A conversation I had with my next feature when we were on Launch Viral Podcast together last month, sparked an interest to know more, so I asked her if I could do an interview.

So let’s meet Jessica Dahl – founder of Say Yes Anyway Podcast + founder of non-profit, “Wholeness Journey” + Life Coach + Author

A little about Jess:

Jess Dahl is a purposeful business & life coach for women to align with themselves & their business through 1-1 coaching & masterminds, she’s a published author, podcast host on the Say Yes Anyway Podcast, and co-founder of a non-profit called, Wholeness Journey- A yoga retreat/service trip, whose mission is bringing healing, identity, wholeness & purpose to women, children & families who have been affected by trauma, human trafficking and ultra impoverished locally & globally by yoga and wellness practices, art therapy, storytelling and empowerment experiences.

Jess Dahl is also a team coach that supports companies with their leadership, employees, and team to up-level their well-being to reduce stress & burnout, build confidence, create healthy company culture, and gain vitality personally and as a team.

Jess has a unique way of making you feel like anything is possible! At a young age, she started writing down her dreams of helping others live out their passion with purpose. Jess’ social entrepreneurial spirit led her to become a hairdresser for 11 years, a fitness trainer & certified yoga instructor. After some clarity on what mattered to her in life, she sold everything and went on a year long mission trip around the world teaching team’s health and fitness while traveling, and helped with projects to fight the injustice of human trafficking, help build orphanages and work with the most impoverished communities.  Combining all her experiences and heart for people, all of this has led her to where she is today.

When she’s not changing the world, you can find her hiking, traveling (probably chasing the sun), dancing, exercising, and trying something new with my friends and family.

Random fact, she is half Spanish with an Asian middle name , MiYeon, and when she was 11 years old, she sang with Celine Dion on stage at her concert at the Key Arena in Seattle.

Thank you so much Jess for sharing with my community, blog and various platforms.

Please help me welcome Jess✍🏽🧘🏻‍♀️🌸🤍

JESSICA DAHL

founder of Say Yes Anyway Podcast + founder of non-profit, “Wholeness Journey” + Life Coach + Author

Featured Entrepreneur: Jessica Dahl – founder of Say Yes Anyway Podcast + non-profit co-founder, “Wholeness Journey” + Life Coach + Author

Interviewed by: Anna Svetlík De La Rosa 

Episode: #115

Date: 09/01/2023

MY INTERVIEW WITH JESSICA DAHL

Q1.   What did you want to be growing up?

I remember like it was yesterday, sitting at my desk when I was about 7 years old dreaming about who I wanted to be when I grew up! My dad, a total travel enthusiast, entrepreneur, and miracle himself overcoming a serious boating accident leaving him paralyzed and now healed,(everyone needs to hear his story) gave me some cassette tapes from a man named Tom Hopkins called, “how to make your dreams come true.” I would listen to them and write out my dreams. My dad always encouraged me to pursue my dreams, passions and to follow my heart. From that young age, this was a huge catalyst that left me to believe that anything and everything was possible.  I wanted to be a professional ice skater, a singer, and to travel the world and help people. I was also the young girl that would rally her whole neighborhood kids to put on performances for the cul de sac, to make and sell brownies or lemonade, or make and sell bracelets or collectable items on the school bus or the playground. There was always something in me that saw fun, community, creativity, and entrepreneurship: selling the things that I loved and bringing people along the way! Looking back, I laugh at how I had no idea it would lead to where I am today!

Q2. When you did you start healing journey?

 My healing journey began after a series of many months feeling like my brain wasn’t functioning, I was fainting more often than I should, my body was fatigued most of the time, I was so forgetful…almost anything would completely go from my memory right away. It felt like I had a brain tumor and I was terrified. I was a fitness trainer at the time as well as a hairdresser, and I was also extremely busy in life, with not even an hour in my day for down time. I didn’t know how to slow down, I didn’t even know it was possible. With my health plummeting, it really made me question my life. It made me question why I was working so hard and what I was doing it all for? 

I was LIVING MY DREAM.

I was doing some really cool fashion shows, photoshoots, working at one of the most high end hair salons in all of Los Angeles. I really felt like I was “making it”. Becoming someone, reaching my goals, all of it. AND doing fitness training and everyone loved my body and what I was capable of.  Little did I know it was too much.

One day I was at the hair salon working, and one of the guys I worked with, who was super successful in our industry AND a dope fashion designer, walked past me while I said hello with a huge smile on my face.. he stopped and asked me “why are you always so smiley?” And responded back with “because life is good, why not?” And he said, “well, it’s weird.” Then we walked off.

In that moment I felt something off, something sad.

I sat down as I watched all the hairdressers working their long days. And all of them had a frown on their face. I don’t know if it was just that day or if it was all the time, yet it got me to question everything I was doing.

I asked myself “wow… do you really want to end up like this? They seem to ‘have it all’ yet they feel empty inside. What am I chasing? Am I really trying to become a celebrity hairdresser because I really want it? Or is that what will make me look successful to everyone else?”

I remember going on a run on the Venice pier that night alone. It was the first time I had stillness to really listen to what was in my heart.

In that moment the biggest peace came over me. I heard the words “be still and know that I am God” — truly thought someone walked past me and said it in my ear and realized no one was there. For the first time I heard a voice from above, I am sure was nudging me for a while, yet I wasn’t willing to listen.  What I knew I needed to do was to become still and I would hear the answers I needed.

This moment led me to selling everything I owned and went on a journey to travel the world for one year with a backpack and tent to do service work. (remember that dream when I was 7? To travel the world and help people…well it was happening!)

I know I sounded crazy probably to everyone. WHY WOULD YOU QUIT WHAT YOU’VE WORKED SO HARD FOR? Well, the only real answer was I had to follow this.

I would either have the pain of staying where I was. Or the pain of the unknown.

I chose the unknown.

A few months before I left, I went to the doctor of course and got lots of tests done. The doctor called me in the office a few days later. I was scared. She told me “I know you are a beautiful young woman yet you have lost all the estrogen in your body.”  I was confused and asked, “so do I have a bunch of testosterone in my body?” She said, “no, you are depleted of everything. Your hormones are completely off, you haven’t had your period for 2 years, and we need to get you back on track.  I believe you when you say you are eating, but you are at 11% body fat and that is not healthy for your body.”  I asked her what I needed to do. She said, “you need to change your whole life. You need to start doing yoga, meditating, walking in nature, breathing, slowing down, eat food to put fat on, and stop the intense workouts you are doing.”  In that moment I remember being shocked. My identity was so caught up in what I was capable of.  It was caught up in what my body could do, my achievements, and how people perceived me.  If I didn’t have all of this, who would I be?  So I told her no…I didn’t want to do any of that stuff. Yet she asked me, “Jess, do you want to live?” Honestly I thought that was over dramatic. I mean I was about 22 years old..and when you’re 22 you know everything, right?  She said, well, it will be life long chronic.  I told her about what I was doing in about 3 months, traveling the world with a back pack and tent to help people around the world, and she told me I probably shouldn’t do it. She told me that I needed to eliminate stress in my life and that was going to be stressful. I told her I was determined and I was called to go, so if it takes me listening to you and if that is how I am going to heal, then I will do it. I knew I had greater purpose in my life and I had to follow it.

So all that year while backpacking the world and being of service to others I went on a journey on wholeness and what it meant to be whole in my body, mind, heart, spirit and I also invited others into the journey together as well! I wanted to be sure that if we were serving others, then we have to be well and coming from a place of overflow ourselves!

So that is what started it all. =)

It’s been about 12 years of learning to master this space for myself & now I use all that I have learned a ton through experience, I make sure that in my coaching, masterminds, retreats, or anything I teach it has an element that makes sure we are focused on our well-being because one day it will catch up to you if you don’t! It affects your business, mission, family, relationships, finances and everything!

Q3. You have an amazing podcast, “Say Yes Anyway”, tell us a bit about it?

 This podcast had been on my heart for years. I was the type of woman that would travel and would interview strangers asking them questions about life, wellness, purpose, beauty, culture, etc. It was amazing to hear all that people would say and I wanted people to hear these stories! Some I recorded, some I didn’t.  Then I finally got a little travel microphone and decided to record and see where it went. For a couple years I never actually put the podcast together. I know it was all the technical stuff that caught me up and it was all the questions about whether I was going to monetize it or not. I didn’t want to overcomplicate it!

One day, on a walk alone I kept hearing the words, “Say Yes Anyway”…..and it made me think of all the times that I had to say yes to things that made absolutely no sense. Sometimes I questioned those things and when I remembered back, when I truly listened and said yes anyway to the things on my heart, it’s been the best decisions I could have ever done!  Then I realized that there are probably so many people that have the same stories that have also done incredible things and it’s led them to where they are now today!  It’s allowed people to say no to the right things and to make the best yes’ their life could imagine!

I also love when people take action on their life and feel they they also can do whatever they feel the call to say yes to in their life. So, all the stories and conversations from the heart are inviting in a way that people can hear themselves in the story. A desire for these stories to empower people to really take those actions even if it is scary or when even themselves or others don’t understand! It’s worth it.  

Go check it out! If anyone feels they have a story to share or would like to have a conversation from the heart on the podcast, I am so open to it! Contact me =)

Q4. Your book, “Lead Your Whole Life”: How Cultivating Wholeness Transforms the Way We Live and Lead, is filled with insights.  How can we use it to care for ourselves and others?

In my book, Lead Your Whole Life, it was a bunch of writings that I had in journals, in notes that have helped myself as well as others along my journey for years!  As I was putting it all together, I had some friends tell me that it could be put into a book to help more people.  I also wanted to make it as simple and as practical as possible! So each chapter has a journaling prompt that will allow you to take a time of reflection and an action step on how you can empower your life in each area of wholeness. 

Each individual is a leader, and it’s all dependent on how you take action, how you care for your life & your well-being, will depend how you then lead others. We tap into each area of life such at your physical body, mental state, emotions, spirituality, finances, career, community/relationships, and the way you contribute to the world! All of it matters! When you notice where are you now, and where you desire to go, you can transform your own leadership and watch it transform your whole life and others’.

I’ve used this book as a teaching tool for women’s groups, coaching containers, and more!  It’s been incredible!

Q5. What does success mean to you as a powerful / determined woman?

Success to me seems to always be ever changing.  Each season, I realize that what is important to me may shift a little. In this season, success to me personally in my own life is to be connected with deep relationships such as family and close community. It is to feel at ease, peaceful, fulfilled, and joy in my body, mind, heart and spirit. It is to only do work that is fulfilling to my soul, calling, and what I love that also impacts others at the same time. It is the ability to travel where and when I desire.  It is to expand community and a movement that also values being empowered themselves to grow in the best versions of themselves while impacting others.  

I have found that peoples’ idea of success changes and a lot of times they are chasing things in their life they thing are success or the feeling they will feel after they’ve achieved that success, yet a lot of time they realize their idea of success is not even really what they desire and it’s meaningless and unfulfilling. So this is where through my coaching and masterminds I love to tap into this deeply! Because if you’re chasing a certain kind of success and living a life that heads in that direction and you get it, then realize it’s meaningless, then we get to a place of meaning to you and what success to you really looks like rather than what society, the world, or pre conceived judgment says!

If you’re interested, I have my Dreams to Reality Mastermind Accelerator that begins Nov 2023 and i’d love to have you if it’s an aligned fit! You can check it out here!

Q6. How do you process work load stress or personal stress or just to much coming at you all at one time?

Man, this is also one that is ever changing, because in different seasons of life, we need different things that really help these.  Depending where I live, what my life looks like, this will vary. What I tell my coaching clients, those in my mastermind and for anyone is that starting the day off with something physical, mental, emotional, spiritual is KEY. It doesn’t matter if it’s 1 minute a day or 3 hours a day of each practice, yet to come up with consistency. This will help ground you, energize you, allow you to realize what is important, get into a healthy state and notice what’s going on for you so that you can then determine what aligned action you need to take for the day.

Also incorporating these things in the middle of your day for moments of centering, energy, etc….as well is super important. Then at night for a wind down ritual is also super important.

So mine consist a lot of different variations of these things which I use at different times of day whether I am planted at home or even while traveling.

Yoga, high intensity workouts, sauna, ice baths, breath-work, meditations, dancing, journaling, heart scripting (a process I came up with), reading, silence, bike riding, hiking in nature, being in community, swimming, speaking declarations, prayer, healthy nutritious food, writing out a process of fears/resentments/etc, walking, voice note journal processing, going through my values and mission constantly, letting go of things, people, distractions that are no longer are serving myself and where I envision my life going.  I also have coaches and mentors that help guide me as well =) We can’t do life alone!  If you think I could help you, contact me! Would love to hop on a call!

I believe all things work differently for each person! So definitely trying certain things consistently for a while you will find what works best for you and when to incorporate them into your life!

Q7. If you could speak to one woman from history, who would it be?

I think it would be either Mother Theresa or Oprah. OK, why not BOTH! I would LOVE to ask a ton of questions about their upbringing, their experiences, feel their energy, and learn from them! They’re two dynamic people I aspire to be like in some similar and some very different ways! Both women have a resilience about them that is powerful. The ability to hold space for people to come as they are to be both empathetic as well as empowering. They both are dynamic people that have created movements around the world that change lives for the better!

Q8. Favorite quote?

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

― Marianne Williamson

Q9. How can we help support your non-profit, Wholeness Journey?

 Thank you so much! This work means the WORLD to me! =)

3 ways:

1. We are headed to Costa Rica in November and one thing we are raising funds for is creating a community medicinal garden! We are raising $3,000 for this project. You can see more at our Costa Rica page here
2. We are looking for aligned companies, brands, individual partnerships that want to make this world a better place together!  We would love to highlight you as a partner on all of our social platforms, newsletter, and add you to our website! You can find out more here!
3. If you want to come on a trip as a participant, we would love to have you! Go to our site and apply to come with us!

Q10. Where can we find you?

Website: HERE

Instagram: HERE

Dreams to Reality Mastermind: Starts Nov 2023

Facebook: HERE

Podcast: Apple Podcasts or Spotify
HERE

LinkedIn: HERE

Photographer:  @juliaschweissphoto