Episode 286: Jacqui Johnson: Her Inspirational Path from Couture to Coaching

Hey, everyone. Welcome to the do the Thing podcast. This is your host, Stacy Lauren. Well, you guys, this is exciting because I love my community and I also love doing cool new things. I originally met Jackie through a. Another group that we're both a part of. We've gotten to know each other, and it's been amazing just to kind of watch her evolution as she's been in action and really doing the thing. And I'm so excited to get to know her even more through this interview and also introduce her to you guys and really kind of tapping into her story and what's really helping her take action and do the things that she wants. And then maybe also what she has planned for the future as she evolves and grows through being in all these amazing communities of people that are doing great things. And so I'm excited to welcome Jackie to the show. Hey, Jackie.

Hi, Stacy. Thank you for having me. I'm excited. This is my first. So this is my first ever podcast interview. And I think there's no one better than doing it with you because you spiked me off on this journey. I've been wanting to do things, but I've been pottering around it. And then you came with do this again, and here I am now. So thank you for having me.

So good. I love that. And I just, I. I love being able to kind of unlock something right. And then to be able to almost like we get to memorialize it now with you being on my podcast. Right. And then it's something that we could kind of look back on too, as time goes on. And so it's exciting to. To have this moment. So thank you for entrusting me with your first interview. I feel honored.

You're welcome. I should be thanking you.

Well, let's start off. I'd love to hear your story. Please share all about you.

So for 34 years, 30 years plus, nearly 34 years, I've been running a fashion business. And my. I come from a long line of creatives, and my thing was to make couture custom clothes for women for special occasions. And this is what I found out.

When I started. People just connect to me. You know how people talk to their hairdressers and they get really intimate and have these amazing conversations and with taxi drivers and stuff like that. That's what happened to me. Over 34 years, I had these amazing, intimate conversations. People shared their. These women, fabulous women who I was serving. They shared their hopes, their dreams, their aspirations, their dirty secrets and so much with me and what I didn't realize was that those conversations, in having those meaningful conversations, something was being birthed in me. I remember my dear mom who's gone to glory, she said to me, I think you should become a therapist. And I'm like, no. And she said, all these people come and they're coming to have their clothes made, and then they end up having these conversations. And people were crying, somebody would cry some. It was. It really got. No, they got really deep into things. And I just developed this habit of listening and giving them total positive regard. And when I had any advice, I would give. And if I don't, that's when I realized I give them hope.

I just. And I actually most some of my friends and the people in my life call me the hope dealer or the hope stirrer. And so 34 years now, trained to become a woman's life coach. But my thing really is to stalk people's dreams and deal hope, show them that hope is a muscle that you can build. Because I kind of feel like without that, life can be really abysmal. If you sleep and you wake up and there's nothing, there's no flicker, there's no tiny little flame of a better tomorrow, life can be really abysmal. But when there's the slightest, slightest little flame, then things begin. That little glimmer can turn to a bigger flame, and then it can turn into a roaring flame. And then your life can change. And I have lived that life. And so it's one of the most important things to me in my life now. I know that without that, we can be really in a bad place. And that can lead down a slippery slope. And so this is just the abridged version of who I am now. But all these things in my once upon a time hopeless situation. Within a matter of eight years, I got a divorce that I wasn't expecting. My best friend, my partner in crime, my lover, my husband, he just got up and went away overseas. And then the next thing I knew, he was with somebody, replaced me. And then I got really sick and totally deformed. And then I got a tumor in my head. And at the point I was bleeding to an inch of my life. And I had these major surgeries back to back, and I became a shadow of myself. And I needed. I knew how important it was to have hope. And even at that time, I had very good friends. And instead of connecting to them, I withdrew. I don't know why, but I kind of feel like when you don't have hope and when you're sad, instead of reaching out to the people who can help you. You take all this shame upon yourself and from the shame of my divorce and seemingly failing. But I look back and I see how that flicker of hope and my faith brought me here. And now pursuing a postgraduate degree, masters in Positive Psychology, Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology. And it's really shown me how things like love and hope and friendship and positive emotions, how they can really make our lives better with or without money, with or without the challenges in. In life. So you can really lean into them. And I see a lot of that in your community, how people are just leaning into the things that are deep within them and their desires and their dreams and making impact. So, yeah.

Yeah.

I'm just so moved by your words on so many levels. I mean, starting with hope as a muscle that you could build. It's funny, I actually talk about flexing the muscle of different things and I haven't used it in that terminology. And I just love that because it's true. Right. Especially going through some of these things you mentioned you've gone through. What else do you have at those points but hope? And it sounds like that's been something you've been developing over time and you're able to tap into that muscle when you need it.

Yes, yes and yes. I kind of feel like. So I. My three big pillars in what I doing next is hope and then the importance of our dreams, that our dreams are really valid because we don't want to come through here and go and let our dreams die with us. And you have shown me you came from one end with a whole different career. Now you are the queen of do the thing, do the thing Shamala. And I'm saying every week you spawn something new. So I'm actually really learning from you every week. That's now just do the thick collaboration. So I see that this wasn't prob. This wasn't from what you say, it wasn't even a dream. But then something started and then something started. So how much more I say this when we look around ourselves. I'm sitting here in my living room. The chair, the computer, the mirror, the. The sofa. Everything here was once upon a time, a dream. And what if those people never lived their dream? What if they never sketched? What if they never drew anything? What about the cars, the clothes we're wearing, the jewelry, the glasses, the lenses? Everything was once upon a time a dream. So I kind of feel like if we don't tap into our dreams, lean into them, it doesn't matter. What it is, whether it's marriage, starting a charity or doing the thing, or just helping a neighbor or mentoring, whatever it is, you don't want to die with it because you do the world a disservice and you do yourself a disservice dying with it. Whatever things, I think we should explore it. Even if the dream is getting divorced because you're in a really bad situation. My thing is lean into it. What is it that's is in your belly that fires you up, that you can talk about and be excited? And that's it. Wow. Hope, dream and the self. One of the things I'd like to say here is that beneath every single human being, beneath the accolades, beneath the exterior, the clothes we wear and everything, is our self concept, how we see ourselves. And that's. We are the most difficult person to sell ourselves to. Yeah. We have own self concept. That is our subjective self concept, who we are today. Then we have our ideal and then we have our odd selves. And this is what I say. It doesn't matter who you are, whether you're a CEO or whether you're a housewife, homemaker, a mother, there is something beneath all that outer exterior. And if we can just sit down and listen to what that self is saying and align it with our dreams and put the fuel of hope on it.

We'Ll amaze ourselves at what we do.

Wow. I have to take a moment because there's just a lot coming up for me right now talking to you. I talk about this in my program, the audience accelerator, where we take these life assets. And I have a really great episode on the podcast from the very beginning. I can't remember the number, but it's good if you guys want to check it out. But basically I will. Good. Yeah. It's talking about how we take these skills that we've built through our life and we're using it now. And so something that had come out recently, even just audience accelerator, it was like, oh, I had a recruiting background, I had a sales background, so obviously that would be something I would be good at. Right. I'm translating that into growing an audience. And so what really is kind of landing so big right now, Jackie, is what you were saying with being a clothier. And the connection is the piece that's your deepest kind of core. And it's so weird. I had a similar experience where I was a clothier for men's suits, actually. And I. Yeah. And what was so cool about that experience was it was not like at a clothing store. Was more door to door where I'd go to their offices and things like that. But what was really cool about that experience was I learned almost like it humanized even money, because at that time I had never even been exposed to wealth or money or anything. And then I met all these really wealthy people because the clothing was really expensive and they were nice. And we got to have conversations and connect. And if I look back, it's so weird. I've been thinking that sales was my through line, and I think it still has a piece of it. But you're right when you said connection. It's connection. Right. And that's kind of what my purpose is. And this earth as you've seen it through the community. And it's so cool hearing you talk. You have the same thing where it's about connection and it's about listening and it's about being able to be in this space with another. And I feel like this is just a testament to. Once you kind of discover what your core kind of desire is, then we are able to get aligned with each other through this world of being able to put yourself out there. Right. And getting your message in the world.

Yeah. Yes. And you talking about connection and saying that's what your purpose is, that brings me to something because I hear a lot of people when they talk about purpose, they talk about it as though it's a doing thing. But just what you said just reminded me to talk about this. A purpose is a being thing. And when you find that thing that's being thing, it becomes a golden thread that cuts across everything that you do. It's the golden thread that stitches into every aspect of your life. Because, for instance, if you think that your purpose is a doing thing, then it limits you to something. What happens after that? But when, assuming you said your purpose is connection, you're going to connect with people wherever you go. It will open doors and open things, opportunities for you. And that's exactly what you're doing. For instance, my purpose is to bring hope and to be supportive. And I realized that I was doing that from day one. I've been that hope mongerer, that hope starer, hope dealer. You just have to hang around with me for a moment and people might think that, oh, I hear people saying, oh, sometimes people talk about people like that as though you're such a Pollyanna. But I said, what is wrong with being a Pollyanna? It's not saying that nothing goes wrong, but looking at the most positive aspects of life and looking at where you are and how you can bring something out of it and so how you can bring something out of where you are. For instance, with me, I was on ground zero. Within eight years, all that happened. I relocated, went to Ghana to join my husband, only to see that I couldn't even go into the house. There's somebody else living there. I got a job. Within two weeks I lost that job. And I'd relocated with three children. And so you can imagine, then I got sick. And then I got attacked by robbers and they shot at me. I had five bullet holes in my car. And it went on and on and on and on and on. But the one thing that was never killed in me, that was hope. And the one thing, even in my worst situations, I was ready to support somebody when they. They came to me and they talked about. And it took me away from my own pain. And so when we really dial into and lean into what our purposes. I see. Which is one of the things I'm really interested in as well, you begin to see how it just translates. And you might wake up and have a bad day, but somewhere along the line is a little flame. If you lean into it, somehow it just kind of bends bit by bit. And then the people, you surround yourself with your people, like you say in your community, when you find your people, just any little conversation can be something else. We live in a world where at the moment there is so much available, so much wealth, so much knowledge, so much information, so much advancement, yet still we have the biggest amount of mental health disease, of depression, of anxiety.

Of suicides. And you would wonder, is there correlation? We have so much and yet so many people are unhappy. And you begin to think, how many of us are leaning into our acres of diamond? How many of us are sitting quietly and I'll talk about acres of diamond later. And seeing what we are catch for instead of what we've been told we ought to do.

Wow.

And that's why I love your families, Stacy, because hanging out with you made me find something. As a child, I was told these are the two things I had so much talkative and I was too skinny. And I ingested that because I was really skinny. And that was all that was in my head. And so I was almost embarrassed and apologetic about it.

And then when I came into your community, I know, I started speaking, yes, I've started speaking about two years ago, speaking engagements. But when I came into your community and there was something find your voice, I knew I had found my voice already. But in that community, something happened. Something Broke. Because it was during that time that I read the book Acres of Diamond and. Which just says that we all have acres of diamonds around us, which is our gifts and our abilities and our skills. And we have to dig at it sometimes we just ignore it. And then we go far to search. And so I asked myself, what are the acres of diamond? What do I have in there? And I realized I'm an amazing storyteller. I know how to make hard connections. I can talk to save my life. And I thought, these are things that I don't have to pay anybody for. So I've actually gone to do a speaker's course. But I could talk easily, and I can connect, make hard connections easily, and I didn't have to go far. And many of us have these gifts sitting. They're latent. They're inside us. They're just waiting to be unpacked.

Yeah. So I would love to hear with find you'd voice because I'm still tapping into just how it's so magical and transformational for people because it's 17 days. Right. And it's just five minutes a day. What do you think was about that? That just helped kind of unlock that next level.

I think you might be a little bit surprised at what I'll see. The first thing for me is the community just finding these people initially. I mean, everybody in the group might not be my person, but just being there and the vulnerability. By day three, something begins to happen, and people are really. They're vulnerable. As they're talking, they're trying to find their voice. People are at different places. I remember I did a lot of videos. Some people did audio, some people typed. But there's something that happens, I think humanity, that thing that is dripping down from the leader. You are the leader. You can be vulnerable, you are open, you are warm and just coming together. We coming together in that space. And the questions, the kind of questions you ask, they're very simple, the days, actually. Although they are very simple. I noticed that incrementally we had to think about them more. We had to be vulnerable. We had to dig deep and know what we really think. Because a lot of us have. I think a lot of us have taken on the voices of our family and our community and our world. And so it separates you and makes you think, what do I really want to say? And how do I really want to impact my world? What are the things that I would say I want to be remembered for? And the kind of questions, these kind of questions, although you didn't say that per se. That's what is therapy me. There were things that I thought about in my head, but I'd never voiced out in a group. So even saying it and giving it life affirmations. The day I shared something about, I think was it about. I can't remember exactly what, but I realized there were so many comments about that and I was tired and I was in my bed, you know, the time difference. You're eight hours behind us. And I was in my bed and I thought, well, let me just lie by then and record something. And it flowed freely from my heart. And I was so shocked at the way people connected to that video and related to it so much. Thank you. It's amazing when you're real and raw what it does to the people in the room. And I think that's what. That's what is magical about find your voice. Maybe that's a long answer, but that's what I felt like. Yeah, yeah.

It's so important to voice it too, because, yeah, there's something so cool about just being able to see it. And it happens to me every time I get another growth edge. I remember during that challenge that I don't remember if you saw that one, but I did a live video. It was after seeing Alex in the group. She had done dare one and then dare two. And I saw the transformation already and it moved me so much that I ended up just doing this whole thing where I opened up on a whole nother level that I hadn't before. And then I remember, yeah, realizing I was also live on YouTube.

But then it was.

It was also when you know what you're saying is making a difference for someone else, you start to not care as much about what other people think. Right. Because you see the person that really needs to hear it, hears it. And then it's not just about that person. It's the who that person then can touch because they're then able to be freed from that.

Exactly. Exactly. And, well, I have a story to tell because of what you've just said. So in 2019, I shared a 13 minute video about my life, about my story, about my pain. And overnight, it brought me 4,000 followers. Agents took a life of its own. And it's not about the followers, but what you said about if it touches one person, I experienced it. So I think the segment about my hysterectomy and how it happened was 30 to 40 seconds and then how people can call you on Facebook messenger. Somebody called me from California and said, I watched Your video, and it saved my life. She said, I had a hysterectomy a week ago, and I'm imploding. I'm lying in a dark room. I haven't eaten, I haven't showered, I haven't done anything. And I feel like my womb, losing my womb, has taken everything that makes me a woman. And I've had really bad thoughts. And then I stumbled on your video, and I saw you with your makeup, looking feminine, and you talking about the hysterectomy on social media. And I felt like, oh, my goodness, this lady is living. She's sharing it. And I said all the things I had done, some charitable things that were my dream to do, and money to do them, and all. All the things I talked about in the 13 minutes. And she said, wow, if your life can continue unabated and you even go on to do things not just for yourself, but for your community, it means there's a life after a hysterectomy. And I don't know how it happens, and I don't know how I got the words, but it just occurred to me to tell her that I don't know, but God in his infinite wisdom did this. I said to her, as women, as human beings, when your heart gets taken out, you will die. When you lose your liver, you will die. When your pancreas is not there, there's a big problem when your kidneys are gone, all these major organs. But when our womb leaves, when our womb is taken out, we still get to live and. And thrive. And the miracle, our womb is our most important organ, that makes us a woman. But the miracle of that is amazing, that it can be taken away and we can still survive.

About an hour after hanging at the pool, she was so thankful and grateful. And I'm still in touch with her. And then about an hour after, somebody calls me from Germany, and she says to me she was weeping. She said, I have no kids. I would like to have children, but I have to take out my wound. My doctor has told me if I don't do it in the next three months, I can bleed to death.

And after watching your video, I booked it. I booked this hysterectomy because I knew that there's life beyond having a hysterectomy. You showed me. And at that moment. And so I told her the same thing and said to her, if you hold onto that womb, it might take you to your grave before your time. And there's so much I believe, there's so much you're yet to do. You're just turning 50 and you would go away with dreams and hopes and maybe even potential children you could adopt. And she thanked me. And I sat there and I thought, if this video saved one person from committing suicide and saved another person's life, two people in this whole world of over 7 billion unhappy.

It is still sitting on Facebook. It is still impacting people. And so this story, what you said led me to that, that when I think of the one, the one person who's going to be impacted with my story, with my post, with my pain. Because what I've come to see is that when you go through something challenging in life and you come out on the other side and you share that story.

You let people who are going through something similar or some kind of pain, you. You lend them courage. I like to lend people courage. You lend them courage and you let them know what is possible, that it is possible. A change can come, the sun will shine again, and there's hope. There is hope beyond what you're going through. Life has a. We're so resilient. It was when I was doing these, when I started this, my postgraduate degree, that I realized that resilience is a thing. I know it's a thing, but it's actually.

I don't even know how to describe it, but there's something called post traumatic growth. And everything has a name. I knew that I'd been through challenging things and then I come out stronger on the other side. But I didn't know what it was until I started this course. And I realized there was a framework for it. There's post traumatic growth, and then you build resilience and then you become stronger. It's not everybody. That doesn't happen for everybody. For many people, if we allow ourselves to lean into the pain, yes, it's happened. Yes, it's challenging. But what did I learn? Reflect. If we reflect and say, what did I learn? What is one little thing, one shift that I made from all this pain and how can I share these challenges and these pains with other people? It doesn't have to be on social media, but the moment you're willing, the conversations will come. When we are ready. Like she said, do the thing. And before you know, you are sharing and making other people's lives better. I see this life is not just about the beautiful houses and the cars and the clothes, but the impact that we really make with our lives. At the end of the day, I don't think I've ever come across. I remember I was Listening to a nurse who does palliative care care. And she said she's never seen anybody on their deathbed who says, I wish I bought more Rolls Royces. I wish I built more cars. It's all about connection and relationships and the impact we made with our God given gifts.

Yeah. And I'm just repeating this because this was power. The moment we're ready, the conversations will come so true. Right. It's like once you've realized that it's all for of purpose, you're able to now help another person with all of this stuff that you've learned through the process. Which it's just. That's an amazing thing to do. Well, I'd love to talk about what you're doing now because you mentioned you're being a life coach and then you're in school right now for positive psychology. And what are your dreams? What are your plans? What's new with you now?

So next month. So. Okay, so this is the thing. My favorite kind of people to work with are midlife women. I say we're exciting when the whole world feels like we've come to the end. People say it's all going south from here. No. I feel like we've got experience and we've got wisdom and we're like fine wine. And I really enjoy talking to. We get to that point where a lot of our filters drop.

Yeah.

And we speak our mind and do do us and really interested in that, that category of women. And that's where I'm going. I'd like to setting up to be a life coach for midlife women. And it's not just so this is what I say, beauty within. I want to bring beauty within and beauty without. So I have this framework that talks about dealing with your life as though it's your garden. Your life is your garden. So I tell people, go create a masterpiece. So all we do is to uproot the weeds, get rid of them, prepare the beds, and then plant the most amazing, breathtaking masterpiece. That's your life. And when we glow from the inside, it will show on the outside. And part of what I'm doing is bringing my 34 years of fashion experience so that when you hang out with me, you're going to get hope, you're going to see yourself in a better light and you're going to look good as well. Because we're not going to just do the inside. We deal with your inner garden and then we'll do with the outer part. So working on things. Last year I did A free event that has to do with naming and claiming your dreams. And it was a very little event. So this time for 2024, and we are right back in the middle of the year. And so at the end of June, I'm launching. And the thing I want to do most is to give people the opportunity to name their dreams, screen their dreams, and then begin to live it. And so it's different. It's a very interesting way because in that masterclass, you actually write a little book with chapters, and the months of the year are your chapters. So within that masterclass, you create those chapters. So every month it's on board. But I use. It's underpinned by positive psychology, faith in my own lived experiences. And so that's where I'm going now. And I've tried it with different people and it's just. It's just amazing. I'm not going to talk. It's because I. It's not because I do it, but I know how. Although we are doing this virtually, there's a very immersive aspect of it. It's virtual, but it can be really immersive. That's all I can say. And when you hang out with me, there'll be hope, there'll be nuggets, there will be a lot of fun. A lot of fun. Because I think I'm young at heart. I'm in my mid-50s, but I feel like I'm 25. And I just like to make things fun and enjoy. Although it's very serious, life is serious. What we do with our lives, it's important. But I just. I kind of feel like life throws a lot at us already, so why not have fun while we do it? Be a little bit childish, have some music. Because play is important. And before I go on, I came across something. When we're doing positive psychology, it said that whenever we smile is like a pharmacy with good things are being pumped out into our body. Whether the smile is genuine or not, these chemicals just oozes into our body and makes us feel better. And so with my coaching clients, I asked people, do you like music? They say, yes. I said, put on your best music and dance for three minutes unfailingly every day and let me know what happens.

Whoa. That's a great advice.

Yeah. And people tell me, I remember I had a client who said to me, I stopped dreaming. I'm not dreaming. I'm not hoping anymore. And we got to it and we realized that she was. Her partner was very pessimistic. It's okay for me to share this story because she herself has shared it on social media.

So I said to her, just take little steps to bring sunshine into your life. I asked her, do you like to look good? She said, yes. I said, when you look good, what happens? I feel good. So dress up. Don't even dress up. Just when you're going just around the corner, just dress up. Feel a little bit beautiful. Put on your best, your favorite color, maybe some sunglasses when it's hot, just make a touch of lip gloss and smile. And she said to me, believe it or not, I had neighbors who have never smiled at me. And I was walking, smiling. She said first she was feeling embarrassed, so she was smiling and looking at her phone so she doesn't look crazy. And then her neighbor just said, hello. And she's known this person for 17 years. They just. They just walk past. And so she said it started making a difference. And then the dancing, and she likes to do it in the morning. She said it's crazy moves. It's not nothing choreographed, but she just selects. She started now selecting her music in the evening and even going beyond three minutes to five. And it just felt like something was happening from the inside. And so these are very little, simple gifts, things we do already.

Yeah.

And since the basis of positive psychology is just dialing up what is strong about us already, what is good and what is working, and we have all these frameworks and all these pillars that just uses everyday things. Everyday things. Yes.

So I would love to hear what your number one piece of advice is, people on doing the thing.

My number one piece of advice is listen to the person within.

Listen to the person within. So let me start with this quote. Naira Waheed, this poet, said, and I said to my body softly.

I want to be your friend.

And he took a long breath and replied, I have been waiting my whole life for this.

There is somebody within us. There's the inner person within us that we need to hear.

There are some conversations I've had with myself when I wasn't feeling the best. And I remember.

What myself said to me. She said, I want you to laugh. Laugh. When you laugh, I feel butterflies in my stomach. I want you to move. When you move, I feel alive. When you stay stationary for too long, I feel like you're. You're asking me to fold up and die.

And so these kind of conversations.

Drowning out the outside noise and then listening to the person within, to be taught from within is really important because so much of our unhappiness has to do with just doing things that we are socially acceptable or we've been told we ought and we should and all of that. So just giving ourselves time to say, what do I really feel about this? Not on autopilot. Not doing things on autopilot and just bumbling through life. Feel, feel life. Be in the now, not just the better tomorrow. Even as you're looking forward to your compelling future, just take time and listen to yourself and.

See what is saying.

Please share with people where they can follow along with you and go to the dream scripted and live it.

Yes. So I hope you'll invite me again.

When I've got all my ducks lined up, but my name is Jackie A. Johnson and I'm on Facebook as that and I'm on Instagram as that. Jackson. Jackie A. Johnson. There are thousands and thousands of Jackie Johnsons in this world, so I needed to put in the A and my Jackie is J, A, C, Q, U.

I thank you so much for coming on, Jackie. This was so, so incredible.

Thank you for having me, Stacy. And before we finish, I just want to say, Stacy, what you're doing is a gift to humanity. So don't stop. May the flames of hope and positivity and all that you're doing, may it roar and may become so big. And when I say big, I don't mean, I don't know, may become maybe pervasive in the lives of people. The people you touch, may they also go on to touch people like rippling effects. Because I think this is so beautiful. And thank you for coming with your full self and your personality and your vulnerability into my life. My life is a better place because I met you. Thank you. Thank you.

I feel the same way. I feel like once I saw you, we have this funny connection with that whole.

When you join, find your voice and then getting to see you through that challenge was just so beautiful. I felt. I think I told you in a few of those where I just felt like a warm hug every time you spoke.

Thank you. Thank you so much.

And for the listeners, do the thing. Don't wait for opportunity. Create it. And hey, guys, have you checked out my Facebook group yet? Go to do the thing community.com and I just started a new one, do the Thing collaboration dot com.