From Abuse to $40M Empire

Welcome to another Founder Wisdom podcast. Today with us is, uh, Jennifer McLean. Jennifer's a creator of Spontaneous Transformation Technique, is what she built. Uh, she's got 900+ practitioners certified. She empowers coaches, therapists, healers to transform their lives, uh, and others through trauma-informed wellness. We're gonna unpack that today, uh, from Dana Point in California. Jen, welcome to the podcast.

Tell us, uh, it's lovely having more about yourself. Thank you so much for having me, Charles. I'm, I'm really delighted to be here.

Nice. Tell us a bit more about yourself.

Uh, well, I, um, I've been a healer for 35 years, uh, and so, um, I've been trained in multiple disciplines, and I've created my own system, as you mentioned, called the Spontaneous Transformation Technique. And it started from a very, very, very, very, very challenging childhood with, um, with abuse and molestation. My dad was a pedophile, basically. He was also a celebrity, and, um, uh, and he was a narcissist and an alcoholic, and my mother was also a narcissist, uh, and, uh, it was very, very challenging. And I basically came out of that going, what the hell? You know, I didn't have a template for love or safety or morality even. Uh, so I, I decided I was going to spend my life recovering from my childhood, and it brought me into the path of becoming a healer. And, um, and then when I was 34, I got cancer. And, um, all the things that I learned, there was some stuff that really wasn't working with many of the disciplines that I had learned. And so, um, at the time of getting cancer, my my, my spirit guides, my guides, they brought through this system of healing that I used to move through that cancer experience and then subsequently used to start healing the unconscious unresolved trauma I had from childhood. And I did that for about 10 years, and then I finally started sharing it with the public, and it's created real miracles for people, the system of healing. At the same time, I also, you know, I was a healer, but I also worked in corporate America I was a brand strategist. I ran agencies. And, um, so I have this rare experience of having a really good skillset in business and marketing, um, as a healer. Um, and so, um, I've also coached entrepreneurs, um, in particular coaches and healers, uh, how to, um, market, but in a different framework, um, more of a framework of energy and intuition. And, uh, that allowed me to have a business that's been very, very successful. I've generated over $40 million in sales. And reached millions of souls. And I've been very, very blessed to have all of those experiences, although it probably doesn't sound like I, I was blessed. But I really do think that all the things that happened to me in childhood allowed me to be the person I am today, that gave me the skill set and the wherewithal to then help millions of people discover the light that they are.

Yeah, congrats on everything. Um, how does one survive such a tough childhood?

Yeah, it's kind of, um, it's just like life in general. It's one foot in front of the other, really and truly. Um, however, um, what I've learned through the years is that we can have a bit of command of what footsteps we take. We can be in charge of our energy. We can be in charge, in command of our thoughts. We can change our mind. We can change our beliefs, and we can shift our circumstances as a result. Um, this is kind of, um, a PhD level of the Law of Attraction. Um, the, the channel calls it the formula, and essentially it's, um, you have to be that which you are seeking. Most people think that when they get that thing, then, then, then they'll be happy, then they'll be this, then they'll be that. It's actually the opposite. You have to be that, and then that will attract and magnetize those things. And the, the key though that a lot of these systems of manifestation are missing is the emotional body, which is actually feeling your feelings. It is, uh, it is unbelievably important to express your emotions. My system of healing is basically about that. It goes to the core moment when we had to repress our emotions in order to survive that childhood, and then my system of healing allows that younger version of us to actually go without re-traumatizing, without going into the memory, allow the expression of emotion that had to be repressed in order to survive. So what, what I teach now is if you're going through something, don't repress your emotions. Feel your feelings, and that creates actual healing. And it only takes 90 seconds to 3 minutes to authentically feel your feelings. Another key part is you feel your feelings without a story. So feel your feelings without the story. The story formulates the upset. It formulates that moment of sadness and envy and shame and anger. And yet the authentic expression doesn't require the story anymore. So allow the story to formulate the upset, bring you there, but then release the story and authentically feel your feelings. And there's deep, deep healing in that. And then that allows you to move into a higher— what they say as a higher state of being, but it's actually just a coherent, aligned state of being. When you're in fear, when you're in blame, when you're in judgment, when you're a victim, you are not creating a good life because that state of being is creating what's next for you. So when we notice the state of being we're in— fear, anger, envy, shame, the big ones— you feel it. And how do you feel it? I feel afraid. I feel scared. It's really simple. And then you feel it for 90 seconds to 3 minutes, and then the formula has a little process, energy medicine processes, that allow you to then move into a higher state of being. Then in that higher state of being, you have whole different beliefs than you had a moment ago. If you're in a state of being of fear, your, your beliefs are there's something to be afraid of, and it points out all the things that are wrong in your life and in the world. If you're in a state of being of love, you have a different set of beliefs that are pointing out what's right in the world, what's possible in the world. Entrepreneurs as a rule often have kind of the rose-colored glasses. They see the possibility, they see the opportunities. And life is not one big bliss fest. It's going to have ups and downs. The challenge with entrepreneurs is when they're in the downs, they're in the downs, and that's not a powerful creative force. So this system allows you to use the downs as a point of access to take a healing action, to shift your energy, to raise your vibration so you have different beliefs, and that actually fuels different thoughts, and thoughts create things. So the actions you're taking now are very— are high vibrating instead of low vibrating. I hope that—

you got to stop every time that you find yourself in one of these negative, uh, patterns. Doesn't that mean, uh, stopping lots of time, multiple times a day?

It does, actually, but it doesn't take very long. Right. So, um, would you rather spiral into the upset for hours?

No. And especially I wouldn't rather create a negative habit, right? So yeah, yeah, better stop a couple minutes. Is there like breathwork inside there, like physiological?

Yeah, the, the, um, the formula uses energy medicine techniques to heal and move us into a higher state of being. So Um, I have, under the umbrella of Spontaneous Transformation Technique, I have, which is called STT, Spontaneous Transformation Technique. I have an STT version of Ho'oponopono. There's breathwork, there's sound vibration, there is what's called attunements, which are like little energy keys that are, uh, that are formulated for us, and they move in, um, to— they move into our field and unlock dormant energies. So there's about, um 8 or 9 different little techniques that are, that are used with the formula. So, um, a really cool one is, is what if— let's see, I don't know, I think this might be backwards, but what if is a big one. Um, and it's like, what if I could be in love right now? So the highest states of being on the planet is love, joy, peace, and authenticity. So love, joy, peace is from David Hawkins' work. Authenticity is a group of people who took it David Hawkins' work and tested some more energies and discovered that authenticity is actually the highest state of being. When we're in love, joy, peace, and authenticity, we are creating a life that is of love, joy, peace, and authenticity. You can imagine that's a different kind of life than one from fear. It doesn't necessarily mean our circumstances instantly change, but what it does mean, mean is that no matter what we're going through— you talked about habit— we now move into a new habit. And each time we do it, we're raising the vibration. So we're not in that lower vibration anymore. Even if we go into another low, it's a higher low, if you will. Right. I have this little diagram. See, it's really fancy. I don't know if you could see that, but it's basically spirals that are going up. And when we're down, when we're just starting the process, we're down here. Right. And then we go up. It's like, well, that feels good. And we're down and we're like, and then we do some healing work or whatever we're doing. And then we're like really good, we're doing really good up here, but then we have another low and we use it as a point of access to heal. And then we move and we're going to do really well. Oh my God, life is so good. Like, oh, wah wah wah, we're down again, but then we do some healing work and then we're up again. But guess what? This low up here is much higher than this low down here, and that's the opportunity. So yes, I actually do this 2 to 3 times a day, um, and I know that where I am now by doing that is so different than I was 2 years ago even, right?

Yeah, because you could spend your time just remembering the negative, uh, parts, right, of your life and the molestation and all of that negative toxic stew, right? Um, but you choose to be here. Uh, it's, it's like a natural human mechanism to OCD, uh, on like negative stuff, right? For some reason is like always thinking. It's like that nagging demon that keeps coming back, right, for self— for some reason, and causing self-sabotage, right? Like, that's so annoying.

Yeah, yeah. And, um, I, I— if you want, I can kind of explain why that's happening, if you're interested, why that, why that self-sabotage shows up. So I'm going to tell the story of a little boy. This is the story of how trauma impacts our life. Unresolved trauma impacts our life to this day. So there's this little boy He's about 7 years old and he lives right by a skate park. He can walk to the skate park. His mom doesn't like him skating to skate park, so he's allowed to walk to it with skateboard under his arm. He gets to skate park and he just has the most amazing day. It's most amazing day. It's this beautiful, one of those beautiful summer days, not too hot, not too cold. And he lands a bunch of tricks that he'd been working on for months. His friends are celebrating how great he is. He just had the best day. Now he's walking home and he finds a stick. And he's so excited because he starts bopping along some fences and he starts making a little beat and kind of dancing a little bit to the beat with his skateboard under his arm. He comes to this one fence, it's a little bit lower and it has some indents in it. He's really bopping out. What he doesn't realize is in that yard around the corner is a really big dog who's very territorial and he is not happy with this boy making beats on his fence. There's a little fracture in the collar. The, he, the dog breaks free, he jumps over the fence, and the guy, the little boy's like, oh my God, and he starts running for his life. He drops his, his skateboard, and just as the dog's about to— the, he actually, the dog grabs his, um, the, the, his little pant leg, and he, he falls down, he skins his knees. Just as a dog's about to go for it, the owner and a neighbor is right there and stops the whole thing. The boy doesn't even hesitate, he gets up and he runs home. He goes into the kitchen and his mom's there and he's just crying. And she looks him up and down. She's dealing with his other 6 brothers and sisters and a kind of absent father. She's got her own stuff she's dealing with. He's alive. That's all she can handle. So then, then she notices that he doesn't have his skateboard. She starts screaming at him, "Do you know how much we paid for that skateboard? Where's your skateboard? Oh my God!" So he just runs upstairs. So that is a moment of trauma almost every child has at some level. Right? There's, there's, there's bigger or lesser versions of that. And so what's happening there, though, there's a lot going on that formulates a system of repression, a system of false beliefs, a system of false conclusions that is still here with us today. Um, and so let's fast forward for 30 years. Some of the false beliefs that he came up with at that moment is, if I'm in bliss, I could die. He had the best day ever, and then he almost died. So there's a false belief: if I had— in bliss, I could die. That's in his field, it's in his cellular structure. He also has a false belief that things are more important than him. His skateboard was more important than him. It's a false belief that happens. And what else happens in that moment? He repressed his emotions. It was not safe to express his emotions. Fast forward, he's 30 years old, he's in love and he's with this girl and he cannot commit. He can't do it.

Why?

Because deep in the subconscious there's this unconscious unresolved trauma that if, if I do this, I could die. I mean, it's just there, and he can't explain it. He can't explain it to his girlfriend. He doesn't understand it himself. And what has he spent his life doing? Well, he works on Wall Street. He spent his life gathering things. And it never works, but he keeps trying. He has nice cars and nice things and nice shoes and nice suits, and there's always this kind of icky feeling that comes with it, but he can't stop accumulating things.

Why?

Because things are the most important thing. That's the false belief. So these things are running us deep in the subconscious, and the opportunity is for us to notice these patterns. So he has these repressed emotions, and what happens with repressed emotions— that my guides show me— that they kind of get covered with this hard coating. They look like walnuts, and we build mountains of walnuts of repressed emotions. We never want to go back there again. So we then create these wild dysfunctional patterns, these default reactions. Sometimes it's dysregulation, uh, sometimes it's laughter, sometimes it's humor, sometimes it's, um, uh, addiction. But we create these patterns so that we never have to go there again. But the key is to actually feel your feelings. That's the energetic healing key, is to actually feel your feelings. And how do we do that? Life. You know, in the moment of this low, in the moment of one of the lows, we stop, we pause, we look at it in the eyeballs and go, oh, I actually feel sad. I'm gonna take 90 seconds to 3 minutes, and I'm just gonna feel sad. And there's this genuine release and healing that happens that then allows us to consciously be in command of our energy and move our attention through some additional healing techniques into a higher state of being. One of them is what if— what if right now I were love? What if that were true? What do you think that might feel like right now? If you could just be love right now, what do you think that might be like? And we just consider it and suddenly we're in this new vibration. I mean, it's really simple, but sometimes it doesn't feel easy.

Right. In your case, how did you leverage your own tool to create a $50 million empire?

Uh, it was $40 million. Um, and you know, that's over a period of time. So that's not $40 million a year. Uh, but you know, I, at, um, at the peak I had basically $4 to $5 million a year I was generating. And, um, it's, it's a less, uh, the answer is less how, um, in, in, and instead more the state of being I was in, right? So how do, how do we create success? It's unanswerable because it's a question that comes from our mind, and the mind doesn't have the answer. Our heart has the answer. Our connection to our soul has the answer. And so, and the answer for me consistently is what state of being am I at? Where am I at? Um, and, um, do I, do I love what I do? Do I have confidence in what I do? Am I really good at what I do? I know I'm really good at this. I know that. I know that I'm really good at marketing. I know that I'm really good at business. Now, my gift is healing, but my, um, but my skill set is marketing a business that is sitting on top of intuition. So how did I make $40 million? I was in alignment. I was in alignment with that. Um, I, I was confident, and it's not confidence that does it, it's a state of being underneath that confidence can sit upon, right? Confidence. So the formula is the state of being formulates beliefs, formulates beliefs, peaceful thoughts, thoughts create things through action. That's essentially the formula. So the state of being of of trust and faith and security and love and joy and peace, that creates confidence. And that confidence then creates thoughts and actions that go along with that. So, um, I, I kind of always had that little piece. Some— it start— it was kind of naive when it started. I don't know exactly why I had that, but I would do wild stuff. My very first job, um, I, I bugged them so much, and I bugged them with such creativity. I created I actually worked for a newspaper back in the day. That's how old I am. And I wanted to be in ad sales when I was just a waitress. And it's like, how am I going to move from waitress to an ad sales? How do you do that? And so I just looked at ways to show that I could sell. One of the ways of being a good salesperson is you don't give up. So I called them every week and then I put together a full-page ad and then I put together another creative thing that I would send. And I sent some cookies. I sent some donuts. They created a job for me. They didn't have a job opening. They created a job opening because they looked at this and said, whoa. So it's action, but it's based on— back then it was more of a case of curiosity. I'm pretty sure I could do this job. Pretty sure I'm good at this. There might have been a little bit more ego back then. Now there's more thoughtfulness and understanding of alignment. But that's it. And again, how do you move out of— you asked me that question earlier. How do you move out of that? Out of a horrible abusive situation? One step at a time. How do you move into success? One step at a time. But bring conscious attention to where you're at. Where am I at with this? Am I terrified? Not a good state of being to create success. Am I terrified? And it's okay, by the way. We don't want to repress it. We don't want to, you know, suppress it or repress it anymore. We want to, we want to feel it. We want to allow— it's authentic, it's real feeling. There's a really good reason why you're feeling this way, and it's likely something that happened from 0 to 7 years old. So use that point of— use that as a point of access to feel your feelings, and then allow that to— that healing to then move you into a higher state of being, um, from a place of conscious command.

And when did you fully pivot from like pure business into like healing, right? Like, I guess you had to trust yourself, right? And people around you might have been like, you're crazy. But like, seems in 2007 you, you fully leaned in the healer movement, right? Like, yeah, what prompted that?

That's a really good question. Um, I actually kind of went at it kicking and screaming, honestly. So there's two, there's two ideas that, that are, um, here. One is that when we're not on track with our soul's intentions, my, uh, I believe— and again, if any of this stuff doesn't feel right for any of you or your audience, don't believe it. I always say believe what makes you feel good, because when you feel good, you're in a higher vibration. So I believe that my soul had an intention for me and continues to have an intention for me. And when I'm off track, there's pressure. When I'm off track, things don't go as well. When I'm off track because it's saying, no, no, you got to go over this way. It's trying to push me. And I'm like, yeah, but that looks safer. That feels better. That's known. That is known. And so I worked in corporate America for a long time, and I was super, super burnt out. And I had a false belief that being a healer— this is pretty funny in hindsight— that being a healer doesn't make enough money. So I went from a quarter of a million to $5 million. Excuse me, I went from $250,000 a year. I did well in corporate America to, you know, $5 million a year as a healer. So there was real irony there, but I had a false belief. I had a false belief that you can't do it. So I had to be pushed and pushed and pushed. So I got super burnt out. I had some terrible clients and I quit cold turkey my job in corporate America. They begged me to stay. I just couldn't stay another minute. That year was really, really challenging. And I was almost homeless by the end of that year. And I was 10 days away from living in my car. And these are the moments. These moments are here for us. I believe that every moment of that difficult year was here for me. It was here for me because I was ready. And so I had a moment where I was meditating and saying, what the hell, I'm almost homeless, I have 10 days here, what, what am I going to do? And what I received when I went on that meditation was, you've been always going outside yourself. You've been looking out there for the answer, right? This is the antithesis of the formula. And, um, what you didn't realize is that, you know, there's this old saying about going for the brass ring, you know, getting that brass ring out there. When I get that, then I'll be happy. If I get that thing, then I'll be okay. If I get married, then it'll be okay. If I have children, then it'll be okay. That's not it. It's okay to do all those things, but you do it from this different perspective. And what they said was What I heard was in that meditation, you are the brass ring. You're actually it. You're the gift. You're that which you are seeking. And from that moment forward, this is, uh, that's when my— the first kind of attunement happened. I talked about attunements a minute ago. That's where I got the first attunement, and they called it the Attunement of Power. I still do it for people to this day. And, um, then I started my business. I, I went back to doing what I was doing again. Sometimes we have to go backwards in order to go forward. But it was a much better experience because I was in a different energy. And then a year later, I actually started my healing business, and I used all my skills. I have a system of marketing called credibility branding that I developed for start— my specialty in corporate America startups. Um, I worked in the tech industry, and so I worked in the tech industry in the boom. Like, I launched Yahoo, I launched, um, I, I helped to launch some of these huge companies, Akamai, and I worked for Microsoft and Apple. Anyway, it doesn't matter, but, um, so I specialized in that. I used that system marketing to start my own business. And I was the very first person in the human potential space to create teleseminars, which was the precursor to podcasts. So I was kind of a pioneer. And how did that happen? Because I was aligned, because I was open. I had this state of power within me, and I had trust and faith. And I went from almost homeless to a bit over 2 years later making my first million. So I was 18 months into my business when I made my first million. And so it, you know, it's the story of life, which is, you know, there's a, what's meant for you can never be lost. And if you are resisting it, the pressure will increase until you take an action. And the easier route is the formula. Which is to notice, why am I resisting this? And it's likely— remember that little boy? He's resisting bliss because he has a false belief that came by, that he came by honestly. It's real, it's not fake, it's real. Um, something happened that had that belief formulate. Um, and so we get to, we get to be in command of our energy now and say, what false belief do I have right now about my life? And then we get to work these these, um, remarkable little systems of and techniques and take a healing action and be in command of it and accelerate the process. I didn't need to do that in 2 and a half years. I could have done it in 2 and a half months. I would do it in 2 and a half months now.

Love it. Uh, what's next for you, Jen?

Um, well, I'm actually, um, taking the formula on the road. I'm going to write a book. Um, I'm planning on, um, possibly doing some like little stage shows around the country eventually. And I also have my System of Healing. I certify, continue to certify people in that. So that's a really strong pull for me because when practitioners get certified, so I have about, about a third of the, of my practitioners are therapists because the System of Healing works so quickly, so well, and so safely and gently. That they actually see immediate results. And the talk therapy is fantastic. I love it. It helped me immensely. You add Spontaneous Transformation Technique to thought talk therapy and it's accelerated. I have coaches that use it, I have healers that use it, and it's complementary to all of the other things that they're doing. So it doesn't take over, it's complementary. Um, and what, what I find is they become, um, referral machines because it works so fast and so quickly and so well. People are like, oh my God, I feel so great, and they refer friends and stuff, so it helps their business. And of course, in the certification program, I also teach entrepreneurialism, so I teach them how to start and grow and scale their business, uh, which is a real blessing. Not many healing systems actually teach you about business. Um, of course, the way I teach it is about teaching about energy, the energy of business. Uh, so that's a really big focus for me, is to get as many practitioners out in there as possible. Um, when I went on an ayahuasca Journey, and they told me that Spontaneous Transformation Technique is, is one of the most important systems of healing for the times that we're in right now because it's so gentle, so safe, and so powerful, and it really helps people change quickly. So that's a huge focus. Um, I also have another book which is more memoir. It's called I'm Practically a Virgin If You Don't Count Relatives. Uh, so that's more, uh, it's a different kind of book The formula is more teaching. This is more, um, talking about some parables of my life and using it as opportunities for people to change their energy. Anyone who reads that book is going to heal automatically just by reading the book. And it's all— there's also a musical I'm working on with that.

It's interesting. That's a lot. I love it. Where can people find out more about you, Jen?

Yeah, if you go to www.mcleanmasterworks.com corporate.com. And that McLean is McLean phonetically, M-C-L-E-A-N, uh, Masterworks with an S, and then corporate.com.

Love it. That was Jennifer and Charles for another founder