Step In To Your Authentic Self with JP Sears
Good day beautiful Maven welcome to Episode 128 I am so excited for the release of this interview and to bring you the the teachings of this individual who I see as a master communicator, a wonderful teacher and who’s using his gifts in such a big big way for the benefit of everyone to really reach in touch more people he is embodying what I want for you. So if you’ve missed out on the opportunity to listen to some of his teachings, I highly, highly, highly encourage you to take a peek because it’s good. It’s really good and like I said, what I love about it, you know, JP talks about this in the interview that humor is a medium that reaches people, a lot of people and it’s kind of like a common language. But, you know, I’m not like one of those people who think about my husband this way, like, loves to, like go through like a YouTube channel or something and just look at all the comedy sort of stuff that’s really not my style. And that probably, I don’t think is the reason why I was drawn to JP but it’s his authenticity that I love. And I get a chance to ask him about this and now I can look back and say he’s definitely he’s aligning his strengths and he’s doing it in a really authentic way. And I think that’s why it’s been so powerful for him. But, you know, I really wanted to get him on the show. Not just because I really admire the type of work he’s doing and how he’s doing it, but because, you know, of some of the things he talks about which is extremely relevant to you, which is around fear, you know, self sabotage, having alignment in your business really leveraging your strengths for success. I mean, I, I believe in all of those things, I teach all of those things. And I believe JP would agree with me. So sit back, relax, there is so much opportunity to learn and introspection for you to take part in in this interview that I do hope you enjoy it quite as much as I did. Alright, without further ado, let’s get started.
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Hey, Maven, before we hear from JP I wanted to make the ask I wanted to make the ask for you to tell me and others what you think about this show. Basically, to leave a review. I haven’t made this request in a while but at the end of the day, that stuff matters. It really does. So If you could just take a moment take a moment in your day especially if you’re listening someone who’s been binge listening. I know a lot of you do that. And just really finding actionable guidance and advice to help you in your life and business. I would appreciate it from the bottom of my heart and I just want to take a moment to give a shout out to some of the listeners who have left reviews. I can’t thank you enough. But Gavin he says great quality both in production and content. I absolutely love Michelle’s energy. Thank you so much Gavin. Strengths Mama, I love when people have these names for their reviews, full of insights, wisdom, continual reminder that those that care for others need to take care of themselves to keep doing what they love. So true. And from Erica highly recommend I love the inspiring and actual information that Michelle and her guests share on the show. I highly recommend listening if you want to improve your life and business. Thank you You so much for those of you who are listening, and I would truly again from the bottom of my heart, appreciate your support and showing that support by sharing and by leaving a review. I’ll right now. Hold on to your seats people because I am digging in with JP Sears.
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6:23
All right. Hey JP, welcome to the show.
6:25
Hey, Michelle, thank you for having me, sister.
6:28
So, uh, we were just talking about the monkeys in Costa Rica. And you said my inner mother. Yeah.
6:35
Okay. I never heard a guy say that before.
6:39
Yeah, let’s start there.
6:43
Yeah, so my inner mother. You know, when I am blessed to see monkeys flying through trees here in Costa Rica, which happens pretty regularly. I was just saying how it’s amazing to watch them jump from tree to tree just I mean, they’re free falling, my stomach drops. But they always catch themselves. But I noticed my inner mother feels uneasy. It’s like I want to go up to them and don’t jump from the trees there monkeys. But I think that would be you know me being a helicopter mother to the monkeys because then they’d be walking on the ground and probably get bit by snakes and die which would be bad mothering on me
7:21
Or not in your best interest.
7:26
Yeah maybe relative like just I want to seek comfort you make me uncomfortable I’m nervous watching you jump from tree so it’s classic helicopter parenting let me suffocate you so that I don’t have to feel uncomfortable. Let me drown you in a tub of water instead of you going outside and having the time of your life because doing so means you might eventually fall down and skinned your knee. Classic.
7:50
So by stating the obvious, I’m going to say like it appears to me that you’re very in touch with who you are and yourself. Did you come out this way?
8:01
Yeah, you know, 19 lifetimes ago is when I got in touch with myself just, you know, sat under a tree, looked at a squirrel and got in touch with myself. Now I do my best to be in touch with myself and I think I’m in touch with myself enough to know that I’m certainly not always in touch with myself. So for me, it’s an ongoing practice just like being on the surfboard as a practice for the surfer. But it’s something that I’m very mindful of every day, you know, not 24/7 but much of my thinking throughout the day is this true to me? Does this feel right to me? Does this feel authentic to me is my heart saying yes to this? You know, being untrue to me, is a biggie that I think self betrayal is incredibly painful. It doesn’t make life enjoyable and it certainly doesn’t make life feel meaningful to me. And, and I think it’s hard to be true to oneself. If, if we’re not considering, you know, am I being true to myself, it doesn’t happen by accident. So I think we have to live the question. Am I being true to myself in this moment? I’d be different 11 minutes from now.
9:24
Yeah. But this is I mean, this is related to your you being very sensitive, being intuitive. I mean, not everybody is like that. So is this how you are at 10 years old? Or when you were 20? When did this start to come out of you?
9:43
I love that question. Let’s reminisce here, Michelle. In this therapy hour that you’re charging me therapy prices for. No, you know, I think and I’ll talk about me in a second. But first of all, deflect from talking about me, I think part of finding herself is losing herself. So I definitely lived years of being lost to myself, in fact, so lost that I didn’t know that I was lost to myself. So, you know, my childhood, you know, I can look back at times when I’ve actually asked philosophical questions. And now in hindsight like well, that’s kind of beyond what 10 year old normally would ask, but those few fleeting moments in between I was mostly known as a child and of course, like to have fun, but was also probably mostly disconnected emotionally and from myself. And I and I think the, the void of disconnection that sets up an internal motivation, to desire connection and seek connection with myself and other people and not you know, not myself of who I think I am but myself of who I really am as mysterious as that is, but the absence of that self connection, I think is what creates the inner desire to seek the connection and I know when I started seeking my connection to myself, you know, starting to actively live my Hero’s Journey if you will. I was in my early 20s maybe 19 actually, which is not quite my early 20s just any mathematical nuts out there don’t want to offend you. But you know, when I started my path of seeking myself by no means would I be able to say on seeking connection with myself, it was just a blind stumbling, crawling, clumsy, abstract sense of I’m seeking something more than what is right now this what is of you know, trying to live gratifying myself off the five senses status money. Yeah, so yeah, yeah. It was a very blind beginning.
12:01
Did you just fall into coaching then? Or if you just said, I need something and you just took the leap, like maybe this will work.
12:10
You know, there I kind of give you a quick backstory. So I dropped out of college when I was 18. I was done with college within three months of beginning it. So I’ve just mastered everything, obviously. And so I dropped out of college just like that was actually looking back that was like important because I was, I can see my decision to drop out of college was a part of me being in touch with me, because I just knew like, this isn’t for me. It’s scary because I don’t know what is for me. But this isn’t for me. But yeah, that was like one of the first times of like, yeah, monitoring me. So once I dropped out of college, I started just shortly thereafter got interested in this holistic personal training nutrition exercise Institute better studying from so I started coaching clients as I was studying that but it was coaching them within the realm of nutrition and exercise which was phenomenal. And then shortly thereafter I landed in what I would call emotional healing coaching, which is what I had been doing now for the past 16 years I officially gave up my practice maybe a year or so ago just many opportunities coming so but yeah, it my desire to start working with clients at that emotional healing level like what got me interested in emotional healing in the first place, I think was me projecting my need for it on to people around me. So I think there was a level of arrogance and honestly fear driving the arrogance inside of me that’s, that’s a lie. Yeah. Other people need this like I don’t, I haven’t cried for eight years. Of course, I don’t need emotional healing work. Now again back is like, oh, yeah, I haven’t cried for eight years is because I desperately needed emotional healing work and I think emotional healing. That’s a bit of a generic term I use. That really means spiritual connection, self connection, discovering more of who we really are letting go of who we’re not, as well as healing wounds and traumas and pain that we still carry.
14:28
I’m really glad you brought this up, because I heard you talk about it in another interview. And it’s stuck with me. I wrote it down. I think this applies to my audience a lot too, as I wanted to help others, because I thought they needed my help. And you said that that was completely wrong. Yeah, you know, projecting onto them, probably.
14:50
Yeah, there’s definitely at least 50% completely wrong. Because I think there is a very genuine part of my heart that wants to help others to help themselves. So there was that. But I think just the serendipities of life that I don’t at all completely understand. It looks like it had to be set up where helping others was like a gluten free bread crumb on the trail to get me into a place that I was otherwise too unaware of, to go myself, which was my own emotional healing. So when I started studying with legit teachers and masters, of course, part of the deal is like you, you have to do this on yourself. So it’s like, oh, cool. I wanted to do it on myself. And of course, when I start doing legitimate work and discovery on myself, I become shocked to see how much of my world I had been blind to. But yeah, and I think as you allude to mesh with your community, I think part of the the commonality of many people people in the helping health and coaching profession have this sort of the wounded healer like, well, how would we be motivated to help other people if we didn’t need help ourselves? And if we didn’t do the thing where we project that onto other people like I don’t think it’s a bad thing. I think it’s something that helps a lot of people climb the ladder to put themselves into a position where they’ve not only helped themselves, but they’re helping a lot of people because they were originally blind and needed a projected all their desire to help other people or their, their need for help. They projected that on to other people. I think really the only from my delusional point of view, the only way that’s bad, or works against people is if we stay blind to it forever. Eventually we’re the 70 year old or 80 year old coach who is still in denial that we need it we’re still defended, like I don’t know, I’m just altruistic just I have just such a good heart that’s the only reason why I’m I want to help other people because they need it. So, you know, how’s the air up there on your pedestal? Probably.
17:08
I just wanted to say thank you for saying that because I thought it was said in a new way that might, you know, make a little light bulb go off for somebody else. And also, just as a reminder that we do go on this journey. I mean, I’ll raise my hand. Like, I can spend hours talking about all the crap I’ve been through as you can too, but it’s what gets us motivated to help end the suffering for other people. But I have this little thing that I’ve talked to my audience about a lot. I’d love to hear your opinion on it. It’s like, okay, you have this passion. You want to end the suffering, you went and got trained. And now all of a sudden, it’s all about you. I can’t I’m afraid I don’t have the time. I don’t have the money. What happens there?
17:56
When you in just I want to make sure I follow you clearly. When someone saying I can’t I don’t have the money. What are you saying they can’t do? What are you sayingy they can do?
18:07
Yeah. So they they can take the leap to follow their passion to become credentialed or the expert then they can’t all of a sudden make the business work. It’s all about them and their fear and the vulnerability and the challenge. That’s very interesting.
18:20
Yeah. And I think that’s part of the call it the healing process, just to use a trivialized general term, were getting the credentials like awesome, that’s, that’s great training. And you probably went through some good healing for yourself. But I don’t think the learning stops there. In fact, maybe the real learning begins after you think you’re done learning, where now you’re in this rite of passage called, quote, unquote, the real world. And there’s this mundane thing is set up the business and now I can’t make that work. So that of course, fear comes up. The inner critic comes up self doubt comes up limiting beliefs that are just meant to reinforce the coffin of our comfort zone. But our limiting beliefs almost sound true. They don’t register our limiting beliefs. They sound true. So we start to believe that stuff. And I think the work is continuing to go in spite of the fears that come up. I think we stop the work, we become the doormat of our own lives, when we start to believe the fears when we start to believe the limitations that come up. So in other words, fear comes up about starting the business, money fears come up. And if we stop in our tracks, because of those fears, we’ve stopped the work. But if the fears come up, and we keep going, it’s like we’re connected to the fear and like, oh, this is scary, and I’ll keep going anyway, then I think that’s us deepening our own self work, for sure. In a beautiful way that we probably can’t do in a classroom. We probably can’t even go there and uh, you know that therapists office. I think the therapists office, the coach’s office is there to help give us a drink of water so that we can go out and live the work. And, man, I think we would be unserved if we didn’t have the challenging times that come up in her business of establishing the practice. But that’s part of our self work, too. That’s part of our fires, that helps burn off the scar tissue of who we’re not. So the miracle of who we are, the Phoenix can arise to a more pure degree. Doesn’t mean it’s pleasant, but I think it’s very essential.
20:40
It’s very uncomfortable to attest to that. But yeah, like the healers journey starts after your, you know, after your credential and after you’re on to helping people.
20:51
Yeah, I tend to think that we tend to learn the most when we don’t know we’re learning, when we’re having an experience when we’re doing this thing called life, our work, taking the garbage out, interacting with people, like we think we’re doing a thing, which we are. So we don’t have the capacity to just sit back and say, oh, I’m learning here, because we’re like, more fully engaged. So that means when we don’t know we’re learning, we’re hopefully learning from a greater level called experience, not theory. So I think that’s really where the free of learning is.
21:29
I observe that you are in a stage in your journey where you’re embracing fear, where fear is a good thing. You’re running towards it running into it constantly. Was there a time when you were first getting started out maybe in your coaching business where that wasn’t the case?
21:45
Yeah, you know, my relationship to fear has definitely changed. It’s definitely improved, where in the beginning, I would, I would look at fear as the enemy. In what I call the beginning, my late teens and early 20s. I call that the beginning for a reason because that was the point where my relationship with fear was no longer just one of pure avoidance of something scares me that I won’t do it, period. But once I started to say, oh, that scares me, but I’m going to, I’m going to do it. There’s just something inside of me that says, I’m going to do that. I’m going to drop out of college, even though that scares the hell out of me. I’m going to do it and I don’t like that. It scares me, I think, and I would shame myself. Like I think I am wrong for being afraid. I even became wrong for doing this thing that I’m doing. I shouldn’t be afraid. So that was that was a step in the right direction, willing to be afraid, even though I think the fear is bad. I think I’m inferior for being afraid. I think the fear is working against me. But now I look at it where fear isn’t the enemy. And I think oftentimes when something scares me but I feel a simultaneous sense of purpose. That’s where I am. I am really making a breakthrough. I am really growing. I am really connecting myself to myself to a greater degree. And, and that doesn’t make the fear all of a sudden feel like a Swedish shoulder massage. It’s like, Oh, I feel great. It’s just beautiful. It’s like no fear still feels scary, still feels dramatic body sensations and all my stomach’s going and going on stage to do a comedy show. I’ve never done this before and is oh, there’s all that. But there’s also like a deeper feeling of solidness. Like there’s purpose I realized, like, wow, I’m, I’m afraid and it’s not only okay, it is dramatically good. I am the hero going deeper into the dark forest on my journey. And I think all of us on our hero’s journey. We don’t find ourselves in the light. We don’t find ourselves with what we already know to be true. We don’t find ourselves in the familiarity of our comfort zone. We find ourselves in the mystery of our dark forest. And we’re not walking into the mysterious dark forest. If we’re not afraid. Fear tells us well, I’m going somewhere where I’ve never been before. If we’re doing something we think is new. But we’re not afraid. It’s not new. We’ve just tricked ourselves into thinking, Well, yeah, I’m not afraid here. That’s because I have courage. Like no, courage isn’t a thing unless we’re afraid, courage is I’m afraid and my feet are moving forward anyway. So yeah, I do my best to say yes to things that scare me to greater degrees. And that’s not to say, scare myself recklessly. You know, you could take me to the edge of the Grand Canyon and say like JP would scare you to jump off and I’d say yes. That’ll be good for you know, I have my prefrontal cortex where I can discern, well, that’s probably going to kill me. But if it’s, it’s doing something I’ve never done, but I’m afraid, but it also evokes a sense of purpose inside. There might be excitement simultaneously with the fear. Now that’s a cliff, a metaphor, a cliff I want to jump off of. And I find when I jump off the 50 foot cliff, metaphorically like it’ll it scares me. But second time I jump off it, it’s still scary third time, it’s like that now it’s 15% less scary than the next time I jump off the 50 foot cliff. Wow, it now it’s only half is scary. And then the fifth time I jump off is like, now this is actually fun. Like it feels more fun than it feels scary. And inevitably life serves up the challenge to now jump off the 60 foot cliff, not the 50 foot cliff. And in other words, I say I do my best to grow my capacity to say yes to things that scare me. And I think really the degree of purpose and meaning in our lives, aka inner fulfillment in our lives, is always proportional to our willingness to say yes to things that scare us. If we say no to things that scare us. I think we are avoiding ourselves. Where we really are in the dark forest, you know, archetypally. So if we refuse to go into the dark forest, then we live with the anxiety of being disconnected from ourselves in my delusional point of view.
26:46
So what have you said no to lately?
26:49
It is a good question. I do my best to, you know, in sometimes what the fear comes in the form of a no, so there was an agreement recently, I had to you know, do some kind of film work with someone and originally it was exciting. But with the help of my wise counsel, my manager said this, here. Here is why this now looks like a bad thing JP. And it was. So in other words, he was saying we need to say no to this. We said yes, a few weeks ago. We need to say no to this. And that was scary for me, because it was like, breaking a commitment. And it’s so many things. But it also it felt like a purposeful no. So yeah, it’s, you know, what evokes the sense of fear and the simultaneous excitement and purpose. Sometimes it’s a yes, sometimes it’s a no. And by the way, just on that note here in our therapy session, Michelle…
27:50
This is really my therapy session.
28:01
You know, you, you brought up something that said, it’s now an active part of my calling self work and sounds small, but saying no to people is huge for me because I was born and raised to people pleaser, you know, give me the currency of approval and in order to get that cheap form of currency, I’ll become a people pleaser, which is kind of like being a yes person. You want a meeting with me? Yes. Okay, that I have zero time for me but it’s a yes to you because I want to please you. So, a lot of people are getting nos. No to like, no, I don’t have the time. No, I don’t have the time for you to pitch me an idea. It’s a no. So there’s been a lot of nos and that that’s scary for me because I’m growing beyond the person who is the people pleaser. And that’s important skin for me to shed. It’s scary. There’s growing pains. It’s it doesn’t. It feels good in my heart to say no to a lot of things. And it feels scary on the periphery, like, oh, why they don’t like me. I know. Some don’t. Some, the only thing they want from me as a piece of my time or to serve their agenda, and if that’s the case, then they probably won’t like their experience of me saying no.
29:25
Yeah, I feel like growth is a lot more about setting those firm boundaries for yourself. Yeah, in a way that’s, you know, you’re trying to hurt others but more to serve your growth.
29:35
Yeah, yeah. I, I find in my column, my entrepreneurial journey. And Michelle, I’d be curious about your entrepreneurial journey. And of course, the lovely people listening to this I’d asked you to ask yourself, but I look back like in the beginning of my journey, and I think like, way more than the beginning but a good portion of my entrepreneurial journey up to this point was about saying yes. And I can see how like almost having the mantra if there’s an opportunity, that’s a yes. Is it? Whether it’s an interview, take a meeting, go speak in this place. I think yeses serve us like yes, that’s a growthful energy for the beginning season of our life. And then I think oftentimes, we reach a point in our entrepreneurial journey. It’s just the next phase where now having yes as our mantra becomes antagonistic to our growth, and no becomes the fertilizer that allows us to keep growing because we realize like, wow, uh, no to other people. And granted, there are certainly still some yeses, but, you know, typically the first reaction of like, oh, someone wants my time now. That fertilizes my growth where that helps me stay in the position of yes to my priorities. So anyway, I just find it kind of fascinating how saying yes to almost everything that really works well for a season. And then the next season it’s almost like then saying no, to almost everything that works pretty well.
31:15
I know I did this totally wrong in my first business. I mean, you work so hard to get things going. That is always a yes. Always a yes. For every opportunity. If you don’t make that switch that you’re talking about JP you will run yourself literally to the ground, which I’ve talked about. And I’ve done like just like too many things. I remember getting my first mentors and like their eyes were like, what are you doing? You need to cut like over half of this out. Like that’s not even doable? I’m like, I know, that’s why I’m here. That’s why I’m paying you.
31:50
Um, let’s talk about these little videos that you do that nobody knows about.
31:56
When I’m surprised, you know about them Michelle.
31:59
When did you I mean, I know a bit a fair bit about you and your story, but like you, when did you decide to start being that vulnerable or show that other side? Because I have a sense that it was always within you, you just weren’t using that strength?
32:16
Yeah, hundred percent right. The, the strength that I think you’re referring to that comes out in my videos would be my, I would say a fusion of my perspective with my inner comedian. And I actually October 5 2014 is when I allowed that strength to start coming out publicly like outside of my personal life of friends hanging out and being funny or class clown when I was younger. But for the first I don’t know what it was probably 13 years of my career. I made up a story of like, yeah, being insightful and informative. That’s what you’re supposed to be JP to be a good health dude or good emotional healing coach teacher, you were supposed to be insightful, but serious, not funny. And that was, that was cool like I, I think I was sharing great things with people and they shared a very authentic part of me with people. But it was just that a part. So my inner comedian I, I was tired of the self betrayal. I thought, man, this is gonna be bad for business but I can’t not do this. I just kept having the ideas for comedy videos. I’m like, well, it’s gonna be bad for business but let me do it anyway. And it turned out to be honestly the the best thing I’ve ever done for my business because I think it was the best thing I ever did in terms of connecting to myself up to that point being true to myself. So it’s not actually, you know, now in hindsight, I see that when I share my perspective in the language of comedy, that’s something a lot of people have the ears for. A lot of people speak the language of comedy. Not as many people speak the language of severe insight. It’s been insightful. But we’re going to be precious enough and severe enough that we’re going to be only serious about it. There’s an audience for that. But it’s it’s limited. Comedy, laughter it’s a universal language. It’s a language of connection. I think it’s also a language of transformation where when we can connect to something meaningful, and laugh about that, or if we can connect to something that’s a sticking point, pain, challenge, a limiting belief, and laugh about it, because we have it, that laughter is a transformative energy. It’s an emotional release. So we’re transforming what that is inside of us, and, and I’m thrilled to see, oftentimes people will have one of three reactions to my comedy videos which the vast majority of the time there is a deeper message intended with the comedy videos. So one of the three reactions is just indifference like people don’t like the video, like cool, like, wasn’t for you. Then the other like polarized reactions are someone will either think it’s funny, like, oh my god, like I see I see that in me. But they’re laughing about it. So I think that’s transformation. And then the other polarized reaction is people are offended by the video like, oh, how dare he, I think either way, is the person seen something in the mirror? It’s just their emotional reaction to that is either one of escaping it. Like I don’t like what I’m seeing in the mirror. So when you get angry at the mirror, and then the other reaction is like, oh my gosh, I see that in the mirror and like, oh, that’s that’s me. That is me. So, anyway, I hope my videos can serve as a mirror. And back to that, I think the bunny trail that I started off on this rant is the, the comedy it’s a language and I think a mirror that allows me to reach and hopefully impact a lot more people than when I was not being as true to myself. And occluding the comedic part of me.
36:32
Yeah. And what I love about it is you didn’t just go this is a great idea. And it’s a way to reach more people. You were really just on a journey to be your authentic self.
36:42
Yeah, I thought I’d reach less people. Like at the time I had been making guidance. I’m the I’m not good with strategy. So like when something’s a good strategy, I think it won’t work. Yeah, that’s how good was strategy. But you know, up until, you know, October 5, 2014 when I started making the comedy videos. I’d been doing YouTube videos for a year and a half and they were sincere, insightful videos. And you know I had built my audience up to a couple thousand subscribers on YouTube and my videos would typically get a few hundred views after a few weeks. It’s like that’s awesome. But this comedy video probably won’t do that good. But it happened to do pretty good. So yeah, I I like what you pointed out and I if I can use the term, I’m proud of that fact that I didn’t see the comedy as some kind of strategy to build an audience. It’s I thought it was an anti strategy, but it was just a much more pure like, this is amusing me. This feels good to me. So I’m gonna do it.
37:51
It just goes to show you authenticity and really taking what’s unique and special and different about you wins every time.
37:58
I one hundred percent. Sent. I agree with that. And I’m just gonna echo that sister being authentic when we bet our on our authenticity, we win every time. Footnote. I think a mistake that a lot of people make, including me sometimes, is when we bet on our authenticity, we win every time, but the win might look different than our expectations of how things should work. So when we win we might actually register it, oh my gosh, things didn’t work out the way like my vision board said the way my expectations said, therefore, it’s a loss. And we just let this chest of gold sit there. But our blinders are on, because we’re so focused on only receiving what we were looking for, rather than receiving something that’s beyond what we’re looking for. And I think our authenticity typically delivers the wins in volume that’s beyond what we were looking for. It’s beyond what we knew how to imagine. So, if we’re a slave to our mind, we can interpret a dramatic win as a loss. Then we may not even see the treasure we win. Unless we’re open to it.
39:15
I was just coaching someone on this yesterday. She’s like, I didn’t meet my goal for February she made you know, whatever $600 over her goal. I’m like, what she’s like, but she was so attached to the how, like, it wasn’t how she thought it was gonna be. I’ve had to learn this lesson over and over again a few times. So I’m very aware of it now.
39:35
Absolutely. And I love that word how and I love to disrespect that words. Now. That whereas like, you know, focus on the why maybe even focus on the who like who can I connect to that will help me or or whatever it is, but focus on the why and the who, and not give a crap about the how it’s like if we if we want great nourishing food. Let’s not worry about like what route the delivery truck is going to take as getting it to us, or what door they’re going to deliver. Is it going to be our back door side door front door. Now I think that how is like a old archaic language. That is it’s got its time in place. But I think oftentimes we’re used to sort of worshiping the path of the how. And I think that keeps us linear rather than allowing us to go quantum and exponential with regard to our growth, what we accomplish and how we sometimes reach our goals beyond the capacity of what the little box was when we set the goal.
40:44
So I see you as a great communicator, a teacher, do you see yourself that way?
40:51
Oh, thank you, Michelle. Like first off, I love seeing you see me that way. That’s that’s a great compliment. And any part of me wants to play the humble card and well let me just, you know, be gracious and like all but you know, I would say I do feel like I do pretty good with communicating. And yeah, so that’s that. Yeah feels good to hear you say that feels true for me.
41:20
You’re welcome. What is the ultimate lesson then that you are teaching right now?
41:25
Honestly, I think it could be said many ways but boil it down, just cut right to the point I think the lesson is become aware of your heart and follow your heart. The lesson of having awareness to feel your heart. In other words, what’s true for you, and then to have the courage to act on it. And I know that that’s a little bit abstract language, listen to your heart but I mean it’s a very practical thing where we literally feel the sensations of our heart like when something is in our like the direction of our Northstar, like our body responds. So honestly, I think when I look at all the common denominators of all the different facets of the work that I’ve done in that I do, it has to do with doing your best to let go of the attachment to what doesn’t serve you what disconnects you from your heart, and feeling for what what, what is your heart’s desire, not what your mind wants, but what is your heart’s desire and having the courage to take action on it? That’s that to me is the heart and soul of what the hell I stand for.
42:46
What’s your next 60 foot cliff?
42:50
That’s a good question. Well, they I was gonna say I’m in the middle of that freefall right now, but and I think the scariest part is over in it. I mean, you’re very in sync with me that the stand up shows stand up comedy shows, that has been the most recent 60 foot cliff I’ve been standing on top of the first comedy shows were end of November. And I’m rocking and rolling with them now a bunch more on the schedule and there’s new ones being added all the time. So that was a huge rite of passage for me. It brought up so many fears and and it’s it’s helped me grow and expand so much. It’s been a very meaningful cliff to jump off of. So you know, I’m I think in truth like I’m there’s still fear still exhilaration but the, like the holy cow I’m scared to death butterflies in my stomach. You know, I think I’m past that here is I’ve worked through a lot of that over the past couple months and, and I’m probably splashed into the water thing. Whoa, that’s exhilarating. Let’s still go jump off this cliff bunch more times. So but the question of what’s, what’s the next 60 foot cliff to jump off of? I think the next one is getting married. And I’m engaged to my fiance. She’s my fiance. And, you know, I, I think marriage is a rite of passage, at least what I, what marriage means to me. And, and I’m excited about that and also scared about that, in fact, I just, I did a lesson for my private membership community recently where I shared with everybody like how I have self doubts about my my worthiness and getting married and if not, for me, just all these self doubts that are, you know, the butterflies, if you will, that are being provoked the fears that are being provoked as I’m here. 60 foot cliff, maybe 70 foot cliff now called marriage looking down like oh, wow. Purposeful yes. Enlivens me. Yes. Speaks to my heart yes and scary yes. I’m glad to be jumping off this cliff.
45:10
I’ll have you back on the couch after the marriage.
45:15
Can I ask what what your either your current cliff for your your next cliff is to be jumping off.
45:22
That’s that’s very interesting given I’ve had a falling apart morning. I think that.. I don’t think I know exactly and that’s what’s really been hard for me right now. So I’ve gone back to feeling my way. I’m very sensitive, very intuitive eyeball so in my head and very action oriented and strategic so I can get on that train and and to be honest recently, I feel like I’m just on the train and I’m not really driving it. Does that make sense? And I know we’ve all been at those places. Thanks for asking. And so I’m just going back like I’m saying no to everything. I’m kind of like hunkering down. And I’m just feeling my way through what I want, because I’ve changed so much just in the last couple of years.
46:09
Yeah. Well, I think that’s a beautiful place to be. And I think allowing ourselves to be a passenger on the train, what I would call the, essentially the train of what wants to live through us. I think allowing ourselves to surrender into the place of being the passenger. That’s a big cliff itself. I mean, it’s I know there’s a part of me that let me be in control. Let me be the one to drive it. But that’s like, that’s the opposite of the cliff. That’s, that’s not scary. That’s not expansive. That’s actually a way of anesthetizing fear. Like Let me control control makes fear go away. But control is constrictive. It’s not expansive. So I think allowing full ones to live through you be a passenger to that. That’s a big one.
46:57
And I know I know that it has something to do with being on stages so like I was so painfully shy as a kid, and I first allowed myself to express and be have expression through being on stages. So and I believe what we, anyways, I’m really getting into the couch trip now. But like sometimes, like what our greatest gift is, you know, like we run away from it or something, I don’t know, something like that. There’s something in there like that going on.
47:27
So I hundred percent agree, I think, to a part of us, especially early in our lives, our greatest gift looks like our greatest curse. And we might run so much that we bury it with shame. We’re afraid of it to the point where like, we don’t even know we have the gift. When the gift is coming out, we’re unearthing it or we’re unearthing in the next dimension of an existing gift. But when we’re unearthing some material or material of our gift, it’s scary. I think the light of our gifts is very scary to our egos. That’s why I’m not a biblical man, but I’ve heard people talk about the Bible and a timer too. And they talk about like seeing the burning bush and like all that scary stuff. And, yeah, I think that our gifts are very powerful. And I think they’re even, maybe get a little abstract here. They come from a power greater than herself. And I think that is scary to our egos like, oh, this gift it comes from beyond me therefore, it’s scary because I can’t control it and therefore I feel powerless relative to this power beyond myself. So I don’t know about that gift.
48:36
That’s right. And that’s why I think I describe it feeling like a train as well because it’s just….okay, well, that’s gonna take us into another hour. And I know we don’t have time for that. But I do want to say thank you so much for being on the show. And we’ll definitely get your links in the show notes. But do you want to give a shout out to maybe what you you know, any big thing you’ve got going on or a certain spot you want to direct people to?
48:58
You know, a very meaningful baby of mine if you will is my private membership community where I’m doing exclusive weekly episodes for my community to help people grow expand step deeper into their power while having fun doing it so I love to combine insight growth meaning real practice with also a light hearted fun attitude. So my my private membership community Awakened with JP Premium AF is something very near and dear to my heart I really pour my heart and soul into that so if anyone cares to check that out, see if it’s for you. You can go to awakenwithJP.com slash subscribe and you’ll see all about it and be able to tell whether or not it’s for you.
49:49
Perfect. We’ll get that on linked up too. Thank you so much JP, for being on the show.
49:55
You’re welcome Michelle. Thank you for being weird enough to have me sister.
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Before we call it a wrap for today, I hope you heard JP say that he went against he went against the grain essentially, to do something he thought was not going to be a success for his business. He didn’t start doing humorous videos on YouTube because it was a strategy or because he thought it would help him get to the next level he actually thought the opposite and I just want to put you know shine the light on that for you because I think it’s really important, especially for those of you who are new like if you’re new or if you’re like one or two years in and you literally are running around with your head cut off, trying to do all the things wondering what the magic bullet is where the pixie dust is and what’s hiding behind the curtain. Take a listen. Take a listen back to what JP has to say because this is so true the the more experience I have the more wisdom I gain the the more days that are added to my entrepreneurial journey I can tell you that it is so much more about you about your inner game about putting yourself out there, being vulnerable. being yourself using your greatest gifts and your strengths that are going to get you so much further and so much more lasting success than some new marketing tactic trick or tip. And that’s one of the things that I really want you to hear loud and clear as much as you may not have experienced that yet as much as you may not believe it. Start looking around for the proof and I think I don’t think i know that JP is is his proof. He’s proof of that. And I’ve lived that for myself in different aspects, shapes and forms as well. So beautiful mavens I, I can’t stress enough show up and be yourself show up every day for yourself. start jumping off those cliffs, as JP likes to say. All right. Until next week, we’ll talk to you soon.
