[TRANSCRIPT]

0:00:00 - (Polly): Ready?

0:00:02 - (Sam): All right, guys. Welcome back to another episode of building the abundant woman. This is Samantha Cook, and I am here today with paly. She is a pelvic floor physical theraist. I will. I will edit this out. She is a pelvic floor physical therapist at beyond the v clinic, and she's here to tell you about all the amazing things of how she's curated her dream life through taking care of all wonderful women. So, Polly, let us. Tell us who you are. Tell us all about you.

0:00:31 - (Polly): Well, Sam, thanks for having me. I love talking about what I do, but I also really enjoy talking to women who want something better. Right, like your podcast says, the abundant life. So, like you said, I'm a physical therapist. I went to physical therapy school, just like the physical therapist that's helped you with your knee pain, your back pain, what have you. But I decided early on that I was going to take a different path, and it still ended up not the way that I thought.

0:01:00 - (Polly): I really wanted to help women with mastectomy care. So after they've had breast cancer and they have that breast tissue removed, I. That I just. That's what I wanted to do. And turns out, the first rotation that I had, we were doing all pelvic floor, and I looked for a way to get out. And I don't often tell that story because I feel a little bit of shame and embarrassment because I didn't want to. But yet here I am talking about the pelvic floor, talking about peeing and pooping and intimacy and all the things that we don't really talk about very often because I wanted out of treating the pelvic floor initially because I thought it was, quote, inappropriate.

0:01:44 - (Polly): But here I am talking about it either way. And the. The part that I will share was, I just had all of these patients, and I was a student. It's not like I really knew exactly how to help them. I just knew that helping them was a possibility. And these women were coming in, and their lives were radically changed because their pelvic floor wasn't doing what it was supposed to. There was a grandma that wanted to watch her grandson graduate from Tulane University down in New Orleans, and she couldn't because she leaked too much. She went through too many pads.

0:02:16 - (Polly): She was convinced she was going to embarrass her family and the woman who thought her husband was being unfaithful to her because it was hard for her to be intimate with her husband without pain. And she just wanted to know what her options were. And so these two women, I'll never forget them because they were so instrumental that their lives were radically impacted. And I felt a sense of obligation that I had some answers as a student, that I could help them. And the rest is history.

0:02:43 - (Sam): Well, that is so amazingus. I think it's always those moments where we're like, I cannot see myself doing this. And it's actually those we. Where we become the most passionate. So tell us a little bit about that journey. Like, tell us how you took it from deciding that the pelvic floor physical therapy route was for you into what it is that you do today.

0:03:07 - (Polly): So I came right out of school treating the pelvic floor. I was very fortunate to start that specialty really early, and I was able to help four clinics, either from scratch, grow their women's health section of their clinic, or grow their waitl list and just grow the program. And we. After I got married, I knew that I wanted to be a mother. And it was always very important to me. In fact, that's one of the big reasons I wanted to be a physical therapist, because I knew there was ways for me to still be home with my kids.

0:03:42 - (Polly): I assumed it would be after school, not or while they were away, I could be working, and then when I was home, they would be home. And it was just one of those things that kind of took a life of its own, where once we got married and we started talking about having children, it became clear to me that I really wanted to be home with my little girl. But I also felt this sense of obligation that I wanted to help more women. I felt like, well, I have. I have these answers, and I can. I can help these women be better mamas, too, because I want to be a really great mom. And I felt like it was kind of selfish for me just to stay home and not contribute to the world on that front.

0:04:27 - (Polly): And so it was actually my husband who brought it up that, well, you could help women online. People do stuff like this all the time. And so I started my first beta program while I was pregnant with Ava. I would. I mean, I won't get graphic, but I would go to the bathroom, and the morning sickness would show up at whatever time of day, and then'd go back to the couch. And I was working on typing up that beta program and sending it out to my participants every week. And because I didn't know if what I had, working one on one with women.

0:04:58 - (Sam): Yeah.

0:04:58 - (Polly): Worked generically, I didn't know. And so that's why I had done that beta group. And it was really incredible. To hear all of their responses after doing this program. And some of them didn't even do that great of a job, and they still were making remarkable change. And so I thought, okay, maybe that was my glimmer. Maybe I can have this life where I'm home with my little one, because you never know if you have a second or a third.

0:05:24 - (Sam): Yeah, exactly.

0:05:25 - (Polly): And I can still help women be better mamas, but I don't necessarily have to sacrifice, like, being away from my little girl. And so it took a little bit to kind of for me to eventually leave where I was working and start my own practice and then eventually start the online version of all of this. No, Kegegles University, where I took that original program, that beta program. I wrote sick on the couch, which I think I'll always hold that near and dear to my heart just because it was a labor of love and it was hard to do. I don't know if any, I feel like if you're sick, you just kind of go lay on the couch. But I felt so called that women, women needed this.

0:06:09 - (Polly): So it's growing, and it's really incredible to watch women across the country. I even have a couple clients in Canada, which is really fun just to see them change without ever even meeting them in person, but then getting to see them. And I think this goes without saying for all, like, all health. I mean, my niche is very small, but, and I mean, you can even speak this, too, as, you know, as parts of your journey.

0:06:38 - (Polly): It's hard to be a really great, outstanding mother if you don't have your health. Yeah, it's really incredible on my end to watch women be able to be better mothers and do the things they want to do just because we've changed some things for them.

0:06:53 - (Sam): Yeah. And I think that's a huge indicator, especially for any of you mombs that are, you know, entrepreneurs as well. It's like, we are probably some of the fastest people to burn ourselves out. And very quickly because we, because we're highly motivated people. Like, we want to go, we want to do all the great things, which is amazing, and you should be doing those things. But when you're pouring from an EMPP cup, it obviously doesn't make sense.

0:07:19 - (Sam): And there are lots of really great practitioners now that, like, can help you. Even, like, if it has to be in a local setting or even online is like, there are so many options now. And I think that's such a beautiful part of what you do is that you're leading the way and like, hey, like, I am trying to create this life where I get to be a mother first and a business owner second. And I always say, like, if you're not winning at home, then you're not winning at all.

0:07:48 - (Sam): So all the business success doesn't mean anything if you're not winning at home. And I think you're leading the way in that of, like, hey, like, we have to go and, you know, get those health things taken care of or be very proactive about, you know, recovery and things like that. I know through both of my births, you know, just doing a lot of body work, a lot of preparation. It really. I could have done better. With my first, I definitely realized that, but with my second, I was like, okay, I've been through this once.

0:08:21 - (Sam): You just don't really know what you're gonna go through until you go through it. But the second time is, like, the first time I laid in bed for six weeks after I had my child. Like, I did not want to get up unless somebody made me get up. And. And with Kelan, I was, like, leaving the house three days after I had him to go pick my parents up from the airport. Like, did you. Did you really just have a baby? And I was like, yeah, but it came down to, like, the preparation.

0:08:52 - (Sam): And I think that's what you talk about is, like, yes, you can help so many people, but you're doing some really great things and helping people get to that place of, like, where they're prepared to go through life versus. Okay, now I have to take a hard stop and, like, treat myself, and so talk about how that has shifted your family dynamic. Like you said, you thought you would be working while your kids were at school.

0:09:15 - (Sam): Tell us what you do now.

0:09:18 - (Polly): I wish I was even that clever to, like, help you with that. Help you with that transition. I didn't think about that. U. Yeah, we.

0:09:26 - (Sam): Early.

0:09:27 - (Polly): Early on, we. We wanted to be good parents, and so I wouldn't say that we've read a lot of books, but we questioned a lot of things, you know, what was part of our childhood that we liked that we would change, that we wouldn't want present at all and what we have going on for our own family. And a lot of that was time. We never felt like we had enough quality time as a family. Money always came up, even though we were raised at both different ends of the spectrum in terms of finances, and we had a lot of opinions about school and the things that happened at school. And so because we knew, and my husband is very entrepreneurial at heart, like, I actually, I thought that was a con when we first started dating and when we got married.

0:10:14 - (Polly): But here we are. We own several businesses together, and we also thought that our kids life experience, them being stuck at school and in this is just our opinion, being sheltered and being around kids of their own age without getting to see. Okay, well, mom and dad want to, you know, have extra streams of income, and this is why it's important to have extra streams of income, that they get to watch us figure it out, and they get to watch us struggle and have a bad day, but still see us come out victorious.

0:10:48 - (Polly): Sometimes it takes a bit to come out victorious on the other side, but I think that I just was even having this conversation with Ava the other day, which, if I haven't alluded to this, or Sam didn. We homeschool. We've and we've homeschooled from the beginning. And I think not only does it create a very strong family unit, I also think it creates an incredible relationship. What I was going to say was, the other day, I was talking to my oldest, she's five, and I told her, because I was kind of being grumpy, and I said, mommy's having a bad day today.

0:11:20 - (Polly): And she says, grown ups have a bad day. And I said, yes, honey. And she said, why? And I said, well, I messed up. I made a mistake. And she o and I I, mama messes up, too. And anyways. And so we talked through it about, like, how I messed up, but I also made sure, which was really great for me, too. I think I wanted her to see how I wasn toa, you know, take action and try to overcome it. It was great for me to hear because I thought, yeah, I don't actually know how I'm goingna overcome this, but I sure better come up with something quick so that she, she has a takeaway. But it's just been really incredible that she comes to me to ask questions or even the language and verbiaage that I use.

0:11:59 - (Polly): She she does it, too. I heard her the other day. Can't remember. Oh, she was, you know, the big Amazon boxes. She was cutting it up and drawing it, and she says, okay, you can do this. You're smart. And I it was one of those mom moments, but I think if she was, yes, you would have these, like, I don't, I would hate for anyone to feel like, oh, maybe I should home. It's different for every family. We just wanted to have that flexibility and go do whatever we want, whenever we want, as long as we've worked hard. What is Joaco Willink? I think he says free or discipline equals freedom.

0:12:36 - (Polly): Have to be disciplined, but it'll give you that freedom. And that's how I feel like our life has been in order to create this freedom with our children and our family unit, but also really help raise them in the way that we feel like is going to allow them to be incredibly successful when they leave the nest.

0:12:55 - (Sam): Yeah, well, and if no one here knows this as well, it's like, I also homeschool. We also have a five year old, and just watching her, like, learn and observe and watch us learn new things and try new things and be coached and talk about new ideas is like, that's something that becomes part of our everyday life. Because I think, you know, we've talked about this many times before, is like, being a lifelong learner is so important in everything that you do.

0:13:26 - (Sam): I mean, whether it is you go to school, you get a job, you go down that route, because that is, like, not everybody is meant to be an entrepreneur, and that's okay. But if you just get into your job and you get settled, like, it's not gonna change anything for your life. But if you continue to learn and grow and develop into this really great person, one, it could be, you know, raises, job, promotions, whatever, but it also translates into your relationships. And that's the biggest thing.

0:13:57 - (Sam): Like, when you were talking about, like, what did you not have that you wanted for your family unit? And one thing is that I never saw anyone else have the desire for more. And that was always something. Like, it was always like, go get a job. Go to this college. You can afford this, you can afford that. And I like, and I'm grateful for everything my parents did to, like, get me as far as they could.

0:14:26 - (Sam): And those things are great, but I, like, innately have always had this desire for, like, this isn't it. Like, this isn't what? Like, this isn't my stopping place. And so when I started getting into this entrepreneurial circle is like, there's so many people who desire more, and it was just so encouraging. And so when I have those conversations, when Quinn gets frustrated with her bike, and I'm like, hey, if you don't keep trying, like, you're never gonna. Like, you're never gonna get the end result that you want.

0:15:01 - (Sam): And like you said, you can have those moments whether your kids are in school or not. But I just feel like we have them so often, and like you said, the flexibility, our life does not run on nine to five, like, with the chiropractic office, it doesn't run nine to five. It doesn't run Monday through Friday. And our life comes with a lot of flexibility. And like you said, it causes us to be very disciplined because we can go to January or go to Disney in January instead of being. Having to wait for spring break or having to wait till school is out.

0:15:38 - (Sam): And that's when everything's the most packed. It gives you the flexibility to enjoy life while everybody else is, like, living life.

0:15:46 - (Polly): Sure.

0:15:47 - (Sam): So, you know, one thing I would love for you to touch on is, you know, your relationship with your husband and talk about how you guys like one. Like, how, you know, how much your marriage impacts the way that you do things. But also, he has a very interesting work life as well, and how you overcome those things and still are an entrepreneur. So I'd love for you to touch on that.

0:16:12 - (Polly): Oh, man. I could. I could be here a while on this. Okay. So I. Well, I feel like this part of the story, I should probably. I should probably say, because it illustrates so the turning point of when we went from friends to dating.

0:16:28 - (Sam): We.

0:16:29 - (Polly): We were talking about, because he said he would really like to build a house or renovate a house with his wife one day. We were just friends, and I said, well, that ought to be very nice for you. I will never renovate a house while I'm living in it. Anyways, I had all these opinions about all these things, which my husband has started out as entrepreneur, and later, after. Anyways, so as I was saying this, he.

0:16:53 - (Polly): He got really mad, actually. And I remember being, like, confused because I'd never seen him this way. And later that afternoon, I was at the gym working out with a friend of mine. My girl, my girlfriend, Runless, a girl not. Anyways. And she. Gina, she said, polly, I think he, like, was trying to hit, like he might want to do. You're, like, nodding your head. And I was over here being so clueless. Anyways, so our first house that we moved into, we renovated that thing, actually, while I was doing the beta course.

0:17:24 - (Polly): Our whole house was tore up. The subfloorr was tore up in some ways. Like, I would come home needing to go the bathroom, and I couldn't get to the bathroom because there was literally no way to get there. So we actually work really well as a team. And I wish I could say I knew how that is. In fact, if we're not working on a project together, I would say that's when our marriage feels like it's the rockiest.

0:17:50 - (Polly): We do the best when we're working on something. And I. My guess is it, which is odd because when people hear this, they'll say, well, that's when ours is.

0:18:00 - (Sam): I would never work with my spouse.

0:18:02 - (Polly): Right. And I don't. I think part of it is I have this level of respect for my husband that I know he's going to try his darndest to make happen whatever I dream up or whatever, you know, I want. But I also know and, and respect that he has opinions, too, that even though I'm the, the woman, he can have opinions on this. And so anyway, so we, we have renovated several projects together and we have rental properties.

0:18:33 - (Polly): He has a powder coating business that I help with all the back end stuff. We did a camper rental for a couple years that I helped with the back end stuff and some of the laundry and the cleaning and things. And then he is gone. Traveling a lot. A lot. And it's always interesting, but it's one of those things when earlier I loved how you said, like, to curate the life that we want eventually. We would love to live in, in Montana or north Idaho on like 50 acres, build a barn dominium to get up another project, build a bar dominium together and just be close to an airport so he can work from home.

0:19:12 - (Polly): But then when they need him out in the field, like, I mean, he's gone now at the time of thise we're doing, I won't tell you when, but he. It's the ultimate goal is that he just can go out when he needs to and then come and come home. So for us, it's really hard right now because the kids miss daddy all the time and he's typically in a different time zone than we are and so it's hard to connect so they can even see him. And I worry about them not having quality time. But I also know that because we approach everything as a team mentality, this is what's best for the team, that he can be in a place where we can still have money to go but, you know, buy this place because I don't think we're, you know, becoming multi billionaires by the time we're 45 because that's just a few years away from it, from us.

0:20:04 - (Polly): It. So it's just part of that dream. That's what we eventually want. And it's kind of icky right now, but I think that team mentality, like, okay, well, this is the dream. Our team, we know that we're going to get there. So what's best for the team. And that's just kind of how we, how we run. And I wish I could give you some great thing about our marriage that while we're super lovey and won't say PDA is out of control, but I also think that we just enjoy being around each other and we don't do date nights. We should.

0:20:36 - (Polly): That's probably the worst advice we, we don't do.

0:20:39 - (Sam): Like, we rarely do date nights. Like, it's usually when Ben rector is in town and that's pre much when we go do date nights. Or if there's, like, there's a really good Van Halen cover band. Chandler loves Van Halen and, and they're at, like the little local place on the square, like, we'll go do that. But, like, we're not big date night people either. We're very, we're very much like you guys in terms of, it is a team mentality. And it's like, what is, like, what is our goals for our, you know, for our life as a family, for our children and for our marriage.

0:21:13 - (Sam): And then, like, we go through and we have our values and it's like, okay, these are the goals. These are what we value and how does that play out? And then you just, like, work your way back to where you are today. And so I think that's a lot of, like, you know, and I know you guys have strong values as a family, too. And I think a lot of that, especially with women, they're like, I have these big goals, dreams, but there's not that, like, central tie that, like, drives the family back together.

0:21:44 - (Sam): And I know Kayla has talked about this before, too. Is.

0:21:48 - (Polly): Kayla Crra.

0:21:50 - (Sam): Yes. Kayla crrat yes. Sorry. I've talked about her on a couple other episode, so forget about that.

0:21:55 - (Polly): It's probably always kaya Kraft.

0:21:57 - (Sam): Yes. Kaye Crra and she's my business coach. And, you know, one of the big things is, like, she would come home, she would work all day and, and then she would work all evening. And her goal was just to make as much money as possible and, like, what she was. But she almost lost her marriage because of it.

0:22:14 - (Polly): Right.

0:22:14 - (Sam): And so I think there's a really great spin between finding what that level is for you. Cause you don't have to be a millionaire or a multi millionaire or whatever. Because if your lifestyle requires three or $400,000 a year and that's your goal, then that's what your lifestyle requires for you to maintain, to have the life, the goals, the values that you want to continue to have. And I think that's, you know, something that gets missed is like, yeah, it's like, we don't have to have this certain amount of money. It's the.

0:22:47 - (Sam): Because I I just listened to. I listen to podcasts a lot, and it was like, if money's the goal, then everything else is missed. And so, like, that's, you know, where you were talking about. I was like, we don't need, like, a ton. We just need what's gonna fit for this goal that we have.

0:23:05 - (Polly): Sure.

0:23:05 - (Sam): And I think that's something that people could really get from what you said is like, hey, just find what your lifestyle is, what that means for you, and then make decisions that are best for the team. Like, I love that.

0:23:16 - (Polly): Yeah. And I think it's hard. And I will say, I think when I talk about these things, sometimes I'll get pushback from other women on this, which is totally fine. And I think it's important to bring up because you never know what's happening in a marriage or a relationship to really see. But I think because we have different goals, my life and how my marriage runs is probably going to be different than the next person.

0:23:46 - (Polly): And I find a lot that a lot of women say, oh, man, you're. Which, again, I'm not probably telling the full story because we don't have time. And also, my husband's not here to pitch in his two cent either. Like that. Like, I think that's kind of always unfair when.

0:24:03 - (Sam): Yeah, it's just our lens of the relationship, and that's all we can give is our lens of it.

0:24:09 - (Polly): And it's always interesting because they'll say things like, wow, it sure feels like you never have a break or you have a lot on your plate. And sometimes I do, but I also think, like, again, I have that flexibility. And, yes, my to do list is probably bigger than my husband's, but I. There's just different things required of me. And. And the thing that I'll. That I'll even add here, and I forget this sometimes, too.

0:24:36 - (Polly): U I really dislike the saying happy wife, happy life because I feel like that's a lot of pressure. But I also think that there's a lot of power inside of that because as the female of the home and as, I mean, I run a lot of the back end of most of our. All of our businesses, I guess. And I am the one in charge of homeschooling, and I'in the. I'm the one in charge of the home and all of these things.

0:25:02 - (Polly): But, yes, that's a lot of power and responsibility, but also what an incredible position that I get to be in, that I get to have so much influence over our businesses and our relationships and our family and my kids homeschool. Like, that's a lot. And I don't. I mean, I'm not trying to, like, relate it back to being a queen, necessarily, although most of my things I.

0:25:26 - (Sam): Sign off for are the queen of your castle.

0:25:29 - (Polly): Yeah. When I. When I sign off on my YouTube channel and my podcast, I always say you're an heiress and a queen and everything in between. But I also think, like, I'm not trying to sound like hoity toity, but, like, I have dominion over a lot of things in my life, and I think that some people feel burdened and weighed down by that, and I get it. But I also think that you have so much power and power for good, but I think that part gets neglected sometimes.

0:25:57 - (Sam): Well, and I think that's such a, like, you know, God gave us dominion over all the earth, and instead of feeling the freedom of that is, like, they choose to feel like, it's, like you said, a burden. And I think that's how some people, you know, view that. And having both of us having that faith is like, it is very important to view that God doesn't give us things to be a burden can. He carries all our burden. He tells us to give him all our burdens because we were never meant to carry them.

0:26:32 - (Sam): It'like, we are supposed to walk in that obedience and that. I'm not saying it won't be hard, but it will be full of ease in terms of the feeling of, like, oh, hey, I have. I get to. I get to do these things. I get to educate my children in a way that works for our family. And that, in turn, gets, you know, not saying that children will be perfect, but because I'm trying to get to this place of where they become, you know, very self sustaining, able to do the things that they want to and become well rounded people.

0:27:07 - (Sam): Same thing with, I get to run a business because it does give me the freedom to get to these places where I can move and live in a place that I want to live in and experience the life I want to. So I just think that's u. It's. That statement is very abundant feeling. And with what you were talking about is just like, it exudes, like, an abundance. And I don't think people are quite.

0:27:33 - (Polly): They.

0:27:33 - (Sam): They can't, like, get in that mindset of, like, accepting abundance yet, but they will. And so when they do get to that point where they are accepting that abundance, it will feel very free freeing instead of very burdensome.

0:27:48 - (Polly): So.

0:27:49 - (Sam): Well, I just want toa say thank you so much for being on here today. I think this is a powerful conversation of you. What we can offer people, as you know, the leaders, not the leader of our home, but leaders in our homes, in our families, in our communities, and doing these things in a way that, you know, provides abundance to our lives and curates that dream life. So tell everybody where they can find you and where they can send you messages at.

0:28:19 - (Sam): Oh, sure.

0:28:20 - (Polly): So my website is beyond the v by polly pauli.com comm, which has been done by Sam herself. So if you want a little insight onto what she can do, which I. She didn't ask me to do this, but I will say you will not be able to pick someone better for your website and that who believes in your business as much or who has as much. Me too. But as much insight and love and, like, concerned about your business than yourself so you won't go wrong there.

0:28:52 - (Polly): So that's my website. And on Instagram. Instagram. It's beyond the v period by Polly. And if you have any questions about anything we talked about, even if it's not even related to your pelvic floor, or if I can help you, I'm happy to continue this conversation because I think women are a lot more powerful than what they give themselves credit for. So.

0:29:12 - (Sam): Absolutely. And everything of hers will be linked in the show notes. And we're so glad that you guys are listening to this episode, and we will see you next time. Bye.