for one year. One year. One year in Ireland in the last decade. How long were you in New York for?
About just under three years, like two and a half. Okay and then Australia? And then Ireland and then
I was like well the states aren't gonna let me back in so. I mean it's fine I was there, I was
there like last month it's fine. But do you know what to be totally honest I lived in New York and
you know that that phrase if you can make it here you can make it anywhere. That kept me stuck so I
was like I have to make it. I have to make it. I should have bowed out after like a year. That city
beat the living out of me. So yeah I went home to Ireland. You're so real. I love that. Hey I live in
New Braunfels Texas too. Austin was a little bit too much. I love Austin. It's too much. But it was
same thing. I was like whoa this is this is a hard place to compete in. So yes I get that. And I left
Ireland like I had a going away party. I was like I'm gonna be Carrie Bradshaw. I'm gonna live my
sex and city life. I'm gonna work in a big advertising agency. Like had it all mapped out that
my ego. I mean I was quite young. I was in my early 20s. My ego was like you cannot go back home. A
failure you know. So yeah that kept me stuck for a very long time. I eventually did go home to Ireland
for a year. And in the process of that time I had my cousin ask me to come out to Australia. And I
was like Australia what a bandwagon. I'm like no it's not for me. It's not for me. Who doesn't want to go down under.
I know. I'm like what. Anyway almost eight years later I have my citizenship.
And yeah this is this is home. Oh man that's so cool. One I just love I think a lot of us out there
can relate to the idea of like you know what there's no defeat in home. You know and realizing that
there's an opportunity to regroup. In fact who if you look at the documentaries right and the stories
of the people who crushed it right and are awesome and amazing. They all had tremendous opportunities
to regroup reposition pivot figure things out. If you want to make meaningful impact life's going
to probably have a pretty meaningful impact on us too. All right. So we're going to talk about that now
in order to get to where you are. And so sooner than I. By the way I love your website. It's got
super clarity in terms of like going from invisible to in demand. I was like whoa that alone like that
that is such a powerful message. And you're you're helping lead women but also inspiring men like me.
I'm like well maybe she can help me on this too. Let's start with the three resources. What three
resources do you recommend for other visionary leaders that have helped you on your journey.
So I'm going to come at this from a bit of an unconventional aspect. One of the my favorite one
of the hundred the book that had the most profound impact on my life is called You You Already Know.
It's by Helen Jacobs. She is an Australian author. It is very woo woo. But it is it was The Straw That
Broke the Camel's Back. I read it and I mean it took our audience's woo woo by the way. We're
excellent pros. It's vision like we're going big you know. So yes I love it. My kind of people.
So I mean it took me a long time to read it. I would get to a part and it would. I don't think
I'm ready for that and I would close it and I'd leave it on the bedside for you know a couple of
months until I felt inspired and had enough capacity to open it again. But that book got me
to realize that I was in quite a toxic relationship that I really wanted to own my own business which
I've talked about my whole life. But it was really the like what are you doing. You're just
floating through life. You know what you want for your life. This is the kick up the rear end that
you need. And yes there was like I said like lots of woo woo woven into it. But it was really
it was really just there was something in it. It just it switched something in me and I've never
been able to switch it off since. I would show it to you but I have lent it to a friend. It's
doing the rounds of my of my friend group. It's almost falling apart. Like I love it. So yeah
that's my that's my number one. Okay if I lose track today by the way on this show you've got me
mesmerized right now because I've been watching Rings of Power. The Lord of the Rings thing and
your accent and the heart-foots and I'm like getting lost in that show just listening to you.
Sorry go ahead you can continue. What's number two? I love it. What is number two? Number two is
another book and it's not very well promoted. Well I don't think it is. It's called Key Person of
Influence by Daniel Priestley and it's quite a small book. I do have it on that shelf there.
I like small books. And it's very small. The print is nice and big and essentially what he does is
he talks about how to build gain influence and leverage it which essentially if we're in business
we want to create any kind of impact. Be a strong leader. That's essentially what we need to do.
We need to first of all need to know what we're talking about. Know our stuff. Then we need to
tell the world that we know our stuff and then we need to collaborate and put ourselves in
situations where we can then talk about it and gain that know, like and trust factor and then
build on it and grow our community and our influence. So that's the book. I love it.
Be a strong leader. Sunddu, you're a strong leader probably. issued British noкуюirgd Demantee
for writing this book, because you're a black shorespack leader actually.
We'll take a look there. So yeah I also have it on both pages and in this book
it says one of the ones that choose to give people this book is those that feel confident
as a leader. And that's how we get more understanding of that work which we want to build.
like, no, we got to go after this.
We've got to talk and really sincerely.
This book right here, Hiring on Purpose,
like this does just that in the first pages.
This is, Dan Martell calls this his Bible for hiring.
And it says, you should not read this book
if you think hiring is a chore and a sudden opportunity.
You should not read this book
if you think the way you've gone about it is blah, blah, blah.
You should not read this book.
And it keeps going and it starts cussing after a while.
And it's like, yeah, it's like,
do not waste your time on our materials.
I like books like that.
What's the third one?
Yeah, I love it.
The third one, this is very well used,
but I think it's under promoted, maybe, maybe not,
is YouTube.
And I know that sounds really simplistic,
but it comes from the fact that nobody knows everything
and nobody knows what they're doing.
I have seen behind the curtains
some really, really big corporations
and they're all winging it.
Everybody's winging it.
So when you get to a roadblock
and it's something I've had to kind of retrain myself
in getting to a roadblock and go,
oh, I don't know the answer.
Close the laptop for the day.
Go on YouTube, go on Google.
Somebody out there has found either the answer
to your solution or at least a next step
that will then figure something else out.
And yeah, I mean, we use YouTube for loads of different reasons
and yeah, there's information age.
The answer is out there.
You just need a final.
It's like somebody saying math class, right?
That's all formulas based on years, decades of wisdom,
like being compiled centuries of wisdom.
And so yes, if we don't know how to use platforms like that
for our own benefit, or if we're just using them for fun,
then we get really lost.
We do, my company, we train a lot of people
in Central and South America.
And part of their, most of them wanna learn English.
So it was required.
So now they have a required 30 minutes when they come in,
the first 30 minutes is to learn English,
AKA I pay them to learn English.
And they love it.
Cause they're like, oh my gosh, this is great.
How do they do it?
YouTube.
And I teach them how to ask great questions
of those YouTube influencers,
how to give gratitude praises to those teachers
that are teaching.
And they start creating relationships
with the best teachers in the world.
And those relationships then become our friendships
and come on this podcast and our Spanish podcast.
So YouTube is a phenomenal gold mine of opportunities
for connections.
And it's the same thing with the authors
that you mentioned, right?
If I wanna know really like more about those subjects,
I'll reach out to the author and actually build a relationship
and a friendship with them.
So visionaries, you heard from Michelle,
these are fantastic resources that all of us can utilize.
When we come back,
we're gonna dive in more about making meaningful impact.
What that means to both of us.
We'd love to hear your thoughts on that too.
And we'll see how we can maximize this life together
over the next 30 minutes.
All right, welcome in to Vision Pros Live.
With Jackson Callum, I'm your show host.
We'll be doing interviews for visionary entrepreneurs
and guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there.
Hey, what's up and welcome in to another episode
of Vision Pros Live.
I'm your show host, Jackson Callum,
founder and CEO of First Class Business.
And I am like a little bit too bought in already
to our guests.
We've got Michelle McCarthy on stage today.
And if you, I told her I wasn't gonna share her website,
but her website michellemccarthy.com.au.
Studio Danu, I think I'm saying that right.
And I believe that's a reference to a goddess.
And her website's all about helping you go
from invisible to in demand.
Now, like why am I so bought in?
And also why was I like,
I don't know if I trust this person.
The market of solopreneurship,
the market of anybody can do it, just start trying.
That is the number one most profitable market
there is in the business sector.
Because so many people don't know what they're doing.
And so it's easy to write a self-help book and get rich,
and it doesn't even have to be a good book.
So that makes me think, like, all right, as a visionary
and the leader of the show,
how do I make sure that the people who are coming
on the stage are as authentic as possible
and aren't just feeding us a bunch of stuff
that sounds nice, but doesn't actually get us anywhere?
I have to be very careful with some people.
And they get mad at me in the process of vetting.
Michelle didn't, she stepped right into it.
She was like, oh my gosh, I'm so happy
that you're talking about this.
And yes, we need to be careful on that.
And she showed a number of other signs
that had me just go like, wow, I want her to win so big.
Because of the way that she showed up before this.
And I can see that she is on this tenacious path
to help people in life.
And so we're gonna be talking
about making a meaningful impact.
We'll talk about it as solopreneurs,
as people who are driving big companies, as leaders,
maybe even in your own homes,
these principles will be able to apply all over the place.
Before I bring her on stage,
James Bond wrote a book called Brain Glue.
No, not the license to kill guy.
I call this James Bond, the license to feel guy.
And his Ted Talk talks about becoming unforgettable.
And how do we do that?
Well, we learned to tell emotional stories
as Les Brown put it, stories.
Wow, man, I'm not Les Brown as you can tell.
Facts tell, stories sell, right?
So go listen to the sample on this Brain Glue book.
And you'll realize why Jack Canfield,
the guy who sold 130 million copies of his book,
said we would have to be an idiot as an entrepreneur
not to buy Brain Glue.
I highly recommend checking out.
It might give you some of the secret sauces
that can help you go viral and help you understand
how to get your message to stick with people.
The way that Michelle's message stuck in my brain.
Then there's Ticker.
Ticker is a platform launched by Sean Tipper,
who we recently had on the show.
And it is a stock trading platform,
or rather an investing platform.
He actually doesn't speak against traders,
but he talks about how there's a stat in the world.
Most people don't know, and that's that traders,
how many traders out there are billionaires?
There are zero day traders who are billionaires.
Oh, and I was like, that's a mic drop if I ever heard one.
Don't get lost in the investing world.
Work with smart tools, built by smart people.
Sean Tipper is not just smart.
I also saw the amazing type of leader that he is.
And I was like, you know what?
Let's just start telling people about this platform
so you guys can go learn about investing
if that's the thing.
And then there's the Water Project.
Last but not least, and something we are not affiliated with,
the Water Project, when it came across my radar,
I chose not to forget about it.
It would have been easy to say,
well, I've never been thirsty in my life.
So why would I think much about this?
Well, I dove in, I took a look,
and I realized that there's millions of people in this world
who don't even have access to clean drinking water.
And I even had a team member one day who said,
Jackson, that's so sad.
Why do you talk about that?
You're going to drive away our audience.
And I was like, well, if that's going
to drive away our audience, we've got the wrong audience.
I want people who do care about these things.
So if you invest in one of these projects,
you actually get to pick the project,
and you get to see what the Water Project does
to bring it to fruition.
You get to see the outcomes.
You know that your money was actually put to good use.
And if you're not in a position to financially invest in this,
my hope is that you'll just stop and take a moment
to dive into Woo a little bit and think,
who would want to help and support this?
Maybe talk about it over dinner with your family.
Maybe share it with that friend who comes to mind.
I see these kids celebrate water,
like my kids celebrate Christmas Day.
And I'm like, yeah, I definitely need to pay more attention
to the Water Project.
If you know of another concern out there,
a relief fund, maybe for the hurricanes
that just happened, and you want to drop that,
in the comments, please do.
We never know the ripple effect of the good that we do.
And we got 8 billion people to help in this world,
so there's no shortage to dive in and help.
Speaking of meaningful impact with Michelle McCarthy.
Michelle, welcome to Vision Pro's life.
Thank you so much for having me.
Absolutely.
Let's dive in and make meaningful impact right now
for the people that you typically serve.
So who is your audience, and how do you usually help them?
So my audience is predominantly women
who have ticked off all societal boxes.
So they've got the good paying job,
they have the house, the car, whatever it is,
and they feel really unfulfilled.
They know that they were meant for more,
and they feel stuck.
And they're almost embarrassed to say that they want more
because it feels greedy and it feels,
they should just be grateful for what they have,
but really they have this yearning inside them
that they wanna write a book, they wanna step on stage,
they wanna start their own business,
they wanna grow their business exponentially,
whatever it is, and they don't wanna do it inauthentically,
and they wanna do it with integrity.
So my job is to help them figure out the parts of them
that they can weave into their branding, their messaging,
and who they want to become, and help them amplify it
and become that, and then in turn,
get them the opportunities that they want
based on the person they really are,
not on the person that they think society wants them to be.
Wow, that's amazing.
And that bridges the gap for a lot of the next question,
but I think we can dive in even deeper with it.
So, because some people I asked that question to,
and it just comes across a little bit,
I don't know, superficial or weak,
that was not superficial,
weak, that was very deep and clear about,
all right, who it is that you help.
What does the vision look like?
Once they've published that book,
and or they found their authentic self,
or they've come to accept that what matters to them
is more important than what matters
to the rest of the world,
what does the vision look like from there for those people?
I think the sky is the limit for them,
but when they come to me, they don't really know.
The pinnacle is getting a TED Talk, is getting that book.
They can't see beyond it because that is so far out of
what they think is around the possibility.
They're like, I crave it, I want it, I know I can do it,
but I also don't think I can do it.
So they can't see beyond that,
but once they reach that step,
the next step naturally unfolds.
And for each of my clients, that's very, very different.
See, that's a big deal.
I'm a big fan of Stephen Covey, right?
Who says, begin with the end in mind.
And I've got like an eternal end.
So that's already secure.
But in terms of like the daily life
and how to live this life,
what has helped me more is beginning with the vision in mind,
which is exactly what you're talking about
and how you do that.
Cause I can see the horizon, right?
And I can see the trees that are there,
but until I go over there,
I don't know where to go next.
I've got to be able to get to that hilltop
so that I can then determine,
oh, do I wanna go towards the Oasis
or do I wanna go to the forest
or do I wanna go to the desert?
Probably not in my case, it's not my thing.
So that sounds like what you're helping people do.
Is that correct?
It is.
And what I have found personally as well is
sometimes if you have a really, really big goal,
whether that it will just say have your own TV network show.
But the goal that you can see if you wanna write a book,
okay?
Sometimes if you get so focused on the even bigger goal,
you go, the book is just, it's so small.
I might as well not even do it because it's so insignificant
or maybe it wouldn't be a book.
Maybe it might be just starting a podcast.
You're like, that's not even without kind of,
you can talk yourself out of it because it's so small
in terms of your big goal,
not realizing it's a stepping stone.
So there is absolute power in knowing where you're going.
But also if you get too focused on the end goal,
you can kind of almost dismantle
and not work towards the really small baby steps
that are required.
So yeah.
This is like so beyond woo for me.
Like I've never used that word
three times in a podcast show.
But like it's driving me a little bit nuts
because my posts in my workout group yesterday
was literally what you just talked about.
Literally.
I literally said like I used to tell myself like,
if I can only get the one set in, right?
The one rep in, it wasn't worth it
because it wasn't going to lead to me having that awesome
six pack and turning into Lewis Howes or Thor,
pretty much the same person, right?
So I told myself that I'm not gonna do it
because that's just a waste of time.
In reality, I was avoiding the disciplines
and I was marginalizing the necessary steps
that cultivate the field to create the harvest
that then brings all of those results.
So it is really interesting that you help people
capture the value of those little steps
because we have a program called Passion Pro
and it's free and I talked about a little bit.
Well, we want to be able to guide people
that come through that to people like you
who are able to then help them take things to that next level
or consider, where do I go from here
now that I've figured out my passion?
How do I implement this type of stuff?
And you're leading with the same type of principles
that we do, it's very refreshing to find.
So Michelle, what's your vision for you?
Since you might have your big TV goal
and then you might have your book goals,
what do you see for yourself?
I mean, I really wanna say global domination,
but that's, I mean, I'll take it,
but my own personal goals and my own personal vision
is, as I mentioned at the start,
I'm Irish, I'm living in Australia.
I have a daughter here and this is our home,
but I miss my family and Australia and Ireland
are so far apart, it is a pain in the ass to get to.
And what was happening was I'd get invited
to like three weddings a year, a birthday and a christening.
And I essentially had to be like, well, I like you the most.
So I'm gonna go to your event,
but I can't go to, because I can't go home every year
or I can't go home multiple times a year.
So my own personal vision is to have my cake
and eat it too and be able to create a lifestyle,
be that financial and location freedom
that I can go home whenever I want, multiple times a year.
My daughter can grow up with her aunts and her cousins,
but I don't have to sacrifice the life
and the lifestyle that we've created here.
So that's my own personal vision.
You're gonna love my quote, my favorite quote of mine,
not my favorite quote, my favorite quote of mine,
you can have your cake, you can eat it too,
and you can have a conveyor belt of cakes.
Richard Branson, inspired 100%, LeBron James inspired that.
You can have it.
I hate the quote, the original quote is,
you can't have your cake and eat it too.
It's like, who thought of that?
What pessimist decided that was ever appropriate
to tell people?
Yeah, I love that.
Yeah, it's probably just some mom at a birthday party
being like, you have to share.
It's like, I know it's your birthday,
but these guests came for cake.
So you know, I mean, as a mom, that was probably.
I know, as a dad, I'm like, no,
I'm ignorant to this potential reality.
And you just helped me, you humbled me, I like that.
So Michelle, what's the, on the humbler darker side,
what's the worst leadership experience
that you've ever had?
This is, it was quite toxic.
I had a leader who was quite volatile
in that they were run by their own emotions and insecurities.
So if they met, if they missed a deadline,
they would turn to the team and find fault
in something that they had done, break them,
essentially to make sure that he still felt like the boss
and the leader and would put everyone else around him down.
If he didn't pull his weight, the same thing would happen.
It was quite, you're always on edge.
And as I said, it was quite toxic.
But the other side of that is when something went wrong,
which inevitably does in everybody's life
and every business, you couldn't turn to him
because you were terrified of getting in trouble.
It was almost like you were a child, you know,
and being berated.
And it would just amplify the problem
because there was no safe space.
And it was just a reminder of the,
one, the type of people that I don't want in my life,
and two, the type of leader
that I absolutely definitely do not want to be.
Yeah, absolutely.
That's what I would say is classic inferiority complex.
You know, for those of you looking for like,
what are they talking about?
And inferiority complex is definitely a great thing
to look up on YouTube and look for the signs
of somebody who has inferiority complex to protect yourself.
Because the big lesson in that, that I already say, Michelle,
was knowing that I don't want relationships
with people like that in my future,
and you got a healthy boundary on that now.
And a lot of visionaries,
we end up with relationships like that around us
too as visionaries, because if you have,
most people around you can't fathom dreaming big anymore.
And so it's then important to know like,
okay, well, who are my dream big friends
that I talk about the dreams with,
and who are my daily friends,
or family members that don't necessarily understand that?
How do I fit into both worlds?
Different topic for another day, YouTube University,
it's the best place to go for that.
So best leadership,
what's the best leadership experience you've ever had?
This was when I was quite young,
I was maybe 15 or 16, and I worked in a hotel.
And I've had many jobs, you know, through over the years,
but this really stuck with me.
And essentially, he was the opposite
of the leader I just explained.
He had an uncanny ability to just make you feel
wanted, accepted, and like you were part of the team.
And he was great in being really personable,
and jokes, and, you know, ask you about your life,
and we'd great fun.
We knew where the line was.
So he never blended it into, you know,
being too friendly in that then he couldn't be your manager
or be your leader.
And then like that complete opposite,
when something went wrong, you were able to go to him,
and he would just step up.
He would encourage you to step up.
And it just helped everything.
Like the cogs were well oiled.
It was, you know, I mean, if you did something wrong,
he would, there was a time and a place to pull you aside,
but you just felt like you were being led.
Also, you were part of the team.
And like I said, he was a restaurant manager
in a hotel that I used to work in.
And he had such a profound impact on me and my life.
But also I brought some of that forward
when I went into my own managerial roles,
completely different industries,
but just that kind of treating people like humans.
It's so, sounds so simplistic, but like it's so,
No, but it's hard work.
You know, and-
It's hard work.
I had to go through, I mean,
I went through the inferiority complex phase myself.
Oh, I mean, I'm like a very big one.
I was a horrible leader in the early days.
I didn't know how to lead.
Oh, I mean, I was just doing the best I could
with what I had, but we can't justify that
and expect our outcomes to change.
We have to be willing to learn the aspects of,
well, okay, what does it really mean
to show up as a great leader?
And you're talking about leading by example.
You're talking about making room for mistakes.
You're talking about training with people
not necessarily training the person, but with them.
Like there's a lot of little things that we overlook
when we, you know, we have expectations
that are unfair on others all the time, don't we?
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, I just, I, like I said,
he had such a profound impact on me
and yeah, brought it with me.
And I think about him very often.
So-
Shout out to Mystery Man there.
Yeah.
So, well, we'll leave that where it's at for now.
If you wanna tag him later, of course you're welcome to.
Let's dive into one of my favorite questions.
So if this was the last chance you had, Michelle,
to share something with the earth,
what powerful lesson can other visionaries learn
from your experience?
Nobody knows what they're doing.
Like nobody knows what we're doing.
We're all on a floating rock.
It makes no sense.
Stop holding yourself back.
You know, easier said than done,
but just, I think, just go for it.
I think your goals and your visions are yours for a reason.
And I think life starts on the other side of you
getting out of your own way.
That was really cool.
That's like, if I got a fortune cookie,
you know, I would have like three papers on that one.
And there's so much goodness in what you said.
It was like a daily affirmation paragraph,
but like you did it all at once.
Easier said than done.
I got the whole thing too, which is weird.
I don't normally do that.
I don't even know what I said.
Okay, we're gonna go back over it
because it was so chock full of goodness.
So I'm gonna pull it up.
Let me kill this banner real quick
and then pull that one up.
Cause, whoa, nobody knows what they're doing.
We're all on a floating rock.
I love that by the way.
Stop holding yourself back.
It's easier said than done.
Just go for it.
And there's so much value in pulling all of this.
This is like a formula of life,
like right there, adding all of those pieces in.
And you know, I know somebody wants to say,
just keep it simple.
Why don't you just keep it simple?
I love when people oversimplify the simple
just to make you feel inferior.
It's like, golly.
And that was beautiful.
I got a car wreck once and I was probably 16.
My brother was with me and I was panicking.
I was freaking out.
Cause it was my dad's giant truck.
And it was brand new truck that I wrecked.
And so I'm panicking.
He's like, Jackson, he's like,
there are literally millions of pieces of metal
flying at each other in the city all day long.
Like they're going to collide, chill.
It happens.
And the floating rock analogy, you know,
like it was like,
I love the way that that was his reaction.
Cause when I worked at CARE when I was 17,
that was not the reaction I got.
Definitely not.
But yeah, I, yes.
I think this also just stems a lot from the people
that I work with.
They, like I said, they know that they want more,
but they're holding themselves back
and they're telling themselves
it's because they don't know enough
or they don't have enough confidence
or, you know, insert any excuse.
And yeah, I think, like I said,
nobody knows what they're doing.
We're all figuring it out.
We're all winging it.
So you might as well just wing it with us and just,
you know.
Our intuition is not one to throw us off cliffs.
You know, like I think we imagine that
and that that's not the case, you know?
And so I agree with you.
Like normally we're holding ourselves back
from pretty small realities, you know?
And again, there's a nuance,
but if you're listening to our podcast
and have the time to listen to this,
you're probably not that person, you know,
who needs to be held back from certain things.
So again, a very, very powerful quote to just, you know,
I hope one person out there just uses that
to kind of free themselves to try something new.
And speaking of that,
let's talk about meaningful impact to wrap up.
So meaningful impact.
I have my definition of what that is.
You know, I'm sure you have yours as well.
I bet we both agree on the beauty pageant version of this,
which again, I agree with it,
is even smiling at somebody,
saying hello to somebody makes a meaningful impact, right?
So I'm gonna steal that for us.
But let's dive deeper into this.
What is meaningful impact to you, Michelle?
I think it's living with integrity.
I think it shifts from day to day.
Some days the most meaningful impact you can do
is maybe do nothing.
Maybe you need to rest and recharge.
Maybe it's, you know,
just being a little bit more present with your kids.
And, you know, it's a whole spectrum,
but also it's a whole spectrum for each person.
I think when I delve into like the self-help side of things,
I kind of got into this really weird kind of like,
I always need to be my best and love and light
and you know, all these things, and that's not reality.
And some days like you're a hundred percent is not a hundred percent.
And so, so long as you're doing things with integrity,
you are moving forward.
And, and yeah, to the betterment of...
I don't know if I'm just going to say mankind, humankind,
just the betterment of those around you.
And like, that could just be you and your kid.
It doesn't have to be, we think sometimes it needs to be,
to create impact, it has to be like this big altruistic thing.
And it doesn't because things have a knock on effect.
Since becoming a mother, I've realized that.
But if I do well in raising my kid,
she will go on to do great things.
And, and, you know, and so it continues to flow.
So that's a very long winded answer, but I think just...
A long winded subject.
True.
There's a lot of wind to this.
So it's a masterful painting too, that's very hard to quantify.
And I love that you again, your answers gravitate towards kind of you do you.
Like we got to figure out what it is for us.
I'm glad that you said sometimes it's doing nothing.
I think so many of us as entrepreneurs need to hear that.
Yeah.
We need to realize like,
and sometimes we unfortunately need the permission,
from somebody else to be able to recognize that.
And that's why it's helpful to have a mastermind or a mentor
or a coach or a business partner,
people who are willing to look out for that.
For me too, I came to really appreciate
my own impact further, it's still work in progress,
but I try to stay focused on just being my best self.
And that's my impact.
So I go get by show up and I do my best today,
including forgiveness for whatever I don't do.
Okay, I gotta be able, if I'm gonna forgive myself,
am I gonna wait till tomorrow and say,
you know what, I'll do better tomorrow
or can I just do it right now and say,
ah, no, I'm good.
All right, now I can use that next minute productively.
I love this.
I love that you said that like your best self,
like to yourself, because I think,
I mean, in the era that I grew up with,
being your best self was sitting down, being polite,
please and thank you.
And being your best self for other people.
For others, yeah, that's not your best self.
That's what everybody else wants us to be.
And I love that, yes.
Yeah, and I'm not saying go out and be rude, obviously,
but you know, sit down, be a quiet girl,
sit in the corner, you know, don't ruffle any feathers.
And over time, that kind of helps,
has you switch off answering yourself.
And women in particular. I switched everything off.
I switched it all off. So bad for this.
You know, we're last on the to-do list
and we never get around to it.
So being your best self to yourself is like,
I love this. That's my ammonia.
Well, thank you.
I mean, it's been so liberating to step into.
I grew up completely suppressing who I was, right?
And for a long time.
And then I made it to where I wasn't around toxic people
and I was rediscovering right now who I am now
with new types of relationships.
And again, a lot of us go through this.
I mean, I hope you get the chance.
Those of you who haven't crossed that threshold
of being able to be you, like come and join us.
Come and find friends that will appreciate you
for who you are.
And going through that phase,
I literally like turned off all relationships
with people who wouldn't let me be me.
I mean, I was like a trigger there.
And nowadays, you know, it's interesting
because I'm twice divorced.
So there's a couple of people who have opinions
about my, who I am as a father, who I am as a husband.
And I'm back into a scenario where there's so many people
in my past and present that want to have their own opinion.
Who I am, what I do, how I do things.
And so, but now I've got this new tool set
and the new tool set is, oh no,
like I don't care what you think.
I love you.
And I will always choose to love you
because that's my choice.
I'm empowered with that.
And your opinion does not matter.
I'm doing my best and what I do.
And so I have now positioned,
now I've got a bunch of relationships and friends
and business partners and people around me who support that.
That's the Jackson that they want in their life.
And if that's the one they want in their life,
that's what they're gonna get.
Like, I'm excited to have them around.
But if anybody's coming at us or telling us
that we're in the wrong place or the wrong time,
they're trying to make an impact or an impression on us.
And I like that word a lot
because I don't like to make an impression on others.
And impression means you literally put a dent.
Like you made something happen to somebody else.
Like I'm not designed to make an impression
on somebody else.
Go ahead.
Can I ask?
Yeah, please.
So, cause this is a lot of where my clients get stuck.
You said that you remove people
that didn't allow you to be yourself.
How did you know or how did you come about
under uncovering who that was, who the real you was?
Because under all that suppression, it's kind of hard.
You don't know.
Cause you're-
Step by step.
Yeah.
You know what?
One of my favorite, Gage Ritter.
I love you Gage.
I haven't seen you in a long time.
We moved to somewhere in Asia back in the day.
So he's helped.
I was going through divorce, right?
My first divorce.
And he was steam mopping my floors with me
trying to help me clean out my house
cause I'm moving to a new apartment.
And I remember this so well because he put soap
in the steam mop and you're only supposed to put water in it.
And so he's literally making my floor is sticky like crazy.
I'm gonna have to clean this whole thing after,
but he's profoundly like opening my eyes
to being authentic and stuff.
And so I'm just listening and taking it in
knowing I'm gonna have to fix all this later.
And Gage says, Jackson, you can't watch a tree grow, man.
He's like, if she can't see your growth,
like that's not your fault.
You're doing everything you can.
He's like, but you can't watch the tree grow.
And that really helped me like step into,
oh, it's her loss in this case.
No, it's having a friend like that to appreciate the fact
that it's just gonna take time to move.
And then little things, watching JP Sears,
the long red head guy with the really funny shows on YouTube
where he makes fun of everybody, but like does so nicely.
His Ted talk is all about being able to step
into your authentic self.
And there I was watching that as like a 33 year old,
going, I can't, I can't do this.
I can start to be a little bit more like JP Sears,
lean on him while, wait a second,
he's teaching me to be more like me.
And I'm just starting to share stories
that were vulnerable of the past,
like liking Barney and being made fun of for it.
And like, it's not as scary these days.
Growing my hair out, that was terrifying.
I was horrified at the idea of having long hair, Michelle.
Wow.
Inspired me to do it.
And it got comments, you know,
my uncle was like, ugly, you know,
and my little child self, you know,
was like ready to go cut my hair
and like crawl into a hole and die.
And I was like, okay, I'm good.
I can take it, all right.
You know, let him do his thing.
So it just, you know, it took baby steps.
And I just decided, you know what?
If I can do one pushup today, maybe I can do two tomorrow.
If I can do two tomorrow, maybe I can do three the next day.
It goes back to your principle of,
I just, I can't undervalue the minute changes
that can add up in stack to being grateful for who I am.
And I wish everybody felt that way about themselves.
I love that because I think,
cause a lot of what my, when I'm dealing with,
my clients, you know, they're coming at it
from a marketing and a branding perspective
and I always get them to take a step back.
And I love the way that you're talking about
like building on bits.
I'm almost talking about the opposite.
It's dismantling.
And when particularly dealing with personal brands,
I deal with both,
but particularly dealing with personal brands is,
yeah, you show up online today and you show a little bit
and then that builds your confidence.
You realize you didn't die.
And you know, they're not coming at you with pitchforks.
Like you're fine.
And then you slowly start to, it's like two,
it's like a parallel.
You're slowly like dismantling things,
but then you're also showing up.
And it's kind of at each phase,
they both kind of work together.
Yes, no, I want to, I do,
cause I feel like I'm misleading people.
If we don't dive into all of that.
No, there was a phase where I was trying to go live
on Facebook and all that.
And I remember a friend came on and said,
when are you going to give up on all this washed up
Tony Robbins bull crap, like rebate,
discount Tony Robbins stuff.
Like he crushed me with that.
And I was, I blocked the dude.
I was like, oh, that's not a real friend.
You know, and, and I shut down.
I stopped doing it.
It wasn't the right same day,
but it was really hard for me to accept that.
Like, man, is there some truth in what he's saying?
And so there's another Ted talk on how to not get offended.
I don't remember his name, but it's red hair.
Phenomenal.
I need to look that one up because I'm such like,
because I think it comes when you're being,
when you're a bit of an empath,
the opposite side of that is you're also,
you can be so easily offended.
You're open for better or for worse.
So a coin flip analogy and how on one side,
the reality is maybe there's partial truth
to what they said.
Oh, that's why it hurts.
If it didn't, Brooker Steele.
And on the other side is it's actually, they're not,
there's no truth to what they said,
but it's a reflection of them.
Yeah.
And they're casting that on you.
Like, but his Ted talk is amazing.
I love, actually, I know what to say.
You asked me about resources.
Brooker Steele, the life coach of school,
she is, she's phenomenal.
I love her Brook Castillo.
Brook Castillo.
Oh yeah.
Yeah.
And she has this analogy.
She's many analogies that I have adopted over the years.
And she has this analogy of,
if somebody told you that they didn't like your blue hair,
would you be insulted?
And you'd be like, no, you're crazy.
My hair is a blue.
Like, what are you, are you blind?
Like there's something wrong with that guy.
You know, and you'd be, and it would just be like,
you just walk away being like,
God, that guy was really weird.
It's in the Ted talk.
Is it?
So it's come from him then.
Right. Excellent.
Well, I suppose they're all, yeah.
I think it's brilliant.
And it's just one of those things
that I kind of try to remind myself that it's like, yeah,
like you said, it's either a reflection of them,
but then also like if it wasn't true,
or if I didn't believe it was true,
it wouldn't, it wouldn't kind of stick in my brain.
That's so good.
We're going to link to that Ted talk
in the show notes as well.
So Michelle, this was, this was a blast.
You taught me a lot in this process.
Those of you who can learn through the experiences
of others, like I think you had a heyday today.
If not, well, best wishes to you.
But we've got in the, in the show notes,
we'll have action steps of how you can get
in touch with Michelle.
We'll also have again, all the resources down there too.
And we'll try to put together a little guide too
of how we use YouTube for our purposes,
for the advancement of our, our team members
and our own personal wellbeing,
because there's so many ways we use it.
And sometimes we take for granted how we know
how to use a resource, right?
And so I want you visionaries to have that type
of resource in hand, because maybe you don't need
that guidance, but maybe your team members do, right?
And so we always want to look at how can we spread the love,
spread the wealth and spread what we're doing.
So without further ado, we'll wrap the show up and,
oh, I do have one, one other call to action.
And that's if you have a vision that you'd like
to share with us, then in the top right corner,
there's a big old button that says, be our guest.
Apply, come be on the show.
Come tell us about what you're up to
and how you're doing things.
And we will see you guys on the next episode
of Vision Pros Live.
Take care everybody.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions
as these episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a.