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Guest: Allison Jackson

Release Date: 2/17/2025

Welcome to Trulyfit the online fitness marketplace connecting pros and clients through unique fitness business software.

Steve Washuta : Welcome to Trulyfit. Welcome to the Trulyfit podcast where we interview experts in fitness and health to expand our wisdom and wealth. I’m your host, Steve Washuta. Co Founder of Trulyfit and author of Fitness Business 101.  

Steve Washuta : On today’s episode I have on Allison Jackson. You can find out everything about her at Allison Jackson fitness.com this is the second appearance for Allison on the truly fit podcast, and we will be talking about perimenopause and menopause. What exactly are the definitions of these two? Are they different? How do we handle this as personal trainers and people in the health and fitness space with our clients?  

Steve Washuta : How do we maybe broach that topic? If our clients are not bringing it up, should we put it on our health history forms? What are the signs and symptoms and a host of other questions surrounding this. It was a great conversation with no further ado.  

Steve Washuta : Here’s Allison and I, Allison, thank you so much for joining the truly fit podcast for the second time around. For those who have not heard you the first time around, why don’t you give a quick description of who you are, your bonafide is, so to speak, what you do in the fitness and health industry on a day to day basis? 

Allison Jackson   Yeah, Sure. Happy to Thanks for having me back. So I ran a brand for about 10 years called Allison Jackson fitness, which still is alive and kicking. I have my own podcast called fit to lead, but I’ve kind of gone through an evolution from competitive bodybuilder to yoga instructor to sound healer.  

Allison Jackson   And now I’m really focused on kind of holistic wellness, really looking at corporate and how people get really burnt out looking at the mental aspect as well as the physical aspect. I feel like that’s something that kind of gets lost in translation, as you’re, you know, competing in bodybuilding and really focused on getting into shape. So super excited to be here and chat more.  

Steve Washuta : Do you any sort of like corporate wellness, where you’re working with large groups of people at one time, as opposed to individuals who work in corporations, yeah.  

Allison Jackson   So a lot of what I’m doing now is a lot of Lunch and Learn events, so kind of taking big audiences and talking them through what are the the key components of wellness, everything from sleep to hydration to mental health and physical health. Yeah.  

Steve Washuta : You wonder if there’s going to come a time where these big companies, let’s just say, like a Johnson and Johnson or somebody is going to have somebody on staff who’s doing all of that, right, some sort of, not, not a physician, not just a personal trainer.  

Steve Washuta : But, you know, a health and wellness advisor, somebody who can do the small things, like talk to people one on one and make sure they go over maybe their diet plans and their other plans, but also, you know, give them stretches, or work with them, or massage therapy, just sort of like a, like a wellness clinic inside of these bigger organizations.  

Allison Jackson   I think that makes total sense, and I think a few of them, you know, there’s a couple here and there that that are doing it and did it well before the pandemic, were kind of ahead of their time. But I would love to see more companies do that, because I think there’s such a benefit there.  

Steve Washuta : I trained a lawyer once who, well, he was retired when I was training him, but at the time that he was in practice. He was in practice with five other lawyers. This was somewhere in the Boston area, and they had exactly what I was talking about.They had a personal trainer with a lot of different certifications, and there was a lot of travel that they had to do.  

Steve Washuta : And if more than one of them was traveling for a big case for a long time, they would actually pay to bring said trainer with them so that they had him at the location, so that they stayed in shape. I thought that was really cool, that one guy was just training these five or six lawyers and was able to fly around the country doing it. I was like, that’s the job that I want.  

Allison Jackson   Yeah, that is a sweet gig, right there.  

Steve Washuta : So today, I think we’re going to focus the conversation around perimenopause and menopause. Let’s give maybe two definitions here. Let’s give that sort of high level, easy definition for those who don’t know what it is. And then if you want to break down a more scientific definition, feel free to throw some jargon at us here.  

Allison Jackson   Yeah, absolutely happy to do that. So I have to start off by saying I thought perimenopause and menopause like I thought it was like diabetes. I only thought certain people got it. I thought it was something everybody went through. So, you know, those health classes we attend. It during puberty. They don’t cover perimenopause and menopause.  

Allison Jackson   And essentially, what it is is, as women age, I first, personally, I think there is a version of menopause. But as women age, our hormones change. So you know, when we’re younger, our hormone hormones are geared to have babies, right? That is what kind of our bodies are geared to do. And when you hit a certain age, just, you know, you kind of your hormones change.  

Allison Jackson   They start to shift. So perimenopause is the beginning of the shift. It ranges right? Some people started at 35 some start at 45 some never go through it. Some go right into menopause. And so the in the you know, terms like tell me, like, a five, it’s the change of hormones. It’s your hormones are shifting and changing.  

Allison Jackson   The scientific term, it’s, let me think, I’m trying to think. I don’t. I don’t want to get, like, too sciency with it. But essentially, menopause, the definition is you’ve stopped having your cycle for at least a year. Perimenopause is your body, your start, you stop, you start, you stop.  

Allison Jackson   You’re having all kinds of crazy symptoms, like hot flashes, muscle aches, sleeplessness, anger, the symptoms are wide ranging, and it’s funny because something will happen, like, my joints really hurt, and I thought I was having, like, a medical issue, and I’m like, No, I’m pretty sure that’s. It’s like, if you’re there’s a weird symptom you have, chances are it’s probably part of perimenopause.  

Steve Washuta : So you name some of the signs and starting symptoms, I guess, like, you can feel those, but maybe from the outside, let’s say your husband or your trainer, like, how does somebody else potentially see that you’re going through either perimenopause or you’re already into menopause?  

Allison Jackson   Yeah. So I think for trainers and for my husband, there’s there’s symptoms that are going to use air quotes, but call them typical, right? So it’s hot flashes, it’s irritability, it’s night sweats, it’s your hair is falling out, your skin is super dry. You have no libido.  

Allison Jackson   But what I would say for trainers, which I know a lot of them, may or may not, do is to have your clients get their blood work done and make sure you have an understanding of where their hormones are at any given time.  

Allison Jackson   And this is good for men or women, understanding how much estrogen and progesterone and testosterone where the levels are, because when they’re starting to get all cockeyed or they’re off off kilter, that is typically a sign that that there’s something at play there around perimenopause and menopause.  

Steve Washuta : Are there expected, I would say, major deviations and experiences. Does Allison have a much different experience during her perimenopause, leading into menopause than, let’s say, Susie, who had then has a different experience than  Sally?

Allison Jackson  Yeah, I would say, definitely. I would say, look at your mother, your grandmother, what they went through, because typically, that is what you will go through. However, my mom had horrible symptoms. I think being a bodybuilder and skewing a little bit healthier, exercise wise, diet wise, I don’t feel like my symptoms are as bad.  

Allison Jackson   Some days are worse than others, but for me, it was, you know, a combination of, like I mentioned, the hot flashes and night sweats. But what surprised me most of all, as a trainer and a bodybuilder, was the joint pain in trying to lift. So what I’ve tried to do to counteract that is I’ve been following some trainers that really are women in their 40s, 50s, focused on higher reps, you know, three sets of higher reps with lower weights.  

Allison Jackson   It’s just being able to hold those weights, like your wrists, your elbows, they just, they just hurt, they ache. It’s like, I don’t know how else to how else to explain it. So that, for me, has been the biggest hurdle to overcome when it comes to perimenopause.  

Steve Washuta : How do these anti aging medicine clinics work with women? I know how they work with men, right? You just said menopause, when men, it’s a whole nother rabbit hole to dive down, because men are on it. It’s in my, in my opinion, sometimes too early.  

Steve Washuta : And then there’s the psychological side that’s not talked about, because you have these men who go on it, who change personality wise, right? And maybe their wife isn’t ready for that, or their kids or things of that nature. So that’s, there’s a whole thing. But how does it work? From the female side is that, is it actually raising, like endogenous hormones? Are you getting exogenous hormones? Do they? Is it something in between? How does that work?  

Allison Jackson   Yeah. So I would say it varies, right? I know a lot of women are afraid of HRT, which is hormone replacement therapy. I personally have gone down the path of, I had a Dutch test done, which is a dried urine test that looks at your different where you are, you know, throughout your entire cycle. 

Allison Jackson   And from that, I worked with a functional dietitian to to take, like supplements and like licorice root and Ash cowanda and different things that are natural. That’s the the path I’ve chosen I use a topical progesterone, but I feel like you should look at all your options.  

Allison Jackson   You should look at what your symptoms are, what you feel comfortable with, and just take in as much information as you can and talk to people, talk to different doctors. It doesn’t always have to be hormone replacement, but sometimes that works for people and does wonders for them.  

Steve Washuta : All right, let’s put your personal trainer hat on. Now. You are a personal trainer. You’re working with somebody who you believe is in the throes of perimenopause, leading into menopause. We’ll go through it the differences between maybe a male and a female. How do you potentially broach that conversation with your client? If maybe they have not brought it up?  

Allison Jackson   Yeah, I would look at obviously, age plays a huge role. But I would ask them if they have any, you know, uncommon or irregular symptoms that you know, you know, how do they sleep? How is their water intake? How is their skin and, you know, look at the things, the typical symptoms that you see in perimenopause and menopause.  

Allison Jackson   Ask Your Client, are they going through any of those, any irregular joint pain, you know, irritability, libido, all those things. I think it’s important to know where your clients are, because that is going to impact what their workouts are like. They might not be able to go it as as heavy or as long as you know a younger client.  

Steve Washuta : Yeah, I think to maybe putting it on the health history form that your client gets right away, whether it’s Hey, are you currently going through these Have you had any of these symptoms? Of these symptoms, or even saying something to the extent of if and when you do go through through these?  

Steve Washuta : Do you feel comfortable, you know, relaying that back to me, because it is obviously an important part, like you said, of of changing the training if and when they go through that. Can you talk about what other training you mentioned earlier you might have? Some elbow or joint related pain. Can you think of anything else from a training perspective that you might switch up when you know somebody is now going through this?  

Allison Jackson   Yeah. So I think women, as we get older, right, we’re still kind of stuck in that younger mindset, and men too, right, that you have to push hard, high intensity cardio, long workouts. What happens with women is their cortisol levels just sometimes are burned out from working out that way when they’re younger.  

Allison Jackson   So part of the perimenopause, menopause thing is bringing the cortisol levels down. That means low intensity, lower lower workouts, long walks, hiking, yoga. You don’t have to do orange theory. You don’t have to do CrossFit workouts and raise your heart rate to a crazy level.  

Allison Jackson   I typically will tell people like, who asked me, like, you know, what do you do? I try to get 10,010 to 12,000 steps a day. I, you know, I play pickleball twice a week. I do yoga, I go hiking. I try to just hit, hit that step number, versus actually having to do like, you know, one hour workout at the gym, cardio wise.  

Allison Jackson   So that that would be the other thing that I think is a big misconception is around kind of pushing yourself really hard. We’re at a different stage of life now, especially when you’re not sleeping as well, that that that recovery and low impact workouts are super important.  

Steve Washuta : All right, this question might be the hardest of all. I don’t think we plan for this at all. But why is it? Do you why do you believe that women are as you just mentioned, sometimes these like cortisol junkies right there. First, I always thought my head, the reason why the orange theory classes are filled with more women is because they just like to be under direction.  

Steve Washuta : But now I know that’s really not the case. It’s it’s a certain type of exercise that that they sort of, that they gravitate towards. Why is that? And how do we potentially talk people out of that as as real personal trainers talking to our clients?  

Allison Jackson   Yeah, I think it’s that, that culture and mentality that we’ve grown up with for years of no pain, no gain. Gotta burn calories, you gotta eat less, you gotta work out more. You gotta work out harder, you gotta sweat. You has to be at least an hour workout.  

Allison Jackson   I feel like that is so ingrained in people’s minds that you can’t break free from it. I mean, I went through the same thing. I was like, Well, I’m not sweating. That means I’m not working out, or I’m not, you know, it’s not an hour long. It doesn’t count. It’s not at a gym. All of those things you need to just kind of let them go and really to and this is for anybody, any age, right? Tune into your body.  

Allison Jackson   Like, if something hurts, don’t do like, don’t go there. Sometimes you need a break, like, like, rest of recovery, or as important as the lifting and the workouts, that is when the magic happens, right? You know that, Steve, like that is when your muscle is being built, is when you are resting and feeding it and recovering. Yeah.  

Steve Washuta : It needs to be more of an art than a science, more right brain than left brain. Sometimes I try to convey that to my clients, don’t always have a plan, a structured plan. Go into the gym, warm up, see how your body feels, and then make a plan from there, some days you’re going to go light. 

Steve Washuta : Some days are going to go heavy. Just Just understand that you can’t just write something out and follow it to a T. This isn’t, this isn’t like a budget. It’s a little bit different your but your body has too many variables, and you’re going to have to take some days.  

Allison Jackson   Yes, I love that.  

Steve Washuta : Let’s talk about the emotional side, I imagine, whether it’s mechanistically, things that are going on, the hormones we just talked about, or are otherwise psychologically, that there is a lot of changes all at once, which can then, in turn, mess with you mentally. What are the mental symptoms that me as a personal trainer need to worry about with my clients and for us to just recognize and be more empathetic with our clients who are going through this? Yeah,  

Allison Jackson   I would say you’re definitely going to have to be a little bit part therapist, right? Because I feel like when women had a certain age, they still think they’re in their 20s or 30s. And body image wise, it’s hard to come to terms with. You know, your body is, it isn’t what it used to be.  

Allison Jackson   You know, I know a lot of women talk about the Middle Age pouch or the menopause pouch. It’s, it’s helping them understand that that their 40 or 50 year old self is not their 20 or 30 year old self. And that’s okay like that. That’s part of aging.  

Allison Jackson   But we also need to be training for who we’re going to be in our 70s and 80s, right? We want to be able to lift our grandkids and be mobile and injury free. It’s less about how you look at a bikini on the beach, and more about longevity and feeling good versus looking good.  

Steve Washuta : Yeah, and I think we need to ingrain that into our clients well before they get to that stage. Because what happens is, by the time they get to that stage, sometimes there’s too many injuries, so they’re too immobile, or, like we just talked about, the bad habits have been ingrained into them to think you need to burn as many calories as you can.

 Steve Washuta : So I think although we always say, okay, it’s okay to train for vanity when you’re younger, as you get older, you have to change. I do think it’s almost at some point that needs to change even earlier. Like, forget about menopause. Like even in your 30s, we need to say.  

Steve Washuta : You know what, it’s time to understand that, like you just mentioned there, there is going to be a time down the road. It might not be right now, but 20 years from now, you’re going to want to get up and off the floor play with your grandkids, maybe doing, you know, a set of four of the. Heaviest dead lift you possibly can three times a week is not the best for what you’re ultimately going to do, and that’s different.  

Steve Washuta : When you’re training like you used to, to get on stage, it’s a short period of time where you have a goal. But I think that there is this sort of still, like high school football mentality, lifting that both guys and girls are doing into late age, where that needs to kind of change. Don’t worry about the numbers, don’t worry about just getting those getting those that the higher number for the lower rep. I mean, we have to understand that there, this is a, this is a long term game.

Allison Jackson  Yes. As and bring up with the numbers. Like, I could, I still struggle. I’m trying to bring up with my scale. Like, we get that number stuck in our head, like, I need to be this number. And instead, it’s like, you know, do you like the way you look in the mirror?  

Allison Jackson   Do you like the way your clothes fit? Like worry more about that than the number on the scale, because you’re the way I want to know is what that number is. And I know I struggle with that. I know others. I know.  

Allison Jackson   I’m sure trainers struggle with it, with their clients all the time. You know, if people have to lose, you know, trying to lose weight, it’s one thing, but if you’re just maintaining and you’re just working out for your health, that that needs to, we need to let go of the scale.  

Steve Washuta : Yeah, easier said than done. And it’s, I think, one of the reasons why is someone like you, it actually might be easier because you’re so knowledgeable. You can look at other metrics you might know, okay, I can measure my hips and arms and waist. I can look at heart rate variability. I can look at, you know, body fat, percentage, all these things.

Steve Washuta : But for the average person who doesn’t have this sort of knowledge, it’s the only number they have, right? All they know is, I step on the scale. It tells me a number. So that’s why I try to educate my clients on okay, there’s a lot of other metrics that we can look at here, and there’s people who want to measure weekly. I tell them, No, I will not. I will never measure weekly. We can do maybe bi weekly at the most.  

Steve Washuta : But ultimately, if you have eight or nine numbers that you’re measuring, there’s always going to be a few that are good. You just focus on those right. You’re like, Okay, well, that you know this number isn’t what you want it to be, but this number and this number is good.  

Steve Washuta : So so we’re okay. But if you have that one number, I mean, you’re flipping a coin here, you have a 50% chance that your clients is going to be very upset.  

Allison Jackson   yes, I would agree with that. 

Steve Washuta : I love that,  although I hate the term misinformation, because that changes from time to time. What could be perceived as misinformation one day could be the correct information. The next day. What do you believe are any one thing or multiple things that are passed around talking about this subject that are misguided? Let’s say yeah.  

Allison Jackson   So for a long time I was anti, not anti, but like intermittent fasting, I was like, Oh. I was like, that’s another fat or keto. And my feeling is different things work for different people, right? So, like now, intermittent fasting, now, now I’m using it. I feel like it works well for me at this point in my life. But like diets, like keto, or diets where you’re eliminating entire food groups.  

Allison Jackson   Those, for me, that’s like a that’s, you know, a deal breaker. If you if you can’t put your toddler on it, you shouldn’t be on it. Everything should be, you know, well balanced, eating whole foods, minimizing the processed foods. But what I would say, in terms of misinformation, everyone nowadays wants that quick fix, right? I want it right away.  

Allison Jackson   We’re the ozempic generation. It’s like, if it sounds too good to be true, most likely it is. And I’m not knocking anybody on ozempic. A lot of my friends are on it, and they don’t want to tell me about it. I’m like, if that works for you, that is fine. That’s not what I choose to do, but that’s what I would say, do your homework.  

Allison Jackson   Like, if it sounds too good to be true, it may be, but everybody reacts to different things differently. So I would say, try. If it works for you, great. If it doesn’t work for you, then you know it That’s not for you.  

Steve Washuta : I know in the social media world, we all have our own algorithm. I don’t see what you see, what you know the Sally and Sandy see. We all see different things. I imagine there are, though, particular diets that women or men, whoever deals with this subject, talk about what are they do? They say, Hey, if you want to get over menopause symptoms, you should only eat carnivore. You should only eat keto. Is that? Is that what people are saying?  

Allison Jackson   Yes, I see a lot of carnivore. I see a lot of whole 30 keto, you know, pick a diet, and it’s like, oh, that’s the cure all for menopause. And it’s like, no, what I found was helped me, because I wasn’t really eating it when I was competing whole grains. And when I say whole grains, I don’t mean like brown rice.  

Allison Jackson   I don’t meal whole grains, like bulgur millet, like, really, like grains that you really have to go out of your way to get. It’s made a huge difference in my gut health, which is another piece of the puzzle, not only for perimenopause and menopause, but just overall health, right? There’s like a whole Netflix special on gut health. So that’s what I would say. Yeah, pick a diet. That’s the one that they’re slapping on as the cure all.  

Steve Washuta : Is there a time in which, forgive my naivety here, where the symptoms are supposed to dissipate? Meaning like, Okay, you’re going through this hormonal change. I’m just making up a number from 48 to 51 and then, like, Okay, now everything is leveled out, so I should hypothetically feel better, and if not, then maybe there’s bigger issue and I need to go see a specialist. 

Allison Jackson   Yeah, that’s a great question. So I’m going to just use typical numbers, because obviously I’m not a doctor, and everybody’s different. So perimenopause is typically, like, 40 to. 55 obviously, I could vary. It could be 35 to 50 regardless. It takes like and it could be two years. It could be five years. It could be seven years. Some people don’t go through it at all.  

Allison Jackson   But perimenopause is as you’re moving into like everything is changing. The hormones are shifting. Your cycles are getting irregular, and then you hit menopause. Menopause is your you haven’t had your cycle in a full year. At that point, your hormones should be leveling out. I mean, like your cycles gone. That’s what really kind of gets.  

Allison Jackson   Thing, you know, your hormones are up down, up down, and then they should level out, if you’re if they’re not leveling out. And that could be again, could be 55 could be 65 could be 70. That is when you should, I mean, you should look for help, regardless, like, if your symptoms are horrible, obviously seek a doctor’s assistance. But once you hit menopause, after a certain time, it should all level out, and you should not have the symptoms.  

Steve Washuta : What was your first change, not physiologically, but in your programming that you did when you knew you had this, when you come to that, when you came to the realization, you said, Okay, was there any one particular thing you say, I’m absolutely gonna stop doing this, or I’m absolutely need to add this into my programming, being that you’re a personal trainer and you understand the intricacies.  

Allison Jackson   Yeah, it goes back to the conversation we had about cortisol. I immediately stopped doing I was doing orange theory. I was doing all kinds of crazy like intense workouts, and when I realized, like, my cortisol levels were crazy, and now I was just like that, my body was like burnt out from that, that’s when I backed off and just found other ways to to keep movement in. But I stopped with a high intensity workouts.  

Steve Washuta : Do you personally use any like watch or aura ring metrics to look over any heart rate variability numbers or anything associated with that. The reason I ask that is because I wonder if those things work in conjunction with the hormone changes when one goes through during perimenopause and menopause.  

Allison Jackson   Yeah. So I’m a huge fan of Fitbit. I’m like my fifth Fitbit, and I subscribe to like the full like health diagnostic. So I do look at things like recovery. What does my recovery look like each day, my sleep patterns, my HRV. If you have alcohol or you’re getting ready to get your period, your HRV will take or getting ready to get sick, your HRV will drop significantly.  

Allison Jackson   So tracking all that and making sure that your workouts and what you do the next day take that into account. That I’m a huge proponent of that, and I I’m a dad, a junkie, so I love, like, that kind of feedback. I even did the glucose monitoring for like, like, a month or two, just to see I was so interested.  

Allison Jackson   So my dad’s diabetic, he and I got him to use it now because he used to do, like, the finger prick thing. I tried the glucose monitor, and it’s amazing. Like, if you really want to see the impact of food to your blood and mood and feel, yeah, highly recommend. Have you tried that before?  

Steve Washuta : I haven’t. It’s good to know your body, and it’s just one more number to add on. So at some point, I do think I will do it. I also I have a nine week old. So my life has been sort of, you know, lack of sleep, yeah, surrounded by that.  

Steve Washuta : So this isn’t the right time to take all the appropriate metrics as eating whatever is around the house at any given time when I’m, you know, awake. So, but I will. How did you find that experience? Was it caught? Was it costly? Did Did somebody approve it through insurance? Means, how does that work?  

Allison Jackson   Yeah, so I did it. It was I had actually talked to somebody on my podcast who was, like, part of that company, and they’re like, Oh, do you want to do like a, like a test, like I did, like a two month test. I knew it was something I wasn’t going to do long term. I just wanted to kind of have the experience and see, like what the feedback was. So it was not that expensive.  

Allison Jackson   I think all lit was maybe $120 I did it for two months, and I tried to do in a way that I didn’t change my diet significantly. I wanted to see how I was eating and how it impacted my blood sugar. And it was, it was fascinating, especially seeing the impact of like exercise, of like different of drink, like drinking, yeah, it was just, it was, like a nice learning experience. I think, I think you would, you probably feel the same way.  

Steve Washuta : Yeah, that was the first thing I thought of. I was just going to ask you that was there a major difference during and post, pre and post exercise periods, as opposed to not exercising? Because I think that people are, a lot of people are using it, are only using it and looking at the food coming in, rather than, sort of the grander picture of all the other things that could affect it.  

Allison Jackson   Yeah, it actually spikes. Your blood sugar spikes after you work out, which I was like, That’s fascinating. I did not, I did not realize that. And then the other thing too, is I was following the glucose Goddess, and she has all these different tips around, like eat your veggies and protein first, before you eat your carbs, because it’ll blunt your blood sugar. So I was like testing that kind of stuff too, which was really interesting, because it does.  

Steve Washuta : Yeah, well, I also wonder how much I would imagine most of this stuff tracks across population, but, but there’s got to be some things that do work for Allison that don’t work for Steve also, right? And that’s why you go do these. Test, right? So maybe I do the same thing that you just did at the glucose God has said.  

Steve Washuta : And for some reason, it doesn’t work for me, whether it’s like a gut bacteria and enzyme related issue or whatnot. So it’s interesting, and I think I’m going to add that to the list. It also makes for a good podcast, right? You do it, you get all the information, and you get to read that information out afterwards.  

Allison Jackson   Yeah, for sure.  

Steve Washuta : So you mentioned earlier some supplements are, I imagine there’s also some snake oil in the industry. Is there anything that people say that works, that you think doesn’t work? Is there anything that you believe, you know, obviously you’re not giving a recommendation as a but something that you believe that is not harmful, just a regular vitamin that you would take, and you would even tell your clients who are going through this that is probably beneficial for them.

Allison Jackson   I think I mentioned I take, like, a liquid form of licorice root I’ve and it’s funny, because I got a colonoscopy, so I had to stop all my supplements. And when you don’t think they’re working, stop taking them, and then you realize how bad your symptoms are, you’re like, Oh, this is helpful.  

Allison Jackson   So licorice root was one I’m taking. It’s like a perimenopause combo of like chasary, ashka, Wanda and elderberry. So it’s just like again, all natural supplements, and I’m a huge proponent of creatine and collagen. Perimenopause, menopause or not, I do. I do a shake every day of that, and then a multivitamin, fish oil, a gut, a probiotic. That’s just the stuff that I take that I found is helpful to me.  

Steve Washuta : Lastly, here rewind and talk about what you’re currently doing in health and fitness. Are you only now exclusively trying to work with people who are in again, the burnout corporate phase? Do you work with women who have menopause? Are you open to working with everybody? Do you do only virtual in person? Give me the give me the whole picture here. 

Allison Jackson   I selectively work with, like, perimenopause, menopause, women and more, in like, a consultative way. I don’t do any more online fitness and nutrition coaching. Unfortunately, I am focused on corporate and really kind of bringing the message to them around how to prevent burnout, getting people on board with wellness virtual but I love doing speaking engagements like I’m trying to really kind of spread the word in that way at conferences and events, both to to companies and just to, you know, busy working women.  

Allison Jackson   I feel like a lot of the women in corporate at the executive level, they are the ones that are hitting this this point in their lives now, and their their nutrition and and workouts really need to kind of be in lockstep with where they are at this point in their life.  

Steve Washuta : Well, I have another question off of that, because I’ve had trainers reach out to me and ask me, how do you start speaking at places like, how do you get into conferences? How do you get into these, like, corporate gigs, and I have no answers for them. I’ve honestly never done it before. So what are you just cold, like cold, calling cold, reaching out to people. Do you? Did you hire some sort of, like, PR or publicist team to help you? What is the process of doing that?  

Allison Jackson   Yeah, so I’d say it’s a combination. So my background is corporate communication, so I have a great network of people that are at companies. But then I also just apply for there’s always an open call for speakers. If you go to Google, type in, like, your, you know, use quotes and type in your topic.  

Allison Jackson   Maybe it’s like, you know, personal training conferences, do a Google search, see what comes up. There typically is a call for speakers. Some of them are paid. Some of them are not. It’s a great way to get exposure, I would also talk at your local library, your local chamber of commerce. Is how I got my start.  

Allison Jackson   In 2020 I did 20 talks, and they were just free, and they were anywhere and everywhere I could get them reach out to local companies or HR people are always looking for lunch and learn speakers. It’s a great way to get your foot in the door. If you give a free talk and then say.  

Allison Jackson   Hey, I have a six week group coaching session or package that I could offer your company. If you know you want me to come in every week it. There’s a lot of opportunity out there. You just gotta, dig for it.  

Steve Washuta : Yeah, I think when people ask that question, they don’t want that answer. And that’s that is the perfect answer. They want the easy answer. They’re like, Oh no, you just go to this website and you type in your name. You get 100 calls and they’re going to pay going to pay you a lot of money to speak. It’s like no. First you have to get good at speaking.  

Steve Washuta : So you’re going to have to do it for free and often. And then you’re going to have to pitch yourself. You’re going to have to go to these, whatever it is, if there’s a conference, you know. Whatever a fitness Conference in Atlanta, you’re going to have to pitch yourself and tell them. Okay, I’ve had, I’ve had 20 speaking engagements before this is what I typically speak about. Here’s a review from the whatever for the all the people who were there. I mean, obviously it’s like anything else.  

Allison Jackson   You’re applying for a job, in a sense.  You got to put in the reps. It’s a numbers game. So you could apply for 100 speaking gigs, and you’ll be lucky to get one or two. I know nobody wants to hear that, but I’m going to be honest.  

Steve Washuta : Well, that’s, that’s maybe the, the overall theme for this is that this conversation in general. People don’t want to hear the hard answers. They want the easy way out. There is no easy way out. You have. You have to do the hard work here. Yes, yes. Okay. Allison, why don’t you let my listeners know exactly where they can find you your website or the easiest email?  

Allison Jackson   Yeah. Yeah, www dot Allison jacksonfitness.com or Hello at Allison jacksonfitness.com you can also find me. I’m all over LinkedIn, so just do a search for Allison Jackson fitness and find me. That’s usually where I hang out.  

Steve Washuta : We’ll put the links in the podcast description. My guest today has been Allison Jackson. Thank you for joining the truly fit podcast. Thank you.  

Steven Washuta   Thanks for joining us on The truly fit podcast. Please subscribe, rate and review on your listening platform, and feel free to email us. We’d love to hear from you social@trulyfit.app. Thanks again.

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