we have people who do the scores from like Europe and Australia, and yeah, every pretty much every continent. So it’s, it’s just like, it’s impossible. And I would love to pick a time that works for everybody. But that’s just never gonna happen. So we’re doing our best to split the classes across different times. Exactly. But we’d love to have you in it. If you are a professional who works with people who may have body image struggles as well. And, and that’s it for today. Anything else you want to add? Before we wrap it up? Where can people find you? That’s what you need to share as well?

        Danni:
        Oh, yes. He looked at me on all social media platforms. And I’m a pancake AMA. Pancakes are calm, as I’m a pancake and then you also can visit www dot I’m a pancake.com to check out the site.

        Summer:
        Amazing. Well, always a pleasure. Thank you so much for being here. And I’m excited for people to do our course. Yes, well, when I I forgot to mention that we have recorded a couple of episodes together before speaking about our program, our body image coach certification program. You can also listen to those and we also have one where past graduates share their experience. You can find those it’s episode 221 as well as episode 237. I will link to those in the show notes which you will be able to find at summer innanen.com forward slash 253 For this episode, and I hope you enjoyed today’s episode. If you ever have any questions about this program are any of the programs that are offered just shoot me an email or send me a DM and I’m happy to always hop on the phone with you too. So we can do that. I hope you enjoyed listening today. Thank you so much for being here. Rock on.

        I’m Summer Innanen. And I want to thank you for listening today. You can follow me on Instagram and Facebook at summer Innanen. And if you haven’t yet, go to Apple podcasts search eat the rules and subscribe rate and review this show. I would be so grateful. Until next time, rock on

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