Ep 06 From Noise to Knowing A Conversation with Justin ITee Walker

Welcome to Remembering the Forgotten, a space where leaders think out loud without polish or performance. No scripts, no personas, just the quiet clarity that emerges when the noise drops and the mind is free to speak for itself. Today, I'm joined by Justin IT Walker, a cybersecurity leader who puts humanity at the center of technology. He's a founder reshaping how organizations think about security, a podcast host exploring the intersection of tech and human connection, and someone who proves that real relationship isn't built in systems. It's forged in the courage to transform your life and help others do the same. With this, Justin, welcome to the show.

Thank you for having me.

You're welcome. So before we begin, when I say stillness, and I know you know that, I don't mean peace or quiet. I mean the place in you untouched by pressure, noise, or performance. The place that knows before the mind thinks. That's the layer I'm inviting you to speak from today.

Oh, that's—

so what's up with you today, Justin?

You know, it's been a long day. It's been a really great and beautiful day. I've had a lot of good conversations with people talking about Neuroscience, quantum physics, and now stillness. It's been a damn good day. My brain's like all tingly.

That's a good start. So let me ask you this. When you think of stillness, where in your life do you meet the you untouched by expectations?

Everywhere.

Are you someone who is usually, um, affected or impacted by other people's expectations, or do you say, no, maturity, I actually live by my own accord?

So I used to be impacted by people, other people's expectations. I used to be one of those people where things have to be like a perfectionist. And I, I drove— I thrived off of that energy of doing things for others until I did a lot of work and realized that living life on my terms and not anyone else's is very important for my sanity and for those around me who I'm supporting. So, yeah. Okay.

So in terms of, you know, maybe giving the audience a little bit of a glimpse into what you have overcome, And, you know, it makes us human that other people see, you know what, even if he has mastered what we're talking about, he actually knows what somebody else talks about if they have those situations where, you know, expectations from others basically conduct your life. So what were those places where You were able to be untouched by expectations.

Yes. So I will say this, when I was touched by them, there's a lot of fear in my life, you know, and that fear is kind of what drove me. Now, to get to that place without that, I had to remove that fear from my life. And in doing that, it was dirty and messy to get to where I am now, to not be able to do that. So it's not just one thing I'm doing. There's a lot of different things that come into play into my life that I had to put into my life, create those habits and be consistent with them. And one of those things was Krav Maga and the other one was fitness. Those are the 2 most important ones. Yeah.

So both of them are not very soft.

No, they're not.

Justin did not sit into a corner, closed his eyes, and was quiet.

No.

So tell me a little bit about that. Like, it is so fascinating to see that something that is full of energy, movement, actually brought you into stillness. So you suddenly were able to be untouched by all those expectations out there.

Yeah.

So tell me a bit more about that. So fascinating.

So I get that from people all the time, especially with the martial arts part, because I had so much fear and anger and aggression, and I realized that I had to take things step by step to remove from my life or to overcome those limiting beliefs and those things I had. So with the Krav Maga, that helped me overcome The anger, the massive aggression, a lot of PTSD that allowed me to finally tone down that noise I had in my life, that always-on fight, fight, fight mode. And then doing that allowed me to find meditation, to find taking walks now. Now I still do a lot of the martial arts stuff. I don't spar anymore. But I do it to help calm me down. 'Cause we as human beings, we're multifaceted. We're very complex creatures. It's the same thing as people ask me, how do I listen to loud metal music and still become calm? But then I go from loud metal to like very powerful high-frequency singing music. It's just, those are the parts of me that I have inside of me that I had to learn how to kind of, I wanna say dissect one by one. Yeah. And cater to its needs. I go to the next one, cater to its need so I can get to where I am now. And then with the fitness that helped me build those habits and doing that and the consistency that I now do to be able to sit on the floor in calmness and peace. Now it's not easy all the time because I have ADD, I have things I'm always doing, but realizing that I'm able to have that calm and peace. It makes my life better. I focus better. I show up better. I'm a better human being for it. Yeah.

Interesting. Thank you for sharing. Because you know what's really interesting? When you talked about meditation, Justin, you mentioned silence. You didn't say stillness. You mentioned silence. Because there's a huge difference, isn't it, between silence and stillness?

I'm learning. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, for the audience who maybe is wondering right now, like, what the heck is the difference between silence and stillness? Silence is something which you can basically produce by, put it frankly, simply shut up. Right?

There's still noise going on.

Exactly. And then you can sit down and maybe close your eyes. So you shut out some of the senses. And then you learned mindfulness, and then you go into silence. But even then, let's be honest, the chatter does not stop.

It doesn't. And I will say this, for me though, when I do my meditation, I have to have some kind of theta wave music on, and then my silence is after the meditation.

That is so interesting.

Yeah.

That's so interesting because you see, if we look at stillness and silence, people often ask me, Markus, what is that stillness you're talking about? And some people call it intuition, some people call it instinct. So if you think about it, if you have an intuitive thought, That is not coming from your mind. Do you agree?

An intuitive thought?

Yeah. Or an intuitive, like an intuition.

Intrusion or intuition?

An intuition. Sorry, it's my accent.

No worries. So you said intuition?

Intuition. Yes. Intuition.

Intuition.

Yes.

So I believe that comes from when you're really listening to yourself. Really? Isn't that interesting? It's that soul inside of you.

Right. So interesting enough, some people call it soul, some people call it intuition.

Okay.

And what it actually comes down to in the end, it is stillness. Because you see, when we look at what it really is, so people often tell me the human being is driven by 3 things. Fear, meaning flight, fight, or freeze. And I say, goodness me, wouldn't that be sad if that is the total human being thing?

That's all there is?

Yes. So there must be more, right?

Yes.

So if you think about it, and for everyone who watches or listens today, If you actually think about the moments where you suddenly have an intuitive— I call it thought for a moment— or an inkling of an intuition, that is exactly what I talk about stillness. Because there is a place in every single person, Justin, where there is the original design, the original programming. how we've been born. So if you think about it, many people try to get to that place when they meditate.

Yeah.

But unless they actually use the mind in a way as it's intended, it's not intended to be the slave holder. It is not even intended to be the driver. It is intended to be a helper.

Yes.

So if I ask you back then, and, you know, I know a little bit about your very touching story, Justin, back then, how much of the chatter in your mind was positive, supporting, and conducive to being a healthy human being?

Not a single bit of it. Although at the same time, I had my intuition and I still heard it trying to come through, but I didn't know what that was. So the drugs and alcohol and all the addiction took over, and there's so much noise, so much chaos, so much reactiveness, you know, like just— I was so hateful, so angry. A lot of that was just the frequency that I was attuned to at the time. I didn't understand how I could readjust my own frequency. I didn't understand that at the time.

So there wasn't much of coherence, huh?

Yeah.

That was pretty much driven, driven by your mind.

So

now think, think about it. When, when society begins to understand that we as Westerners, and sadly the Eastern world more and more as well, we are so driven by the mind, programmed that what is in the mind is the ruler. And if we actually start questioning that, simply by asking, where do my thoughts come from? And then you suddenly realize, goodness me, not that many are mine.

Then you become the observer.

Exactly. Exactly. So listen, I love what you just said. You become the observer. So for you, it was Krav Maga, which is, oh my God, quite a tough, probably one of the toughest martial arts existing today, right?

Yeah, it's definitely a combat It's not— they don't consider it a martial art. But yeah, it sounds like a—

It is a combat, right?

Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. That is so interesting. So let's move one further. Can you tell me about the moment when all the noise fell away? And something in you knew exactly what was true?

So 2 things. I'm gonna bring up the word you used earlier, coherence, because that has a huge profound, um, effect on what I'm about to say. So I think I talked to you about this a couple of weeks ago when I— like, I've been doing meditation for 3— for like up to 3 years, and it was never doing anything. Mm-hmm. But finally I reached a point where I was able to do it, sit there in calmness and quietness before and after, and reach a peak where after I did it, there was such a quietness to it where everything went away, and I've never felt so calm in my entire life. And from that was my conduit into learning and understanding that it's no longer about the mind, but it's about the heart. The heart is way powerful frequency than the mind.

It's so beautiful. So I'm trying to understand And kind of rephrase it. Would you say when you went into meditation, what actually happened was, it's almost like the mind, the chatter and everything just silenced for a moment?

Yes, it was like I was on a different plane. It's like I was actually almost like I was the observer looking down on myself and seeing myself say that. I think they call it like astral projecting, but almost felt like that.

So could you imagine that this is actually a state that a human being can be in most of the time?

That's profound. I do believe it can be done. I haven't done it yet.

So picture that for a moment.

That's profound. That's powerful. That's coherence. That is changing the quantum field 100%.

So think about it for a moment, Justin. When you had that profound experience, would you say it was something that came from outside of you? Or was it something you tapped into in you?

It's something I learned outside of me, but I tapped into— it was always inside of me remembering it.

Isn't that interesting?

Stillness long enough to remember.

So isn't that interesting? So somebody gave you a hint, you know, that can be anyone, and that made you remember something that you knew, probably you could not pinpoint where you know it from.

Oh, definitely.

You'll be blown away what I'm going to tell you now because it is so simple. Literally. You know, there are some people who believe that when you're born, you forget everything about yourself.

I believe that.

I don't.

Really?

I don't. I believe that when you are born, you remember absolutely who you are. in the greatness of who you are. And then, Justin, think about that for a moment. Just give it a chance. I know your story. Think about once society started taking over—

Ooh.

Your own reign. Once society started dictating what you had to think, bracket about yourself, when your origin story suddenly became evident as something you had to consider. Basically, what happened was, I don't know too much, but I assume in several quite hard moments, you simply forgot who you actually are. You started questioning what you believed about yourself. And you started taking over other people's concepts. Would that fit the bill somehow?

I would say yes, because I had my first awakening at 7 years old. Interesting. My first paradigm shift.

Interesting.

So think about it.

So think about it and you see, it's so interesting that we humans try to make sense of what's going on in us and it is almost too much to grasp it. So what we're going to do is we are going to create stories around that, which is actually sovereign if you think about it, because otherwise we will be overwhelmed. So now consider for a moment that what you have tapped into in that meditation is actually who you really are.

I do believe that. So think about that. It's

right inside you. Yes. So think about what this actually means in terms of hope for the future. So you at least know, gosh, I've been there at least once in my life. So it exists. Yes. So if you had told me, you know, Markus, that was a moment where I saw a UFO outside of my window and they gave me that truth, then I would say, maybe it won't work again. Right? You would have to wait until they arrive again. But you felt it. It was in you. It's almost like you tapped into something that was lost.

Yeah, it's almost like I talk about the observer effect, that I am human and also something else. I'm not sure what that is just yet.

So think about it. What if it's actually nothing extraterrestrial, but it is the core purest version of you starting to communicate with you? But it feels so alien, it feels so foreign that you actually come up with stories.

Oh yeah.

To try to Make your mind not blow up.

How do you like to just hold the capacity to try and understand what's going on?

That's exactly it. That's exactly it. So isn't that fascinating? So when you think back, Justin, what was the moment in your life when you realized you are actually living someone else's script? And what cracked it open?

So that came to me, like I said, probably around 7 years old the first time. Like, I stopped trusting human systems and be— because I had like ADD on the autism spectrum. So people were treating me, trying to give me medications, and I'm like, why are you trying to change who I am? Why are you trying to get me to, to be what you want me to be? And I had that at 7 years old. And then after that, I didn't think much of it again until 20. I didn't think of it again much until after this overdose. Because like you said earlier, the society was like putting this fear into me. Society was training me to be what they wanted me to be. And that's why I always say that I was stuck in the matrix, because I was living not my own life, but what they wanted me to be for them, not for myself, who I truly am.

So what was the moment that cracked it open when you realized, I'm leaving the Matrix, if you don't mind sharing?

I believe it was a combination of 2 moments. One was the overdose, because there was an intense flicker of color and light that happened when that overdose happened. And I I died. And then the other part of that was— trying to think when that was. I want to say it was more of not just a moment, but multiple moments leading up to that meditation point and understanding things.

That's interesting. How old were you when you OD'd?

How old?

Yeah.

30. No, shoot, hold on. So it's 2023. I'm 41 now in October. So 37, 36.

It's profound. So at the age of 7, you had that understanding that you're living someone else's script?

Yes. I always—

Basically, and you continued until your system said, I can't do it anymore.

Yeah, it's all the drugs and alcohol came into just masking it, getting by with it, not understanding.

Not make it right.

Yeah, not understanding what I'm running from, what I'm doing this for anymore. And then trauma stacked on top of that and limiting beliefs stacked on top of that. So yeah, it was like a minefield,

brother.

Yeah.

And Steve, so thank you for sharing.

Yes.

Wow.

That's why I got into this work now, just more than just technology, because

we

are such deep beings and they don't teach us these things. They don't have these conversations and they should damn well have them, you know, because We're living these lives that are not ours,

right?

It's a program, an out-of-date program.

And you know what I really love about your work? Just for everyone who listens, I had the privilege to be Justin's guest a little while ago. And as I mentioned in the intro, you're really connecting these 2 worlds.

Yes.

And I believe everyone who is A technical inclined person tends to live in the mind, suppressing the other part because it doesn't fit into the left brain, right?

Logical. Yeah.

Exactly. So, but at the same time, it is so beautiful that suddenly this voice comes up saying, is this it? Or is there more to my life? So you can suppress it, but it doesn't go away.

There's so many people living there. So many people are living there.

I know, I know. And you know, Justin, this is the main reason why I do my show, because I want to bring people together who paint such a various picture of stillness. Basically, anyone who listens to those shows will find at least one where they say, ah, she's like me.

Aha,

he's like me. You see what I'm saying about?

I do.

That's why I'm saying, you'll see when you watch some of these shows, they are so different. I'm asking the same questions. Every person, and every single answer is different.

We're all living in our own universe, our own timeline.

Yes. Yes. And I love bringing these universes together, you know, because in the end, let's be honest, we are all basically fractals of the universe.

Yes.

If you cut our universe apart, there is the entire universe Embedded.

We're all experiencing— we're all one experiencing it through the universe, through ourselves.

Yes. And bringing that together and share, I believe, is the biggest offer we can give society.

Right. And with technology, you can't stop this now. Because AI and stuff has given us the ability to be able to have these conversations and go forward so far that those forces or systems They're not made for humans, can no longer hold it in, can no longer hide the truth.

It is interesting. So yeah, I'm very curious where we actually go with that. Right.

Me too. Yeah. Yeah.

So which brings me to already the second last question, Justin. So here is one where you might have to give it some thought. What most pulls you out of yourself You know, like what takes you out of stillness? And then what lets you return again? Because I believe everyone knows that situation. You finally have that stillness, and something happens.

Yeah, actually, I know exactly. I talked about this online today. Well, actually, yesterday on another podcast. So I started fostering dogs. And I got this dog. Her name right now is Milky. So I didn't know what I was missing from my life, but—

Is Milky there?

Milk? Yeah, she's right here.

Oh, please show her.

Kind of bridging me right now, her joy, how sweet she is. Say hi, honey.

Gosh, thank you for showing her.

Yeah, but she's—

Hi, Milky.

Wow, she's so sweet.

So that answers the question, what lets you return?

So yeah, she brought the joy to my life that I didn't know I was really missing, or that I didn't understand I still had the capacity for such love and joy. And it just brought that in. I realized, whoa, this is like the right timing. So yeah.

Speaking of divine timing,

huh? Right? I'm like, this is no accident. Hold on a minute.

No, definitely not. So, you know, so anyone who listens or watches, what would you say are still the few moments where you say there is a trigger? And what is it that pulls you out of stillness? That coherence?

Yeah, my mind and ADD to want to go and do more, want to finish things, want to get back into go, go, go mode. I have to do this, I have to do that. But learning that language is the most important thing, and how you say and how you do things, especially how you say them to yourself, is so important. I'm learning that, like how to say things and how not to use certain words. Because that gets me away from the stillness and back into, oh, I have to do these things. But it's not, I don't have to. I'm telling myself I have to. My nervous system is reacting from old programming to want to do those things. And it pulls me out.

That's beautiful.

Yeah.

And at the same time, if you would just say, actually change my language now, I don't have to do anything. Is that long-lasting? I don't think so, right? You have to go deep to say, hold on a moment, do I really have to? And that's when you started your work, as I know you, right?

Yeah, well, that's why I believe that. That

changes your language automatically. You know those people who say you can work on your body language? I call BS on that.

Oh, I know some of those guys online. They're like working on speech.

Oh, goodness me.

Yeah.

I've been teaching, I've been teaching interview technique, you know, speaking of job interviews for 20 years. Some of my friends in the next room, they watch 2 and a half hours of body language video. And I said to my class, look, your body language is an expression of what's going on inside.

Yes.

You can pretend for a millisecond and your body betrays your thoughts.

100%. Yes.

And I showed them how fast it works. Like people try to be open. And I ask a very harmless question. And suddenly the body closed up and protected itself. Like literally, you could feel the tension of protection.

Mm-hmm.

So it's the same with the thoughts. If you don't like the thought, don't try to change the thought. But go to the source of the thought. Change this, this, the source, and guess what? Your language follows the change.

I'm still trying to figure that one out.

That's deep. So I highly, highly, highly, um, you know, congratulate you on, on that move because you will see this will be absolutely life-changing.

I know one of the things I've been working on is the heart-to-brain meditations, and the light to the chakra, that one.

Beautiful.

Yeah, I just learned about it maybe a day or two ago.

So yeah, continue, continue doing it. You're doing great, brother. So which brings me to my last question for today. So if someone listening feels lost in the noise, what is one thing You'd want them to remember is still true.

Your emotions lie to you all the time. Be patient and have grace with yourself. That's all I got. Yeah, I go to the gym, I'm like, fuck your emotions, let's go. I have to tell myself that because emotions aren't gonna get me far. Me just doing the things I need to do, you know.

So let me add something to that because I believe it is so profound that you brought this up, brother.

Yeah,

our emotions are absolutely our best friends as long As they are not driven by the mind.

Yes, I like that.

Because think about what is our mind? Fight and flight and freeze, fear, doubt, all these things we could basically continue. And those dictate what kind of thoughts we have.

Yes.

Will they be positive about us?

Hell no.

I know, right? So think about the more you actually tap into what I call stillness, intuition, soul level, all that stuff. Guess what? It starts impacting our emotions in the other way.

And then you lead with your heart, not your mind.

Yes. Yes. I love what you said. Your emotions lie to you.

I learned the hard way.

Gosh, so often. Wow, Justin, this brings us to a beautiful end. So I just want to say thank you so much for being my guest today. It was such an amazing conversation with you.

Thank you. I really enjoyed this.

Thank you.

Yeah.

So this was Remembering the Forgotten, a conversation held in clarity, not performance. And if something in this exchange helped you see differently, carry that forward.