Key Takeaways
- How Corinne’s lifelong struggles with her weight led her to hit bottom at 31 – and the breakthrough she experienced when making lasting life changes.
- Why the lessons Corinne learned in finally conquering her struggles with weight also helped her launch her business.
- How Corinne’s Yahoo group naturally led her to a membership site that continues to grow organically to this day.
- What Corinne’s membership site does to go beyond typical one-to-many communication – and how her clients keep each other accountable and provide the daily support they need to face their toughest challenges.
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“I just have this strong passion in me that every person who struggled with their weight deserves an opportunity to be able to lose it – not just physically.” – Corinne Crabtree “We do so much questioning of ourselves. We don’t look to our future to give us answers. We don’t start thinking about what we want and how we can get there. We start looking at everything that’s not happened – and we allow ourselves to be afraid. The worst that’s going to happen is you’re going to try, and if you don’t make it, you’ll feel bad. If you feel bad now, why don’t we just try anyway? We might just surprise ourselves.” – Corinne Crabtree “The worst case scenario is you never start, and that was the time you were going to succeed. That was the time you were going to prove yourself wrong.” – Corinne CrabtreeEpisode Resources
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Read The Transcript
Shelli: Corinne Crabtree, welcome to the It’s a TRIBE Thing Podcast. How are you?
Corinne: I’m good. Thank you for having me.
Shelli: Our absolute pleasure. I had the privilege of reading through your bio and having a chat with you and your story is more than inspirational on several levels so I’m super happy to share not only your story, not only the inspiration and the transformation that you’ve made personally and are making for other people, but I’m hoping that you can start with your story where it started in the beginning and explain sort of your roots, where you came from, and also who you serve and how you serve them.
Corinne: Yeah. So, I always tell people that I was one of those kids that kind of came out of the womb with a weight problem. So, by the time I was nine, I was like the one that was having to already start trying to find clothes in the women’s department and that kind of stuff. By the time I was in the eighth grade, I was 210 pounds and just battled my weight all my life. So, it was hard because I was bullied and like all the traditional things like if you think of someone who has had a weight problem in their life, it was like I went through all of it. So, I got to a point where I met my husband. We got married and we had a baby pretty fast. We had wanted to have a kid and about a year when he was, I don’t know, at that age where he wants to play and he’s like toddling and all that kind of stuff, I was 250 pounds and so exhausted at the age of 31. And I remember laying on my couch and crying and thinking, “I have to do something,” like I just can’t do this anymore. So, my husband came home that night and I had my traumatic rock bottom moment like you could’ve just written a movie on it and I don’t know what I’m going to do but I’m going to figure it out. Because I’ve been on about every diet known to man by that point.
Shelli: Right.
Corinne: And nothing had ever worked and so I was convinced like everybody else, nothing was going to work for me until that day and I decided to just start with walking and it was the first time in my life where I was not in a rush to lose weight. I was literally going to lose weight the way I wanted to live it. In my brain knew that that was going to be the only thing that would work for me. So, I started making very small changes and then over a course of 18 months I lost 100 pounds, started exercising, not like a crazy person but just I had never played sports and it just seemed like a good idea to try to start walking and maybe go to the gym and let’s see what these weights are about like it was always about trying to figure out what is the next logical step like what seems interesting, what seems doable. So, I kind of lost the weight. I looked at my husband one day and I was like, “Oh my God, is this what thin people have always felt like? It’s great. They should tell us this stuff.” And so, I wanted to help other women do the same. I just have this strong passion in me that every person who struggled with their weight deserves an opportunity to be able to lose it. Not just physically.
Like for me, what my transformation was more about for the first time in my life I had learned how to rely on myself, I learned how to believe in myself, I learned how to do hard things, I learned how to like make mistakes and not beat myself up over it. And so, that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to really teach women how to have that kind of life, never worry they’re going to gain their weight back and just lose it the way they plan to live it the rest of their life.
Shelli: That’s incredible. I’m curious to know because, oh man, so much to ask you. So, when that day when your son came to you and he said, “Hey, mommy, can we play?” and you said. “Mommy’s too tired,” with all of the things that you had tried in the past, what do you think was different about that time? Because what I’m hearing is you had like a complete mindset shift, maybe even on a soul level and what was the catalyst? What was different that time than all of the other times when you tried and you just were like, “This is not working. I can’t keep the weight off,” or to struggle or challenge? What was different about it that day?
Corinne: I think the other times that I wanted to lose weight my reasons were never good enough. They couldn’t out like my reason to lose weight was usually just like, well, a girlfriend’s been, and she looks like she’s having a good time, or I just want to be able to wear small clothes. And I’m not saying that any of that is not a good enough reason but it was never a strong enough reason for me to quit overeating when I felt bad like I needed to have a reason and like a mentality that when it was going to be hard to tell myself no, that the reason I was doing it was way more important than the discomfort of saying no to myself. And so, it was like in the beginning and I teach this a lot with my members is that my reasons changed throughout my weight loss journey, but in the very beginning, I was so tired of feeling bad that I just craved feeling good. I wanted to just feel better and so I wanted to start doing some things that were going to allow me to feel better.
And the other probably big piece was my mom was overweight and when I said I was too tired to play, that like shook me to the core because my mom she was a single mother. We didn’t have like child support and all that kind of stuff so we were always broke. She was always tired. Not only was she overweight but she’s working two jobs and she’s never had time to play with us. And I could see me, basically, like and I love my mother but becoming my mother without even working. I didn’t have like I had an amazing husband. I had a great life. I had no reason other than I just needed to figure out my problems and so I think that was the biggest mind shift change for me at that time.
Shelli: Well, I love what you said because it’s so easy and whether the topic be losing weight or something you want to do or try or have or accomplish, but I find that we oftentimes are a product of our own environment and sometimes don’t even question whether something is true or isn’t, just kind of discard it and I just am so in awe of the fact that you were cognizant of that and decided to make another choice because there’s so much for all of us to learn in that as well in terms of stepping out and making a new choice and going into a new direction. And for you, it was completely life altering.
Corinne: Yes. And it’s not easy for people and that’s one of the reasons why I love teaching it now is because I feel like for especially for people who were trying to lose weight like I really get that you’re going to do something significantly different and you’re going to not have belief in yourself and you’re going to be scared and there’s tons of self-doubt like all these things are going to happen and one of the things I teach my members is like, “That card is expected but we’re going to do it anyway. We’re going to learn how to do things despite that,” rather than to not do things because of it.
Shelli: I love it. What would you say is a core limiting belief for the people that you serve and how do you reframe it for them?
Corinne: Oh my gosh, I think the biggest one is always I just never met a woman who wants to lose weight who hasn’t failed at a diet and they totally believed it because they’re overweight now that their past dictates their future like, “Well, I’ve never been able to lose weight before. Why would this time be different?” It’s like I don’t know. Let’s figure it out. Let’s figure out why this time will be different. We do so much questioning of ourselves. We don’t look to our future to give us answers like we don’t look to what we want and start thinking about what we want and how can we get there. We start looking at everything that’s not happened and we allow ourselves to be afraid. Look, I tell people all the time is like the worst that’s going to happen is you’re going to try and if you don’t make it, you’ll feel bad. And it’s like you feel bad now so why don’t we just try anyway? We might just surprise ourselves. There’s always that option too.
Shelli: So, what would you say is the way in which you shine the light on that possibility, that aha moment that allows people to take that first step because I heard a guy say one time, he had lost I think it was 250 pounds but what he says is, “I didn’t lose 250 pounds. I lost 1 pound 250 times,” and so for those people who just need to like just start and what would you say is the biggest thing that you help them reframe in their own minds about what is possible for them? Because you’re clearly doing it, probably in a different way than others because you are having success and you are building community, and you are having these people who are following you though I’m sure for information as much as support.
Corinne: Yeah. I usually just talk through them like it’s a lot of just talking to them about. I’ve had to say it in simplest terms is you have to shine a light on the way their thinking is not working for them. It’s like one of them is I just have to say out loud what they’re telling me and then when they hear me say it out loud like, “Well, I’m so afraid I won’t lose weight. I just won’t start.” It’s like, “Okay, so you’re so afraid you won’t lose weight, you choose not to start and stay overweight.” Well, when you say it like that it’s like, yeah, and that is exactly what you’re thinking. And then I give them some like help on seeing how they could think about it differently like one of the big concepts that I teach is a lot of times people think the worst case scenario of failing and of their diet is failing the diet. I’m like, “No, the worst case scenario is you never start and that was the time you were going to succeed. That was the time you were going to prove yourself wrong.”
Shelli: That’s a great reframe. I like that.
Corinne: Yeah. I’m always like what if we just go all in and prove ourselves wrong, rather than just deciding that whatever we think right now must be the truth? Because that’s always out there for us.
Shelli: And that’s a powerful lesson whether it’s losing weight or starting a business or, you know, taking on a new venture, whatever that like that lesson is so powerful on so many levels and I love what you said earlier about when you’re making this transformation. One of the biggest things that you got was not just the weight loss and not just, “Wow. Is this how people that weigh less feel?” but that you learn to rely on yourself, believe in yourself, and trust yourself.
Corinne: Yeah.
Shelli: When you went on to start your memberships which I want to chat with you about because that’s so exciting, the transformation that you’re making, what was the biggest takeaway or not the biggest takeaway rather, what was the biggest transformation you see in the people that you help in that regard? So, yes, they may be losing weight but what are the transformations that you see in your members, in your community with respect to how they are now practicing not necessarily just what they’re doing in terms of exercise or diet but who they’re being in the process?
Corinne: Yeah. I think that’s one of the things that makes my membership very different is like we always have like, I mean, I’ve got girls in there anywhere from 50 to 200 pounds at this point. And they will say that like the weight loss is good. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy that piece, but their relationship with themselves changes. They’re no longer afraid like I had a girl the other day literally quit her job because she was just like, “I didn’t realize like if I can lose weight, I can actually go and find a dream job like I don’t have to put up with what I have.”
Shelli: That’s amazing.
Corinne: Yeah. I mean, and like probably the other thing that always means a lot to me is we have ladies whose marriages totally transformed like when they start taking responsibility for how they feel, they no longer are wanting their husbands to make them feel good and support them all the time and put the heavy on them. When they just start taking care of themselves, their husbands will email me and just say, “I don’t know what you’re doing with my wife but keep it up. She’s the happiest she’s ever been in her life,” and it’s not because of the weight loss. It’s that mental weight that we help them lose.
Shelli: Oh wow. It’s the mental weight we help them lose. That’s wonderful.
Corinne: That’s the heavyweight. Like everybody always says, “Oh my God, I lost 20 pounds in the last few months but I probably lost 50 in mental weight.”
Shelli: That’s incredible. Yeah. And oftentimes for many of us, that’s the thing that holds us back is that limiting belief or the sponsoring thought about either our worthiness or we let ourselves down so many times that we’ve learned to mistrust ourselves and it sounds like what you’re doing is yes, weight loss, but also creating a catalyst for possibility because when these women go on to feel better about themselves and to learn to trust themselves and rely on themselves, then all of a sudden, they’re looking through a new set of spectacles about what is possible and what they’re able to see as a possibility for themselves, as a result of being able to be in your community and part of your membership and work with you.
Corinne: Well, and it’s important too. This always surprises me and I think it’s just because of how I built my membership. It was so organic because I was like back in the day when we did it in a Yahoo group and I remember about those. Like, today people are like, “What? Yahoo had groups?” Yeah, they did. But I quickly learned early on that we all have the same struggles and the same fears and the same thoughts basically and that’s why I ended up having a membership and then they come in and they’re just is like, “It’s so refreshing to not feel alone in all this,” like it’s so helpful to know that some of you used to feel this way and you don’t anymore. And so, we just do so much work around the mental stuff because I always tell people. It’s like, if getting someone a meal plan is all that anyone needed in order to lose weight, we’d all be thin, naked on the beach somewhere, enjoying ourselves.
Shelli: It’s true, right?
Corinne: The problem is, is that it’s Wednesday night, we’re stressed out because our boss yelled at us today and we don’t want a salad. We want a pizza. I don’t care what that piece of paper says. If you don’t know how to deal with your stress and you don’t know how to do what you say you will do regardless of how tired and stressed out you are, a piece of paper just won’t work. You have to learn how to deal with life if you ever want to learn how to lose your weight.
Shelli: Absolutely. Yeah. So, what would you say is your favorite either piece of feedback or testimonial from some of the people that you serve within your membership site?
Corinne: Well, I’ve got one girl right now who she’s lost 120 pounds. Can I say her name?
Shelli: Yeah. Sure.
Corinne: She won’t care. I talk about her all the time. Her name is Chelsey. She’s amazing. She’s done this over a little bit over a year now. She has five foster kids.
Shelli: Oh wow. That’s incredible.
Corinne: Yeah. In like littles, like the hard years, not even like teenagers and stuff where they still need diapers, and constant attention and stuff. And she just talks to me all the time about how it’s not the weight loss for her. It is this year like her and her husband are using some of the things that I teach for weight loss to work on their relationships with each one of their kids. They have to think differently about each one of their children and all this other stuff and she also had, I don’t want to go into her health problem, she had a pretty significant health issue and a lot of it’s improved this year all because she just started taking care of herself mentally and physically. So much of her life has improved so I think for me like she’s probably one of my all-time favorite stories and I’ve got a lot of them but she’s probably one of them.
Shelli: That’s awesome. So, how would you say your membership site has played a role in facilitating the delivery of the information of the support and of the mindset shift and being able to serve these people at a higher level? How has your membership played a role and in what way for you to be able to connect with these women in this way?
Corinne: Well, when they come in, one of the things that we’re real particular about in my membership is not just like we have a course, of course, that go through that teaches of what they need to know but we are very engaging. I have myself, a community manager and two coaches who we just like have crazy standards for interacting with our TRIBE like I am just like we’re going to answer their questions. We’re going to go live anytime they need us. We have scheduled coaching calls like we do Zoom coaching calls. Our members have no lack of getting support and help from us and I just think that’s important. And then one of the other things that we work really hard at is teaching our members how to do that with each other. So, we have like a pretty we do it manually but we have a very robust accountability system where we grew people together and put them in like usually around groups of three to five people using apps like Marco Polo. Some of them have small Facebook groups.
They have all kinds of different things but we help them find each other and get that day-to-day support on top of everything else that we’re wrapping around them inside of the membership. So, we use a lot of that and I’m live a lot with them. I do a lot of just I was reading in the Facebook group and now we’re going to talk about this. So, it’s a lot of just let’s react to what’s going on live time in the TRIBE. I don’t want it to always just feel like, “We’re only doing this course and this is what we’re doing.” I just feel like if there’s a problem, people need to talk about it. We don’t want to just wait until three months later, when that course is coming out.
Shelli: Yeah. For sure. I hear you saying it’s a way for you to serve your people and to serve many people while still being able to maintain your sanity without getting overwhelmed too because when you’re going deep with people like you are, it can be draining. So, you can only serve so many people on a one-to-one model so would you say that having a membership site allows you to access more people who now get to experience your transformation both not just physically but emotionally, mentally, and be able to go on and trust themselves because of that?
Corinne: Definitely. I think it’s more powerful than the one-on-one. I used to do one-to-one a long time ago. I have friends who do one-to-one and I just love the membership side of it. I think there’s nothing better than like I can come on and I can teach and I can answer live questions, and then they can talk to each other while I’m teaching and find people that have similar situations as them, connect with them, have that extra layers for them. I mean, when you’re trying to lose weight, you can’t get enough support in it. And so, I think that’s one of the magic things about membership for weight loss but any kind of, I mean, I’m a big believer of memberships, period, for all kinds of things. I belong to several and I just think it’s like when you can ask questions or even if you just need to like talk it out like I’ve had a problem today, I just need to like say this and get alternate perspectives is everything. Like we’ll have girls that will be literally in the car on the way to a party and be getting nervous that they’re going to overeat because they’re self-conscious and that they’re introverts and they’ll reach out in our group and get 30 or 40 people give them the hurrah before they walk in and then when they come out, they report back and they’re just like, “Thank you so much. I just needed to know someone cared and someone understood.”
Shelli: Yeah. It’s like having an army or a team in your back pocket at all times you have your back.
Corinne: It is. Yes. And that’s the neat thing about memberships is that as your membership grows like mine is over 2,000 right now, it’s like you’re always going to find someone online.
Shelli: Yeah. Absolutely, right. It’s round-the-clock support.
Corinne: Yes.
Shelli: Well, it is true that membership has its privileges. So, I’m so happy that we had the chance to chat about not just what you’re doing in the weight loss world, but the transformation that you’re making for these people on an emotional level. So, hats off to you my friend. If people are looking for you online, what’s the best place they can find you?
Corinne: The best place to find me is my website. It’s PNP411.com. That’s where my blog, my podcast, my free course, everything is over there. So, if they want to – I’ve been a blogger for 13 years. I’ve been a podcaster for two. There’s no shortage of understanding what I preach is.
Shelli: Right. Absolutely. Perfect. Okay. Well, we’re going to put all of that in the show notes and I want to just thank you so much for your time and for your incredible story and most importantly for the work that you’re doing to the world. I appreciate you, my friend.
Corinne: Well, thank you.
[END]
