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Summer:
Welcome to season 10 of eat the rules. 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 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 episode 306, and this is the season premiere of season 10 of eat the rules. I’m giving you an update on some changes that are happening and what to expect from this season. You can find the links mentioned at summer innanen.com forward slash 306, I want to give a shout out to G Morgan. 201 who left this review. I really love this podcast. It reminds me that I’m not alone in my struggles, and provides tangible next steps that are helping me live a better, fuller life. Thank you so much. That means a lot, and I want to give a special shout out to Bonnie, who is a renegade supporter of this podcast. You can support this podcast by going to co fee.com so that’s K O dash, fi.com forward slash summer in and in to make a monthly contribution to support the show, for as little as $5 a month, you can support this podcast, and you’ll also get access to my free mini course conquering negative body talk. And if you do a larger contribution, then you get a shout out, like Bonnie did. So shout out to Bonnie for being the first one to do that. Thank you so much. Don’t forget to subscribe to this show and leave a review if you haven’t done so already. In terms of freebies, I’ve got 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’re a professional who works with people who may also have body image struggles, get the free body image coaching roadmap at summer innanen.com forward slash roadmap.

All right, this is going to be a quick update episode, just to give you some life updates, give you an inside scoop the tea, as the kids say, on what’s happening in my life and what’s going to happen this year, what’s going to happen to this podcast, what’s going to happen to my business? Because there are some changes happening for those of you that don’t know, and for those of you that do, I’m going into my second year of my masters of counseling program. I finished a whole year already. Can you believe it? And it’s been a demanding year trying to juggle that simultaneously. I lost a bunch of childcare because my son shifted from daycare hours to elementary school hours. You would think going to school would give you more childcare, but it doesn’t. And so between the extra work that I’ve had with the master’s program and the loss of child care, it’s been a tricky year trying to keep all these balls in the air. And as a result, my work time has been reduced quite a bit and and my income has fallen as a result. Yeah, time is money when you own your own business for the most part. And so that’s why I started the Kofi account. So it’s K O, dash, fi.com, and my account is summer innanen.

And so the reason why I started that is because I’ve kept this show relatively ad free for the 10 plus years that I’ve been doing this. I could do ads. They would probably be like weight loss companies, because those are the ones that always want to advertise on podcasts. But I’m not going to do that. I would never do that. I’m not going to sell myself out. And so everything in this show is kind of, you know, self produced, self funded. Obviously, I have an amazing team that supports me, but everything else is, you know, it comes it’s business expense, essentially, and it’s not cheap to have a podcast. There’s the hosting, the transcription, the editing, the show notes, the blog creation, the behind the scenes support I do. Have a stipend for guests. This does not include the hours of time it takes to create these episodes, and especially the solo episodes that I do, as well as preparing for interviews when I read a book and then interview the person and then actually recording the podcast. So it’s it’s a lot of time, which is why the podcast is only twice a month now, instead of more frequently than that, prior to when I was in school again. And so the cost adds up to be I don’t even like I’m guessing, well, no, I’m not guessing. I did the math. It’s around $300 per episode for me to create, enough for me to create, and that’s not even including my own labor. And so I know so many of you love this podcast, so many of you have benefited from this podcast. So if you have the means and you want to support this podcast, keep it on for the 10th season and keep it going, you can do that by going to kofi.com, forward slash summer innanen. And don’t worry, I’m not going to do this spiel on every episode. I’ll just I’ll mention it on every episode, but I’m not going to tell you the whole back. To tell you the whole backstory, so it’s just, that’s what I’m doing right now.

So Kofi is similar to Patreon. I actually don’t even know the difference, but I chose it because my friend Vinnie does it. And I was like, Okay, this looks good. It’s easy. And you sign up to become a monthly member for as little as $5 and you get something depending on the contribution that you make. So if you if you contribute $5 a month, then you get my free conquering negative BodyTalk mini course, which is actually one of the modules in you on fire. It’s one of my favorite modules. So that’s actually a really amazing deal I would get on that. And so you’ll get access to that mini course. And then if it’s $10 a month, then you get a shout out on the podcast and access to the mini course. And if it’s and if it’s $20 a month, you get all of those things, plus you can ask me a question, and I will do a podcast episode about it. So those are the options, and you can find the link in the show notes to do that. And I don’t like asking people for this stuff, but honestly, I think it makes sense, and I probably should have done it a really long time ago, because I know so many people have benefited from this podcast. And if you can’t do that, you don’t have the financial means, you can always support it by leaving a review and subscribing. Those are two ways that you can support people like myself and we means a lot to us. And so that’s that’s kind of what’s going on.

So I’m going into my second year of my master’s program, and that means in June of 2025 I’ll be starting my internship at a private practice here in Vancouver. And in order for me to complete the master’s program and to become a registered clinical counselor, you have to do 200 hours of internship. And so I’ll be starting that in June. And so the good news is, if you’re in BC, and specifically in the Vancouver area, and you’re looking for low cost counseling support, I’m going to be the student internship counselor. So that’ll be me, you’ll be able to get low cost counseling support. So keep your eyes open for that. Or if you know anybody, I’ll be sending more information about that to my email list in 2025 when I when you can actually, like, join the wait list and book time with me through the private practice that I’ll be at.

And so not only will I be starting my internship in June of 2025 but I’ll also be starting my capstone research project for school, and that is kind of like a thesis. I don’t know why that word is just so funny to me, but it’s not really. It’s different. So I’m not doing my own research. I’m doing I’m using other people’s research, but it’s like a 50 plus page research paper on a topic of my choice. And so my plan right now, I may like narrow this down a bit further, I’m not totally sure yet, but my plan is to do a paper on eating disorders in midlife, as I’m really interested in how things like hormonal changes and ageism and ableism influence our mental health during this transitional period of time, and what that means for for people with eating disorders.

And so between the internship and the capstone research project, and I’m also going to be completing the remaining courses for the program I have to shut certain areas of my business down because I believe that those three things will most likely be a full time job. I’m trying to graduate as soon as possible, so I’m doing them all at the same time. And that leads me to this announcement, which is a very difficult announcement for me to make because I really hate doing things like this, but this will be the final year that I run you on fire. So you on fire is my online group coaching program for people that want to build up a sense of self worth beyond the scale. I’ve been running this program for 10 years now I believe, I think maybe the first time was 2025 so it’ll be 10 years. And sorry, not 2025 2015 2015 I believe, is when I initially launched it. And it was called rock your body. And so, yeah, this is going to be the final year that I run you on fire. The reason being is that I have. To, unfortunately, cut down on my business quite a bit.

The only thing that I will be keeping is the work that I’m doing at the Institute for body image with Danni, so our body image coach certification program, and anything that we can do under that. But unfortunately, I’m going to have to retire you on fire. And so the final cycles will be happening this year. I’m going to be opening up enrollment in September, and then likely again in late fall, for the last time. So if you’ve been wanting to participate, this will be your final chance. So get on that. Get on the wait list. If you’re not already on the wait list, make sure you’re on my email list so that you’re seeing all these updates, because Lord knows, nobody sees my social media updates anymore, so definitely make sure you’re on my email list. And I’m so sad about this, because I still love this program so much, and I love our group and I love our group calls and our conversations, but my life is changing, and the path that I’m going down is changing, and so I have to make some difficult decisions in order to do that, and it’s been life changing for me to run this program. Over this last decade, I’ve had the great pleasure of meeting and supporting so many incredible people along the way, some of them still I’m I still keep in touch with or I follow their lives on social media, and it’s just so amazing. Will it come back in the future?

I’m not sure. I love running groups. I absolutely love running groups, but I may be doing them more locally. And I’m not sure. I’m not sure, is the answer so, but it will definitely not be running again in 2025 so if you want to join, join before the end of this year, because it will be closing down in June of 2025 I wanted to be fully transparent with you so that you know what’s happening. So I hope you appreciate that information, or at least maybe you’re like, Ooh, this is hot gossip.

Okay, so moving on from that, I just recorded a huge chunk of this, and it didn’t actually record. So I don’t even know where I left off or what I said, but I’m gonna try and pick it up from where I think I left off, which is just a little bit more of the backstory about where I’m going with my with my business. Ultimately, I want to work in private practice locally so I can live a more analog life. I’ve been an online entrepreneur for over 12 years, and I’m ready for I’m ready for a change. These past 12 years have taught me that I love working with people, one on one and in groups. I love I love coaching. I absolutely love it. I truly believe in it. I think it’s like can be just absolutely life changing for people, but I have started to really struggle with the online marketing side of things.

So I’ve started to realize that a lot of the stuff I’m doing is stuff that I wanted to get away from when I left the corporate world, and I’m spending, I spend this is not new. I’ve always done this, but I spend a lot of time on Marketing in order to do the thing I love. And when I originally started my business, the reason why I wanted an online business was because I wanted freedom and flexibility. I wanted to be able to work anywhere in the world, and that has served me well. It’s been amazing. I was able to move out West. I was able to spend a lot of time with my kid in the early years of his life, because I had that flexibility and so, but, you know, it’s not all roses. There’s a downside to everything, and that downside was I had to market myself online, and I have to spend a lot of time doing that. And so now that I’m settled here in Vancouver, my kids in school, I really do, like, our life, I’m not I’m not really interested in, like, moving around, or it doesn’t matter if I can work anywhere. I don’t necessarily need to be all have an online business anymore. And the idea of seeing people in person and being a part of a private practice, being a part of a team and making an impact more locally, actually really excites me, and so that’s the direction that I’m going.

I want to work in private practice locally as a therapist, and keep some aspects of this business alive, but let a lot of things go so I can really focus on just doing the thing I love, which is like sitting in a room with someone and helping them, seeing their whole presence, listening, guiding and witnessing whatever is there to be witnessed. I think that it’s been increasingly more difficult for me to be an online business because of the changes that have happened with social media. I never wanted to be a content creator, and unfortunately, that’s what it feels like I have to do sometimes, and I just don’t want to do that. Like, I’m when I’m out doing something, or if I’m on vacation, like, I don’t want to be creating videos. Or like, B roll for, you know, social media posts, like, I just do not want to do that. And I know there’s definitely a lot of online successful businesses. That hardly have any social media presence. I actually think I’m probably one of them, because I don’t do too much on social media, but I still have to do quite a bit in terms of, just like, you know, creating content and launching and writing marketing emails and things like that. And it’s kind of the stuff that I wanted to get away from when I left the corporate world.

And so I know that they’re going to be challenges moving into private practice, but my hope is that I’m able to really do more of the thing that I really love. Plus, I think, like, I think I really liked social media more 10 years ago because I still needed that validation. Like, I was like, Oh yeah, people like this, people are sharing it. It made me feel really good, and now, like, I just don’t get that. I’m like, I don’t really care. I think because I’ve just matured and I don’t really care as much about validation anymore. And so I believe that’s maybe part of it, at least, if I’m introspective about it. So that’ll be the final year for you on fire.

For now, I’m going to keep the work alive at the Institute for body image with Danni Adams, and continue to continue to offer our trainings, our body image coach certification and other trainings that we offer for providers. But this leads me to another really cool change that you might be interested, interested in. I will be opening up more spots for people to work with me privately and start to take things deeper. There are so many things that influence our body image, including relationships, our childhood past, trauma, attachment disruptions and mental health challenges, to name a few, I want to start helping people explore those things and like unravel those things, and help them with their body image on a deeper level than I have been doing, and I will be doing this under supervision from a therapist, so that’s a big added benefit to you.

So if you’re curious to learn more, you want to work with me privately, then make sure you’re on my email list. I’ll be sending updates about openings there. Or if you’re just like, yes, this sounds like something I want, please sign me up immediately. Then just email me and let me know, and I can send you more information about how that will work and what that looks like. It’s essentially body image coaching, but I am expanding my scope of practice under supervision, and I’m super excited about that, because that’s what I want. I mean, that’s the reason I’m in schools. I just want to be able to, like, go deeper with people. And so that’s also going to be a theme of this season of the podcast.

This 10th season of the podcast is going to be great. I’m going to be doing two episodes a month until June, and from there, I don’t know, I don’t know what’s going to happen. I wish I knew. I would tell you. I don’t want to say this is the final season, because that doesn’t feel right to me, but I also need to be able to manage whatever happens. So I may have to decrease the frequency, maybe to go to like once a month next season, it’s TBD at this point, but this season, I’m excited about I will be sharing more learnings and research in terms of what I’m doing around body image and sharing those in body image series episodes, and trying to get at some of those deeper things, you know, like, let’s let’s have conversations about that. Let’s look at that, to piece those things together. I’m excited about that, can you tell? And then I’ve got some other great guest interviews lined up where we’re going to be covering an array of topics. If you are newer to this podcast, definitely check out the body image series episodes. You can find those at summer innanen.com forward slash body image series. And if you’re like, Who the hell is this woman? Why am I listening to this podcast? You can hear my story at episode 174 and you can get that at summer innanen.com forward slash 174 okay, if you made it this far, thank you. I hope you found this episode, like, kind of interesting. Again, maybe you’re like, Ooh, this is gossip, cool.

And if you have any episode ideas, like, always shoot me an email. Let me know. I’d love to hear from you. And definitely, once again, if you are interested in doing you on fire, get on the wait list for the final cycles that we’ll be running. If you want to go deeper with me in private coaching, shoot me an email. Make sure you’re on my email list.

And if you’re a provider, make sure that you’re following Institute for body image on Instagram as well as on my email list for providers, which you can get on that at summer innanen.com forward slash roadmap.

That’s it for today. You can find all the links mentioned here at summer innanen.com. Forward slash 306, 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 you.