In today’s episode, Brooke speaks with Gabrielle Thomas, founder of Gabrielle Thomas Consulting and co-founder of Under the Oaks. Gigi’s connection and love with health and wellness started on the front lines as a nurse in a hospital, then she moved into mental health and slowly made her way into alternative medicine. She worked as a practitioner for a couple of years with holistic nutrition, homeopathy and functional medicine. She transitioned even further into the marketing space for health and wellness providers. A couple of months ago, Gigi had an aha moment. She saw the breadcrumbs of her career lead to this moment. When she was 19, she experienced paralyzing anxiety. Fast forwarding to later in life, she lost her mom and she didn’t realize at the time what she was doing but in helping her mom, she was very much involved in her healing process. Going through that as well as the grief process, she was in a very dark time with crushing grief. She realized she needed to do something for herself and for her daughter. She started her first business as a whole food mobile service. That helped her compost that grief and it was a catalyst for getting out of the darkness she was in. From there she found healing. 5 years later, she transitioned out of that and into consulting work. She started virtual work at this time. She was pulled into the direction of marketing for health and wellness providers. She knew she needed to do this because it helps people live longer, healthier lives. One of the most important lessons she’s learned in her career is you can’t change the outside if you don’t change the inside. So much about business is about courage and being straight with people. Courage always feels like the call to action. A lot of people believe that those who are accomplishing great things and are successful don’t have any fear. There’s a lot to be said about people who are willing to talk about their journey and the difficulty in building your business. Gigi’s recommendation to others is being clear about where you are in the process matters. For those that are looking for their first 1000 users, content and press is very important but the tools for longer term growth is around virality and getting something out there that people want to share and get out there. SEO is an important tool as well as paid growth ads. A common pitfall is selecting too many growth engines. The key is to master one and go really deep into it. As far as executing within your selected growth engine, Gigi likes to use a simple framework she calls now, next later. What will you do now, what will you do next and what will you do later? We need to be mindful of the words we choose and how those words have changed meaning over time. For example, the word diva has changed. It used to be something we wanted to be but it’s become something that nobody wants to be. Gigi says we need to become more familiar with how our own minds work and the states of mind that cause us suffering and the states that provide us freedom. Once we understand that, we will know what to do and not to do and how to handle stress and our thoughts. We also need to give ourselves time to stop thinking and it can help ideas come more freely. It helps you move forward joyfully. Bio:Gabrielle “Gigi” Thomas is the founder of Gabrielle Thomas Consulting, a practice management consultancy where she works with health and wellness businesses, brands and private practices as a strategic partner to develop sustainable and scalable systems. She’s also the co-founder of Under The Oaks, a Self Care Centre that is modernizing mental health care by focusing on holistic psychotherapy and diversity. Gigi can be found at gigi-thomas.coLinks:Gigi-thomas.co