The WHY Of Better Way: Breaking Through To Your Ignite Moment With JB Owen

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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.

I am so excited to share with you Today's guest, Lady J.B. owen. In the last three years, she has ridden her bike with her husband on a tandem bike across Canada to the tip of Alaska. And she's going to ride soon from Canada down to Cabo. And the journeys that she's taken has taught her so many life lessons that she's going to share with you in this episode. Now, she's written more than 27 books. She's helped over 700 authors write their books, and you're going to learn so much from her today about finding a better way, challenging the status quo, and developing systems and processes that work to get predictable and consistent results. You're going to love her. This is going to be a great episode. 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. So this week we are going to be revisiting one of our previous guests and her why is 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 to make it better. You also desire to share your improvement with the world. You constantly ask yourself questions like, what if we did 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'm 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 a great example of that. Her name is JB Owen and she 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 who is committed to raising the vibration of the planet and igniting a billion lives. Through Ignite, she is motivated by the opportunity to assist individuals in breaking through their limiting beliefs to experience their own ignite moment, which changes their perspective and positively alters the course of their life. She has published over 700 authors, turning them into international bestsellers in over 13 countries, with Ignite Publishing books reaching number one in 197 categories. Her gift is to ignite people to share their story and build their brand. She also owns Ignite, Moments Media, JBO Global and Lotus Liners. She combines purpose, passion and possibilities in everything she does, exemplifying a new paradigm of what's possible. JB motivates and inspires her clients to impact others and ignite humanity. Jb, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you so much. I'm sort of snickering a little bit because I gotta update that bio because we're at like 26 time international bestselling author. We're in 222 different categories. I mean, we're doing lots of fun things. But thank you for the blessed intro and thank you for having me back on the show because I love what you are doing.

Well, thank you so much. And that's why I wanted to have you back on the show because so much. We did the first one in 2021 and let's see, that's two years ago. So much I know has happened for you, for us as well, but let's dive into that. So since we last talked, you were on a bike ride, we'll call it. Tell us a little bit about that. Why did you do it? What was it? How long was it? How far did you go?

Well, in 2021, I cycled from Canada to Alaska on my bicycle. And you know, gary, last summer, 2022, I cycled Vancouver to Newfoundland, 79 days on my bike with my husband on our tandem for 10,000 kilometers. We're like, hey, if we're gonna do it, let's do it coast to coast. Let's do it a better way. Let's do it. Let's keep going. And so, yes, thank you very much for that. In fact, this summer, we're thinking of doing Canada to Cabo. Cycling all the way to Mexico. Yeah. We just can't stop. It's a lot of fun. And of course, every single time we do it, how can we do it better than the last time?

So why are you doing those?

Well, you know, it's fascinating. The very first time I did it was 2020. We were in Covid, and of course, the, you know, the government was saying, you have to stay home. You can't go out, you can't do anything. And I was like, are you kidding me? I'm not staying home. I'm not doing nothing. What do you mean? What are you. What are you talking about? That's. I don't have to stay home and I could go outside. And it was before sheltering in. It was when everybody was just sort of nervous and stay home. We don't know what's going on. I got on my bike with my husband and I said, you know, I need to people what's possible. We're so stuck on what we can't do. We're getting fearful about we're not allowed to do. I need to show people what's possible. But, you know, the truth is I needed to show myself what was possible. I gained some weight with COVID I was feeling the doldrums. I just turned 50. I was like, I need to do something epic. I need to see if it's possible. I'd never been a cyclist. I'd never been an athlete. Of course, I'd never cycled 5,000 kilometers. And so I just wanted to see if I could do it, and I wanted to show people I could. And that's how it all got started. Now we've been doing it four years in a row and 10,000 kilometers last year.

Okay? So for those of you that are listening, JB's why is to find a better way and share it. How she does that, as you just heard, is by challenging the status quo, right? Thinking differently. And ultimately what she brings is the right way to get results, the processes and systems around doing it. And so, perfect example, right? Found a better way to stay sane during this Covid that we had by challenging what people said you could do. And now you figured out the right process so that now you can do it every summer, right? Every time you. You want to go out and ride.

Even further and so absolutely, yeah, it's very much conditioning. Obviously it's mental, it's visualization. There's just a lot of it's, you know, I'm 52 now. I mean, I'm getting on a bike and I'm going to ride 6,000km through the heat down the Baja. I mean it's a mental game. There's so much of it. But I love what you have taught me because I really was felt validated when I took your quiz and got a part of your ecosystem. Because I do love to do things a better way. I do love to create systems. We are about to publish our 20th compilation book. Ignite youe Faith is coming out in June. And that, you know, when you put 35 authors into one book, when you publish 20 books in less than four years, you have to create a system. You have to improve it every time. You have to make sure that each and every time you do it, it's better than the next. And when you and I were chatting, I had a goal to do 12 bestsellers in 12 months. And I hit it. 13 bestseller, 12 bestseller and 13 months. I love pushing myself. How far can I go? How much can we do and how do we do it better ultimately so that everyone benefits?

Now have you always been that way?

If I've always been this much of a challenger, but I've always been this much of a push the enveloper, you know, I don't believe there's anything and no, I've never believed in. No. I remember a story when I was six years old. I wanted to have a Kool Aid stand, not a lemonade stand. Lemonade was like sour. Kool Aid was way better. There's that word, better. And my dad, dad was like, give your head a shake, you'll never be able to do it, you know. Went and got a wagon. I went and got a piece of plywood out of the garage. I put a tablecloth on, I pulled it over to the baseball diamond and I started selling kool aid at 6 years old. And when my dad said, give your head a shake, you know what I thought? You give your head a shake. Are you kidding? Like this is going to be a no brainer. I had the first food truck in my hometown, my little wagon. Because I was like, of course it's possible. What do you mean you can't do it? And I just always think that way. Every single time someone comes to me with a problem, there's this moment where I just look up and then I'm like, okay, Pivot. Okay. Figure it out. Okay. What's another thing? Okay, what's the solution? I have to tell you this story. I was in Vegas last week and went to an event, and a bunch of the ladies wanted to get their makeup done. And I was like, we should invent something called Lash and Dash, where you just go in, you get your eyelashes on, you're done, you're done in 20 minutes, boom. Let's start a business. Every hotel should have Lash and Dash. And then, of course, the weekend went on. We were all tired, our feet were sore. I'm like, we should have something called Scooper. It's like. It's like Uber. Inside the hotel, they come. They have a little. Like, a little trolley. They scoop you up, they take you to your room. You don't have to walk everywhere. I'm like. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, this dessert is so good. We should have whipped cream that is, like, pink and purple and strawberry. Like, why is whipped cream just white? Why isn't it banana flavored and red flavored? And all my friends are just laughing like, they can't. I can't even sit still for five minutes. It's like, let's do this. Let's do that. They should do this.

You gotta find something better, right? It's always about finding something that's better, taking something that's already there and making it better, improving upon it.

Right? Yeah. It drives my kids crazy.

Never satisfied.

It's true. And so you know what? Your gift is your curse, because it does. It is. It is insatiable. It is always like, you know, I have some OCD sometimes, because we should put the garbage in the garbage can a little bit better and then put the garbage can over here so it makes more sense. So when you close the door. And so there are these moments when it is a little bit annoying to the rest of the world, but it's at the same time, it's a gift. As an. As an editor and a publisher and a legacy maker, I really want the very best quality. I really want to produce the very best product. And so that. That definedness and that down to the nuance is a gift for me, and it's inspired me. And I haven't shared this with you, but my new initiative is igniting humanity. I want to go and ignite humanity. How can we make humanity better? How can we improve the way we communicate, the way we talk, the way we connect with one another? It's my big mission now is let's ignite humanity how do we do that? How do. What is that going to look like?

Unbelievable. Nothing's going to stop you and you, and you know, you've already proven that whatever you set your mind to, you're going to be able to do. And before we get off the bicycle, I wanted to hear more about what has been the biggest thing you've learned through those multiple bike trips.

Yeah, great question. I think, you know, always when we have a bike trip, we always have a final destination. So the first year we wanted to cycle to the parliament buildings. The second year we wanted to cycle to the top of the world highway in Alaska. I figuratively and physically wanted to be at the top of the world. And so last year was coast to coast. So we always have an end destination. And what I've realized is that's just a point on the map because how I got from coast to coast, the road I thought I was going to take was never the road I took. The detours, the rain, the mountains, the broken bike, the washed out roads, the, oh, go over there. There's a way nicer restaurant. Oh, you got to check out that place. There's a waterfall. It never was what we thought it was going to be. It wasn't the road that we were expecting, but the road that we did take was so much better. And the fact that I woke up every day surrendering to the fact that today was going to be a great day. I mean, in business, we show up, we're on our computer, we're doing things, we have our business, our, you know, our, our spreadsheets, we have all this construct. When you get on a bike or you decide to live your life in a way like what's going to unfold today? What can I utilize today? How can I enjoy today? And when something comes up, a challenge, a broken thing, a canceled meeting, it's flat t. What is about this that is going to inspire me, empower me, teach me, show me what is great and glorious about this? And we had that happen all the time. Flat tires when we were riding bears, literally we were cycling and they're like, you can't go down that road. There's a bear. And I'm like, let's go.

Oh my gosh.

Like, it's okay, let's take it out. So you have to be willing to say yes, the everything else no one else wants to do. You have to be willing to trust that if there's a detour, there's a detour for a reason. And you have to be willing to go the other direction, you have to be open to backtracking a little if it's necessary. And you have to be a good listener. When people said to us, there's construction there, or, that road is gravel. Don't go down that road. Or when people said, you're going to love that pie at this restaurant, I mean, Peter and I cycled 230km for a cinnamon bun. They told us it was the number one cinnamon bun in Canada, and you had to go there. We're like, okay, 230 kilometers extra to go for that cinnamon bun. And it was so worth it. And we loved it, and we made such great friends with the owners, and we had the best time ever. So in a long answer, like, be open to everything that is going to unfold between when you start and when you finish, because it really isn't about the finish line. It's about all the stuff that happens in between, because the finish line is just a blip. And here's my favorite story. Last year, we were cycling to Newfoundland. Everybody wanted us to finish at Cape Spear, which is the big, you know, end of the. It's the farthest eastern point in all of North America. We got there, you know, Gary, I wanted to cycle along the border, along the coastline, around a cove, up a hill to the most beautiful lighthouse, walk to the edge and see the incredible Atlantic Ocean, and just put my hands up, and that was the finish line. Well, I got to Cape Spear. There was like a tourist booth. There was all these fences. You couldn't get there. There was these cannons. There was, like a bunch of bunkers because it used to be a military strategic place. It was raining. There was a tree line. There was no cliff. There was no ocean. I was like, this is not the finish line. But my husband's like, well, what do you want? And I'm like, I want this beautiful ocean. I want to come around the bay. I want to go up the hill. I want to find this great lighthouse. I want to go to the edge of the cliff. And so we sat down in the motorhome because we. A motorhome follows us so we can sleep in it. I started Googling lighthouses in Newfoundland. There's 69 of them, by the way. And I found the perfect one. Blue and what are red and white stripes at the top of the hill? And it was in a town called Heart's Content. And I'm like, we're going to Hearts Content. And so we had finished, but I was like, no, we're not finished. Let's Keep going. And we cycled another 200km to a town called Heart's Content. We came over the hill and down through the bay, around the ocean, up the hill to this beautiful, perfect, gorgeous, wonderful lighthouse. We got off our bike, we walked right to the edge, and there was the ocean, the cliff, the birds, the everything. Put my hands up and I started crying because I was so content. Every single thing about that moment was perfect and beautiful. And I just knew that what I thought was my finish line wasn't my finish line. It kept going, and I was more content in heart's content than I've ever been. It was a beautiful place to be, but it proved that what we think is the finish line, we get to define the finish line, not what other people say. And really, the finish line is the moment. We feel it. We feel it. It's in us. It's in every cell of our body. It's not just somebody said, well, that's the finish line. I'm sorry, I had to go on.

No, that was really good.

I.

A lot of life lessons in your journey there. I mean, it just fascinating how it parallels what we all go through in our lives, right? What we thought we were going to be doing isn't what we ended up doing. And, you know, it's that saying, that quote from Steve Jobs. You can't connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect the dots looking back.

Correct? So true. So true. It's a really beautiful experience, and I encourage everybody to. Sometimes one of the great analogies about writing tandem is sometimes you just gotta let go of the handbars. I mean, I ride on the back, my husband's the captain, but sometimes you just gotta let go of the handlebars. You gotta let go of hanging on so tight to that grip, and it's gotta be a certain way. You really do learn a lot about life. Even though I'm a better weigher, there are times when I'm so grateful to just let go of the grip, let go of the handlebars, and just trust what's unfolding, because there's so much to learn from it.

I wrote a tandem once with my wife and swore I would never do that again because I did all the work. And I said, we were in California, going up the boardwalk, you know, the beach and the boardwalk there. And I did all the work. And she wrote, just hung out on the back. And I thought, you know, this doesn't seem like a very good deal to me. I'm stuck.

I had the wrong kind of tandem. You had the casual tandem. We. We have to strap in our feet, we have to both pedal. And in fact, the person on the back is called the stoker, as me. You know, the stoker has to work a lot because they're stoking, they're pushing, they're getting you up the hill, they're. They're giving you that power and the force. And the captain has to do a lot. I mean, he's shifting gears, he's steering, he's taking care of everything, he's maintaining, you know, the brakes and all of that. It really is a team effort, and that's what makes it so beautiful. It's a beautiful, intimate experience to ride tandem. So give it another chance. Give it another try.

We've got E bikes, which is the other end of the spectrum from what you guys.

Right, right.

That's way more fun for us, at least at this stage. It's because we can go a lot farther on the E bikes. But. So you've done three of these so far, and you're about to do it. When are you going to leave for your next one?

Yeah, we always leave July 1, and then we spend two months on the road. We always raise money for charity. We always do it so for a good cause. We love igniting people along the way and teaching people what's possible and just igniting humanity. So we're always really committed to sharing the message of igniting humanity. Because here's the thing, I think now more than ever, we have to be thinking about humanity. We have to be thinking about our future. What is the next generation going to look like? How are we all going to survive together, cohesively? And I really believe that it's through storytelling. I mean, I've thought about policies and politics and bureaucracy and rules and. And. And all of these things. And the truth is, when we tell our story, when I just shared with you a little bit about my journey to heart's content, something was going on in your body, your brain, your endorphins, all of these, your adrenaline. There was this wonderful cosmic thing that was happening. Your brain, where you were connecting with me, you were feeling me, you were layering in your own experience into mine. And there was this deep connection that was creating. And I feel like when. And this is my better way to ignite humanity is we all need to tell our story. We all have a story, every single one of us. Man on the street to the man in the Taj Mahal. We all have got a story. Everyone's story is incredible. Everyone's story is equal. It doesn't matter skin color, gender, where you're at, how much money you make. And so in that storytelling, you really connect with a person. And you can have two men in the same room who've lost a son get up and hug each other because their story is the same. It doesn't matter that one is Russian and one is Ukrainian. The story brings us together, the heartfelt, the genuineness, the human experience. And so I'm so committed to the fact that we don't need more policies and rules and on order and law. We need people to share who they really are, understand who they really are. I love that my whole team took your test in your quiz, and we use it all the time because everyone is different. But understanding them, understanding their nuances is such, such a precious, precious thing. And to me, that's going to ignite humanity.

So tell everybody that maybe didn't hear the last podcast about your book series and about your book company, because they do all the titles start with ignite.

They do, Yeah. I believe that we all have ignite moments. We have that moment that change us, that woke us up, that slapped us upside the head, that told us it was time, that it was. We were never going to do that again. We were going to do that from now on. I could ask any single person I meet, what was your ignite moment moment? And they all remember. They even say, I remember the day. I remember where, exactly where I was. And it's that moment that something happened in your life that transformed you. It was the beginning. It was the precipice of a new iteration of you. And again, what you said about Steve Jobs, you have to see it in hindsight to realize that was it. Because many times when you're deep in your ignite moment, it's painful or it's difficult and you can't see outside of it. But after time, you're able to look back on your ignite moment and realize, you know what? That was a blessing. That was a great thing, Some silver lining in that I really learned a lot. And so we tell those stories because that's the hero story. There's so much garbage going on in the world. We want to hear human beings succeeding. We want to hear people overcoming. We want to read stories of triumph and success and admiration and connection and fortitude. And so I had my own hard, tough ignite moments, difficult times. And I realized when I shared those stories, I was able to connect with people more. People cared about me more when I was truthful and Authentic than when I was just trying to tough it out. And so now we're almost up to 900 authors telling Ignite moments, sharing their ignite stories. We have a movie coming out about ignite moments. We do a TV show about ignite moments. It really is. And I love it. I love it when I'll meet somebody and five minutes later they'll be like, ignite moment. I did my ignite moment. You know, I mean, some of the biggest celebrities and some of the amazing people on the planet and they all have an ignite moment moment.

What was your biggest ignite moment of your life so far?

Well, of course I have a couple of them. And since I've written in 20 of our books, I have different ones. Ignite parenting. Obviously I have a parenting one, an entrepreneur, have one in business. I'm just doing one right now in faith. Our faith book is coming out. I recently just lost a team member to a tragic fire. So of course the universe is reflecting exactly the book that I'm doing. But I will say in all honesty, one of my deepest ignite moments was I had been traveling a lot, working a lot. My kids were being raised by the nanny. I was in China doing work about five times a year, 20 days at a time. I came home about eight days before Christmas. I walked into the door, no one was there to greet me. My husband and I were not getting along and I heard my daughter, my son, laughing with the nanny in the kitchen. And I got really jealous and I decided to sneak upstairs and into the guest room because I'd been sleeping in the guest room and not with my husband for almost two years. Years. Convincing myself that mummy was tired after 13 hours of flying and she would just see the kids in the morning. It's a tragic story that my 3 and 5 year old had spent 21 days with the nanny and not me. And I came home and I just didn't have the heart to see them because I just felt so disconnected. But that night, my 3 year old woke up in her crib and she started calling the nanny's name. And I knew that at that moment every single thing in my life had to change. If my own 3 year old old didn't even call her mom. In a moment of fear and worry, in the middle of the night, in the dark, whatever I was doing was the wrong thing. And I woke up that morning realizing not one thing had to change in my life, but everything had to change in my life. And I was going to commit my life to earning back my Daughter's faith and trust in me and that no matter what, that she would come to me. And I had to do with my 5 year old son too. But every single thing in my life had to change. My health, my wealth, my, my knowingness, my belief, my business, my company, my. The way I, at the way I talked, my marriage, every single thing in that ignite moment told me I had to do it differently. When I say that's one of the biggest, that's one of the biggies because after that I, you know, four days after Christmas, my husband's suitcases were packed at the door. I closed my business down. 60 days later I moved out of my house. I left my town, I left where I live for 21 years. I changed everything about me because for my kids and for my health and my well being and it was the best thing, hardest thing, most painful thing. I ended up going bankrupt. But I had to do it because everything in my life was failing and I just was like oblivious to it. I was, you know, I was just in the fog. So that ignite moment woke me up.

When you talk about overcoming fear, I can't imagine you didn't have a lot of fear in that decision. How were you able to overcome that?

Well, the truth is, interestingly enough, after that relationship, I jumped into another relationship quite quickly with a high school sweetheart. Her that found me on Facebook. A very tragic yet cliche story. He ended up becoming quite abusive and I ended up leaving him within 15 months. I took my kids out of school and I went on the road. I really went on the road. I went into charity work for a year. I just let go of everything. I gave up everything. I walked away from everything. And my kids and I started doing charity work. We, we built toilets in Mexico. We helped the turtles in Costa Rica. We pulled clothes out of the ocean in Greece for the Syrian refug refugees. We taught in Dominican Republic how to speak English. I just started over. But the powerful part of that was I had to be my own hero. I had to put on my own hero's cape. I had to save myself. I had to get the strength to figure it out on my own. I had to learn the languages, do the currency, get on the bus, get on the train, get on the plane, dig the dirt, crawl with my hands and knees, help somebody else, be of service, service to just really get out of my own problems and realize like, wow, there were. People have way bigger problems than me. You know, kids that don't have, that are amputated or don't have parents, people who have flee their country in on rafts and have like lost family members in oceans because they're running from a war. And so just letting go of everything about myself taught me who I was and becoming my own hero and not relying on my husband or my business or my last name or my Mercedes or any of that taught me who I was, was and what I was going to be about. And that brought back my courage and that gave me the strength.

Wow. I'm sure your path has not been even close to what you expected when you were say, 20 years old.

No, not at all. I mean, we all had that beautiful, you know, pie in the sky, beautiful idea and dream about what we're going to do and how we're going to do it. And I had a very successful 20s and 30s, you know, really living high and doing really well. Well, but I sometimes say this. If you're not willing to get down on your knees and praise God, he will take you to your knees in a situation where you will be asking for him. Because we have to be humble. We have to realize we have to become students and stewards of our life. We have to be willing to accept, we have to become open. And sadly, a lot of times, especially in North America, we become very self centric and very egocentric and really learning. How do I help others? Why am I here? What is well, how can I be of service? How can I take all my gifts and my lessons and help somebody else? And so beautifully enough ignite moments come into our life to awaken us to that, to make us wake up and everything that happens happens for a perfect and divine reason. And now I'm grateful for all of those moments, as tough as they were. I'm thankful for all of the struggles because it has made me more tenacious and blessingly I get to be here and just share one little sliver with the idea that one person will hear something, something that 1%, this 1%, they may move the needle in their life and do something differently. And that grows into this huge trajectory of their greatness.

Jb, what was the decision or what happened for you to decide? I've got to write a book or I've got to help others write it. But was your first book about. Mostly about you. Tell us about your first book.

Yeah, so when I was in my teens, I didn't get along with my parents. When I finished college, I moved to the Dominican Republic. I wanted to get as far away from my parents as I could. So this is like back in 1999, like way before cell phones, way before Internet, way before anything. And I was living in the Dominican Republic. And it was interesting because I did grow up with a little bit of a silver spoon in my mouth. I had a lot of privileges as a kid. I had everything. But I didn't feel I had the loving connections of a normal family. We had lots of stuff, but we didn't, we weren't. There wasn't the love that I wanted. I went to the Dominican Republic and I lived in a shack, in a. In a hut, in a village with dirt floors and tin roofs. These people had. But to me, they had everything. They talked, they connected, they ate together, they laughed together, they cooked over the fire together. I'd watch a 40 year old man walk to the grocery store with his mom holding her hand. I was enamored with how connected they were, how close they were, and the things meant nothing. And suddenly I realized like, wow, I had everything, but I had nothing. These people have nothing and they have everything. And so in my journey, I started writing my mom letters, handwritten letters to connect with her. And when tourists would come to the Dominican, I would have take them back to Canada and put them in the mail. I wrote my mom over 200 letters, sometimes 8, 10, 12 pages at a time. The interesting thing is my mom never wrote me back. But when I returned home after three years, I couldn't wait to see my mom. That letter writing somehow healed us. It was cathartic. I was able to forgive her and understand her. I started to see her life as she was. What was her childhood like? What is, how did she grow up? What did she learn? What didn't she learn? You know, what was. She was just doing the best job she could in parenting to me. When I came home, I had a beautiful relationship with her and I wrote a book about it. Adult daughters and mothers can heal their Relationship. And it really inspired me. I was very vulnerable in that book. I talked a lot about what I went through, but I wanted people to realize that understanding someone else's story, you know, I was so mad. My mom never read me bedtime stories until I realized my mom grew up in Russia and Austria. She didn't read English. No one read bedtime stories to her when she was in the war, in a concentration camp Cam she didn't learn that. So I realized like, wow, her story, her childhood, she. No one ever read bedtime stories to her. I'm mad that she's not reading Sesame street to me. Wow, like, look at her story. Look where she came from. Look what she went through. And so in understanding her story, I was able to understand her more and have compassion and empathy and willingness to see her for who she was. And literally, me telling you right now is just the groundwork for the work that I do now because I'm such a proponent of tell your story story. It'll transform your life and transform the lives of others.

Go through the titles with us because I know they all start with ignite and maybe you have it in front of you or have it memorized, but tell us what the titles are.

Yeah, we have ignite your life for women, Ignite Conscious leaders, Ignite Female leaders Ignite parenting, Ignite health and wellness. Ignite goddesses. Ignite Modern goddesses, Ignite entrepreneurs, Ignite wisdom, Ignite forgiveness. Ignite the adventurous spirit. Ignite the inner spirit. Like we are just having so much fun because people have these ignite moments, moments in travel, in parenting, or have a new one coming out next in the fall called ignite and your furry friends. People have ignite moments with their pets. We have ignite creativity. We're doing ignite purpose. We're doing ignite courage. People have so many stories about climbing Kilimanjaro, about getting off a plane with $4 in their pocket. These stories become these fundamental moments, these do or die moments, these life defining moments. And when you tell them and the person becomes the hero in the journey, two magical things happen. The wr transforms a meaning that they assign to something. I was a loser. I had to get off a plane. I only had $4. I was scared, you know, I got kicked out of my house. As time goes on and they realize, you know what? I was courageous. I was brave. I was like, I had some, like, I had some gusto. Like I had $4 in my pocket. And I got off that plane and I got a job and I met people and I ended up being a multi millionaire. They assign a new meaning to what they once thought about that. And on a cellular level that actually heals people, changes them. The file their brain completely realign. And suddenly they're very different from who they thought they were because they gave a meaning to it. That happens for the writer and for the reader. They realize stories of people who have come through trials and tribulations and the reader starts to formulate their own cellular synapse connection. If he can do it, I can do it. If she can get there, I can get there. And so psychology wise, these stories are very, very powerful. It's not just I'm going to write a story and put it in a book. There's a lot of psych, A lot of neurotransmitters are changing and shifting and synapses are happening, cellular people are shifting and we are connecting on a whole nother vibrational level. So it's kind of woo woo, but it's kind of awesome at the same time.

Gosh, that's awesome.

And.

And you guys have an event? Do you have an event coming up?

We're doing an event. So. Igniting humanity. I'm really committed to creating something wonderful. Breaking a Guinness Book of World Record, by the way, Gary. I want to break the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest compilation book. I did some interviews in LA a couple weeks ago and I did 15 interviews in one day. I did about 17 hours of interviews straight. My last interview was a woman named Mermaid who has broke seven Guinness Book of World Records swimming. She said, you know what, I'm going to call the Guinness people and have them come and do a Guinness with you. Because I've never seen anyone do 15 to 17 hours of interviewing nonstop back to back. I didn't eat, I didn't go to the bathroom, nothing. Like, I just kept doing it. I was like, where's more? Who else is it? It's like 11 o' clock at night. Like people are sleeping on the floor. And I'm like, let's keep going. And so I want to break a Guinness Book of World Records. I want do it better. Challenge myself. Like, why not? I went to my brain doctor, I said, how many hours can I stay asleep and still be coherent? Can I do 70 hours? And he's like, I don't think so. I'm like, 60 hours. And he's like, maybe 36 to 40 maximum. I'm like, okay, let's do 45.

Oh my gosh. When are you going to do this?

We're going to do it in November. Yeah, we're really looking forward to calling it Share a Rama. So. Igniting humanity and Share a Rama. So yeah, I really, really want. Wonderful. And I just love the idea of why not? You know what? Why not? Like, why not? Our first cycle ride, we got on the bike, we cycled away from the house. You know, we're a block and a half away from the house. And my husband said to me, because we hadn't done it before, he goes, are you worried that we're gonna fail? Because, you know, we told everyone in social media we had blocked up the house, the kids were in the motorhome. We were on our way. He said, are you worried you're gonna fail? I said, honey, we're a block away from the house. We've already succeeded. Anything we do past this next block, like, it doesn't matter. There's no failure. There's no such thing as failure. If I do 15 hours of interviews or 14 hours or 13 hours or whatever, it's never a failure. I did it. I showed up, I tried. I threw my hat in. I made an effort, and I just gotta learn. Okay, we only got it, though. We only got two blocks. Something happened, okay, what are we gonna do next time to get three blocks? Like, there's just no failure. There's no other option than we succeed and we just keep. Keep doing it.

Do you reach a point in your journey where you are ready to stop, or is it never feel that way. Like, you get on your. You've got 4,000 kilometers to go. When you're 200 kilometers in, do you think, oh, my gosh, we got three, 800 kilometers to go? I don't know if I really want to do this.

Well, okay, I'll tell you two things. One time we were cycling. We were. We were. Our first trip, 5,000 kilometers. We're like 4,000. We're like 192 kilometers away from the. The finish line. It wasn't a tough day. It was a little bit of rain. It was flat road. Everything was good. I've been cycling for about an hour with my husband. We hadn't really been talking. Everything was good. Everything was good. And suddenly I had this flash come over. I'm done. I'm good. I'm saturated. I'm content. I'm happy. I'm blessed. I'm amazing. This is awesome. I could stop right now and rack the bike and go home. So I told my husband. I'm like, pull over. He's like, what's wrong? I'm like, I totally feel. Feel done. I feel completely done. And he's like, what do you mean? I said, I don't have to get to the finish line. I don't even have to get to 5,000 kilometers, because at this exact moment right here, I feel so blessed, so thankful, so accomplished, so fantastic, so full of this experience that the finish line is irrelevant, because it's about the feelings that every single feeling I was wanting at the finish line came before the finish line, which was so profound to me, because how many times do we see people who win Oscars or, you know, win Olympic gold medals, and then they commit suicide? A Week later or something is devastating for them or they're never happy. It's because it's not about the finish line. It's about the feelings. And you always want to aim for the feelings. You always want to go after the feelings. You want the cauldron of feelings to just stir into you. That's what you want. It's not the finish line. And so that is a one time where I felt like, you know what? I'm good, I'm great. We could go home. Of course I didn't kept going, but I stopped and I felt all of that. I was like, you know what? I don't have to finish. Everything from this moment on is just gravy because I feel so content. I feel so happy. So that is one time that.

Let me ask you something about that, because what came up for me when you said that was, hey, I thought this was a team. What if your husband doesn't feel that way? You feel that way, but so what? What about how he feels?

Yeah, great question. I mean, he's such a brilliant, amazing man. And, you know, he. He for also said to him it was not about the finish line. He said to me the very first year we cycled, he said, the most important thing is that I get you you there. I get you there. That's my goal. I get you there. I do whatever I have to. I take care of the bike, I tune the bike. I do the maps. I do the compass. I do all of that. I get you there. And so he never made it about the finish line. He never made it about the 5,000. I did. I made it about the number. I made it about the finish line. I made about it getting to apartment buildings. He made it about being my wingman. He made it being about everything that he could do in his power to make sure that I got to wherever it is I wanted to get to. And if I was ready to quit, he's like, this is where you want to quit? And I was like, well, no, but I just want to tell you I feel this way.

I would, but.

I mean, I'm fleeting.

In it for a moment. I just feel it. But of course, I'm never going to quit. But the truth is, you know, he had a different agenda because his why is not better way. And I think you might know what Peter's is. I don't remember what it is, but it certainly was not his. His was contribute, Making sure that he was the best he could be for me and for the purpose project.

Yeah, his is to Contribute to a greater cause, add value and have an impact in the lives of others. And so whatever you wanted, what made sense, if that's what you want to do, honey, that's what we do.

Yeah. And he's tried and true to that, to this moment, I mean, it's just so beautiful. And I think better way people need yes people. Because I can't do what I do without him. I soar so high. But guess what people. He's the wind beneath my wings. I mean it's such a blessing to have a person like that. And, and we, that we know that about each other. We love that. That's okay because I'm not always pushing him. I'm not always like, why aren't you like me? Why aren't you doing it my way? He does it totally different and thank God, because we need each other. That's what makes us such a good team.

Is it hard for you to not push him to be like you?

I have to say no because I so push myself. I just want to push myself. Like I just, I wake up every day and how can I do it? We were on the bike one time in the mountains and it was sleet, fog, rain. It was the worst conditions ever. I mean it was dangerous. We couldn't even see 10ft in front of us. And we were on this windy road that had little tiny like two foot guardrails. The semis were going by. Is hitting us with rain at 20 pound range, like literally making us like jerk over on the side of the road. The fog was so bad, our follow vehicle came back to get us because they were so worried about us. They pulled over on the side of the road. They're like, get in, get in. I'm like.

And so they had to continue on because they were blocking traffic. And I'm, I'm cycling and snot is pouring off my nose, water's dripping off my forehead, water's dripping off my chin, water is running down. My hands are like on the steering wheel. I'm not giving up. And my husband's like, what is wrong with you? This is so dangerous. This is like so bad. This is so scary. This is so unnecessary. Who are you trying to prove? So something too. And I'm like, I'm just trying to prove it to myself. Trying to prove it to anyone. I'm just trying to prove it to myself. I'm just trying to tell myself I can do it. I'm just trying to tell myself that it's possible. But in that very moment, I Started to cry. And I thought, you know what? Who am I trying to prove it to and how long do I have to prove it? How long do I have to keep proving it to myself? And it was fascinating. In that moment, I thought to myself, you know what, Jamie? You've been proving it long enough. Don't do it to prove it. Do it to enjoy enjoy it. Do it to love it. Do it to have fun with it. Do it to catapult you to the next thing. And of course, you know, I, we cycled over that mountain pass and down the hill and the first town we came to was called Marathon. Marathon, Ontario said, you know what, God, I've done my marathon. From this moment on, I promise that everything I do will be for joy and fun and the goodness of others. I don't need to prove that anything anymore.

How do you think you would be different today if you hadn't done those bike journeys or bike trips?

Well, they've given me a lot of strength and a lot of self confidence. They've taught me, you know what's important to me? I love getting on the bike. I love disappearing. I love being dialed out. I love not having the phone and the computer and the people. I love not having to have the show and the perfect voice and the perfect being on stage. I love not having to perform. I just love pushing my body. I love being connected to nature. And so that has taught me a great gift. I love being in the flow. I love letting go. I think for better way people because we're constantly on, you know, we're pushing and poking that needle all the time. That we need to have that ability to surrender and to allow and to let go and to know that it's all about okay. I think that I've been so blessed. I have. If you really looked over my life, you would just be shocked. I worked in the film business for 15 years with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Dwayne Johnson and all the A list celebrities. I worked on a cruise ship. I have been around the world. I have done multiple things. I've been published, I've been on stage. I worked with some of the best people in the business. I've had such a glorious, gifted life. But it's just because I totally believe it's possible. Possible. It's all had layers of pain and suffering and ups and downs and hardships. And the truth is that happens to all of us. Every one of us is going to get a curveball. Every one of us is going to get life hit us in Hard ways. And what I really love to believe is that it's all magically, perfectly divine. Thank you for this moment. What am I going to do now? Because I can get kids take down, but what am I going to do? Stay down or get up. Like, that's just the difference. I can stay down or I can get up. It's a choice. I can stay down or I can get up. Well, guess what? I feel like getting up.

You remind me. Another better way friend is a Navy SEAL who just. I had him on the podcast a few weeks ago who rode a boat across the Atlantic. And so I asked him, what do you know about rowing boats? And he said, not a thing. And I said, why would you agree to row a boat across the Atlantic? That's not like a little weekend warrior kind of thing. That's. That's major. And he said, just to see if I could, you know, just to push myself. I talk all the time about being who you're supposed to be, challenging yourself, pushing your limits. And I hadn't been doing it. And so he was a Navy Seal and he's no, you know, done been in all kinds of adventure races. He's in the world's tough office race. And he said I hadn't been living that for a lot too long and now was my time to do it again. And very similar, you know, but another better way person that just was looking for a better way to experience more in life and push himself to see what's actually possible.

My husband asked me if I wanted to do the triple, the eight, the eight and eight. I don't know if you've ever heard of it. Eight marathons in eight days in eight countries. He's like, honey, you want to do the eight and eight? It's eight countries, eight marathons, eight days. And I was like, sure, as long as I don't have to finish. As long as you don't run the race compared to me. And, you know, like, as long as I can do it however I want to do it, like, I want to. If I want to run eight marathons in eight days in eight countries, if I run it in seven hours and 28 minutes, that's how long it's going to take me. If I. If I run it and I don't finish, like, that's okay with me. Like, as long as I don't have to race and compete and do it better than anyone else, I'm just going to do it better than my. My best way. Yeah, let's try it. I don't know. I'm 52 years old. Let's try it. What is that gonna look like? What do I have to do?

Did you sign up for it?

Yeah, it's next January.

Oh, my gosh. That's crazy. Have you even run a marathon?

No, no, but I've cycled across Canada.

So I'm sure you can do it.

Exactly.

JB if there are people that want to connect with you, they want to learn more about Ignite, then maybe they even want to be in one one of your books.

Yeah.

What's the best way for them to connect with you?

Yeah. Go to Ignite you. Y o U Ignite you dot Life. That's our website. You can go to Amazon and Google any Ignite book and you'll find it. You can go to Ignite Humanity on Google. You'll find us. I love talking to people. I love hearing people's story. I just talked to an author yesterday. She's in South Africa. Her husband was stung by three bees. He went into immediate a coma. He was in a coma for three, three years. He never woke up. He passed away the same time her daughter. His hand was amputated in a car accident. I mean, this woman is like, what a story. And you know what she said? I can't be mad at those bees. That's not their fault. I mean, it's just so beautiful and yummy and delicious and so every story is fantastic. Just reach out to me. I make myself accessible. You can find me on Facebook or Instagram, But I really, really love it when people just go to my website, reach out to me, book a call with me, with me, and I want to hear your story. I never let anyone not get to the finish line. We have a policy in our business. Everybody makes it to the finish line. Nobody gets left behind. Every single author has such a transformational experience when they tell their story. I also help people do their solo books. I don't know if I told you, but I'm building schools now in third world countries. We are igniting literacy around the globe. And so we take plastic out of the. Out of the landfills and turn them into blocks that we build into schools. And so I'm very committed to igniting, Igniting literacy and igniting humanity through schools. And so you can find out about us doing that. I mean, we have a great community of people who want to ignite the world, and they want to do it one story at a time. And so I just welcome anyone who really wants to be a part, uplifting themselves and Taking their story and using it as a catalyst for good. There's something magical in the body that happens when you take your story, your tough moment, and you gift it to the world with the hope that it'll help somebody else. It's again, it's so healing and it's so profound found. We all should be doing it.

Last question for you, jb what's the best piece of advice you've ever gotten? Or the best piece of advice you've ever given?

Well, you know, funnily enough, when I was 12, my Uncle Tony, let me give him credit, he said to me, go out, kid, and live your life, because if you stay at home, God will make the roof fall on your head. I was kind of like, you know what? That's such good advice. Because if you're fearful and you're staying at home and you're sitting on the couch and you don't want to go out, God's gonna make the roof fall on your. You might as well just go out and live your life. And so at 12 years old, I was like, I'm living my life. I was in Hong Kong when I was 15, traveling. I mean, I have just non stop. So that would be the best advice I feel that I ever got. It just freed me to not be afraid, to not be worried, to not be shy. And it's worked for me ever since. I think the best advice I've ever given is this. Know thyself. Just know yourself. Learn about yourself. Uncover yourself. Discover yourself. Figure out who you are. What do you love? What do you love? Like, what are you good at? What are you talented at? What do you crave? What do you desire? What do you want? Be on the journey of figuring out you. Who cares about somebody else. Let them do their thing. You do your thing. Do you like this? Do you like that? Are you good at this? Are you good at that? Try new things. Discover new things. Be willing to go outside your comfort zone. Really know yourself. When you know yourself, it's the best, most glorious relationship you could ever have. And that gives you the power and the tenacity and the strength to just be yourself. And being anything else other than yourself is exhausting. I. It's so much more relaxing. It's so much better to just be myself than try to be something I'm not. That is just too much work. I'm just gonna be me. It's so much easier.

I love it. JB thank you so much for being here. I know you're super busy, but it's great to connect with you again and hear where you've been and what's going on in your life because it's a fascinating story. So thanks for being here.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much. I just want to say appreciation to you. I'm very, very grateful for the work you're doing. I love, love your program. I'm so. I just think it's the cat's meow and you're doing a great job. And thanks for having me.

Thank you. Thank you so much for listening. If you have not yet discovered your why, Please go to why institute.com you can use the code podcast50 and discover your why or your yos at half price. If you love the beyond you'd why podcast, please don't forget to subscribe below and leave us comment a a review and rating on whatever platform you are using to listen to this. Thank you so much for being here and I will see you next 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 why you.

And discover your why today. Remember, 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.