ļ»æJaimie Abbott: Well, my guest today is Jess Spendlove. Now, Jess will provide your team with strategies and steps underpinned by science to elevate how each person feels, performs and functions. Jess Spenlove is a performance dietitian, holistic high performance coach and a sought, after speaker specialising in nutrition and high performance. For over 15 years, she has worked with thousands of high performing men and women from CEO's to elite athletes who are all searching for success in their chosen fields. But that is not what makes Jess different. What makes her different is the fact that she's well versed in the shadow side of high performance, too. So she understands the desire for busy chasing perfection, self worth, identity, high risk of burnout and increased risk of mental health. All of which she has experienced firsthand and has had to put strategies and boundaries in place. Now she is ready to share those with the world. Would you please welcome to pitch perfect, the fabulous Jess Spendlove. For the crowd goes.
Jess Spendlove: Thank you. Thanks so much. Jaimie, I wish you could do my, you know, read out the bio each time. You're like a pro at that.
Jaimie Abbott: Oh, thank you. Well, I mean, I actually have a question about that because, I love the bio. But you talk about that you're well versed in the shadow side of high performance. What does that mean?
Jess Spendlove: Yeah, I mean, it's like a lot of what I do now. So my background is heavily in professional sport and, you know, worked with nearly every single team there was and really made a name for myself in that world, but absolutely ran myself into the ground at the same time, which is an, experience I'm sure a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners have experienced. You know, that, that desire, to want to either help people if they're service based and or grow their business, can often override how they take care of themselves. And for me, I put everybody else before myself. I was so committed to my job, I was a total workaholic that, while I was ticking the boxes and, you know, eating well and moving, I was absolutely neglecting a lot of the warning signs. And before they got extremely loud, before I got very unwell, before I absolutely ran myself into the ground. So, you know, now, a lot of what I do, which is working with like, the executives and the business owners, and a lot of what I'm sure we're going to cover off today is a combination of, yes, my expertise, but also my personal experience of running myself into the ground, having mental health issues, burning myself, like, suffering from anxiety, all because I just was doing way too much.
Jaimie Abbott: and so I guess, do you help people identify when they're in that zone, when they are burnt out and when they've kind of like fallen into that trap of everything you just described, or do you help people to not get to that place in the first place?
Jess Spendlove: Both. So, unfortunately, I would love to say everyone's being preventative with their health and, there's more of an awareness of burnout and everyone's wanting to prevent that. But a lot of the time, it's when someone has their own, I guess, crisis moment, maybe they're experiencing burnout, that then they realise that something needs to change. but I am saying, you know, it is a bit of both. So what I kind of help people with is either health optimization or performance optimization, which is a little bit of both of what you've described. and depending on where they're at, sometimes that one on one is more suited. But if it is the people that are in that more prevention space, or just in a space where they're like, what I'm doing isn't sustainable, I'm not quite at that point, but I know that I want to put better things in place, then they're really suited to, Yeah, like a small group programme that I have on offer, but it really depends on the person and what they're coming for. Yeah.
Jaimie Abbott: And now. So it's really interesting, your career. You've worked with like, high performing athletes, I know Olympians, and we've had you on the podcast before we talked about that. but you also specialise in working with high performing entrepreneurs and CEO's, are they similar? I'd love to know if they are. As far as their wants, needs, desires, the traps they fall into are high performing and executives and CEO's very similar in their traits to Olympians?
Jess Spendlove: Traits, yes. Mindset? Yes. Execution and behaviours? Not necessarily. so I definitely, you know, I do have some clients that are the CEO that's also doing the Ironmans and, you know, triathlons and that type of person, which definitely exists, but a lot of them are, you know, the business owner, the CEO, the partners, the managing directors who are needing to optimise their health in every other area of their life. They're a high performer. You know, they've grown their business, they've climbed the ladder, they run multi, multi million dollar businesses, you know, and that has taken all of their priority. They also have families. So the health just kind of drops down the list. So there's definitely the combination. But I think the reason I started to transition from high performance sport into the corporate world is because that through line of the traits, the characteristics, the motivators, the mindset is very similar.
Jaimie Abbott: Yeah. one of the things that you're a professional speaker as well, and you've done some big gigs and you're a paid to speak alumni and NPR club, which I'm very proud to say to have you in there. And one of the topics that you talk about, and I'm really interested in this because it's not something I have heard before, and it's all about energy management mastery. So is this something new? Is this something that you created, or is it something that's been around for a while and you've become an expert in it. Tell me a little bit about that.
Jess Spendlove: Topic again, I think that interest came from thinking about what is that common denominator? What is that driver for success in any area of life and energy was this metric and this measurement which really stood out. And it was also an observation of just, I feel like people are suffering like an energy crisis. I think that's a common thing. People report how exhausted they are. So that really kind of led my interest into being like, well, yes, nutrition is a really big driver for helping support energy, but to be your physically best self, to be your mentally best self, to be a sustainable high performer, which is really, I guess the ethos of what I stand for now is sustainable high performance. It really is about looking at, well, what are all of the things that feed into energy. And I kind of have five main pillars and areas which speak to that, but it's really thinking about, well, what gives me energy and what takes energy away from me. And we're quite, we're not very good at identifying that unless we really have someone there to kind of support us or guide us or as I mentioned in my own experience, most people only kind of pay attention when it's absolute crisis mode, as opposed to seeing the little clues along the way. So what I guess, yeah, got my interest in it was again, that blend of personal and professional kind of expertise and interest and experience intersecting. and yeah, it now kind of really leans itself to being the nutrition piece, but also sleep movement mindset and micro recovery strategies. So you may have seen me talking about brain breaks, I'm always posting about them on my stories, but that's one of the micro recovery strategies which is really important to help cognitively renew yourself and take a bit of rest and restoration across your day, which has really been shown to kind of minimise or reduce that risk of burnout.
Jaimie Abbott: Yeah, I mean, when we talk about sleep, is it just a matter of the old, saying, we all know, meant to get 8 hours sleep, or six to 8 hours sleep, I think is a more realistic goal. Is it just a matter of that, or is there more to it? Because I know that you do talk about how to sleep for success. Is it just a matter of the duration that we get enough sleep, for, or is it more to it?
Jess Spendlove: There's definitely more to it. So, like, quantity is just not necessarily like, everybody can get the seven, eight, 9 hours. So then a lot of the research is like, well, how do we optimise that? And even people getting enough sleep, then what is really interesting, when you find out the type of sleep which, you know, a lot of people wear wearables, such as, like aura rings and whoop straps, like, you really need to be using some sort of device to track that, but you can get enough sleep, but the quality of sleep is not great, which means we're not getting enough rem and deep sleep. But as we mentioned, a lot of people just, you know, which I'm probably about to go through with my first child, which I'm having, at Christmas. But getting the quantity of sleep required isn't enough. So what else do we do? And there's so much in this space, like, there's research showing that one of the most important factors with sleep is consistency. So even if we're only getting, you know, 6 hours a night. If you can go to sleep within a 30 minutes window consistently each night, that is really supportive of you getting really good quality of sleep and being restored. you know, there's a whole heap around the, the ritual and the practise I guess, of going to sleep and how to maximise that. And you know, what I see so many people doing is going, going, going, whether that's work life, family life, tv. And then they get into bed and they might be absolutely wired and tired, but then they can't get to sleep and that's because they haven't wound their brain down cognitively. So there's so much more to it. And the great thing is there's a lot of tips and tactics and strategies and there's even something called non sleep deep rest, which is like a kind of a form of yoga, nidra and meditation combined. Andrew Huberman, who I'm sure a lot of people have heard of, is a really renowned neuroscientist and it's one of the, I guess, areas of research and kind of things he's brought to the table. But it really looks at like a specific type of meditation that helps you slip into a better brainwave state, slip into the same kind of brainwave state you do when you sleep but you're not actually sleeping. So it presents an opportunity again to kind of have that restoration across the day. because not sure about you, but I am not a napper. If I nap, I feel horrendous. But there are some days whether you've had poor sleep or you're just not getting enough, wherever you know, you really are seeking something that is going to actually help and help you feel restored. and listening to a 15 or 20 minutes non sleep deep rest track does absolute wonders for me. and there's a whole heap of science behind the reason why that actually works.
Jaimie Abbott: Yeah, I love that. So congratulations. You mentioned you're having your first child and you're pregnant. That's super exciting. and it's one of those things, I will say this, and I mean no, offence to people who have not got children, but I didn't really sympathise with how hard it is being pregnant and having children until I had my own. In fact, you know, I used to have people work for me and they were always, you know, they were pregnant, complaining about how tired they were, and I just didn't really get it until I went through it myself. so has that kind of changed your approach with the advice you give people about gut health and energy management and getting enough sleep now you're going through, a pregnancy, has it sort of made you sort of shift your attitude about certain topics that you've been pushing onto clients in the past or is it all just backed up now by everything that you know and you've learned?
Jess Spendlove: Yeah, I think a combination of the two. I always really like to pride myself on really trying to understand the person in their life and never coming from a you know, high and mighty like standard of like, well this is the gold standard and this is what we need to aim for. And there's nothing else because particularly with sleep, which I feel is a sensitive topic, and sleep is honestly like my number one health priority. So I'm m a little bit nervous about how this is all going to go, but as I said, there's so much research around. Well it's not just quantity, there's consistency, which probably for me in the first few months is going to mean nothing. But there's other practises like the non sleep deep rest or meditations and little things you can do each and every day to help optimise and make the best of that situation. And if I think about like I've just finished this beat around with eight amazing women of this programme, reclaim your energy, which is all about the methodology and you know, the science, but with real world application. But that was really centered around each person applying it to their life. So it wasn't just saying, this is Jess's way, this is what we're all doing. It was very principle based and at the very start of that it was really capturing a full week of what they eat, when they sleep, when they move, what supplements they do or don't take, and really capturing their behaviours and starting to modify that. And I think no matter who you are, if you are supporting someone to improve their health or performance, it really is about that customization and not just going, here's best practise protocol, apply it and we won't actually consider you, your life, your circumstances and everything in between.
Jaimie Abbott: Yeah, good on you for having that attitude. And I'm sure you know, you're probably you might even look at things differently again. When you add the baby's born and, you know, especially the newborn stage, it's very hard to get good sleep. And yeah, it's Yeah, I think if it was, we all remembered how hard it was, we'd probably never have a second child. But I do remember it, being so sleep deprived and just my mental state in that moment of sleep deprivation was very much challenged. So yeah I'd love to cheque in with you and you know, post baby and just see if, you know, anything has changed in regards to your views on stuff or if it's all been backed up by everything that you sort of teach and live by. If people do want to get in touch with you and work with you, who are you looking for and how can people work with you?
Jess Spendlove: Yeah, probably the, the most relevant would be the small group programme that I mentioned. So I am running that again end of September which I'm really excited. I've just finished my beta and all of the business owners and busy professionals in there really got amazing results for them and feel equipped. Like it's not just twelve weeks has solved their life, but twelve weeks has got them well ahead of where they were. And probably the main piece of feedback that's come through is they have self awareness and they've got clarity and they've got more like white space or mental bandwidth to focus on their family or their job rather than stressing about what to eat, when to move, how to do this, how to do that. so that's probably the main one. And then look, if you know there are other people out there who really value that one on one coaching. I do have one or two spots I guess remaining for that. I will be kind of obviously managing that a bit with the upcoming pregnancy. but they're the two kind of main ways that I help people and can support people. Yeah.
Jaimie Abbott: Great. And if people want to get in touch with you, how can they do that?
Jess Spendlove: Yeah, I mean I can give obviously some links for the show notes but probably the best way would be my website, jessicaspenlove.com. otherwise very active on LinkedIn or Instagram. So yeah, Jessica Spenlove on LinkedIn or Jess Spenlove, dietitian on Instagram.
Jaimie Abbott: Yeah, great. And I highly recommend you go to Jess's website as an entrepreneur because her website is sleek, her speaker kit is sleek, her systems are sleek. I love how you just do it when people download your speaker kit. I love how you send them a follow up email. I always use you as a fabulous example, but you've had a rebrand in the last twelve months and it just looks so beautiful with the green and it's just really professional. So as an entrepreneur I recommend you cheque out Jess's Instagram, her website and just, you know, be involved in her world, because from a branding perspective, I think it's just five stars. So congratulations on that.
Jess Spendlove: Oh, thank you. Yeah, it was a big project, a big up level. and it was really thinking about, I guess, this, like, evolution and transition of, you know, what I've gone through, where I'm at, where I'm going, who I'm helping, who I'm looking to do more work with, and really investing, hopefully in that kind of next, this next ten or 15 year phase. Yeah.
Jaimie Abbott: Well, Jess Benlove, thank you so much for coming on to pitch perfect. It's been wonderful to have you on here again. It's been great to be working with you now for almost two years, probably two years since you first joined pay to speak. You're one of the star students and I love working with you. And thanks again for coming on.
Jess Spendlove: Thanks for having me, Jaimie, thanks for.
Jaimie Abbott: Listening to pitch perfect. If you enjoyed this episode, please rate and review it and share it to social media. If you'd like to download my free paid speaking resources, go to Jaimieabbott.com.
