Dream Big: Jennifer Cassetta
Nine months ago I was attending an Integrative Nutrition networking/meet-n-greet led by the dynamic Jenn Cassetta. She made bringing a room of strangers together seem so effortless as she led conversations and provided topics for discussion. Her leadership ability and motivational demeanor combined with her nutrition, self-defense and fitness knowledge make her natural fit for media appearances. It also doesn’t hurt that she’s beautiful both on and off the camera! She’s also incredibly modest. Jenn has a roster of celeb clients, three DVDs and subsequently a busy, busy schedule due to being in demand. Jenn kicked off 2012 with an appearance on the top-rated morning television show, but you must keep reading to find out the details.
P.S. If you’ve ever sweated at home to P90X or Insanity and cursed your television for the burn and torture you now have a name and face to find … just kidding! Find Jenn on Facebook or give her a big “hello!!” via Twitter @JennCassetta.
Why you should know Jennifer:
I just finished a fun and intense 3-month gig traveling with a VIP client as his personal trainer, nutritionist and motivator. Now home in LA, I am launching my DVD series called Stilettos and Self Defense, which teaches women the ABC’s of self-defense, how to use everyday items as weapons, and to use their bodies as weapons when in dangerous situations. In summary, they teach women how to kick-butt when they need to. I also blog, am writing a book on healthy living and teach training certifications for Beachbody.
What are your big dreams in life?
My mission in life is to motivate, empower, and inspire women (sure, men too!) to live fearlessly and healthfully. I have so many dreams and goals for my personal and professional life so here’s some examples of both:
- Write a best-selling book
- Host a healthy food and fitness show
- Create workshops around women’s empowerment and health
- Have less women be physically, sexually and emotionally abused
- Create a nation-wide self-defense/safety curriculum for schoolgirls
- Own a home by the beach (on both coasts)
- Spend a month in Italy
- Teach Oprah’s Leadership Academy girls martial arts/self defense
Be a guest on the Today Show– CHECK!
When will you feel like you’ve succeeded?
Less than 3 years ago I moved from NYC, left my clients, moved to LA and started from scratch. It was the best (and riskiest) move I have ever made. I have come a long way and have a long way to go. In the meantime, I am grateful for every day and a career that I have chosen for myself, doing what I love.
Define wellness:
Being well encompasses the mind, body and spirit. I know I am well these three are in balance. My mind is balanced when I am learning and teaching. My body is balanced with the right exercise, food, and sleep. And my spirit is balanced with meditation and love. It’s a work-in-progress to keep it all in check but I work on getting better every year.
How do you take care of you?
Fitness is a crucial to keep my body and mind strong. I love to practice my martial art HapKiDo, but when I can’t, I run, lift weights, or throw on some P90X or Insanity in my living room. As a nutritionist, I have played with different styles of eating based on my research. Basically, I stick to tons of fresh, organic veggies, some fruit, wild-caught fish, legumes, nuts, and whole grains. Chocolate and wine sometimes have their own category in my diet as well. A girl’s gotta live!
How do you structure your day?
Structure? Have any suggestions? ;)
Give us a sense of your work/creative environment.
My “office” is where I work, which for me means everything from a gym to my coffee table, which is a total mess. I guess I should put “have an office” on my dream list.
Tell us about your perfect day – start to finish.
A perfect day starts with a Chai tea and a great workout, one in which I get to kick and punch. During the day it would involve teaching large groups about health or something martial-artsy. I always get a natural high after being in front of a large audience and motivating them. Afterward, I would go watch the sunset with my handsome, sweet boyfriend (yes, he exists) and have a healthy and delicious dinner with a glass of wine, or two.
Who would leave you star-struck?
The Big O. Is this every woman’s dream? I think she’s fantastic and has done an incredible job sharing her spiritual journey and messages with the world. She is on my vision board and I still think and dream that our paths will cross one day.
A quote that best describes your outlook on life:
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Right on Eleanor! Please remember this the next time someone or something tries to bring you down.
Share a secret with us!
I am a motivational geek. I have gone to Tony Robbins workshops all over the world including Fiji. I’ve walked on fire, done a 7 day detox (including colonics) and jumped off a 50 foot flagpole (harnessed). I have a library of books and CD’s filled with information that keeps my head filled with positivity. I’m not sure where I would be without it all, nor do I care. I love being a geek!
Let’s Tango
This tango color is old news, right? I’ve been thinking more lately on how wonderful it is to be a woman, celebrating all the differentiators that add to our mystique. How lucky we are that something as simple as a new shade of lipstick … like tango… or a text from a girlfriend can completely change our outlook on a day. My cheery thoughts on being a woman were brought to a crashing halt when I read that Sweden is pushing for a genderless state. Growing up as a seemingly hopeless tomboy (my poor mom – I’m her only daughter), I tried to be ‘one of the boys’ throughout my childhood and early adolescence which led me to reject what it meant to be a woman for many years. I shied away from rites of passages celebrated by my peers. Eventually, I started to understand how special being a woman really is and all the opportunity it carries in life. I’m finally comfortable in my skin as an adult woman. To think young girls and boys may be depraved of the experiences that are unique to their identity saddens me. Be “they” instead of “he” and “she”. Forcing everyone into a genderless mold makes places those who “don’t fit” into that mold at risk.
I didn’t intend to be so serious when writing this post. Its origins and intent were light at heart – me sharing the proud fact that I’m continuing my quest for more healthy skincare and makeup products. Sharing my new love of orange-ish – TANGO! – colors. Embracing my girly-girl. And loving more of what makes us unique by expressing ourselves through color, photos and sharing online. Being authentic in all we do is the only way to connect. If you don’t believe me, ask Andy.
Photo snapped Friday morning at a stoplight en route to the day job. Sporting Tarte ‘Spirited’ on my lips & minimal makeup elsewhere. Approved by EWG & WELL ;) Happy to share my other beauty and skincare loves of late upon request. I’d love to know your thoughts, what makes you feel your most creative, authentic and true to your goals.
Lists & Other Drugs
We all have dearly loved people in our lives who vacillate between Atkins diet, the Zone, Paleo, Blueprint… whatever the flavor of the week may be as dictated by People magazine or other well-known scientific publications. You’ve given up all hope on actual success, writing them off – only to find that they get it one day. They’ve finally knocked off the bullsh*t, came to grips with learning about their unique needs for being healthy and stopped following fad diets. The years of trials and struggling were necessary to understand their relationship with food and their bodies.
I don’t think goal setting is so different from the diet example outlined above. We try everyone else’s solutions before we finally take ownership of a method that works best for ourselves. As I close in on 30 (13 months) I find myself writing more clear goals and experiencing greater GSD (Getting Sh*t Done as we affectionately call it in my household). This post is 30% about sharing my ridiculous, hybrid way of organizing ideas, goals and dreams. It’s 30% about sharing organization ideas from brilliant and/or crazy people I admire online. Most importantly this post is 40% about YOU! I want to know how YOU keep life organized and move toward the big goal(s) in life. These things don’t happen by chance. Luck is kind of rubbish in my opinion. It can easily be boiled down to statistics.
Once upon a time I practically salivated when it was time to purchase a new planner. One year I “accidentally” spilled coffee all over my planner and had to buy a new one that I had been eyeing at the local bookstore. I’ve tried to be more of a big girl and move from paper to online docs and lists, but I can’t find myself breaking the Sharpie® habit just yet. Going on an all-data-diet for my goal-setting and to-do lists nice in theory. I still need a medium that allows me to be loud, blaring and tangible when it comes to making my brain juices work.
I start out every month with my collection of Sharpies (the 80′s glam pack, if you must know), my trusty Moleskin notebook and my Pilot G2 pens. These are the necessary “drugs” for my productivity nirvana. Green tea is optional but often required. I write out what I want to accomplish with the ABSOLUTES as the #1-3 slots in the list. The rest of list isn’t negligible, but if they don’t happen in this month’s time frame, I’m okay with rolling them over to the next month and not feel too guilty about it all. Most months I have an average of 6-8 big goals. Anything more than that borders on insanity for me, as leaving room for sleep, exercise, eating, showering and being a non-reclusive human is necessary.
List of goals. Check. Next comes the online part. I use two tools online to break down my goals in to meetings and action items (objectives). Google Calendar is my appointment scheduling beast and Teux Deux is the clean, simple interface I use for my daily to-do list (it also has an iPhone app). What I don’t finish one day rolls over to the next. with Teux Deux I try to keep the Teux Deux list limited to 3-5 things per day. See impending insanity for scheduling/creating action items beyond this range from prior paragraph.
I spend Friday afternoons/evenings checking the progress. Can I cross a goal off? Do I need to add any extra steps? On Sundays I organize everything after slaying my lists on the weekends (weekend warrior!). Sundays are my days to mind-map, draw pictures and list out all the crazy steps needed to move onto my nice clean lists.
After many years trying various methods, I found a few that work well for me. I have a full-time day job, but I have a big goal of being a wellness expert, author and coach for my peers as my full-time profession. I tackle my life goals by evaluating things daily, weekly, monthly, annually – you get the picture. Below are a few of my favorite posts on the topics of life goals and to-do lists:
- Why Your Email Inbox Is NOT a Good To-do List (Zen Habits)
- Long To-Do List? Make a Not-Right-Now List (Inc.com)
- How it all began… (365 til 30)
- The life list (Nicole is Better)
- How to Conduct a Personal Quarterly Review (Stratejoy)
- Do your to-do lists need a makeover? (Unclutterer)
- Tired of Having A Neverending To-Do List? Use It To Your Advantage (the middle finger project)
How am I doing this month? Good question!
- My taxes must absolutely be finished by 12:00am Sunday. Thanks for being awesome, IRS.
- The wireframe development for the new WELL site is down on paper and ready to be transferred into a wireframe. My developer is on-call for a meeting after the 15th.
- I’m designing, writing and testing the components of “WELL Wire” (a paid subscription newsletter) for the first week of May.
- I’ve been using my phone timer to set 20 minutes a day to work on my exercise app (top-secret, yo!).
- 3 guest posts have been sent off; with one published and a meeting for the 4th next week; bonus – there’s an extra 5th post hiding in Google docs. Just in cases.
- I’ve been to 2 networking events (SMARTY) and scheduled 4 lunches with women I want to work with in the coming months.
- Sugar-free goal: I have successfully limited my sugar to under 30 grams every day this month with the exception of Easter Sunday ;)
- Organizing my resources – there’s a lid on the junk in the trunk. This is kind of an ongoing thing and this month it also includes updating the operating systems for my Apple products and making them pow-wow between one another without extra effort from me.
A little over 2 weeks remain in April. I’m owning it, making the month mine and celebrating with a fabulous party in Vegas the final weekend!
What are your methods for taking care of business?
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