Hello, this is Leslie Kane. I am the host of the Why Not Today podcast. This podcast is to celebrate people who have been courageous and said, Why Not Today?
I started this podcast in honor of my father, Patrick Kane, who often said, Why Not Today? I am based in Reston, Virginia, a planned community right outside of Washington, D.C.
And thanks for joining us today. So I'm excited to have my guest is Kelly Johnson. And before we hear from Kelly, let's talk about connections. You never know where you're going to meet somebody, where it'll lead to somebody in your life to connect with.
And I am, as you've heard me say many times, a firm believer, like God puts people in your path for a reason you just never know.
So when you talk about kind of how we connect, but you just never know where you're going to connect with somebody. And most you know my real, my income producing activity at this point is Mary Kay.
And I always believe that you just never know who that person you're going to meet is going to be a connection for you. And it may not be immediately or a customer or just going to introduce you to someone.
So I am involved in a lot and being involved in a lot you're in front of people if you're in your house all day long. And even when we've been stuck in our house all day long you can still connect with people and see how you can meet up with people but I used to teach water aerobics and that's kind of long story short how Kelly and I got connected.
We'll talk about that in a minute but you know I volunteer a lot I have, I book music at a friend's restaurant. I just met with somebody or met somebody the other day for the first time she's like what do you not do.
I'm like, well, that's a good question I do a lot but the more you're involved the more you meet people and you just never know whether that's going to lead. So I'm super excited to introduce Kelly, and how we know each other as I mentioned, I use teach water aerobics and one of the ladies in my class.
And then actually became started working at a local chocolate shop, a little plug for just pick chocolate and rest in. And, and my sister works there to some Melissa started working with my sister we got to be better friends.
And then she really started purchasing from Mary Kay products from me. And then she was less she's been listening to my podcast. No, I didn't know she was and she's like, email me the other day she goes you need to meet my friend Kelly. She's all about everything you're talking about with your podcast and being courageous.
So Kelly why don't you introduce yourself. Tell us a little about you and we'll get to know your whole story, but a fun fact that people might not know.
Good, good. Oh, thank you so much for having me I'm thrilled to be here and I am right there with you with, you know, the more you put yourself out there and just get curious about other people. It's amazing the people you meet and so I'm thrilled that I've gotten to meet Leslie and can talk a little bit about my
topic. Again, my name is Kelly Johnson, I am a counselor and coach and speaker and author of a book called being brave 40 day journey to the life God dreams for you and I spend most of my time doing individual and group coaching around these kinds of topics and just empowering people to step out
and find their the best version of themselves and yeah so what else did you want to know a fun fact. What do we find fact that's right. So this kind of a fun fact I am married to my high school sweetheart we met in 1980 which is a very, very long time ago.
And we, our teacher put us in alphabetical order in algebra. And I, he sat behind me because Ivy is shortly followed by Johnson and here we are.
A very, very long time later and we've married for 35 years and have two beautiful children and I'm still crazy about him. He's still my favorite adventure partner.
You know it's interesting you say that, just this week. I've had conversations with three or four people who met their husbands in high school in the 80s and they're still married.
My hair is not quite as big as it was in Texas in the 80s but other than that. Yeah, we're still having a great time together and yeah, quite an adventure.
So this podcast is about courage and saying why not today and I know your book is being brave. So what does courage mean to Kelly Johnson.
You know it's such a, it's such a multi layered question and my understanding of courage changes, you know, every day every year as I see people who are really stepping out but I guess if I had to boil it down to a definition, I think courage is when you show up scared.
When you show up in your life, you show up in that conversation, you show up in your diagnosis, you show up in your calling, you show up in life, even though you're still have butterflies in your stomach or not in your throat or whatever scared feels like to you.
That would be my definition of courage. Totally agree. And it's interesting to see so many people and their definitions and it's encompasses a lot.
And now and the whole movement of why not today like doing those things scared and sometimes just gotta say a prayer and go.
Absolutely.
And do it. Do it scared. So, tell us your story and what I love your story behind brave. How did you come up with it brave and then.
Yeah, yeah, so you take it in your life.
Yeah.
Well, when my girls were grown up I have two grown daughters they're 28 and 26 now. And when my baby was probably seven or eight years old. She was just having a day. She was just, she was grumpy and she was, you know, bored and she was whiny and she was just having one of those days and I had tried all my mama bag of tricks to try to talk her out of it or, you know, distract her or whatever and I finally just threw
my hands and said, you know, Brooke, I don't know what else to do for you. I don't know how to help you. And she said to me these words she says, Mommy, I just need you to call me a brave soldier.
And it was such a sweet, you know, first of all, where she had heard that term I have no idea. But, but it became sort of a mantra in our house of calling out the brave in each other of saying, Hey, I noticed that you did that hard thing.
You're so brave. You know what I know you've got this thing you're scared about tomorrow at school or, or that friend that you want to reach out and talk to or that audition both my girls were drama kids and, you know, so that is always kind of a scary thing but just naming each other brave and it sort of grew from there of naming my friends brave and my husband and then and then my friends calling me brave and just noticing
those times when we showed up, you know, not about giving advice, not about telling somebody what to do but just naming them with with that word of courage or bravery and it from there it sort of spiraled into me doing a little scripture deep dive.
You know, I can see in Leslie's office there she has the one of the one of the many places in scripture on our wall that tell us to remind us about being brave and about having courage be strong and courageous and so anyway sort of snowballed from there and noticing all the places in scripture that God made us brave.
And so it turned into a retreat turned into a book turned into a coaching business and it's naming people brave is my favorite and, and naming myself right for sure. And the times that I've shown up, even though I'm scared.
That's awesome. And I love how it snowballed and it's just the whole premise of we're talking about taking that first step, and then the next step, the next step.
You just never know what doors God's going to open for us. And where that's going to take us. So, talk about, and you've got the book which I love reading it. And, but talk about the, I know you've done retreats around this and Bible studies
and talk about those avenues and get involved. First of all, we will share the book information and get it from Amazon, and all those sources I'm sure.
Yeah, so what happened fast forward to when that kid that I was talking about Brooke was my, as I said my youngest and the summer that she went off to college was also the summer that I turned 50. And I realized that my life was changing.
Yes, that magical theme.
Yes, interview the other day, you'll have to I don't know if you've listened to the episode with Crystal Downey Shada, but she had a little life change when she turned 50 or kids are starting to go off to school.
And so her whole premise is heal the hustle.
Oh, I love that.
And we're doing the right thing. Sorry to say, I know.
Well, it's so funny because so many of the women that I coach now are in that transition right of something has shifted, you know, we're looking at middle age and saying, you know what I've got a lot to offer this world so how am I going to step out and do it so.
Anyway, when it got to that that that pivotal point. My daughter said, Okay, you know she wrote me this letter was so sweet and she said mama now it's your turn to be brave and step out and you go find
what your next chapter is and so I started writing again and I went to some conferences and and I remember.
So that year was weird I felt really out of sorts I felt like I was trying to listen to what God's call was for my life. What did I want to do with my time, and then come about so that would have been like, August 2014 come around about May, June.
I started having this idea for the retreat. And one day in the summer of what would have been in 2015.
I said, I need to, I need to book a retreat. I need to, I need to do this and I didn't know what it was going to look like. I didn't know exactly all the parameters, but I decided I had started kind of having a practice of trying to do one brave thing every day.
And that day, my brave thing was I called this I had coincidentally met somebody who ran a retreat center, which again we know there's no coincidences.
But I met somebody. Yeah, I met somebody who ran a retreat center and I called her up and I said listen, I want to do a full day retreat in October what dates do you have available.
And she gave me a date and we figured out the parameters and I went on to my social media and said, I'm doing a brave, a being brave retreat for women on this date in October, and just basically sort of jumped.
And, and then I had to course do it.
Exactly what I do with this podcast. I'm like, you know, I had the idea and I was talking to a friend and told her the story of why not today, and the idea of a podcast and she's like, Well, that's obvious.
It's why not today's a podcast and why don't you start today.
Right. And then you had to do something and then you had to do it and I'd like, right. And I picked a date just like you and I'm like, All right, I have no idea how to do this.
Oh, my goodness. Absolutely. And then that summer, yeah, all sort of things have.
And it, it, in the first one, it was a lot of my friends who said we're here to support you we don't even know what you're talking about but we signed up, you know, because I said, you guys, you know, please come.
And it ended up being really meaningful and really powerful and people loved it and it just grew from there and I started planning more of them and then churches started asking me to, to do the being great retreat there and then he started, I thought, you know, I want people to walk away with something
you know, I'd never been like, Oh, I want to write a book, but I wanted people to walk away with with something like we'd spent this intense day together really sharing our hearts and talking about vulnerability and shame and, and stepping into power and talking about my favorite verse which is
for I'm not giving you a spirit of fear and timidity but of power love and self control and, and so I started writing little, little, like a short little devotional. And I put it together and you know, stapled it and handed it out at the end of my retreats and somebody was like,
what are you doing? Why don't you try to get this published and like, I don't know anyway so then all the snowball of this person knew this person and, and I ended up getting a publishing contract from having the press, which is the United Methodist Publishing House and anyway, and now we have a little
talk of, but yeah, but it was literally show up, do the next right thing and trust the process and I say that over and over again in the book and it really is a mantra that I've stuck with. And when I get off track and when I feel like I'm floating around out there trying to figure
out, it's show up, do the next right thing, trust the process. And I think that's been a meaningful mantra for other people as well.
Well, you know what it absolutely just spoke to me and it's interesting that we were supposed to record this last week, and you went on vacation and brought a souvenir of COVID home so we had to have it and it was definitely God wink because the guest I had on last week, and I've been
conflicted and confused and about some decisions about the why not today name and brand and taking it forward and I think Kelly I absolutely needed to have you today.
So I think you're coaching me, not knowing.
I'm not going to touch it we are going to have this on YouTube eventually we're not there yet see maybe watching it one day. And so if you look at and watch me I'm taking lots of votes because what you're saying is absolutely speaking to me, and giving me the courage to, you know, do the scary
things and if you have that. I know for me that you know if you have that idea that thought and it just, you can't let go of it, you just got to do it.
And I think that that's when we surround ourselves with people to I think if this is about relationships as well and and surrounding ourselves with other people who are trying to live into that show up do the next right thing trust the process, because
when they you can bounce ideas off of each other you have that and people, you know when you see somebody else's eyes light up when you tell them the story of what you're thinking about doing or when they say, go, I'm with you or, you know that it's so much we're so much stronger in
the, you know, the being brave, the brave stance for an acronym of being bold, resilient, authentic, vulnerable, engaged and empowered and those particularly that authentic and vulnerable is really all about relationship and knowing that we're going to be
much braver going to be much more courageous we're going to be much more likely to take that risk when we are in community with people who are cheering us on and calling us brain.
Right. And I know that I know that I know that.
I know that we're going to be double getting our brain and make you think other thoughts and question things and yeah surround yourself by the people that you want to be most like you're around the five of you spend your time with a firm believer of surrounding myself with positive influential people and just the connections always fun to just connect people as we talk a lot about and who knows who and I think I've mentioned my friend
and I think I'm going to read another book that I have to only need to connect you to and I was just thinking in her birthday she's turning 50 next Thursday.
And one of these being brave books is going to show up.
So, are you doing any retreats now any Bible studies any book quote. Well, I, I do.
I'm booked in the fall for several things. I'll be doing a being grave retreat at a church in an ideal in the fall.
And I'll be going back to my friends in Minnesota in the fall as well.
And I also teach on the any of Graham and and some neuroscience topics and so I have a couple of those kinds of programs coming up as well so yeah it's starting to world starting to open back up again you know during the pandemic I did some online I do a lot of online.
I went off sort of hour long webinars on a variety of topics and and things that interest me, you know, like, like he said I love that, you know, you started a podcast about a topic you'd love to talk about, and that you want to teach about and learn about and so you surround
yourself with people who want to talk about it you know that's kind of how I am with my coaching business and with my teaching is is to surround myself I do another one on a topic of joy and difficult times that came out of the pandemic.
And, and it is also being joyful when life is kind of crappy is also a brave thing, you know that we do so I have had two family members going through cancer treatment this, this past year and they've given me a whole new outlook on what it looks like to be courageous in the face of really hard
things and, and still be able to laugh and still be able to connect with your people, even when on those days when you feel really crappy.
You know, it's been, it's been a powerful witness my mom and my sister, some of the greatest ladies I know and I knew that before, but watching them go through these hard things has even just cemented like how lucky I am to have courageous women in my life.
And there are powerful women that we, you know, we just need to plug into them. And that's the only that we just mentioned, kind of ironic that you say joy and difficult times that her book which I need to get her on this podcast one of days is called jingle and joy.
Oh, yeah.
And I got to talk about, it's a Christmas devotional. And she talked, she started to write the book all around, like to not just focus on the jingle the decorations and the rapping and the stress of the holidays but to take time for the joy in the holidays.
But unfortunately, the year she was going to publish the book, end of October, her 22 year old son was killed.
And she published it. I mean it was almost ready. And so she was that so she is definitely living, trying to find the joy and difficult times and hard and she shares pictures of Ryan, her son on social media all the time and a smile and, you know, and yeah, it's joy and difficult times and yeah,
with a lot of faith. Thank goodness. I don't know how people navigate some things without faith.
Right. The sense that we're not alone in this that there's somebody who sees the big picture and, and yeah, has has a hand in, in connecting us to the people that that we need to know for sure.
It looks like we have frozen.
Leslie, can you hear me.
Hello. Hello.
Difficult times.
But my computer when I'm on zoom just stops and turns.
Oh, yeah, it was like all the time with a little song and dance Kelly.
I said, I don't know what's going on. Yeah. Okay. All good. All good.
And then the last home made that her zoom does it too. Like, it just disappears my whole computer turns off.
And then it comes right back so hopefully everybody and watching.
No, and we're still recording so I did it the other day and we're going into a Facebook group streaming and it still kept streaming.
I'll be darned. Well, yeah, and that was it never quite recording so we're good.
We're good. We're good.
It's like, where were we?
Right.
So you did say you're doing a retreat at a church in Annandale in the fall set to open anybody or just church.
You know what, I can check with them for sure and see.
I do not know whether they're in tending it for it to be a closed group or if that would be open.
But yeah, so I will, I will find out.
Yeah, but for the most part in the Mary Kay world, we're all absolutely reading and self development and faith. And so I'm thinking, as I mentioned beginning, I'd like to get for people in my team.
But also I'm thinking that might be a fun thing to do a virtual with the Mary Kay world.
Absolutely.
Friends that might be interested. I know a lot of friends that do Bible studies or prayer groups in the Mary Kay world. So maybe we could do a combined, but maybe even thinking forward thinking about here.
So I love it. I love it. I'm all about collaboration.
And that's really why not today retreat to combine it.
Oh my gosh.
Yeah, we'll talk. We'll talk.
And I really think it's funny. I just moved to a new community three and a half years ago.
And I was in Western Fairfax County, which is kind of where you live and then I've moved into Alexandria. So it's only about 4045 minutes away, but still new all new people.
And I've laughed at one of the bravest things that I've done in the last few years is I feel like I'm like dating, even though I'm not dating, like, looking for a partner, but I'm dating looking for friends. And it's like, I see somebody whose energy I really enjoy and like at yoga class and then I, you know,
screw up my courage and walk over and say, Hey, you want to get coffee someday after after yoga and then it turned out into a, like we have these things in common and then they have this friend and.
And so I, you know, that's been a big part of that, what you were saying right at the beginning, you know, you never know when those connections, but you've got to put your friends. Yes, that I have you hopefully as a new friend but
I think the reason the same thing with my life is because I can be virtual now, I haven't physically moved full time but I spend a lot of time with not like, and know what if I'm going to be here a lot. First of all, I want to be able to help.
You know, if I'm here, you know, I'm not on vacation people like vacation again I'm like no I'm just changing my work location but I figured out I'm going to be here I might as well get to know the community, and decided met somebody who was very influential and then she pointed me to the
chamber which I've always been a part of a chamber locally. And so I've met tons of people and friends and I've like got invited to the cool girls party.
I've got all these friends so it's funny the friend of mine that has lived down there forever he's like how do you know all these people I don't know anybody and I'm like I got one of the things I do collect as friends.
Yeah, good for you. And you know and speaking of another really definition of courage I think you and I my senses are pretty extroverted and so doing that. Yeah, it takes us.
It takes us some courage but but for people who are really introverted and don't have that as sort of a natural tendency to like go up and introduce themselves.
That has been when I've seen people that moved to new areas like my daughter who moved to LA several years ago and she's much more introverted. And it really was a lot of courage for her to like form those friendships and to follow up when somebody she met and say hey you want to,
you know go do something I'm going to go you want to meet for lunch sometime and so so even those kind of things really are our acts of courage and putting yourself out there even though it makes you a little bit nervous.
And even if you're extroverted, it still takes courage. Oh, absolutely.
I connect and ask and I think I'm weird and like I, you know, one of my superpowers, I said is collecting friends and I was actually in Asheville this winner staying at a friend's house, and I was there for a couple weeks she was I was house sitting for her and she reached out to a friend to say Leslie's going to be here and
I love for you to introduce and her friends comment was, Why do I need to meet Leslie and she's like, Well, maybe you don't.
You're interested in meeting new friends.
Yeah, but somebody actually shared something yesterday on a call I was on about if you are introverted we'll do a little training here for people. If you are introverted and that's uncomfortable I said, day one go out and just smile at five people and get them to smile back and day to give five people
a compliment. And day three, give five people compliment and engage in a conversation. So take it step by step to get these because it is not something that comes naturally, like one of the classes that I had to take to graduate from college or sorry, didn't want to take
a class and scared me to death and almost didn't graduate because of this public speaking. And now I totally be fine speaking in front of 10,000 people wouldn't bother me in the least bit. But you got to take, got to do it one day and say why not take those little things so we've gone in all different
directions here which is what I love it.
So, it sounds like you just took step by step to create what you've done. So, is there anything or what encouragement would you give someone to say why not today and start.
I think we talked a lot about that. Yeah, yeah, you know, I think that, again, it's, it's believing that that there's good out in the world right and that there are people that want to do good things and and learn good things and just that that
is a step of curiosity and putting yourself out there in new ways. And again, like we talked about being courageous is going to look really different for different people, you know, like I said when my sister, going through chemo and all of that, getting up and getting out of bed, you know,
that was the courageous thing sometimes that was the bravest thing, you know, other times it's something like, you know, Colin and booking up, you know, figured out how to do a podcast or calling and looking at retreat center, baby steps right just do the next thing you don't have to
know how it's all going to turn out. That for me has been the biggest when I could let go of results and just focus on process. I always say, you know that my job is the process God's job is the results.
I just keep show up, do the next right thing, trust that process because how it's all going to turn out we don't get guarantees we just don't. That's not how that's not how the world works. And when we can let go of that certainty, and needing to know all the details and having a full blueprint of how it's
going to work and you know what's going to work and what's not going to work. You know, and there's no. There's no shame in failing, right and sometimes we go a direction and go you know what, that was a good learning experience that that's, that's not how I want to.
That's not the direction I want to go and do something different.
I'm going to say today that, you know, everything you do, you know, either you're going to have a success or less.
Perfect.
I'm looking at it like okay and that's a success, a lesson. Yeah, I'm john Maxwell who's a trainer or coach always. You know if you fall down, get up, but pick up the lesson with you.
Absolutely.
So you're going to be perfect. Well you've definitely encouraged me and help me make a decision today that I'm just gonna say why not.
So yeah, thank you. So I always try to do a connection back to my dad because that's kind of why this was seven place.
So I always try to think about like how you connect so I guess the way you would probably connect to my dad is because I met you because of Melissa. Melissa actually works the chocolate shop with my sister, who obviously a product of my father.
And I kind of go full circle to Amanda, you know, talking about turning 50 and what a milestone that is, but my sister Amanda Cain next Wednesday. Well, it'll be Wednesday the 20th so this will release after her birthday, but 40, which is exciting and she is so
excited to share with everybody but my we're doing a call with my mom we'll have an surprise party that she's man does basically helping plan.
So it's the 40th birthday. But it's interesting we were talking my sister and I were talking to my mom about playing the party yesterday and she was just stressed out, and not in a good place and started crying.
And we're like, what is up with this. And she was like, my baby's turning 40.
And it's, you know, it's a big deal for most mothers, but when Amanda was born 40 years ago with Down syndrome, we didn't know what that world would look like. And it was should interview my mother on this podcast because it was definitely courageous they actually people
asked if my mom want to be in another area away from the normal moms. And we had close friends and people asked my parents that they were going to keep her. Wow, which is so scary and 40 years later, I mean she's thriving and everybody loves her and she's doing amazing
things so that's going to be the connection to my dad that I love that unity and it still takes community for any of us to be raised.
Absolutely. But yeah, beautiful, what a beautiful story. Yeah, so to meet her.
We'll have to arrange for that. Alright, so thank you again for being on this and share and show notes, which is on social media posts, how to find you.
Just give a shout out of ways people can find you and connect with you. Yeah, absolutely. I have a website. And I redid that last year and so it's reasonably up to date course always a work in progress that you can find me at Kelly Ivy Johnson.com and Ivy is
the one that I felt Ivy, that's my maiden name. So Kelly Kelly Ivy Johnson.com and you can kind of learn about all the different things I'm doing. The link to learn more about book, my coaching my speaking, you know all the things I'm doing there.
And hopefully, and I blog since 2005 so there's also hundreds of blog posts on there.
So, if you're watching you can see this but if you're listening you can't but one of the things with the why not today logo is I really want to make it a movement and share about giving people courage to be brave and so with that I'm doing some fun
with the developers. There are skinny people different with the why not today logo which includes my dad's logo, which when you see the logo if you don't know who my father was he actually had an eye patch on the hand of our mustache.
So that was kind of who he was and I actually saw a childhood friend the other day and had one of the t shirts on she's like oh my gosh I know what that is.
I've seen it before that my dad's best friend in high school in California son saw the t shirt on social media he's like I want that, you know, know exactly what that is, but I also have why not today t shirts for women and for men short sleep
and long sleep so Kelly we will get to a t shirt.
And I'm going to do some finals and some fun things so if there's other things or ideas anybody has. Let me know what you can find the why not today podcast on Spotify and iTunes and you can subscribe to it I haven't figured out how you can comment.
I think you can give it ratings. This is a one day at a time kind of thing we're figuring out.
I am working on a website, and there we are on Facebook and Instagram so feel free to share us and like us and if you know somebody else that you think would be a good guess for why not today we'd love to have money so again Kelly thank you for joining us.
My pleasure.
Get to know you and I'm excited to have a friend and I'm happy to come to Alexander and see you. It's not that there you go.
Perfect.
I love it.
Thanks everybody.
Thanks everyone.
Bye.