Finding A Better Way To Ignite Lives With JB Owen

Welcome to beyond you'd why Podcast, where we go beyond just talking about your why and actually help you discover and then live your why. You see, we believe that knowing your why, that driving force behind every decision you make and every action you take, is the essential first step to really knowing yourself. It allows you to move forward faster and have a bigger impact. If you're already a fan of the show, then you know that every week we talk about one of the nine whys and then we introduce you to somebody with that why so you can see how their why has played out in their life. This show will be more powerful for you if you've already discovered your why. If you still need to do that, head over to whyinstitute.com and discover your why today. It'll only take you about five minutes. Now let's meet today's guest.

Welcome to beyond you'd why Podcast, where we go beyond just talking about your why and actually helping you discover and then live your why. So if you're a regular listener, you know that every week we talk about one of the nine whys and then we bring on somebody with that why so you can see how their why has played out in their life. And so this week we're going to be talking about the why of Better way. So if this is your why, then you are the ultimate innovator and you are constantly seeking better ways to do everything. You find yourself wanting to improve virtually anything by finding a way to make it better. You also desire to share your improvement with the world. You constantly ask yourself questions like what if we tried this differently? What if we did this another way? How can we make this better? You contribute to the world with better processes and systems while operating under the motto I am often pleased but never satisfied. You are excellent at associating, which means that you are adept at taking ideas or systems from one industry or discipline and applying them to another. Always with the ultimate goal of improving something. So today I have got a great guest for you. Her name is JB Owen. JB is a fearless female leader and a believer in the power of empowerment. JB's true focus is on helping others, which is why she started Ignite Publishing, the leader in empowerment publishing in 2018. She's a world class speaker, 17 time best selling author and powerful business owner. She has published over 700 authors, turning them into international bestsellers. She combines purpose, passion and possibility in everything she does. JB is truly inspirational, motivational and transformational in the way she teaches and empowers others. JB welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so, so much. What a beautiful intro. And thank you for having me.

Tell us a little bit about where you live.

Well, I like to say my furniture is in Canada. I've been traveling for years, but I am right now in the west side of Canada and we are experiencing a tiny little bit of snow. We're pretty lucky that it's the end of November. We only got a bit of snow, but I am enjoying the Rocky Mountains of Alberta, Canada.

Awesome. Okay, so take everybody through. Tell us, how did you get to where you are now? Where did you grow up? What were you like in high school? Where did you go to school? And how did you get into publishing?

Oh my gosh. Okay, I'll quickly tell you the story. Grew up in a small town, 70,000 people, I guess not that small, but was felt small to me. Was always sort of an outcast, you know, was, you know, dressing in ways that didn't really fit into the town, doing things, challenging the status quo, planning things, making all kinds of stuff happen. Really, the town did not understand me at all. So 11 days after I graduated, I moved to Vancouver. I started working in the film and fashion business. I started my own company right out of college and I've been in film and fashion ever since. And interestingly enough, when I had my first child, I started a great clothing company, did that for quite a few years, and then had that great self implosion that many of us have when we entrepreneur ourselves right out of a, right out of a marriage and right out of our health and all of that. And so really took a couple of years to ground myself, get focused, and I started writing, I started telling stories. I'd always been making products and developing things. So it was just a natural progression for me to get into publishing, working with private clients, and now has grown into this incredible business of ignite.

Now let's go back a little bit. So in high school you were that kid that was a little bit different, huh? What is that? So for those of you that are listening and cannot see us, JB has what color hair?

Platinum.

Platinum. Okay, I want to make sure I say it right. And do you change your hair color quite often or no?

Well, I've always been platinum since I was 16. I say some people are born blonde and some people are born to be blonde. And so yes, I mean my, I have been, you know, dyeing my hair platinum since I was 17. Big jewelry, big earrings, you know, big lipstick, loving life, always love fashion, always love clothes. When I was A teenager. I had purple hair and pink hair, and I had handcuffs on my boots and leopard pants, and I was just way out there. And in a small town in the prairies where everyone is a farmer, it was just a really, really shocking thing. In fact, people would phone my parents and say, I saw your daughter at the mall, and she was wearing Da da da. It was shocking to them. But I wanted to be in fashion, and I wanted to be in, you know, in theater, and I wanted to be walking this Paris Runway, and I just wanted to be out there doing stuff. And so much more than what my small town had to offer.

JB discovered not only her why, but her how and her what. And so her why is better way, and her how is challenge, which explains so much of what we just heard. How she does it is by challenging the way things are done and doing things differently. And ultimately, her what. What she brings is the right way to get results. The structure, process, systems around getting predictable results. And so when you. When you discovered that jb, what did that feel like to you?

My gosh, your process was phenomenal. Like, it really, really, really touched my heart. Like, I felt verklempt a little bit because I was like, it understands me so well. This is exactly who I am. And it was just beautiful to read it and see. Like, yes, that's what I do, and that's what I'm really good at, and that's what I really love doing. And sometimes people, you know, they chastise you and they give you a hard time for the way you do things. Especially people like me, who want to find the better way, who want to find it a better way again, who keep going at it, who are never satisfied. But it was just so rewarding to read it and just be like, yes, that's exactly me. Exactly me.

And it's okay to be you, right?

Well, I love being me. And it's taken me a while. I'm in my 51st year and my 51st dimension, I call it. And it's taken me a while, but I will say, yeah, growing up, growing up with the name jb, growing up from a small town, growing up wanting to be in fashion, you know, growing up wanting to be in the movies and doing things like that. It was a challenge. And interestingly enough, I worked for 15 years in the film business, and my job, you know, what it was? It was continuity director. So I was in charge of all the little. You know, if the purse string was on the left side in this scene, it had to be on the left side and the other scene and the button had to be done up and everything had to be perfect. And I loved it because I always was seeing how to make it better, how to fix it, how to tweak it, how to make it just a little bit better. And so your gift often can be your curse. But I've always enjoyed just really having that creative mind to like, how do we improve the process? How do we make it better, how do we make it more enjoyable?

And what did you like about fashion and movies and why was that so intriguing to you?

Well, probably because I'm a Gemini, so I love that diversity. But I think the idea of fantasy and creativity and limitlessness and possibilities, so I just love that. And you know, that's so much what I teach now is what's possible, what's, what's capable, what we can do and what's not been done before. And so television and movies and, and designing things, it was always pushing the limits on what hasn't been done before.

I love that. So you went as far as you, what was the, the turning point to say, I think it's time for me to move on from this.

I wanted to have kids, so it's time for me to be a mom. And so I just, I actually knew this was going to be my last film. I did my last film with Dwayne. I had a great experience. I knew I was going to get married that fall. I was going to be pregnant by the next year. Like that's what better way people do, right? We plan these things. So I had my kids and within five months of my son, I thought, wow, like boys really get ripped off when it comes to clothing. And there's nothing out here for like UV protection and why isn't there better rain gear? And within a very short time I had developed an entire kid's clothing line. And within four years I was selling in over 60 countries, 600 stores and had made a million dollar in just a short time because I wanted to find a better way for kids and boys, especially UV protection, all those things. So that was the turning point in my film career.

You know, I wonder if having the why of better way kind of equates almost to no fear. You know, it's like you should have been scared of that. You're a stay at home mom now. What are you doing? Starting a clothing clothing, Going to China.

Doing business on my own. Like showing up in China, a woman, a platinum blonde woman showing up in China a foot and a half taller than Everybody else, they picked me up at the airport with a sign that always said Mr. Owen. And I would just laugh because it was just so unheard of of women going to Asia to do business. You know, 20 years ago, that was just not. Not something people did. And there was no fear. In fact, just recently, and I haven't told you this story, but my husband and I cycled 6,500 kilomet, the top of the world highway, in Alaska this summer. And I said to him, like, let's cycle to the top of the world highway. And he said, well, what if we. And I go, I'm going to tell everybody. I'm going to tell everybody. I'm going to put on social media. I'm going to announce it today. And he's like, what if you fail? And I was like, I literally had to stop and think, like, fail. There is no fail. Like, if I cycle 10 kilometers, it's not. I didn't fail. Like, I'm going to get as far as I get. That's never a failure. And so it was really interesting to me because there is this idea that people are like, how, you know, what if you fail? What if it's not possible? What if you can't do it? And I really feel like I've been put on this planet to show people it is possible. You can do it. There is. It's always possible. And maybe you have to take some U turns and some course correction, but you absolutely are going to get exactly where you're meant to get to and.

Where you're meant to get to. Is that always where you envisioned?

No. No, it's not. And that's the exciting part. And I think when you surrender and you let go and you say, okay, I know I'm on this journey and here's my destination that I think I want to get to. But the process of letting go and understanding that the universe actually wants more for you than you even know what's possible, and you let yourself weave through that journey, you end up in the most fascinating places. When my children were 8 and 11, I took them out of school and traveled for a year. We went to 11 countries in 12 months. And all we did was raise money for charity. And we always got on the wrong bus, and we always ended up in the wrong place, and we always met different people and the times. But the thing is, what was so fascinating was we always ended up meeting the right and perfect people and taking the right and perfect detour and ending up in the right and perfect place. And when we look back on it, it was so, so, so beautiful and so magical. And I think that has led to my publishing house where I help people tell those stories, those amazing stories of those pivotal moments in their life where at one point it could have felt like the worst moment ever. You were down on your knees, knocked upside the head. But the truth is, in hindsight, it actually was the silver lining. It was the golden nugget. It was absolutely the path you were meant to take. And by looking at it in hindsight and reassigning a meaning to it, you now tell the story in a way that it benefits others and it really makes a difference for people.

And so what got you into writing? What was the moment that you said, I got to write, I got to write a book?

Well, I was a latchkey kid when I grew up. And my mom was a very, very successful businesswoman. And I would take the bus to, from school to her office and then I would sit in her office and wait for her to finish work until I could go home with her. And her secretary would always leave and I would sit and plunk away on her secretary's typewriter and write. The woe is me of JB having to sit here being a latchkey K and not being able to go home. And 7 o' clock at night and I still haven't eaten. And so I would like pour out my, like my, you know, my mid junior high angst on my mom's secretary's typewriter. But I always loved storywriting because it was an opportunity for me to escape into fantasy. And it was allowing me to like, think of things that had never been done before. But I will tell you, after my successful kids clothing company, I did crash and burn. I did go through that very, very difficult time of reassigning entirely my meaning. And your point? Why was I doing what I was doing? I would go to China five to six times a year. I'd spend 20 to 25 days in Asia away from my kids. And I remember coming home eight days before Christmas. I'd been gone for three weeks and I opened up the door, no one was there to pick me up at the airport. I took a taxi to my house and when I opened the door, I could hear my kids laughing with the nanny. They were three and five at the time. And you know what? I was jealous. I was jealous that they were having fun with the nanny. And instead of saying hello to them, I snuck up to the guest room, which I had been sleeping in for two years because my Husband and I weren't getting along. And I convinced myself it was okay to go to bed that night without seeing my kids. I was like, mommy's been on a 13 hour flight. She'll see them in the morning. In the middle of the night, my daughter woke up in her crib and she started calling the nanny's name. And I knew right there and then that everything I was doing, I needed to change. Not one thing. I needed to change every single thing. Every single thing in my life had to change, including my why. Why was I making kids clothes? Why was I running around the world talking about kids clothing and health for kids and functional clothing for kids, and my own kids didn't even, wouldn't even call me in the middle of the night. And so my why completely shifted. And I went on a two year sabbatical. I closed my business 90 days after that moment. I sold everything. I walked away. I left $780,000 worth of stock in a warehouse. I took my van and my kids. I left my marriage. I started over. I started completely redefining my why. Why was I doing what I was doing? And, and that was probably the day one of the road to the JB that you see today.

Wow. And so what was that like? What did you do to rebuild yourself? What did you do to get to know yourself? How did you redevelop jb?

Well, I'll be honest. It's truly so simple. Know thyself. I mean, I, I went deep within. I did meditate, I went to Sedona, I went in a silent retreats, I did health, all kinds of practitioner, like, you know, Reiki. And I tried everything. Drumming circles and painting and dancing and sleeping and, and, and writing. Like, I just went through every single thing. What did I like? What didn't I like? What was interesting to me, what was important to me? What, you know, everybody was doing this. I didn't think that was cool. Everybody thought this was amazing. That wasn't for me. And I just really started discovering what do I like? What is my, I call it currency of success. Because as a businesswoman for many, many years, I was dialed into what was important to men. I thought, oh, this is successful in the corporate office, in the corner thing and the briefcase and dah, dah, dah, dah. And I had to really define what was success to me. A woman, you know, in my 40s, two kids, this kind of experience living in this town. Da, da, da da. What was my currency of success? And so I really went into a deep introspection of me and finding out me and getting to know me and loving me and understanding me and then accepting why I do what it is I do.

And what did you find as your currency of success?

Well, I really, really love showing people that it is possible. My currency of success is that if I can do it, you can do it. And if I got to do it first to show you that it is possible, I am totally going to do the work. I am going to do the work. I love doing the work. I love putting in the grind. I love going after it. I love dissecting what is currently done and how do we do it better. And so I felt that if I could be me, 100% me, show up in total authenticity, tell my story to the world, and let people know that it is okay to do exactly the same thing so that they feel the greatest version of themselves. That was my mission. That was what I was going to get passionate about. And I have been doing it now for the last five years. And I love it. Like, I literally think I have the best job in the world. I love waking up every day. I love throwing back the covers at 4am and getting going. People think it is crazy, but I just. I love it because I really believe that we are a mirror for the people around us, closest to us and, you know, from a distance. And if we can be a mirror for them to see what's possible in them, if we can be the catalyst, if we can inspire them in a way that they haven't seen before by us being our authentic selves, that will create a big and massive shift. Me being the fake JB or me being the business JB or me being the power, you know, stereotypical, like, you know, kind of bitchy version of a female business owner. That was all a stereotype. That was all something that was planted as a seed in me instead of me just being authentically me. It takes so much less work to be yourself. It takes so much less effort. You don't have to think as much. You just get to be you. Show up as you. It's way more fun. And as a Gemini and as a person who loves the better way, it's got to be fun or I'm not doing it.

It's funny. I'm a Gemini in a better way, too.

So, you know, it's got to be fun, right? Or we're not doing.

So let me see if this resonates with you, because I love what you said. You said, if I can do it, you can do it. Because I believe that too. But what I also add to that, if they can do it, I can do it. And if I can do it, you can do it. Because I will see somebody doing it. I said, what the heck? If they can do this, then I am sure I can do it. Do you notice that as well?

Absolutely. I mean, there are so many people out there doing amazing things, and they inspire me. What you have done has inspired me. Your program, your protocol, has totally inspired me. And so I think that's the lifting of the lid that we all have to go through, is that it is possible, there is another option, there is other ways of doing it. And when we surround ourselves with people who are challenging that it lifts our lid and allows us to see things that maybe we didn't see before from our past conditioning. I'd never be the JB I am today if I kept being the JB that was born in a small town and, you know, da, da, da, da, like, if I kept that story going. And I think, again, my publishing house is so much about. We often root ourselves in our story. We can't do this because of where we came from or who our parents were. We weren't smart enough or thin enough or rich enough. And so that story goes with us as we travel through our lives. And it isn't until we actually tell our story and see it from that bird's eye view from that new, updated version. The new version of JB is not necessarily the version of JB that left this town, but funnily enough, I've returned to this town. My mom recently had a stroke, so I'm back here. And then Covid has kept me here. And it's interesting that I sometimes bump into some schoolmates or some friends or people of my parents, friends who know me, and they still think I'm that same person. And I have to chuckle because it is hard sometimes for people to see you for who you really are. And so I was reading in some of your notes, you said, you know, what's the best advice anyone has ever given or you have given? And, you know, for me, it's always be who you want to be known for. Be the person you want to be known for. When my son came here, he was starting a new school. He's like, mom, I'm really nervous about starting school tomorrow. And I said, what are you nervous? He's like, well, I don't know if the kids are going to like me, and I don't know what everyone's going to think. And I said, you know what? Why don't you just be you? Like, be you and be the person you want to be known for? If you want to be known for the class clown, be that. If you want to be known for the athlete, be that. If you want to know for the intellect, be that. But be who you want to be known for. Don't be who you think they think you are, and don't be who you think you think you should be. Be who you want to be known for. If you want to be known for you, then be that. And I think that's the best advice that I've been able to give anyone. And I. I try to live it every day. Whenever I struggle with a choice, it's like, what do I want to be known for? Do I want to be known for the person who made this decision or this decision? Do I want to be known for the person who runs this kind of business or lives this kind of life? What do I want to be known for? And I think that really, really allows us to step into our greater version of ourselves.

That's awesome. You know, I was listening this week to a speech by Steve Jobs, and in it he says, you cannot connect the dots looking forward. You can only connect the dots looking backwards. And that's what you were talking about, right? I mean, you don't know where you're going to end up. And again, I wonder if that's a better way thing, because I feel the same way. I have an idea of where I want to go, but along the way, who knows where we're going to end up? And I doubt that I'm going to end up where I thought I was going. But it's going to be a fun journey along the way. And then when I get there, I can look back and connect the dots. Oh, that's why I talked to this person and saw this and missed that flight and did this and all those other things.

Right.

So you can only connect the dots looking back, not looking forward. Does that make sense?

Yeah, it is so true. And again, we don't know what the masters have at work for us. Even this morning, I was writing. I'm doing a new book called Wisdom for the Back of a Bike, and it's about my cycle ride. And we had a plan to get to the other side of Canada to dip our toe in the Atlantic Ocean. And of course, Covid stopped us along the way because they were not letting people into the Atlantic provinces with the Atlantic bubble. And so we looped around Canada and ended up being at the Parliament building, we decided we were going to make the Parliament buildings in Ottawa be our final destination. That was going to be our 5,000 kilometers. And it was a really, really a beautiful experience. It was so full of accomplishment and pride and all of that. Funnily enough, that very day was the very first time they were ever going to allow public speaking on Parliament Hill and have an open mic. And so, because of everything that was happening in Covid and just the way that things were unfolding in politics, they decided to have an open mic, first time ever on Capitol Hill in Parliament. And so I, like, threw my hand up and put my name on the list to be one of the speakers. My kids were mortified. They were just totally couldn't believe that their mom was going to talk. And in my cycling gear and my little running and my cycling cleats, I went up on stage and I started to say, like, I am JB and I just cycled 5,000 km across Canada, and I want to tell people that anything is possible. And it was a glorious experience because when I was 11 years old, I promised my social studies teacher that I would one day speak in Parliament. And then I thought, well, here we go. The universe has wrapped this whole dream around, you know, 25, 30 years later. But I had no idea that not dipping my toe in the Atlantic Ocean would lead to me being on Parliament Hill, speaking to thousands of people and talking about what's possible.

That's awesome. Okay, so what was your first book?

So, my very first book I wrote in 2003. It was called Letters from My Mother. And interestingly enough, I had a difficult relationship with my mom when I was in my teenage years. And I ended up leaving college and going to the Dominican Republic because it was about as far away as I could get from her on the cheapest ticket I could find. And I lived in the Dominican for three years. And the fascinating part of that was that I thought I had everything growing up in Canada from a very, you know, affluent family, but I realized I had nothing. And those people in the Dominican had nothing. They lived in shacks and dirt floors, but they had everything because they had their dignity and they had their faith, and they had each other and they had a family. And so while I was away, I started writing letters to my mom to heal my relationship with her. I wrote her 200 letters over the three years. She never wrote me back. But when I came home, I had such a beautiful relationship with her. I had worked through so many of my problems by writing her letters that I was inspired to write a book about how adult daughters and mothers can heal their relationships. So there we go, finding a better way on how you can heal relationships. So that was my first book in 2003.

And so you wrote how many books until you decided you were going to start publishing or a publishing company?

Yeah, so I wrote that single book, and then I wrote about four books that just sat on the shelf and didn't go to print. And then one day in 2018, I was sitting in a conference, and there was a bunch of people up on stage telling their stories. And many of them were crying and sort of losing, you know, sort of their, Their, Their. Their resolve because they were telling these really emotional stories. But the fascinating thing is when they got off stage, people were hugging them and stepping out, you know, off the front row and embracing them and welcoming them. And throughout the week, the conference, people became so close because they told their private, personal stories on stage. They really became vulnerable and authentic. And I sat in the audience thinking, you know, we really have something here. Every single person on the planet wants to be seen, and everyone has a story, and everyone deserves to be heard. And I thought if we could tell the stories in a way that showed the transformation and showed the growth and showed the learning, we could really, really make a difference. Because no matter what color you are, no matter what gender you are, no matter where you live, no matter how much is in your wallet, you can relate to the human experience, that hero's journey between, do I become a victim or a villain, or do I take the hero's journey and I go for what's better in my life? And so that was really the moment, the ignite moment, where I realized I have to be the person to help people tell their stories. I have to make a difference. And the difference I'm going to make is giving everyone a platform to tell their beautiful and amazing transformational story. Now, I too, had a story because after I divorced my first husband, I got into another relationship, was very abusive. That relationship was very short. But I hid that story for a long time because I was embarrassed of it. And that hiding of that story really kept me down. It really held me back because I was always afraid were going to find out that I made such a bad decision. And it wasn't until I started telling that story that other women came out of the woodwork saying that they too had a similar experience or they could relate or that they really appreciated me telling their story because it gave them the courage to tell their story. And so there was quite a process of me realizing how powerful storytelling is. And now 700 stories later, you know, multiple international best selling books with hundreds of thousands of people who've read our stories. I realize how valuable the, the story, that genuine, heartfelt story is and how much it changes people, changes people's lives.

So tell us about your publishing company. What is it called and what is your, you know, who do you ideally like to work with?

Well, I call it Ignite, we call it Ignite Publishing. And really it really is about igniting lives. I love working with people who have a mission and a message and people who want to make an impact in others. I'm not the kind of publishing house where we just put words on a page, pages in a book, and books on a shelf. We really walk you through a transformational experience as a writer.

Especially when you're telling your own story. You toggle between the fun and the joy and the struggles and the pains and the sorrows and the agony, and then there's this incredible rewarding experience at the end. So I work with people who want to tell their story, who want to make an impact. I work with people who have a mission and they have a higher purpose. They want to do something that's going to benefit others. I strongly believe in the triple win. I win, you win, someone else wins, someone who read your story wins, someone they work with wins. And currently our books are all, all the proceeds from all of our books are going towards building schools in Cambodia for underprivileged kids. And so the triple win is now these kids get to find out what's possible for them and how to really step into their greatness. We just currently did a book with Les Brown all about greatness and igniting the hunger in you. And I'm just so passionate about the fact that these children who may not know what's possible for them, may not ever have that deep desire and that passion to go after their greatness, will now have an environment to do so. So that's really the whole thing that Ignite is all about.

So if I'm listening to this and I Are you looking for people that have a story but don't know how to tell it, or are you looking for people that are already established writers and are looking for a platform or tell us more about who you're looking for?

Well, I really love those people who want a better way to get to the experience. I like people who, they're potentially not authors, but they know they want to be authors. People who have a story and they want to write it, but they want to do it in the, you know, the most efficient, practical, rewarding, enjoyable, affordable, pleasurable way possible. You know, I like, I want it to be a maximum experience. It's people who want to be a part of a community. If you are in an Ignite book, you definitely step into a community of like minded people. Obviously every book has a theme and so you're, you're with people who are of your peers. And then you use the collaboration of the peers to obviously elevate and encourage and create great partnerships that are going to benefit you and the whole purpose of the book. So I'm always looking for people who have a story. I'm looking for people who want to make an impact and then I'm looking for people who understand that there's these incremental ways to do things. And I help you get to the finish line because there's a lot of people who don't know how to get to the finish line. And it's no different than if I wanted to fly an airplane. I'd have to sit in the cockpit and someone would have to teach me how to use the dials. That's what we do. We do all the heavy lifting for you and we show you how to do it. So ultimately, because I want you to succeed, we ultimately show you how you can do it with your own solo book and with your books to come. And so I really teach you the business of being an author.

Okay, so now I'm seeing a little bit different, a little better. Because again, if you're not watching in the background behind JB are Ignite Recovery, Ignite. A couple others. I can't quite read them.

Female Leaders Ignite Women Ignite Health and Wellness.

Okay, so they are like a group book, correct?

Yes.

Okay, I see. So it'd be like a theme. And then if you have a story about recovery or a story about health or a story about different things, then you would go in that particular book with a group of other authors. Similar.

Yes, exactly. So our new book coming out is Ignite youe Wisdom. And so it's all about Ignite stories around wisdom. So these are people who are thought leaders and people who are inventors and people who are into mindset. And people have had incredible experiences where something has opened up their lid and really evolved their thinking and broke down their limiting beliefs. And so they're obviously people who are in that mind space or in that marketplace. And so they want to write a book that actually has Other people doing the same thing. That would attract a customer that wants the answers to that problem.

So we get multiple stories per book.

Yeah. And action steps. So every single author puts not just their story, but then they put in the action steps that they took to get themselves there. And again, better way person. I'm like, okay, give me the baseline bottom line. What do I need to do consistently every day to get myself to success? And so every single author writes their action steps at the end of their story.

I love that. So, jb, if there's somebody that's listening and they say, boy, I really want to connect with jb. I want to learn more about her books. I want to write a book. I want to be part of this, how does somebody. What's the best way to get in touch with you?

Thank you. Absolutely. Come to ignite you life. Ignite you Life is our website. You can go there. You can always find me on Facebook. I'm the only jb. Ow. And on Instagram. And I'd love for you to just reach out to me directly. I'm so accessible because I believe. I believe like a magnet, all the right imperfect people come to me to tell their story. And when somebody steps into my viewfinder, into my world, I know that they're ready. I know that this is their time. And they just need me to help, as I said, be the midwife, to sort of move them through the process and so easy to find me. Ignite you life. Where you can go to Amazon and see all of our books are in a series, and you can reach out to us that way and you can get our books on our website. So please reach out to me. I'd love to help you share your story.

I love it. You know, I didn't ask you the most obvious question, and that is, what does JB stand for?

It's such a great story. So it's all I got. It's all my parents gave me. When I was born in the small town, my mom was not allowed to leave the hospital without giving me a name. But my dad happened to be in Mexico racing riverboats. And so my mom put J, period, B period, on the birth certificate, thinking that when my dad came back, they would call me Julie or Barbara or Brenda. So for the whole month he was away, they called me baby JB because they didn't know what my name was going to be. And so when my dad came home after being in Mexico, he said, jb, that's cool. Let's just go with that.

Well, now we know.

Jb, thank you so much for taking the time to be here. It's been awesome talking to you. I love what you're doing. I'm excited to read your books and hopefully there are people that are listening that are right in line with what you want to do and they'll connect with you because you've got a great mission. And I'm excited for us to stay in touch as we move along.

Yes. Thank you. And I would just love to reward your authors. I love giving things away. So if they would DM me or send something to me and put the word why or that we talked on this podcast, I happily will send anyone a link to any one of our books so that they can read the stories and be inspired. And I would love to just gift them a book for free so that they can enjoy it.

I love it. Thanks, jb. Thank you for being here.

Absolutely. Thank you. You've been a treat to speak with. You're just a blessing. I can't wait to just go forward. Knowing the why so clearly. It's beautiful.

Thank you.

So it's time for our new segment, which is Guess the why. And for this one, I want to pick Elvis Presley. What do you think Elvis Presley's why is right? The King. When you think about his life and you think about the journeys that he's gone on and how he was an unknown and then very successful and then kind of went off the deep end a little bit and then ended up a different person in a different place with a different set of struggles before he passed away. What do you think Elvis Presley's why is? I'm going to guess that his why is to challenge the status quo, to think differently. You know, when he came along, even the way he danced right was different. Everything about him was different. He created so much new and brought it to the forefront and brought it to so many people around the world. He just did things differently and people loved it and loved him. So what do you think is wise? I'd be curious to see what you think. I want to thank you for listening. If you have not yet discovered your why, listening to these podcasts, knowing your why will be so much more powerful for you. So go to why institute.com you can use the code podcast50 and discover your why for half price. If you love the beyond, you'd why Podcast. Please don't forget to subscribe below and leave us a review or rating on whatever platform you are using to listen to our podcast. Thank you so much and I'll see you and you'll hear me next week. Have a great week.

I really hope you enjoyed today's episode and that through today's guest, you heard how important it is to know your why and how impactful it can be in your life and the lives of those around you. Be sure to head over to whyinstitute.com and discover your why today. Remember the the more you know about yourself, the more you'll know about others. I'm Dr. Gary Sanchez and I'll see you on the next episode.