222: The Benefits of Body Doubling – An Interview with a Joy Loving Home Membership Member

What a Year in the Membership Actually Looks Like: My Interview with Jessica

After three years of this podcast without a single interview, I finally sat down for my first one, and I’m so grateful it was with Jessica, one of our wonderful membership members who agreed to be my guinea pig while I figured out the technology. It felt right to start with someone who could speak honestly about what being part of the group has actually been like, since that’s exactly the kind of curtain-pulling-back I know a lot of listeners have wondered about.

How she found us

Jessica found the podcast on New Year’s Eve, driving home with her family and searching for something to help with her resolutions. She downloaded several podcasts to have on hand for spots with no signal, and this one happened to be among them. She thinks she searched something like New Year’s resolutions with ADHD or mom mixed in, since I don’t advertise anywhere. What actually got her to join, though, wasn’t the podcast content itself so much as the fish metaphor in the intro. Everyone she was listening to that same week seemed to be pitching a membership, and something about the fish-brain framing was what finally hit home.

Why she stuck around when so many of us don’t

I asked Jessica directly why she’s an active participant when most of us join twenty groups and never show up for any of them. Her answer: she finally had skin in the game. She’d downloaded countless freebies and even bought a couple of digital bundles before, but what she actually needed was the accountability I talk about, the idea that you get out of the group what you put into it. A year in, her favorite part has been what started as Work With Me Wednesdays and is now Tackle It Tuesdays, the body-doubling Zoom calls where everyone tackles something together in real time. She said it became personal, a way of getting to know people by digging out alongside them.

A year that included a pregnancy and a newborn

Over her year in the group, Jessica went from not yet pregnant through an entire pregnancy to now caring for a newborn, all while still chipping away at her home. She described it as almost reprogramming her brain: no longer being afraid of only having five minutes, reaching for tools like a five-minute blitz, and proclaiming tasks out loud to her own kids the same way we do it in the group. The strategies stopped being something she consciously applied and started just being how she operates now.

Advice for anyone still on the fence

When I asked what she’d say to someone listening who assumes this is just another group they’ll join and never use, Jessica said this has been one of the first spaces where she’s felt she could be fully herself. Nothing feels shameful to bring to the group, whatever pile or issue she’s working through that week gets tackled together. Her summary: it’s worth jumping in because you can be kind to yourself and unafraid to show up as you are, while still getting equipped with real tools to dream big and actually reach for those goals.

Not fitting the “intended” audience, and it not mattering

I built this podcast originally imagining stay-at-home moms with school-age kids, specifically because I didn’t want moms with little ones underfoot to hear advice that assumes uninterrupted time and feel like it was failing them. Jessica, with kids very much underfoot including a new baby, doesn’t fit that original picture. I asked her directly whether that ever made her feel unwelcome or like the advice didn’t apply. She said no, that her flavor of ADHD lets her adapt what’s presented to her, and nothing has felt out of range. It was a good reminder that the demographic in my head at the start was never meant to be a gate, just a way of making sure the advice didn’t assume more capacity than early motherhood actually allows.

The community itself

The membership runs body-doubling Zoom calls, three fifteen-minute sessions each time, offered four times a day to reach members across the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Jessica put it simply: it’s the best ten dollars she spends every month, and the fact that you can cancel anytime takes away a lot of the risk of trying it.

Your practical, actionable step

If you’ve been on the fence about trying a group, community, or accountability structure because you assume you won’t follow through, notice whether the missing piece is actually motivation or just the accountability of showing up alongside other people. Sometimes that’s the whole difference.

Until next time, continue to choose joy.