Beauty Boss: Jacq Gould, Self-Connection Specialist and Founder of Your Inner Babe
Jacq Gould. [Photo credit: Alisha Tova]
Our latest Beauty Boss is Jacq Gould, Self-Connection Specialist and Founder of Your Inner Babe—a flourishing community that offers group coaching programs, one-on-one support, in-person retreats, courses, and journals. Through her work, Gould has helped thousands of women ignite and cultivate a true, meaningful relationship with themselves.
After overcoming her personal struggles with an eating disorder and lack of self-confidence in her earlier years, Gould launched Your Inner Babe to bridge the gap she felt existed and personally experienced in the mental health space. She is on a mission to help others shift their mindsets out of self-doubt and into self-love, quiet their inner drama, and clear a path to unrestrained self-trust and unapologetic self-acceptance.
Gould hosts annual retreats across the United States in different cities including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami, and Grand Beach, Michigan. She also has an online store where she retails specialty items such as a Connection Journal and Re/Connection Deck that are designed to help members of her community feel comfortable and connected to who they are.
We chatted with Gould who shared the inspiration behind her platform, her favorite wellness tips, secrets for success, best advice, and much more.
When did you become a Self-Connection Specialist and what inspired you to become one?
I battled an eating disorder and an extreme negative self-image all throughout my younger years. I hit my rock bottom when I was a junior in college and ended up in a clinical outpatient program which began my journey to get healthy—but I still felt lost and confused.
I didn’t have that one person who could hold me accountable and help me cultivate a true meaningful relationship with myself, one that was no longer led by self-doubt and self-sacrifice, but rather rooted in self-certainty and fueled by an unshakeable sense of self-trust. I realized it wasn’t going to be something I achieved by working with any PHD or MD, because none of what I was seeking was written in a textbook.
So, I became the person that I needed. I started Your Inner Babe with a mission to truly change the way someone sees themselves and feels about themselves, because I deeply believe that once you’re self-connected, that’s when you really feel free and your sense of self becomes tangible. I think everyone is worthy of feeling that.
Through her in-person retreats, virtual group programs, and flourishing community Your Inner Babe, Gould has helped thousands of women ignite and cultivate a true, meaningful relationship with themselves. [Photo credit: Nicole Maria Creative]
What inspired the creation of Your Inner Babe?
I started Your Inner Babe in 2017, and have been coaching ever since. My offerings have evolved over the years as I have grown, and continued to strengthen my relationship with myself. I’m extremely passionate about group work, I think it is unmatched compared to working one-on-one.
I only see clients solo once they’ve gone through our signature first level program, Reconnected, which is a virtual small group container that meets for 90 minutes over the course of eight weeks. I also run 3-day in-person retreats, which are 40+ women, no phones or other devices allowed, and absolutely magical, as well as in-person workshops in major cities such as Chicago, Los Angeles, NYC, and Miami.
Your Inner Babe’s Re/Connection Deck is a 50-card deck that is intended to serve as a daily practice to connect to yourself and receive the message you need to hear from your Inner Babe.
What are the benefits of signing up for your workshops/retreats? What can one expect from the experience?
The intimacy that comes with guiding and sharing in a YIB group container is what gets me up in the morning. To be able to see your healing through the lens of someone else’s healing is incredibly powerful. I would say most clients don’t even realize how much they need to feel seen in that way, until they’re experiencing it firsthand in the moment. You end up feeling safe enough to say things to the other women in the group that you’ve sometimes never even said out loud, but they’re the exact things that have been keeping you stuck in that toxic relationship with yourself and had needed to be said for so long.
Releasing those blocks then allows you to further unravel and explore your relationship with you, bringing on a new level of awareness and clarity. Clients walk away ditching the self-doubt for self-trust. It’s unbelievably powerful to witness and I feel grateful every single day that I’m the one who gets to lead the process.
Do you have any upcoming retreats/workshops?
The next “Disconnect to Reconnect” retreat is October 24 to 27 in Grand Beach, MI. You can find all upcoming workshops and retreats on the YIB website.
Your Inner Babe’s Method Connection Journal is an approachable yet powerful tool to tap into your soul.
Future plans?
I’m currently working on adapting my 8-week Reconnected Program into an 8-hour One Day Reconnect Mastermind, so I can take it on tour. This would allow me to reach more people at once, specifically those who can’t commit to eight weeks of work, for various reasons.
I have this extremely clear vision of 5,000 people in a theater, from all walks of life, no one person’s journey looking the exact same way, but all there for the same purpose—to step into a relationship with themselves. To leave feeling connected to themselves and worthy of the life they dream to live.
I’ll be there. You’ll see me there. I promise.
Who inspires you?
I’m incredibly inspired by Esther Perel. Oprah. Brené Brown.
Secret to success?
Vulnerability. Being honest with yourself about yourself and where you’re at, how you’re feeling, how it is all feeling, in every moment.
One soap bar from Good Time is equivalent to three liquid bottles of product.
Beauty secrets?
I drink so much water. I have an Ophora Water filter on the kitchen sink and probably fill up my simple modern water bottle five to six times a day. That and jasmine oil. I’m addicted to The Soma Ayurvedic Jasmine Body Oil. I have three or four bottles of it at a time, because I’m scared to run out. It’s been incredible for skin tightening and firming post-partum, hydration in the colder months, brightening in the warmer ones. Love!
Wellness tips?
Contrast therapy. I’m a big sauna and cold plunge girl. My husband and I just started doing it together in the mornings before work. I just feel like it sets my mood straight for the day and also helps me sleep so much better at night.
Best advice?
Start now. Put your energy into improving instead of proving. Be brave enough to work at whatever that “something new” is. Stop just silently sitting, thinking about what would make you feel alive and actually allow yourself to experience it. Stop over-giving to everybody else like their life is more valuable than yours, because it’s not. It’s OK for you to also want more. You don’t ever have to explain yourself to anyone, because it isn’t their job to be proud of the choices that you make and the life that you live. It’s yours.
Favorite way to relax?
Phone on DND (do not disturb) and cuddles in bed with my daughter. There is nothing better than that. I actually crave it.
For more information about Jacq Gould and Your Inner Babe, visit the website and follow on Instagram: @jacqgould
[Photos by Nicole Maria Creative/Alisha Tova]
Kamala Kirk is a University of Southern California graduate and has been an editor/writer for more than a decade. She has written for E! Online, Total Beauty, TravelAge West, Malibu Times Magazine, and many more. She resides in Los Angeles and is a proud pug mom. Follow her on Instagram: @kamalakirk