196: Overcoming Fear Of The Unknown with Lila Z Rose - #GrowYourLife

Hey, everyone. Thanks for listening to the Grow youw Life podcast, where I help coaches and course creators scale their businesses, reach more clients, and make more money online. Now, today, I want to. Wait just a second and just pause. How do I actually pronounce your name?

It's Leela Rose.

I had a feeling that I was.

That's okay. It doesn't matter. People call you Jeremy Leela. Leela Z. Lila Z. Rose.

Lila Z. Rose.

You have to put the Z in because there's an. There's other people with the same name. So. Okay. All right.

Hey, everyone, thanks for listening to the Grow youw Life podcast. My name is Jeremic Rakowski, and on this podcast, I help coaches, mentors, course creators scale their business, get more clients, make more money, and ultimately live the life that they've always dreamed of. Today, I have a special guest, Leela Z. Rose. She helps people tap into the genius that's inside of them and accomplish what seems to be the impossible for most people. She makes it very simple and very practical for them to go after their dreams and create magic. And truly, what she's been able to do with her clients and the people she's worked with is magical. Leila, welcome to the podcast.

Thank you, Jeremiah. I'm so happy to be here.

So you and I were talking just a little bit before about the journey that coaches go on. Mentors, trainers, and you're a coach. You're a consultant. The people who listen to this podcast are coaches, consultants, mentors, and the. The sort of.

The.

The fear of the unknown is one of the biggest things when it comes to stepping out and doing something is what stops people. But before we go into that, tell. Tell the audience a little bit about yourself, a little bit about your background and how you got into doing what you're doing.

Sure. Well, I actually started in theater and then ended up in television, and I co created two animated series and ended up working with incredibly talented people. And I think the greatest moment of my life was when a producer said, you know, thanks to your ideas, I've been employed for seven years. And, I mean, is it. Is there anything better than that? There's nothing better than knowing. Yeah. And that's what creative people do. That's what genius does. It lights the flame so that other people can also benefit. Even in la, I, you know, met an actor for lunch that someone said I should meet, and it turned out he had voiced on the show that I'd worked on. So it's okay. Yeah, that's the thing. It's Lighting that flame. And I've also, you know, been the kind of person I spot genius. You know, when I was casting for television, there are people that I opened doors for who didn't get auditions because they were rejected early on. But I'd see them in a, you know, in an acting class, and I'd be like, wow, we have to get that person in. And they'd get the role that they might have been rejected for before because they weren't being seen. So the whole idea of being seen, letting genius be seen, having your genius out there is such a huge thing, and I've been a passionate advocate for that. And so just over the years, working with writers, producers, directors, like, just working with people and opening doors, poaching, and, you know, it just happens organically when you're in a creative community.

Now, before we go to this, I just want to pause for everybody here. You might be saying, wow, like, I'm not at the level of, like, who Leela works with. And like, is this really something that I'm going to glean knowledge and wisdom from? I'm just starting out in a coaching business. Here's the thing. I believe that everybody has unique genius inside of them and that every coach or course creator has a story that needs to be told. But the truth is, when we think about putting our stories out there, there's a risk, right? We don't know how it's going to turn out. We don't know how it's going to be reacted to. We don't know how people are going to take it, understand, or misunderstand it. And so what ends up stopping a lot of people is they. They want to put themselves out there. They have an idea, but they're waiting for certainty to move forward. And they. And they don't want to be criticized by people. They're even possibly afraid of backlash, people not liking them. They don't want to make mistakes. They might have a. A spirit of excellence, but then they beat themselves up when they don't reach that. And so what would you just say to encourage somebody who's dealing with this? I guess you could say performance anxiety when it comes to coaching, when it comes to putting their business out there, they want to do great things, but they're waiting until they feel ready to do so.

Well, you know, I've supported in the sense of, like, being a dream facilitator. That's how I like to look at it for people from all over the world, and that includes refugees, immigrants, people in it. Like, I've really supported people at every possible level that you can imagine of the human experience when it comes to trying to achieve a dream. And the number one thing I just. I've discovered, and it's something that I think, you know, you just organically do in how you coach. If you pull yourself out of the. Your identity as being a small thing and perceive yourself as the protagonist and hero of your story, not an extra in your own story, that creates a completely different approach and mindset.

Yes.

And then you understand you're in a hero journey. Every single obstacle is like Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter or, you know, Wonder Woman. You're not just an average person walking around trying to make something happen. Your dreams and goals have a ripple effect to all the people you love that you're trying to support with your success, because we all have that right, whether it's an immediate family or a group of friends. I have friends that are highly creative, that don't get to express their creativity because of their financial situation. So dreams are usually bigger than you anyway. So if you stop perceiving yourself as this small person buffeted by all these forces arrayed against you, and realize that's exactly what heroes deal with.

Yeah.

And start perceiving yourself that way and identifying as the hero, not the extra, your whole being starts to change in the way that you approach every opportunity and obstacle.

And to that, let me ask you this, because there's. There's people that. They're just like, I. I hear you, Leela, but I've never done anything you've done so much. Like, I'm a nobody. And, And. And they feel like. Like, they're like. But they have a message. They want to help people, but they're just. They're just stuck feeling like, what can I do? And so is there. What would you say to speak to that? Because, again, I agree with what you said. But a lot of people, they're. The evidence in their life doesn't point to that reality. And so a lot of people are like, well, I want to be a realist. Like, I'm. I'm a nobody. And so how. How do you help people kind of see that they're not just a nobody, that they actually have a lot to offer, and that inside of every single person. I believe every single person listening to this podcast can impact thousands and tens of thousands of lives, but maybe they just don't see it yet.

Well, I think I. I think not seeing it yet is common. But, you know, I had a friend who ended up on set as an extra. And he called me all excited because the director spotted him and gave him a line, and he said, I've got a line, I've got a line. And I, you know, I think to myself, why not just give yourself a line? You know, what, what is it you want to say? What sentence? If you had one sentence to say to people, what. What would that be? You've just, You've just elevated yourself from extra to, to, you know, actor on set. Right? And so I think what happens with people, we have a huge investment in false modesty. Because I really believe anyone that has a dream, deep down, really deep down, has that dream because deep down they actually do believe they can achieve it. But they have so many internalized. Don't be conceited. You know, don't. Don't they have so much internalized shame around the idea of success, around the idea of, of being out there. When I say be out there, like, I'm an introvert. I write books. Like, I, you know, I'm often behind the scenes. I'm not, I'm not necessarily. I've been in front of the camera, I've been behind the camera, but I'm often happiest alone writing with my plastic plant. Like, I don't even have a pet. So, yeah, so I totally understand, like, shyness. But what happens is, if you have a dream, if you keep saying, I'm just an ordinary person, I will tell you what Stan Lee said. Because I heard Stan Lee talk about this very thing. I watched him live in an interview at Comic Expo when he was still with us, this incredible man that had so much of an impact, gave us the Marvel Universe, along with his creative colleagues. And people were asking, how did you create? Why did you create what you created? And he said something about, I look at myself and I say, there's a big world out there. There's billions of people. Now I'm just another guy. I'm an. I'm like an average, ordinary guy. So if I love something, if I love a character, if I love a story, if I love something, and if you're an entrepreneur, if I love a product, surely there's a million people in this billion people world. Billions, millions. Surely there's a million people that like it too, because I'm like other people. So if you're sitting there thinking, I'm average, I'm this and that, well, actually, you're probably better positioned to speak to a lot of people, if that's the case.

Yep. And, and, and that's why I always say imposter syndrome actually points to the fact that you are qualified to go out there feeling like, oh, like I'm not good enough yet. Most people who feel that actually are way more qualified than, than not because you'll usually have the. So the Dunning Kruger effect is where when people first learn about knowledge of a topic, they feel like they know everything right away and they're like, I could tell the world about it, but then immediately they drop down in their knowledge and they're like, wow, I don't know anything. And so what I found is that most people, when they get to that point of I don't know anything is actually when they've reached the qualification to show people what they know and to guide people and to lead people at that level. Which is why you don't need years of experience as an expert to be a coach. You don't need years of experience as a course creator and, and all these case studies to be able to share with people what have you learned along the way from your experience. And if you just find somebody who's a little bit further behind where you're at and help raise them up to a level of where you're at and guide them while you're simultaneously growing, learning new skills, learning about marketing, defeating your fears, not letting your fears hold you back, that's where I think, I think the magic happens, is being willing to take that risk. Everything's risky. There's no such thing as no risk no matter what you do. If we're looking for, okay, what's the perfect moment where I have where there's no risk and then that's when I'm going to strike. That's a fantasy that doesn't exist on planet Earth.

I will say that anything I've ever done successfully, I've done for the first time. I threw myself into, like I became a development executive in having never been a development. Yeah, me too.

Anything that I've been successful at, I did for the first time. Some people might say, well, that's great for you guys because like, that's your personality. But my personality is I'm a planner or I'm a I, I need it all mapped out perfectly. I need to know that it's going to work. I need certainty, I need a sure foundation or I don't have time to waste for it not to work out.

Well, that's, that's a hard one too because I think that persistence obviously pays. I've seen that time and time again. I mean, I, I know an actor who, for example, was. I ran into him. We hadn't seen each other in a while. He was upset because he'd gotten all these auditions and callbacks and wasn't booking anything. And I, I gave him the hang in there speech. Right. Nothing feels like he was doing landscaping. Here's this huge talent, you know, nobody know, a huge talent nobody knows about. And you have to sometimes look at yourself and go, maybe I am a talent that nobody knows about because I'm not actually letting myself know about it, you know? Right. Because life is, life is audition, dress rehearsal, performance. Right. But if you never allow yourself to get to the audition because you don't believe you're good enough, it's tragic a little bit for me because I hate seeing people give up on themselves before they've even tried. So this person had tried and tried and tried. It wasn't working. It wasn't working. And I had to. You know, part of being a dream facilitator, part of being a coach is reminding people that who they are is, is not what they have already achieved, it's what they're what, it's what they're attempting to do. It's their action. Right. So that that's who they are, it's how they show up, that that's who they are. And if they're having a gap between actually showing up for, for the audition or the presentation, I mean, I've helped people do presentations. I've helped people, you know, sort of pitch, whether it's in Hollywood or a boardroom, it's actually the emotions are exactly the same.

That's true.

You know, and people. Yeah. And I think, and I learned a lot from you actually about just showing up as you are without, without the fear of being perfect, without the fear of making the wrong impression. Because we all, at some point or another make the wrong impression. And who cares if you do cares and who cares? And also like as much as all these things have really high stakes sometimes, like I've pitched for multi million dollar projects and all that stuff. Was I perfect? No. I have care that I can't control. I have like, you know, I don't have the perfect white American, ultra bright smile. Like there's lots of things about me where I walk in and I feel so uncomfortable and I'm like, oh my God, I'm around people again. Right. And as much as I love people being on the spot, being like having my performance judged or anything like that is actually so terrifying. And. But yet what I find is if you Figure out what you love about what you're doing, because it's not actually even about you. It's about the love of what you're doing. And if you're able to connect with the love of what you're doing and what you're giving, that's where you're coming from, and that's what you're speaking to, not whether you're worth being in that room.

Yeah, that's good. So I want to make this practical for everybody. We talk about in our coaching program the six steps for people to work through finding their niche, starting to write their offer copy, create an offer, do a live zoom call, attract your target client to that a lot of what you just talked about, because real practically, people get stuck even picking their niche because they don't want it to be the wrong niche. They don't want it to be a wrong niche. Now they wasted their time. Now they put something out there and it didn't work out. And so they would. They. They would rather sit on the sidelines and say, man, as soon as I pick my niche, then I'll start to move forward. I got a message this morning from a lady who literally, word for word, pretty much said that, Jeremiah, as soon as I pick my niche, I'm going to join your coaching program. She's been saying that for a year to me. She's been saying, as soon as I pick my niche, I'll join your coaching program. And I. And, and, and. And I laugh. But I also want to have compassion for that person because it's like, that's not working. And I think if we look at that like that. But that was. That's trained behavior. That's learned behavior.

I'm laughing because it's so familiar.

Like, yeah, right. It's familiar with me.

I'm not laughing at them. I'm laughing at myself because it's so familiar. Right.

So check this out. Yeah. I was supposed to do the LLC paperwork to move my company from Arizona to Texas. I started that process in July. I just finished it this week. And so. But because literally, I came up with the like, well, I don't know how to do it. Well, it took me. So I contacted, like, four attorneys, and they're like, we don't really do that. Most people just do it themselves. Literally. I actually had attorneys just tell me to do it myself.

Wow.

Which is funny. I'm like, can't I hire you? No, I don't really do that.

Okay.

So I actually tried to go to an attorney to hire them. To do it. And they're just like. They're like, you can figure it out. And I finally did. And I. And I did figure it out, and it was actually way easier than I thought. I was just overthinking the whole process.

Well, I'm the queen of overthinking. Like, if there was an Olympic sport called overthinking, I would be on the podium, I'd have you come up with.

You simulate in your brain the 20 ways that it can go wrong and. Right.

Yeah. But I think that's why. That's why journaling and creating, like, one thing that people are afraid of, they're afraid of the story going bad. Right. Like. Like, like if they pick the other thing, too. I think you have to have a compelling. Why. And a compelling dream. Right? So somebody that.

Oh, that's good.

That's really the key. And by the way, that's how you write a screenplay or you write a novel. It's like your protagonist has to have. And, you know, you can have more than one protagonist, potentially, like, as ensemble, but each one has to have a very compelling dream. And because if they don't have a compelling dream, they don't have a compelling desire. And then what happens is there's no investment. Right. I see.

I rarely ever talk about this, which I think you're landing on something as to why sometimes I never talk about this side of it, which is good. So keep going. This is amazing.

Well, I think if you have a compelling dream, you're willing to do anything. You're willing to pick up the sword and win the sword fight, and, you know, like, I love or lose or lose, and then.

Yeah, you're willing to lose because the dream is bigger than losing.

Yes, exactly. I mean, that's a beautiful. So beautiful way to put it. And speaking of losing, like, I took. I took three and a half years to write my memoir of Panama because I believe so deeply in craft and the beauty of the words and how important it had to be. And somebody came up to me and said, it's a memoir. You already know what happens. Why is it taking so long? Right. So from. So from that perspective, like, I was losing every single day that it wasn't getting done, that people were thinking, why is this girl taking so long to write a memoir?

Yeah.

So what happens is, like, the story that I tell, the story that we tell about ourselves is. Has to be a big enough dream. I got the memoir done. I got it out. But when I got it out, I was proud of what I created. Right. So I had a compelling literary art dream, for lack of a better term. But. But the point is. And I broke. I wrote through a broken arm, and I wrote through so many different things because my dream was so compelling. Because English is not my first language, I fell in love with that language. And when you.

And I couldn't tell by talking with.

You, well, I came. I came to Canada when I was five. But the thing is, the point I'm trying to make is, like, for me, it was so much more than just plunking words on the page. There was a much bigger and deeper compelling dream in the creation of that. If someone's saying, I just got to pick my niche, they may have three other dreams. Oh, I need to be there for my kids. I need to. Oh, you know, I.

Actually, those dreams are more important.

Those dreams are more.

And that's great. That's amazing.

They just have to.

I don't want to shame anybody out of that.

Yeah, they just have to be aware. In fact, they should be celebrating. Oh, I actually have other dreams.

Yes. But if you honest about what their. Their real dream is, that's a.

You know, that's a huge part of it. And that does also play into screenwriting and all that, because a lot of times what happens is your character along the way discovers that. Oh, maybe the dream that I had, like, oftentimes too.

Those are the best stories, too.

Those are often such deeper meaning stories. Like, I mean, even if you look at Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, he wants to, you know, save the world and save the planet and all that stuff, but he's an orphan. And in a big deal way, when he discovers who his sister is, when he discovers who his family really is, that's such a huge.

And he creates a family with his friends.

Exactly right. Because really, deep down, what he was missing was family. Wow. And that's the core of.

That's the core of the whole hero's journey of Star Wars.

Yeah. Yeah. And so I think the. What the. What we're getting to is that being able to articulate what your core dream actually is and seeing yourself as the hero of that core dream is going to make you a lot more effective in achieving it.

I think for me, it's funny, like, sometimes I'm like, I don't want to, like, tell people this core dream on my part. Here's what I love about podcasts like this. I'm super. Get to be super vulnerable in a way that I don't normally get to, like, in a coaching interaction or When I'm just monologuing. And so, like, one of my big dreams really is, like. Like, I want history books to have my name in it. Like. Like, people in the future to know who I am. And. And. And for what, I'm not sure, but I know that, like, the trajectory that I'm headed, even if that's not the case, the. The people that I've worked with, I know history will write about and the people that I impact, and I know that I'm headed, like, in that direction, and everything that I do is really sort of working in that way. And I. And I see art and storytelling and video games and technology converging around that as my big dream. But right now, in this season, it's. I want to find a thousand coaches and course graders and help them become multimillionaires, because I know how to do that. And, like, I don't feel like there's very many people that do what I do, that coach other coaches and course creators that have that level of confidence in their ability to create other millionaire coaches. And so I'm excited to, like, just. I want to find those thousand people that are going to become millionaires and. And help them reach that level, help them make over $83,333 a month consistently for 12 months at a time, because that's all that $1 million is. If you actually break it down 12 months at a time, it's $83,333 a month times 12 equals 1 million. That's 1,000 people paying you $1,000 in one year. That's 500 people paying you $2,000 in one year. And when you really break it down and simplify it to that level, and then you take what you just shared, what is the real dream? What is that real reason? Well, for. For me, again, I look at. I. I want a life that my children can take this vision and stand on top of. And I look at what my mom is doing. That was a big part of her vision as well, is a life for her children to stand on her shoulders. And so I see this as even, like, a generational dream that goes to my grandchildren and great grandchildren. And I don't know what they're going to accomplish, but. And I even get choked up because my. My first son is. Is gonna be born. I don't know what he's gonna do, but I know that if I pour into him these. These lessons that he can accomplish anything he dreams of and imagines. And to go out there and Take a risk and experiment and just try things out and not be afraid of what happens and. And being really clear on what his vision is. And his vision doesn't have to be what my vision is. It can be completely different. Like. Like he could look back at this episode, you know, and. And hear that and maybe remind me if I ever go off track and become overbearing towards what my vision for his life is. Right. As a parent, because I feel like that ends up naturally happening as happening as parents. And so here's what I would ask you is for the people listening to this podcast right now, maybe they've never dreamed or actually had a vision or they don't know what their dream is. How can they start to identify it?

Well, you know, it's really interesting that you asked that of a writer that is a discovery writer, because I'm actually not an outline writer. I sit down and I just start writing and I find. And I discover it as I go. And it's an incredible thrill when I get to a point where I go, oh, that's what the character really dreams of. That's what they really want. That's what their fear is. I might have only a vague idea when I start. 475 pages later. I know.

Yes.

If you don't know, then you're actually in sometimes even a better position because you're not afraid of the unknown. Because you don't know. Right. So I know that. I know that. We all. We all want certainty, we all want safety, we all want security. I totally get that. Yeah.

It's a natural human thing.

It's a natural human thing, but so is curiosity.

Yes.

And. And that's another, like one of the number one thing about storytelling is what's going to happen next? What's going to happen next? When I sit down to write, I don't know. I only have a kind of vague sense. I might have a sense of roughly where it's going, but I don't know what next line. I don't know what next action my character is going to take. And so if you fall in love with discovery, if you fall in love with this idea, that you can look at it either scientifically, I get to experiment and see if I blow up the lab or not.

And it's okay to blow up the lab? Yeah.

And it's okay. Or you can look at it from a storytelling perspective. I'm on a treasure hunt and I don't know what's around the corner. Am I going to find the next clue?

Yep.

And if you, if you allow yourself to look out onto the world and instead of seeing all of the potential pitfalls and all of those, if you recognize that, that whatever you're aiming for, even if your dream is going to grow, change, get bigger, you know, your niche is going to change, whatever it's who is how you grow as a person. That is the legacy that you take with you when you go. You see, because we may not be able to take money we leave. Money we leave. And there's Right. I, I have huge respect for cohesive families because I, my family couldn't sustain that for many reasons. I'm a child of divorce, single parent, all of that stuff. So when I see, when I see a provider, especially a man that's able to show up for his family, like, it really touches my heart because my.

Well, I didn't grow up in a family like that either.

Yeah. And I think. But when I lost my mom, one of the things that struck me so powerfully was her legacy was her behavior. You know, she was a good person. She was a caring woman. She had a dream to take care of kids. And when the providing support, like the co provider was taken away and it was all on her shoulders, she stepped up. My mother, My mother had a small dream, just, I just want a home and my kids to be okay and put food on the table. But she's like, soldier for that.

Amazing. Like you're, yeah, like you're hearing me. Like I got like Elon Musk level dreams, but like hear me out. Like no dream is too small, like. Or insignificant.

Exactly.

That's your dream. Like amazing. Like own that and create it.

Exactly. You're still the hero though of your own story in that dream. You know, I don't, I know someone who's, you know, with her husband, raised four kids, had a cafe and you know, saved my sanity when I was writing my first book. Let me in early before anybody else so I could just, you know, start to write. Eventually sold it, retired now has grand kids, has the best Christmas party and Hanukkah party of anybody in the world. And she just fills my heart with joy every time I even think about her. We are all contributors. Yes. We are all dream makers all the time. In everything, in every life we touch. And it's all a legacy. All of it's a legacy.

I love this, I love this conversation. I'm going to refer back to this to a lot of people to listen to because this goes into what we teach in our, in our coaching program. A Huge part of it. What you said about making it, whether it be you blow up the lab or. Or a treasure hunt, the way that I see for coaches and course creators to be successful is you're on a treasure hunt and the treasure is inside of the minds of your. Of your prospective coaching clients. But you haven't uncovered yet what their deepest desires are. And so you can't uncover it simply by sitting on a couch and writing it in a notepad or mapping it out. So that's why most people who set out to build a coaching business and they spend six months to a year mapping out their niche, mapping out their program, and it flops and they don't succeed when you actually need to create an offer. When we talk about an offer, it's. The offers that we use are usually live Zoom calls where we invite people to join us, and then I share to that group of people about a topic that solves a problem for them. But there's a. But there's an ulterior motive behind doing that. And I'm even learning I need to teach it as, that there really is an ulterior motive behind doing that. The ulterior motive is entirely this. I want to create an opportunity to listen to people's desires and to find that treasure that's inside their mind. And so if they can tell you what that is, how do they tell you? I put a survey at the beginning of the, the. The free training I invite them to. What's your biggest struggle as it relates to the topic of the live event that we're doing? What would you like to learn from me? And people tell me what those things are? So now then I document out all of those answers, and then I build my entire coaching program and offers around what I didn't know on the treasure hunt inside of people's minds that they now offered up for free in exchange for the value that I'm delivering. So that's what's really cool, is it's a value exchange. A lot of people see their offers as, okay, I'm delivering value for their email address. I take it a step further. I'm delivering value to get the feedback from them, because I'm doing this specifically to hear from people who may or may not be my target client. What are they struggling with? What are their deepest desires? And what would a solution to that look like? I want to know the dreams and desires of those that I'm coaching. And so if you're a coach, if you're a course creator, creating live Zoom events Opportunities where you can gather people in front of you for the purpose of getting inside of their mind and asking, okay, what is your deepest struggle? What would you like to learn? What are you dealing with? Like what is stopping you? Then that data, that's the gold right there. Treasure that. Then I take that into our AI copywriting tools. Jasper AI Chat GPT. Jasper just added Jasper Chat this week, which is actually a better version of Chat GPT inside of Jasper trained on what they do. And so, and it's, it's also free for a limited time right now for people that are using Jasper to use. I take the gold that I've sort of, I'm like sifting gold. I see myself as a prospector sifting gold. And what's in it is, I'm sifting, sifting, sifting. A lot of it is dirt, but there's gold. From those answers, what, what are they struggling with? What are the questions they ask? And then the AI identifies the gold and creates offers for me off of that. And so, you know, I don't have even have to think that hard about well, what should I coach on? Well, what should my niche be? Because you want to start with sort of a vague niche idea, but then create an opportunity for your audience to tell you what the real niche is and your audience gives you the answer when you create an opportunity for them to feel safe, to be vulnerable with you, to tell you what they're struggling with. Most people I found over the last four years I wasn't creating a safe space for people to tell me what they were struggling with. I was, I was truthfully, I was demanding people tell me what they were struggling with and nobody would. And I was getting really frustrated because I'm like, join me for a live for a free 15 minute call. Nobody was scheduling calls with me. I'm like, I'm literally offering coaching. I built eight figure coaching businesses. I'm letting you do a call with me for free. Why are you not taking these calls? I was getting pissed off at my audience about it until I realized, okay, you're not creating a safe space for people to even tell you their problems. And so I had to look internally into how can I actually make this a safe space to where they feel like, okay, I'm not going to get hurt or taken advantage of by sharing these problems. And then that's what we create our, our offers around. I did growing your email list the fun way. Get more paid clients, launch your six figure coaching offer. So this, the past two weeks I've Created eight instances where people have verbally told me on a Q and A what their problems are. And now I'm going back to the drawing board with my AI and building out my next three to five offers off of the words that they gave me. And so that's such a huge part of the process that we teach, that we coach on, that we help people with, is, how do you sift that gold? How do you find that gold and go on a treasure hunt and find what is the one? It could be one line. It could be one sentence that somebody says, oh, oh, I'd like to learn this from Jeremiah, or I'm struggling with this. I identified a lot of people really need help with their funnels. I didn't teach anything on funnels for four years. I'm like, you can find so much free training on funnels everywhere. But people kept coming to me asking me to teach funnels, and now we're starting to see the results of it. As I've been teaching that and even teaching something I didn't want to teach on, but because people wanted me to share it from my perspective, they're now getting results because that's actually me humbling myself a little bit, saying, okay, I don't want to teach on this, but people are asking for it constantly. I'm going to give them what they want. And now the gold is coming out. We're having clients making tens of thousands of dollars with their offers in the coaching program. And so that's. That's just what's incredible. And you're. You're in that program as well. Lila. Leila. Sorry. Actually, I have. Lila. Lila.

That's okay. I answered both because it actually is pronounced differently in different countries, so. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's totally cool. I love everything that you're. It's a lot to do with, like, one of my favorite authors, Janet Ivanovich, who wrote One for the Money, and it became a film with Katherine Heigl, and she. She writes the famous Stephanie Plum series. And she spent the first 10 years of her life only hearing, no, no, no, no, no, no, go away. She ended up. She started with, like, this big of a box for her rejections, and by the time she was done, it was a shirt box. And she ended up giving up completely after 10 years of no, no, no, no, no. Just gave up completely. Burned her rejection letters outside on her stoop, crying, went and. And went and became a secretary. Or actually, I think it was more. She worked in insurance, but it was kind of like a temp thing. She talks about, you know, borrowing a suit and going to work in office. And four months into it, she was out with one of her children to, like, you know, taking them skating or swimming or something. And her husband and her son, she was with her daughter, her husband, her son came to her, put their arms around her and said, you editor called. And what had happened was one of the very last things she wrote was a romance novel in a popular genre because she had not been listening to what people really wanted to read. She had not been hearing what her talent was really meant to do, because deep down, she wanted to be a popular, entertaining, fun, happy author. But she was writing what she thought. And I've. Listen, I've made the same mistake myself, but it's not really a mistake because we're always learning. I blew up the lab. The lab blew up, and now I'm learning how to make a nicer lab. Yeah, it's that thing where you want to give something. Like, I wanted to give literary because the English language had given me so much freedom in communication, and I love it so deeply. So I wanted to give this big, you know, deep memoir, only to realize when the memoir was done, oh, wait, I'm not famous. Who's actually going to want to read the memoir of somebody they've never heard of before? And as much as I, you know, have.

Have they will when you become famous?

Well, yes, and. And more power to them. And it's very vulnerable. It's very real. It's very honest memoir. But the point being, when I was done, I realized, oh, and the funny thing was, people sometimes think it's chick lit because it's written in a very entertaining way. But what I realized was, wait a minute. Have I really heard the real dream? My real dream is that I want to make people laugh and I want to uplift them, and I want to tell sweeping, beautiful, romantic, but also mythical stories like, what's my real dream? And if you don't, I wouldn't have really, you know, as much as I. As much as I am starting to get a much better sense of who I am. Part of what happened when you're talking about, I didn't create a safe space. All you're really talking about is getting to the point where you know what question to ask. You create a beautiful space for to ask the question where people see, feel safe to answer, and then you listen and hear the answer. Every single person listening to this podcast right now has that skill. Yeah, every single person, if they want to 100% ask, you know, what's your struggle with this? What's your dream for this?

It's actually one of the most natural human skills that we all possess, but sometimes we walk away from because of life beliefs, experiences. We learn it as kids.

Yeah, we learn how people feel. We care. Like we care if somebody's struggling. We care if somebody wants, you know, want something. Like we care. And I think what happens is we get so caught up in performance anxiety. Right. I must coach and I must like when I'm on this, you know, when I'm in this five day challenge I've given, I must, you know, be the lecturer, the leader, the give it my all. Coaching is exactly opposite. It's, it's the sharing, hearing, caring, listening. It's really holding that, that space. And I've seen the difference when, when a coach is just caught up in their own. I'm great, I'm wonderful. Monologuing, monologue. And, and as opposed to the way.

You coach, which is narcissistic, monologuing is what I like to call it.

Yeah. And they can be really like, some people can be really, they can be.

Really successful doing that too.

Yeah, that's their, that, you know, that's their thing. That's their natural thing.

But that's more the exception, not the rule.

Well, what I find that I love about your coaching style is it's very authentic, it's very present. You're, when you share from your authentic play self, it's to, to give the rest of us permission to realize that we don't have to be perfect to, to take steps and be successful. We don't actually need to know what our niche is perfectly before we take action. And that's something that you've helped me get over a lot because, you know, I, I, I mean, I'm in an industry where criticism, criticism, criticism, criticism, like that is. I eat criticism for breakfast, lunch, dinner. Like, I mean, that's just, that's just such a common thing if you're in the entertainment business. And I remember, you know, I remember being in theater school and one of my, my professors said, imagine you're a pharmacist and every time you write a prescription, there's an audience waiting to judge you. Because that's, that's what being in the arts, like, I started asking, you know, and if, if I wasn't being judged, if I even behind the scenes, judgment, judgment, judgment. Oh, why that line? You know, why did you make a character that did this? Why did you like. Judgment, judgment, judgment. And so you have to. You. You. What happens is because, like, what we're really talking about at the end of the day is people having courage.

Yes.

People having. Encouraged to take action even when they don't know exactly their perfect niche. They don't even mean. You may not even know what your actual dream is until you get it.

And here's a really good idea on that. The courage to not have to be in your final form. The courage to not have to be an original right away. Meaning, like, I think a lot of people wait until they're like, okay, well, I'm so different from everybody else, or what could I do? Because everybody else is already doing this. I'm not. I'm not original enough. I hear that as a reason for people, too. It's okay to be kind of a combo of like five or six different niches out there that you've seen in the beginning, and it will morph into your originalness.

Well, that's. That's what improvisation. Like, if any. I really suggest, like, if anyone's really struggling with putting themselves out because they have to have everything perfect, take an improv class.

Yep.

You know, I was like, I was taking Second City improv classes because I. Because I wanted to do that as my part of my creativity, but I saw people as salespeople. I saw people like, you know, executives taking those classes because they're like, I just want to get out of my shell a little bit more.

Yeah.

I just, like, I just want to learn how to be a little bit more spontaneous because. And then you'd have things throwing at you, and you'd have to, like, in that moment, come up with a line. And sometimes that would help unlock people. But I think the thing is, like, at the end of the day, if you want. If your. If your desire is bigger than your desire to stay safe, that's when I think you really start getting momentum. Like, that's it. Yeah. And for me, I just don't want to. I just don't want to live an unfulfilled life. My mom died quite young, and I'm not too far from. From that time. And I don't. I just. I want to know that at the end of the day, I. I actually did give it my all, and I showed up. And I think that a lot. Like I've heard the phrase in coaching, earn while you learn. Because. Because if you have to be perfect, you're actually not actually helping anyone. Like, I was helping. I was 19, 20, 23, spotting talent and saying, go for it. Like, you know, and. And really articulating to people like, why. Why go for it? You know, I've been. I've been doing organically and naturally dream, like facilitating people's dreams organically and naturally way before I had any success myself. Because the human spirit wants to not just strive. The human spirit doesn't want to always be in striving. It wants to cross the finish line first. It wants to get on the gold podium. It wants to soar and be, you know, have bigger and bigger dreams. And if you never take that step out that front door.

Yeah.

The problem is, it's not. The problem isn't that you didn't achieve. Problem is, is that you stifled yourself and you didn't grow. And so it really doesn't matter if. If the dream is big or small. What matters is that you let your dream just be bigger than your dream of staying comfortable and small.

And I think that that's really. Again, it goes back to something that I say a lot is actually owning the fact that you're responsible for your actions each day. That the actions that you take aren't because of other people. They aren't because of environmental factors. They aren't because of what's happening to you or what's happened to you. Now, what's happened to you might have created certain beliefs. What' happening around you might be creating certain circumstances that make it harder, but you're responsible for. How do I make decisions with all this going on? Rather than we think, okay, as soon as all of this trouble around me is gone, then I can be successful. As soon as all this chaos is gone, as soon as things are in order, when the truth is that the magic of storytelling, coaching, building a business happens inside of uncertainty and chaos and not having it all planned out, that it only comes together where it looks like it was put together by starting from that sort of hurricane of energy and really finding your own peace in the middle of the hurricane to start to create.

Well, I think if you knew. Okay, so I have heating, plumbing, all kinds of issues going on. My building actually went down, went dark Christmas Day last year. So I'm coming up to that traumatic moment where I will.

My wife almost got T boned an hour ago.

Oh, my God. Yeah. And I'm surrounded by boxes by now. Although your wife, like, thank God she's okay.

She's fine. But yeah, it was.

Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

But here I am, right?

Yeah, we are. And this is spontaneous and unplanned, like, in case nobody realizes that. But I think that. But that getting to a point where you can jump on a podcast spontaneously and unplanned. Like, I. When I started my podcast, it's. And it's, you know, it's not. It's still, you know, developing podcast, but when I started, it was in the midst of the pandemic, because somebody speaking to the.

Great lessons in that.

Well, thank you. That's so kind. And I really wanted to help people mint their genius, so I called it minted genius. But it also came out of listening to someone that I knew had worked so hard to get the ma One of my fellow MA Ers, for lack of a better term, because we got our MA and novel writing, and she was saying, oh, it's a pandemic. My kids are home. I have to help them on this side. I don't know if I'm going to get my novel done. And I just. My heart broke a little because she was in the midst of chaos, and she couldn't find even 10 minutes to give herself the gift of the thing that she actually deeply wanted, that she just worked to do, which was to spend time with her novel. And the thing is, even if she just stares at a blank page, spending 10 minutes reaffirming something deeply beautiful about yourself is important. And so I started my podcast in the midst of my own chaos, with no plan and not knowing where it was going to go. But I just. I just had desire. And, you know, I've heard it said, like, you don't need money, you don't need contacts, you don't need. There's so many things you don't need as much as you need desire.

Yep. Yep. And desire. Desire isn't something that your coach is going to give you. Desire isn't even something you're going to pick up off of a podcast. That's the inner work. That's the responsibility that, like, you could listen to a podcast like this. I believe that there are people that are listening to this podcast right now. They're listening to this recording, and it's going to be a massive breakthrough in their life. But I also know that there are people who are going to listen to this, and they're not going to do anything with it, and they're going to be in the same place a year from now. That's the personal choice that we all have, the personal responsibility. Are you going to take a message like this, do something with it, or are you going to keep living life the same way that you have the last three to five years? And I think that that's the choice that we all have to make. Every single day, every single month, every single week, I take a look at, okay, what's a habit that I've been dealing with for 20 years? What's a habit that I've been dealing with for 10 years, for five years? What's a habit that I picked up two years ago that is no longer serving me anymore? What's a habit that I picked up six months ago? And I'm looking at certain habits and I'm saying, are these serving me for my ultimate vision and goal? One of the big ones for me is when people come at me and get nasty and accuse me of things, it really shuts me down emotionally. But I'm realizing where I am going with my goals. That's only going to get worse. And so I need to work on the inner work of, okay, how do I not literally completely shut down, freeze and, and, and truthfully, it's. It's about healing trauma. And I'm. And that's what I'm working with my therapist on is that. That shutdown that I have where I literally go from like, who you see here to like, just wanting to curl in a ball for no reason whatsoever other than somebody said something mean to me online.

I'm so glad you brought that up. I'm so, so glad you brought that up because I think that. That people are so afraid of putting themselves out there, even in small ways, let alone online, where you feel exposed. And the, the reality is this, the things that make us feel shame is the idea that the worst thing said about us is true. And so when we're vilified, when we're vilified, it just brings us back to. To this place of questioning our very right to exist. And because the biggest. The biggest thing, like whether someone takes action or doesn't take action or whatever, but the biggest thing I hope people take from this today is your self perception.

Yes.

Is a hundred percent in your power.

Yes.

And that is the key to everything. Your self perception is 100. Your power.

That's it.

And, and to be really huge. Yeah. Be willing to take responsibility for that is a big thing. That's not to say you won't get hurt. That's not to say you won't feel triggered. That's not to say you won't end up in a ball on the couch. I certainly. I mean, gosh, I mean, I have. I told you stories. Oh, my goodness.

Yeah. Yesterday. Yesterday I literally was like, I had a thought. I'm like Can I. Am I helping anybody? Like.

Today you're talking to someone that you've helped enormously in a very short period of time. Yeah, right.

We all have that.

We all have that.

We all deal with it.

But I want to talk about imposter syndrome for a moment because I think you just. You just nailed what I think imposter syndrome is. Because I don't believe in imposter syndrome. I don't think anyone actually has what's called imposter syndrome. What I actually think is the world is mean and hard sometimes. Yeah, right. And it likes to lie to you and convince you that you're not good enough. It likes to throw these daggers at you and say. And say, you know, Jeremiah, you shouldn't be out there, Leela. Who do you think you are? I feel like it's impossible for anybody, no matter how great and big and talented and Elon Musk and who knows, and whatever. Angelina Jolie, everybody. It's impossible for anyone to get a breath and feel like I have the right to. To my own greatness, to my own inherent greatness, because there's always somebody waiting in the wings to try to take it, take you down. So you don't have imposter syndrome. We just live in a world that can sometimes be hostile. And. And that's why surrounding yourself with love, whether it's family or friends or community, whatever you find, it is so. Is so critically important. That one.

Creating your safety.

Yeah. And that one that opened her cafe, that safe place for me, at 6 o' clock in the morning, 6:15, dark winter night, minus 20. But I could quietly go into the cafe before anybody was there, and she would make me my very first, you know, espresso of the day. She created this idea of what safety feels like in my mind in a way that I had never been able to birth an entire book before. But she would not have offered that if I hadn't started writing the book before I even met her. Right. Like that. That safe space didn't arrive until I had already put out what I was going.

And so many people are waiting for their safe space to arrive, waiting till they have it or they feel it before they start. When, in fact, usually that safety that we're looking for materializes by us doing the work, by us stepping out in a risky place.

It's such a paradox. But I think it's because we're not here to just. To just be. We're here. We're here to grow as souls. It's a soul journey that's the hero journey. Like, when I talk about the hero journey, the author journey, the protagonist journey, when I talk about that hero journey, I'm really actually speaking. Speaking about the human soul journey.

Yeah.

Because that is what we human beings have. Have deeply found meaning in and have been fascinated by from, like, the dawn of time. So the moment we could tell stories, the moment we could cave paint, the moment we could act out the hunt, the moment we could tell those stories, we elevated our experience into. Into something that imprints on our soul.

Yeah.

I believe that's what we take with us. I. We may be leaving beautiful material things for the people that we love because so they could have more opportunity to mint their genius and live their full potential. But what we take with us is what we learned, how we loved, how we grew.

That's so good. I love that this has been such a great conversation with you. Thank you so much for being here. And how can people plug in with you and learn more about what you're doing?

Sure. Well, I have my podcast. It's called Minted Genius M I N T E D Genius with Lilizzy Rose. I also have my Lila Z Rose website. Awesome. And people like, I just have. For right now, I just have this, you know, Gmail from into genius because we're launching and lots of things are happening. So somebody wants to reach me even by email. It's mint to genius gmail.com. and yeah, I love let's simple. Like this is another thing like just really proving you can put yourself out there even with a Gmail address. You do not if somebody I know is making 10k a month as a coach with a Gmail address. So, yeah, you know, just the courage to just be who you are, where you are. And also the honesty of, like, telling people, right now I'm surrounded by boxes and I have a Gmail address. And yet I dream big for myself and for others. And so I feel like at the end of the day, we just. We just show up as we are and we. We build from there. And when you said I, like, create magic, well, it's because I see the hugest possibility. Even in the tiny seed, I already see the tree. I already see, you know, what. What can blossom and grow. And I really. You. You help give me courage. I mean, you're. You've changed me so much more than I can even possibly say in such a short period of time to have the courage to take action. Which is what I'm so glad that that's helped you. And you do it by example. You don't just do it by, by lecturing, you actually do it by doing it yourself as well. And I greatly admire you for that, Jeremiah.

That's something huge to learn. Just as coaches, course creators, what we do by example, the people that we coach will follow. And so in the beginning, you mentioned halfway through this, people taking improv. I didn't take improv classes, but I committed to making one live video a day, unscripted, unedited, for a year straight. And I just recorded a 10 minute talk and I did a podcast. And that got me to where I felt really comfortable just flowing and talking and speaking by actually doing that behavior and doing the work. And I really struggle with it. I used to sweat bullets before, I would press record every single time. Now I don't because I was able to really rewire my brain, rewire my behavior, to actually rock at improv speaking, where I couldn't public speak for anything that saved my life five years ago at all. I would just stutter and stop and stall and couldn't keep my thoughts in order or anything. But it was the activity of putting myself out there, even imperfectly, even knowing, okay, I could be better, I could do better, but not waiting to be better or do better to actually put myself out there. That's what's helped our business grow and helped our business create the kind of impact that it's having today. And so thank you just for being a part of this community. Thanks for your encouragement to everybody. I'm so glad that, that you're here and for everybody who's listening to this, if this is, if this has helped you, if you have questions again, reach out. Comment on some of my posts on social media, comment on this video on YouTube, and I'd love to connect with you. I'd love to talk with you. If there's an area where you're stuck at, I'd love to hear, like, what do you need help with? What are you struggling with? What is this? What did this bring up in you? You know, by the way, me saying that is an example of my feedback loop, because if I can, if I can hear from people what they're struggling with, I can create better podcasts, I can design better tools and resources for people that are free to help people, which is cool. So you're, you're as listeners are a part of that by the feedback, which is awesome as well. If this episode has helped you and you know somebody else that will help, don't keep it to yourself. Share the podcast with somebody else. Let this message get out there to more people. We need your help for that. And so thank you, Leila, for being here. Thank you to the listeners. Grow your life, everybody, and we'll talk soon. Have a good one.