Ep. 77: The Power of Meditation in Leadership with Guest Jean-Luc Boissonneault

Imagine going from living in the worst apartment in your city to becoming a millionaire by the age of 30. Our guest, Jean-Luc Boissonneault , did just that. Join us as we explore his incredible journey of self-development, from his experiences in sports and bodybuilding to his transition into entrepreneurship. Discover how having a clear vision, staying focused, and working hard to avoid distractions led him to financial success and beyond.  He founded 12 different businesses, including an incubator for startups, has been featured in all major business magazines, won the Business 40 Under 40 Award, written 8 books, and even started the first meditation franchise in the world.

But Jean-Luc's story doesn't end there. After selling his businesses, he embarked on a spiritual journey, discovering the power of meditation and the connection between the mind and body. Learn how dedicating just five minutes a day to meditation can significantly impact our lives and how his priorities shifted as he gained a deeper understanding of success.

As leaders and entrepreneurs, we can take valuable lessons from Jean-Luc's experiences. In this episode, we delve into the importance of alignment and decision-making, and how our bodies can hold us back from truly leading with strength and courage. Jean-Luc shares his insights on bringing meditation to the corporate world and how he now uses his experience to help others as a business coach. Don't miss this fascinating conversation about self-development, leadership, and finding balance in our lives.

You can find more about him at coachjeanluc.com.

Transcript

Kyla Cofer: 0:06

Welcome to the Leadership School podcast. I'm your host leadership and self-care coach, Kyla Cofer. Here at the Leadership School, you'll hear leaders from around the world sharing their stories and expertise on how to lead with balance and integrity. Our goal: teach you how to be an extraordinary leader. Welcome back, leaders.

Kyla Cofer: 0:33

I'm really honored to speak today with Jean-Luc Boissonneault. He has a really impressive story. If you've never heard of him before, I'm so excited to introduce him to you. He went from living in the worst apartment in his city when he was 20 years old to just 10 years later, at the age of 30, becoming a millionaire. From there, he sold his businesses and went on this journey, a spiritual journey of self-development. He tells us about his story, about his journey to millionaire, about his journey from there, selling his business, and where that took him after. We really talk today a lot about self-development, personal journey. We get into meditation, how that can help you in your journey as a leader. What does it look like and mean to be in alignment with yourself and out of alignment with yourself? It's a really fascinating conversation.

Kyla Cofer: 1:20

Listen. if you have not joined our Patreon page yet, this is the episode that you want to do that for. Check out patreoncom forward slash leadership school because after the interview we have some behind the scenes footage and conversation happening. We get a lot more in depth after the interview. You don't want to miss our conversation this week over on Patreon. Consider sponsoring and joining us to hear that. Thanks so much for joining. Jean- Luc, thanks so much for joining me. Seriously, I'm really looking forward. You have such a great, unique story. I'm excited and I'm enjoying hearing the birds in the background because you're on the beach there in Nicaragua. Why don't you tell us just a little bit about your story and what brought you here?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 2:00

I grew up a much shy kid. Going into sports was big, Getting into hockey out in Canada and then joining martial arts and then eventually becoming a personal trainer and a bodybuilder and competing at the Canadian Championships. So when I was 14, I joined my first bodybuilding show from a recommendation from someone in the gym. So I said, okay, I'll try it And I did it and I came last place. And then I did it a year later and I came last place. And I did a year later and I came last place again.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 2:32

And then I took a year off and listened to what all the judges were saying. They were saying my legs were too small to compete with these other guys And so I was just so dedicated that I was working my legs three times a week at the gym and I took two years off. And then I came back and I won the Canadian Championships first place And the judges said you had the best legs on stage. That's what made you win. So I think from an early age I had this discipline about achieving something and knowing that if I persevere, if I commit to it, that I will get to where I need to go, And that came through sport.

Kyla Cofer: 3:10

That's really amazing. Right there in itself, I mean your story gets even more interesting. But right here I'm just thinking when I was that age, I would just give up, I just quit stuff. I mean I've got plenty of stories where I was like, well, I'm not good at it, But at the times when I did have something in my mind that I was like that's for sure something I really want, I would do that work for it. But I don't know if I would have gone three years literally failing completely last place. But you decided you really wanted this and you just didn't quit. What brought that determination? Like, what was it about that that just made you keep going.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 3:45

Yeah, good question. Where did that come from? Why was I competing? I was competing, I sort of fell into it And then and then, just, yeah, it feels good to be disciplined. You know, I don't know. I think it kept me focused on something And I think, being a sort of entrepreneurial, skateboarder, rebellious kind of teen, I could have easily went in other directions. But this sure way to stay with the right people, people that are taking care of their health, that are, I think there was a goodness in it that I could see. That is like, oh, this is a good path And it's only going to make me better. And I just kept going. And, yeah, that fire is just part of me. I think It's an innate kind of feeling. And then, when I fell into entrepreneurship, it was the same recipe Have a vision, you know, work towards that vision, be self-disciplined, be perseverant, stay away from distractions. You know, stay focused and you will get there.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 4:44

And I remember when I was 19, moving out, i was living in the worst apartment building in my city, like prostitutes and drug dealers all around me in the apartments next to me, and I was living there with my best friend at the time, and I remember just that moment. I was a personal trainer at that point And I said I just sick of this. And I said I just said we're literally moving out all of our furniture into the elevator of that apartment building. And I told them. I said I'm going to be a millionaire. I'm going to be a millionaire by 30. That's what I'm focused on next. And I followed the same recipe And by 30, i became a millionaire, you know, and I had a million dollars, over a million dollars, in my bank account at 30. I was like all right, i did that.

Kyla Cofer: 5:28

You did it, wow, and you did that through business, right? You had your own businesses.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 5:32

Yeah, i went from being a personal trainer to then meeting a mentor that really changed my whole direction. Yeah, just a little story about my mentor. He's not with us anymore, but he was this guy, claude, a French guy like me and a home builder, a multimillionaire, really tough, very, very masculine. And he was a father figure, you know, to me, and I was training him, I was his trainer, but he had like an interest in wanting to push me, even though I was pushing him, you know, and I remember this, one day he said what's your dream? What's your dream? And I said I don't know. And he's like well, you got to have a dream, you got to have a vision. What do you want to do? later on He's like are you going to count reps your whole life?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 6:16

Like, is your daughter going to look at you and be like, ah, my dad counts to 10 for a living? And it poked at me, it triggered me, you know, and it made me feel like, is that really what you feel my job is to you as a trainer? Like here I am researching, like day and night. I was putting all my heart into helping him get in shape, and he just made me feel like this small, like my job was just a matter of counting reps. And yeah, I remember feeling very triggered by that. And then him leaving and me sitting with that and sitting with like why do I feel so uncomfortable about this?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 6:56

And what he had poked in me was this new standard for myself. You can do better, kid, you can do bigger things and I see it in you. you know He had seen that I was this bodybuilder, this like high achiever. that is unstoppable. You know I placed seventh in the world. so he could feel that And I didn't know at the time. But anyways, I came back. When he came back to work out with me, I told him. I said I want to open a gym one day and that's what I want to do. And he said right away his first thing was when are you going to open it? Which I look back now, you know.

Kyla Cofer: 7:30

What a great thing.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 7:32

Yeah, just like just setting deadlines, Like yeah, okay, when It's not going to happen unless you tell me when, And then I said I don't know, So I got to think about this.

Kyla Cofer: 7:41

Someday.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 7:42

Yeah, someday. So I got to think about it, like, and I think deep down he knew the integrity that I had that if I say something I'm going to do it. You know I was hesitant to give him answers. So I went home and then, you know, two days later I was working out with him again. And as soon as he walked in the gym he was like when When are you doing it? It's like he was on me. You know as much as I was on him for working out. And I said that a year from now. And then he said you can do it in six months.

Kyla Cofer: 8:09

Coaches are so great, right? They just push that. They push that envelope for you and they you're thinking there's no way I could ever accomplish something that big in six months. And then he comes up with this belief in you and tells you that it actually is possible. Not only is it possible, but he believes that you can do it. We're able to do it six months later, three months, so three months.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 8:28

So three months later I was. I was open for business, this $250,000 investment, had no you know, had no experience, didn't know what I was doing. I had been a self-employed personal trainer but I just jumped in day one, didn't even do any marketing. I had this 6,000 square foot location and I went to war. You know, it was like, okay, now I like I cannot fail. I just got to show up every day and put everything I can, be open to learning and push. So I owe a lot to him, you know to him for having seen that in me and for having poked me a little bit, because you can either stay comfortable or you can raise your standard.

Kyla Cofer: 9:08

And raising standards can be hard to do. I mean staying comfortable. We stay there because it's comfortable and it's safe, like we know what to expect, and raising that standard brings so much uncertainty and a possibility of failure and possibility of destitution. You know when you, oh I, might fail and I'll be $250,000 in the hole and how am I ever, ever going to pay that back. So it says a lot when you can push through that. But it also matters to have the right people in your corner, and it sounds like you really did. You had the right people to support you and really help you. Was he one of your first customers there in your gym?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 9:45

No, he didn't actually, which makes it even better, you know, he was just, he was literally doing it for me, you know, and that's where you really felt somebody selflessly helping you, because he, he ridded himself of a great trainer. Yeah, for my sake. And yeah, I'm getting chills right now just because I feel so grateful, and what he did to me is what I do to other people now, and at that moment I didn't believe in myself, I didn't think that was possible. And he showed me that it was possible by just really being straightforward. I, just so grateful for him. Wow, so where'd you?

Kyla Cofer: 10:26

take it from there. You, because you said you became a millionaire. So you built this gym and then turn it into a million dollar business.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 10:32

Yeah, so I turned it into a four million dollar business but I sold it for, you know, one and a half million. I just got to work. You know, i just got to work and I didn't know anything like most starting entrepreneurs, business owners and and just I jumped to the books. You know what are the books I started I became a really avid reader of. I've calculated now that I've read over 3000 business books because I was that obsessed with reading and knowing how to succeed And I was reading three books a week one on audio, one in purse like a physical copy and one as a Kindle kind of book like a digital book.

Kyla Cofer: 11:13

So you really like that support from other mentors that maybe you didn't meet them in person, but 3000 other people who are influencing you here.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 11:21

Yeah, exactly, just filling my brain with success, direction of success, and I was taking it through. Yeah, if I was driving, I had it on audio. If I was sitting waiting somewhere at a bank or something I was reading on my phone. If I was at home, I was reading my book. Actually, later on I found out, is an addiction really is an addiction to feeling stupid and and realizing. Realizing that I, you know, like I thought that if I didn't consume the information all the time, then I would lose it, like that I wouldn't have the memory to hold it or something that I needed. This constant flow is constant reinforcement.

Kyla Cofer: 12:03

You read, you had full of mentors, from books to people in person started this business, sold the business, and where did you go from there? How did you get to where you are now?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 12:12

Yeah, like that one business within that decade. I was not only starting like growing this gym, I grew it to four locations, started franchising it, started expanding it in other cities and then it got sold. But in that decade I had started a whole bunch of other businesses, over 12 of them from software, were they all just as successful.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 12:35

No, no, most of them failed, but they, you know you either win or you learn. You know Right, you either win or you learn. And there was a lot of learning when you're willing to take the risks to jump into something new. And I had a fascination once I was figuring it out and I was like, oh, wow, this can be applied to software business and maybe I'll create my own software for the fitness club. So I started a software for my gyms and then it was like, oh, like, let's do an academy. I did personal training studio and then I was doing events and bodybuilding shows and all sorts of things that you know. A lot of them were great success too. Our events, for example. I did over a dozen events that every year one event with hundreds of people attending, 700 to 1000 people attending to these events and for, yeah, 10 years straight and every one of them being sold out. So I sort of went in all directions and then realized I need to start an incubator, because an incubator is startups and these people have always new business ideas, so I'll never be bored, you know, I can just always help people. And then I sold my business and actually along this journey, this 10 year journey. All the businesses sort of relate to fitness and health because the way I got into this was to help people get healthy right as a personal trainer. So I had this fascination for the optimal solution for health throughout this journey And as I got further and further along.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 14:07

When I sold my business around that time I had come to the conclusion I had been a personal trainer. I tried exercise. I had been a nutrition consultant. My business included nutrition supplementation. Then I got into hormone therapies And I was like, okay, stress is the number one overlaying factor. I was like it doesn't matter if you eat well, you exercise well, you sleep well. If your day to day is super stressful and you don't know how to manage that, it overrides everything. You'll still be fat and you know your body will hold on to that fat as an energy source because it's in self preservation. So I was always go. My career as an entrepreneur was going one way. Parallel to that was this seeking for optimal health in the name of my clients, like to help them, because at this point I had over 40 personal trainers working for me. So I was still in this role of making sure that I'm on the cutting edge with health.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 15:05

And I, after the hormones, I started to think about because if my clients would come back with hormone results that were out of whack, that they were too stressed, too much cortisol or I, was like, hey, well, now what do we do? They're exercising, they're eating right, they're sleeping well, they got the supplement. Still, what is there to do? And that was like a blank to me, like I don't know, like what else can we do? And then I realized that what controls the hormones? I read this book called when the body says no, by Gabber Maté, and this I was about 25 years old And it blew my mind because it made the connection from the mental thing to the physical health And like just now you know people are talking about mental health like I made that connection when I was 25 and going, oh, wow, scientifically, it made sense because he had in that book all these studies showcasing that your emotional health and your mental health has everything to do with the diseases that are happening.

Kyla Cofer: 16:03

The mind and body are 100% connected, right? I don't know why we think they're separate because the mind is part of the body. I mean, it's all the same, it works together, absolutely Yeah.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 16:13

And there's really two connections. There's the mind and body connection that the Western world and the medical field does not take into consideration really They're starting to. But there's another separation your environment and your mental health. Right, so there's the connection of the mind to the body, but there's also the connection to the environment and your mental health, like how's your relationship, how's your family doing? All these sort of relational things around you know, how's your job? You hate your job, like no doctors asking those questions.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 16:44

So I became fascinated with the mental aspect of things, which led me to meditation. And meditation was like this thing where I had heard that it will calm your mind and your thoughts And if you do that, then your mind won't be so busy and you'll be able to. Your nervous system will relax itself. So that was a really cool idea. So I decided to jump in and try it myself. Like everything that I would recommend with clients, I would first be the guinea pig for it and see, and I started doing it for 30 days.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 17:16

Five minutes And anyone listening right now, this is what I recommend everyone to do is just five minutes a day. Do it after you brush your teeth. That way it's already ingrained with a current habit and just take five minutes after you brush your teeth, like just sit there Maybe, like sit on the sit on the toilet, lock the door and breathe for the timer. Five minutes and just just sit there with yourself. So I did that for 30 days And at the end of 30 days there was no turning back, everything. It's like I had opened a door to an awareness I didn't know existed And it was like oh okay, I can see clear, I'm not in the trees, you know, where I can't find anything. I'm up on the mountain all of a sudden and I'm overseeing my life as a whole.

Kyla Cofer: 18:00

And just in five minutes a day for 30 days.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 18:03

Yeah.

Kyla Cofer: 18:03

Wow, that's significant.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 18:05

It is, and I started to become an advocate, an ambassador. I was like this is the solution, this is what changes everything. All my clients that were busy business owners and professionals that were just like running from one place to the next, you know, doing one thing and then jumping into another thing and trying to manage their family and their everything I was like I got something for you. This is gonna make you see what's at the root of things you know. So we're not trying to just help this surface level band-aid stuff That's going on. We're actually gonna go deeper.

Kyla Cofer: 18:39

So did you start offering that to your gym clients?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 18:42

No, I was just telling them five minutes a day, just just sit with yourself. Then they would start to ask me questions And I was like I don't know much about it, you know, all I know is that if you sit with yourself and you just sit there in the silence, that things just happen. And it's like, don't try to make it happen, but just just commit to 30 days and don't commit to like things changing, because you're already, you're already gonna be in the loop again. I've trying to achieve something, like you're doing 99% of your day already. This is a reverse thing. It's like you're setting a thing in place, a structure for yourself to allow for something mysterious to happen and it may not happen. So don't have an expectation.

Kyla Cofer: 19:20

No expectations. Let's just sit with ourselves and be calm, and not try and make something of it. Have, allow ourselves to have five minutes in a day where we're not having to be something, be someone, do something, make a difference somewhere that we're just being and allowing ourselves to exist.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 19:39

And this is deeply programmed in us from an early age that we, our society, runs on achievement. You know, if it doesn't, it collapses. We need to have progress. It's how the system runs. So from an early age we're told okay, you know, you're gonna go to school, you're gonna go in grade one and then two, and then three and then four, and there's a progression. And you're gonna keep moving in this way and then you're gonna finish school, you're gonna get a job. Once you get a job, you're gonna have family and then you're gonna retire at 40. It's like already, this, this progression, and it's like don't stop moving. And Yeah, this, this became like wow.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 20:14

And I was looking back in my past as the bodybuilder, always pointing, achieving, moving, always going and how that was connected to my hormone right, this whole thing was connected. And when I was around 26, I got my own hormones check and, as healthy as I was, thinking I was, the naturopathic doctor I went to see, did the adrenal test on me and she said you're burnt out and I was like, and I just like collapsed. She had acknowledged something that was deep within me and that I couldn't see because adrenaline hormones what I discovered about hormones is like, especially stress hormones, and I used to do corporate talks, like to tech companies and stuff like this around around this. Is that adrenaline is like a double-edged sword, it gives you energy, but it also can take a lot of energy. It wears you out. So you may be feeling great, I have so much energy, but really it's not the right type of energy. It's like coffee. You'll drink coffee and it's like, alright, it gives me a boost, it's good, but keep doing it and you're going to deplete your natural energy. Your natural adrenaline will eventually be exhausted And you're gonna feel exhausted and if you don't take that coffee, you won't be able to function. You'd be a zombie.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 21:29

So, yeah, that was my discovery into realizing this whole connection and that I had this tool now, meditation, and it is actually more powerful than any exercise, any nutrition, any lifestyle habit that we can introduce to our lives, and it impacts not only me, but it impacts everyone around us, everyone, and it's it works in really mysterious ways. I got so passionate about it that it was time to sell my fitness business. It's like I had graduated the physical aspect of things and now was on to something that was very curious I was very curious about and I didn't know anything about really, apart from my little test. So I sold my business, I sold everything and I just wanted to let go and go travel the world and go see different spiritual teachers, people that are gurus in this kind of space, and I knew it was completely out of my industry now and that it was weird and it was different.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 22:31

But I needed to let it all go and I started doing that and I dove into that, which eventually led me to sell my house. I had a million dollar house, mercedes, that, all the luxury stuff, and that fell flat for me, that didn't matter anymore. It's like why am I holding on to this? I was questioning it. Oh, because I want to look good for other people. I want to have this symbol of prestige for everyone else, for my neighbors, for people to think I'm successful and do business with me.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 22:56

Not gonna happen anymore. I'm just gonna be me.

Kyla Cofer: 22:59

So did your definition of success change at this point?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 23:03

Oh yeah, oh yeah. Everything became about my daughter, right, being there, my wife at the time, my relationships became very important because I was questioning why I was striving. What am I striving for? This dream, this, this illusion I was sold my whole life that I need to work until I'm like 50 and then retire and then and then enjoy my life. I was like no, no, no, no, there's a better way I can do this, where I can enjoy the day right now, because I could die at any moment and, like meditation, put me face-to-face with that, and like these teachers that I traveled to and went to Iceland and Arizona, all these places to meet them. And then the conclusion was like man I, could die at any moment, like I need to live this life and I need to do it in the way I want to do it. I'm gonna carve my own path and whatever, it doesn't matter what it means to anyone else, it's for me.

Kyla Cofer: 23:55

Wow, so you kind of went on this journey of self-discovery and would you say that you're currently still on that journey of self-discovery because you kind of come to a settling place?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 24:07

You know I have this tattoo. It's a zen on my hand, it's, it's full circle. You know it's really, it's showing that it's like the Wizard of Oz. You know, you've had the shoes on your whole the whole time and it was really this, this return home to the ambitious self that I am. But now I want to say an awareness of knowing what you value and what you want and making sure you're not caught up in this. I think it's Socrates.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 24:33

He had an example of a horse carriage. You know, being pulled by the horse carriage and not having control and just sort of being almost similar to like how it's really hard to have control over our social media and are on the internet. It's like it's meant to captivate you. Every business on there is meant to suck you in, hold your attention as long as they can. You got to be aware of that and you can't get pulled by it, you know.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 24:59

So it was this awareness that, okay, achievement is similar, it's like a game. Business is similar. It's it's a big game and it's fun. It's like we can keep going down that that route, in a way that all, all of a sudden, we've sacrificed everything we cared, cared for at the same time. So to me, success now is more about touching the things that you value, aligning your time with the things you value. That don't tell me you value your family, you know, more than anything, yet you spend 5% of your day with them. That's out of whack, because everything you do in a day, every habit, is massively important, not like okay, yeah, I missed this. No, every little thing we do in our day intentionally does is is either in alignment or out of alignment.

Kyla Cofer: 25:49

Tell me more about being in alignment, out of alignment. So, being in alignment with, with who you are, or out of alignment with who you are and like what your goals and your hopes and your dreams, and like your purpose is that kind of what you're meaning?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 26:01

No, to me what it means is the connection to my body. Okay, and so this is a nine year spiritual journey, right of letting go of everything, money. I lived in a tent for three months seeing, yeah, just a complete shift, and what it brought me to was that I've been conditioned to only prize my mind from the very early age, that the goal was to be smart and to pass tests and to have a high IQ and, and if I do that, i'm going to get a job and I'm going to get hired. I'm going to, you know, it was always based on my mind, like in our society as a whole reprise the mind.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 26:44

We don't really prize the body, we don't really talk about it, and what meditation does is you get out of these thoughts eventually, over time. And what happens when there is no thoughts anyone? well then you're present to just what is. And then what you start to notice is that your body has sensations going on, telling you stuff all the time And just the same way, that, oh, you get a urge just like, oh, I, have to go to the bathroom right now, so you're listening to your body and you're going to do that, or I'm kind of hungry right now, and I'm going to do that. So what it showed me is that, wow, there's, there's some wisdom in this body of mine that's telling me my yes and my no, and it comes down to the this simple fact. Thinking of the song cat Stevens, you know, if you want to say yes, say yes, and if you want to say no, say no.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 27:38

And it really comes to that simplicity what's a yes and what's a no. The problem is, when we're in our heads is that we make this judgment call based on what other people are going to think about us. We're still making that judgment calls based on everyone else and we're ignoring what our true calling, our true alignment, is saying. So sometimes we say yes when we mean to say no and sometimes we say no when you want to say yes because we're scared. So once you start tuning into this and to start really speaking, to know this is actually a no, and instead of people pleasing or making you feel good or not wanting to offend, I'm able to tune into myself and say that's a no. I can say it in a nice way and that's what I mean by alignment.

Kyla Cofer: 28:24

So this is where we make that switch into talking about why this matters to leadership, because leaders need to know when to say yes and when to say no, and they're bringing other people along with them and other people are affected by those decisions.

Kyla Cofer: 28:42

So when we are have done this work of really developing ourselves and and knowing that bigger picture of our lives and being more alignment with who we are, we understand exactly when we want to say yes, when we say no to things, and it makes our decision making pretty simple. So the decision making doesn't cause as much stress because we already know where we're going and we already know what we want and what we need. And then what we're doing for the people that we're leading like. We know how to lead them and in what direction we're going. We know how to prepare that vision and cast that vision and get people to it, because we understand who we are and where we're going. So if people want to get more involved in meditation, you recommend they start with five minutes a day for 30 days. Where would they go from there?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 29:30

That's it. After that, it's a mystery. Will you keep going? Will you start to get into guided meditation apps? Maybe you'll. You know there's many different paths you can take. After that, maybe you'll meet a teacher. Maybe you'll start getting interested in other stuff. It may open a door, but it's a mystery. After that, it's your own journey. It's your own journey and we all have our own.

Kyla Cofer: 29:52

Wow. So, Jean-Luc, what are you doing these days? You've been on this nine-year journey spiritual path. after having these businesses that have been successful, some not so successful, really got into meditation and you did a lot of meditations with corporate. You said you were bringing all these trainings to other organizations and bringing this to other people. Where has it led you to today?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 30:11

Yeah, I, started this company called the Peace Room, which was a meditation studio in the city of Ottawa in Canada, and then I started corporate and after the Canadian government, doing meditations for all the government. For me personally, every moment has become a meditation And I think you know the paradox of it is that you need to start to get going, but then eventually you need to let it go. Yeah, so, eventually, every moment. So we call meditation a practice. You know, meditation practice and it is. It's a practice for what? It's a practice for life, it's a practice for living in the moment and for having the awareness of your body, of the room, of energies, of other people. So you can imagine how much this helps in so many ways, especially in the corporate world. How we do meetings. You know a lot of times we do meetings together in a board room and we're talking over each other or we're talking to be heard, not to actually contribute. You know we're talking to be validated, to not lose our job right, and we're not to be important.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 31:14

All these things where, if everyone around the table had the awareness to just realize it's not about us, it's not about the I, it's about something bigger that we're trying to achieve. Wow, that makes for a powerful team. So are you walking?

Kyla Cofer: 31:27

with people through this. Are you still doing the peace room?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 31:31

No, the peace room is still going. I still do own it, but it's all online now. So people can go to thepeaceroomcom. They have a corporation or their HR person, but I'm not involved anymore. I'm a business coach. It's been a year. When I said coming full circle is.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 31:48

I realized that when I was a personal trainer, I was a coach And I was always about bringing out the best in people. And when I had my incubator, that's what I loved, that's what I was doing. And then when I looked at how I grew my companies into multiple locations and made my million dollars, it was because I was able to uplift everyone. I was always this coach And now I'm a business coach. My own approach And I come with these tools, tools that are to help the blockage that are in the way of our beliefs, to raise that standard and to connect it not only with your own personal achievements but your impersonal dream, like change you're trying to make in the world and like how, how you can get out of your own way for that to Manifest itself, and in the biggest way possible.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 32:38

Because everyone I ask about their dream. Every time I is the question. I ask everyone what's your dream? And then they'll tell me oh, it's that to help people do this. And I always asked them how many people do you want to help? Now, it's as many as I can right, because when you're in your heart, the heart knows no boundaries, it knows no limitations, and that question of the dream comes from the heart because it's something you want to help. And when we talked about how leaders need the self-awareness in order to lead, in order to know the way, if you are a leader that is solely operating from the mind and not from the heart and not feeling into your body, you're going to lead for profits only and you're going to get in trouble. You're going to head people, you're gonna bring people in a direction that isn't rooted in your body And the body doesn't want to do bad things to people. The body doesn't want to destroy and do, and the body wants to do good. It just knows it doesn't want to hurt people, right?

Kyla Cofer: 33:36

I wonder if that's sometimes why we have fear about things. Because our body does feel the fear of, if we don't know what we're doing here, that we might hurt people, we might hurt ourselves, including ourselves, which is why sometimes we get held back from really leading with strength and with courage, especially in leadership positions. We don't always know exactly what we're doing. Or, as an entrepreneur, you said you started out your business and really didn't know, but you kind of had to figure it out. And a lot of times we get held back because of the unknown and the not knowing of what's ahead. And I'm wondering if sometimes that's our body trying. It's just our mind, our body protecting us, saying we don't want to hurt you, you don't want to hurt somebody else on accident because you don't know what you're doing. So just don't do anything like, don't go forward, just stop. So I'm seeing that connection in my head of how our body does hold us back in fear because we want to protect ourselves and protect other people.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 34:32

Yeah, it's a great, great insight because it's like what is fear and what is intuition? right, like that, there's this cross of like I can move towards the fear and there's an excitement there, there's an excitement in the fear. To me, this is a sign of moving towards it. If there's a fear and a feeling of this is not good, this is not doing good, then that's not the area I'm good, the direction I'm gonna go in. Right, I think we have this internal thing about goodness. Marcus Aurelius as a quote. He says Do not spend time thinking about what a good man is, just be one. And I love that quote because it says a lot, so we can get lost in the philosophy of what goodness really is. I think is actually pretty complicated because good and bad and society and you know, and ideas are all relative to the culture. But there's a feeling that we can tune into that. We all know we're doing something good or we're doing something wrong. And I think, as a leader, we need to we need to tune into that.

Kyla Cofer: 35:39

That's what I was gonna say, that that that part is is that learning how to tune into that intuition. I think that's what you've been talking about this whole time right. Understanding who you are and in the bigger picture, in a way, and being in alignment with yourself. It. It becomes easier and easier to understand when it is our intuition, when it is something that you need to listen to, that we need to hold back now. You need to move forward now. When is that fear lying to us and when is it telling us the truth that you need to be afraid here, or it's just trying to protect you from something that from an unknown? and and the more we practice this, the easier it gets to determine the difference between those things. yeah, and can I?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 36:18

do a little exercise with you, sure, of course. So this is a I call it present moment relating PMR. It's something I've coined, but I'm just gonna explain what is going on in my body. Okay, in terms of sensations, okay, and then, and then I'll show you the exercise. So I'm standing here, I'm sitting here, and I feel the fan coming from the left on my arm. I feel, and I feel sweat under my armpits and seeing you smile makes my face smile. And I feel a little bit of a ball like in my throat and I feel myself wanting to rush this a little bit, like I want to give you all the value I can. So slowing down. My shoulders are more relaxed now, my face, so I just so this exercise is over for me. Now, what I just did there is just tuning in to the senses that are going on around me, right, and what I can feel inside. So can you share with me what's going on in the senses that you have right now sitting where you are?

Kyla Cofer: 37:26

Yeah, this is a fun exercise. I haven't done this very often, but I've really enjoyed it when I have. So for me right now, while I'm just noticing the chair that I'm sitting in, like the feel of the fabric on my I'm sitting in shorts so I can feel it on my legs. It's a little bit cool and I'm in my basement So I feel the cool air. I'm feeling the tension in my back and my shoulders from sitting here for the last 40 minutes talking, so I'm feeling that and a little bit of tension in my neck as well, as I'm trying to really make sure that I'm asking a good questions and following along and really paying attention, cause I want to be here and hear what you're saying and just ask good questions. I want to give our audience and our listeners a good listening experience and I want them to have something to take away with. So I'm kind of thinking through all of those. I feel like my mind is that is very full right now, trying to process, listen, intake and process all at the same time.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 38:25

Sure enough And I'm sure those who are listening right now, as she was explaining it what was going on in her body. You can't help but sort of self-check in, right?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 38:34

When you said you're back, I thought about my back too, and then I like, oh, yeah, okay my back's, like maybe I'll move, and this is an exercise that you can do with your partner, with your children. It's like wow, what a gift you're giving them, because what you're giving them is an opening a doorway to start to tune in to the sensations they feel, and when you do that, they have their inner guidance.

Kyla Cofer: 38:58

I've definitely calmed down and relaxed more just in the last five minutes of the conversation. Because when you specifically said you felt your shoulders relaxing, I relaxed my shoulders, Just like you said. You definitely can feel that energy from somebody else and it affects you throughout your day. It affects this moment. And it's really nice to be able to be intentional about being aware and paying attention to who we are And it carries us through the rest of the day. Like I will feel calmer and more relaxed throughout the rest of the day, having had just 30 seconds where we paid attention to it.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 39:34

Yeah, and then those times in the day where you do catch yourself right, the frontal cortex has this part of it that is different than other animals. It has the ability to check itself. It has this self-awareness that the reptilian mammalian brain doesn't have. That we can just sort of catch ourselves and go. I'm like revved up right now and I'm gonna take a breath. And when I do that it's like okay, I'm now calibrating my stress level, I'm in tune with it now. When I, like I said, when I was burnt out, I wasn't in tune with it, So I didn't have any reference point, I didn't know how to navigate, so it was all full force ahead with my thoughts And now I can go. Oh, wow.

Kyla Cofer: 40:19

You're also maintaining power and control over yourself a little bit. When we can understand what we're going through and what we're experiencing in a moment and take kind of charge of that, we're taking leadership of ourselves in our own life and our own experiences in that moment. Because when you're not, you're allowing the stress to own you, you're allowing the world around you to own you, you're allowing all of that stuff to have a say in your life. But when you allow yourself those pauses, the reconnection with who you are and who you want to be, even just in small moments, you are telling yourself and the world around you that I own my life and I own my choices and my decisions going forward. I wanna wrap this up, Jean-Luc. This has been such a really good conversation of. is there anything that you think would be valuable to add and make sure our listeners hear before we wrap up here?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 41:15

Yeah, I do have one thing I wanted to advertise. you can say is I have my free e-book, the Business Freedom Roadmap. So it's for any entrepreneur, business owner that wants to get their time back and live a more balanced life, and it shows you basically the system on where to start. Where do you start with all these systems and business and what I need to do. and this is just a guide for you. So that's on my website, coachjeanluc. com.

Kyla Cofer: 41:43

Awesome. And is there a dash in your name, or is it all written out?

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 41:47

No, it's just coach Jean-Luc.

Kyla Cofer: 41:49

Coach Jean-Luc. Okay, that will be in our show notes for anybody who wants to find that link and follow along. Jean-Luc, thank you so much for joining us. It's really been a pleasure to talk to you and I'm gonna go about my day much more relaxed and in charge. This is great.

Jean-Luc Boissonneault: 42:00

Amazing thanks for having me, Kyla, it was great.

Kyla Cofer: 42:03

Thank you. Hey, thank you so much for listening. If you've liked what you heard and you want some more tools and resources to help you on your journey, go check out kylacofercom forward slash free stuff.