Spotlight Series

Topic: From Burnout to Alignment: Inside ‘That Girl Magic’ with Laken Summerville

Guest Name: Laken Summerville

Guest Title/Credentials: Chief Flow Officer

Discussion Details: Are you tired of chasing success at the expense of your well-being?  Join us for an inspiring conversation with Laken Summerville of That Girl Magic. In this interview, Laken opens up about her journey from chronic hustle to functional mindset coaching.

Benefits of Watching:

1) Uncover the shift from hustle to flow: Learn how Laken moved away from burnout to build a successful model rooted in ease, intuition, and energy.

2) Understand the Heart of That Girl Magic: Discover how her coaching framework helps women rewrite their limiting stories and dismantle imperfection.

3) Pinpoint your Growth Stage:  Hear Laken describe the exact types of women she works with so you can recognize your own blocks and next steps.

Address of Guests’ Business: https://thatgirlmagic.co/

Hi, I’m Viraj. I’m a physical therapist and owner of Accelerate Physical Therapy, and this is my professional spotlight series. Today, I’m featuring Laken Summerville of That Girl Magic.

Welcome, Laken. Hey, Viraj. Thank you for having me on.

I really appreciate it. Real quick, and I know you can cut this if it’s not relevant. Are you recording? Because it’s not showing on my end that you are.

Okay, cool. Sorry, I just wanted to make sure. Thanks for checking on that.

I’ve done that before. I’m so excited to have you here today and talk about your business, That Girl Magic. Do you mind doing a little intro about your business? I would love to, yeah.

So, I am a women’s mindset coach, integrative health practitioner, and co-founder of That Girl Magic. So, what we do is there’s a couple components. First and foremost, we’re a mindset coaching agency, and so we work with women in a one-on-one virtual container.

We’re also going to be rolling out groups, and we do do in-person retreat get-togethers, which is very exciting. I just got back from a retreat in Costa Rica, which was a really beautiful experience, but we provide a space where women can come and talk about the areas in their life where they feel like they’re stuck or they’re struggling, and it’s a little bit different than traditional talk therapy and that’s a little more practical, and we focus a lot more on integration into how that’s being applied in their day-to-day life, what are the specific things in their practices that are holding them back, and what can be added to their practices or removed, taken off their plate, in order to create space for them to be able to take action moving forward. And a big component is the way that you view yourself, right? So, mindset, I think, can sometimes feel very broad and have like an ambiguous definition.

A lot of people that I work with will be like, you should call it something else, because I did not think that’s what it was going to be when we got together. And I keep the broad umbrella because it is all-encompassing, and it’s going to be very nuanced and specific to each woman and her journey and what she brings to the table, and that allows us to meet them there. But at the end of the day, mindset is the story that you tell yourself about yourself, right? And that lens that we view ourself through is going to inform the way that we show up and the way that we choose the paths that we choose or the things that we don’t take action on.

And most of the time that lens that we view ourselves through is built from lived experiences that we have flagged as unsafe, right? As you know, we’re very, very good at highlighting negative experiences and really, really good at minimizing positive ones. And that is a way for our nervous system to keep us safe, because historically that was what was needed. But now where we have constant input all the time, we are flagging experiences to keep us safe, but it also puts us in a very disempowered position in our own narrative.

And so what we do is we work with these women to understand how they’re viewing themselves in their own story, and then create space and clarity to achieve an alternative perspective that can put them in a more empowered position in how they choose to move forward and take action in their life moving forward. That sounds amazing. And I think that a lot of women could benefit from this at different phases of their life, right? Sometimes you get stuck and you can’t move on to that next phase.

And so sometimes pulling that out, extracting and showing them that how to shift is really important. What made you get into your business? Yeah, it’s really funny, because I came to it through a very non-linear path, right? It’s still a progression, as I think most professionals do. I started in the health and wellness space.

So the way that you and I met, Viraj, was through my personal training studio, Greenlight Personal Training. And I’ve been training clients in person virtually since 2011. So doing that a long time along the way, got into more individualized coaching, more focus on women and strength training and postpartum journeys as well, pregnancy and postpartum, and nutrition as it came along with, right? And how important that was.

And then leading into the pandemic, I started to get more into life coaching, because as I was working with clients virtually, and we were all dealing with things that no one had ever dealt with before, that was where I needed to meet my clients. I needed more tools to be able to handle the things that were coming up in our nutrition sessions, because it was quickly very evident that it was not going to be just about nutrition, because they were really struggling with a lot of things that were coming up in their day-to-day lives that was preventing them from being able to execute on the healthy habits that we were outlining. And so I got life coaching certified and also went into NLP, which is neurolinguistics processing, because the language component was really appealing to me of how we talk to ourselves, what are the things that are being held in the subconscious based on the language that we’re or what we choose to absorb, right? And then throughout doing that work, I felt the impact was much deeper.

And I was able to have this ripple effect with my clients, not only in the way of their fitness, not only in the way of their nutrition, but really in the things that they were having belief in themselves and how they were showing up in the world, how they were showing up in their job, in their marriages, with their kids, right? In parenthood. And so it was this really beautiful evolution where I was able to feel so much more fulfilled in what I was able to serve them with. And once I made that shift into mindset coaching, it was a wrap from there.

I still do the personal training and I still offer some nutrition coaching, but most of what I do now is focused on this component, which I believe is much more all-encompassing and provides the big picture approach for what women specifically that I work with are seeking, but really anybody. Yeah. And it seems like something that, you know, it’s almost like, and I’m always looking for root cause when I’m working with people in physical therapy.

And it seems like this belief in mindset might be the root of a lot of issues with their nutrition, with their fitness, with their family life and marriage. So you’re really deep diving and you probably saw that common theme and then now you’re able to make such a, in giving them this opportunity to address their mindset, they’re probably making all these big shifts. Yeah.

It was like, you know, watching, being able to witness in real time, the progression of self-belief and self-confidence that would come about from being able to be strong, feel stronger, right? Like lift heavier things, do things that they may have dismissed or said that that was not possible, that I’d never be able to do or never imagined and self being able to do either in the gym in person or, you know, in their life when it came to habits and then seeing how that could translate to other places, right? Like confidence is very contagious. And so if I can visualize and collect evidence that I’m able to be highly capable in one area, how we do one thing is how we do everything. And then it would leak into these other spaces where it’s like, oh, suddenly I’m speaking up for myself.

Suddenly I’m able to hold boundaries better. Right. And that was, that was where like all the good stuff was.

Yeah. And is, you say women, is this women and men or do, do women just are they, are they the main ones that just come to you for this type of therapy or do you just see women? Currently I only serve women. I have worked with both men and women in the past, but as I got much clearer on my message and my niche and who I resonated with the most, it just kind of happened that way, right? It’s like, I would magnetize the women who needed that space the most.

And I also think there’s something really, really magical about women being able to come together and share those experiences and the way that they are, the way that women approach coaching, I think is very differently than being coached. And so it just was kind of naturally went in that direction. Okay.

So how has your business evolved over the past years and what do you want to stand for today? I know that you mentioned that you just came back from Costa Rica, you’re doing some treats. So talk to me a little bit about what’s going on with Fat Girl Magic right now. Yeah.

So like I said, it, you know, it started in the fitness and wellness space and then evolved into the deeper mindset work. Because at the root of it is the behavior change, right? And behavior change doesn’t last. It’s not sustainable if there’s not a shift in identity.

And so a big focus now is standing for self-trust. Like that to me is this pillar in the way that women relate to their world around them, right? We have so much conditioning that feeds into self-doubt and self-doubt is like the big eroder to me of sense of self, right? So I think so many women will say, I just want to love myself more, right? A common thing here is like, I don’t feel like I’m enough, right? And they think that self-love is going to be the thing that gets them to where they want to be. And they also, for the most part, believe that self-love is going to arrive when, right? Like, oh, I’ll love myself when I get to a certain size.

I’ll love myself when I get to a certain achievement. I’ll love myself when my partner sees me in a certain way, right? It’s all this external validation, but in the same way that any other relationship or love has to be developed, it has to start with trust. I cannot love someone that I do not trust, right? And that applies also to the relationship with self.

And so if we do not trust ourselves, then how can we truly love ourselves? And it happens in those little promises each day, right? If we’re breaking those little promises to ourselves, if we’re always putting ourselves on the back burner, if our needs are always the ones that come last with whatever is left over, then how can we truly cultivate a space of self-love where we can act from a place of abundance and not like obligation and resentment and lack, right? So that’s really the direction that I’ve been honing in moving forward in the work that I’ve been doing with women, where I’ve seen this common thread that almost always appears regardless of where this woman is coming from, what her journey is, what phase of life or season that she’s in, that almost always applies. And how do these sessions work? Are they individual sessions? Are they group sessions? Right now, the majority of them are all one-on-one virtual sessions. So we do hour-long sessions.

We do packages. That’s the most flexible that we found. So that allows our clients to choose how many sessions they want to move forward with.

And then it’s flexible from there. We schedule them as needed. If they need to take a break, they can.

Each session is an hour. And we’re going to meet you with whatever is most present for you. And it’s going to have integration, homework, and access points in between, right? So we can have this continued support that feels very, you feel very held.

But that’s the majority of how things are handled in Container right now. We will be rolling out group options within the next year. And then in addition to that, our in-person options are retreats.

Okay, yeah. And so tell me a little bit about the retreats and how they’re helpful. Yeah, I think retreats are so magical because we do so much virtually now that being able to have the opportunity to be in person with people, especially people that we don’t know, is such a, like a contrast, like a stark contrast to what happens in our day-to-day life, right? We get so in the zone of like, okay, I do this.

This is my routine. This is my to-do list. I interact with these people at work.

And then maybe I socialize with my friends once a month, right? Because my schedule is so busy. And so to be able to do something, not only to say yes to something that feels really soul-centered and that’s for yourself, but also to be in a group of like-minded women that you may never have access to in your regular day-to-day environment. Or what’s really, what’s really, really beautiful to me is the way that these women can relate to each other in seeing a version of themselves in another woman’s story, that they would not have allowed the opportunity to occur in their regular environment, right? So women came away from this experience most recently.

And one of the things that really resonated with me is it was like, I was so thankful to get to know so-and-so because I would probably never even approach her in real life, right? Or I wouldn’t, I would, I maybe would have judged her, or I maybe would have not gone that deep with someone because it didn’t feel appropriate or safe, right? And so it creates a level of safety that allows women to really truly see each other without like the performing and the mask. And that is such a beautiful experience. I think every woman should have at least once.

Yeah. And it’s just connecting with another human being. Yes.

Because, I mean, so often we’re connecting maybe through social media or through, you know, just, yeah, Facebook, Instagram, and that’s, that is a type of connection, but the human connection, nothing can beat that. And I think that is probably really grounding, like you said, very safe for the systems. And why do you feel like women need this type of support? Or like, well, the other thing about it is I think that more than ever right now, we have like these big pendulum swings, right? And so we went from, we’re like in this, in this interesting swing right now, this is just how, this is just my opinion of a generation of women who saw what was available to the women before them and said, no, I don’t want that.

But then they were told, well, you can do anything, right? So you can do it all. And then we’re trying to do it all. And our nervous systems are crashing because of it, right? It’s like, we’re trying to hold all the things, like we’re juggling the business, the family, our relationships, trying to handle our own personal development and growth and take care of ourselves and our, you know, our, our health.

And it feels very overwhelming because it’s, oh, well, you have all these options, but then we’re trying to do everything. And this space allows for women to feel held and cared for in a way that they most likely are not receiving or allowing themselves to receive in their regular day-to-day life, right? To be able to show up and just, all you have to do is worry about your itinerary, like your flight, and to be able to be shown an experience where you can just arrive and send your bags to your room and then your meals are prepared for you. You don’t have to think about grocery shopping or cooking or what’s in it, or, you know, is it healthy? You have facilitators that are there providing education, introspection, and being able to be guided through self, self like discovery, right? And also the sisterhood component where you probably are void of that in your regular life, at least on a deep level in many ways, and a relief of the day-to-day burden of responsibilities for that short period of time.

That is very rare now, and it’s not very often that women allow themselves that. And so that’s also very magical to be able to experience that and say, I can feel the difference here, and how can I take a little bit of this home? And we talk about that too. It’s not something where, you know, we say what happens here doesn’t stay here, right? Like what is the smallest component of this that can be applied to your day-to-day life? And then how do we progress it from there? That’s a part of the integration.

That’s really important too. And those are some of the things that we work with in the one-to-one container as it pertains specifically to that woman’s life, right? So it’s both and. It’s not just a vacation, like a girl’s trip that you go to, and you’re like, okay, that was great, you know, right back to real life.

Like it should be different before and different after. I don’t think most women realize that they need that type of support and nurturing because you’re so used to just being on top of everything. You’re the one giving all of that, and like your bucket is like completely, it’s like, you don’t, it’s empty.

And so until I think having that care and that joy and that connection and support, I think once you feel it and sense it, I think that that really is fulfilling. And you probably won’t realize it until you come back into your life and you’re like, oh my God, I just feel like such a different person, maybe in my family and my work and my, we’re just not used to getting that type of support. And how much of our identity is like wrapped up in being the go-to, right? Like being the one that everybody relies on.

Cause we get really validated in that. You get a lot of good kudos for being, you know, that woman that handles everything all the time. And so you’re working against that too.

Yeah. Well, I appreciate that. Talk to me a little bit about, you talked a lot about the benefits and what you’re seeing with these shifts with these women.

What, what happens, have you seen on the other end, like, you know, what happens if you don’t, if you wait too long to take action or can you wait too long to take action? Yeah. I mean, I, I’m someone that believes that it’s never too late, right? Like it’s only too late when you’re dead. There’s always an opportunity to be able to take action that leads you in a direction that is different than the one that you’re going towards.

Right. Something I tell my clients all the time is you’re only ever one choice away from getting back on track ever. And it doesn’t have to be big.

And I think that’s, that’s the misstep is that we want it to feel like big and sexy for it to count. And it doesn’t, it’s actually like all the magic happens in the small stuff, but if we don’t take any action, then that’s where those old patterns deepen. Right.

So if we think about, if we were to think about like, um, like a vehicle driving on the beach in a circle, right. And it’s maybe not going in the direction that we want it to go, but the more that we drive in that circle, it’s like the deeper that the grooves get in the sand. And all we would have to do is turn the wheel the other direction, but it feels more and more difficult to do that the longer that we stay in that pattern.

And so in that way, when we avoid taking action for longer and longer, that pattern tends to deepen. And then what we’re doing that whole time is we’re collecting more and more evidence to serve the narrative that we feel stuck in. Right.

Cause our we’re, we’re biased to that. So it’s, for example, if I believe that I have to be the one that does everything that I can’t rely on anybody else. And I stay in that pattern all the while I’m collecting the evidence every time I’m showing up and not being able to receive from others that I’m still the one that everyone relies on and no one does anything for me.

So what would you say to someone right now who kind of needed some validation? Like, how would, how would I know that I needed to work with you? I would say you do not need permission. Like you’re not, you don’t need more permission in order to be able to take action on something that aligns for you or that feels in service of you. Right.

Like I, it’s funny that this is coming up because I was just talking to somebody about the difference between being self-centered versus soul centered, right? Because we women, a lot of times have a very negative connotation with taking care of ourselves. We’ve been told that it is selfish, that it takes away from other people, but that’s not the case when it comes from a place of replenishment, because when I replenish, then I actually have more to give, you know, we ever, you hear all the time, you can’t pour from an empty cup, but it’s very true. And we treat our nourishment, our nurturing, our service to others as with a very scarce mentality, right? Like it’s this finite pie.

And then once I give these pieces out, then there’s nothing left. And that’s what breeds the resentment. But if I can treat it more like a water table, where it’s like, if I can continue to pour more into it, then there’s more for everybody that’s available.

But I can’t continue to do that if I’m not pouring back into it, if it is depleted. And the issue at hand too, I think when we talked about like those patterns getting deeper is that most women, I would say you probably already know what needs to change. It’s the overwhelm of feeling like, oh, it’s just one more thing that I have to do and add to my to-do list.

Or it’s just, you know, that feels too overwhelming. It feels like a lot of work because it’s only because it’s unfamiliar, right? So the longer you avoid it, the louder it’s going to get. And it’s just about starting with one like honest decision, like again, like the smallest viable rep, right? Like what’s the smallest thing that you could do? And it might not even be jumping into a container with someone like me right away.

It might just be, oh, can I keep a promise to myself today? Like if I told myself that I was going to go on a walk after lunch, can I just go on the walk? What’s a realistic amount that I can go for? If I told myself that I was going to go to bed at a certain time, so I feel rested in the morning, can I keep that small promise, right? Like self-trust is built in motion, not in the overthinking. That’s where we stay stuck in that spiral. I love it.

I love everything that you’re saying. I think more women need to hear this because I don’t think that it’s a normal thing that we hear. I think we might feel it and sense it, but then we quickly ignore it.

But it’s great that you’re bringing a voice to it and saying that, hey, there’s something that you can do about it. And it’s okay to give back to yourself and feel love and trust yourself again. Can we listen to the body? And this is another reason for why I was led to this work is because of my own personal experience, right? Of being disconnected from my body, of being shut off from my intuition over years and years of overriding, right? Where it was, I have to focus on success and achievement and pushing all the time.

And once I recognized that and started to realize, oh, like as women, we know, right? Like we have that intuitive hit. It doesn’t necessarily go away, but after overriding it so many times, it becomes less available to us. The signal is like a little quieter and it’s a little harder to identify.

And when we self-abandon again and again and again, that’s what starts to feel more familiar. So it’s in that rediscovery of, can I start to get, can I refamiliarize myself with what is physically happening in my body and correlate that to the meaning of what the need is, right? We don’t take space to do that. And sometimes that is some of the deepest work that I do as a coach is, can I just help you get back in tune with what your intuition is saying so that you can make choices that feel very aligned for you instead of always being worried about the negative consequence of the choice.

Yes. I love that. Thank you so much.

This was great. Thanks for sharing your story. Thanks for talking about what your passion is.

I can tell you’re so passionate about it and about having this service for the women in our community. Thanks again. Thank you, Viraj.

I appreciate it. Yeah.