We recently connected with Gretchen Holmes, PhD and have shared our conversation below.

Gretchen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

The moment that changed my life forever was when I was diagnosed diabetic in 2021. I was already a three-time cancer survivor and morbidly obese. I knew I needed to change my health habits but had never been successful. You would have thought surviving cancer would get my attention, but it didn’t. It wasn’t until I was diagnosed diabetic that I finally woke up. My younger brother had been diagnosed diabetic about 15 years earlier and the disease had ravaged his body. He was on dialysis and had already lost one leg. The diagnosis scared me to death. I joined a weight loss program that night. Over the course of a year and a half, I lost over 100 pounds and have kept it off for over two years now. I also realized I needed to get serious about why I ate as much as I did; I needed to do some inside work. I started working with a transformational coach and a therapist. All of these things brought me to starting my podcast, The Work in Between, where I focus on helping people reach their health-related goals by addressing all of the aspects of health: the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. It also was the catalyst to write my first book (coming out in Fall 2024).

Gretchen, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I got into the podcasting world later in life, but I’ve always enjoyed motivational speaking. Lately, I’ve been speaking on redefining obesity and reaching your health-related goals. Having lost over 100 pounds, having had cancer three times, and losing my entire birth family now, I also speak on grief and how to reimagine your life after experiencing so much trauma.

What I’m known for is talking about difficult subjects (i.e., cancer, diabetes, obesity, grief, and growing up in an alcoholic home) and helping people understand that those events don’t have to define them. They don’t have to be the victim.

I’m proud of my courage to talk about hard things and do it a way that empowers people and myself. One of my podcast listeners wrote me and said, “Because of your courage and willingness to talk about your life and your struggles, you have helped me be more brave.” I am most proud of being able to help people feel empowered to make whatever changes they feel/want to make.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

During the day, I lead professional teams in the graduate and undergraduate medical education field. The most important leadership advice I have is: Hire people who are smarter than you and then let them do their jobs. My job is providing them with support, removing barriers, and helping them develop professionally, even if that means they move on. I let them work the way they work best. If it’s in a coffee shop twice a week, that’s fine with me. If they need to work from home periodically, that’s good, too.

I always do my best to create a culture that is highly respectful of my team, their talents, and their personalities. I have their backs and I expect them to make mistakes. I know I do. I get to know them but keep boundaries clear and meet with them regularly to make sure they have what they need and to identify opportunities to help them grow. We also try to have a lot of fun even though our jobs are stressful. That’s important, too.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

My entire life has been a story of resilience. Growing up in an alcoholic home created a number of unhealthy beliefs and attitudes about my body and my potential. I had so many self-limiting beliefs. It would take over five decades to understand how they impacted my life and to unravel them. I survived losing my mom, dad, and both brothers. Losing them gutted me over and over again but I knew I had work to do. I figured there must be a reason I’m still here after losing them and having cancer three times. Once I lost all my weight and really started focusing on those self-limiting beliefs and understanding how I had been putting limitations on my life, things started to make sense. It wasn’t other people who were preventing me from achieving goals, it was me!

Even through all of these events, I still look forward to another day. I am confident that good things will continue to come my way even though I’ve had more than my share of traumas. I still think (I know) that I am incredibly blessed and that’s how I live my life. I am often asked, “Why are you so strong?” I never had an answer until recently. Basically, I didn’t know how else to be. I just always took the next step (right or wrong), and kept moving until I got through whatever it was I was going through. However, I realized, it’s because I am so deeply loved that I am so strong. I always have someone in my life to hold me up when I think I can’t go on. Some people think you’re strongest when you do everything yourself. I find that I’m stronger when I let people in who can steady me when I fall. That’s when we’re the strongest.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gretchenholmesphd.com
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gretchennholmes

Image Credits

Headshots by Madeline Simpson Creative