Episode 125 – Chalene Johnson: Start Living Your Best Life Today

Casanova Brooks:

What’s up DreamNation. We are back again. And this is one of the episodes that I’ve been waiting. All of, I would say honestly, 2024. So 2020 has been a crazy year, but we all know that in the beginning we set goals, no matter what it is, whether it’s fitness, whether it’s business. And I set some goals that I wanted to get some thought leaders on the show.

And one of the thought leaders that I put the goal for, I got her. And so without. Further ado, please help me and welcoming my sister, Ms. Chalene Johnson, to the show Chalene. You want to go ahead and say what’s up to DreamNation?

Chalene Johnson:

Well, what’s up DreamNation. It’s an honor to be here. I’m such a fan of you.

I just love your spirit. And I know that there’s a lot of people who have big dreams right now. So I’m excited to do this.

Casanova Brooks:

Oh, absolutely. And we’re going to tap into all of that. Now. I always like to make sure that we start off by giving them proper introduction. So for anybody who probably doesn’t know you one they’re maybe not in the fitness, but two they’re probably living and under a rock, but the way that I like to make sure that we give that proper introduction as I compare us as entrepreneurs and thought leaders to superheroes.

The reason why is because they’re constantly putting on this Cape, they’re flying around the world and they’re trying to solve the biggest problems.

And so my question to you is before you became Wonder Woman, take it back to when you were just a young girl, And more importantly, just tell us who is behind Chalene Johnson.

Chalene Johnson:

That’s interesting because when you said take it back to when you were a young girl, I remember, practicing doing interviews.

Like I thought I would be on Johnny Carson. I wasn’t sure for what, but I would like practice, like, you know, what it would be like to be interviewed. I. Always just really wanted to entertain people. I love music. I love dance and, I love business. And so growing up as a child, I was an entrepreneur and I just never thought, like all of those things would come together, like music and dance and movement and entrepreneurship and entertaining people.

And. And the one thing I like a lot of little girls say that they want to be a teacher when they grow up. I never said that, but if I were to say what I am today, I would say I’m a teacher.

Casanova Brooks:

Yeah, no, I love it. So did you come from a background of entertainment or even entrepreneurship or…

Chalene Johnson:

Entrepreneurship, yeah. Yeah. we were, we were broke, but I didn’t know it. so I, one thing I will say about my childhood that was really, really profound. And I’ve tried to do an amazing job of carrying on that legacy with my own kids is about a money mindset. Like I didn’t learn how broke we were, how poor we were at certain stages of our life.

I didn’t realize that didn’t know that. Yeah. Until I was an adult. because of the way my parents spoke about money and opportunity and what’s coming next and, and the way they think taught us to think about money. So I did grow up in a family where my dad had, you know, he was one of those like serial entrepreneurs who.

Was always looking for the get rich quick opportunity. So we had a million different businesses, and most of those failed, but took a lot of time, but I never saw failure as a negative. I never, I saw that as like, that’s what you do. You just, you see something you’re interested in, you see an opportunity, you see a door open and you go for it, even if it’s messy.

And even if you fail, like that’s how I grew up in, my husband, who I’ve been married to for 25 years. His childhood was the exact opposite. You know, where parents were, teachers, you have 401k, this is exactly how much you spend. This is exactly how much you make. You don’t do dumb things. You don’t take risks.

you get a degree and you get your job. And so, it’s been interesting for us to find kind of a happy medium. Cause I think my dad also took a lot of risks that he regrets. And his was really good about explaining why he should have thought those things through before jumping. And so the two of us, my husband and I coming together.

I think are a nice balance.

Casanova Brooks:

Did you feel well first, let me ask you the thing that I tell you, I love about you and I love about the way, the way that you show yourself every single day. And I think this leads back to, I told you. You about my good family friend who I consider a mentor, her name is Diana.

So I’ve been fans of many people’s podcasts. Right. I consider them as mentors. And so I told her one day like, Hey, you know what? I am listening to these podcasts. And she said, look, you’re not listening to nobody’s podcasts. If you’re not listening to these two, first name was yours. And so I was like, ah, and I had never been exposed to you before.

And so I listened at your episode. First episode that I heard, I think for anybody that listens to either one of your shows, it doesn’t take but for one minute to tell ho how authentic that you are. And so, yeah, I mean, and that’s the honest to God truth.

Chalene Johnson:

That’s the biggest compliment.

Casanova Brooks:

Yes. And that’s the, and especially in the world that we’re living in today, that’s so important.

And so my question to you is a lot of the times where people decide that they want to be a entertainer? It becomes so much more scripted. So for you knowing that you want it to be an entertainer, how did you keep your authenticity? When you know that I have to show up in a certain way for certain people.

Has that ever been something that you’ve been like? I don’t know. Cause it doesn’t seem, it seems like you almost have no filter.

Chalene Johnson:

Huh? Yeah, that’s true. I guess when I say, entertainer like, I didn’t know if I wanted, I didn’t think I was going to be in actress or anything like that. I just, I liked keeping people’s attention and, for me, the only way I know how to do that is to be all the way real and know that there’s some people who are not going to like that.

And then there are people are going to be like that. That’s what I was looking for. I think most of the decisions I make on how to be, and what I’m going to do in business are based on what I respond to. Like, I don’t relate or care for people who I can tell it’s like a phony voice. It’s a bullshit story.

It’s like, you’re just, it’s just, it is not real. And eventually that all crumbles. And I, I don’t know if I’ve got good radar, but like, I do not understand guru worship. I don’t understand that people don’t see through that kind of stuff. Like, and it gets on my last nerve and there, I try to have a filter, like, cause I won’t name names, but like, especially right now with social media, like I think everybody thinks they’re all that and a box of Cracker Jack.

And you’re not, like simmer down now. Like we’re all the same. And just because you have a bigger following or you’ve been at this longer: simmer down. so I it’s the only way I know how to be. It it’s way easier. It is way easier to be 1000% who you are and just expect that a bunch of people aren’t going to dig that.

And, the people who do, it’s just so much easier to show up, like when you are exactly who you are.

Casanova Brooks:

A couple of things that came to my mind was like, you’ve been a staple in this game as far as internet marketing, as far as being an expert in a lot of different fields for a very long time.

Right. And so why this is relevant. And I think it’s relevant is because for some people that are just starting out right now, they look at you and they say, “Oh my God, she’s so far ahead. I’m not, I can’t really relate to her”, but then you have the, also you have your side of it where you’re like, I’ve been doing this for so long and you see newcomers that come in and we always have to adapt, especially in the internet world with new, like Tik Tok and things like that, what you’ve adapted to it.

So my question to you and all of this is, is it exhausting to you?, or do you, is there a way that you keep yourself grounded because you have, most levels on it and for somebody that’s right now thinking. “I want to do that, but I feel like I’ll never get there”. How do you keep yourself grounded? Cause you talked about simmering down.

Chalene Johnson:

Oh gosh. I’m so, so, so excited. You asked this question. Okay. So first of all, when I read my own bio, I’m exhausted. I’m like, who would ever want to live a life where you’ve done all of those things, you would never be able to rest. So here’s what you need to know about me, even though I identify as a cis gender 27 year old female.

I am actually 51. And so the reason why I’ve done a bajillion things is because I’ve been on the planet for bajillion years. Like I’ve been at this for forever. None of those things did I do them like, well did simultaneously, but most things it’s like, Oh yeah, I did that 15 years ago. And I did that like 10 years ago.

And I did that like nine years ago. And there’s this whole season where I was a mom where I didn’t do much, except for look at what everybody else is doing. And. Think to myself, I’m not doing enough. I should be doing more, but this is really what’s important to me stay true. Like don’t let your ego get involved.

Like be a mom, be a mom. So the one thing I would want every dreamer who’s listening right now to keep in mind is that the number one thing working against you is the fact that everything is interesting. And you’re seeing people who’ve done things and you don’t realize it’s been an accumulation. It’s taken them a long time.

you know, I, I try to only do like one or two things kind of at a time, I don’t work 40 hours. I don’t run myself ragged. I say no way more than I say, yes. I do as little as possible. So that the things that I’m doing, I really enjoy them and they just add up, you know, they just add up over time.

So I would tell anyone who’s a dreamer to narrow your focus like horses that have to put blinders on to get inside of a. A moving trailer. You’ve got to put on blinders, because if you’re, if you’re spending all your time looking at what everyone else is doing, and comparison is the thief of joy and it is the thief of success as well.

When you’re looking at what everyone else is doing and so easily. Easy to think to yourself. Okay, well, I need a podcast. I need, I need a landing page and I need to host my own live events. I need to do a virtual summit and I need to, get my degree and I need to like, you’d need to do all these things now.

Not just, just do one thing until you’re known for it. Do one thing until you’re known for it. Don’t try to do five things. And the, and the reason here’s, I’m rambling. I need to like…

Nah, I love it.

Well, here’s the one thing I would say to anyone who feels that way, because what you tapped into is something I completely relate to.

I still do it. I try to make myself only watch 10 people’s stories on Instagram a day, because I’m too easily distracted and I’m going to want to do all the things that those people are doing. And I’m thinking, why aren’t I taking a beautiful vacation like that? Why don’t why isn’t my team big enough?

Why isn’t my podcast sound as good as theirs? Like I do that too. So I have to. Create boundaries so that I don’t get distracted, but here’s what I would say was the biggest mistake that I made in my, my earlier years as an entrepreneur, as I was trying to do five or six things at once. And afraid to pick one, because I thought was, I picked one, it might be the wrong one.

And then what if one of these other ones pops? So I’m going to do all like six at once. Nothing ever pops. The only thing that works is me. Like, I was just like working, you know, 80 hours a week and I just listening to good advice from a mentor. Who said, “you need to just focus on one thing until you’re known for it”.

And it, you know, pick the thing where there’s an opportunity. You don’t have to pick the thing that’s like you believe God shaped you to be, just pick one thing that you see a real opportunity and just solely focus on that until everyone knows you and then branch off, but then just branch off at one little thing at a time.

So all these little branches that you see that are attached to my resume, I guess, they all came. After I really focused in on one thing.

Casanova Brooks:

Wow. And that’s, I’ll be honest. I’m sure that anybody who really knows me very well listening to this, it feels like you’re talking and mentoring because that is where I’ll be honest.

And that’s the space that I’ve been in for last 18 months. And what’s funny about this, this. How we even got on to me, really digging into your story is because I called up Diana, the mentor and I’m like, Hey, here’s all the things that I’m doing. And I was like, and people always have that. You have to figure out who is your avatar, right.

You have to know exactly who you’re targeting and things like that. And so I would always have this question and I’m going to ask you this question. Is it better to be a generalist or a specialist

Chalene Johnson:

To start, a specialist?

Casanova Brooks:

To start, a specialist

Chalene Johnson:

To start, you gotta be a specialist. And, you know, saying that I’m saying that as a generalist, right?

Like I’m not the best at anything, but I am. I got really, really specialized at understanding the psychology of someone who wants to get healthy. I didn’t become an expert at fitness. I became an expert at the psychology of somebody who wanted to transform their body because I believe that is the gateway drug to personal development.

Right. And so I, and it was re it was probably one of the hardest things I ever did was like, just force myself to do one thing. And by the way, it wasn’t the thing I was the most passionate about I, to this day, I am still not fitness is still not my number one passion. Absolutely. Like if you said you were going to take away everything except fitness, I’d be like, no, like fitness is. A cool thing for me.

But when I decided to focus solely in, on that, I had to let go of some, a couple of other things that I was hoping I would be someday. I had to let go of those things. And that was really hard. It was like a, a blow to my ego. fitness didn’t feel that important to me. I really wanted to help women.

This is when I was 20. let’s see, 27 years old. And I had to decide to like set a couple of other business. I can call them businesses, but like they were really all losing money. A couple of other ideas aside, even though I was like, “but this is what I want to do”. But I had to say later, it’s just not the right time.

What I really wanted to do was to help women figure out how to start a business that gave them the ability to first be a mom. And that was my passion. And to this day, it still is, but I could see that there was this window of opportunity with this program I had or work out that I had created. And so I had to set that aside.

It was losing, we were losing money, like crazy. I just set that other dream aside. And just, as you said, specialize in one thing until I became, until it was known for that. And then I felt like I had permission to like, dip my toe into another area.

Casanova Brooks:

Yeah. No, and it makes sense. Right. And I think everyone, they have to really assess where they are.

Because the other thing that I heard you say is, and it’s funny, cause that was kinda gonna segue into my next question. Cause I listened to the episode that you did Rory and you talked about that and you were saying like, Hey, I remember fitness was not my thing. Like that was not the one thing that I wanted to be known for, but I had to do it.

But the reason why I bring that point back up is, cause you said to stick with one thing until you’re known for it. So that’s also always been a question that I’ve asked is like, how do you know, when the bar, like, how do you know once you’re known for it? Is there going to be a magic number? Because in one way, it’s like, you only have to worry about the vote that matters, which is your own vote.

So if you feel like that I’ve done this for two or three years. It maybe is not the 10 to 20 years that someone else has done it, but you feel like I’ve already capitalized on what I wanted, is it okay to then venture out into one other thing? Or is there a certain, like you need to have six months worth of, you know, finances before you can venture out into this other thing?

Chalene Johnson:

I asked that same question of many people. In fact, I think I even asked Roy what his opinion of that was. I can tell you for me personally, that. That measure for me is when I can set it and forget it once I feel like, okay, this is can sustain itself financially that I I’ve got it running and operating in such a way that I don’t have to be thinking about this 24/7 people are introducing me with this attached to it in some way, like, Oh, you know, Shirley, and she’s the fitness person.

You’re like, Oh, she she’s the marketing person. Like once people start like identifying you as that. And, you know, a great example of this is with one of my, one of our professors insight. We’ve got a program called the marketing impact Academy, and we like to bring our students up and watch them become successful and then make them professors.

And, one of our. Recent, promotions of, one of our students to professor, is a gal who was doing everything. Like she was doing branding. She was doing, visual branding. She was doing business coaching. She was doing SEO. She was doing like, teaching people social media, all of these things and using all the tools that she had learned in marketing.

But then she realized, you know, I’m killing it right now in Tik Tok, I’m just gonna go deep. And Tik Tok, like really deep on Tik Tok. And because she decided to do that in like the biggest deepest way in the matter of literally just a couple of weeks, she went from zero to 20,000 followers. And then in the last month she’s become like the number one trending person on Tik Tok.

And then she created a course that taught all of those things. That she specialized in in Tik Tok, like branding. And how do you use Tik Tok to feed your audience over to your, your other businesses? And, and she’s now, now I hear people saying like, Oh, Kenya, she’s the Tik Tok girl. Like, so once I think that’s one of the signs is like, you start making money from it.

People start knowing you because of that. People start introducing you. And that’s part of the tagline. And then for me personally, when I feel like I have permission to like now add a branch to my trunk of the tree, if you will, is when I’m like, okay, I’ve taken this as to a place where I’m quite satisfied with it.

It’s making money. It can keep going, but I don’t have to focus on it seven days a week. I can look at it a couple of days, couple of hours a week. And that’s how you create additional streams of income. You won’t find anyone that I know of. Who’s a, you know, A top earner, right? Like six, seven, even eight figures who has one stream of income.

Number one, it’s super risky, right. Especially in today’s world, super risky. And number two is just most of us dreamers. Have a lot of interests. Right. You know, so you become a specialist until you’re known, but then don’t forget that interests are, are fun, exciting ways to help other people perhaps, and explore something you’re passionate about and create an additional stream of income.

So, you know, fitness was the thing that I became known for. And then I wanted to write, then I wanted to get into personal development after personal development that I wanted to get into this is development. Cause that’s, that’s really why I think people know me and fitness is because I know marketing.

and you know, so each one of those kind of splinters off of they’re still all there, they’re still all making me money and there’s still all things that I dip my toe into, but I just don’t have to spend all of my time there.

and I, I agree that I think the world’s greatest entrepreneurs, their nature is to be a generalist. When I speak about being a specialist, I mean, specializing in one thing, but I think the generalist is going to be the most successful in that area because you, like, first of all, you know how to hire, you know, what you, you know, enough to be dangerous, you know, enough to do all of the things you and generalist, I find are way more confident because you’re like, I’ll figure it out.

Like I don’t need to be the best, but I’ll figure it out. Like, you know, and. And I think that when I’m going to hire, like hiring a team, I’m going to, I’m going to hire, we are more generalists than it will specialists. And now, especially in terms of like, I need general, like right now, my team is a lot of generalists.

And because when you’re small, you need people. I can be like, Oh, I can do that. Oh, I can do that. I can do that. Now. Listen, when we’re talking about scaling your business, Right. And you’re, you’re adding a team we’ve got over 15 people. you’ve got to start hiring some specialists. Yeah, absolutely. But in the beginning, when you you’re just first starting out to hire a couple of others, generalist is great.

Cause you’re going to get shit done. Like those are, the people are like, I don’t worry about it. I’ll figure it out. And they do and they stay up all night and then they read the books and they watch the YouTube videos and they figure it out and they move you forward and it might be messy, but you make forward progress and generally more, they just got that attitude. Like whatever it takes, I’ll do it. We’ll figure it out.

Casanova Brooks:

Right. And that’s the exact point. I think, as you start to scale your business, you gotta have specialists, but I think for people like you and I, and I think there’s two places in the world, some people they get, like you said, in the beginning, when I looked back at my resume, it is exhausting.

Things are looking at all of the things that I’ve done, but then at this end, some people will look at that and they say, I don’t have any interest in doing that, but then you have people like you and I, and when I ask about Richard Branson or people like that, yes, they might’ve started off in one, but at the same time, unless you can talk directly to them, how do we know at what point did.

Elon Musk decide that it wasn’t just space X. I’m going to also add in Tesla and the same criteria that you use, which means that it can run itself. So when space X is going off here, now I can start Tesla or Richard Branson. So I just bring those ones it’s up because I think for so many people that hear that, that I just gotta focus on the one thing.

But then also take it back and we can probably both agree that children are the greatest species ever. Right. And what do we tell our kids and same thing that I’m sure you told, both of your kids, did you two right Brock and your daughter. Yep. And so I’m sure you told them when they were young, try everything.

Right. That’s what we always say. Try everything you want to do band. You want to do swimming. You want to do basketball. You want to be an actor. Like it doesn’t matter. But then at the same time, like we kind of help to perpetuate the fear into our own children’s mindsets, right? Because when they become 15, 16, 17 years old, it’s all of a sudden, Hey, now you’ve got to go to college.

We got to pick a degree, but what are we going to do here? You know? And it’s like, well, what happened? But then we talk about, they can’t dream.

Chalene Johnson:

Yeah. Yeah. In fact, you’re right. I think parents at that point then they’re like, “you can do anything as long as it meets my agenda” it’s like you know, “as long as you’re getting that track scholarship, as long as you’re fulfilling that thing, that I’m going to tell my friends, my kid is”.

And I think that’s, that’s a. It’s a problem. Okay. Back to generalist specialist, When I decided to focus on one thing at that time, I wouldn’t have known what to focus on and where the opportunity was. If I hadn’t given myself permission to do five things at once. You know, like it’s okay for the beginning stages for you to go like, okay, I’m dabbling in this, I’m dabbling in this.

I’m also looking at that and I’m going to try a little bit of this and I might be a life coach, but I also might be a chiropractor and I just got my real estate license. And I’m also considering starting a podcast. Like you’re doing all those things. But there’s a certain point. You have to realize like, okay, now I’m working myself like a dog.

I don’t feel successful in any of these. That’s when it’s really important to, I think pick one and know that it doesn’t have to be etched in your tombstone. You have to, don’t have to do it forever, but pick one and give it a fair shot. Otherwise it’s like dating five people at once. Like, you know, when you first start dating, you got to date a few people, you know what I’m saying?

But then like, then you gotta like really give someone the shot that they deserve.

Casanova Brooks:

Right. No, and I would agree. And I guess I just, I, I think for me, one thing that we could probably both agree on is we’ve never wanted to be put into a box. We felt like we’ve had many super powers. We felt like we could connect with people at many different levels.

And so when you look at that, you understand that, listen, the other thing which I do know for a fact is I only have one life to live. And the one thing that I can’t give back is time. Right. So I would, and there’s the saying, and I think it comes from the quote of Jim Rohn somehow, but he says, failure weighs ounces, but regret weighs tons.

And this is just my opinion. I’d be very interested to hear yours. I think that you have to become okay with hiring and being vulnerable a lot sooner. So that means that you have to, if you have all of these visions, then what are your thoughts on creating brand managers to manage that thing? So maybe you’re not all in, but you have somebody else. Who’s a specialist that does want to be all in, on marketing or does want to be all in on fitness.

Chalene Johnson:

Hmm. Let me ask when you said you have to be, you. Need to be thinking about hiring and vulnerable. How do, what do, what do you mean by vulnerability by admitting that that’s something you’re not good at? Is that what you mean?

Casanova Brooks:

That’s definitely it. And the other part is by opening up your life, right? Because a lot of the times when you go to hire, especially if you’re hiring somebody to that magnitude, To become like a COO for you have even one brand, you have to open up a lot there, you have to open up your financials. You have to open up that.

Yes. That’s a flaw in your, in your world. So you have to be vulnerable. Do you agree? Or,

Chalene Johnson:

yeah, I think it’s probably an area where I haven’t done a great job, with hiring. I mean, I love everyone that who works for me. Trust me, but I’ve made a lot of mistakes too. Number one, mistake, being that I did everything myself for way too long and it costs me valuable time with my family.

Like, I, I, you know, you’re not supposed to live your life with regrets, but I do regret that I sacrificed sleep, to always be there and, and. Present for my kids, but I was present with my eyes open like this and thinking about all the things I need to do, like while I was watching their games, you know what I mean?

So I don’t, I really wish I had hired people or a lot more people earlier. since that, once I made that decision, every single time we hired people, our business got better in my life. Got better. my peace got more profound, so that’s one mistake that I made. And, and then I think another mistake is, honestly, I don’t know, is listening to a lot of people, give advice on how to hire and me second, guessing myself, like letting other people do the hiring.

And maybe I. Am overstating my ability, but every single person I’ve hired I’ve hired them because I liked them and they have the skills. And I think that oftentimes the advice I’ve gotten from mentors, who I’ve spent a lot of money to tell me what I’m doing wrong. They’ve said you’ve made the wrong hires.

You’ve hired people that you like, and they’re not the best at what they do. And so therefore your business can only go so far, which is probably true. But for me, I’ve made the decision. I would rather really, really enjoy the people that I work with than hire people who can take us to a certain level, but I don’t like ’em.

Casanova Brooks:

Right.

Chalene Johnson:

And. When, whenever we’ve made those hires, it just never works out. Like people, other people on my team aren’t happy. I’m not happy. It’s just, I don’t know. And so I will say this, like every expensive mentor that I’ve worked with had said, don’t hire the way you hire. But the, I. Disagree, because when I hire that way, I’m a happier person and, and ultimately I’m much more concerned with being happy and having peace than I am, you know, adding, another comma.

Got it.

Casanova Brooks:

Do you think that if you had, again, being vulnerable to have just that one person that’s in between you and the hire that really like is maybe opposite of you, but you have enough trust. Like that’s what I mean by the vulnerability that you could, that they could say, let’s say that I was your COO and I’m saying Chalene, Hey, you know, I got you right.

Like, trust me on this. Like, I’m gonna, I’m gonna handle it. Like I know what you’re looking for and I don’t want you to bulldoze over me. We’re in this together. Do you feel like if you would have found one of those people that maybe it could have been different, but there was no buffer?

Chalene Johnson:

We did that. We did that, three years ago. And, we’re in the midst of it fall out of that, to be honest. So. We, we did that. And we, we spent, we, we made our biggest hires. We made hires that were very much specialists and there was a lot, well, you know, there was a, a good degree of like, Oh person, you know, these people we brought on, but they weren’t like, I don’t know.

I don’t know. It just, it wasn’t a very happy time. That’s what I’ll, I’ll have to say. And, so. Maybe, maybe I’m always going to do it a little differently, but I believe at this point I try to make every decision and I think everyone should do that. You should make your decisions based on a word. Right?

And so the word that I use is peace. Like, will this bring me peace? And for someone else, your word might be security. It might be a financial decision. It might be freedom. It might be, but for what my word is peace and that’s. How I define success and happiness is having a degree of peace. And so I did give it a shot to see like what that bring.

And, we, we did that for about three years and it costs us a lot of money. It’s just no big deal. But what is the big deal is I think it costs us a lot of peace. So I’m not saying like someone, maybe we didn’t do a right. But obviously we didn’t, but maybe if you do it right, it’s the right thing to do.

But for me, it hasn’t worked out really well. So I think I’m going to go back to hiring just people. I really, I really like that. I like who they are. And by that, I mean their character, their personality, like when no one else is looking, is this a really good person? I care about that.

Casanova Brooks:

And I think that’s very important.

I think that culture is everything. And I think that there’s no one way to do it, right. That’s where you talked about figuring out what you don’t like, because you had to go through, you know, the fire, right. You had to be tested to come out with your testimonial. So I definitely don’t. Think that you’ve done anything wrong.

You, you had to be tested just to figure these things out. And I think that there’s something else that I always say, you know, “joy wouldn’t feel so good if it wasn’t a little bit of pain”. Right? So in that one moment you had a couple knots, but same thing I told my wife, like “wins and losses comes with being bosses”.

. For anybody who hasn’t seen, I would encourage them to go back because this is where I was really wild too. I watched that you guys just sold your house about a month or a couple months back. Right. And that video that you did on your home, I was like, Oh, that’s Chalene!!!,

Oh man, it was just such a beautiful home. Right. And you told the story about how you raised your kids there and everything. And so when people. Oh, look at that. And they see where you are today. They say, wow, she’s had it made. Right. But the question that I have for you is to say, or to ask, are you fulfilled in life?

Chalene Johnson:

I am. you know, I can’t say that fulfilled to the point where I could like, just vacation and not do anything. because fulfillment is something I seek to achieve every day. And I feel fulfilled when I’m helping people and that if I didn’t have that, I would not be fulfilled for me, fulfillment isn’t money or things, because there was a period of time.

In my life, where I got caught up in making the vision board and, goals that I learned from other experts on how to write out your five year plan and your very specific goals on specifically how much money you want to make. And specifically what car you want to drive in specifically, what house do you want to live in?

And I did all that and I accomplished all those goals. And once I got there, I felt quite empty because, and, and that was really the catalyst for me creating and writing my book. Which was a New York times bestseller called Push because I realized the way I went about learning goal setting from the greats, you know, like Brian Tracy and Jim Rohn and, and so many others before them was to define what it was.

I wanted to go after it. And once I got there realizing like, but I don’t have the feeling that I want to feel, that I, I kind of took their practices and. Tweak them to work for me and kind of reversed, engineered that process. So instead of starting with “the thing”, starting with “the feeling” like,”what do I want to feel and what do I have, what does my life need to look like in order for me to feel that?” Because you can have the big house and the cars and all the things, but feel like you are in a golden prison, you know, and that you’ve created your own hell.

If you can’t enjoy those things. And. That’s where we were. And we really had to like, just kind of start over and realize the toll. It had taken on us over a course of, you know, many years and it almost ruined my husband and I, our, our, our marriage we’ve been together for 25 years while we’ve been together for like 30 years, but together for 25 years.

And there’s just a point at which I was just bulldozing and bulldozing and bulldozing trying to accomplish all those things and never really thinking about like, What do we, what do we want to feel? And so I would warn anyone who has, like, you’ve written out your goals for this year or your five year plan, ask yourself not will that thing.

Bring me peace, but ask yourself, will I be able to experience peace in the process of acquiring these things? Because. You can still acquire those things. You just might have to alter the plan slightly. You know, for me, I I’m okay with doing things slower. I’m okay with recognizing the importance of seasons.

Like you’ve got two young children right now and they’re, they’re just seasons that you will now ever get back.

Casanova Brooks:

Right.

Chalene Johnson:

You know, and then there are things that you can, you can play the, that crop, anytime that crop’s going to grow, doesn’t matter. But there are certain times where, you know, you’ve you just, if it’s really important to you, you need to focus on the fact that that’s that season.

It might not be the season of growth for your business. It might be the season of, Creating a secure attachment for your children

Casanova Brooks:

Right

Chalene Johnson:

Or repairing a marriage, you know?

Casanova Brooks:

Yeah. And it’s so crucial that you say that. And the reason why I say that is because right now we’re in a time of uncertainty.

Right. And so many people, I mean, now we know at the end of this year, A month and about seven days, there’s a lot of people right now, I’m living with a lot of anxiety because once it’s unemployment benefits, right. And we don’t know what this other stimulus bill that they’re talking about is going to be like, but a lot of people are really banking on that, especially in the more dense populated areas, right.

Where things are really expensive, like, like California. And so what that does, and, and I’m sure is it takes tolls on marriages because the outside. You know, is eaten up. And so I I’m glad that you said that because it’s the communication thing. Wouldn’t you agree? Like often times we’re running so fast and I don’t mean you and I, but I just mean us in general, people were running so fast.

The kids have soccer games. We’re trying to get this job. We’re trying to do whatever that as spouses, we never communicate to each other: how are you feeling?

Chalene Johnson:

So true? And I think. Every one of us wants to know that we are significant to someone else. The mistake I made is I thought at that time because we weren’t communicating in the way that we needed to.

Like I told you we were communicating, but we weren’t communicating on a really deep level. I believed that if I was making more money, life would be easier for him. Life would be easier for us. And that that’s how I could be significant to my husband. And he believed. You know, his own set of circumstances and neither us, or we’re really talking about what it is we wanted and that we really needed each other.

And that’s all that mattered. So when we really hit that rock bottom moment, it was just the real, like having an honest conversation. I was like, I don’t care if all of this goes away. I don’t care if we move into a cardboard shack in the woods, if we have each other, that’s all that matters in life.

Literally speaking those words to each other, made every other decision. Okay. Then we’re like, who cares? As long as we have each other, as long as we can be with each other as long, like you are all that matters. Right. And that made. Every, like they took all the pressure off. It took off, you know, crawl our way out of a massive amount of debt.

And it was all like, I don’t want to say it was no big deal, but when you are in financial crisis and at the same time, your relationship is in crisis, you feel paralyzed. You can’t think you can’t make. Proper decisions. You can’t sleep, you can’t do the things. You can’t be, who you were meant to be. It changes you, it changes your fiber.

It takes a toll on your health. But if you can, it’s funny. If your, if your relationship is solid and you, know, I have this person. They are my soft place to land and they have me in their hands. Then no matter what’s happening around me. I can it’s it’s not that big of a deal. And if you don’t have that person, you have to remember, you have God, God is always holding you in his hands.

He is your father. And when you worry about all the other external things, you forget how important it is that you are significant, not because of those things, but because. You are a child of God.

Casanova Brooks:

I love it. Where do you turn for inspiration? Do you turn to the Bible or I know, obviously I think I know where you’re going to say, but where do you turn if somebody is like, I want that type of motivation.

Yeah.

Chalene Johnson:

Yeah. I, that few people that I follow online, one guy just, I just talked about last night and my story is Bryce. The third. Hmm, gotta follow him, Bryce, The Third. He’s only got about 2000 followers. He’s on IG from Detroit. And this guy is like a poet and I’m a thought leader. And the word I would use to describe him is resilient.

And so for me, I don’t find inspiration from super Uber. Like everything was handed to them, successful kind of people that doesn’t inspire me. I’m inspired by people who have. Had the odds stacked against them and they’re still insanely positive and resilient and they, they just. Make me believe in myself because they believe in themselves.

And those are the kinds of people who I find inspiration from. I, you know, some of the like bigger names that I think other people probably think of when they think about motivation, those people don’t inspire me or they really don’t. I think it’s a lot of regurgitated, cliches and a bunch of, you know, fancy videos and I don’t buy it.

I am way more inspired by the person who has, didn’t have. Loving parents who dealt with childhood sexual abuse, who had to crawl their way out of. Addiction and depression. And now they’ve got this incredible attitude and they’re helping other people and they’re lifting, they’re pulling themselves up by the bootstraps and they just only see positivity though.

That’s where I find inspiration. Like, cause that’s legit. There’s nothing, there’s nothing produced about that. That is so legit. And I, I searched for those people. They’re a little bit harder to find, but don’t pay attention to how many followers someone has. If you’re looking for inspiration. Don’t do that, like look for real raw, true inspiration.

Cause I think that’s it. And first, secondly, you’re going to be able to connect with those people more readily and it’s more real. And then of course, aside from social media, yeah. I try to read a devotional every morning and I find a lot of inspiration in the word of God, word of God and, and people in my life.

Casanova Brooks:

Got it. And I would agree with that. Like you find the people that aren’t out there trying to get, an audience, right. That they only, they have less than 3000 people or whatever. But the best thing is if you go to like their stories, right? Because I feel like that’s where most people are authentic and they showed her day to day life.

And if you could catch somebody, that’s just. You know, sitting on their front deck, right. Or front porch, and then they just, all of a sudden tell you something and they say, well, here’s what this meant to me. Right. I was, again, the same type of connection that even off of one episode. Cause I think for the most part, yeah, just like you said before, we went live, everybody in their mom has a podcast now.

Yeah. And rightfully so people want to get their message out there. That’s totally fine. But. When you listen to one person’s podcast, I think within the first, like two to three minutes, you can really already tell if you’re going to like it, if you’re going to like it energy. Right. Cause sometimes they might not be saying anything, but they’re so excited.

They’re like, Oh yeah, I think I like that. Right. And I was, I feel like that’s why people even listen to me. Like, I’m like, I don’t know that I really say anything, but I try to always make sure that I’m enthusiastic, right. That are always have positivity and that I always can bring good energy. Cause that’s what I tell people all the time.

Like I’m not the person who gets. Too deep into religion or politics or any of that. So I’m not super controversial, but here’s what I know. The only thing that I can control at the end of the day is my energy. Right. And so it’s like, when people are like, I’ve had these conversations with my friends and everything, and they’re like, Oh wow.

You know, because if you’re not always going to church, what happens if you get to the pearly Gates and dah, dah, dah, and you weren’t. And I’m like, well, here’s what I know. And this is what I truly believe. If I meet my maker, when I meet my maker at the end of the day. Right. And I meet him and he says, listen, you didn’t pay your ties.

Maybe you didn’t go to these churches or whatever else I’m going to say for everybody who you allowed me. To come in contact with, did I do my best to my ability to bring them joy, happiness, and give off good energy. And if that answer is, yes, I feel like you gotta let me in. That’s it that’s my case. And

Chalene Johnson:

I’m like,

Casanova Brooks:

can you say I did it?

And he’s like, “Whoa”, well, f-ing let me in!

Chalene Johnson:

Well done son. Right. I think it’s hysterical though, that you’re, you’re already like, like planning your case. I’ve got my argument. I’m going to don’t I don’t think you’re gonna have to worry about that. I think he’s gonna say well

Casanova Brooks:

done. It’s definitely something that I think about all the time, because for so many people, just like you were saying, and it goes back to the times of uncertainty, and this is where I think that you’ve been able to inspire me is because of the fact that you created.

Not a facade, but you’ve created a real life scenario of how to every single day create hope for yourself

Chalene Johnson:

I think that’s. Just to be honest, right? Yeah. And I think it’s, it’s an easier way to be is to be honest. And nobody expects you to be superhuman. I think we’re a little suspicious of people who are, Superhuman and don’t have bad days. And, don’t like, you know, I, yeah, of course I love my kids, but I also wish that they would get out of my house.

Like I did my job. I raised you. I bathed you. I clothed you. I got you off and on your own and into college and now canceled, school’s canceled and they’re back home, but we, I’m happy to report that as much as I love my children. Like. coronavirus brought them all back to live in the smaller home that my husband and I downsized to, to be empty nesters with.

And, and now we’re, our nest is full again, but I’m happy to say that we, it gave us another opportunity to say like, okay, the plans that they laid for themselves and listeners have laid for themselves, like the goals you set for 20 20 and 21 and beyond, maybe they’ve changed. Rather than beating yourself up, just sit down and revise them.

And that’s what we had to do with our kids. Like they kind of freaked out, like we had all these plans and we in the last month have sat down and said, okay, Sky’s the limit. What do you want to do? And now let’s reverse engineer that plan, because you’re going to do it. You have everything, you need to do it.

And let’s reverse engineer that plan. I’m like, where do you want to live? How much is that going to cost you? How much do you need to make? How can you, you know, I know there are all these things you thought you were going to do, and you’re not going to be able to do them now. So what can we do instead?

And I think everyone needs to do that instead of beating yourself up. And trying harder to work towards something that just, it doesn’t look the same today. Nothing looks the same. No, just rethink it. And don’t beat yourself up. Just know that you have the tools to reverse engineer it.

Casanova Brooks:

Yeah, you’ve taught people marketing obviously for past 20 years, really?

Right. And maybe even longer than that for somebody right now, that’s thing that they want to become a business owner. They want to start up their own business. Obviously you have the marketing impact Academy and you have other programs that help with that. But is there a couple of steps that people can start doing right now to try to generate 50 to a hundred dollars a day that you love this scenario?

Chalene Johnson:

Yeah. So that’s two part question, right? So there, I used to believe you had to think about being a business owner and in today’s economy, in today’s environment, you don’t necessarily have to be a business owner, even an entrepreneur in order to make a 50 to a hundred dollars a day online. So, and I think many people are intimidated by the thought of being a business owner or an entrepreneur.

and if you give yourself the grace or permission to say like, Hey, what if I just tried to make some extra money online? there’s a million. Really cool. Low, low to no cost ways to do that from reselling items in your home. Like that’s one of the easiest ways. Like you have so much like even clothes you’re thinking nobody wants.

Yeah they do!. They do put it together in a lot. Resell that stuff. You have expertise, you, you don’t even need a website. You can just post it up on Instagram and your stories and say like, Hey, if there’s anyone who needs help on figuring out how to pass your real estate exam or how to start your own podcast or, How to become an affiliate for Airbnb?

here’s my calendar Calendly link or my acuity link, and people can schedule a $50 call with you and you might think to yourself, well, can’t, they just watch a YouTube video and figure that stuff out. Sure. But it’s so much easier and better when it comes from someone who they already connect with. So there’s a million things that you’ve already figured out that they might not make you a million dollars, but definitely can make you 50 to a hundred dollars a day.

And you can use social media to do that for those people who want to be a business owner. You need to own the real estate. If you don’t own the real estate, you ain’t a business owner. And by that, I mean, I’ve talked to a lot of network marketers who, you know, they, they call themselves business owners, but they haven’t built their own brand.

They don’t own the email list. They’re their upline or the corporation gets to tell them what they can and can’t do. And I think it’s questionable to call yourself an entrepreneur if you’re operating in that way, you can’t call yourself a business owner if you don’t own any of the means by which to contact your customers.

And by that, I mean, you’ve got to start an email list today. Today, Instagram, Facebook, all of them. Yeah. If you, if you don’t own your email list, you, you don’t, it’s, you’re living on borrowed time. It can all go away. And like, I mean, even just this year, While we were in this crazy political environment, hearing our politicians, talking about doing away with certain social media platforms and you and I might go that they never going to happen as crazy tough.

Well, all the crazy talk that could have ever possibly happened has happened. So we should probably plan it. And, yeah, that’s why they say you should every, every single day, rather than looking at how many new followers you’ve grown on Instagram, ask yourself how many new people can you serve on your email list.

Casanova Brooks:

Yeah. And that’s crucial because I’ll be honest. I was late and I can’t remember. I think it was. I want to say Amy Porterfield show. And one day she had said that, and I never knew about the power of growing email lists. No one said that. So while I thought that I was building a business, I was really just building followers and I didn’t know anything about it.

And it’s like, okay, but are those followers actually opening up their wallets to say, Hey, the value that you serve, like I’ll pay you for that. And then it wasn’t until I really dove in to that, that I was like, Oh, and just like you said, I mean, you have these social media sites and while they might not do away with those social media sites, Facebook or YouTube, they can ban you for whatever reason

Chalene Johnson:

I mean, I’ve had people reach out to me all the time who have spent a lot of time cultivating a large following, and they’re using that as their sole means of building their business. And then you get hacked. Right. And there’s nothing you can do. I mean, it’s, it’s really hard to get an account back.

Casanova Brooks:

Yeah, for everything that you’ve learned over the course of your career, and you’re continuously learning and developing every day. If you could look back over the last 10 years, what’s the best thing that you’ve learned over these last 10 years?

Chalene Johnson:

Gosh. Oh my gosh is such a good question. The best thing that I’ve learned.

I would say the best thing that I’ve learned is it’s okay to go at your pace. In fact, you need to go at your pace. And not look at how fast someone else has been able to do something or how quickly someone else had been able to do something. You don’t know what’s going on behind closed doors.

You don’t know how that’s going to turn out for them. You don’t know how truly happy or unhappy they are. And if you’re, I assume you’re doing this, everyone is listening because ultimately you want to have a better life, right? You’ve got dreams for a better way. And. I hope that happiness is a big piece of that.

And if you’re looking at the pace at which other people are doing things, you, you will never experience happiness like that is the thief of joy. I would say that the most important thing that I’ve learned is to be very, very self aware and to know that I am easily distracted. So I have to set up safeguards around.

Those things that are distractions for me because when I get distracted, I compare and that’s not good for me. It’s not good for my relationships. Not good for my peace, not good for my joy. So, I really just have to know myself well enough to set up those safeguards.

Casanova Brooks:

Yeah, and this is the second, the third time that you’ve brought that part up about the distractions.

And I think that you’re not alone. Right. I think we all get distracted in some way. And so I I’d love to dive a little bit deeper into there to say, what exactly do you do to set up those boundaries with yourself and those safeguards? Like, is it a meditation thing? Do you have a journal? Like what exactly can someone do to when they feel that comparison coming on?

They say, wait, it’s almost like. The five second rule by Mel Robbins, right? Charlene’s thing.

Chalene Johnson:

Yeah. so it’s, it’s discipline. And for me it is having as much structure as possible. The less structure I have, the less freedom I have. so I use a push journal, which is, you know, just a day planner that I developed that works for me.

I focus on what it is. I. Who I want to be. Right. So I think about that identity. And I think about that word piece. And when you know who you want to be, then your behaviors align with that. So it’s also knowing, like, what’s my daily objective. And how can I accomplish it in just a couple of hours? Cause everything else then should be a bonus.

So my day is incredibly structured. It’s an I safeguarded like crazy. So to be very specific, I don’t do any thing work-related until after 11:00 AM. So, and my team knows that. And it’s a rare exception when I’ll break that rule. I shouldn’t say rare exception, like probably, or twice a month, I’ll break that rule, but you know, as a general rule, I don’t do any.

Like scheduled business work. 11:00 AM. I use that time to, to in prayer. my exercise, my time to daydream. To write, to read, to think, to process, to play, to listen to music. that’s a really big piece of my happiness is music and, and play and comedy. And so the first part of my day, I get super amped up for work.

If I get to charge my battery in the first half of my day and it’s mine. And then from 11 until about five. Is when I, can I go deep into work with breaks and then from five on it’s like I’m right. Dabbling, not, you know, some nights I might do a little bit more work some nights, nights I might not, but, that structure.

Keeps me very focused. I do not look at anyone else’s social media until after 11:00 AM. I might post on my own, but I do not allow myself to look at the explore page or any friend’s posts or, respond to anything until, after 11. Cause you just get out, head down that rabbit hole. Right. And then I’m not, I’m not living.

Authentically in alignment with that identity. I want to create for myself and I’m, I’m ignoring the structure that I’ve established. And then you’ve got to think of it as like a muscle. So if you think about strength training as overcoming resistance, right? So you pick up a 25 pound weight, like you’re, you’re overcoming the resistance that build that muscle.

And the more resistance you add, the stronger the muscle gets. So I just, whenever I feel that like, Oh, I really want to just go on Tik Tok right now. I remind myself like, I’m going to resist it and it’s going to make me stronger. It’s like, I just forced myself to do the thing I know I need to do because that’s what successful people do.

Everybody knows what they need you do every month. Right. Some of us go like, I know I need to do it and I’m going to do it.

Casanova Brooks:

It’s that discipline and I, wow. That’s exactly. I’ve never thought of it that way, but that’s something that I guarantee you I will implement is that resistance of the muscle. Right?

When you think about that, it’s all, it’s like a burnout, you know, you keep working it, you keep working it, but then once you, if you keep it. Exercise exercising it, you will be stronger just like you said. And so that’s something that I think everybody can take away and that is a nugget right there.

But You started to talk about the fitness. part and the muscles. And you, something that you’ve always done is, is.

Share your fitness journey. How much of. The fit. Let me ask it this way. Wait, just to make sure that it’s simple. How big is eating a big part of your health and in your mindset? Because that’s where a lot of people right now as well, the, any structure in your regimen or whatever that they had has gone out the window, everybody.

Right? They justify what they could support local business. Right. And so they eat now all day long. So like, talk to me about how much of your diet has been a part of your mental health.

Chalene Johnson:

Yeah. well, in the last five years, kind of everything, before that true confession, I didn’t know much about nutrition.

I just kind of regurgitated what I heard other experts saying. I. Didn’t eat well at all. I ate anything that was zero calories, low fat, processed protein bars, protein shakes, and exercise, way too much. I overexercise. So, and that took a toll on my mental, on my, on my brain health. And so I had a brain scan done at The Amen Clinic.

And when they looked at my scan and show me the results. It was just kind of devastating to think that I had thought of myself as a health expert and a healthy person. I had this very sick brain and I didn’t really understand why. And I had to dig into that to figure out someone that was a couple of things.

The worst of which was sleep deprivation years and years of self-imposed sleep deprivation. As I mentioned, like I would sacrifice sleep. To work on my business so that I could be present for my kids and my family during the day. And I would asleep like, you know, very few hours a night. but then secondarily was, I wasn’t, I didn’t know enough about nutrients.

And so I was afraid of food. I was afraid that if I. Ate all of these foods that, I would lose my position as a fitness expert. so I had to learn about nutrition and, and I also had to learn that it’s a bunch of BS that we think that there’s one diet, that everyone should be fine. Like everyone shouldn’t be paleo and everyone shouldn’t be KIDO and everyone shouldn’t be vegan.

Like there are different seasons and in those seasons, your nutritional needs change. And so does your background and your. Your genetics and the amount of stuff, stress that you’re under and all of those things impact the way that our bodies absorb nutrients and how healthy we are. And, and so for me now, Nutrition is the cornerstone.

You know, I couldn’t have the, I don’t, I don’t have to exercise as long now because my nutrition is dialed in. I’ve got better control of my cognitive abilities because my nutrition is dialed in. I sleep better now because my nutrition is dialed in. So nutrition is really key, but it is so individual and I wish it was simple.

Like I could say everyone just needs to eat like this. It’s just not true.

Casanova Brooks:

It’s just not. And so where do you go to figure out what your thing is? Right? Is it just that you, you have to try a whole bunch of things. I go, I’m gonna try paleo. Okay. That didn’t really work for me. I’m gonna try it Keto. Or is there, where do you go?

Chalene Johnson:

Yeah, that’s a really, you go to the science. Yeah. And then very much in what you just said, then you’ve got to figure it out for yourself. w which I spent about two years doing work with a couple of different registered dieticians and integrative medical doctors. But what I figured out was that it was always kind of changing.

What’s known as diet phasing. Right. So there isn’t one way that we were designed to eat for the rest of our lives. If you think about our ancestors, their diets changed dramatically with each and every season. And so I learned how to phase my diet, which is again, it’s not a simple. Concept. It’s something that you really have to individualize that for each person.

And once I did that, then I created a nutrition program called phase it up. So people can learn more about that by going to phase it up.com and taking a little quiz. but it isn’t a one size fits all it. Literally, we kind of help give you the structure to figure out what you need to do, but, spoiler alert what you need to do.

Needs to change about every four to six weeks slightly. Otherwise your body dips into what’s called homeostasis. And, you know, that’s when our metabolism slows and that’s when we’re like, wait, this was working. Why isn’t it working now? Because that’s how our bodies are super smart. And I would love to say it’s a really, that there’s a simple answer to nutrition, but the truth is it’s very personal.

Casanova Brooks:

Hmm. Is there anything left in life that you’re still striving for and that you hope to accomplish here soon?

Chalene Johnson:

I’m always working on skills like, so I’m trying to become a better roller skater. I’m always working on my rap game. I’m always working

Casanova Brooks:

a bit of a 16 real quick.

Chalene Johnson:

Well, we’ll have to go old school if that’s okay with you. Okay. Okay. Thinking of a master plan, cause they nothing but sweat inside my hands.

So I dig into my pocket, all my money spent, but I get deeper and still coming up with lint. So I stumped my mission, lead my residents, thinking how could I get some dead presidents? I need money. I used to be a stickup kid, but then I think of all the devious things I did, I used to roll up. Cause it’s all a pep smiling.

There we go.

Casanova Brooks:

I love it. I love it. I didn’t know you had a rap career Dre. Okay. All good. So for, for, is there that one thing that’s left on the bucket list right there? Aye.

Chalene Johnson:

Aye. Aye. You know what, when people ask me that question, I have all these ideas, but the truth is I don’t worry about them because. God always changes the plan on me.

And so when I’m pretty excited about is that he’s going to drop something in my lap, that I had no idea it was coming and it’s always a fun surprise, and it always makes my life feel like it has more purpose. So I’m excited to see what he has in store for me next. Like, I can tell you about my own like kind of selfish pursuits.

Like I’d love to be able to travel more. I’d love to be able to create some really cool physical products that make people’s lives easier. Like. We’ve got some really cool plans I’d like to launch in and that’s the plan right now, but I’m all I know. Ultimately it is not my purpose. I’m living, it’s his purpose and it’s his plan.

And so the more definitive I become in my plans, the more likely it is that he’s going to make me take a sharp turn left.

Casanova Brooks:

No, and I hear you there. The only thing for me, I am a big proponent of speaking it into existence. Right. And so if it’s like, like I’ve said that, you know, I’ve told people on the show, I can’t wait until the day that I get will Smith on the show.

Cause will Smith has always been huge. And of course we talked about the entanglement and everything, but I can’t wait until I get will Smith on the show just because. Everything that he’s done. He’s always been a big inspiration. Not only to me, but of course the world, but the movies, the TV shows the way that he he’s just lived his life.

He’s such an inspiration. So I’m like, I’m going to speak existence and then I’ll be like, anything you ever questioned me? I’ll be like, you can go back to this, this, this, this episode. I said, I was going to get him. And I got him. Right. And so that’s the only thing I say, like speaking things into existence.

And then for me, I also, I’ve always been that person that if I, you, you kind of alluded to this earlier, you said the journey can always change and always tell people, you don’t have to love the journey, but you have to be married to the destination. Right. And so that’s not a meek mill quote. That is, that’s a hundred percent me.

I’m taking my quote on that. but I say that all the time, because just like you said, it changes, right. If I set out right now to go to California or Florida or wherever, I might get a flat tire, there’s going to be detours. You know, I might go through a rain storm or tornado and it changes. But at the end of the day, if I knew that I set out to make it to Pensacola, Florida, or Santa Barbara, California, and I made it there, I’m sure that I will appreciate the journey that much more because it wasn’t a straight shot.

Right. But every single step along the way, I got exposed to something else. And when I made it now I can look back and I’ll be like, damn, that was a trip though.

Chalene Johnson:

Interesting. I do. I usually don’t have a destination in mind. Hmm. I mean, I have a, like, it’s very fuzzy and often the distance and kind of generally in that direction, but I usually don’t have a very specific destination in mind.

Don’t know why. but I, I love the journey and I’m also willing to, have that journey. Take me to a destination that I didn’t know I was supposed to be there. Yeah,

Casanova Brooks:

I think there’s definitely good merits on both sides of it. Right? You just, you just run fast. Right? That’s what I say to my team all the time we run fast and we break shit, bye.

Just, we write really fast and, and, you know, that’s the whole reason why, when people ask me, like, where does my motor come from? I say, for now I understand that my motor just as yours runs a hundred miles an hour. And when is it going to slow down? I don’t know. But at the time that it does slow down, I don’t want to look back and see.

Damn. I wish that I would have tried that, because again, it goes back to that point, that failure weighs ounces, but regret weighs tons. And for me, if I was to have that regret, I think that would be the thing that would eat up at me. And then that’s when you really start to try to live vicariously through your kids or through other people.

And all of a sudden you start put your fears or your whatever on them, or you try to push them into a, you know, because you didn’t get your degree. So you’re like, no, you got to go to college. You got to get your degree. And it’s like, nah, I don’t really want.

Chalene Johnson:

I’m glad to hear you’re raising your kids that way.

Casanova Brooks:

Yeah. So this has been a phenomenal conversation. The last thing that I wanted to ask is there somebody out there that is very inspired, they love your journey. They love all of the wisdom that you’ve given, but they have that little voice in their head. And that little voice says that they’re not strong enough.

They’re not smart enough. Or maybe they just don’t have enough resources. What’s the one thing that you would say to that person to get them to just take action.

Chalene Johnson:

I would say that you have to make it messy. That I don’t know who spoke those lies into your head, but you are doing yourself a disservice by replaying the tape.

Like those words didn’t come from you, their beliefs and words. They’re false beliefs that have been planted there by somebody else. And you shouldn’t continue to honor them by repeating them. The only way that we build confidence is by doing. Not by thinking about it, not by planning, not by learning, but by actually doing and realizing like the only way I’m going to get better is by doing, having a, not be so great, fixing it and redoing it.

And that builds this incredible cycle where you just start to feel better and better and better by taking action. Just don’t be afraid to make it messy because you, you will not be able to point to a person of success. Who doesn’t have a budget failures, so fail your way to success the quicker you do it.

And look at those things as experiments, the faster you’ll get there and you’ll enjoy the process. When you realize that that’s, what’s supposed to happen.

Casanova Brooks:

Love it for anybody who wants to stay connected with you, where can they find you at.

Chalene Johnson:

Well hit me up on Instagram. That’s probably the that’s where we connected.

So I would say the best place for people to connect is probably an Instagram. I’m @ChaleneJohnson. And let me know, you listen to this episode episode, or you watched us take a screenshot of it, send me a DM and I’m happy to connect.

Casanova Brooks:

Absolutely. Well, yeah, there you have it. DreamNation. Remember you have to take action on the dream and it has to get messy because if not, it will only merely be a fantasy.

That’s all we have for this one. We’ll catch you on the next one.