Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Welcome back to the Inspired Culture. I'm your host, Eric Himes. And today's guest is someone who brings a rare mix of athletic excellence, creative talent, and a heart centered leadership. Jonathan Wells is a former USA track and field athlete turned entrepreneur, model and podcast host.
He's worked with global brands like Starbucks and Hallmark and now uses his voice to inspire others through his platform. Inspire more life. Jonathan, it's great to have you here. Let's dive in.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Let's do it. Thank you for having me, by the way.
[00:00:41] Speaker B: Yeah, this is fantastic.
I was so looking forward to having you on the show today.
And there's some great wisdom and insight that you're going to give our audience and I can't wait for them to hear about who you are, your heart, and your story. And so as we dive into some of these questions together, I'm excited for them to really know who you are and what you're all about.
[00:01:06] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: I appreciate you having me. I love what your podcast is all about and inspire more life. Inspire culture. Just the alignment there. I'm excited to have this conversation.
[00:01:14] Speaker B: Yeah, same here. I think, you know, it's, it's instrumental how things happen, you know, and how we came to get to know one another and so grateful for this, really am.
One of the questions that we have is how did you build confidence in modeling and acting industries? Full of pressure. How did you do that?
[00:01:32] Speaker A: Yeah, this is a good question. Confidence. Confidence is something that may be a little bit more difficult for people to realize, right. Do I have confidence? How do I build it? How do I go about it? But it's necessary in almost everything you do. Right. I really do think sports really helped me with that, really helped me with confidence. First of all, I like to replace the word confidence with courageous. I like that because, like a lot of times people have looked at my accomplishments like they were done in confidence. And which I, if I'm acting cool, I'm like, yeah, yeah, I was so confident. But in reality I had fear. But I operate, I did it anyways. Right. And I think that's what's so beautiful about courage is your ability to execute. Courage is confidence.
[00:02:11] Speaker B: That's right. I love that you say courage too. So where does your courage come from?
[00:02:16] Speaker A: My courage comes from.
From a faith base. Right. Like, I believe in God and I remember getting ready for competitions and in the back of my head I would, I would have verses in my head sometimes that would allow me to fight fear. Right. And you got to recognize that when you're going after A journey. When you're going after something, fear will attack you. You know, you'll be afraid. It won't always be like, oh, I can do this. You may. You may be attacked by things. And so what is it in your arsenal? What are your tools to be able to overcome that and be courageous? Right. And I have verses. I was like, there was one that said, do not worry. It was pray about everything and don't worry about anything. Something of that nature. Proverbs 3, 5. It was pray about everything, don't worry about anything, or something of that nature. It was along those lines. But it shared that we don't need to worry in this circumstance. All you need to do is pray and continue to take steps forward. And those things really helped me propel.
[00:03:08] Speaker B: I love that. You know, to me, like, when I think about your story and what you're sharing there and your faith, I think it's beautiful. And it's one of the things that, you know, it is the firm foundation.
[00:03:18] Speaker D: Right.
[00:03:19] Speaker B: And so that is where I believe confidence transitions into courage.
[00:03:24] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:03:24] Speaker D: Right.
[00:03:25] Speaker B: And so we can fake it until we make it. We could do all the things that the world says we should operate by. But true courage only comes being rooted in Christ.
[00:03:34] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: You know, and I think that's really cool. And thank you for saying that.
[00:03:39] Speaker A: And I think also confidence is the fact that you're not so in control of the outcome. Right. If you want to be so in control of the outcome, it's hard to be confident because you don't have any control of the outcome. But when you allocate the outcome to God and say, hey, God got. Whatever happens, it's on God. I'm going to operate within this space of the moment. I think that builds confidence, too. We try to take on too much that we can't be confident. We can't be confident in what the future. But we can't be confident in how we're going to take our next step up in our free will. It's things of that nature.
[00:04:08] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well. And God's going to lead it.
[00:04:10] Speaker D: Right.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: So when he's leading you, you can trust it. And you know that what he has for you is good.
[00:04:15] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:04:16] Speaker B: And so when we know that and when we believe in that, we can let everything go.
[00:04:21] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:04:21] Speaker B: And give him the reins to show us where we need to go.
[00:04:26] Speaker A: You know, and it's like, it's like, for example, you know, you have a father and a son, and let's say. Let's say someone wanted to fight you. Let's just bring that situation here. If you're a kid by yourself, right? You're like, oh, you know, I'm not as confident. I got no backup. But if your father is standing right there and this kid says, you want to fight, you know, you feel so much more confident because if you know you're gonna get beat up, you're like, hey, if Dad's gonna hop in, save me. But if your dad's not there, then, you know, it's kind of that concept of who. Who is the person that's standing over you or are you by yourself?
[00:04:56] Speaker B: And.
[00:04:57] Speaker A: And usually a lot of times in this life, we try to do so much by ourselves. And the Bible speaks about it too. There's one verse that says, you're gonna feel the weight of the world on your shoulders in those situations. I forgot what verse that is, but it's something of that nature. And I feel like we feel like that in so many situations because we're not giving certain parts of our lives to God. Just be our protector, our governor over, for example.
[00:05:17] Speaker B: Yeah, I love that. Because when we surrender and give everything, we are giving that governance to God, not to us, where then we don't actually have to worry about it. And when we look through the lenses of the Lord, what we see is he's already done it for us, right? He's gone before us. He's laid the path work. He's laid the foundation we have to follow.
And as long as we're in the straight path that he has for us, yeah, we may endure hardships and challenges. Guess what? He's there with us, right? And also, because it's hard doesn't mean it's not his will. It's meaning he's developing and growing us into something more.
[00:05:58] Speaker D: Right?
[00:05:58] Speaker B: And he's like, I need you to learn these things. And so in order for you to learn them, I need you to go through some hard things because the harder they are, the more you have to rely on me, right? And so in that, reliance becomes the growth and what he would have you grow into and be prepared for the work that he has for you.
[00:06:19] Speaker A: And if you don't understand that, then you think those hard times are part, like coming at your confidence, right? Oh, I'm not as confident because I didn't. I went through this hard time and I didn't get the results that I wanted. But in reality, you should still be confident through those downs and ups because you're confident what God's preparing you for in what you're saying.
[00:06:37] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:06:38] Speaker A: 100%.
[00:06:38] Speaker B: Oh, I love that. That's so good.
So tell us about, have you ever struggled with self doubt and how did you overcome it?
[00:06:47] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah, I was probably one of the best high jumpers in the nation at one point. Definitely top five in the nation. And sometimes you believe that as a high jumper you get more confident in terms of looking at the bar and being like, yeah, I can do it every time. But honestly, I had self doubt. I went up there and I was like, man, can I do this? Can I jump 7ft again? Can I? And I jump 75 when the time is right. And a lot of people are like, really? Like, I didn't see that on you. I didn't know you were afraid. I didn't know you had self doubt. You look so confident. But the concepts we talked about, right around courage and confidence and belief and faith and the Bible verses really helped me overcome self doubt. And so I don't. If someone's dealing with self doubt, I'm telling them, hey, that's actually normal. Don't be mad at yourself, don't beat up yourself. Create a framework and in which you have tools and resources to lean back on so you can, you know, you're battling all the time with things, right? And sometimes you have to battle with self doubt when the day self doubt isn't there. The outcomes aren't necessarily even there either. You know, some of my best performances has been me battling with self doubt and then reaching a personal record because you know, I'm over. It wasn't like self doubt wasn't there and I'm jumping freely and that was my best day. I probably had some of that and I still, you know, overcame it and had some of the best results in my life. And so I try to encourage people on that because sometimes we can be so hard on ourselves that when we have self doubt, it comes at our character, it comes at our mindset. We're weak because we have self doubt. And I just want to encourage people, like some of the best people. You know, I became a team USA athlete, I became, you know, some things and I really had self doubt all throughout the journey.
[00:08:22] Speaker B: You know, it's the voices in our head, right? And so that self doubt creeps in and the Bible talks about it, right? The flaming arrows, right, that come in. And so how do you know that mindset, right? And taking it back and saying, no, protecting your mind, you know, it's like Satan, you don't have a place here. You know, this is Jesus's space only you know, no entry allowed, you know, and, you know, and that flees and that self doubt, the story that we have in our head sometimes is debilitating.
[00:08:50] Speaker D: Right.
[00:08:51] Speaker B: And if, if we can't give that and know actually that some of this isn't true even, but yet it's there. And so we believe it until we stop believing it, you know, and it sounds like what you just shared there, Jonathan, is you got a system, a framework, and a process to eliminate that voice when it shows up.
[00:09:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:09:11] Speaker B: You know, and to work through it.
[00:09:12] Speaker A: The first thing you have to do is identify it. Right. It's kind of like your mind is your garden. And if you don't know what bugs and things are in your garden that you need to take out or keep in there, then you don't know how your food's going to produce. And I feel like something, some of these thoughts, some of us, unfortunately, you know, whether you believe in the Bible or not, the Bible has been very influential in my life in understanding what's good and bad, or what's a good thought and a bad thought, or what's a thought that's aligned with a godly thought or a worldly thought. Right. Or what thought is going to feed me or not feed me. And that's been so interesting because I feel like a lot of people don't know where to place that thought. Is that thought a real one? Is it a false one? You know what I'm saying? If you're only able to identify if that thought is real or false, then you keep it in your process and you're like, oh, that's actually. You give validation to a false thought. And, and so when I'm worrying and I'm thinking about an outcome that is negative to my own, you know, success or something, I know that's not necessarily of, of God. I don't know where it's coming from always, but I know it's not of someone. It's not of my mother, it's not of my father, it's not of my best friend. And so, you know, when you identify, okay, I don't know where this thought's coming from, but let me put this over here and let me operate in a, in a place where my father, my mother, my family, my best friend wants the best for me. Right. And so I know, you know, maybe we don't get there, but I know they're not going to try to put these thoughts in my head right before I compete or right before. So just getting back to those healthy thoughts, identifying Things, putting them in the right areas and being ready to compete, and always moving forward in that process as well.
[00:10:38] Speaker B: I love that that's. You know, you're so intentional about how you think about things and how you're navigating the space in your mind, keeping it clear, removing the things that don't belong there, you know, and that would go into not only being courageous, because that's not easy to do. It's also a growth mindset from the standpoint of saying, hey, you don't. You don't get to take up real estate. In my mind, we're going to pluck you out and get rid of you. And it kind of goes back to the parable in Matthew around good soil.
You know, where they had the rocky soil, you know, you had the soil with thistle in it. You had, you know, the weeds that would grow up, and then the seed that would fall on the good soil could grow deep roots. And so when you have that deep root system in place, it's really hard for other things to grow instead of planting on not the greatest soil to where those roots can be pulled easily.
Your faith, your depth in your faith give you that deep root system to stay grounded. So when other things show up, the grass isn't going. It's everything else that doesn't belong that you're removing as it comes in in, because you're removing it early.
[00:11:48] Speaker D: Right.
[00:11:48] Speaker B: And so that mindset gives you the ability to live Christlike and inspire others and give life.
[00:11:55] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:11:56] Speaker D: Right.
[00:11:56] Speaker B: Because you don't allow things to come in that take it.
[00:11:59] Speaker A: Yeah, that's powerful. You hit it right on that.
[00:12:02] Speaker B: That's so good, you know, that's amazing.
So how does confidence connect to purpose for you?
[00:12:09] Speaker A: Confidence and purpose.
[00:12:11] Speaker B: But let's say courageousness.
[00:12:12] Speaker A: Courageousness and purpose. I think it's. I think purpose is the goal. Right. Purpose is. Purpose is alignment. Purpose is where we want to be and where we want to go, especially in the inspire more life, inspire culture. Like, we want to be within purpose. And so that's the goal. So how do we. Like if I'm comparing this to track and fail and 7ft, 5 inches is what I jump, but let's say that's the goal, right? How do we get there? How do we get in alignment with that? Do we need confidence or courageousness to get to 7 5? Probably right. You're going to need to jump with the confidence and ability to believe in yourself. So if you want to get to purpose, it takes somewhat of the same framework, Right. In order to get there, you will be challenged. But when you get over those things, to be able to get to purpose, to be able to align with purpose, especially in this world where there's so many other things grabbing at your attention and making it difficult for you to just operate in purpose, right? You're like, oh, I got to work this job or make ends meet or do anything like that. But that's all part of the process. But if you're confident, like, hey, I know I'm going to get to my purpose, but I need to work this job, right? It's a very different approach than saying, you know, I'm going to stay at this job and give up on my purpose. But, you know, everything's in and everything's in.
What's the word? And in favor of where you're supposed to go and what you're supposed to do?
[00:13:23] Speaker B: North Star.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Your North Star, 100%. And so I think they really go hand in hand in the journey. Like, I want to be within purpose. And I know in order for me to stay within purpose and to continue to show up and continue to get there and align with purpose in the future, I, I need to be courageous. I need to be confident. And confidence and courageousness honestly allows you to be mobile. It allows you to take the next step, it allows you to move. And if you're not moving and you're not moving towards purpose, you're not moving in purpose. And some people would argue, they say if you're not progressing, you're, you're regressing in a way, right? If you're not progress, you're stagnant, then you're, you know, so that philosophy kind of works here. If you're not continuously moving within purpose, something's probably happening or you're getting taken away from purpose. So the thing about confidence and courageousness is it allows you to stay mobile, it allows you to continue to move forward. I think that's so important.
[00:14:08] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, we're designed to grow, right? And so I think if we're not growing, we're dying. If we're not in our purpose, we're out of our purpose. And so therefore it's really hard, you know, to get energy from the inside continuously on a day to day if we're not seeking it, you know, in our purpose and what God's called us to be, called us to do, you know, and then there's a framework and a structure, right? You have to have good discipline, right? And say no to a lot of things, to say yes to the things that you're supposed to do.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:14:39] Speaker B: You know, and you being an Olympic athlete, there's nothing less than discipline and a requirement for you to endure the training, the time, you know, the. Even the diet.
[00:14:50] Speaker D: Right.
[00:14:50] Speaker B: The dietary requirements of growing muscles in the way that you have to and the. In training hard enough to hit that seven five.
[00:14:58] Speaker C: Yeah, yeah.
[00:14:59] Speaker A: And that gave me the ability to, you know, jumping 75 gave me ability to go to Olympic trials. But if you look back on that process, you're like, yes, there was times where I wanted to eat so much fast food or wanted to go out with the friends or stay up late, but you have responsibilities when you actually, you have responsibilities once you commit to your goal, right. To your mission, to your purpose. And so my commitment was to Olympic trials, and it was to show up as a basketball athlete for. For my school and for my university. So then when I took on that responsibility, I had to make sacrifices. And I think sometimes people have a goal that they haven't committed to yet, and so they don't have. They don't put that responsibility onto themselves yet because they haven't took on that commitment. And so there is a level of commitment when you do say, I'm going to be an Olympian. And maybe you fell short. Like, I made the Olympic trials, but I didn't make the Olympic Games. But at the same time, you still have to go through that same process, no matter what the outcome is. And. And so. Yeah.
[00:15:52] Speaker B: And commit to that.
[00:15:53] Speaker A: And commit to that.
[00:15:54] Speaker B: Yes, Jonathan, thank you. We're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back.
And I'm excited to connect with you in the next segment and talk more about your journey. Jonathan, before we go to break, where can our audience connect with you online, whether it's your podcast, your social media, or your latest creative projects?
[00:16:14] Speaker A: Yeah, I think inspire more life on Spotify and Apple, but also Instagram would be great. Jonathan J. Wells J O N A T H A N J Wells W E L L S Connect me on Instagram, send me a DM anything to be able to connect and further the mission, push our mission out there. But yes, Apple and Spotify, we have plenty of guests coming on and look forward to y' all tapping in.
[00:16:35] Speaker B: Thanks, Jonathan.
We'll be right back.
We're back with more on the Inspired Culture.
Welcome back to the Inspired Culture. We're here with Jonathan Wells, athlete, entrepreneur, and host of the Inspire More Life podcast. And this next segment, we're going to explore how pain can be powerful catalysts for transformation. We're turning pain into power here. Jonathan, welcome back. And can you share a moment in your journey where pain pushed you to grow?
[00:17:15] Speaker A: Oh, man.
Pain is all throughout the journey. Right. I think one thing that comes to mind is I had significant back issues during college. And having back issues and being a high jumper, these things are conflicting. But I had a pretty bad, my lower back, I had spasms. And there was even one season where I. I couldn't even like really compete, but they wanted me to compete. For example, like, if I were to jump one time, I'll get so bad spasms that I couldn't be able to progress in the competition. And my point of telling you that is it showed me what we're capable of when we, when we first of all challenge ourselves.
And sometimes in the way, the way to challenge ourselves is we're forced to through, hey, I can actually do this to a certain amount of pain. So I'll show you the example. For example, my back injury was so significant that me and my coach had to strategize what heights we would come in. And I know not everyone's a high jumper in this room, but just to say the heights, I would usually come in around 6, 8, and I would usually finish at like 7 foot 7, 2. And a good day or, you know, a record breaking day for me would be like 7, 5, right?
But due to my back injury, I only knew that I only had like two or three bars in me. And so I would have to come in at my ending bar. Do you get what I'm saying? So instead of coming at 6, 8, I would actually have to come in at a bar that I would usually end at. And usually people think, hey, you need to warm up and you need to do all this. But I had to get to a mindset where I say, you know, I only got three jumps in me today. This has to be what we hit. And so for me, I grew. I grew as an athlete, I grew as a person. I grew in my mindset to say, hey, our human potential and what we can accomplish doesn't always need to be these stepping stones. You know what I'm saying? You can actually come in at certain heights in your life, certain areas. And I feel like the way that applies to life is so many people are thinking, hey, I need to do this, I need to be ready for this, instead of preparing their mind to say, hey, let me jump into this, figure it out, believe in my skillset, believe in what I worked on and make it happen. And so pain is the Only reason I knew that I could come in at a seven foot bar at, as a starting height instead of ending on it.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: That is incredible. And I love so this pain that you had in your back, these back injuries. You said, you know what, I'm going to show up as a mindset. It was mindset, you know, to say I am going to do this.
[00:19:37] Speaker A: It was a mindset.
[00:19:38] Speaker B: I'm going to hit it. I'm going to hit it right out the gate, you know, and not wait.
And then if it goes down from there, it goes down. But we hit it.
[00:19:45] Speaker A: Yeah, we hit it.
[00:19:46] Speaker B: We hit the jump that we needed to hit.
Because I only, I knew my body can give me what it could in this moment of time.
[00:19:52] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: You know, and it didn't maybe have the endurance, but I had the distance.
[00:19:55] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:19:56] Speaker B: You know, in it. I totally appreciate that. I could totally relate. Last year I was running the Chicago marathon and I, you know, I ran the fastest half marathon I've ever run in my life. I came out fast, but it was a disaster. Before I got to the start line, my Uber driver couldn't get me too close enough so I had to sprint a mile before the race even started. I ran the mile at like six minutes and to get to the tent where Team World Vision. And I got there, my heart's all racing, everything's out of sorts. And so I get on the start line, you know, I'm in, in group A, you know, so the front lines of running and for this marathon in Chicago. And I start running the race at the same pace, you know.
[00:20:40] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:20:41] Speaker B: And so I get, you know, into the 13 mile distance at about an hour 20 and all of a sudden I got these huge balls in the back of my hamstring. I couldn't even barely walk.
And so there's this lady, thank God she had this gun out of nowhere, just standing on the side of the massage gun on the side of the thing. And I'm like, she's like, do you need this? I'm like, yes. So she was right there. And it was the slowest marathon I've ever run.
But I had a choice. I could finish or I could step aside.
And the pain that I felt, I never felt pain like that in my life for running. I said, I am going to finish this and it's not about time. It's about endurance. And I asked myself in this point, what is God teaching me while I'm running right now? And he gave me 13 miles to think about it in the slow enduring pace To. To recognize what am I doing this for? Am I doing this for me and the time that I want to get, or am I doing it for the kids in Africa who need clean water? And so he's like, you're here for a purpose, and it's not about your time, it's about a greater purpose. And so I appreciate you sharing that pain reference because, yeah, you grow in it. And for me, for you, you used your body to do it. I had to use my mind, you know, and it grew my mind in that moment too, you know, in that. And so I love how pain grows our mindsets, and it gives us the ability to finish something, even though we're not our best selves on that day.
[00:22:18] Speaker A: And how you show up in that pain is always a. A thing that will last, stick with you forever. Right. It wasn't about the outcome necessarily. It was about you finishing the race and you executing and you. How you showed up throughout your pain. I think that's a reminder. Like, sometimes when you're in pain, it's not going to be your best result, but what is going to stick with you is how you showed up through that pain.
[00:22:39] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well. And you proved yourself you could do it.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:22:44] Speaker D: Right.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: And that you can do it again when pain shows up.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: Exactly. Yes.
[00:22:47] Speaker B: And the more times that you endure pain, the greater the opportunity it is to grow and accomplish new things. Because I believe that you only accomplish new things when there is pain. Because everything else is comfort at that point, because you've shifted from discomfort to comfort. And we got to stay in discomfort, you know, because that gives you the ability to grow, you know, and so just enough pressure all the time gives you inch by inch, brick by brick, growth to create the path that God has you on.
[00:23:17] Speaker C: Yes, yes.
[00:23:19] Speaker A: And I had to remember that because I was throughout most of my collegiate career, especially when I went to Team USA or even. I can't remember a time I wasn't probably in pain. You know what I'm saying? But now that I think about it, it's a beautiful thing about how much we were able to accomplish through praying. But there was a process and a framework for that too. Right. For me to be able to do what I was doing, jumping wise, I wasn't recklessly being like, hey, I'm going to jump and see if I'm going to worse. My back's pretty important. So just to be jumping and letting your back spasm, I. I had to get with some professionals and say, hey, like, what is our criteria? If I went, you Know, crazy and jumped for, like, how bad could my injury get? And they were able to give me some guidelines and rails and say, hey, like, you're good, you're gonna experience a lot of pain, but the it's not gonna get worse. And so since I knew that I was able to operate it and knew that I had to. And so my point is, is like getting with advisors, getting with people, understanding, you know, is if I'm moving in this direction in pain, is it going to worsen my outcome or worsen the situation, or am I going to just have to experience that pain? But you know what I'm saying? It's like you have to understand what is actually hindering or what is actually affecting. And sometimes in our head, we don't know. And when you start to know, you can operate in that pain more effectively and efficiently too.
[00:24:37] Speaker B: I love that. So when there's pain, you know, for everybody in our audience, it's good to get advisors.
[00:24:43] Speaker D: Yeah, right.
[00:24:44] Speaker B: Because the ability to grow through the pain, sometimes you can't see, and so you need others to help you see and help with the vision and what you're trying to execute on and know the capacity and maybe get new strategies and new ideas. Right? So this pain brings a problem or a challenge, and then we can overcome it. But we need perspective, we need lenses, we need people, we need wisdom and discernment to help us grow through that. I think that's really key. And you sharing that.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: I think people, when thinking about pain, you know, God has given us our bodies and they give. He's given us the ability to actually see and feel and experience physical pain. But mental pain is kind of similar too. And when I'm talking about that, I like to go through the framework of what happens when you get a scar, right? And first you see the scar and you're like, oh, this is not that bad. You know, you assess it and you realize, okay, some of your pain, maybe you don't need as many advisors, but if it's a significant injury and it's deep and it's bloody and you can't deal with it yourself, and you're like, man, this is really gonna affect the way I move my arm or the way, like, then you need. You maybe need to go to the hospital and get treatment, and maybe you need a cleaning and get some medicine. So going through that, whether it's mental or physical, going through that process of assessing your pain, realizing how bad it is, getting the right people and resources to be able to get that injury or that pain healed, whether it's mental or physically, and to go through that process and so you can be able to work through.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: Yeah, I like that. I like the pain analogy with the wound, you know, because I think that all of us as human beings carry wounds.
[00:26:18] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:26:19] Speaker B: From every part of our life, you know, from childhood, growing up, and things happen, you know, and those wounds come in and then, you know, the healing process for every wound, it's, you know, there's a different type of triage that has to take place. You know, in that triage space, healing can take place, but we gotta have the right pieces, the right elements.
[00:26:40] Speaker D: Right.
[00:26:41] Speaker B: To do that. And so I love that. Yeah, I love that framework because it placed your heart, your mind, your soul, every aspect of life.
[00:26:50] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:26:50] Speaker A: You know, in that it's always made sense to me. You know, the injury is too deep and you don't really know how to take care of it. So many people are trying to be doctors for their wounds that are super deep, and they wonder why the wounds affected after a couple months or a couple years. Right. And it's like you weren't necessarily, you know, you weren't trained to know how to take care. And that's all right. You know what I'm saying? It's okay. And you tried, but it didn't work. And so now you need some professional, you know what I'm saying? And so that, for me, that's always made sense for my mental and my physical, when needing to bring a team together around certain injuries. And yes, you know, you can try, but if you're not getting the results you want, where that wound is taking you, then let's strategize. Let's bring the right team together.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: That's right. We know what we know.
[00:27:30] Speaker D: Right.
[00:27:31] Speaker B: And we know what we don't. We don't know what we don't know.
And so when we bring those people around us, it's strategic, it's smart.
You get another perspective. You gain wisdom through that, inviting people in. None of us can know everything. It's impossible. And we're only experts in usually one or two things at most.
Because God's given us all a gift.
And outside of that, it becomes really hard. And so bringing the experts in in gives you the ability to learn and grow from the experts.
[00:28:04] Speaker D: Right.
[00:28:04] Speaker B: And help you heal and how you need that healing.
[00:28:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:28:07] Speaker A: And realizing that the experts might not be right either. Sometimes you get an expert that try to fix your wound and you're still infected. So don't give up on the process. On the team just realize that maybe a different expert needs to come in. I remember I had a foot surgery and for years I went to a doctor and different doctors and they couldn't give me the right diagnosis. And eventually something happened. Actually, the doctor was about to do surgery on my foot and he was just about to go in there and clean it up. No diagnosis, nothing. And his retina ended up like. It's called retina detachment. So his retina just like exploded, detached. And he wasn't able to see well and do the surgery. And so I was able to kind of pivot. The way universities work is you have to work within the doctors there, but if something happens, you can potentially get outsourced. And so I got outsourced and I was here in Chicago, got outsourced to a Chicago doctor. And he looked at my. He looked at my information and his expertise were great. His accomplishments were great. He was on magazines and stuff. So sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn't. But it was just. We were excited to see him. And I go in there and you gotta understand this foot. The first diagnosis was gonna be for four to six weeks recovery.
[00:29:09] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:29:10] Speaker A: When I went into him, he's like, hey, like, you know, you have this injury and it's gonna take six to eight months.
[00:29:15] Speaker B: Oh, wow.
[00:29:16] Speaker A: Was I disappointed? Maybe a little bit. But I was actually at peace with a. I finally know what's wrong. A doctor gave me a diagnosis. He gave me it with his expertise. All these other people were maybes, he was like, this is the problem. And you could, Even though it was the worst, like, you know, maybe you have some pain, you're like, wow, I gotta go through this intense process. But at least then, you know, like, it's the right process for you. And so it wasn't about the longevity of the recovery. It was about the right diagnosis. But I had to go to a very different doctor and it took years to get. Get the right diagnosis as well.
[00:29:45] Speaker B: But the right diagnosis is everything. Regardless of what the diagnosis is, having the right one gives you a path to go forward with, to know what's expected, know what's going to come, and then work towards it to overcome it.
[00:29:59] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:29:59] Speaker B: You know, and. But when you were playing in the dark or the shadows of what we believe it might be, but it's not. You're. You're spending a lot of time hitting and missing.
[00:30:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:30:08] Speaker B: You know, and even, you know, if it's the worst case scenario, at least, you know, and then at least, you know, the direction you got ahead and you could do something with that.
[00:30:16] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:30:17] Speaker B: You know, things that we don't know that we're not, you know, really educated on.
It really doesn't give us the ability to move forward because we're investing a lot of time not getting anywhere.
Jonathan, it's been great to have you on for this segment. We're gonna, we'll be right back here momentarily with that. And so, Jonathan, thank you for being so transparent. For those who want to stay inspired by your journey, where's the best place to follow your work online?
[00:30:45] Speaker A: Yeah, the best place is Apple and Spotify. Inspire more life. You can just type it in there. But also on Instagram, Jonathan J. Wells, please connect me on there. Those are the best places.
[00:30:57] Speaker B: We'll be right back.
We're back with more on the inspired culture.
From setbacks to self belief, Jonathan has walked a path of persistence and passion. And this next part of his story is all about faith in yourself.
Believe in yourself before anyone else does. Jonathan, we have a couple questions about this for you. Did you ever feel like people didn't believe in you?
[00:31:29] Speaker A: I think we all experienced that at one point. You know, whether it's in the micro moments of our lives, in the macro moments of our lives. And I think I've been through that experience in very different areas. Right. I think academically I wasn't always the best tester in school. And I think as a middle school, at an elementary school, they try to label you in where your intelligence is, right? They're like, you're capable of this based on the standardized test or you're not. I think as a kid that affects you, right? You start to live in that. You start to get the grades that resemble the standardized test. And I remember my grades weren't in such a good place my freshman year of high school. And I remember, you know, I had to kind of reflect. And a teacher, the teacher kind of phrased this, this thing to the class and he was, he was like, you know, if you had a kid of average intelligence, would you put that kid in an honors class or a regular class?
And the teacher, you know, the class picked the regular class because they were worried, so worried about self esteem and how the kid feels. But the teacher was like, nah, I would put that kid in the honors class so he can rise up and compete. And maybe he isn't of average intelligence. He's just in an environment where he's demonstrating average intelligence. And for some reason I felt like, you know, something just clicked for me that I needed to put myself in better Environments in different situations. No one was gonna do that for me because of these standardized tests and the system that was trying to allocate or trying to.
That was trying to identify or assess my level of intelligence. And so I ended up just putting myself in those classes. It's very weird. You actually have a lot of agency and autonomy in ways in high school that you just don't know about. And honestly, in this world that you probably don't know about, that we don't tap into. So I just went to my guidance counselor. I was like, hey, I want to put my. Even though I didn't have the grades necessarily, I told him, I want to put myself in as many honors in AP classes as possible. And he was like, I can't really do AP for you, but we'll put you in three or four honors classes. To start off, it was super rare. I didn't have the standardized test for it. I didn't have that ability. But I had the access of just asking and telling them what my mission was and what I wanted, whether no one believed in me. And so I ended up doing that. And my grades skyrocketed. I went from like a. Let's say a 2.5 to a 3.6 GPA in, like, one year, just like a semester. And then I went from a 3.6 to a 4.2 or 4.2 to a 4.6. And then when I got into my college recruitment, no one could tell me that I couldn't be successful in college. And Now I have two degrees. I have an MBA, and I graduated my MBA with a 3.85. But, right.
The growth of that from no one believing in my level of how I can succeed in this academic realm, I think that's just such a beautiful story. Whether that's in academics. I think this happens in sports a lot, right? Someone's like, man, you're not going to be able to jump even in sports. I was, you know, 6:3. I was about £200. I wasn't a normal high jumper, sure. So everyone's looking at me like, man, do they have Teflon and do this event and do that event? But I was. I just felt like I was a high jumper, right? And no one really believed that, hey, I was going to jump 7:5. And I think even my coaches kind of thought it, but they're the ones that were like, hey, like, maybe you should do the Tathlon. Maybe you should do this. And I'm like, I tried it. And I was somewhat successful at It. But I felt like we needed to go back to the high jump, and that's where we found most of our success. And so in your life, I feel like you have to really hone in on what you're called to and believe in that, move forward through that. And those are two beautiful situations that I ended up honing in on and found really real big success at, too.
[00:35:00] Speaker B: I love that. And, you know, there's a curiosity to it.
[00:35:03] Speaker D: Yeah, right.
[00:35:04] Speaker B: So you were curious about yourself. You were curious about what resources are out there to navigate you on the journey that you wanted to go on, that you felt compelled that you were supposed to be on, you know, and you sought out those resources, starting with your guidance counsel. I think that's really neat. I don't think a lot of people do that, quite frankly.
I think more should. But it's an awareness, and it was a desire. It was something inside of you that said, you know, I'm not being challenged, and so I'm not producing at the level I could produce because, you know, you needed that challenge. And I think everybody needs that challenge. Really, we can. We're so much more capable of doing things than we actually believe.
And when you. And you prove that, you know, when you're challenged, you. You have the systems in place to accomplish the outcomes that you. You're after, and you knew it, you know, and so that's played out in your entire life.
[00:35:58] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:35:59] Speaker B: You know, that's really, really neat.
[00:36:01] Speaker A: And I feel like, you know, there is a commonality of people not believing in you until you start to show some fruit. And so until I. When I started to show my intentionality, share my vision, share my mission, I started to get some people on board because of the clarity of. In which I was operating in and which I was operating in the actions and things of that nature. So you start to get believers and followers in a way along your journey. And so I want to encourage anyone, like, when you're not operating in your truth, don't be surprised when no one believes in you. Right. Because you haven't aligned on the habits and the things you're doing.
[00:36:33] Speaker B: And.
[00:36:33] Speaker A: And so they're not gonna bet on a horse that isn't doing the training Right. And gonna win that race. And so you have to start to align with your habits, with who you are, with the way you're speaking. And they're like, wow, like, I don't know why I believe in this guy, but I do. And it's because of the way you're speaking. It's because of the way you're carrying yourself. It's because you're. Of the way you're attacking that mission.
[00:36:50] Speaker B: You're showing up.
[00:36:51] Speaker A: You're showing up.
[00:36:52] Speaker D: Right.
[00:36:52] Speaker B: You're committed. Yeah. And people are seeing it. It's a consistency, Right. In anything that you do, consistency is key. From your habits to your personal life to your professional life, your goals, your vision.
[00:37:04] Speaker D: Right.
[00:37:04] Speaker B: So we inspo. We created something called the Visionary growth objectives. So we help people cast their own vision for their own mission, and then we help support that framework with the certain habits and goals weekly, monthly and bhags to get to those outcomes. And so the framework that you're talking about, it's so important. And people at first, right. You know, it was just like one of my buddies, John Peacock, a great friend of mine, you know, he one day he called me up and he's like, hey, I want you to run the Chicago Marathon. Like, John, I've never run that far in my life. This was like six years ago. And I said, I'm not sure that I could do this. And I only, like, I will only say yes if I know I can and commit to it. And so my buddy and I said, you know, I called up my buddy and I said, hey, you want to run a half marathon tomorrow?
Because I said, I figured if we could do a half without any training, we could run a full width training, you know. So we showed up, we tried it, we did run the half.
And I'm like, okay. I called my buddy up, I'm like, hey, John, I'm in. Let's do this. I've never done it before, but let's figure it out. And that set off my running career five, six years ago.
[00:38:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:38:11] Speaker B: You know, but the, the thing is, is there was a consistent training program.
[00:38:15] Speaker D: Right.
[00:38:16] Speaker B: So I had to show up and do so many runs every week. Not just for like five weeks, for like 24 weeks, you know, and it was just this commitment. But. And at first people were like, ah, you know, are you or are you not? But when you start showing up and you start showing the results, people want to jump in. Right. It's all the work. The finishing of the race is finishing, but it was all of the work and the prep before even showing up the race day to get there.
[00:38:43] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:38:43] Speaker A: Especially over a long period of time too. Right. Time is your friend in that regard. When you're building training and, and showing up in your truth over and over again, you just can't help but embody and build the identity that you need to show up for what you need to show up for too.
[00:38:57] Speaker B: And it builds, right? So it starts growing. It's habits stacking. But on top of that, you're gaining momentum and you're gaining belief, right? That belief that you can do it and that others then start believing in you as well.
[00:39:12] Speaker A: It always starts with you believing in yourself first. Because that belief, even if you don't fully believe in yourself, because I think this is another conversation too, is like some people don't fully believe in themselves, but they believe in themselves. Believe in yourself enough to take that first step, to ask that first question, to do that first. Even in areas where I'll give you a situation. I graduated college, finished my mba. I didn't have that much work experience because I was so, you know, submerged in sport. But I felt like I wanted a six figure income. Like it just was something in my vision and my thing. And I was only 25 years old at the time. And so I didn't need a six figure. It was just a goal that I wanted to go about and get after. And I was going job after job and let alone I wasn't getting six figures, I actually wasn't getting a job, you know, but I had a, I had a Runway to give myself. I had like eight to 12 months. And so every week I'm interviewing, I'm doing things that I'm getting rejected. I'm getting offers that are super below my. Like I'm getting 60k. And not that any of this is bad, it's just I had to go, yeah, I thought it was going to be maybe 80k or something like that, but I'm only getting 60 and 55s and 70s.
But I keep consistently going through that process and believing like maybe I can put myself in that position. And eventually I end up applying to a place and they gave me an offer for 80k. And so you think the story stops there. But the belief in me was like, no, I think first of all, I have enough Runway to continue to pursue where I think I can pursue. But also I believe that can potentially get this offer 200k. So I negotiated 18 +k. I moved it up to 105 compensation package. But my point of it was it was all because of a belief, you know, and no one believed that. I was like, man, this might be my goal. I think I can, you know, do this. And everyone's like, bro, you don't have any work experience. You know, you don't have this, you don't have that, you don't have this. And I was like, I think it's possible. And that little belief allowed me to negotiate, strategize and advocate for myself to put myself in that position too.
[00:41:00] Speaker B: Well, it gave you time to really understand the value that you have to offer an organization.
Others didn't see it, and maybe you didn't have a chance yet to articulate it the right way, but over time, you got the reps in, you did the reps, you know, and you didn't accept something less than what you were worth. And you were help. You knew it inside, but you had to help people see it.
[00:41:24] Speaker D: Yeah, right.
[00:41:24] Speaker B: And so it took a moment to, through the reps to understand this is my value proposition. As Jonathan this is what I bring, you know, and I bring a lot. I need people to understand that. I need them to see that. And so your repetition through the interview process gave you the ability to tell your story.
[00:41:43] Speaker D: Right.
[00:41:43] Speaker B: And share that story within the organization that gave you the offer.
[00:41:46] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:41:47] Speaker D: Right.
[00:41:47] Speaker B: But it was only until you were able to articulate the value, which you already believed it was. But in your belief system now you had others to have to believe.
[00:41:56] Speaker D: Right.
[00:41:57] Speaker B: And so you use then what you had to create the system to create the vision, and you got others to jump in and say, we believe in you too.
[00:42:04] Speaker D: Yeah, right.
[00:42:05] Speaker A: Such a good point. And what I realized too, especially in my industry of modeling entertainment, is like when you pitch someone on something, people don't like to operate in the imaginary. They want to see a pitch deck.
[00:42:15] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:42:16] Speaker A: And so part of creating a pitch deck or creating what I was doing when I was going for corporate in that job is I was taking research on why MBAs get paid 30% more. And putting that in my email, I was checking, I was going, why athletes are, you know, I don't want to say more productive in the. But why are they. Why are they super competitive and maybe grow at a higher rate than maybe an average or an employee that did not have an athletic background or something of that nature? Right. I was just pulling resources and research to be able to advocate for myself in community. The negotiate. I think that's so good for everyone thinking like create. If you believe in yourself, that is good. You know, you can create the imaginary. Hey, like this is what I can do. But bring in resources, bring in evidence, bring in research to support who you feel you are and who you feel you can be. First of all, that will increase your belief in yourself because as I said, sometimes we believe in ourselves. But how do you 100% believe in ourselves isn't necessarily everyone's is where everyone operates. They need to continue to increase that belief in themselves. And usually you can do that through research and other things to be able to increase that belief.
[00:43:19] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well. And every person's invaluable.
[00:43:22] Speaker D: Right.
[00:43:23] Speaker B: Because we're all made unique and we all serve a purpose and we have a role to play. Now, where we show up depends on the value that people see in us too.
[00:43:33] Speaker D: Right.
[00:43:33] Speaker B: And we can do the same job for two different organizations, and one is going to pay us a lot less than the other because they don't see the value.
It's like the. The analogy of the water bottle.
[00:43:44] Speaker D: Right.
[00:43:45] Speaker B: You can buy a water at Costco for whatever, 50 cents for a case. You know, like each bottle is 50 cents. You can buy it out of a vending machine for two bucks or on an airplane for five.
[00:43:55] Speaker D: Yeah, right.
[00:43:55] Speaker B: It's the same bottle. You know, you're the same person. You went through the interview process, but you were able to articulate your value differently, and you helped find out and align yourself with the purpose of the mission of their organization to best too.
[00:44:11] Speaker D: Right.
[00:44:11] Speaker B: And so they're like, you know, if I'm the employer, I'm looking at you, Jonathan, saying, you know what? He's going to be intrinsically motivated to be here. He's going to do. He's going to help us move the bar, not only for himself, but for us too. We want to invest in that.
[00:44:24] Speaker D: Right.
[00:44:25] Speaker B: And so they saw you not only as valuable, but somebody worth investing into.
[00:44:29] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:44:29] Speaker B: And. And that's the dynamic that we have to create as individuals out in the marketplace. Because the reality is, is everybody has great value to offer. They first have to see it, and then they have to show it.
[00:44:42] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:44:43] Speaker A: You can't be too emotional and be upset why people don't believe in you. I think that's something you gotta grow through as well. Cause we can't get emotional like no one believes in me or anything of that nature. But believe in yourself. Take that first step.
[00:44:55] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So, Jonathan, we have like 30 seconds left. Is there anything that you want to share with the audience?
[00:45:01] Speaker A: Oh, in terms of. Share with the audience.
Just believe. I love the conversation of believing in yourself. I think it's so important. I think it's the first step. Believe in yourself. Don't be surprised that people don't believe in you. It's just, you need to continue to show up in your truth, show up in your authenticity, align, and I guarantee you more people will be able to champion you, get behind you. It's just a matter of time.
[00:45:23] Speaker B: Jonathan, before we wrap this segment, where can people tune in to your podcast or reach out to connect with you directly?
[00:45:31] Speaker A: Inspire more life on Apple and Spotify, and then feel free to message me or anything on Instagram. Jonathan J. Wells.
[00:45:42] Speaker B: We'll be right back.
We're back with more on the inspired culture.
We're closing out with Jonathan Wells here on the inspired culture.
In this final segment, we talk about building an intentional life and how each of us can be part of something greater. Our topic is going to be creating an inspired culture in your own life. So, Jonathan, what does inspired culture mean to you personally?
[00:46:14] Speaker A: Inspired culture aligns with inspire More Life. I feel like they're just parallel going in the same direction. Right. And I feel like it's a community of inspiration. And once a person lives in their truth and they align, they inspire someone else and it becomes a culture. Right. When you think about a company or you think about an organization and you think about the culture, you think about how people are showing up, how people are acting, how people are behaving, how one person inspiring the other, and then the whole organization kind of grows because of that. I think the inspire culture talks about or really shows that within humanity, all of us being able to align, all of us being able to be purpose driven, will organization is like our. Our humanity, our organization as a humanity will increase, do beautiful things. And I think that's the mission.
[00:46:59] Speaker B: I love it. Yeah. The inspired life and the inspired culture, so similar. You know, one of the things that I think about is people taking right in the world, in the world we live in, if you allow it, it will take from you all day.
And where it begins is your time.
[00:47:16] Speaker C: Yes.
[00:47:16] Speaker B: You know, and I think that time is the most critical resource that we have, anybody has. And we have to protect it, be strategic with it, and so on and so forth. And so when I think about this inspired culture and what you shared in the inspired life, you know, it's purpose, it's intentional.
We know where we're going because it's the choices we've made, not by the choices given us to execute on or be influenced by. You know, we're taking over the influence, you know, being God, inspired God direction, you know, and having God lead us. And so that intentionality drives purpose. It drives the inspiration for us to achieve so much more because we're focused, we're intentional, and we can go deep, not surface, not touching it. Getting excited about the next shiny thing that runs by but this is an endurance run.
[00:48:10] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:48:10] Speaker B: You know, this inspired life, this inspired culture, it's not something that you just do three days a week. You know, you live it out 365, 24, 7.
And that is so important because that says I'm going to be intentional about my relationships. I'm going to be intentional about how I choose to show up and be present and really be a lifelong learner to invest in those relationships around you. We could go after and pursue money, we could pursue all of these things. But pursuing the relationships, everything, you know, and being invested in that and purposeful and intentional.
[00:48:47] Speaker C: Yes, yes, 100%.
[00:48:49] Speaker A: My dad left the quote with me when I was younger and his mission was to liberate people too. And I think our mission is to liberate people as well. To be their best selves, to do what they. To walk them into the world. Like there is possibility.
And it was an Einstein quote. It was like if you measure, if you measure a fish's ability off its ability to climb a tree, live its entire life feeling that it's stupid. Right. And I think the mission also with Inspire More Life and Inspire culture is helping people realize that inspired is not just for one part of the world or one type of race or individual. Inspired is for all people. Possibility is for all people. And to liberate people in their ability to walk in purpose and walk into alignment of purpose, passion and potential.
[00:49:30] Speaker B: Yes. I love that. And holistically.
[00:49:34] Speaker D: Right.
[00:49:34] Speaker B: It's every part of us.
I work with a number of different organizations and I'm always like, you know, there's only one of you. So two people can't show up. And they all look at me like what? I'm like, yeah, the person that's at home and the person that's at work. You know, it's the same person, but yet we wear two different masks or we carry ourselves as two different people or Personas. The reality is, is we're one and we got to foster that environment. You know how exhausting it is to be one person at home and one person at work. That's tiring in and of itself. But a lot of people do that because they don't feel safe to bring their self to work, the real self.
[00:50:11] Speaker D: Right.
[00:50:12] Speaker B: Because there's this performance based, driven environment that it doesn't mean we still can't perform, but it's okay to be ourselves. But it's a comparison trap of work growing and climbing the corporate ladder. The risk of being myself may cost me a promotion, which that shouldn't be the reality, but sometimes that is the reality because I'm not like my boss. And so that plays a risk. But in the world and what we teach is you don't have to be. We want you to be the best version of yourself. We want you to have the opportunity to grow. And you know what, the best will come for you. And it may be where you're at or it may not be, but you're going to really blossom and into who you're called to be.
[00:50:56] Speaker A: I think more because you work with organizations that help organizations and companies get to that level of helping their employees or the people within their organizations get to that level of authenticity. Right. And I think, you know, when I decided to leave corporate a couple years ago, it was. It was. It's there, it's starting. But, you know, based on your work and hopefully other organizations work, we're getting more companies in that direction. However, one of the best things about me stepping away from corporate was that, was that I can be the same person in multiple rooms. So what you're saying is spot on and being able to do that and being able to find a way to do that. But also we understand, like, sometimes organizations don't make it easy for you to show about this. You know what I'm saying? And so, you know, you just leave your job and quit and, you know, figure it out. I don't know if I'll recommend that too. But that's why we have your organization. That's why we have these conversations about people was processed so we can be able to show, give visibility that it's not necessarily easy, but it's possible.
[00:51:55] Speaker B: It is.
[00:51:56] Speaker A: Right. There's some process, there's some work to do and there's some sacrifice as well. But yeah, it's so important to show up in the same. To show up as yourself authentically. Authentically and transparently in multiple rooms, for sure. And that's been one of the most beautiful aspects of my process. And that changed for me that transition.
[00:52:14] Speaker B: Isn'T that great because, you know, I just get to be me. You know, you get to be you and it is so, so life giving.
[00:52:22] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:52:23] Speaker B: Because you're not. It doesn't matter and you're not worried about being judged.
[00:52:27] Speaker D: Yeah, right.
[00:52:28] Speaker B: You know, well, it went well or that didn't go well. That sits with me, you know, and I have to deal with that. And so I love that and what you shared because the reality is, is that the more authentic we are, the greater we have the, the ability to give.
[00:52:46] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:52:46] Speaker D: Right.
[00:52:46] Speaker B: Because when we're rooted and grounded in our authenticity, that gives us life to innovate and create.
[00:52:54] Speaker D: Right.
[00:52:55] Speaker B: When we're not, when we're looking at what everybody else is doing, well, we're stuck with what everybody else is doing too.
[00:53:01] Speaker D: Right.
[00:53:02] Speaker B: And we're in the system then of doing what we're all doing and we're no longer innovating.
[00:53:07] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:53:08] Speaker B: But when we're our most authentic self, that's where this creativity is unlocked in our mind and then our mind, because we have then courage to step out and live out that creativity and say, you know what? I'm going to put an idea out on the conference room table and let's see where this goes. And maybe that idea sparks another idea. Right now all of a sudden we have a collective of ideas that creates a new business model, a new vertical in an organization, a better experience for people. But it all comes from that purpose, that innovation. And then I'm intrinsically bought in because guess what? This was part of my idea. It wasn't the whole idea. But we fostered that environment.
[00:53:51] Speaker D: Right.
[00:53:51] Speaker B: And I feel like the inspired life, the inspired culture, it does that, it fosters that which gives the world something new.
[00:54:00] Speaker D: Right.
[00:54:01] Speaker B: We all live in the world and how it function and operates today. But I believe being inspired, we're called to bring in something new.
[00:54:08] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:54:09] Speaker A: When you're yourself, you're a multiplier, your amplifier. And so if you don't show up yourself, you're losing that multiplying effect of creativity and leaning into certain parts of the brain and having that authenticity step into. Honestly, we can't even calculate when our, when our authentic energy connects with other things in our life, what that will do. But if you don't show up in that, you're missing out on that.
What that could be a two month, but it could be a four, it could be a 10, it could be 100. You don't know what you being yourself, stepping in certain rooms, creating certain relationships would do for you. So it's so important.
[00:54:41] Speaker B: That is well said.
So how can everyday people create a ripple of positive change?
[00:54:47] Speaker A: Yeah, everyday people, first of all, I think, you know, we're all everyday people, right? Like, we gotta realize that no matter what, we're looking at your A list actors to maybe what people may call blue white collar workers. Like, we're all everyday people in any. No matter how many cameras are on us, no matter how many podcasts we're on, anything of that nature, we're all everyday people. So I just want to encourage people like, you are the A list actor in your life.
[00:55:10] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:55:11] Speaker A: You are the app apple organization of your life. I think we're all like little businesses too, you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm Jonathan Wells, my business. And you know, you gotta think of yourself in that way and as an individual. How can you create a ripple effect of impact?
I think it starts first of all, I look at it like macro and micro, right? Micro impact and macro impact. And I think we all do micro impact to full things. We create ripple effect through micro behaviors all the time. So I want to encourage everyday people, including myself, to continue to show up in micro moments, right? Whether that's giving on the street or giving someone a word of encouragement, or maybe you're living with your family or friends or something like that, you got roommates and you're waking up at 4am and you're doing what you need to do.
You're being light in your, in your habits and your behaviors. And what's so beautiful about that is microbehaviors, when you do it enough, it can turn into a microbehavior. And so, for example, if I'm giving maybe, let's say I see we have, we have in Chicago, homelessness and things of that nature. If you're giving a dollar, let's say for a year straight, 365 days, how is your habits going to evolve? Eventually your mind progresses. Like, how can I, you know, not just have one person a day, but two people? And then maybe you're like, you know what, let me start an organization around this. And now people are looking at it like, man, you're making big ripples because of your organization. But you're like, man, this all started because I was giving a dollar a day. And my heart grew in that process of giving and that process of showing up. Maybe you waking up at 4am and you're doing that for a year and you're like, you know what, Your roommates get excited. They want to wake up with you and their roommates. And then you create a community. And now you got a whole organization waking up at 4am and you're like, that just started with me waking up at 4am and so the ripple effect is through micro behaviors, micro decisions that create bigger things. And I think that's the beautiful thing as well.
[00:57:01] Speaker B: It is. James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits. Start small, right? Start small. And so $1 to waking up at 4. I'm a 4:45am Guy that's I start my day every day at 4:45. But it is. It's one thing and becomes who you are, right? So over time, it's like, I'm going to try this out, and then all of a sudden I'm not trying this out. It's who you become, you know, in all of the good things. Now I want to highlight that positive habits create positive impact. Negative habits create negative impact.
[00:57:32] Speaker D: Right?
[00:57:32] Speaker B: And so for everybody that's listening in, we have a choice. We're going to be intentional and positive to create those impacts and those positive ripples, or are we going to create negative ones? You know, because the negative could be just the same. And so I want to encourage everybody to choose the positive choice as, you know, and grow in that. And that will become you.
[00:57:51] Speaker D: Right.
[00:57:51] Speaker B: In everything that you do.
And I know it's hard, but you can do it. Yeah, you really, really can do it.
[00:57:58] Speaker A: I want to just build on that and say, like, identify what those positive things are with those negative things. Because sometimes we may have negative things in the positive area and we might really be thinking and so really take some time to assess. Like, I like to say, what is this? What's the ROI of this behavior for myself or the other individual? Like, both mutually, you know what I'm saying? Like, what's the return on this investment? You're going out, you're going to sleep late. Like, are you being more productive? Like, do you want the returns that you're getting on the decisions that you're making?
And maybe. And so you start to assess and you start to see, like, you know what? For me, I was like, you know, going out, and I'm like, man, I'm not really making the connections I want going out in this environment. So let's change this behavior and put this in this area. And so I'm making continuous decisions to say, a, am I showing up and getting the results that I want as an individual that wants to be impactful, purpose driven, and wants to have a positive influence.
[00:58:50] Speaker B: I love that. Jonathan, we've hit our time today. It's gone by so fast.
I've enjoyed, truly enjoyed having you on the TV show, the Inspired Culture. And I look forward to. We're going to have to come back together because there's just so much to talk about. It's just been an incredible conversation together.
I appreciate the work that you're doing and all of the great things that you've accomplished and you're just hitting the ground running. And so I know you've accomplished so many things. But there's so many more things for you to do too, I believe. And so I'm excited for your path forward and where you're going. And I think that there's going to be just incredible things to follow for you.
[00:59:28] Speaker A: I appreciate you. Thank you for having me on. I love your mission and I hope one day we could do a little collaboration in the future as well. That would be amazing, but thank you so much.
[00:59:37] Speaker B: Yeah, you bet.
[00:59:38] Speaker A: Appreciate you.
[00:59:38] Speaker C: Yeah.
[00:59:39] Speaker B: Jonathan, thank you so much for bringing your wisdom, energy and heart. Today's episode. For those inspired to go deeper, where should they go to find more about your podcast and projects?
[00:59:51] Speaker A: You can find me on Apple and Spotify. Inspire more life, but also find me on Instagram. Jonathan J. Wells. Send me a message. Ask any questions. We're all about growth. We're all about inspiration. Let's do it together.
[01:00:03] Speaker B: This has been the inspired culture where we believe leadership starts with you, the life you live every day. A huge thank you to Jonathan Wells for reminding us that confidence is built, pain can be turned into power, and living with purpose is always possible, even in tough times. I'm Eric Himes, and until next time, keep creating a culture that lifts others, starting with the one inside yourself.
