Leisa: 00:01

Hey, besties. My name is Leisa.

Tamara: 00:03

And my name is Tamara, and we're BFFs.

Leisa: 00:06

Tamara and I met when we were about 12 years old growing up in good old Fairbanks, Alaska.

Tamara: 00:11

And we've been best friends forever since.

Leisa: 00:13

That's right. And that's why we've decided to have some fun, friendly conversations with the bestest of best friends.

Tamara: 00:18

We'll talk about how we became best friends, our experiences together, and have other best friends on the show to share how they met. Who knows? You never

Leisa: 00:27

know when you'll meet your next BFF.

Tamara: 00:30

Now let's get into it, how I met my BFF.

Leisa: 00:34

Welcome to another episode of how I met my BFF. Hi, Tamara.

Tamara: 00:40

Hey, Lisa. How's it going?

Leisa: 00:42

It's good. I'm still on a little bit of a high from last weekend. I had a birthday.

Tamara: 00:50

Yes.

Leisa: 00:51

Happy birthday. As many years old as there are cards in a deck, and I did a thing. I did a stand up comedy debut, and it was I did it knowing that like, I was like, if I'm gonna have a birthday party, like, I'm just gonna have it around my birthday because then that way, everyone could get together and that'll be, like, quote, unquote, the party. And it was so fun. It was so fun to have everyone there.

Leisa: 01:21

Because usually when I speak, I'm not speaking to friends and family. I'm speaking to strangers or people in business that I, you know, I might know some people, but a lot of times, it's strangers. And so it was really cool to be on stage for my friends and family. And luckily, I was funny. I mean, they thought it was funny, so hopefully, it's true.

Leisa: 01:42

And I just had a really good time. Everyone was laughing. It was just it really it I someone said, how did it go? And I said, honestly, I think it went better than I could've ever imagined. Like, it just minus the Netflix executive sitting there going, we need to put a show on for you.

Leisa: 01:57

I that was the only thing missing, really. I think it just went really, really well, considering it was my very first time. I mean, sure. If I look back a year from now after, you know, maybe I'll have more experience in comedy. I don't know.

Leisa: 02:10

I'm sure they'll be like, oh, there's things I coulda done, but I was really proud of myself. And so I'm gonna give myself a pat on the phone.

Jenny Harkleroad: 02:18

I'm proud of you.

Tamara: 02:19

I can't wait to see it. I'm sorry I wasn't able to be there in person, but I'm sure you kicked butt as usual.

Leisa: 02:28

Yes. It was so fun. So yeah. It was it was like this challenge. I think I think I can't remember if I had mentioned it on the show, but there was a woman in my audience who had seen me, and she's a comedian.

Leisa: 02:38

And she's like, you should you should consider doing this. And I thought, no. No. No. No.

Leisa: 02:43

No. And then I'm like, well, maybe, yes. Why is this opportunity showing up for me? And I just said, okay. I don't know what I'm gonna talk about, but I'll do it.

Leisa: 02:53

And I started to really write down and catalog, I guess, the things that I thought were funny in my mind that I usually don't record. You know? I I mean, I don't mean record video. Just like I don't even write it down. I just it's like Tuesday, and I forgot it by Wednesday.

Leisa: 03:11

So it was it's really cool, and it's created a new habit for me of of starting to jot those things down even if it doesn't make complete sense yet. So that's kinda cool.

Tamara: 03:21

Well, congratulations, and happy birthday.

Leisa: 03:24

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And someone else's birthday is coming up.

Tamara: 03:28

Older than me right now. So

Leisa: 03:29

I know. Yes. Poke it in. One. We've got another month a little less than a month to go.

Leisa: 03:35

Yeah. Well, we have some amazing BFF guests today. We've got Jenny Harkleroad and Kelly Russell. Welcome, Jenny and Kelly. Thank you.

Leisa: 03:45

Happy to be here.

Kelli Russell: 03:47

Nice to meet you guys.

Leisa: 03:48

Yeah. We're so excited. I I've known Jenny, full disclosure to our besties, I've known Jenny for, gosh, probably 10 years or so. I mean, it's been a while. Definitely before the pandemic.

Leisa: 04:02

I know that. But I thought, oh, cool. I can't wait to meet Jenny's best friend. This is gonna be awesome. So, Kelly, why don't you let us know how did you and Jenny meet?

Leisa: 04:17

Like, what's your perspective of how you met?

Kelli Russell: 04:20

2 different places. 1 was at our children's preschool. At the first day that we arrived orientation, and then also through a gym, where I was a teacher and she was going into the class after me and we would, cross paths. So it was just an instant connection and liking right off the bat.

Leisa: 04:40

Oh, cool. And then what about you, Jenny? Is that how you remember it or do you have any other perspectives you wanna add?

Jenny Harkleroad: 04:47

Yeah. I remember the first time I saw her, she was in the playground playing with her daughter. It was at at that same orientation. And you know how they say, like, birds of a feather flock together or you're like the people you hang around? Well, Kelly is super fit.

Jenny Harkleroad: 05:02

And when I saw her, I was like, I wanna be that fit someday. So maybe if I hang out with that lady, I'll look like that someday. I remember thinking that. And then I remember trying to catch her eye to, like, say hi in a playground, and she was super focused on her daughter and didn't know I existed. And I was, like, staring at her.

Jenny Harkleroad: 05:20

So I thought, oh, I'll catch her later. And I went down, I started talking to this super friendly guy, and then she comes down, turns out the super friendly guy was her husband.

Kelli Russell: 05:29

So Oh my gosh.

Jenny Harkleroad: 05:30

That was my first, recollection of Kelly and wanting to get to know her.

Leisa: 05:34

Oh, that's so fun. Your your your intuition was guiding you correctly. Yeah. And so maybe, Kelly, tell us a little bit about how then it went from this could've been a completely random meeting. Maybe it could've just happened one time and you never talked again, but something happened where you started to develop a friendship.

Kelli Russell: 05:56

Well, I remember Jenny started coming to my class after a while. And I particularly remember we wanted to learn how to do handstands together. So I had this idea that after class, we would just go to this wall and pop up for 30 seconds and do handstands. So, like, for a year. So, after class, we'd try our little handstand.

Kelli Russell: 06:17

And I don't know. We started going to lunch on Wednesdays. Became a regular thing. And just immediately like a consistent friendship. And what it turns into now is we just love to go on walks and hikes together and just be out in nature and just talk about life.

Kelli Russell: 06:34

So that's what it's morphed into.

Leisa: 06:36

That's beautiful. How about you, Jenny? What how did what's your perspective of how the friendship started to develop?

Jenny Harkleroad: 06:43

I would say I stalked her a little bit.

Leisa: 06:46

This is where we're getting the real truth here, y'all. Breaking news.

Jenny Harkleroad: 06:52

I wanted to be your friend, but again, like, how do you go from high to, like, you know, let's hang out together. And I remember I was just kind of, like, literally brainstorming. How am I gonna, like, get to know this lady? And she gave me an invitation to her daughter's birthday party for my son. And I was like, oh, now I have her phone number.

Jenny Harkleroad: 07:12

Okay. Okay. We're making

Leisa: 07:14

progress. Address, maybe.

Jenny Harkleroad: 07:17

Yeah. And it helped that my son and her daughter at 4 years old had this little thing. They liked each other. Yeah. So that was another excuse, like, hey, do you wanna get together and let the kids hang out?

Jenny Harkleroad: 07:29

And I think we kinda helped each other out a little bit. I was in real estate at the time. I'd be like, hey. Can you pick up Josh? Or, you know, she was teaching a class.

Jenny Harkleroad: 07:36

Hey. Can you pick up Bry? So it kinda started like that.

Leisa: 07:41

Like, yeah, helping mom moms helping moms. Right? Yeah. That's so funny. I had no idea you were, that determined, Jenny.

Leisa: 07:49

That's so funny. And then when did it go to best friendship? Because that's a different, you know, iteration then of of a relationship.

Kelli Russell: 07:59

I felt

Leisa: 07:59

like I was

Kelli Russell: 08:00

yeah. Almost immediately. I don't know how. I just it just morphed and gelled so well that it was just so easeful. There was no friction.

Kelli Russell: 08:11

It's always been easeful. I'm just so appreciative of the friendship. It's been a really consistent positive force in my life. And Jenny is just one of those people that lights up the world. So to be able to have that consistent friendship is just beautiful and lucky.

Leisa: 08:30

Alright. Lucky. We're lucky.

Kelli Russell: 08:32

Yeah. Thanks, Gil. Yeah.

Leisa: 08:35

How about you, Jenny? What what for you shifted to best friendship?

Jenny Harkleroad: 08:42

Yeah. Excuse me. You know, Kelly is, like, the best listener I've ever met in my life, and it was so refreshing to have somebody who would listen and not judgmental at all and very logical. And so the things I would share with her were just like, I could say anything, and I just felt so comfortable with her. And I remember one time we were we would work out a lot together.

Jenny Harkleroad: 09:06

We were at 24 Hour Fitness, and we're walking up the stairs and and I said, hey, I wanna tell you something. And I was behind her. She immediately stopped and turned around and stared at me on the staircase. And I'm like, what what what's going on? And she's like, well, you said you wanted to say it?

Jenny Harkleroad: 09:23

Tell me something. I was like, well, I I mean, it doesn't have to be right the second on the stairs, like, in the middle of stair traffic. Like, that's just how she is. And, I felt like I never had anybody that would listen like that before. And so, usually, I'm I'm a little I mean, I'm not shy on stage.

Jenny Harkleroad: 09:40

I'm not shy networking. But if I'm in a crowd, it's just, like, friendly. I'm pretty quiet usually. And I felt like every time I got around Kelly, I was just I couldn't stop talking. And it was just like, I felt so comfortable with her.

Leisa: 09:53

That's beautiful. Yeah. Wow. Is there anything that you I guess, I'll bring it back to Kelly. Like, what would you say are the things you love the absolute most about Jenny?

Kelli Russell: 10:13

She has no limiting beliefs. She is the most positive person I know. The most confident, the most inspired, the most driven. Anything that she can think of she can manifest. She builds things on the way.

Kelli Russell: 10:29

So if somebody asks her to do something and she's interested in it. She'll immediately say yes without like if they'll say, oh, do you have a program for such and such? Oh, yeah. Totally. I can have that.

Kelli Russell: 10:40

And meanwhile, she needs to develop it in like, it's not developed yet. She'll just say yes and figure it out and immediately put something together and it'll be brilliant. So it's kind of like one of those things where she will jump out of an airplane and build her wings on the way out. And it's totally opposite from the way I go about things. And to me, it's so inspiring and refreshing.

Kelli Russell: 11:02

And to have, like, a a real living model of that to show me that that's possible is just so inspiring. And just the kindest, sweetest, go getter you would ever meet. Thanks. That's awesome.

Leisa: 11:20

Appreciate that. Yeah. From what I know that sound, that tracks. I always say, like, don't be fooled. She's quiet, but she's fierce.

Leisa: 11:27

Like, she she's gonna get it done.

Kelli Russell: 11:30

Oh, for sure.

Leisa: 11:32

I love that. What about you, Jenny? What do you what do you wanna oh, sorry, Tamara. Go ahead. Yeah.

Leisa: 11:37

Go ahead. Oh, I can end up dominating the conversation, obviously. So, Jenny, what about you? What do you love about Kelly? I mean, you already shared some things.

Leisa: 11:48

But

Jenny Harkleroad: 11:49

Yeah. Yeah. Definitely her listening, her her caring. She's interested in anything I have to tell her. You know?

Jenny Harkleroad: 11:57

And and she's very smart and thoughtful. She'll ask me a ton of questions, and she always has me thinking of things in a new way. And so it's always like, how did you come up with that? That was so smart. Why didn't I think of that?

Jenny Harkleroad: 12:12

Constantly, I'm thinking that when she talks to me. So, and her logic, it's just I feel like I'm more of an emotional person even though I maybe don't respond that way on the outside. I kind of take things more emotionally on the inside, and I feel like she's super logical about things. So it's like, woah. You know, if there's this problem, here's, like, 5 solutions, so let's focus on that.

Jenny Harkleroad: 12:33

And, you know, just very logical logically minded, and I've always thought that was so amazing because it's like, I I don't think that way. So I I love it. I've learned from her.

Leisa: 12:47

And it's interesting because it sounds like when you first met, you weren't doing the same careers that you're doing now. Yet what you do now is I don't know if it's exactly the it's not exactly the same, but in a similar realm. Right? How did that how did the business part develop, like, separately, but you guys are kind of on a similar journey, maybe? I'm not really sure.

Leisa: 13:12

Kelly, do you wanna chime in for that?

Kelli Russell: 13:15

It's super entwined. My my background before I met Jenny was psychology, marriage and family therapy. And then I was teaching yoga and meditation. Jenny had an injury where she broke her back. And, they opted not to do surgery, but she was airlifted off a mountain.

Kelli Russell: 13:39

And I watched her for 2 years try to heal herself, from sports kinesiology, painful massage where they're rolling the ligaments and tendons, osteopathic doctors. And then she went into Eastern medicine, you know, like acupuncture, acupressure. How do I treat this holistically? And nothing worked. She ended up doing surgery, pain pills.

Kelli Russell: 14:05

That didn't work. And she found this emotional kinesiologist, this doctor who gets into the subconscious mind to figure out what's going on. And within a few sessions, her pain went away. And so me with my background, I was like, what is this magic? What just happened?

Kelli Russell: 14:22

And I watched her struggle and then I watched the pain disappear. So it changed Jenny's life completely to where she became a subconscious change facilitator. She offered me and Kevin, my husband, complimentary work because she was learning these skills. And then I noticed like our relationship started changing. I started changing.

Kelli Russell: 14:47

I started hearing about the success of all the people that Jenny was working with. And I was like, there's something here. I need to learn this. And I didn't wanna copy Jenny just, you know, as a copycat. But I was so inspired.

Kelli Russell: 15:01

I started studying 36 different modalities of energy healing and subconscious change. And I ended up with 2. And one was the one that Jenny initially offered us. And then one was separate. And then we just kind of split off.

Kelli Russell: 15:16

You know, Jenny went more into the business of how do people and she helps people of all types, but definitely those in business. And then I kind of took mine to work interpersonally with with others. But it's because of my inspiration of Jenny's story and her offering to let us experience it. That's why I do what I do now.

Leisa: 15:38

Wow. That's crazy. Like, I love that story. I mean, that wasn't even an expectation of your friendship, you know, that, oh, wow. We're both gonna have these different completely different careers, and one's gonna affect the other.

Leisa: 15:54

And wow. That's like an extra bonus gift I from from your friendship.

Jenny Harkleroad: 16:01

That's incredible. Amazingly, not only did Kelly start doing this type of work, so did her husband. Yeah. Crazy.

Leisa: 16:08

And you guys and you guys have a podcast about it. Right? What's the podcast called? Yeah.

Kelli Russell: 16:12

It's called Radical Enlightenment. Yeah.

Leisa: 16:15

And the 2 of you co host together?

Kelli Russell: 16:17

We actually do. We had a couple together, but we individually, work with whatever we find inspiring. Like, he might find something that he thinks is interesting that's in the realm and then I might. So we kind of alternate.

Leisa: 16:31

Oh, that's cool. Mhmm. It's neat. Yeah. So, Jenny, how about you?

Leisa: 16:36

I mean, Kelly kinda shared your some of your story, which I already knew I already knew that part. But for you, how was it, like, shifting what you're both doing and then it shifting your careers as your friendship? I don't to me, that's an incredible story. Yeah. How was that for you?

Jenny Harkleroad: 16:55

It's so fun because we were just interested. We are interested in the same type of things. And so it's fascinating to share what we're learning, what we're experiencing, what our clients are experiencing, and just the power of the mind and what you can do. So it it just gives us something that we can talk about forever because there's so many things that we're interested in that are the same. So it's really fun.

Leisa: 17:19

And for our besties who are probably going, wait, what is this subconscious change maker? Like, what what is the modality? What is the thing? How do I get what do Jenny, how do they get what you're doing? Because I've experienced it myself.

Leisa: 17:34

I've had sessions with you, and I have your app, and I recommend it to people all the time. So tell us tell us more about that.

Jenny Harkleroad: 17:40

Awesome. Thank you. You can find me at balancedyou.org. That's my website. And I have an app, and it's called leap transformation, leap like a frog, and it's in the App Store and Play Store.

Jenny Harkleroad: 17:53

It's an advanced mindset coaching app, so you can go there to solve your problems, achieve your goals, work on personal growth. It's a little secret to your success in your back pocket.

Leisa: 18:04

What I like about it is that it's it sounds like too good to be true, but it's it's really cool how it works. I mean, Jenny is there. Mhmm. And it's so smart that you can put in, like, I'm it's like, what's what are you working on today? Oh, I'd like to work on weight loss or I'm stressed out.

Leisa: 18:26

I have an emotional issue or I have a business goal. Whatever. It could be money. It could be feelings. It could be something fun.

Leisa: 18:34

It could just be like, I used it one time when I was getting ready to lead a meeting and I was, like, feeling particularly tense. And I'm like, I'm just gonna put my Leap transformation app on, and I wanna feel calm and grounded. And I ran through it, and I was like and it was so cool because a whole bunch of tech issues happened during that meeting, and I was cool as a cucumber. And and it but so I mean, it's hard to imagine that that could happen for someone who's never dove into personal development or this kind of kind of work, but it was so cool. And Other things too, but but it's really fascinating.

Jenny Harkleroad: 19:15

Thanks, Lisa. That's the power of your subconscious mind. Change things so fast.

Leisa: 19:20

Well and I mean, Tamara and I, you know, I I grew up with my dad as a hypnotherapist. So I was I know how to hypnotize myself since I was, like, a little kid and I'm, you know, pretty well versed in that concept. Like, that's not, like, foreign to me. I grew up with that, but I don't really wanna go into a hypnotic state to get that all the time. You know?

Leisa: 19:43

So so it's it's fascinating the different, modalities that are available now that as they're researching how the brain works and neural pathways. I, like, I think that's awesome. So if you can get that in, like, 12 minutes, some of your sessions are, like, 8 minutes, 12 minutes, whatever. I think that's powerful. And I I don't know, Kelly, what your modalities are.

Leisa: 20:04

You have another one that you use, but, I just love it. I wish everyone had that. I mean, like, kindergarteners, preschoolers could could do this to 90 year olds. It's not it's it's it can be available for everybody.

Kelli Russell: 20:17

Yes. I I love that you just said that. I have 98 year old sorry. 8080 7 year old clients that are husband and wife. They started to coming to me when they were 86.

Kelli Russell: 20:29

But they said, like, 95% of our relationship is really good, but we wanna change that little 5%. And we have these death spiral arguments.

Leisa: 20:39

Mhmm.

Kelli Russell: 20:39

And we were able to, through a few sessions, change that. And they're like, a miracle has occurred. In the 60 something years that we've been married, we no longer do that. So it's like an ability to change an old pattern to do something different after all those years. That's what's so awesome about getting into the subconscious and creating those changes.

Leisa: 21:01

I love it. I love their enthusiasm. It's like I've been dealing with this problem for 60 years and I'm not taking it anymore. Like, if even if we live one more year, it would I just I love that. I love that.

Kelli Russell: 21:15

I know not only that they would wanna change even the 5%, but at, like, at any age, you can create a shift. And we're always learning and evolving and growing, so that's inspiring in so many ways to me.

Leisa: 21:28

Yeah. It just takes the decision. Well, it's not I mean, to be willing, to be open, to be curious, to try something different, try something new. I'm reading a book right now and or listening to it on Audible. And at the beginning, he's like, okay.

Leisa: 21:42

This is gonna sound really unorthodox. This is not like anything you you've ever heard, and I'm just asking that you trust me. And if you go through the process and you it doesn't work, go and live your life. Do whatever you need to do. But just for this this book, are you willing to follow my lead?

Leisa: 22:03

And I'm like, yeah. Let's do it. Yeah. So but that willingness and curiosity isn't we don't all have that. Tamara, did you wanna say anything?

Leisa: 22:14

I've been chitty chatting the whole time. She's like, no. No. You're on mute.

Tamara: 22:25

The questions I was going to ask were kind of already answered, but I guess, just a little bit back to best friend situation. If you guys were together after we get off of this podcast, what would you go do for fun together?

Jenny Harkleroad: 22:42

Well, you wanna share?

Kelli Russell: 22:45

We would go for a hike. Yep. We're always looking for new places around, our city. So usually, we're doing a little bit of research. We find some cool unique spot.

Kelli Russell: 22:56

We walk for hours. We talk about life. We share stories. We we talk about clients sometimes if we have something tough going on. We offer each other feedback or advice.

Kelli Russell: 23:08

And it's just great. Like, there's something so healing about that. Just being outside, fresh air with a person who's awesome, just listening and talking. You know? And there's something about, like, the movement that's it's just all flowing.

Kelli Russell: 23:22

So that's what I like to do.

Leisa: 23:26

Love it. Oh, and I think our besties might wanna know. So I'm assuming that you did learn how to do the handstands after all that practice.

Kelli Russell: 23:35

Yes.

Leisa: 23:36

Yes. Okay. Good.

Jenny Harkleroad: 23:37

Kelly Kelly definitely did. I broke my back somewhere in that practice process and and got off that bandwagon, but Kelly's the master handstander now.

Kelli Russell: 23:47

No. Jenny had it. Jenny Jenny was holding it. She had it too. It was fun.

Leisa: 23:52

And to be fair, you know, you didn't break your back trying to get handstands. Oh, no. Just in case anyone's confused. I feel a little

Jenny Harkleroad: 23:59

bit of my head one time. Remember?

Leisa: 24:02

Yeah. I

Jenny Harkleroad: 24:02

was upside down, and Kelly was like, point your toes more. Like, I was so focused on my legs that I forgot to keep the arms strong. And before I know it, I was sliding down the wall and we were

Leisa: 24:16

That's funny. Good for you for trying. I love the dedication. Yeah. I grew up as a gymnast, so I was always upside down as a kid.

Leisa: 24:23

Like, you could not keep me right side up. But, you know, body change. I can still do handstands now, but my body definitely knows how to do it more than I mean, like, my memory of how to do it is intact. The ability, because I don't do it very often, a little bit rougher than how I'd like it to be. But I could try it.

Leisa: 24:47

Yeah. You can try that. Get it back. Now that I'm I'm feeling inspired, thank you for sharing your beautiful story. I love hearing how you met pretty I mean, it you don't end up becoming best friends with every single person at who's a parent at your school, you know, or a day care or at the gym.

Leisa: 25:07

But there was a spark there. Jenny, you followed your intuition. Kelly, you you there was something within you. You're like, yes. And the kids helped.

Leisa: 25:16

I mean, in the and then look at life, how it how it turned out, and you're both helping so many people. I love it. Keep going on, and we just really appreciate you sharing your story.

Jenny Harkleroad: 25:28

Now those it's a graduated high school. Little preschoolers. It's crazy how time flies.

Leisa: 25:35

I know. They get older and we don't. It's amazing.

Jenny Harkleroad: 25:38

Thank goodness that we don't.

Kelli Russell: 25:40

I think it's so cool. It's such a great reminder too because, you know, I have a a lot of clients who come and they're, like, moving to a new place or they wanna meet new people or they want new friends or they've evolved and they're, like, I'm not really fitting in with my old group anymore. But just to be able to go up to somebody and start a conversation or ask them, do you wanna hang out? Would you like to go for a walk? Do you wanna go grab a coffee?

Kelli Russell: 26:03

Would you like to go to lunch? And like, Jenny was so inspiring and and taking that first move to actually say the thing that we wanna say that we're embarrassed to say sometimes. So, that's just a great reminder for all of us. Like you see somebody cool and you're like, oh, she looks like he or she looks like a cool friend. I'm just gonna go up and talk to them.

Kelli Russell: 26:24

I'm gonna ask them to to go out and do something. So I love that, Jenny. Thank you for being the the instigator.

Leisa: 26:31

Catalyst. Yeah. I love it. Yeah. Alright, besties.

Leisa: 26:34

If you're out there and you're wanna find another bestie that you heard it here. Go go invite someone to lunch. Alright. We'll see everyone on the next episode. Thank you.

Leisa: 26:45

Bye. Hey, bestie. Thanks for listening. If you like this episode, be sure to hit that subscribe button to get notified of new episodes and check out cool bestie gift ideas at how I met my bff.com.

Tamara: 27:00

That's right. And also, leave us a review. Those reviews help us out a lot and are one of the best ways to support us.

Leisa: 27:07

Yes. And if you have a fun story about how you met your BFF, send us an email at info at how I met my bff.com. We would love to hear about it.

Tamara: 27:15

Definitely. And, hey, maybe we'll have you on our next episode.

Leisa: 27:20

That would be awesome. Until next time.

Tamara: 27:23

Love you, BFFs.