You Winning Life Podcast Ep.10 w/Jason Wasser, LMFT: Understanding Your Core Values

So Jason, we talked yesterday. Yeah, you're in Florida. Yes, ma'am. Near where I got my doctorate at Nova.

Yep, right. Yeah, my master's is from where we're degree siblings.

That's true, we are, we are. Then, and surprisingly, we did not connect on LinkedIn.

Go figure. Well, thank God for that podcast email list that goes out.

Exactly, exactly, exactly. So Jason, I know who you are because we talked extensively, but to my listeners, they do not know who you are. So can you introduce yourself and tell us a little about you?

Absolutely. My name is Jason Wasser. I'm a licensed marriage and family therapist. Certified neuro-emotional technique practitioner, as well as I'm a certified coach. I own The Family Room Wellness Associates here in South Florida, and we practice mind-body integrative wellness. We have therapy, we have coaching, we have chiropractic, we have nutrition, and I also offer a lot of coaching online for both personal coaching as well as business and entrepreneur professionals.

Oh, all right. So how can you help us with our careers?

So it's really an interesting question where people come in with that just specific question where it's so generic and it's not niched down to— I've been thinking either, right, it goes from the idea of I don't know what to do next, or I don't know what I'm doing in my specific career, versus the idea of 15 different options, but I'm not sure which one is the right decision for me. So when I'm working with any new client, whether it's a therapy client, whether it's a coaching client, the first thing that I want to know is what's their core values. So when I'm talking about core values, I'm talking about picking 5, 6, 7 words that they're going to define for themselves. And I walk them through this with a worksheet and an exercise. And I say, if you were to be living completely in your values, If you were going to be living a life of purpose and meaning and you knew that every decision that you would make goes back to a specific set of values, what would those values be that would allow you to have that life that you, that you dream of? And what I find is that when people do that, the decision-making about what I should do next becomes a lot easier because the next question is, is does that idea that you have align with your core values? And it will either be a yes or no. We already took out a big chunk of the maybes or the possibly because that's not a yes. And then the nos are definitely a no. So now we can chunk it down and chunk it down. So whether it's something for someone that wants to stay specifically in their field and they're ready to take the next step or they want to try something different or they're not sure if they're in the right field. Well, let's go back to your core values and let's make a decision from there.

And this sounds awesome. I mean, I know yesterday when we talked, you were talking, we talked about the core values and there are certain things that you say you want to make money, but there are certain ways that you are— your core values will allow you to be comfortable in making money.

Absolutely.

You know, right.

And it always goes back to not just your core values, but like it's your integrity. And yeah, two things go hand in hand, right?

Exactly, which is why my podcast is clean and not explicit. That is truly a core value that I have. So, you know, I'm not gonna say that my mouth is clean, but I'm going to not say those things on air.

We do the best that we can, and sometimes things slip out.

Exactly.

But I think that's also very much part of the same conversation, which is How much do we dog ourselves, right? How much pressure do we put on ourselves that we're going to make the right decision or do the right thing every single time? And who has ever done that? Who hasn't messed up at least once in their life in a major, significant way? So, and if you think you haven't done it in a major, significant way, do it so you can get it out of the way already.

Yeah. Or keep living. That's what my mother always said. Keep a-living.

Exactly.

Most definitely. Okay. Okay. So how can this help someone after they figured out what their core values are, um, can niche it even more to, you know, go toward a specific area in their career if they want to change or stay in the same industry or, you know, whatever.

Right. So if someone's already in an industry that they're passionate about, they feel that again, it aligns with their core values. Then the next step is what are the things that they would need to scale up to maybe a bigger position. Right. A lot of people say, well, my fear is that I love what I do, but I don't want to take on more responsibilities. And a lot of times, more responsibilities comes with a bigger paycheck. But my assumption or my wondering is that they're not familiar with those responsibilities because they've never stepped up into that place. And I think a lot of the limitations from that is that they think that they have to be either Superman or Superwoman and do it all themselves. And the pyramid of work, of employment, when you're working for someone else, really is a pyramid. You have the person who is either the owner of the company or the business, right? That's the entrepreneur. Then you have the management, and that can run all the way from the executive team all the way down to supervision and supervisors. And then you have the people who are the technicians who are actually doing the delivery of goods, delivery of service. So The trick is to realize that as you work up the food chain, no pun intended, learn how to create a team or work with a team around you where you can delegate to the people that are the most specific and best at that task instead of trying to be Superman or Superwoman and trying to do it all in exchange for that additional $5,000, $10,000, $15,000 increase. Right. And I find that that's the biggest thing. I'll have to take on more responsibility. I have to spend more time at the office, have to go on more trips. OK, that might be part of it. But are you bringing in a team around you if you now start having decision-making to bring in a dream team around you to help delegate, to make everybody else do better as well? Right. So what's that phrase? A rising tide raises all ships.

Exactly. It does.

So that's on the inside, right? So if you're working from the inside, if you're a person who's thinking about going from the outside or doing something new on yourself, instead of trying to figure out— and this is something that I deal with on a daily basis with my coaching clients— instead of saying, what's the industry I want to be in? The biggest thing I can challenge you to and challenge your listeners to is what's the problem that you're really passionate about solving? Right. So one of my coaching clients this past week was— is already in practice and they're like, well, I want to work with this specific population and they have to be either married or single, but within this age bracket and this financial population. I'm like, that's great. But what are the actual problems that they run into on a daily basis that are part of that population that you really love working with the most? And we niched it down and niched it down until we realized there was two components that those— that people in that little niche suffer from or struggle with. So instead of saying, I'm a therapist who focuses on young couples and adults, it's, do you struggle with blank and blank? These two areas, right? I can help you. I'm an expert in solving those two problems. And that reverse engineers the whole thing. So instead of saying like, I wanna work with 40 to 50-year-olds who are only, right? What's the problem that you wanna solve, right? What's the little hole in the industry that you know that there's crumbs on the table? Not for you to make $50,000 or $100,000, but a business has to start at $150,000 minimum in order for it to be even worthwhile because taxes and overhead Exactly. Getting a job at Starbucks or whatever it is. But unless a person knows that they're going to build something that for a minimum, after everything is paid off, that they're going to take home $150,000 as a goal within the first 2 years, keep working for somebody else. Otherwise, you're just driving yourself nuts.

Yeah, that's true. But what if you have a passion and your passion is where you are, but it's just not the right office.

Yeah. So I think the first step with that is always looking in the mirror. How are you not showing up? How are you not showing up to yourself, but how are you showing up to other people? What are you starting to see them through? What lens have you put on that you're now seeing your environment through? What judgments, what biases, what negative things are you filtering that through? And the second thing to look at would be when is the last time that you skilled and scaled up on your proficiency on new cutting edge, whatever it is that's connected to your industry, right? As we were talking, it's the summer of 2019. And if you're not taking advantage of the technological advances that are available to you, No matter what field you're in, whether you're a teacher, whether you're in a small business, whether you're in the healing arts, there's always something new. Now, it doesn't mean you have to jump on the boat and be an expert at that.

It's true.

But that one little nugget that you can take away can reinvigorate you and bring it back to like, oh, wow, now I know this, I can apply it, I can have fun with it again. But if you're basing everything you've done on something that you learned 15, 20 years ago, it's stale.

Well, I mean, I was looking at a study not too long ago where they were saying, um, as soon as a student graduates from college, their knowledge is already obsolete.

So funny that you're saying that because I've been sharing that left and right recently, and I would love to see that study. And people, then please post that if you can for your listeners. That people ask me all the time, why did you decide not to go on with your doctorate? And I said, I was accepted. I I had a life experience that unfortunately threw me off that possibility at that time. And now looking back 8 years later, it was the biggest blessing in the world to not have another $60,000 to $80,000 minimum of debt for the title doctorate versus— right. And everything that they're teaching in the program is the same stuff that they're teaching now is what they were teaching when I graduated in 2005 for my master's degree. Right. So we're talking 13 years later now. There's some updates and some nuances and maybe new research papers on those modalities. But there's all these other things that are going on in the world that are outside of that box that you will not get in a lockstep program that where I travel around the country literally spending multiple thousands of dollars a year to get cutting-edge training by the top people in the field who are doing that. I don't have to get someone. I remember a buddy of mine. His name is Martin Matthews, who is a financial planner. And I remember he was— he went to college and he loved this entrepreneurship business class that he was in. And they had a project that they had to do. And it was about creating a business plan. So at the end of the assignment, he went over to the professor and asked him, you know, when you made your first business plan for the businesses that you were in before you were teaching, was it as difficult as this? And the professor looked at him and said, I've never owned a business.

Wow.

Yeah. To him, he dropped out of school the next day, and now he's doing radically well as a financial planner because the tools he needed was never going to be in that classroom. Now, for people who need a licensure-eligible field, medical professions, right, CPA, whatever it might be, you need that license.

You need those.

Academic to get you there. But at the end of the day, know that there is always going to be— going back to what I said before, which is what is the niche that you want to fulfill? What's the problem you want to solve? And then become an expert at that.

Exactly, exactly. I have a friend that I grew up with. She is in dentistry, so obviously she has a medical degree. And I was talking to her recently and she said, yeah, I think I'm thinking of going back to I said, are you crazy? Are you crazy? She said, well, I want to run a business. I said, well, I mean, I know that you have your dentist practice, but there are still some core things that all businesses do. I said, you have a doctorate degree. Why are you going to put yourself through an MBA program?

And you're hitting back exactly on what I mentioned a few, a few minutes ago, which was you have the entrepreneur, You have the manager and you have the technician. So here you have a friend who's a dentist who is the owner of a business but is operating on the level of a technician. And what we've been tricked in our society— and I was one of those people until I literally had this awakening a few years ago from my business coach, which I'll tell you about in a moment— was that we are trained to be technicians. We, we own a business that we are the slave and the technician to. And really, the only difference between people who are working at Starbucks and being a barista as a technician, direct service, and a person like a dentist or a lawyer is they're still doing the same thing. It's just the dollar amount goes up a little bit.

Exactly right.

But meanwhile, while you and I are serving somebody in a direct experience, right, we're being a technician. I'm seeing a coaching client. I'm seeing a therapy client. We're having this conversation. We can't go out and be the entrepreneur. And bring in new clients. We can't work on our marketing. So that's why I'm saying, like, know what you— learn what you want to be most passionate about. Because some people who are technicians are really better off at managers. People who think that they're entrepreneurs, you know, if you are really better being a manager, or they're really better being a direct service technician. And to know that role is a game changer. And then what it is, you have to either partner up with someone else who is really great at that, or hire that person.

Exactly.

But the dentist or anybody else who's listening to that, to go back and do an MBA— an MBA is geared to teach you how to be middle management at a corporation or a company. It's not to teach you how to run and grow a sustainable and scalable entrepreneurial venture.

And I mentioned that to her, and I said, you have the tools that you, you need already. I wouldn't do that. Right.

And they're better off hiring a coach who is an expert in that, in the structure, in the business development, in the right— the levels of development that is needed in all the verticals to get those things done. And they will have those increases. One of my, one of my coaching clients that I work with is a multimillion-dollar family business, and they were doing 3% annual We did maybe 6 to 10 sessions over the course of the year. And the next year I got them to, I think it was 14% increase. Year 2, I got them to 33% increase off that 3% annual. 3% annual increase is literally what's the— what do they say? It's the— right. Every year there's a 3% increase in the— not your income, but right. If you keep your money in your bank and you get a 3% on it.

Okay. Right. The interest rate.

Well, not the interest rate, but whatever that level is of like, you're really only making— you're not really making anything because inflation is really going up.

Inflation. Yeah.

So if you're only making 3, 4%, right, teachers get an extra 3%. There's the annual raises, a 3% raise. That's just inflation, meeting inflation. You're still making the same thing.

You are. Gas is going up. That was it. That's where your 3% went to. Renting.

You're still making the exact same thing at the end of the day. It's just covering their bills. The rays of, you're not thriving, you're staying at, you're keeping your head above water. And my job as a coach is to help people go from that bobbing up and down to being able to fly above the water.

Okay, awesome, awesome. So if someone were to hire you, what would be the first thing that you would do with them?

Well, we already started off with the idea of knowing core values.

Exactly, exactly.

But a lot of the things that I really want to know is why is it important to do that which you say you want to do? And I think that's a really powerful thing because there's a lot of societal pressure. There might be family pressure. There might be financial pressure. There might be cultural pressure. But I want to figure out the value and significance to that particular person for why they're going to invest both money in me, money in their development, money in a business, and the time and effort that it's going to take them away from maybe other things that might also be a higher priority. So, again, I think that it's the what's your why, right? The Simon Sinek what's your why?

Yeah. Yeah.

But at the end of the day, what will you achieve? Like, what will it allow you to do in every other aspect of your life? If you were to accomplish that, which I'm here to help you with, how will it help you be a better human? How would it help you if you're in a relationship to be better in that relationship, to be a better parent, to be better spiritually, to be better physically with your health and wellness?

How will—

if you— we work on this and we target this, will that get you to where you want to be in these other domains? Because if you don't ask that question, you're out of whack.

Yeah. Yeah, that's true.

Not serving them on a powerful and deep level.

That's true, that's true. Some people, they have decided they need to improve their health and their job is preventing them from doing that. They work long hours or it's a long commute, and so yeah, that could be a very good reason to decide I'm changing careers.

Absolutely, and I wanna playfully challenge the word that you said, it's their job that's keeping them from that. It's not their job that's keeping them from that. It's not the commute that's keeping them from that. It's the choices that they made that allowed them to take a job that doesn't allow them to prioritize themselves. It's the choices that they made to take a job that has a 45-hour commute each way. And the person has to take ownership and accountability in their life for those things that they say— if it's truly a priority for them to be healthy, for them to have better relationships, then how are they taking the action steps? What evidence are they showing an effort towards that. So a lot of the things that I will challenge my clients to— and I only take clients that are going to show up and be willing to be challenged— is how did you decide? If you're saying you want these 3 or 4 things as a priority in your life, but evidence is showing that you're over here, our job is to go from this space to that space. How is it that you allowed that to become the priority when you're talking about these 3 other things to become a priority? And let's rectify that.

So at that point, then you go back to your core values so that you can decide, okay, this is the end. Let's start new and start moving into the right direction.

Exactly. And I work with them on what I call Lifestyle by Design. And it really does talk about prioritization. What are the, what are the things that are most important to you? Like I said, if I help you achieve this one thing, in your personal life. If they're coming to me for personal coaching, then how will that affect you in other, right, other arenas of your life? If you're coming to me with your business entrepreneurial coaching, whether you're an intrapreneur, the person that's working in the business, yeah, whether you're a teacher or you're working for someone else, you're an employee, right? The intrapreneur. How can I help you develop and grow within that business or decide that you want to be an entrepreneur, which is developing and creating your own. But again, what are going to be the tradeoffs and what is the end result that if you do and you create that, what will that allow you to have? And if there's not clarity on that, we're not— we're not going to let them move forward until they convince me with a purpose and a passion that it will help them get all those other aspects. And we will only create a game plan that will allow them to have the full balance of their highest priorities in sync with their core values.

Okay, okay. So about how many sessions will you work with someone, or does it just vary according to the person and their needs?

It's an interesting thing that we have this idea, and this is in all fields of the helping professions where there's a service-based— it is like, well, what do I— how— when will I feel better, right? When will it be done? When will I get to where I want to get there? And there's this idea of it, this one, this immediate gratification. Gratification that it requires me just showing up and not doing the work. And it really is about the tenacity and the mindset of what a person has that I'm willing— well, I hired you. How much work are you going to do for me?

Right.

And that's where I, you know, the coach and the client have to meet hand in hand about that. But I really tell my clients that there is no specific set deadline. We will set deadlines, we will set goalposts, we will set quarterly and annual plans because everything I want to do is reverse engineer. Are we doing these little micro-actionable steps that will lead us to this bigger goal? And we do have timelines that are set up. So if it is about creating a company, we're talking about not, you know, any investment in yourself is not like a 3-month, 6-month thing, but It is a long-term relationship. You want to know that for this specific thing, you're going to come to Jason Wasser, right? For this specific thing. And this is— that person's an expert in that area. You're going to go to that person. So, you know, you have to know that you might have more than one person in your life that you have to consult with.

That's true.

Over a period of time. But while still having someone who's going to help you strategize and be the quarterback for you and come up with game plans while you're—

and I think, and I think it's very important to say that You do have to show up and do the work. I was listening to another podcast and, um, the— they do like 3 segments of their podcast and at the end they have listener letters. And the person is asking about therapy and she has been going to therapy for a while but she's still not doing anything, not feeling— she said, I'm not feeling better. But she— and then she admitted, I'm not really doing what my you know, coach suggested. And I was thinking, okay, then obviously you're not going to feel better because you're not doing the homework. You have to do the homework in order to.

Right. So I want to just dispel the misnomer between therapy and coaching, and that therapists only work on past issues and feelings, and coaches work on future-oriented stuff. That's actually a complete misnomer. And unfortunately, that's what coaches are using to put a step above their marketing when it comes to promoting themselves over therapists. And my training from Nova Southeastern in the family therapy program is about solution-oriented.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah.

Actionable, right? And we take into context, right? But I will never ask a client, how does that make you feel?

Yeah.

So when you're talking about that person in that letter, Number one, I would challenge them to be really, really, really clear on their goal. If there's no actionable things that are happening for them, I would go back and say, okay, I'm not sure if you're clear enough on what your goal is, or maybe your goal that you've set is way too small. You want something really big out there and then you got scared and you stepped back 5 steps. So now you're aiming for this versus aiming for this. And that's why you're not feeling anything different. You're not noticing because you played too safe, too small. And I challenge my clients to, you know, that whole 10x Grant Cardone mindset of what would it look like if money wasn't the issue, if it was paid for, if I guarantee you that your set, your whatever money you need to pay your bills and your insurance and your car payment and your was paid for, what the heck would you be doing?

Yeah.

And they would still— and I constantly hear them say, well, I would do this. But oh no, that's just crazy. No, go crazy. I want you to go crazy, right? Steve Jobs and Wozniak went crazy. Yeah, Apple in their garage.

Anybody, exactly.

Anything great thought crazy.

Exactly.

Play it. So my guess is that person might have either been playing it too small, they don't have crystal clear clarity on what their goals are, and then because of that, they're playing maybe too small. They're not making decisions based on core values. Their therapist is maybe being too soft with them and not poking and prodding and asking the right questions. I would even ask, well, what do you think you need to feel?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because the presumption is that if I feel something, it's proof of, versus what's the tangible actionable differences that are happening in your life from where you started to where you are now? And people are not willing to see little nuggets of change. They expect big changes and big miracles. But what about that little— those third inches?

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I found that journaling has helped me because you don't see day-to-day changes. And so when you look back 3 months, 6 months, a year from where you are now, you go, oh, well, that did happen, or I did get that. Solved, or, you know, so now I see it differently. So yeah, yeah.

I think when we're growing up, right, when a lot of— I don't know how many parents are still doing this, but when we were growing up, right, they would mark your height up on the wall, right?

Yes.

And you don't, you don't know that you're growing, right? When you look in the mirror, you don't see yourself aging day to day. And it's the exact same thing. But one of my favorite questions is asking, what are you— what are other people noticing? Differently and have the audacity to ask them. So if you're in a relationship and you're coming and you're working on yourself, what do they notice? What are your— what's your family? What are the people that care about you the most noticing about you? Because like you said, it might be so in your head, your condition and pattern neurologically to only see what you see and to change those neurological synapses. Right. But other people might be noticing it. And if you check in with that and you bounce it off that, then you're going to start buying, buying in a little bit more.

Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. And I think a lot of times people are trying to take big steps without doing the things in the middle that they need to do.

So, well, adding to that, which is such an important thing when anybody ever plans something, I don't think many people ask what's the sacrifices I have to make How, again, this is, again, how will this affect other aspects of my life? What will have to give in other places? Who or what might not be happy about me making these changes? And how would affect that dynamic with those people or those experiences? Right? So there's a multiverse of layers of contextuality of when someone wants to make a dynamic change in themself, to not have someone ask them those questions from all of these different possibilities. It's not like saying, okay, what's your goal?

Great.

What would that look like to do that? But what's the risk involved in making these changes? Whether it's a personal internal or in relationship to a dynamic, whether you're in a relationship or parenting or financial or, right? Changing your entire fridge and no one else wants to do the diet that you want to do, right?

Yeah, that's true. That is true. Everything has a risk. So yeah. Yeah, that's true. So, um, Let's see here. So Jason, if someone wanted to work with you, how would they get in contact with you?

So the best way to get me is on Instagram, and it's Jason Wasser LMFT, all one word, and LMFT stands for licensed marriage and family therapist. My website, I have a few different ways to get to my practice website. The practice is, again, it's called The Family Room Wellness Associates, but if you go and you type in emotionalallergies.com, .com. That'll get you directly to my website and you can contact me through there. But also, like I said, Instagram and Twitter both have the same handle, Jason Wasser LMFT 🎗️️.

Oh, okay, okay. I will definitely connect with you on Twitter for sure. I will do on Instagram too.

Instagram has been my— I've been having a lot of fun on Instagram.

Yeah, yeah, I've had a lot of fun on Instagram too, but I'm just having a hard time getting my people to follow me.

But so, yeah, well, it's interesting, right? So that idea of using Instagram that people think it's only for these pictures and whatever it is, but it's another— for anybody who's listening who's in business, it's just another place that's going to show up when people search for you, that you will show up. So it's providing more data in a search engine that the more, more you put out there, the higher you're going to rank, the higher you're going to show up. So we always have to constantly be using, right, Facebook and you're right, and Instagram and LinkedIn and blog, because all of those eventually aggregate in a—

they do, they do, they do.

They're listening and they're not using social media or they're afraid of it or they don't believe in it. You know, I'm very much in belief of what Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary Vee, says. And I know you were talking before about, no, you're right, you're no cursing rule. So the caveat is Gary Vee drops on the podcast.

Right, right. On the podcast.

You know, listeners, caveat. Beware that there is a lot of F-bombs being dropped there, but it is, and I believe him 100%, that if you don't have presence on social media, your business doesn't exist.

Exactly, exactly, exactly. I, you know, I, I love Instagram, but I don't know, I may be doing something crazy. The reason why it's not moving the needle like I wanted to, but I have found phenomenal success obsessed with Pinterest. And I was running from Pinterest like the plague, but then I was like, okay, I'll just get sick and die trying. And it took off and I thought, wow. So, you know, I guess you kind of find where it grows. And so Twitter and Pinterest is pretty much where I am all the time.

Great, great. But I also want to challenge you and challenge other people out there that, God forbid, what happens if one of these sites shut down?

Oh, yeah.

Technical difficulties. There's some big, right, confidentiality or they get hacked or whatever. Right. So, you know, that idea of us putting our stock in one platform is what I want to challenge everybody out there as I've multiple challenges throughout our conversation.

Yeah. Yeah.

The consideration, yeah, you can have based on your niche, right, for Pinterest might be really the type of people that you're that you're targeting and getting out there for. Right. But also know that that's— but you have to mix and match it because what you're putting is not going to be the exact same stuff you should put on Facebook. It could be the message, but the way it's going to show up, you have to tailor it specifically for each one of those platforms. And there's free websites out there, right? There's a designer, Canva, where it can help you make with the social media based on the sizing and everything. And it's free.

Perfect. Yeah.

Again, if you're not an expert in this, you— if your higher value is to charge a fee for doing this and it— and you're going to be spending hours doing your social media, but you should get a client to make money or tutor or whatever, send it out to someone on Fiverr.

Exactly. You can definitely, definitely. And or, I mean, that's the ideal thing to do is to send it out and get a VA. But if you can't, then I have found before I started outsourcing my work is batch work. So, you know, you can do it by the day or by the week or whatever. But that worked for me until I was able to ask, you know, get additional help.

But exactly. And that goes back to that Superman, Superwoman syndrome that everything has to be done by me. I can't trust anybody.

Well, no, it wasn't that I couldn't trust anyone. It was just I wasn't at the point in my business to where I could hire because, you know, you start off like that and you have to do almost everything until you Well, I did anyway. That was right. Yeah.

And I would say if you can afford a cup of coffee at Starbucks or Dunkin' Donuts, then you can afford for someone on— you can find someone on Fiverr for that to do it. Yeah, that's not going to be top high end. But I'm of the belief that you just put out data, right? If you have to create noise in the space, if you're the type of person that only posts once a week, Oh, you can't do that. You're gone.

Well, now, now, now, now, Jason Wasser, I do have help. I use apps. So, you know, I will scale. Like I said, when I was back, when I did batching, I batched for 30 days.

Right.

When I did my blogs, I wrote several. So I did not have to do this every week. So, yeah.

And for many people, we have to start there. And I still do some of that as well.

Right.

And as, as, as my, as you and I talked, like, I'm also in pre-production of my podcast called You Winning Life, where it's going to be about taking all these amazing life hacks from the areas of entrepreneurship, psychology, spirituality, and alternative medicine and working and talking to people who have gone from life struggles to life achievement and then giving back. What can they do? What can the listeners do to reverse engineer the life hack?

Right. Yeah.

And, and, and At the beginning, I'm like downloading all these programs and Audacity and, and until, until I reached out to a buddy of mine who I know does podcasts for a bunch of my entrepreneurial friends, we're really hanging out in the, in the higher level of those circles. And I'm like, I didn't even think to talk to him. And he made me a deal I couldn't refuse. It was like a no-brainer. And I thought it was going to be radically more expensive. And I couldn't afford to not work with him.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. I ended up reaching out to a VA to help me with mine. And I know a lot of people who are serious podcasters put a lot of money into, you know, the platform. I did not. And I don't know if I will. I guess the only thing I probably will improve probably would be the mic.. But, um, I think my mic that I'm using right now is pretty good. So I mean, you, you have people podcasting in their cars, so, you know, okay.

Um, no, well, that's the thing, right? We overthink it. We overspend, we over whatever, right? But just provide value. I just put an Instagram post up that's going to be connected to the Instagram TV. And it was about the self-doubt that we have in providing value. Don't ever And that was my little 4-minute thing for today about the imposter syndrome. And it has to be completely perfect, completely edited. There can't be mistakes. If I say, um, too many times, if I look off the screen to check my notes, someone's going to judge me.

Exactly. I was like that. I was like that when I first did the very first episode. I edited out a lot of things. And then the more podcasts I listened to, one, one podcaster I listened to, she says, uh, done is better than perfect. And so I started accepting that. And then other podcasters, you can hear the sirens, you can hear dogs barking. I was doing, um, it wasn't an interview. I was doing a podcast episode, a solo podcast episode, and I was, you know, doing my thing and my husband sneezed and I'm in my office, but he sneezed so loud. I was like, you know what, I'm just not even editing that out. I was like, you know, it's life. It's okay, right?

If you are providing value, yes, it doesn't matter. We create this in our head. And this is, you know, I really just want to provide tremendous value to your listeners today and drop as much truth as possible.

And you're right, right?

Done is better than none. I remember one of my friends, he's, um, a professor at Florida International University down in Miami. And I remember him having this idea that, like, your dissertation— if those who are doing academics, your dissertation is not to be your magnum opus Harry Potter 7 series, John Grisham, right, whatever, Michael Connelly Bosch, right, series of books. Your job is to get it done, to be approved by the dissertation committee.

Exactly. Exactly. As hard as it is, that is the job.

And that's all ego. So, so my favorite psychologist, who you may have heard of, Dr. Cube. I don't know if you've heard of Dr. Cube, the world-famous psychologist, first name Ice. One of his psychological teachings is check yourself before you wreck yourself.

Ah, okay, okay. Yes, yes, yes.

And that's what we're doing. Just provide value, right?

Yeah. And I do.

And have fun.

That's true. That's true. So whenever I have a hiccup, I mean, I do edit some of my, um, and if I get tongue-tied, I'll edit those out, but I am not editing a lot.

Exactly.

But as long as you're having fun and people see you having fun, then that's true. I know one day I was, I did, I was doing another solo podcast and my husband called and my kids called. Now I did edit those out. But for those listening, I'm podcasting.

For our listeners, real life is going to happen no matter what. Yeah, just show up, just show up and play and play your A-game. So have fun and have fun. Enthusiasm, right, for people who are figuring out what they want to do. If you're not enthusiastic about it, you might not need to do it.

That's true. That's true. Yeah. And I, I have gotten to that point to where I am going to do things that I enjoy and I'm going to laugh and have fun doing it.

So, amen, sister. You got it. You're right on.

Okay. All right. So, um, which I will be editing that out. Jason, I do have 3 rapid fire questions.

Okay, I'm ready.

Okay. All right. So the first question is cats or dogs?

Cats.

Oh my gosh. I am so glad you said cats.

And I'll tell you why.

Okay.

I, it's funny because I didn't grow up, even though we've had various pets over the years, I didn't grow up specifically loving, like I'm not right. I'm, I love nature. I love wildlife. I am very, I believe in conservation and preservation, but my, my sister, had a cat that she had since she was in middle school that passed away a few years ago. So it was like 14, 15 years old, and I didn't really mind it much attention until it got sick. And when it got sick, I'm like, I'm gonna go over tonight and spend some time with it, right? And I formed whatever bond that I thought in my mind. Unfortunately passed. And I know some people are like, cats are the devil, you know, they're so whatever, right? I love animals. I'm not a pet person for myself at the moment. I don't have any pets at the moment. But this whole thing about like, well, cats have these personalities and dogs have these personalities. I'm the type of person that when I'm out and I see a dog, I'll be like, what if it was to talk to me in a human voice? What would it sound like? Like the droopy dog voice? Or would it sound like, you know, Pepe Le Pew? I want to like, what's that dog's personality? You know, how would it talk to me? So that's what I think about, you know.

Okay. Okay. So this week you are number 5, the 5th podcast I've done, I interview. Excuse me. And all 4 of them have said dogs. I'm a cat person too. I don't have a cat at the moment, but I am a cat person.

I'm glad I can push the mold.

Yeah. My husband and I are about to be in empty nesters, and I am not bringing a pet or another responsibility into the house. My youngest daughter—

I prefer a little more freedom.

Exactly, exactly. We have— I didn't grow up with cats, but when I went off to school, I had a cat. I've had cats since then, and even when we got married, my husband, he was not necessarily a cat person, but he tolerated it because I love cats. So my youngest daughter fell in love with cats, and we bought her one one Christmas. And so he died a few years ago when she may have been in 10th grade. It hasn't been that long. And she told me back in February, she's like, you know, I'm thinking about getting a cat. I said, you need to make sure that whatever university you go 2, will accept pets because I'm not keeping—

Totally get that.

Yep. I'm not ready to do that again. So yeah.

Okay.

Okay. So the next question is, if you could travel anywhere right now, where would you go?

Oh, this is rapid fire. So I'm not supposed to think about this. No. I, right now, if I can go anywhere in the world and just jump on a plane and go, I would probably end up in Israel.

Okay, okay, awesome, awesome, awesome. We talked about that yesterday, so yes, yes, most definitely. And the last question is, and I think you touched on this earlier, but the last question is, what is your why?

My why specifically is to minimize stressors and to maximize potential, because those that invest in themselves will have a radically more successful, happy, empowered life.

Okay. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you, Jason Wasser. Well, I enjoyed interviewing you and speaking with you today. This has been truly a joy, and I know that the listeners will find this information very, very helpful. And I look forward to seeing where this goes with us.

I very much appreciate hanging out with you.

Sure, no problem.