In today’s episode of The Whole Circle Podcast, Shane interviews Jo and Tracey as they answer all your listener questions.  It’s going to be a fun ride!

A few weeks ago, Jo put the call out to their listeners to see if anyone had any questions they wanted Shane to ask her and Tracey and wow were they inundated!  So today you get your answers.

To set the scene, Tracey, Jo and Shane are recording this podcast on the teenage filthy floor in the bedroom of Tracey’s daughter.  The things they do to record a podcast with good sound! Lol

Shane has narrowed it down to five questions each, so let’s get into it! 

Tracey 

Shane:        What has been your greatest highlight/achievement in Sistermixin’ and Additive-Free Lifestyle to date? (Question from Christine)

Tracey:       Their greatest achievement would definitely be their Additive-Free Made Easy course which includes the thousands of lives they have changed.  That gives them the biggest high they have ever had especially with all the feedback they get of how those lives have changed from doing the course.

But if she had to pick a really close second, definitely watching their team grow in doTERRA (she’s included doTERRA because doTERRA is a part of their overall business) and watching those ladies that are now starting to grow their businesses into a full-time business which is supporting their families, or having holidays because of the doTERRA income that they are earning.

 Jo

Shane:        What are your go-to oils and why? (Question from Louise)

Jo:               They change based on how she is feeling at any given time.  If she is really hormonal, then her go-to oils will be Clary Sage and Frankincense.  If she needs uplifting, then she will go to a citrus oil like Citrus Bliss or Lime or something that makes her happy and smells beautiful.

Tracey suggests that she should start using Spearmint which is the Oil of Speech! Hahaha

Jo said that if she needs some calming down or has anxious feelings then her go-to is Siberian Fir and Frankincense.

Shane asks Jo what they would suggest for their son who is physically crazy at the moment (lol).  Jo said calming oils would be the ones to go to such as Cedarwood and Petitgrain, which smell beautiful when combined, but are also really grounding and supportive oils.

Tracey

Shane:        If you had the opportunity to meet anyone in the health and wellness industry, who would it be and why? (Question from Emily) 

Tracey:       Jamie Oliver and maybe Pete Evans too.  Jamie Oliver was the first inspiration she had with healthy eating and cooking from scratch and the food education side of things that he also does is pretty cool too.

Jo

Shane:        When you lost everything how close were you to giving it all away? (Question from Jenna – a long time follower)

Jo:               For those that may not recall, Jo and Tracey lost everything regarding what was then Sistermixin’ on their website due to an IT issue.  If you want to revisit it, check out Podcast 14 – How We Came Back After Losing It All (Website).  Jo thinks she thought about quitting for maybe 10 seconds!  The attitude was about how to move on from it to the next step.   It was never about giving up.

She said the thought did run through their minds and to just keep working in their day jobs and with no business responsibilities which would have been really easy, but it wouldn’t have fulfilled her life.  Quitting just wasn’t an option!  The thought of helping families and children to live additive-free was their driving force to keep going.

Tracey

Shane:        How do you cope with moody and fussy teenagers? (Question from Claire)

Tracey:       She picks her battles!  As she said at the start of the podcast, they are sitting in her daughter’s bedroom which is awful with stuff everywhere, but this does not mimic the rest of her house at all, so she definitely picks her battles.  It’s her daughter’s bedroom, it’s not causing a health hazard, nothing’s broken, it’s just untidy and messy.  You need to figure out what’s important to you.

In the rest of Tracey’s house her girls have to do what they’re told but their bedrooms are their space where they have free reign and it gives them the opportunity to express themselves instead of Tracey dictating their whole entire life to them.

As far as food goes, it’s the same thing.  What is in the kitchen is what they’ve got.  She doesn’t go and pander to their needs or wants because they don’t need it.  They will often say ‘mum can we get this ice-cream’ which is met with ‘no, but you can have this version instead’.

That happened on their recent American holiday a lot and eventually they just stopped asking because they knew Tracey would say no.  She is treating them a bit like an adult and not as kids anymore.

Talking to other parents in the same situation is good too as you may likely be all going through the same thing, at the same time, as this has been Tracey’s experience with her friend circle.

Jo

Shane:        What guidance would you give to someone wanting to start using doTERRA Essential Oils and what path would you guide them down? (Question from Ashleigh) 

Jo:               She would tell people to not overthink it.  Just get some essential oils and then you need to start using them.  Jo thinks sometimes we overcomplicate things a little bit.  When you think about all the things that you want to achieve with essential oils such as cleaning, sleep, dry skin, eczema or dandruff etc. it can then get really overwhelming.

So, her best advice is to just enrol and the best way that you can save money is buy purchasing a kit.  You can find all that information on their website here or if you want to know a bit more about essential oils then head to their website here.  Otherwise, you just have to get a kit and starting using them.

If you get the Nature’s Solution Kit that’s going to overhaul your whole house.  If you get the Home Essentials Kit, which has dōTERRA’s Top 10 oils, then you’ve got a really great start and you can build from there.  In both those kits there are oils that you can start using for cleaning, for sleeping, for calming you down or uplifting you.  Once you have them worked out then get some more oils to experiment with.

You just have to start!  If you are scared when you think you don’t know enough, well that can be said for anything you start out in during your life such as working, driving a car etc.  You learn as you go.

Shane:        What sort of support is out there for someone wanting to start with essential oils? (Question from Shane)

Jo:               When you join Jo and Tracey’s Additive-Free Lifestyle team you get a heap of information.  You will go into an email series that lasts about 14 days which will teach you how to use the oils in the kit you purchased (if you purchased a kit).  It will teach you the back office of your doTERRA system because you will have your own account.  You will be able to save yourself 25% off retail prices and you will be able to log-in and order or re-order anytime you want to.  You will also get some links to recipes and blogs.

If you are not in Jo and Tracey’s team then just go to the doTERRA website, Source To You which is another great resource, Pinterest or Google.  They also have a Facebook Group which has so much information and DIY videos in it.  There is over 20,000 people in that group now and it’s wonderful.  So many people ask questions in the group every single day and get help and support with their oils.  There really is so much information out there that you will never have your question go unanswered, but at the same time it can get a little bit overwhelming because there is so much information out there.  Just make sure you trust your instincts and use common sense.

Tracey

Shane:        Morgan is a mum of 2 young children and she has noticed behavioural issues of late.  Her hubby is grumpy, and she wants to help them out.  She has noticed some of the foods they are eating are causing mood changes and she can’t help but think that their dietary intake is having an impact.  What are the best things that she can do to help improve their lives? 

Tracey:       They get asked this question a lot about what can they do to help their family situations with things like mood swings or behavioural issues and it’s certainly a question that maybe Jo is better off answering because that is what started Additive-Free Lifestyle, or Sistermixin’ as it was known back then, due to her daughter’s behavioural issues.

From Tracey’s experience though, just try and start out really slow and switch over ingredients and items that might be in your fridge and pantry.  There is a lot of information over on their website which you can check out here.  Start out there and then you can progress further if you find that that’s working.  There is also their program Additive-Free Made Easy which you can also check out.

You can make simple swaps such as swapping over flavoured foods to more plain foods, like flavoured chips to plain chips or flavoured popcorn to plain popcorn, things like that.  Flavouring with salt is ok but she’s talking about things like chicken flavouring and BBQ flavourings etc.

You can also go back through their podcast show and check out all the podcasts they have done about making simple switches or swaps with food which will give you a really good insight into living additive-free.

Shane recalls that he and Jo have done a podcast together too about how you can get the men in your lives involved in living additive-free which you can check out here.

Jo

Shane:        What motivates you and drives you to do what you do? (Question from Claire)

Jo:               What gets her out of bed every day is kids.  It’s all about the little kids for her.  Jo looks at her kids and thinks about how much their lives have changed.  They get emails constantly how living additive-free has totally changed their lives, from grandparents all the way down to little kids.  That’s what gets her out of bed, what motivates her and Tracey and why they can’t and won’t stop doing it.  She just couldn’t imagine going to a job that she doesn’t want to do.  She just loves doing what she does every single day!

Tracey

Shane:        How did you cope with having no control, or very little control, in the food over in America and what was prepped or given to you and what tips do you have to fellow travellers to help? (Question from Mel)

Tracey:       We are going to record a whole podcast on this topic very soon so she’s only going to give a short answer now.  They stayed in a lot of Airbnb’s which helped them control what they were eating every day.

Tracey found that she was nervous about going to America because of the food.  You can quite often hear horror stories about the food being horrible, fatty and sugary but she actually found it the opposite.

She found it really easy to buy organic produce and bread and everything else they needed including nitrate free bacon which was in every supermarket they went into.

Airbnb’s were a godsend.  It would have been different and a lot harder if they were in hotel rooms because they would have had to have eaten in restaurants and takeaway stores.

Most of the time they ate additive-free but there were times they didn’t, and this was by their own choice, not because they couldn’t find additive-free food.

Jo said that it was definitely easier living in Airbnb’s but trying to find an additive-free takeaway dish was really hard.  Tracey found Disneyland hard for that, but they did find a little café that did bacon and eggs with sourdough bread and they always made sure they got salad dressings on the side.

It was a lot easier than she expected it to be.

Jo

Shane:        With a super awesome husband that works alongside Jo and Tracey, what tips can you give other entrepreneurs or business people to be able to grow your business to be the source of family income and to integrate partners into the business? (Question from Shane ?)

Jo:               She gets asked this all the time because first she had to take that leap of faith and quit her job to work in the business full time.  The second time was when Tracey had to take the same leap of faith and quit her job to work in the business full time.  Then the third time was when Shane quit his job to work in the business full time.  She’s been through it three times in the last two years and it’s hard, definitely and nerve-wracking.

Jo had a headache for three weeks straight when Shane quit his job because it was so scary.  But she thinks you will deep down know you’re ready to take that leap.  There’s a lot of planning and budgeting that goes into a decision like that and anticipating worst-case scenarios.  If you can still survive from your worst-case scenario then you’ll be fine.

Their worst-case scenario is that they don’t earn enough money to pay the wages.  If that happens then they’d just go and get a casual job at Woollies or Coles packing shelves.  They will find something that they can do to bring the money in.

Once you’ve worked out your worst-case scenario then you have to take that leap of faith and you will make it work because your livelihood depends on it.  Your passion will be driving it.

Tracey agrees.  When she was leaving the defence force whom she worked for, for about 20 years, she took about 6 months to be able to hand in her resignation as she just couldn’t do it.  She would bring the form up on the screen and then she would almost vomit.  It was way too scary, she was not ready to quit, and it wasn’t because she didn’t have faith in the business or anything like that, she just wasn’t ready.  So, she agrees that when you are ready you will know because the day that she did it was elating, with no problem or sick feelings from it.

As far as integrating your partner into your business, you have to treat it like a business and layout all those ground rules.  They’ve certainly had to do that.  Shane works with his sister-in-law and wife and they’ve had ups and downs and things they didn’t even think of that they had to plan for.  Yes, it’s easier because they are family, so they can talk it out without any moodiness and just sort it out.  But the same can be said for any relationship though, as long as you have good communication.

They have a rule that nothing is a secret, if one of them is annoyed at the other one, they let everyone know about it between the three of them and it works really well for them.  Shane works better when he goes around to Tracey’s office and works there with her than what he does at home working in his office with Jo as he and Jo need to have that separation at times and Tracey would be the same if her husband was working with them as well.  There is no way they could work together every single day side by side.  She would need to find an office somewhere else or he would need to work somewhere else for the business and that’s completely ok.  It’s about what works well for your marriage and not comparing yourselves to others.

Jo thinks it’s about being realistic and figuring out what works and maybe it’s ok not to work together as well.  As an example, there are lots of high ranking doTERRA leaders who are earning a very good income, but their partner hasn’t quit their job because they don’t want to work in the business, and that’s ok as well.

Shane was very nervous when the opportunity arose to work alongside Jo and Tracey but having said that he was also very excited.  He did love his previous job but it was great to be able to work on the business with Jo and Tracey and in turn be home more and around their kids more.  Of course, they’ve had their ups and downs, but you don’t know until you take that step about what it’s going to be like.

You guys need to find your business model and what will work well for you.

Well that’s it, not as scary as what Jo and Tracey thought it would be.

Coming up next week they’re going to be talking about Tracey’s holiday to the US which will give you some tips on how do that additive-free especially with the Christmas holiday travel season coming up.

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