Episode Transcript
Hello, my name is Aziz and I'm the son of a divorced mother. She is really my superhero. That's why it's important for me to support women to share their uniqueness, their personalities, perspectives, and emotions about life. Too many women in this world feel alone. They worry about the judgment of others and they struggle with their mental health but when they listen to the Rare Girls podcast where empowered women share their voices and tell their stories, many women will feel inspired to live a life of freedom and to overcome all insecurities. They will feel it is a safe space to find their confidence, to remember their unique beauty and to feel their self-worth. And they will connect with the sisterhood of rare girls who encourage their success and support their dreams. That's what this podcast is all about. My guest today is Wendy Chigou. Wendy is a 23 years old student at the University of Zimbabwe studying a Bachelor of Science honors degree in Mathematics. Wendy is passionate about fitness and helping others become the best versions of themselves physically, mentally, and spiritually. She recently started her fitness business and has a page for it on Instagram which is Bodied by Wendy. Wendy, how are you today? Hi, Aziz, and good thanks. How about yourself? I feel blessed. I feel very, very positive, excited to know much more about you, Wendy. And I'll begin with this nice first question, which is, if your friends and the people who know you best could describe your personality, what would they say about you? So my friends would say that I'm down to earth. I embrace people from all walks of life and caring and I go all out for the people who I care about. I know what I want in life and I won't compromise. I'm courageous, a risk taker, and I embrace life and I really do appreciate life and I'm grateful for it because I don't always complain about anything and I really appreciate life and I'm enjoying it. I'm happy to know that I have so many questions but I want to focus first on fitness. Many, many people would say that fitness helps with mental health a lot. That fitness is almost like a soothing experience in many ways. Can you tell me a bit more about that? Did you struggle with mental health before and then fitness was an important part of improving that? What was your experience about it? Is it mental, like you said, you help people mentally, or is it more physically that when you look at you, the changes and how you are and your body that gives you a great euphoria and you move on? Tell me more about the whole experience. For me, fitness was mostly about the physical appearance at first, but then once you get into it, you also get the mental benefits of being physically fit and mentally just spending your time in the gym, that one hour to two hours, you know, you don't have to think about anything else about time, just enjoy your time. And after the gym, even if you did in the morning, you definitely enjoy your whole day, because your mind will be fresh and relaxed. Great. And you said at first you started fitness for the physical transformation. There are many, many women nowadays who are comparing themselves to fitness models or Instagram girls and they feel ugly and they don't see their unique beauty. Well, did you experience that? What's your advice to them? And do you feel and believe that going to the gym consistently is a great way to reconnect with your body and fall in love with it again? Or how is it for you? So for me, yes, I also struggled with comparing myself to other women on Instagram and other social media platforms on YouTube. So the best thing for me to do was just to unfollow and unsubscribe to those accounts which made me feel that way about myself. And then just focus on becoming the best version of myself, whatever that looks like for me. And yes, so that's just how I've been doing it. Thank you. And let's say there is a girl who is listening right now and she dreams of inspiring other people to develop themselves mentally, physically and emotionally and she doesn't know how. What's your secret method? When you meet people or you create content or whatever you do, what do you focus on and how do you see it from your perspective as a correct way to inspire people so that they become the best version of themselves. So I'd say the best thing is to just get to know people at first and then, you know, just talk, have good conversations with them. Then you see where they're struggling with and then you just help them with some advice about what's going, like what's wrong with their their life or something. But when it comes to fitness and creating content, I usually just look at the things that people might be struggling with at the moment in the gym and maybe also with food and then I just create videos based on those things. I love that. I like that very very much and I'm curious to know as well about the culture and your life in Zimbabwe. Some people might not have visited but I'm not asking you to like share the culture in general but for you how did growing up in Zimbabwe change and affect who you are as a person? Is life there too different compared to the other countries nearby? Is it similar? What are some of the traditions and things you enjoy? How are women and their personalities there? So women in Zimbabwe are kind, they're welcoming, so we have different diverse backgrounds of women. So in this country we do speak three languages, maybe that's Shona and de Bele and English. So we have all these people across the country in the different cities Harare, Blauayo, we have all these diverse women. So we always dress accordingly and in the Nizem Babwe, we have our traditional food or our staple food which is Sads up and yamma and vegetables where yamma is just meat. And yeah, that's how it is. - Great. And you said that you are someone who has a lot of courage. You go for your goals and you step out of your comfort zone. What's your advice to some women who might be dealing with anxiety, worry, and thoughts that limit them and don't allow them to move out of their comfort zone and reach their potential? So for me, I did struggle a lot with anxiety and fear and things like that. So the best way for me was just to turn to God in the Bible and then to study my scripture, to get into a community of people who also helped me through my journey of becoming courageous and confident through praying and fellowship with others. Thank you. And when you are now building your brand and your fitness empire, hopefully, is it something that, let's say you succeeded and you are already at the top, where in this world would you love to spend maybe a couple of years outside of Zimbabwe to experience? Would you like to be, let's say, in Hollywood and hire all of the celebrities of your brand ambassadors in Europe somewhere in Asia because maybe you love K-pop and the culture somewhere else. What would be a dream location and place for you just to experience other parts of the world as a girl who grew up in Zimbabwe? So I didn't spend my whole life in Zimbabwe. At first I was in Rome, Italy. That's what I did most of my primary school then when I was around 17 to 19. I'd spend time in Singapore and we'd also visit Malaysia sometimes. So I definitely would want to live in Malaysia because I just think it's so great. The weather is amazing, it's never cold there, it's always hot and I would definitely love to live there. So I haven't been to the states or the Americas. I'll definitely want to go there at some point and would definitely love some celebrities to be in my fitness business and brand. I encourage that fully and completely. And you nowadays as basically a businesswoman, can you share some of the difficulties and the realities of that? Maybe there are some girls and women who are thinking about it, but they don't know what to expect. What are some lessons? what is something important you have learned? What is something that you thought would be easy that turned out to be hard? What are some things related to building your fitness, business and brand? So you have to be patient with any business, anything that you put your mind to, because you're probably not going to get the clients on the first month or the first few months. So you should definitely take your time and be patient with yourself and just do the best that you can create your content, do your research and just make sure that you're putting you all into it and eventually you get the clients and you get everything that you deserve from your business. I agree 100% and you as a girl who visits like you said Malaysia often, you grew up in Rome, you experience Singapore and Zimbabwe. How do you go about making new friends and meeting new people when you are in a new place? Is it the gym? You just go to the gym and you're like, "It's filled with other people like me. Let's go be friends." Or what is your advice to, let's say, there are some girls or women who are starting their university or job, somewhat different, so that they feel they can meet even more people and make friends that they choose rather than be friends or whoever sits next to them in class or works with them, which is limited. Well, I'd say, yes, going to school and going to work makes it much easier to make friends. But then if there are specific group of friends you'd like to make, let's say church friends, you should go to church and try to get along with people from church. That way you'll make some good church friends. It just depends on the kind of friends you want and their interests and what you're interested in and you should just go to those places. Thank you. You as a student of science with honors in mathematics, etc. At the same time, you're building your fitness brand, which is more about emotions, more about creativity. How do you balance both parts of your personality? Your feminine side, which could be more flowing, and your masculine side, which is more about logic, science, and achievement. So I always have a schedule or a plan my day ahead. Either way, I always have time, specific time for each thing so that I don't get too into my masculinity or too, but yeah, I prefer to stay in my feminine energy. But yeah, that's how I just do it. I don't try to mix the two at all times, just try to do separate things that way. It's also good for my mental health to not be thinking about the science when I'm doing the gym and other things. - I agree 100%. And so to ask you, what is for you the experience of your feminine energy and what does it mean to you, your masculine energy? There are some women who could be like a bit confused about exactly what that mean or should mean. Maybe your insight could help clarify things even more. When do you feel most feminine? What does that mean? How does that feel? And what is it about masculinity? I interviewed a girl who said, "I spent so long in my masculine, I just want to let go of the burden, it's too hard. I want to be in my femininity." But just for you, explain the both experiences, how they feel and what they mean to you. So personally, like the girl you mentioned, I do feel like I'm more masculine than feminine. So I'm actually on a journey to try to be more feminine for myself because the masculine energy is that you can do it all by yourself, and things like that. So just talking to other people, getting into teams like Bible study groups and getting into church communities, it also helps with the femininity where you're doing the teamwork with other people and also just being kind, not being rude or always being angry, that's also kind of very masculine and femininity is being open, kind and welcoming to others. That's how I believe you can be more in your feminine energy. - Thank you so much Wendy. It was my privilege and my honor to interview you, to share your voice to include you in this project. I wish you prosperity and all the success with your fitness empire and all the happiness and living in Malaysia whenever you're ready. Thank you so much. - Thank you. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
