Family, Faith, Fitness, Finances: Maren’s Blueprint for Success in the New Year

My Resolution Philosophy

I know this time of year, the New Year, everyone has their resolutions or they’re choosing their, quote, unquote, word of the year. But if you know, you know, I don’t roll like that.

First of all, when it comes to resolutions, I know myself. And if I really wanna do something, I need to do it in the moment, and I cannot wait until the new year. In fact, my husband says that I am the absolute worst person to buy anything for because if I see something, I just buy it. Like, I don’t wait for a birthday. I don’t wait for a holiday. Like, that’s just my personality.

See a job, do a job, want something, work hard, get it. And I also know that when it comes to resolutions, besides needing to do it in the moment, like, in not waiting until the new year, habits are made today, whether it happens to be the 1st of the year or not.

When it comes to choosing a particular word, I don’t like being confined to one word. I’d rather focus on a few values that I personally hold near and dear to my heart. But if we would like to be a little cutesy, if you will, we can use some alliteration.

So I started thinking about where I wanted to be planted in 2025. And the answer to me was very simple.

Aligning With Faith

Now faith always needs to come first for me because that’s how I truly believe everything else falls into place. I truly believe that God has brought us all the people, experiences, and opportunities into our life.

It’s his plan. It also isn’t lost on me that we never know what the future may bring, and he didn’t promise no trials and tribulations. In fact, they’re gonna be inevitable. It’s just that he’s gonna help guide us through it.

A Year of Personal Growth Through Pregnancy, Career Changes, and Family Health Struggles

In December, I noticed a lot of people saying that they were so happy that 2024 was over because it was a quote unquote rough year. I mean, yeah, I think it was rough for a lot of us, Personally, while I had our miracle baby, who you may or may not hear playing in the background as I record this.

I’ll be the first to tell you that when it comes to pregnancy for me that type that season, like, it is not my favorite by any means. I am not one of those chicks who loves to be pregnant. Nope.

Especially since both of my pregnancies, I have been considered high risk. So everything that comes with it, not a joy. On the job front, I lost a major income producing opportunity that had been a part of my life for over a decade.

So when Beachbody decided to close its doors to the coaches back in October, I mean, I saw it coming a long time ahead and obviously was pivoting beforehand, but still like, it was a slap in the face and a reality check that come January 1st, that substantial income was just gonna be gone.

Our family experienced the loss of a dear friend, one of my dad’s best friends. Shot me, like, out of nowhere, just it was a shock. And shortly after that, my father had not one, but 2 heart surgeries to round out the year. Could it be worse? Could it be better? Both answers are yes.

But to think of it just as a rough year and not focus on all the good that happened, that would be foolish. And I’m not sure if you’ve ever done this before. In fact, I think this year may have been the 1st year that I truly did it and, like, was super conscious about it.

But I encourage you to sit down and go month by month of what you did and what you experienced. Start in January, go on to your iPhone, start scrolling through your photos, and look through all of the small fun things that you did.

I did this and on top of the obvious momentous occasions like giving birth to my little baby girl, it was something like, okay, in January I can’t think of it off the top of my head, we did this.

Or, you know, February, my little girl turned 2. March, we went to a Nicks game. April, we went and saw Brandon Lake. We traveled. We did all these things. Right?

So for you, it could be visiting a new vacation spot, seeing an old friend for the first time in a long time, starting a new habit, maybe you did 75 hard or you completed a 5 k, whatever.

We tend not to look at those small yet important moments, and we only focus on the larger ones. In fact, our brain, just the way that we are built naturally, it gravitates towards the bad, the negative, if anything, that’s the easy button.

It is a lot harder to be positive and wake up positive every day than it is negative. And I was talking about this with one of my members the other day during a lesson and, you know, I can’t really wrap my head around people who wake up every day miserable. Like, what kind of life is that?

We all have hard. You just have to choose your hard. And through it all, my faith is what brought me through to the other side. And I know it’s gonna be the same in 2025 because we are gonna have difficult times. And I know I’m gonna be challenged, and that’s where I’ll need to lean into my faith once again.

So that is always a steady value and a piece of my life that I always wanna continuously work on year after year. Now when it comes to family, that is my utmost priority, full stop.

Balancing Family Priorities While Cherishing Precious Moments with Young Children and Aging Parents

I love my friends, don’t get me wrong. But it’s not lost on me that my first born, she’s gonna be turning 3 next month, and I literally feel like it was yesterday that I had her. Now with our new baby, I can’t even believe that I gave birth to her at home 5 months ago.

It literally feels like yesterday and babies do not keep y’all. As I’m putting this whole podcast together, I have her on the floor next to me. I’m watching her attempt to crawl already.

She’s up on her knees and pushing herself up into her little cat cow mode. And so for that reason, I need to center my life around them. I know they’re not always gonna be this way. I mean, they’ve changed so much in such a short period of time.

I know that my toddler is not always gonna wanna ask me to hold her hand when she goes to sleep at night or mama, pick me up. It’s it’s just one of those things that you have to enjoy the moment when it’s here.

And for that reason, I need to center my life around them. Not only that, but seeing my dad go through those surgeries and lose one of his best pals unexpectedly shows you how fleeting life can be.

There are only 24 hours in a day, and you need to spend it with the ones you love the most, which for me are my babies, my husband, and my parents. Now funny enough, when it comes to my finance goals that is very much centered around my family.

The Importance of Family Time:
“There are only 24 hours in a day, and you need to spend it with the ones you love the most, which for me are my babies, my husband, and my parents.”

Obviously, I’m working to earn income so we can all do things together and I’ve actually started to incorporate my family even more so because they were very much heavily involved with Beachbody.

I mean, they would do the workouts, drink Shakeology, all of the things. I mean, they have always been so supportive of me in everything that I do.

But I have really started to incorporate them into my new UGC ventures. They are part of my content. They help me stage products.

They give me ideas for voice overs and ad copy. I mean, it’s it’s definitely a team effort over here. One of my favorite moments just a month ago was I had a job for a pickleball practice net, and I had to take photos of it. And I had to have my dad and my husband set it up for me. And they were definitely, like, cursing me as they were doing it.

But we had fun. My daughter loved, like, hitting the pickleball over it. And they were part of it, you know, and we can laugh about it after. We can laugh about how I had a job for our dog, and I was nitpicking the photos that my parents were taking. And finally, my dad it was for a dog dewormer tincture.

And finally, my dad sent me a picture of him putting the tincture, like, up, like, you know, behind his butt as if he was taking it, like, you know, like, come on, Maren. Enough.

Like, the photo’s good enough. So we’ve had so many memories. And obviously, you know, my daughters have gotten toys out of it. They love getting well, my toddler specifically, she loves going to the door and getting a package and asking me, mama, is this a job?

My husband has gotten new supplements. He had an ice plunge. My parents got a new air fryer through this. I mean, you name it.

We have a cordless vacuum that I’m obsessed with. It’s been so fun and honestly, it has been the greatest gift in what was a really difficult year when it comes to finances. Beachbody was part of my identity for so long and pivoting while scary, has been the best thing I’ve ever done for myself and my brand.

I finally got the nerve to do 1 on 1 group coaching and have 1 on 1 clients. I literally launched a UGC course 2 weeks after giving birth. I have taken over 100 different clients through that course.

I have an Amazon course launching this month to take all of that content that that you’ve created with UGC and monetize it even more. Like, these are things that I never would have done before because I was so like, I had one mindset.

Former Beachbody Coach Reflects on Breaking Free from Direct Sales Burnout

I felt like I was like a horse with little blinders on, you know, when they race because it was just Beachbody, Beachbody, Beachbody.

Right? And I’m finally happy to create content again. I had someone reach out to me, in fact, this week asking me about my UGC course and, you know, used to do direct sales and in fact, with Beachbody.

And it was just like, listen, I was just so burned out from creating the content and how is this different, like, I’m very tentative.

I just long of the short, she had a really bad experience with Beachbody, and a lot of people have. And and even going into the affiliate program, people are like, okay, we’re not getting what we’re promised here either.

And I’ve already made the call that everyone who has decided to jump into another direct sales opportunity, I can promise you those people are going to be burnt out come Q2 at their new company.

You know, it’s all fun and games and all happy go lucky when you’re getting those sign on bonuses and when you’re, you know, trying to put on a happy face because you need to pay for your Christmas gifts. Right?

But once the dust settles and you realize you’re back into that same boring, you know what routine of direct sales and the grass wasn’t greener, like you’re not getting what you were promised, It’s crummy, it really is.

And so I foresee a lot of people kinda having buyer’s remorse that they didn’t take the time to heal from direct sales and figure out their next move. Now I encourage you to be open to the opportunity of UGC and Amazon and TikTok shop. Because I really do believe it’s the future.

But even still, like, you gotta take a break. And I know I did, I took a break from Beachbody and all the things. But now, I’m actually excited to create content again. I’m mentoring people in something I know they can find success with rather than it just being me that gets all the accolades.

And yes, obviously, I’m earning income from it to boot, so that doesn’t hurt. So the opportunity excites me to be able to 10 x the UGC platforms I’m a part of. Go hard in the pain with Amazon even more than I am. Build up TikTok shop, and obviously, teach others how to do it too.

Because I truly believe there’s enough room for all of us. I do not have a scarcity mindset when it comes to this, which is what I do believe you see a lot of people in direct sales, gravitating towards. Like, they have this scarcity mindset.

They they really don’t help one another in direct sales, even though they claim they do. You know it and I know it.

So I encourage you, if you’re one of those people who is scared to make the leap into something different other than direct sales, make 2025 the year you rip the band aid off and do it.

You will not have regrets, and I’d be grateful to be the one to help inspire you and do it alongside you and and and mentor you and teach you how to do it.

Postpartum Fitness Journey: A Raw Look at Body Changes and Acceptance After Second Pregnancy

Now I am 5 months postpartum and definitely feeling different this time around compared to my first pregnancy.

First of all, I was in the best shape of my life before I got pregnant with my second baby. So it’s always a hard pill to swallow to not be physically looking like that, obviously, but also not even in that head space with routine and, you know, just having the the weight selection.

I mean, I know that sounds crazy, but, like, it’s like your body they they don’t they’re not lying when they say that your body truly changes with each child. And I’ve definitely noticed that. I have to be patient. I have to practice what I preach, but it just everything just kinda looks different right now.

And I know that shifts need to be made. And I’ve gotten results from Beachbody the last 10 years, but I made the decision to do something different.

It’s similar, but it’s different if you will. Okay? So recently, I made the commitment to do a program called 8 week flex, which is by a former super trainer from Beachbody, Chris Downing.

And I talked about this a lot on my Instagram, leading up to the program debuting. And you can buy that anytime. That’s what’s so cool. Right? You can buy it at any time and start it at any time. I recently started doing, like, the full program. I was doing samples for a while.

But I leaned on Chris and his program, Shift Shop, heavily in 2017. That was one of the hardest years for me, and ironically enough, it was the year my father was going through some more health issues.

So here we go again. I told you everything comes full circle. Right? He was diagnosed with prostate cancer that year and he had full removal and surgery that summer. So through all that stuff with my dad, Nick and I were actually living in New Jersey, and no offense to anyone that’s from New Jersey. It just wasn’t a good fit for me.

I wasn’t happy there. I was stressed. I was going over the George Washington Bridge practically every weekend. I got not one but 2 blowouts in my car going over the GW. I can remember that distinctly. And it was also a very difficult season with Beachbody.

There was a a lack of camaraderie from my downline, a lot of drama. I won’t even get into that, but that program was huge for me. It was my break from, you know, my 30 minute break, if you will, sometimes 25 minute break from what was a brutal summer, was pushing play on ShiftShop.

And the spring after ShiftShop launched, so that would be spring of 2018, I was in on the Success Club trip and, you know, I earned that trip. And I remember going into that trip feeling very uncomfortable because once again, the camaraderie was just not there with my downline, and Nick was with me.

I was just I was just very uncomfortable. And Chris Downing was there. He was one of the super trainers, and I’ll never forget ever that after finishing one of his workouts, he gathered us all up in a large circle and we prayed.

Chris Downing is a Christ follower, and as a believer, I cannot tell you how much it meant to me. Like, he didn’t just talk the talk like some of these other trainers. Like, he walked the walk, and that sold me on him. Full stop.

And so I obviously have a connection to him and loyalty, if you will. And so when he came out with this program, I was all in. I was like, alright, let’s do this.

Like, I wanna be a part of this. I wanna introduce him to people who may not know him because if you don’t know, he basically got screwed by Beachbody with the launch of ShiftShop, you know, It’s like not for anything. You have this big amazing program, and you don’t give it the notoriety it deserves.

And instead, you end up that summer promoting one of your old trainers who all of a sudden decides he wants to have a 5 day program, you know, Shaun T, and it just got overshadowed.

Like, there were just so many things that happened to Chris that he got screwed on, and I wanna be able to support him because I feel like like him, I got screwed too. So if I can support him in what he’s doing, then I’m all in. And already, I’m loving it.

You know, I have a lot of people who are part of my team, customers that are doing it alongside me, and they’re loving it. I have one of my friends who’s like, Maren, I’ve done 2 of these workouts, and I’ve cried both times because he’s just so motivating.

So that’s where I’m taking my fitness journey in 2025. I also love that there’s a great financial opportunity with it too and that he’s encouraging everyone to become an affiliate for the program, and he’s being so generous about the commission. Like, there’s just so many things that I love, and it all comes together with this.

So it’s the fitness, it’s the faith, it’s the finances, like, it all is a part of this.

And so that is something I’m really excited about, and I encourage you reach out to me if you wanna learn more information about it. But when it comes to those 4 f’s, I I hope you sense a theme, of of what it’s about.

You know, it’s about figuring who you wanna surround yourself with, how hard you wanna work, you know, physically, you know, on yourself. Also, like, how much you wanna work to build your finances, to do the things that you wanna do in life, save for the things you want and need for your family, travel.

And so maybe coming up with resolutions or coming up with a word is your jam. That’s great, but maybe kind of think about making the 4 f’s your focus. Like, what would you wanna do?

How would you wanna improve your faith? Who in your life do you wanna be around more? Is it your family? Could it be your friends? Like, maybe you haven’t been so social. What do you wanna do financially to have more confidence in your portfolio? How do you wanna work on your body with your fitness?

So I really encourage you to take my alliteration and run with it in 2025. And if you wanna join me in any of those areas, reach out to me. I’m gonna make sure that in the show links, you have the link to learn more about my UGC program. If you wanna do 8 week flex with me, I have my link there too.

Like, it’s all about accountability and doing this with other people. And I think for so many of my listeners, we’ve been programmed to just do things on our own, and there really is something powerful about strength in numbers.

Where 3 or more are gathered, I mean, you know how that goes. So if you have any questions about any of this, feel free to reach out to me on Instagram. You can always reach out to me there.