Hello Hot Flash! with Stephanie Shaw

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:00:03 Hi and welcome to the Integrative Women’s Health Podcast. I’m your host, Doctor Jessica Drummond, and I am so thrilled to have you here as we dive into today’s episode. As always, innovating and integrating in the world of women’s health. And just as a reminder, the content in this podcast episode is no substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment from your medical or licensed health care team. While myself and many of my guests are licensed healthcare professionals, we are not your licensed healthcare professionals, so you want to get advice on your unique circumstances. Diagnostic recommendations treatment recommendations from your home medical team. Enjoy the episode. Let’s innovate and integrate together. Hi and welcome to the Integrative Women’s Health Podcast. I am excited to have a guest today who I think will inspire you. Her name is Stephanie Shaw. She is the founder of the Hello Hot Flash podcast. She is an advocate, a speaker, a wellness coach, and she comes from a background of communications podcasting. She’s an expert in branding and podcast editing and podcast implementation.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:01:31 So if you’re looking to start a podcast, she might be a great resource for you. But what I love about Stephanie’s story is she’s such an example of the exact kind of client that we have as women’s health and wellness coaches who focus on perimenopause and menopause. She finds herself in an E.R. twice in one day, and we talk about the story through that lens. What are the challenges in our health care system. What are the reasons why women, and especially women of color, are falling through the cracks? And then what can be a really powerful role for perimenopause and menopause coaches to be able to support, not just making sure that women get better service through the conventional health care system, although that’s a key role, but also helping them to step into that role of being an empowered leader of their health care team, doing that care coordination, helping them figure out how to get their team members to speak to one another. And I just think you’ll really enjoy this level of what beauty and advocacy can come from someone’s challenging story, and how she’s really supporting other women to really thrive in the menopause transition and well beyond.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:02:53 She’s just so much fun. So let’s listen. And on the other side, I’ll give you one next thing to do in your practice to better serve all of your clients, whether or not they’re in this midlife transition. See you there. Welcome back, everyone, to the Integrative Women’s Health Podcast. I’m your host, Doctor Jessica Drummond, and I’m thrilled to be here today with Stephanie Shaw of Hello Hot Flash the podcast. And we talk a lot about menopause here at the Integrative Women’s Health Institute and Perimenopause. Additionally, because I think most of us are now realizing that perimenopause is even more challenging in some cases than once you’re actually in menopause. But this whole transition really has taken our generation by surprise, I think. And so we are really trying to spread the word about how intense it is, how much it impacts other issues, how there’s real physiologic shifts that have been for certainly the last 50 years, just kind of chalked up to you’re more stressed now or other things. And in our mother’s generation, there was a lot of take a Valium, although they didn’t say that right out loud.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:04:23 It was like mother’s little helper and all that kind of thing. And so I really love Stephanie’s perspective and advocacy. So tell me where you’re coming from in your own story, in your own life when it comes to menopause.

Stephanie Shaw 00:04:38 So first of all, thank you so much for having me today.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:04:41 Thanks so much.

Stephanie Shaw 00:04:43 It has been such a journey for me. And the more I talk to women, I hear that journey. Women are often told to take a volume. I watch a lot of movies from the 40s and 50s. It was just like something common that was done. And I think because it was okay to, quote unquote, quote, that way that we didn’t learn what we needed to learn because it was just pushed aside so you could move forward. And that’s how my story basically started, because I never had a menopause conversation with my mom. I never had any types of talks like that one. She didn’t have hot flashes. She’s unique in that way, but also because I just think she didn’t know what to say as it related to that.

Stephanie Shaw 00:05:21 So for me, it was traumatic. So it was March 23rd, 2017. I was walking down the street in New Orleans on a business trip and my jaw started to tingle. I felt numb, and before the night was over, I ended up in two years because I didn’t know what was going on in my body. I think that I had drank a lot of sugar that day, and had ate up things with a lot of sodium because we were on a business trip, but we were eating, so it probably took the menopause or the perimenopause to that next level. But that started this two year Your journey of 18 different doctors to world renowned medical facilities and over $20,000 out of pocket. Where I was trying to figure out what was going on in my body and how I was going to navigate this new period of perimenopause.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:06:09 So when you had that initial incident, did anyone flag this as being potentially menopause symptoms, or did they just say, oh, you’re having a panic attack? Or you know, what were they looking for in those ers? What were their expectations?

Stephanie Shaw 00:06:26 The first er they thought it was blood sugar related.

Stephanie Shaw 00:06:29 So they assumed that something was wrong with my blood sugar. Second year they were just confused. But they gave me an MRI because it felt like a stroke, like symptoms. Because between the ears. We went back to the hotel for a few minutes and then I like, started to shake like almost violently. You know, they didn’t know if it was a stroke or not. So that kind of started that path. And the answer to your question is no. Like no one related including my dad at colleges who, like, I know her. She’s great. No one like, really to perimenopause. So my doctors included a neurologist because I was having auras and migraines and because I was smelling phantom smells. So the gas, the maple syrup, it included a cardiologist because walking up a flight of stairs would take like a half hour recovery because I had rapid heartbeat, including an ophthalmologist, because I had floaters in my eye. Physical therapist. Chiropractor. Acupuncture. So I was being shifted from doctor to doctor to doctor.

Stephanie Shaw 00:07:27 No one’s like comparing my charts. No one’s putting things together and saying, hey, wait, is this hormonal or, you know, is there something deeper going on? So no, I was not getting my answers. And perimenopause never, ever, ever became part of the conversation. And while I think about 85 to 90% of it was hormone related, because all of those things were going on and because there were some really huge life stressors at that time, I was like building this layer on top of each other. So even two years later, when I started to come out of this, I was still stuck because I hadn’t handled the stress. So the puzzle pieces weren’t put together until I had my chiropractor, who I was going to like all the time, and my physical therapist. They both saw me so much they started to build a relationship with me, started to hear more and more of my day to day struggles, and they actually got together for lunch to talk about me, which was amazing because that helped set me on the path to a couple things one to my recovery, but also to my voice of advocacy.

Stephanie Shaw 00:08:27 Because while I don’t think every doctor needs to get together with another doctor and have another conversation, sometimes if you’re just reading the records and reading behind the scenes and getting to the root of what’s going on, I think a lot of women could be served a lot sooner when that starts to happen.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:08:44 Yeah. So in our community, we very often train health and wellness professionals to be coaches, and I think this is what we do because of exactly that. Right now, the way our system is set up, there’s a few things that I think went right in your circumstance. So often women and particularly women of color, if they come to an ER the least possible thing is sort of assigned to them, like you said, anxiety, blood sugar or something like that. And what I do think the role of an ER visit for something like this should be is essentially ruling out strokes and heart attacks, because they do happen in women in their early perimenopause to menopause transition in late perimenopause to menopause transition at any time.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:09:35 But I think in an ER situation we do want people looking for a stroke. We do want people looking for a heart attack and women historically and women of color even more so often are dismissed like you’re just anxious and that’s when women die. So I think that’s really important that they did that. Of course, it took two years, not one. But you know.

Stephanie Shaw 00:09:55 One day.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:09:57 Better than often better than sometimes I hear. And then next level is exactly what we always talk about around here. This is why I think so many professionals, particularly professionals like physical therapists, occupational therapists, nurse practitioners, chiropractors, acupuncturists. As you said, you might see your world renowned neurologist once for a 20 minute visit max. But week by week you’re seeing your chiropractor, your acupuncturist, your physical therapist. And so they make amazing coaches. And part of the role of coaching is that care coordination. Because as you said, 85% was a hormonal shift, 15% was potentially your lifestyle. You know, you said you were drinking a lot of sugar, a lot of salt, So high stress and there isn’t really like a person on the team whose core job is to look at your stress unless they actively take that role.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:11:00 And I think physical therapists and chiropractors are great at that. So I love to hear that even though it took a while too long, we want this to happen. You know, right away it’s like, okay, ideally, it’s like we rule out anything that can kill you, and then we get you on a team that really gets to these root cause issues. So that sparked your advocacy. So let’s talk about how you helped yourself to kind of optimize your own menopausal health. And this is also the role of coaches is to help the patient step into the role of essentially hiring your own team. And you did that.

Stephanie Shaw 00:11:38 Yeah I did, and I felt led to and also forced to. So I was forced to because I didn’t want to be sick. Of course I missed. My oldest son, got his master’s degree, and my youngest son graduated from high school in the same year. And the after ceremony dinners. I missed both of those. I just I could not walk up the stairs but my son’s graduation and had an anxiety attack.

Stephanie Shaw 00:12:01 So I was in a place where I had to figure something out in order for me to move forward. But then again, like you said, I started to, for myself, develop that role of advocacy. Like, what am I seeing? What am I looking at? Okay, you just wrote the nurse just wrote the information down. But let me see that information. Nine times out of ten, they would miss 1 or 2 supplements. I’m like that because I was on a lot of supplements back then. Like that can actually interact with a script you may give me or something like that. So I had to start navigating in that manner. I had to also start to change a lot about myself to, you know, the way that I thought about things, the way that I acted and reacted in different situations. I actually found a naturopath who was like over a thousand miles away. And he did one test on my body, and it showed all the nutrient deficiencies because I was a practicing vegetarian at that time, but I wasn’t doing it right.

Stephanie Shaw 00:12:57 Just being honest. So I had to start actually building that out to like, what does that look like? What does my nutrition look like? How am I going to advocate for myself? What is my role in all of this? And that’s how it transitioned to coaching. I’m like, oh wait, I kind of figured out this puzzle. I figured out the questions you need to ask in order to get the doctor to have a conversation with you. I figured out which doctors need to support you, and a lot of times if they, they won’t. How to have a voice in that room because maybe you need to go to another physician. Also, I figured out like what testing I need because I never heard of any of these tests. I didn’t know that these were possible. I thought, you know, you get your BS and C and D, and that’s kind of it. So through the through the course of what I went through, I started to develop some skills around that. So I went back, got some nutrition coaching, certifications and so forth.

Stephanie Shaw 00:13:50 And then that’s when I started working with other women. To me, it felt like a lot of women our age. Well, I shouldn’t say. Well, the women that I encountered our age were in a similar situation as I was like, we were just not educated on what we needed to do in order to move forward.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:14:10 Yeah. And so you’re left with patchwork working it all together by just trying to get what you needed out of these appointments. So what did you find as you started to pull together your own team, your own lifestyle shifts? Talk a little bit about the recipe, if you will, or you know what you actually implemented that made some of the biggest changes. Of course, this is going to be personal. Every case is different. But what are some of the big needle movers in your life to where you started to really regain your health, your energy, your, you know, mood, stability and some of the physical symptoms started to decline, like the cardiovascular symptoms or the, you know, the cranial nerve symptoms, like the the smell changes, things like that.

Stephanie Shaw 00:15:06 I had to look at it like a layered approach, kind of look at it like this stool, this three legged stool. And so I had to look at nutrition. So again, practicing vegetarian, I thought I was doing everything that was right. But I didn’t understand, you know how your body needs protein. I was a person who I needed in some way. I just cut out carbs or I would, you know, eat less fat. Not recognizing that those macronutrients need to be in balance and that no matter what you’re reading, what you’re seeing, whatever the latest craze is, that latest craze may not be for you. Everyone’s gut microbiome is different, so everyone needs to understand what is going on in their own bodies and then work that way. So I had to create something custom just for me. I still, you know. And actually this year I started eating wild caught salmon again. But I wanted to continue the vegetarian journey, but I had to up my calories. I had to make sure I was conscious of protein and B12 and so forth.

Stephanie Shaw 00:16:01 So educating myself around nutrition was a huge part of me recovering. I also had to do a lot of fasting at that time so my body could actually rest. Is like my liver was working way too hard, so I was up all night. I’m like, what’s going on? My liver was working hard. It wasn’t processing the way it needed to process, so I built that out. Did really well on that end, and I’m like, are still not feeling right. Because what I decided to do was not do everything at once because I’m kind of that girl and I wanted it to be sustainable, you know, in the middle of that and starting to get the nutrition out, I started working on the exercise. So I assume, you know, right before this happened. I never run before, but like six months before it happened, I’m going to run A5K. So I just started running and I was, you know, exercising. And I’m like, I was up till two miles and my cousin, who has flown to Iceland to run a marathon like she’s a real runner, I’m like, I can run almost two miles.

Stephanie Shaw 00:17:01 I was so excited. But running isn’t for my body and I didn’t know that. Once again, customizing and understand what is going on. Yoga, stretching. I’m like rock star because that’s where my body needed to go. And I was able to, you know, start to tone and build and do the same things I wanted to do in running with yoga. So recognizing what really worked for me and worked for my body as it relates to exercise. Again, just a three legged stool. So I started to implement that, but yet still I’m like eating right? I’m moving. I’m doing all of this. Something’s still missing. It was a stress. So I think a lot of times people don’t add that extra. And I’m going to add another layer to my stool and I have a four legged stool. So the stress of what is going on in your life, I was not the person that would have the big girl conversations, and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, guys. I want people to be nice, you know, kind of thing.

Stephanie Shaw 00:17:55 But nice doesn’t always mean that you have to bear the burdens or weight of everyone else, nor belittle yourself. Lack of better word in order for you to move forward in relationships. So I had a couple big girl conversations. I’m like, oh, I’m getting lighter, I’m getting lighter, I’m getting lighter, and then I want to add this extra stool. But yet I did this the whole time too. It was my relationship with Christ. So even during the nutrition, during the exercise, during the stress part, like I started studying the Word of God and praying and meditating and journaling at a totally different level because I’m like, I know that something good has to come out of this. Like, this isn’t just about perimenopause. There’s like, there’s there’s some purpose behind all of this. So this, so I want to get everything out of it. So I added that level as well. But everyone’s journey is custom. And even like I said, within each level you have to customize, but that’s when it’s beneficial to work with, like you said, the coaches that you have or a coach like myself, because then you can have someone that can hold you accountable as you’re going through those different levels and then also help you not kind of beat yourself up when you don’t want to juice fast for 45 days.

Stephanie Shaw 00:19:04 Like maybe you don’t need to juice fast for 45 days. So yeah, I kind of built all of that out. And I think customization is the key in all.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:19:12 Yeah. And I think what you said about layering on the changes really makes it more sustainable, even if you, let’s say in an ideal world, you walked into that er, there was some full body scanner that could say, you know what, you’re eating wrong and you’re exercising wrong and you’re overstressed and like, here’s your checklist of 100 things that you’re going to be able to do, which I actually think that’s the kind of thing we may get from AI in the next decade. Some kind of like, here’s the checklist. We still have to move at the pace of an individual’s nervous system, and for you to have made every change at once may not have been sustainable at all. And actually, you might have felt worse before, better or just worse, because, you know, there can be a shock to the system.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:20:10 So that final piece where you talked about your daily spiritual practice, your mindfulness practice, your journaling practice, you know, in our system that sort of level one, whatever your spirituality is or whatever your mindfulness practice is, because the nervous system has to feel safe as it’s making all these changes or, you know, you’re like going to be constantly second guessing. Do I need another test? Is this right? Is this right with my food, you know? Oh, wait, maybe I should go back to running. Like there’s a lot of because you’re not going to immediately feel the shift. Although I do think something you said that was so important is that intuitively, there was a lot you did know the testing helped, but like as soon as you started doing yoga, you were like, oh yeah, my body does. No, this talk about that.

Stephanie Shaw 00:21:10 I’m not the exercise person. Never have been. Don’t claim to be now. Not a thing I do, but yet I get so many benefits from it.

Stephanie Shaw 00:21:19 I’m not practicing yoga, I’m stretching. It’s pretty much the same thing. But now I am. So at that time I was actually going to yoga studio. I just found. I can’t even explain it. I don’t want to say they were my people, but it just felt like there was this calming in the room and I did hot yoga. There was a calming environment and my body just morphed into whatever position. And I’m also very competitive. So, you know, I’m in the back of the class. I’m like, oh yeah, I’m going to do that tree pose for 45 minutes. But no, my body does it just more. The more I did it like I was getting up like at 630 in the morning. And then I would, you know, if I missed the class, I’m like, oh, I need to go to one at 8:00 at night. But I never felt stressed about it. I never felt overwhelmed about it. My mind never felt like it was a hat too.

Stephanie Shaw 00:22:12 It was a I get to do this kind of thing. And with exercise running, it was like, oh, I have to because I want to, you know, lose some weight or I want to be healthy or I want to compete, or it just became more natural and it became something that, again, I was able to develop in my body. And like my mom, my husband, even my kids were like, something’s a little different. Like, you could tell the tone in my body, but I had again been running. I had lifted weights for a while, and I could never get my body to where it needed to go or where I thought it would look the way I wanted to look. But yoga did that for me, so it was inside and outside that it really helped. And I think a lot of women find that. So one of my clients is a runner like 711 miles most days. Runner. And I’m like, you need to figure how that is maybe stress in your body or whatever.

Stephanie Shaw 00:23:05 And so she’s like, I won’t give up anything else except for running because it makes me tone. It makes me feel good. So just like you said, that was intuitive to her. She did come back a little bit because she just had to for some other reasons. But intuitively, her body knew that running is her thing. That’s what made her feel good. That’s what helped her with her stress. I knew intuitively that stretching was mine. So as women were smart, like we know, even if we don’t think we know like we know, you know, in your gut what is making you feel good and me bench pressing like 50 or £60. I felt strong, but I just didn’t feel great getting in some kind of weird, twisted shape. I’m like, oh, this feels good. So yeah, using your intuition, I think it’s true.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:23:49 And that circles back to how important stress is. And exercise can be either a short term good stressor. Like for some people running is really beneficial.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:24:00 For some people, strength training is really beneficial. In fact, for most there’s a lot of good data, particularly on strength training, but also on short cardiovascular exercise and some intensity for heart health. But it might even be about timing for those individuals, because, you know, one of the things we do see time and time again in the research on menopause is that everything that sort of quote unquote works in a study, right? We have very few studies where it’s like 100% of the time, 100% of those people on this protocol, you know, achieve X result. But we very often have there’s a range of achievement of result. For some it’s really good, for some it’s pretty good. For most it’s really good. You know things like that. And very often the layer that influences how well people respond to beneficial things is their underlying stress. And so one of the things you mentioned that I think is very important is that there’s a little bit of a perception in the sort of Instagram world that we live in, that stress management is spa days and massages and whatever, but actually it has a lot to do with things like boundaries and difficult conversations and even the simple act of getting clear on what you actually want.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:25:28 Because walking down that street in New Orleans, you were doing your job. You were doing what you were supposed to do. You were kind of doing what everybody else was doing. But maybe since you were in high school, did anyone sit down with you and say, what do you want? What do you need?

Stephanie Shaw 00:25:45 Yeah. That’s huge. I love the fact that you said, like, what a stress free day is supposed to look like. That would drive me. Not like I don’t like to get massages. Don’t touch me. Like, like although weird like that. So, like, I mean, I’ve gotten a massage before, but you know what I mean? Like on the. That is not relaxing to me. So again, back to it. You know what’s intuitive to you? What makes you feel good? Also when you mention has anyone ever had that conversation like what do you want? What makes you feel good? Like, no, those conversations weren’t had. And now I have adult children 34, 33 and 24.

Stephanie Shaw 00:26:22 And like they’re teaching me so much. I’m like, I think the next generation, while they have their problems, I’ll say it out loud, I can say that I’m a mom, but they’re getting a lot of things really right. And things like, what do you want? How do you want to live? What does your future look like? So in all of this, what I’m starting to see is that women that are coming up now pray that they’re not in the same situation where we are, where we’re like, oh my gosh, what? Perry, what what’s that called? And what is a hormone? And how is this? It’s like they’re getting it and I’m excited about that. And that helps with stress as well because you know, ahead of time what to expect and how to prepare for it.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:27:01 Yes, absolutely. So that comes to your shift into this advocacy work of starting the podcast. Hello. Hot flash. You know, teaching your own young adult children and then now spreading it wider first to women who actually are currently in the perimenopause transition.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:27:19 But with that hope that the younger and younger your audience gets, they’ll be better prepared. So talk about that transition in terms of your career. What got you excited about it, even beyond the message? Like, did you just find that you loved podcasting? Let’s talk about that.

Stephanie Shaw 00:27:36 So my undergrad and master’s degree are in communications. Well, telecommunications and in communications. So I did TV for a while. I did a little radio for a while so that it was natural that that’s what I kind of transitioned to. But it was also something. Remember we talked about intuition and how during that time, like I was really working on and I’ve been a Christian my entire life, but sometimes you just need to grow to the next level. So I’m growing to that next level. And podcasts just kept coming up in my spirit, like something that I needed to do. And I’m like, I try it one time. I don’t really know if I want to do that. It just kept coming up and I’m happy I followed because I have a really cool name for my show.

Stephanie Shaw 00:28:18 The name?

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:28:19 Yes.

Stephanie Shaw 00:28:19 Tell us about your search. Beyond the name I’ve found, I’ve been able to like with you. I got through Jessica. Now you guys were on another podcast together, and she’s actually been a guest of mine. I’ve been able to connect with people that not only have educated me, but they’ve been able to educate my audience. So I’ve been able to use the podcast for that resource that I didn’t have because I was like googling everything and going back and forth to the library and praying that the person that gave me the information was the right person. But I’ve tried to be very intentional that if you’re a guest on the podcast, I have coaches as well. I love and respect them as well. I’m a coach myself, but I have medical professionals who have a science background as well to have these conversations, who also get what the root cause is. So I’ve been able to use that as a platform for advocacy in order to help women. I want you to be able to come in one place, maybe hear your story and all of this, or oh man, I’m about to get on HRT, but oh, I could use just a couple more ideas around what it looks like.

Stephanie Shaw 00:29:22 Well, one of the women who started working in it like 25 years prior, has been on my podcast. So all of this is part of what I’m trying to do. Through the advocacy, along with going public speaking as well, because I don’t know why I’m surprised because in all honesty, I thought I was like the only person who didn’t know what I didn’t know. But there’s still a lot of people who don’t know what they don’t know. As it relates to menopause, perimenopause and just midlife in general. My goal is to not just talk. So we’ve talked about dental care and the relationship to menopause. Like, who would have thunk it? Like, I didn’t even know. So again. Yeah, I get excited about the show. I don’t want to go on and on, but that’s part of the basis of it. Just having a platform so other people can come and do one of their one stop shops of finding out more about perimenopause.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:30:12 Yeah. And I think what you’re talking about here is that once you’re kind of in this world of starting to talk and advocate for and see who the other advocates are for perimenopause and menopause, it feels like the message is getting out.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:30:26 And it is. It’s better than it was. But the reality is we still have a long way to go. Right now, only 4 to 6% of the US women, people even in just in the United States, never mind globally, only 4 to 6% are actually getting adequate menopause care. And that’s really just basic well managed hormone therapy. We’re not talking at all about the level of support that you give in your coaching practice that our graduates give, like this idea of looking at your stress, looking at your spiritual and mindfulness capacity, looking at your nervous system, looking at your nutrition, looking at your movement practices. The reality is, the number of people who are getting that level of care is probably like 1% in the United States, and it’s probably even less globally. So we actually have a lot of work to do, and I’m so glad to see that you have created this platform. The other thing that I think is so important about this, and you mentioned that you and I met on another podcast, Donna is 50 over 50.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:31:37 It was like a group podcast and everyone go watch that. It’s fantastic. We’ll make sure we put the link in the show notes. But what I love about your story is that there are all these little threads, I think women in our 40s and 50s and 60s. We have a lot more life most likely, especially if we are getting adequate healthcare in this phase. And even if you hated your job for the last 20 years, often there’s a thread through the whole thing. Like, you can take your experience, you can take your education, you can take your personal experiences and create the kind of work that actually aligns with your purpose, your deeper goals. Usually there’s this perspective of like, well, once you hit 60, maybe you’ll retire, maybe you’ll downshift. Like a lot of women in our phase are really not doing that at all. They’re taking what they’ve gathered to this point and then making it so much better. You had this history of this telecommunications, communications, training degrees, experience, personal experience, and now you’ve created a really cool job for yourself.

Stephanie Shaw 00:32:58 Yeah. Isn’t it cool? And so I get so excited about doing the podcast and I get so excited. Just like you said, when I’m having conversations with doctors and so forth, like they’re like my age and they’ve, like, made this shift and they have all this great knowledge and they’re bringing it in and supporting. I think it’s an exciting time. You’re right that it’s very, very sad that we’re not getting the message like out as quickly as we need to. But we’re progressing. We’re doing better than we were in 2017. Like, all of this was not going on when I was going to perimenopause. So.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:33:33 Absolutely. Yeah. We’ve made great strides and your podcast is absolutely a part of that. So talk about the work that you’re doing now beyond your own podcast, your own coaching practice. You now are so good at podcasting that you’re helping other people do that. And I, for one, appreciate that I could not do this podcast without my team.

Stephanie Shaw 00:33:57 So again, I’m doing the nutrition coaching and doing the podcast.

Stephanie Shaw 00:34:00 And then I was fortunate enough that I had a really good podcast coach, and I just kept moving up in the rankings. When you like, go on, I’m like, I’ve learned a lot, and I just happened to mention it to someone. And then it’s like, open the window for me to start getting clients. So that’s what I do. So if people are launching a podcast, if you’re thinking about launching a podcast and you want to think about the name of it, what the graphics should look like. There’s a science behind all of that. Then you just need to get it on air. You don’t know where to put it or you don’t know how to edit the podcast. That’s what we do as well. Everything is down on hello. I haven’t. It was so funny. Like took off and I’m like, oh wait, I need a name for it. Oh wait, do I need a website kind of thing? So everything is on hello.com so you can get additional information.

Stephanie Shaw 00:34:50 But yeah, that’s been really exciting because what I’ve found is just like you said, my clients are women so far, and they’re all like my age and they’ve had some amazing lives and amazing careers. And now they are telling their stories through podcasting. So that’s really exciting.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:35:09 I love that I think this message from women in midlife and well beyond, these are the stories I want to hear. Right. Like this is the real life wisdom. These are women that have gone through a lot. They’ve learned a lot. They’ve had some really cool experiences. So I think the fact that you have the technical skill set to amplify these voices, that it’s very new to have women in their 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. Having broad conversations. You know, we’ve had men for a while in relatively powerful positions, no matter how old they are. But women have so much to share, and quite frankly, a lot of their lives are super interesting.

Stephanie Shaw 00:35:57 So I know, right? Me listening to the Other People’s podcast, I’m like, well, I’m like, how are you connected to that person? And one of my clients that I have, she’s like connected to the whole Rockefeller, like the Rockefellers.

Stephanie Shaw 00:36:11 And she interviewed her and I’m like, oh, the conversation is so not what you would expect, but it’s so interesting. And to just be able to, to be with women who not not just have the connections, because I don’t want to sound like that, but to be able to have these authentic conversations with people who, like you said, have these amazing stories, but they’re so relevant and they resonate so with other people. That part to me is exciting. So it’s just like this other branch of being connected to some really great women. And I love women my age because they write, they have stories, they understand that they’re not in it for the game. You know, they’re not trying to win up you and get the office ahead of you. They’re just like, been there, done that. Let’s work together and figure out how we can make this world better. Yeah.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:36:56 So true. I think women over 40, 50, 60 are uniquely positioned for that, honestly, because very often they’ve sort of achieved a lot of the foundational professional goals or family goals or whatever that they wanted to.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:37:12 And one of the gifts of menopause is that you stop caring a lot about some of those things, and you feel very secure in whatever you want to do.

Stephanie Shaw 00:37:27 Yeah, I love that. Stop caring about. That’s huge. Sometimes I will say that to my mom was like 84 miles. You just don’t care what you said, she said. Just stop caring about stuff. I just need to move on. And it’s so, so true. Like, yeah, you do, but that’s a great place to be. And we’re not meeting anything negative about it. But you just. You have a new freedom. It’s a newfound freedom.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:37:49 Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It’s not to say that you just don’t care about life, but you don’t care about things that are petty. You’re not as striving because often you’ve achieved at this point a lot of what you wanted to achieve. So there is that sense of just peace around it.

Stephanie Shaw 00:38:07 I love you, yeah.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:38:09 The more that you achieve now that you build a podcast or you build a new business or you spread the word, it’s from a place of a lot more security.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:38:19 It’s not from a place of striving. It’s not from a place of fear. It’s just from a place of truly giving back and having fun. You know, having these really fun conversations. I think that was one of the best things about the conversation we had on Donna Cabana’s podcast. It’s like all these women coming together and just being like, having a little fun with it.

Stephanie Shaw 00:38:41 So yeah. Yeah, I do, I love that. I love this season. It’s so great. Like the other day, I took Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and just watch my grandkids and didn’t check email. I didn’t do anything. I just kind of. But having that newfound freedom, you know, you may have to work a little bit harder one day, but you just didn’t have that. And especially when I was in corporate America and I was in the 80s, 90s corporate America. So it’s a lovely time.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:39:08 It’s a lot of flexibility and alignment with whatever you want to do on any given day. So very exciting.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:39:15 I think anyone listening to this, If you’re in your 20s, 30s, you’re grinding, you’re busy, you’re overwhelmed with little kids and working in building your business or climbing the corporate ladder. That is a fun time. Like try to enjoy it. Even though it’s hard. I think it’s really hard, but it actually only gets better, you know? It really does. Well, thank you so much for being here today, Stephanie. If people want to work with you, get your branding perspective on their podcast, get your technical expertise or work with you to navigate their own perimenopause to menopause journey, where can they best find and connect with you?

Stephanie Shaw 00:39:57 Yeah, they can just go to Hello Hot Flash and at the top of the page it says work with me.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:40:03 Excellent. Thanks so much for being here today.

Stephanie Shaw 00:40:06 Thank you so much.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:40:12 I hope you’ve loved meeting Stephanie as much as I have and absolutely go check out her podcast, Hello Hot Flash. She brings in some excellent experts and go and listen to Donna Calvados 50 over 50, the real 50 over 50.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:40:29 I’ll link both of these in the show notes. I’m starting to think that there’s this huge untapped well of wisdom of women 45, 50 and older into our 80s and 90s that for the first time in history, is really widely being broadcast. All of these little stories really make up an important set of wisdom. So in your practice, how can you start to think about this week pulling together some of your clients teams, helping them understand how to help their teams to communicate better? Questions they can ask have them show up at their primary care appointment with the notes from all their specialty appointments. Maybe have them summarized. Make it really easy for your clients team of caregivers to collaborate and coordinate to give them the best care. It’s going to be very rare to get two of their members of their team to sit down at lunch together. But hey, you know, if you want to do that, the more the better. I can absolutely say with certainty that’s one of the best things I’ve done in my career in physical therapy and nutrition, in health coaching, when I get together, whether it’s phone call, email thread, meeting in a conference, sitting down and talking to colleagues of mine who are working with the same clients and patients collaboratively, we can really help coordinate that care with and through those conversations.

Dr. Jessica Drummond 00:42:02 So how can you be more of a care coordinator in your practice this week and beyond? And how can you help your clients understand the skill set of how to coordinate the care amongst their entire health care, coaching and wellness team to make their execution and how they’re implementing their health behaviors and lifestyle changes. Even more efficient and effective. I will see you next week. Thank you so much for joining me on the Integrative Women’s Health podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today for this episode of the Integrative Women’s Health Podcast. Please share this episode with a colleague and if you loved it, hit that subscribe or follow button on your favorite podcast streaming service so that we can do even more to make this podcast better for you and your clients. Let’s innovate and integrate in the world of women’s health.