We were lucky to catch up with Josie Santi recently and have shared our conversation below.

Josie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I felt disconnected from my body for as long as I could remember. Painful periods, awful digestion, guilt after eating, chronic fatigue, constant stress, and inconclusive tests left me feeling out of control and strange in my own body, leading to intense health anxiety and a panic attack disorder. After receiving a degree in religious studies, focused on Eastern religions and ancient medical practices like Ayurveda, I realized that the body was not the enemy; symptoms are how the body communicates what it needs. I did not want to waste this one life being held back by health complications or crippling anxiety, so I started on a long wellness journey that revolutionized my entire life.

At the same time, a career in the fashion industry illuminated how many women were also struggling with feeling disconnected from their bodies, whether it was body image issues, chronic bloat, or uncontrollable acne. I realized my purpose was to help other women optimize their lives instead of “living” by merely surviving until the next panic attack, bad period, or stressful work week. After studying with the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and becoming a certified holistic health coach, I founded Wellness By Josie, an integrative health coaching service and lifestyle brand, to help women everywhere become their happiest selves, using food and lifestyle changes as medicine to bring out optimal energy, confidence, and beauty (because true beauty comes from being your most authentic self).

My greatest passion has been getting to host The Everygirl Podcast where I share 60-minute conversations every week with some of the most powerful, successful, interesting, or healthy women in the world, with tips, advice, or even just inspiring stories that I know impact our listeners’ lives. I think as women, we all deserve to feel amazing in our bodies, love ourselves, and live a fully fulfilling life that we meticulously design and are proud to live in. We only have this one life, and I want to help women around the world make the most of it.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I started in the fashion industry, with an internship for ELLE Magazine in Paris, and later becoming the Fashion Features Manager for The Everygirl, but I felt like something was missing. I was going on my own health and spiritual journey and became quickly passionate about making the most of this life–both with my mind and body. Once I made my own transformations, I wanted to help other women do the same. I saw so many friends, colleagues, listeners, and readers dealing with unfulfilling lives, relationship problems, health issues, and chronic stress–all boiling down to the root cause of not being truly connected to Self. After studying at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, I became a certified health coach and launched Wellness By Josie, a health + life coaching service. While hundreds of clients have come to me to help heal their hormones, get better sleep, lose weight, or build a better routine, I always say it is really life coaching through the lens of health. After doing this for five years, I have realized that every health problem or symptom stems from something emotional: a lack of self-esteem, a stressful job, or disconnection from self. At the same time, I always say the point of getting healthy is not just to be healthy. The end goal is not just to live in the healthiest body possible–it is to live the best life possible, so I lead with joy, balance, pleasure, freedom, and self-love, which is not what most people are used to with health coaches or in the wellness industry (which have typically been led by discipline, routines, and restriction). My clients often say that they thought they tried “everything” and nothing worked until they learned to view their body as the expert and approach their life from a place of joy and abundance.
Since I could only help so many people through coaching, I became fascinated by delivering the same ideas and lessons through podcasting. As the host of The Everygirl Podcast, I get to talk to the most healthy, successful, incredible, and inspiring women to deliver their secrets and stories to our audience. Most podcasts are either “inspirational” and give you a lot of concrete advice (that maybe even stresses you out) or are super approachable/conversational and feel like you’re chatting with your best friends (which is fun to listen to, but you have no tools to apply to your own life after you finish listening). The Everygirl Podcast is unique in that it is both: it delivers some of the most inspiring conversations that give listeners the tools and inspiration to change their lives, while also making them feel like they’re good enough as they already are.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

You probably don’t hear this a lot when discussing business, but I owe the success I have to empathy. Business is inherently “self” focused: What do these clients think of me, how can I get more business, how can I make more money, how can I impress more people, seem legitimate, etc. And it should be self-focused! Your career should be something you feel fully passionate about, and not to appease or impress others). But I found that my clients started finding even more success and I started getting more clients and audience members through word of mouth when I stopped focusing on how I could impress my clients/audience or what I thought I needed and instead allowed myself to genuinely feel for them. I listened to them deeply, trusted their intuition above anything else, and cared over everything else about what other people needed from me. With the podcast, I think holding empathy for each guest allows such deeper, more genuine conversations, but I also go into every topic or episode with empathy for our audience: deeply feeling what they feel, sharing what they need. I also started the podcast worrying about how I was sounding or how other people would think of me, and it wasn’t until I shifted my focus to what can I give to other people that I was actually so much better and we got more success. It sounds cheesy: lead with service/think of others, and I don’t even mean it in that way. I think once you tap into empathy and the energy of others, you know how to influence, lead, and attract without having to try so hard. Other people will give you the secret to success by telling you what they need from you; we just need to be tapped in enough to listen.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

“The Karma of Success” by Liz Tran is a phenomenal read–I interviewed Liz and read this book and it helped me learn that success is about output, not about time. It has helped me accomplish so much more than I ever thought I could at once without reaching burnout. I also recommend “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss for getting out of the mindset that work has to be something incredibly draining and sufferable, and to help you rethink what work and life could be. Lastly, everyone talks about Dr. Joe Dispenza for meditation, but his practices have changed what I believe I’m capable of and helped me get every opportunity I’ve had (“Becoming Superhuman” and “Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself” are both great).

Contact Info:

• Website: www.wellnessbyjosie.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/josie.santi/ (@josie.santi)
• Other: The Everygirl Podcast (on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you get your podcasts!)

Image Credits
The main image (in red suit) credits: The Everygirl Podcast