Beyond Success: The Art of Becoming More | Dianna Kokoszka on The CJ Moneyway Sh$w

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Success brick by brick, mind first. Today we're bringing back a giant in the world of leadership and transformation, Deanna Kokoska, award-winning entrepreneur, culture architect, master coach, and bestselling author of Becoming More. You can't get to better until you get to different. Deanna isn't just talking about change, she's talking about becoming the kind of person who creates change. This conversation goes deeper than strategy, deeper than goals, deeper than success as the world defines it. This episode is about identity, about mindset alignment, about stepping into who you were always meant to become. In today's powerful episode, you'll learn why Why becoming different always comes before becoming better. The identity shifts that unlock new levels of purpose and leadership. The most surprising lesson Deanna learned while writing her book. How high performers self-sabotage and how to break the cycle. Why your mindset can either multiply your gifts or mute them. This is a masterclass in personal evolution and a reminder that the journey to greatness always starts within. Growth begins the moment you stop chasing more and start becoming more. Yeah, start becoming more.

What's up, my good people? Welcome to the CJ Moneyway Johnson Show. Today we're talking about Beyond Success: The Art of Becoming More with Diana Kaye. Growth isn't about doing more, it's about becoming more. I know you heard that slogan before because this is the second time that Lady D has been on the CJ Moneyway Show. We had so much fun last time, we had to do it all over again. So welcome to the CJ Moneyway Show in association with Believe Network. We welcome back Diana Kay, award-winning entrepreneur, leadership expert, and author of Becoming More. You can't get to better until you get to different. So this time we're going to go even deeper, covering the identity shifts required for true transformation, the most surprising lesson she learned while writing Becoming More, how to evaluate self-leadership to unlock greater impact, the hidden challenges high achievers face, and how to over come them. And of course, we'll wrap up with our audience favorite, quickfire round with Diana, as she shares her rapid-fire answers. She's already intimidated you all. I talked to her already about it. She's already nervous. So Diana, I welcome you to the show again. How you doing today?

Thank you so much. You didn't tell me what the questions were though, so I'm really— I'm anticipating it myself.

Yeah, that's the whole point of it, Diana. That's the whole point. So Diana, last time we spoke, you shared the inspiration behind Becoming More. Now that it's out in the world and you're gaining traction and success and doing speaking engagement about the things that you set out to do, that you dreamed about that this book would do, what's been the most unexpected feedback or lesson you've learned from readers?

The fact that they're actually retraining their brain, that they have that mindset, that they're willing to look in the mirror. It's kind of like if, if I had everybody take a selfie right now and they look at that person and they were the teacher, would they look at that person and say, what does this person need? What emotions? What qualities? What is it that this person actually needs to make their life better? And I'll bet you every one of them would say they need encouragement, they need support, they need to learn how to become more because it's who we're being. You already know that. You think that if I had what those people have, I could do what they do and I could be like them. And they live their life in that have, do, be episode. Other people say, oh, CJ, you gotta do more. You just gotta do it, do it, do it.

Yeah.

And they live their life in that if you do it, you'll have it and then you'll become more. And you and I both know that in order to be the hero of our own lives, we've got to be it and think it before we can do it. And then once we do it, we can have it. So we live our life in be, do, have. And that's the only way that you're going to be able to accomplish more than you do today.

I like that. You got to see it like you say, you know, you got to see it in a different realm. You got to see it in the atmosphere in order to become more. Say, as a man thinketh, so is he. So if I can't think it, I don't see it because I don't see myself in that situation. You know, it's funny you brought up you have to look in the mirror. And as I was telling you as we was backstage, I started a new podcast and I think a couple weeks ago I did an episode called The Man in the Mirror. And so a lot of times, Diana, what I think, you know, I kind of aim at men a lot. A lot of times what I think is that, you know, we need to look in the mirror for certain situations, but we're afraid to look in the mirror because we're scared of the reflection we may see.

Well, right. And I love that song. You know, I'm starting with the man in the mirror. I'm asking him to change his way.

Change his way.

And nothing else could become any clearer. You know? So it's a matter of, are we willing? To look in the mirror? And are we willing to realize that our business grows to the extent that we do, our life grows to the extent that we do, and more importantly, our relationships grow to the extent that we do? Are we willing to work on ourselves is the main question.

Main question. And I got another one that's coming out, I'd like you to check it out next week, I believe it's coming out next week, it's called Planks and specs. First you got to get the planks out of your eye before you can get the specs out of anybody else's eye. And so that's looking at yourself. You have to examine yourself first. And big shout out to Lady D giving a shout out to the late great from my home state, my hometown of Gary, Indiana, the great legendary King of Pop, Michael Jackson.

Oh man. He changed so much. When we think about that, he worked on himself. When he worked on his dancing, he worked at it. He didn't just make the steps. He wanted it to be perfect. And he brought out Thriller that changed everything in music.

1981, 1980, '81, he came out with Thriller. I was a young kid. I was a big Michael Jackson person. You may not believe it.

Me too.

I used to do Michael Jackson impersonations. I used to— I had the jacket, I had the pink shirt with the ruffles and the feathers in it, I had the penny loafers. Yes, I had the gloves. And so yeah, and, and I used to actually do performances, uh, like on Christmas and when we had family holidays and things like that. And one year we had a New Year's— my mother and father had a New Year's Eve party down in the basement at our house. And so, boy, I put on the performance of a lifetime with Michael Jackson. It did like 3 songs. I had my penny bank, uh, people was giving me money. I had my piggy bank full and everything. And then, so as my father said before he passed away, God bless his soul, before he passed away, he used to always joke that my mother broke open my piggy bank and stole all my money out of it that I got from dancing that day.

So yeah, I was a big avid You know, here's an interesting part. I literally was on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour and on— it was a talent show in— oh my goodness, where was it— in Utah. And it just so happened, all these places I was going, I got to meet the Jackson 5. Now that was before Michael Jackson, you know, was on his own yet. The Jackson 5, it was so amazing to meet these people. And to see how much they worked on themselves to become the very best version of themselves that they could be, that it was so impressive.

Hey, what can you say? ABC is easy as 1, 2, 3. So Diana, let me ask you. So identity shifts and reinventing yourself. We often talk about mindset shifts, but what about identity shifts? How do people break free from their past self-image to truly become more?

You know, it's such a great question because the first part is, do they literally believe they deserve more? Because a lot of times what happens is this conscious mind of ours, you know, it sets goals and it's so easy because it's all in the reality in the world. And yet the conscious mind is the goal setter. And what we don't realize is the unconscious mind is the goal getter. And unless those two are in alignment, you're not going to make goal. And so when we think about this identity, we have to ask, do we deserve or believe we deserve what we desire? So let's set a goal and then we look at that goal and we say, who would I have to become in order to achieve that goal? Somebody that's doing that right now, what skills do they have? What characteristics do they have? And do I have those same characteristics and skills? And if not, then let me go learn them. Let me train my brain so I become that type of person that can achieve those things. But here's what's interesting, CJ. We all have what I call a financial thermostat in our head. And it's all set to a certain temperature, just like that thermostat on the wall. If you set it at 72 and it's at 75, the air conditioner comes on and it cools it down. And if it's set at 72 and it gets to 70, well, the heat comes on and heats it up, right? So where is that financial thermostat set? It's set to whatever we believe that we deserve now. That means that if we're not doing enough to reach that financial thermostat, we kick it up, we motivate ourselves, we'll do whatever it takes to get there. Yet when we get there and we want to go higher, if we don't believe we deserve it, it's like the air conditioner turns on and we sabotage ourselves because, well, we're in charge of our own life. We have to take responsibility. We need to raise that financial thermostat, raise what we believe we deserve. And it doesn't matter what happened in our past. The past is the past. You can't change it. Yet so many people are comfortable living in the past because they're afraid of the future. They don't know what the future holds, yet they know what the past holds. So they cling to it. Oh, I can't do that because you don't know. My parents were this way. That there was a story about two young kids that one grew up to be homeless, the other one grew up to be a massive success. They both had the same parents and their parents were alcoholics. And they went to them and they said, "But why do you believe that you grew up and ended up where you're at?" And the successful person said, "Oh, that's easy. My parents were alcoholics. That's what drove me to success." And they went to the one that was homeless and they said, how did you become who you became and where you're at? And he said, oh, that's easy. You have no idea who my parents were. They were alcoholics. See, there's two types of people in the world, those that are afraid and do something about it and keep moving forward, and those that are just plain afraid, right?

You know, you made me think about it because as I was telling you, you know, I got another podcast and made me think about the whole theme of my podcast is planting seeds. And so as you say, the man went out to plant seeds. So you think about it, it was the same seeds, same seeds he planted. Some went to the wayside, some was on stony ground, you know what I'm saying? But it also say that some got 34, 64, and 104. Same seeds, different results. And so as you say about the two young men, you know, both of their mother and father was alcoholics. One went, became successful. Another one didn't. They had the same opportunities. And so in life, as we all do, we have the same opportunity. We've all been sent forth with a gift and a talent, you know, to produce what we do. But some of us bury our talents in the earth. Same seeds, different results. So don't get mad at me and Diana because we have watered the seeds that has been given to us and it's beginning to flourish and grow. Because your seeds can grow as well. Hey, so, Diane, let me ask you, the hidden struggles of high achievers. Many people think success solves all problems, but we know that's not true. What are some challenges you see high achievers facing that most people wouldn't expect?

Well, you know, in coaching people and coaching coaches, actually, I was able to hear a lot of different stories, and we coached a lot of high achievers. Many of them, they were tied to that achievement. Their self-worth was tied to that achievement. There was one lady, massively successful, ran a multimillion-dollar company, and yet it was like she was always chasing the next deal, the next thing, the next achievement that she could get because her self-worth was so tied to what she did. Oh, she had self-confidence. Yet a lot of people don't realize that self-confidence and self-worth are two different things. We had to literally help train her brain to where she was worthy enough to accept those things. And she was— she had that self-worth that comes from knowing that you're a child of God, that He loves you no matter what, and help her realize that, yes, go on and achieve a lot. Yet know that you are worthy. She became such a people pleaser in her life. She was absolutely, well, she had no joy. She just was chasing the next deal. That was one. Another thing that I find with high achievers is they wake up on January 1st going, oh my gosh, can I do what I did last year? Because every year they wanna do more and more and more. And yet most high achievers realize that they have to become more, that if you want to do something different, then you have to become different. Because the person that has achieved what it has achieved, if you want to achieve different, then that person that's going to do different has to be different than who you are, or you would have already achieved it.

Mm-hmm. That's the truth. And I'm thinking back as you were talking about the first person, it made me think, and I always, you know, I used to say it. I know I used I used to try to say it wrong because I couldn't always remember it, but it say that the hell and destruction is never full, you know. And so it say that the eyes of man is never satisfied. So no matter how much we accomplish, no matter how much we do or whatever, I'm never satisfied with what I have. So I'm always searching and looking for more and looking for more instead of sitting back and being grateful and thankful for where I'm at and where I'm going. Like you say, be strategic, start using your mind and things for different avenues. So I'm glad that you and your team was able to get that young lady's mindset together, you know what I'm saying? So she can see it in a different way, man, because it takes a lot of hard work to be successful. And so we have to be—

and this lady behind me, Oprah, up here, I mean, she said it best when she said, when you're grateful, no matter what you have, gratitude will always bring more. Now, I worked in the physics lab during college, and I'm telling you, quantum physics really did change my life in a lot of ways. Yet I learned about energy, and I learned that energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be transferred or transformed. Well, the way we think sends out energy. The way we speak, the way we act, all of this sends our energy out like we're this big satellite dish, right? Broadcasting energy. And when Oprah said you give out the energy of gratitude and that energy attracts more gratitude back to us because who we are is what we get. Whereas if we're always complaining, well, I say complaining equals a garbage magnet and just brings back more garbage to your life, right? So what energies are you sending out with your words? What energies are you sending out with your thinking? Because when you're sending it out, like energy attracts like energy. You're going to get back who you are.

Mm, I like that. And as you reference Oprah behind you, you say to be grateful and it transfers energy. And once you get that energy, folks, be like my man behind me and have that mamba mentality. Go for what you know and put in the work. If you put in the work, you're going to get the results. And so let me ask you, Diana, the power of self-leadership.

Yeah.

Before you can lead others, you have to first lead yourself, which is something that we were just talking about not too long ago.

Yeah.

What are the key habits and mindsets of elite self-leaders?

To me, it's not only having the confidence, it's literally having the confidence to let other people shine. Right. That you've got to take a stand for their greatness more than they will stand for their limitations. Because I don't care who you are, you've been programmed in some way by television, your parents, your teachers, your friends. Right. And we've got to be able to find more in that person that we're looking at, that we're leading and bring out of them that greatness. Yet if we don't have it in ourselves, we can't see it in them. When people say to me, "Oh, Diana, you know, I admire you so much. You're amazing." And I go, "Wait, stop. Then you have to be amazing because you can't see in me what you don't have in yourself." And as leaders, as self-leaders, we've got to encourage ourselves. More importantly, though, we have to take and make that encouragement and give it to other people to help them. So as a self-leader, make certain that what we're doing, because everybody's watching, that we're doing and acting the way that we desire for our other people that we're leading to act. Make certain that our words— realize that, gosh, we may leave a wake that is so bad that people are still in therapy 5 years later, right? We've got to make certain that our thoughts are those of greatness. In ourselves and in others, and that we're real. Because the first job of a leader is to define reality. And the second job, I believe, is to set expectations, expectations of ourselves and expectations of others. That lady I told you about that didn't have self-worth, her expectations of herself were so doggone high, CJ, and she didn't expect it. That about the other people. And so when I said to her, look at all these things you've accomplished. If I had accomplished all those things, would you think I hadn't done enough? And she said, oh no, I think that you were amazing. I go, well, then you've accomplished them. Why don't you think you're amazing? Mm-hmm. And it almost brought tears to her eyes because she realized she wasn't giving herself credit for all the things that she had done. So as a leader, I'd say keep a victory log. Keep the things that you do that are great, because believe me, as a leader, everybody else will think that they can do it better. Not everybody, most people. And you got to go back to that victory log sometimes and remind yourself of who you are. And then you have to remind other people of who they are too. They're all winners. They're all winners in some way.

Because as you were saying that, I was thinking, especially on the last part that you just said, You had her reflect the things that she had done and accomplishments that she had made, because a lot of times people see more in you than you see more in yourself. And so, you know, that's a big encouragement too. But something that you said earlier kind of resonated with me and it stuck with me. When you are confident in yourself as a leader or as a person, you feel more compelled and obligated to a certain extent, or you're not afraid to show other people and tell other people about what you see in them. Because I'm not intimidated. I know who I am in myself, so I'm not worried about, oh, they gonna, you know, if they go off and get more than me. That's what— that's not what life is about, you know. It's about what God has given you, because he has given you certain things just to talk to a certain person. Like, he has given that young lady— probably, you know, saying when you came in her life, it was destined, it was preordained for you to meet her at that hour, at that time. And had you had missed that opportunity to impart in her what he had gave you to impart in her, then shame on me, because now I'm jealous, or I have it in my heart where I'm kind of, you know, I don't know if I want her to exceed that much and overtake me. And sometimes that, that's what we all have inside of us a little bit. That's why we want to impart things into other people because we're afraid of where it may take them in life. Your thoughts on that?

That's so true. And as leaders, well, that isn't really being a leader. It's being pretty egotistical, right? And that mindset of hubris overtakes us. And as— oh my goodness, in How the Mighty Fall by the guy from Good to Great, Jim Collins, sorry, the author, he said, he said hubris born of success is the number one reason that most companies go down. The number one reason that most leaders fail. They want to be the guy on top of the hill, right? And when we realize we all have hills, let's bring the hill up to be the mountain that we put our people on and it'll work for us.

Yeah, that'll be a much better—

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Much stronger team.

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So Diana, success versus fulfillment, as we was just talking about leading into this. You work with leaders and entrepreneurs at every level. What's the biggest difference between people who are simply successful and those who are truly fulfilled?

I think the biggest thing is success is about us. It's about what we do, about all of our accomplishments. And there's something a little empty there because I think we were put on this earth to love other people, to serve other people, to help other people. And when we cross from success to significance, then that's where I think the true fulfillment comes from, because the success is always— there's another hill to climb, there's another goal to make, there's another achievement to have. And we're always looking at more to have, whereas insignificance, it's about we're helping other people become more so they can achieve more. And I love the statement that my best accomplishments have been achieved by other people. I think it's such a great statement that we helped other people reach the things that they desired. We helped other people reach their goals. And that significance, I think, is where fulfillment is truly felt.

I like that. When you help others reach their goals, I'm thinking about what it says. It says that if you turn one away from the errors of their ways, right, it say that a multitude of sins will be covered for you. So if I can help you get out of the stupor that you're in and you turn your life around, and some of the things that I've done in my life, he say, I cover. A lot of that, you know what I'm saying, in your life. Now we're not talking about the natural, we're talking about the spiritual, because there's two different realms here. But it also aligns with the natural though. And so sometimes that's what— get on Planting Seeds with CJ Moneyway Johnson. I go through a lot of this. I'm telling you, man, I love it. I love it. I love life. And like you say, it's all about serving. You know, you have to be able to serve. Yeah.

And the seeds that we plant in our own mind, we all have seeds of greatness and we have seeds of limitations. It's which ones are you going to water, right?

Yeah, yeah, I'm gonna let go of the crutch. I ain't gonna keep going on the seat of the crutch where I gotta keep on blaming people for my downfalls, for my things that I'm not successful in. And one thing I got for that, like I said, check out Planting Seeds with CJ Moneyway. Some of y'all better go dig up them talents that you buried in the earth because it is the answer to your success. And so let me ask you, Diana, courage and taking the leap, as we just talked about. Go dig up them talents. Take that leap. What you got to lose? What's a moment in your life where you had to take a bold leap when fear and doubt was present, but you did it anyway?

Oh, that's a great question. There's been quite a few times in my life. I'll talk about two because one's personal and one's in business. It may help the people. I had a friend and I hired them and They were doing a great job, so I thought. I had a property management division. I was taking care of 72 houses and making money off of those homes. And unfortunately, she took the rent checks and put into her account. She took the mortgage checks, threw them away, sent the checks to the sellers, to them. And it's my fault. I wasn't watching the money. So please don't get that I'm blaming her. It was my fault. It taught me to watch my money. And I was doing really well. Only one day I woke up and you know what? I didn't have any money. It was all gone. I went to a program that night. I came out, my car was gone, and they called the police and the police said, oh, her car wasn't stolen, it was repossessed. Now everybody at that meeting got to hear it, right? It was not a fun time in my life. And I was fearful because I had 72 people I had to in my face. And I chose to not take out bankruptcy. Not against it. If you've done that, it's okay. I'm not judging. It just wasn't right for me. And I thought, how am I gonna pay all these people back? What am I gonna do? Well, I sold the 4 companies that I owned. I sold all the furniture. And of course, everybody heard the story. So it was pennies on the dollar. And I went back to selling, which I was good at. And I learned how to negotiate with those folks. But I had to keep that faith going constantly because the fear of would I be able to make it again. I was a single parent with 2 kids. And I have to tell you, there were nights that as I cried, I was fearful and I just kept praying to God, "Give me the faith. Give me the faith that I can pull this out. I know You're with me. I know You're walking beside me." Right now, you're probably even carrying me, yet I need to feel it more. I need to trust myself. I need to do it. Well, I got through it. And when I went into the bank one time to get a line of credit, he goes, "Oh, whatever you want." And I go, "What do you mean, whatever I want?" And he said, "Well, I'll need your financials for the file, yet everybody knows your character. Everybody knows that you paid everybody back. You don't think that word traveled too?" And so literally, it was the character that helped me. The second time was when the doctor calls me in and says, "Well, I wanna show you the X-rays." And I go, "Oh, just cut to the bottom line. I'm leaving town tomorrow. I need to know what's going on," right? And his assistant leaves the room and he says, "Well, let me show you." I go, "Don't show me, just tell me. I think I already know. Just tell me." And he goes, "Well, you have cancer." And I said, "No, you diagnosed me with cancer. I'm not gonna claim that into my life." His assistant comes in with a box of Kleenexes. And I said, "Unless those are for you, get them out of this room. I'm not going there. What do we have to do? Let's move forward." Now, at that moment, I had faith. I knew that God was in charge. I knew he would take over. And yet now my son, his wife had passed away of cancer. And I've got to tell you, the fear of telling my son what was happening to me and that I was going to go in for surgery. I got to tell you, CJ, that was the hardest part. I had so much fear around telling him because I didn't know how he was going to accept it. Even though he's a holistic doctor, he knows all this stuff. We still have emotions. We're still human.

Yeah.

And that fear, it engulfed me. I mean, that night I could hardly sleep because of that fear. And even though I had faith that I'd make it through, I had faith and I'm still doing my treatments and all of that. And I keep that faith alive for me. Now, when I told him, he accepted it. Everything was fine. We prayed together, the whole bit. And so a lot of our fear is for nothing. I think that that fear is put into our brain to keep us from being great, from being the person that we were meant to be. And I have a saying, fear or faith, you choose. You can't have them both at the same time. Yet fear is so easy to grab hold of because our brain wants to go to the negative. Our brain wants to believe the bad over the good. Yet that unconscious mind of ours, that mindset that God has given us, we got to work on that every day because that's where the faith is going to come from. Going to the good word that we can read over and over again, the scriptures on healing. What? How do we live our life to accept that healing? That the lady that grabs hold, just touches his garment, and she knows she'll be healed. How do we have that kind of faith? It's something we have to work on, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, you always have to work on it, you know. And yeah, and as you say, she say, if I could just touch the hem of his garment, I'd be healed. It's just that because we know who we believe in, regardless of because it said she had the issue of blood for 12 long years. Can you imagine having issues of blood for 12 years straight? That you just losing blood, but you still have the fortitude to say, you know, if I could just touch his hand, you know, I haven't seen, but I've heard what he's done. And so like you were saying, we can read it, you know, this is our text. The Bible say, uh, basic instructions before leaving Earth. These are basic instructions because he said that the heavens and the earth shall pass away.

And you know what's interesting? It tells us so much. Like, our brain has this one part, the reticular activating system, and it's like our Google search engine, right? When I put in something into Google, it shows me only what I ask for. It doesn't show me everything on the World Wide Web. And our eyes can only see and our ears can only hear what our brain tells it to. So we have to tell it what to look for. And what you're reminding me of, Haggard, when she's in the desert and she knows she's with her son and she's dying of thirst, and she believes she's dying of thirst. She has the fear of dying of thirst. And it says God opened her eyes and she saw the well. It doesn't say he made a well and provided a well for her. It says he opened her eyes. And I think as leaders and for ourselves, we have to open our eyes to see what's out there so we can have the faith. Because when we start telling ourselves that the opportunities, that the possibilities, that whatever it is that we desire is out there, show it to me, I believe it's there, I'm going to look for it, then we find it. Because opportunities are never lost. They're always found by somebody else, right?

Yeah. As you saying that, this year be my 10-year anniversary for my book, Both Eyes Open and Both Eyes Shut. And so I've been working on a campaign to do that. Plus, I want to release another book, Faith Through Trials. These that we're talking about right now, I want to release it on the same day. So same day. So I want to do a big campaign and things for that. So I'm working on that now. But as you said, I was thinking about something as I was going through my questions and rearranging this this the other day. A lot of times, because they say, well, CJ, what do both eyes open and both eyes shut mean? It means that a lot of times, just like Diana just explained, a lot of times we have our eyes closed to the things that we need to see, but we have them open to the things that we may not need to see. You know, like things that's going on in society, or television, reality TV. I'm all in. A lot of the stuff that's on social media, you know, I'm all in. But these may be things that I don't really need to see, but it's things that my appetite desires. It's things that I yield to. When we talking about sin, they say that sin— it's not temptation that is the sin, it's yielding to the temptation that's the sin. And so by me seeing this all the time, I'm enticed and I get entangled with these things. So we see things that we may not need to see, but we have our eyes shut to, as you just said with Hey Guy, in the desert with us, so with Abraham's son, that the well was right there. Yeah, but she was blinded to it, you know what I'm saying, until she opened up her mind and began seeing things clearly. So a lot of times we have our eyes closed to the very thing that we actually need in life, you know what I'm saying? We have them closed. And what we have our eyes closed to, CJ, to God. We have our eyes shut to God. We don't see the greatness. We don't see the grace that he provides for us every day. We don't see the things that he has elevated us to. We ain't thankful for a lot of things. We don't see these things. And so that keeps us stuck on the other side. And then we wonder sometimes, why things going like this in my life? Or things can be going so good and then all of a sudden the bottom just drops out, you know what I'm saying? And then you get into a stupor. You don't know what to do because Hey, you gotta open up your eyes to something greater than you. That's the bottom line.

You know, I think I love what you just said. We have to open our eyes up to something greater than ourselves. So good, so good.

So Diana, man, I really love this, uh, man. Uh, second time is always a charm. Not that the first time wasn't great, but see, we've got to know each other now, you know, we're a little more comfortable with each other.

So We can keep going.

So I got one more question before we get to the quickfire round.

Okay, here we go.

Okay, well, we're not there. One more question I need to ask you about your book, The Next Level of Becoming More. You accomplished so much, but I know you're always pushing for more. What's the next big challenge or evolution in your journey?

Oh my word, that's such a good question. Right now I am just enjoying, and I'm going to be growing it, the mentorship program that I'm doing with John Maxwell, where we do events. We have 3 events. It's only for 38 people. I keep my groups very small because I like that you get your questions answered, you get to know each other. And he does a call once a month. I do a call once a month. So that's been fun. And that mentorship program is growing. And I'm teaching people how I took a company from losing $1 million to making over $500 million. The second thing, though, that I just started going back into is coaching coaches, and I have a coaching blitz that's coming out, and it's not about information, it's about transformation, and it's setting up an entire coaching business where we give them all of the contracts that they can just take to their attorney and they can review. They've all done by attorneys for states and well ready to go. I've got all of the paperwork that they need and to teach them to actually go into business and start making hundreds of thousands of dollars their first year on how to coach on the models and systems. More importantly, how to take their people from their limitations to their greatness. I'm just so excited about it. It's like starting all over again from what I did after being a CEO. I thought I could retire. Oh, CJ, I traveled the world. I did all sorts of things, helping to teach values to kids through the John Maxwell Foundation. It's been a lot of fun, and I'm going to continue to do that. Yet I wanted to get back to work and help people become great again.

Yeah, that sounds great. That sounds great. And, you know, somebody— and I would just say this, and I thank you for sharing this with us— for somebody who, like, as you said, has 72 houses, getting rent from 72 people. That, like I said, I was doing good, CJ. Everything was good. And to have it all, you know what I'm saying, taken away in a blink of an eye. And say, don't boast and brag about tomorrow because we don't know what a day may bring. And for you, you know, the fortitude and the way that you stood strong on that, like you say, when you went into the bank, they said, oh, you good, because you held your head up high in spite of the discouragement and in spite of the whispers behind your back and the things that people would say, because people love to see you fall off your pedestal. I don't care who it may be, you know what I'm saying? And then when you go through something like that, Diana, because I know myself, see, I had a situation where I had to sell my car. This was probably about 3, 4 years ago. I had to sell my car. I had a nice Buick LaCrosse. Got into some financial situations with some child support.. And so they suspended my driver's license. So I had to pay this 10%, which was no small amount. And so I had to sell my car, you know. And that was one of the most— I would say, you know, because internally, people don't know how you feel internally, you know what I'm saying? Not basically what you think about what other people may say, but just what you go through, just the things that you have to go through and endure and stand strong because you know what happened. Then you can gradually start telling people after you get comfortable with it what happened, because now it may help someone. Like, man, I would— like you share what you said, I haven't shared this with a lot of people, you know, but it happens. I stood strong, I had that car there, now I have two cars now. So look at God, look at God.

You're right, at first you don't want anybody to know, and then that is the devious storyteller in our head. It just keeps chattering, right? Look at what you've done. Look at how stupid you are. Look at what's happened to you all because of you, right? And you're going, oh, please shut up. Yeah, don't talk to me. We're talking to ourselves.

Exactly.

Keep that storyteller. Yeah, the fulfillment, right?

You know, it's a song because when we go through something like that, a lot of people don't even know, even people that's you know, even close to you, around you, you just don't know the internal feeling that that person has, you know what I'm saying, that you're going through. And so it was a song back in the day, it say, encourage yourself, because a lot of times we, like you say, we talking to ourselves. You have to begin encouraging yourself in the midst of, in the midst of your trials, in the midst of your tribulations. You have to begin encourage yourself. And if you trust in God, God said that he would never leave you nor forsake you. Sometimes some things have to happen for us to open our eyes up. So that, that happened to Diana. So now not only has it happened to her, she's overcoming, but she can help others not even go that route, man. God is good. So Diana, yes, yes, I'm ready. Are you ready for this quick fire rapid round? Yeah, 5 questions, answer the first thing that comes to your mind. Relax, go Who's that boy? Who's that? Okay, so let's get started. What's something you believed 5 years ago that you no longer believe today?

Oh, that I could change people. Success was maybe primarily about hard work and perseverance. That would be another one, right?

Like I say at work, you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink.

You can feed them salt and make them thirsty, CJ.

Oh, that's a good one. I like that one. I like that one. I'm gonna add that on. Uh, if you had to start over from scratch today, what's the first thing you'll do?

Well, I am kind of starting over from scratch. Uh, the first thing I would do is pray. The second thing I would do is build relationships with the right people.

That's a good one. Something that I'm trying to do right now. That's why I got you on here for the second time, because we have built a great relationship. Uh, What's the number one underrated success habit people ignore?

Oh, the number one underrated success habit is work on themselves.

Mm, we talked about that. Work on yourself. Look at that person in the mirror and see what flaws you have so you can work on yourself so you can be like Diana and go out there and help others. And her mentor, her buddy, John Maxwell. Just had to throw that out there for a minute. I'm talking to a lady who is connected to John Maxwell. Y'all got on the CJ Moneyway Johnson Show not once but twice. Hey, so, uh, Diana, if you can give your younger self one bold piece of advice, what would it be?

What you focus on expands. So focus on the good, focus on the great. And you've only got 3 choices in life: give up, give in, or give it all you got. So give it all you got.

Give it all you got. It was a song. I ain't no singer. Say, give it all you got. Don't give in. Give it all you got. Hey, so Diane, the last one. You done great. You done great. See, you was nervous for nothing. One word that describes the next chapter of your life.

Amazing. I don't like the word unbelievable. I almost used it because after all, if somebody does it, why is it unbelievable? I would say amazing beyond belief.

Amazing. I got a song for that too. Say, you're so amazing, so amazing. Yeah, I love that song. You know, when I published my book in 2015 and I got out of church that day after the guy texted me, I got out of church that day and that song was playing in my radio in my car, and I played that song all the way to my mother and father's house to tell them like, oh, I got my book published today. That was 2015, November 15, 2015. I'll never forget that day. So amazing. And so, wow, what a powerful conversation with Diana Special K. If today's episode sparked anything in you, don't just sit on it. Take action if you haven't already. Grab a copy of Becoming More. You can't get to better until you get to different, because transformation starts with one decision. And as always, if you love this episode, subscribe, rate, and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favorite podcast. Your feedback helps us keep bringing you the best minds in business leadership and grow. Big things are on the horizon. Stay tuned for GI, the state's capital. We'll be breaking it down on Plant Seeds with CJ, so follow @CJMoneyway Johnson for more exclusive updates. Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and become more every single day. See you in the next episode. This your boy CJ Moneyway Johnson with my girl Diana. We out of here. Peace. Keep your faith sharp, keep your focus steady, keep your vision clear. And if this episode gave you wisdom, hope, or a push forward, share it with somebody you love.

Tap in with me on all platforms, @corwincjmoneyway, and stay locked into the movement. Because God's not done writing your chapter. This is the CJ Moneyway Show. Brick by brick. And always— Moneyway.

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