Speaker: 0:01

Welcome to the Heart-Led Business Show, where compassion meets commerce and leaders lead with love. Join your host, Tom Jackobs, as he delves into the insightful conversations with visionary business leaders who defy the status quo, putting humanity first and profit second. From heartfelt strategies to inspiring stories, this podcast is your compass in the world of conscious capitalism. So buckle up and let your heart guide your business journey.

Tom Jackobs: 0:36

Welcome back to the heart-led business show where passion and purpose pirouette. Together today we have the incredible Kate Galli from down under. Gracing, our virtual stage, and as a vegan health coach, master trainer, and all around plant powered powerhouse, Kate has spent nearly two decades helping folks sculpt bodies and build lives brimming with compassion. Join us as we dive into our heart-led journey and uncover the secrets to thriving with plants. Kate, welcome to the show.

Kate Galli: 1:06

Tom, I am so excited to be here. Thank you so much.

Tom Jackobs: 1:09

I'm excited as well. And having, coming outta the fitness industry myself, I always love geeking out with other fitness folks and learning about your heart-led journey as well. And I know it's quite, quite the journey as well, so I can't wait to dive into that. But first, I always like to ask, what's your definition of a heart-led journey?

Kate Galli: 1:28

To me so far as business, it is a business that aligns with your values and beliefs and ideally it is also one where you are leading with compassion and it's all about having a greater positive impact. It's not just about the money, but it's about that positive impact you're looking to have in the world.

Tom Jackobs: 1:49

Positive impact and living with purpose is kinda what I heard from you on that. Yeah. And that's a common theme, the purpose, living with purpose. So whenever I hear that, I always like to ask too, have you had a job where you weren't living your purpose?

Kate Galli: 2:02

I absolutely have probably a few. However, I've been lucky in that whenever I had bosses and I haven't had a boss since 2008, and I don't really think I could again. However, I always had bosses from the very get go with exceptionally high standards, which I think is such a gift as a boss to give your new employees to have those high standards. So I always learned a lot. Even though the business wasn't, initially aligned with my heart or my mission, goodness, I didn't know what my heart or mission was back in my early twenties. So I've had those, I've had those careers. And mom used to always say to me, Katie, you always make it so hard on yourself because I would start to really see success in a career. then I would step away because there was some sort of a values misalignment, and I can never just ignore that. Once I'm aware of it, I'm outta there and often too fast and sometimes without knowing exactly where I'm headed. But that's the deal breaker for me. Once I realize that your mission and your business is not aligned with me, I'm gone.

Tom Jackobs: 3:11

Wow. And how long did it take you to realize that or to develop that sense or was it always within you?

Kate Galli: 3:16

I probably, it was more a notion of having the courage to back myself. Probably you have an awareness of what's not aligned and you ignore that because you haven't built the self-belief. You haven't had the successes yet, and equally, you haven't had the failures yet that you've come back from and realize that, failure's not final, right? You just pick yourself up, learn hopefully, and keep on going. It was my late twenties when I first stepped away from a business that was originally super aligned with my heart because I was working on behalf of not-for-profits that I respected most in the world. However, there was an in between, there was an organization that, ran the fundraising side of things, and I was part of that organization.

Tom Jackobs: 4:02

Oh wow.

Kate Galli: 4:03

They came a point where there was a conflict, right? I wasn't directly working for the businesses, the charities that I respected. And that's when I stepped away and that's when I got into personal training.

Tom Jackobs: 4:14

Wow, awesome. What was that journey like between working for other people and then transitioning into personal training?

Kate Galli: 4:24

So I was really lucky when I was first a personal trainer and I started at about 28, 29. Before I was too old, Tom, I thought that any older would be way too old for fitness. 19 years later. That was very young. However, my first job, at a personal training studio. My boss was amazing, and he was still very hands-on, even though he came to the point where he had multiple studios and they were all under management. When I jumped on board, he spent a lot of time with his team, and he was amazing at what he did in many ways, and I learned a lot from him. Again, he was a tough boss. He had high expectations. And I like that. I'm not gonna expect you respect you as a boss if you don't have high expectations, I had that, I guess that learning period before I went out on my own. So I'm very grateful for that.

Tom Jackobs: 5:13

Oh yeah. Oh, that's great. Yeah, it's funny. 28 too old to be a person. I started when I was 32 or 33 maybe. I always had the thoughts. Yeah. I always had the thought too. I was like, boy do I really want to be, putting weights away and doing this when I'm 50 and now that I'm 50, I'm like, yeah I could still do that if I needed to. It's not that bad. I loved people. It was great.

Kate Galli: 5:38

And also if your clients are super loyal, like mine were, Older, they get older. And they don't lift quite as heavy weights anymore, and so you're not lugging those big 40 kilo dumbbells like you used to be. So it all works out.

Tom Jackobs: 5:51

Yeah, it does work out. Exactly. You do more stretching and mobility work.

Kate Galli: 5:56

A hundred percent.

Tom Jackobs: 5:57

Yeah. That's awesome. So tell us a little bit about your business now and how it transformed over the years.

Kate Galli: 6:06

So where do I start? Because my business now is very, we'll go back to the business from hell. I think we're fast tracking through some of my biggest learnings and I'm sure we will come back to them, but where I am right now is I've left one-on-one personal training behind. That was something that was good to me and good for me for a lot of years because that was a business. I'm sure you'll relate where. brings out the best in you, right? You have to choose to be super pos positive and focused and there for your client and not caught up in you. And that was really good for me actually, to be focusing on other people, choosing my mood and such, and. I guess the conflict with that business came around the fact that I'd been vegetarian 23 years. I turned vegetarian for the animals as a 16-year-old and I'd been vegetarian a decade by the time I became a personal trainer, and that was totally cool'cause I wasn't forcing my vegetarian beliefs on any of my clients. It was a bit weird that I was that vegetarian personal trainer, but I was fit and strong and healthy and it was all good. When I became vegan nine and a half years ago, and I was well into my personal training career, I was successful. I was super confident in the way that my body looked, and I decided basically overnight that if I was vegetarian for the animals, I needed to be vegan for their animals. And I became an angry vegan for quite a period of time, and. is very common and completely understandable, and it also negatively impacted my relationships, including my business relationships and those with my clients.

Tom Jackobs: 7:49

Oh wow.

Kate Galli: 7:50

It got to a point where, as a professional, I just had to swallow. My beliefs to a degree while I was with my clients who'd be eating animals and not taking my nutritional advice so much. Some of them took on some advice and that was amazing. However after quite a number of years, I just, I guess I felt that all or nothing, alignment that I, I had that calling before where the current position that I'd gotten myself into with business was out of alignment with where I wanted to be. My number one value was freedom. My number two value was integrity. I was feeling a lack of integrity. And I was feeling a lack of impact as well because I was helping these non-vegan get amazing results and I wasn't really impacting the life of the vegans and vegans that had out there that also want to create that fit, strong, healthy, plant powered body. And so to finally answer your question, that's when I transitioned to online vegan health coaching only. And that is my focus these days where I help vegans and vegans at heart go from stuck or inconsistent to fit strong confidence in a plant powered body and lifestyle they love aligned with their hearts and the heart is really important. And that's part of the reason why I was so excited to come on this show.

Tom Jackobs: 9:18

Yeah. And there's so many connections with the heart and with being vegan as well. You're taking care of your heart and you're, and it's heart about animals as well. So I always have the question when I talk to vegans, what's the difference between vegan and plant-based?

Kate Galli: 9:37

Yeah, great question. Plant-based usually comes from more of a health perspective. Very definitely is not a diet. It's not just about the nutrition, it's all about compassion and to the best of your ability living in a non-vegan world, to avoid any animal exploitation. So it's not just food, it's entertainment, it's clothing, it's makeup, it's all of that. And again it's not really coming from, Hey, I am doing this for my health, even though personally think it is a really healthy way to live. That's not where it's coming from. It's coming from the heart, the ethics, the values, the animals. Plant-base is a, an undeniably healthy way to eat where you are prioritizing plants. You could live on junk food as a vegan, I could live on burgers and chips. And Oreos as a vegan. And that is part of my mission as a vegan health coach. Those animal rights activists out there that only care about the mission and I love them. I am all there for them. However, I wanna help them be healthy as well, so that they can be in it long term for the animals and and not just skinny or skinny fat or unhealthy or low energy, which you would be if you survived on vegan junk food.

Tom Jackobs: 10:48

Yeah. Yeah, totally. And my, my, my niece Hey Anna. She was vegan for a long time. And I always, I was interested because I always looked at the packaging'cause it, being nutrition oriented and personal training, and I was just, I was appalled sometimes by the number of ingredient ingredients in a lot of these vegan foods that you can't even pronounce. I'm like, how is this, it's ultra processed and it's, and you're trying to make things taste like meat. I'm like, that just seems goes against the whole philosophy of vegan and just the health aspect of it as well.

Kate Galli: 11:23

So it's gone through phases, right? And initially the phases with the vegan mo meat and dairy alternatives and such. They were great transitional foods and they still are. If you're a little bit lost and you don't know what to do and it all seems a bit overwhelming, there are realy. Easy starting point, as an industry, initially they just wanted like taste parody. They wanted to get the taste right and then they needed to get the price right. And now the frontier that they're on now is having taste and price and health, like minimal whole food ingredients, and there are amazing businesses doing truly amazing things where it is, as you suggest, only quality ingredients as it should be. None of that rubbish that we can't even pronounce. However, you do have to look out for it. You do have to be aware, like with any way that you eat.

Tom Jackobs: 12:12

Of course. Yeah. There's plenty of non-vegan unhealthy foods out there as, as well, for sure. Yeah. So you had mentioned earlier that you started as a, an angry vegan. How did that come about and why? Why were you angry?

Kate Galli: 12:30

Yeah. Big one here. I was vegetarian for the animals for 23 years, and then I realized that animals were still dying for my food choices. I used to consume 21 free range organic egg whites a day, you know because I was, for a decade, I was a high protein, low carbohydrate, vegetarian personal trainer. That was their belief. The mistaken belief that I had back then. And when I realized that. There was still all of this suffering that I didn't know. I was still contributing to. I was angry that I'd been misled by the marketing, I was super disappointed when I shared what I learned. And most vegans go through this. You learn this advice and it is so impactful on your heart, and you make a change and you expect. That every compassionate human, will make the same choice. Not because they don't care, and they're not compassionate. because we all have different maps of the world, right? We have different values, beliefs, goals, life experiences, and more. So what we make all of those things mean. And so I would share this advice that broke my heart, these learnings, and people either wouldn't listen or wouldn't care, they just wouldn't change. And so I became angry and I started hanging out with other vegan animal rights activists. And that was great for community, that was amazing. However, also it drew the stark contrast between those individuals and the family, clients and friends I had that did not live that way. And Tom, I don't know whether I would've come to this realization on my own without the most brutal awakening and the brutal reality that got me to the point of giving up being an angry vegan. It was about three and a half years ago, I got the phone call from my father that I always thought I'd get from my mom. Dad's not the healthiest man, not in the way he eats and not in the way he thinks. And I always thought I'd get the, Katie, it's your dad. And I got the Kate, it's your mother. Mom had died suddenly and I'd spoken her to her that morning and everything was completely fine. I will say Mom was the only vegan in the family and she was the picture of health and full of love and compassion and energy, and all of a sudden one day she was gone and it didn't happen overnight. However, anyone listening that knows, that just the indescribable shock and grief when something so horrific, you don't even think about it ever happening.'cause you just can't when it does happen. The energy, the sadness, and the emotions that are just so all consuming. I genuinely had no more energy left beyond that grief to hold the anger and frustration that I had been holding towards all the non, that I just didn't have it in me. also I realized with mom, no regrets. We both knew how much we loved and respected each other. If that had been my father, I would have had regrets. And part of that was my judgment on him, a big part of it. And so that was when I consciously decided to let go of that angry vegan part of me. And it's still, I won't lie, it's still a daily, focus and effort. It doesn't come naturally. I'm committed to it though.

Tom Jackobs: 16:05

Did you feel just a lighten, like lightening up in terms of the emotion and just realizing that the love needs to overpower that anger and all that within you?

Kate Galli: 16:17

You do. First when you go vegan, initially, most people say a heavy weight is lifted. That weight of incongruence. If you're a compassionate person and you are not living a life aligned with those compassionate beliefs, whether it's consciously or unconsciously, I experience that lightening, that heart opening. When I first went vegan, and then I let too much anger and frustration back into my heart, right? We need compassion for the animals ourselves and our fellow humans. Not just the animals and not just the animals and ourselves, right?

Tom Jackobs: 16:52

Sometimes the animals are nicer, so.

Kate Galli: 16:55

A

Tom Jackobs: 16:55

100

Kate Galli: 16:55

percent easier. and so definitely it is the better way and

Tom Jackobs: 17:01

the more

Kate Galli: 17:02

fun way. And more importantly, it's the more effective way. And this is, this relates to business as well. Obviously leading with love, compassion, deliciousness, and hey, let's do this together. Welcoming people into the lifestyle that is a whole lot more effective than leading with judgment and frustration. And you need to be perfect, right? That's just not effective.

Tom Jackobs: 17:25

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. And I've seen that in business over and over again in d different businesses, but especially in the fitness and nutrition area and health and wellness. There can be a lot of judgment from the trainer or the professional to the client, and that relationship is just not it's not built on a mutual understanding and trust and love, and it just, it doesn't go anywhere. And I've found that once you bring in that love and the compassion, it really blossoms really nicely and business takes off as well, which is a nice side effect to them.

Kate Galli: 18:00

A hundred percent. And I learned that lesson early days of as a personal trainer as well. I used to get disappointed when my clients didn't have the same goals that I wanted. Like I had, my expectations for them were super high and they felt a lot of pressure. And not in a good, supportive way. And it, it took me a while to learn that I needed to meet them where they are at and be happy with what they're looking to achieve. And that's it. That is all it is. And I can't want it more than they want it. And it's the same with everything I would imagine.

Tom Jackobs: 18:34

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Cool. And thank you for making the distinction too between plant-based and vegan. And I hadn't heard that definition before and I really appreciate that. It's about everything around the animals, including like shows and things like that, that, that don't always treat the animals as good stewards, but just as performers. And it's, that's sad too sometimes.

Kate Galli: 18:59

Just think of an animal as an individual that doesn't need to be exploited or owned or used. They're here with us, not for us. That's that simple.

Tom Jackobs: 19:08

Yeah. Yeah. Cool. So let's shift gears a little bit and let's talk about everybody's favorite topic, money and business. How has that changed for you over the years? Starting your business? I don't know if you're like me, but I had no even though I had run millions of, or, had a budget of millions of dollars in oil and gas. That I was managing. I knew nothing about running a small business, and I almost went broke within the first six months of opening my personal training studio. And then I had to learn to sell and all these other things that I was super afraid of doing, but it saved my business. So how was that journey for you and knowing that money is what is needed to fulfill your mission and to help more people?

Kate Galli: 19:56

Yeah, I guess if we do touch on the business from how, which was a personal training franchise that, that first boss who was so amazing, I actually. I went into business with him a few, a couple of years in, so we bought one of the personal training franchises after I'd been a trainer a couple of years or so. And my ignorance around money shone through. At that point in time, I was the star personal trainer and he was the owner and I thought. Due diligence. Let's just le leave it all up to him. All I need to know. My only idea of being a director and a manager was lead by example. Really not enough. Super basic wrong. And we entered into business on a Handshake with a couple of other gents that were basically selling the first gym in that franchise that had ever been sold. So even though the franchise is amazing with all its rules, it didn't have rules and guidelines yet for the selling of a franchise. So it was Like the clients will stay, right? Yeah. The clients will stay. And when you buy a gym, you buy Goodwill. We took over a commercial lease and we took over to equipment leases. The only asset that we were buying was the Goodwill, the clients, and one of the guys was an exceptional trainer at an exceptional gym, and he went straight back to that gym and took all the clients with him. And that was a really hard lesson learned that I'd paid, bought into this business. The clients basically disappeared. We took on an old team who didn't really have the ethos of the franchise. And again, I was like, let's win them over. Let's not fire them. And so that was tough lesson. Slow learns. And the biggest lesson I think, was to back yourself. I went into that business believing. The self-belief that all these other individuals in the franchise had about themselves. It was I'll say it, it was a boys club and a lot of the boys thought they were pretty special and I believed them. And it's one thing to be confident in good times, but to back yourself and have that self-belief and keep going and pull yourself through the tough times, is a whole different story. And so the business from how zero regrets getting into it because the lessons were absolutely worth it. However, get, again, coming back to values, I had no freedom and in the end felt little integrity in that business, and so I was very grateful when I eventually was able to sell it and exit.

Tom Jackobs: 22:40

Oh, okay. So what was that exit like then for you? Was it, you just got fed up and he was like, I'm selling, get me out of this as quickly as possible, or was it?

Kate Galli: 22:51

It was a very, drawn out process. We had a business broker. We changed business partners, another guy entered the business. My first partner was so smart, he could see that this wasn't a good investment and I wasn't giving up on that thing. And so I got another business partner and him and I had a brooch relationship from the very get go, zero trust. And we hired a business broker when we were looking to sell, and he was the most. Grizzled old, tough old gent. And I can remember him saying, Kate, if you ever escape this thing, you need to write a book. This business is a soap opera. Many dramas within the business not for this podcast, but so many dramas that is a fairly naive, 31, 32-year-old. It was a lot. And so we eventually sold and, just the huge relief and I basically broke even my new business partner, of money and I escaped, and again, tough lesson. I signed an anti-competition clause at that. I wouldn't do any personal training for a year and later learnt that no one else obeyed those. Yeah, I ab obeyed it. I didn't do any pt. So many lessons. yeah but the freedom of escaping.

Tom Jackobs: 24:16

I bet that was a huge relief and quite frankly to, to leave, even from when you started. That's quite the accomplishment for sure. That you didn't lose a lot of money either, but.

Kate Galli: 24:29

It was worth it. The lessons were so worth it. I was such a shy little thing going into that business and the self certainty I came out of it with just for the disputes with the franchise, the dis disputes with my business partner. They just, I came out super clear and I think one of the most important lessons in business and life is knowing what you don't want. It's just as important as absolute clarity on what you do want. That really taught me what I don't want and I've managed to stick to that ever since.

Tom Jackobs: 25:03

Yeah. I think that's a common theme for any failures that we go through or conflicts is okay, now I know what I don't want. And then, and that, that burns deeper into your brain than when you have the successes. And I think that's just our human nature to always default to the negative versus the positive. But it protects us in that. It's, our brain was built that way to, to protect us.

Kate Galli: 25:28

Yeah.

Tom Jackobs: 25:28

Yeah, this time I've had similar situations. I've never gone in. I did start when I was going to build my business or build the gym. I did have a business partner for, oh, maybe 30 seconds. I know exactly. And I went to the, my, our, we had an attorney and we're gonna, build out the partnership agreement and do all this. And the attorney was a friend of mine. And after the meeting, after my other friend who, who left my attorney was like, so why are you doing a partnership with him? I'm like because he's really interested. He is nah, not good. You need to dump it. And I so appreciate my attorney friend that I was like, oh yeah. And it really got me thinking about is this the right partnership? And it was totally because it wasn't the right partnership because our values weren't in alignment and our purpose wasn't in alignment. And you know that goes to the heart-led as well. Yeah. It's so important.

Kate Galli: 26:23

100% big escape there. Well done.

Tom Jackobs: 26:26

Yeah. So tell, before we wrap up here, I would love to hear one piece of advice that you might have for a heart-led business owner or somebody that's, that identifies as a heart-led business owner that might be struggling right now, and especially struggling with the money side. What would you, what type of advice would you give them?

Kate Galli: 26:46

Oh, three things come to mind and I'll share. I struggled with the money side as well for a bit, which I think is really in my area. Being anyone in animal rights, activism, anyone in a creative field, anyone that's doing something they'd almost do for free. Anyway, right? They care so much or their purpose is bigger than themselves, that they'll readily undersell themselves. A lesson I've learned from training some incredibly successful wealthy people is earning more money allows you to have greater impact. It allows you to amplify your impact and also the impact of the people that you respect, and it's just so much more freeing, the compounding effect of being able to earn what you're worth, and not be bootlegging it, which is exhausting. So that was a lesson, but also I do want to share my biggest, most impactful lesson of 2024. I did too much in 2024. I. Split myself way too thin and I just, I was seeking calm and clarity, and I wasn't finding it until I started journaling a habit that I had denied for years. Like I denied meditation for years halfway through last year, I swapped my doom, scrolling in the evening and craving red wine for. A more positive addition to my life, which was 10 minutes journaling down by the river or more, and I was seeking calm and clarity. I started every day, every page, each evening with the words calm and clarity, and journaling was the habit that brought me that calm and clarity. So if you're feeling anxiety or overwhelm or you're not sure of their next best step, journaling is almost like self-coaching. And it's amazing to clarify your goals, to enforce your self belief, your gratitude, all of these things that are undeniably impactful. And you can start with as small as one sentence or one minute a day.

Tom Jackobs: 28:49

For sure!. I guess you could have the glass of wine while journaling as well, and enjoying nature down by the river.

Kate Galli: 28:57

I was needing to break the every night habit, Tom, on the weekend. That glass of red wine, absolutely fine, but not every night.

Tom Jackobs: 29:05

Awesome. Kate, this has been just an amazing conversation. I've really I'm glad that we had this this show together. How can people learn more about your training, your online presence, and potentially work with you?

Kate Galli: 29:18

Amazing. I've had so much fun too. Tom, thank you so much. The best place to connect with me is strongbodygreenplanet.com. You'll find links to everything I do there. You'll find links to the Plant Positive Journal. I love journaling so much. I created one. Also, it helps you adopt a healthy plant-based lifestyle one step at a time if that's something you're open to.

Tom Jackobs: 29:42

Thank you so much, Kate, for joining us today. I know the audience really appreciates you and I certainly appreciate you as well, so thank you so much.

Kate Galli: 29:49

My pleasure. Thank you, Tom. It's been a blast.

Tom Jackobs: 29:51

Yes, it has. And thank you listeners for listening to and watching the show, depending on what platform you're on. We really do appreciate it. Now make sure that you're checking out everything that Kate's doing, and we're gonna provide all those links down in the show notes, so make sure that you're checking that out. And if you're down there checking out show notes, there might be a little review button down there as well. If you could do me a favor and click that review, five stars, please. And that really helps spread the word about the show and get the word out for more heart-led people so that they can understand what it's like to be a heart-led business owner. Until next time, lead with your heart.

Speaker 2: 30:28

You've been listening to The Heart-Led Business Show, hosted by Tom Jackobs. Join us next time for another inspiring journey into the heart of business.