Prepare to explore the journey to small business success with AJ Amyx, a life and business coach sharing a wealth of knowledge. In our insightful discussion, we dive into the mental barriers entrepreneurs face, unveiling that the key to effective strategy lies in embracing our true selves. Our conversation draws from personal experiences and teachings, emphasizing how our self-perception significantly impacts goal achievement.
This episode goes beyond triumphing over entrepreneurial challenges; it delves deep into the crucial role of personal growth in professional success. We share the story of a small business owner who overcame depression, unlocking a newfound appreciation for his business—a powerful testament to self-awareness and life-enhancing changes. AJ and I explore three essential elements for personal and business growth: transcending trauma, enhancing relationships, and defining clear outcomes. The role of a coach emerges as a pivotal tool, akin to Michelangelo's artistry in sculpting one's best self.
As we wrap up, we embrace the concept of radical responsibility, connecting thoughts and emotions with life's purpose, inspired by spiritual teachings like Kriya Yoga. The episode highlights the dynamic equilibrium business owners must maintain and the power of holistic coaching in blending business acumen with personal development. Join us for this episode promising a mix of wisdom, actionable insights, and a path to reignite your passion for your business. Unlock your greatness with a transformed mindset.
AJ Amyx: Life and Business Coach Website - https://ajamyx.com/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajamyx/ AJ's Book on Amazon - https://shorturl.at/txC13 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@AJAmyx
Mentions: Book - Your Faith Is Your Fortune - Author, Neville Goddard Book - Mindset - Author, Carol Dweck Book - Autobiography of a Yogi Meditation - Kriya Yoga
Prepare to explore the journey to small business success with AJ Amyx, a life and business coach sharing a wealth of knowledge. In our insightful discussion, we dive into the mental barriers entrepreneurs face, unveiling that the key to effective strategy lies in embracing our true selves. Our conversation draws from personal experiences and teachings, emphasizing how our self-perception significantly impacts goal achievement.
This episode goes beyond triumphing over entrepreneurial challenges; it delves deep into the crucial role of personal growth in professional success. We share the story of a small business owner who overcame depression, unlocking a newfound appreciation for his business—a powerful testament to self-awareness and life-enhancing changes. AJ and I explore three essential elements for personal and business growth: transcending trauma, enhancing relationships, and defining clear outcomes. The role of a coach emerges as a pivotal tool, akin to Michelangelo's artistry in sculpting one's best self.
As we wrap up, we embrace the concept of radical responsibility, connecting thoughts and emotions with life's purpose, inspired by spiritual teachings like Kriya Yoga. The episode highlights the dynamic equilibrium business owners must maintain and the power of holistic coaching in blending business acumen with personal development. Join us for this episode promising a mix of wisdom, actionable insights, and a path to reignite your passion for your business. Unlock your greatness with a transformed mindset.
AJ Amyx: Life and Business Coach Website - https://ajamyx.com/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajamyx/ AJ's Book on Amazon - https://shorturl.at/txC13 YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/@AJAmyx
Mentions: Book - Your Faith Is Your Fortune - Author, Neville Goddard Book - Mindset - Author, Carol Dweck Book - Autobiography of a Yogi Meditation - Kriya Yoga
One thing I've come to know with certainty is that in any single trial, tribulation as a human being, we will undergo them. There's always a gift if we look for it, and the gift is here to evolve us into us being us, just me being me, you being you, the listener that's listening to this right now, them being them. And that's the gift in the trials and tribulation. If we're willing to embrace courage to look for the gift and extract it and let it evolve us and go do what we're here to do.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to Small Business Pivots, a podcast designed for small business owners. I'm your host, michael Morrison, a small business coach and founder of Boss, where small business success starts To learn more. Go to businessownershipsimplifiedcom and make sure to hang around to the end of this episode for my recap and coach's corner, where I share applicable action steps that will help you grow your business. Our guest today is AJ Amix. Aj is a transformational artist addicted to real-world results. His life's purpose is to help as many people as possible remember who they truly are. He helps hungry leaders create results fast, while navigating the challenges of life with grace and ease. Aj is a best-selling author and one of the top coaches in the world. According to HubSpot, aj has coached all kinds of leaders, from Forbes' top social media influencers to multi-million-dollar business owners to a 17-year-old kid. Let's get to our guest now to learn how to experience our best life ever. All right, welcome to another Small Business Pivots podcast. We have a special person from around the world. Where are you coming to us from today?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, here in Arigal, Texas, just between Dallas and Fort Worth. I'm excited to be with you, Michael.
Speaker 2:
Fantastic, aj, you're here to talk small business, so let's get started. So I know for a lot of small business owners. A lot of times we grow up with mindset. Challenges could be through trials or tribulations. Did you have anything like that growing up? And if you did, how did you overcome it when you started adulting? And if you didn't, congratulations, because most of us did.
Speaker 1:
I have not met a human yet who does not have some type of mental limitation and how they see themselves. There was a book I read, I think it was by Neville Goddard and I think it was called your Faith is your Fortune. I read it back, maybe in 2015. It was one of those books that just it's a little book but it's a hearty book. It takes basically the spiritual principle, these biblical principles, and it plays it out as a psychological drama, and one of the things that it talked about was a person will never, ever outwork their conception of self right, and so that ideology, I think, really kind of sums up for any single human being they will never be able to outperform or outwork that which they see themselves to be right. And so what I have learned over the past man, I've been an entrepreneur and have my own business for since 2010 now, so however long that his 13 years, I guess. It is now so quite a long time and I've coached all kinds of business owners all over the world.
Speaker 1:
It always comes back to when they're struggling in their business. Typically, there is a disconnect between what they want to experience in reality versus when they get really honest with themselves, how they see themselves, and I think a lot of business owners would get caught. What's the strategy? What's the strategy? There's so many paths up the mountain. The real thing that moves the needle is like who are we being when we're executing upon that strategy? Because that is what changes. Everything guaranteed all of the time.
Speaker 2:
Wow, we're starting off with a bang here. That's good stuff. I've never heard that, in fact, a couple of years ago. So I always go on this journey every year explore something that I'm not familiar with, and one of those was what separates those high driven people and why can't I be like that? I mean, I'm driven, but there's some people that are just 24 seven. Elon Musk, for example. He's just always shooting for the moon, or actually I guess he's further than that. He's at Mars now. There's people like that, and then there's people like me. So that's interesting. The name of the book was what? Now Again?
Speaker 1:
Your faith is your fortune. It's an older book that was written in the 20s or 30s. I don't know why, but I'm always pulled to books that are way older than me.
Speaker 2:
That's a good one, because I guarantee that's going to help a business owner. Why can't I be like them, or why can't I get where they are, and so that's some good stuff. So did you have challenges growing up, or were you studious? I mean, did you excel at a lot of things?
Speaker 1:
Looking back, I feel like maybe I was like a lot of entrepreneurs, potentially, where I was like I had a good life. I mean, nothing crazy happened, I wasn't raped, I wasn't molested, I wasn't in big traumas, but I always felt like there was a gap between well, why am I not performing at the level of you know to stay with your analogy Elon, or whoever this person is? And so, as I've, over the past decades, done a ton of very, very deep own inner work and transformational work, I've realized that, yeah, I experienced trauma. Every single human being on the planet that I've ever met experienced trauma, and it may not be this big trauma like an elastation or a rape or a catastrophic event or whatever, but there's always. There's always even small trauma that impacts the way our brain is wired and the way that our body is wired, just to the same degree that these, these big traumas occur. So for me, yeah, I definitely always felt like I had.
Speaker 1:
I was my mom and dad had me young. They were around. I think they were 21 when they had me, so they were a kid having a kid, and so, in the household I grew up, dad was gone. I mean, until I was probably 15, 16, dad was gone to come home on the weekends, or every other weekend or once every three weeks, cause he was in construction working for his father's company and so he's always out of town working to put food on her table. And then my mom growing up, she was just not emotionally present. I mean, she was there, she kept us alive, she did a good job as a mom, but when it came to like emotional and I'm not trying to be like a snowflake here, I'll get somewhere with this this point is just the emotional piece was was gone, and so emotionally I felt abandoned. Now that then set me up to be a high performer. Rather than learning how to actually experience the pain and transmute the pain, I was like all right, well, you guys tell me how to perform. You guys want me to make straight A's done. You guys want me to be like one of the best soccer players in the world done like just teach me how to perform. Now what I've come to learn is it's been a blessing and a curse. Anything that I've set out to do I've accomplished.
Speaker 1:
If I wanted to become a musician, which I did when I was in college, I wanted to become a musician. I wanted to have a professional career as a rock star and have record deals. I did I. I put five guys together, I did all the tour logistics. We raised money and made money to buy a 38 foot tour bus. We had radio play here in Dallas. We toured the country. We had two record offers.
Speaker 1:
But no matter what I accomplished, inside I still felt like small, like inside the book of your faith is your fortune. They tell this story Um, uh, and I think it was somewhere I don't remember the exact story in the Bible, but it was around David's time. Whenever that was in the Bible David and Goliath and they talked about In the land of giants they saw themselves as grasshoppers. And so this comes back to you can never outwork the conception of yourself. Like for me, no matter how much I achieved, externally the world saw me as man giant. You've done so many amazing things, but then internally, when I'm honest, being a man looking myself in the mirror, I felt like a grasshopper. So then I did what every single high performer I've ever met does typically Cast a new vision to go slay a new giant, only to feel inside still that of a grasshopper.
Speaker 1:
And so part of my journey has been coming back home to. I don't want to be like Elon, I don't want to be like any other person. I can be inspired by them, I can learn lessons from them, but can I actually come home to just me being me, me playing the game that I choose to play, not because I'm addicted to winning and the reason I was addicted to winning was in the stillness. I wasn't okay in here, and so I've had to learn how to burn through all of that, to be completely, 100% okay in here, to then go, do what's required to create the results. Not because I'm using the results to feel some void inside of my heart or my soul, but I'm doing it because it's an expression that just that's what I want to experience, it's what I want to create and so, yeah, so I have overcome lots of obstacles, michael and I could say all day and I could piece them out, and I could extract all the lessons from hardships and entrepreneurship, from hardships growing up to the wife going through cancer, to having a traumatic birth with my daughter.
Speaker 1:
I could give you example after example after example. But one thing I've come to know with certainty is in any single trial and tribulation as a human being, we will undergo them. There's always a gift if we look for it, and the gift is here to evolve us into us being us, just me being me, you being you, the listener that's listening to this right now. Them being them, and that's the gift in the trials and tribulation. If we're willing to embrace courage to look for the gift and extract it and let it evolve us and go do what we're here to do.
Speaker 2:
That's powerful. I know a lot of entrepreneurs that we've had on this podcast. They have this unfulfillment, this desire to fulfill something that seems to be missing. So you're right on target with that and I know that information is going to help a lot of people because I'm a business coach and I work with a lot of startups kind of the smaller, medium-sized businesses and they're always in their strategy. They always, like, mentioned someone else's company, they'll say, you know kind of like so-and-so or kind of like this, and it's kind of like it's your own journey, and so that's powerful, right there.
Speaker 1:
Well, let's come back to this and anchor this a little bit further. Who did Michael Jordan play basketball like?
Speaker 2:
Michael Jordan.
Speaker 1:
Exactly.
Speaker 2:
Yeah.
Speaker 1:
Who does Elon do business like?
Speaker 2:
He has his own way.
Speaker 1:
yes, how did Steve Jobs do technology?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, likewise.
Speaker 1:
Steve.
Speaker 2:
Jobs yeah.
Speaker 1:
How did Disney create cartoons? Who did he do it like?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, disney, you get my point.
Speaker 1:
These are individuals that we look at and we're inspired, at least in the game of business, and we're like, oh, I want to be them. You know, people grew up like me in the 90s. We want to be like Mike, which sets us up for a complete disaster, because I'm not Michael Jordan, no matter how hard I ever try. I can be inspired, I can learn some skill sets from him. But if I'm going to be great at what I do, then I just have to play the game the way that I want to play it. The trap is trying to play it the way that they play it. If we look outside of ourselves, every great that does from art to music, to sports, to business, to entertainment they're just doing that game the way that they feel they're called to play it. Do they put it in the work? Yes. Do they go learn the skill sets? Yes. Do they master what I call the body sets and the emotional intelligence to play that game? Yes. But at the end of the day, they let something greater than them flow through them to express how they are here to play that game.
Speaker 1:
And I think this is the trap that, as business owners, we forget we're here to play this game of business, the way that we're here to play the game of the business and there's no right or wrong, there's just how do you choose to play the game of the business? How do you choose to leverage the strategies and the tactics and the tools to go up your mountain of whatever? That is the way that you choose to do it. And here's the hardest part that I found. Can you enjoy the journey of you just going up the mountain that you feel you've been called to go up, not because you have to achieve the top of the mountain so you can be OK in here or prove something to yourself, or prove something to humanity? Can you just do it because you love playing the game? One of the things I love about studying Michael Jordan and looking at his life he loved the game of basketball.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, yes, he did, he still does yeah.
Speaker 1:
And was he fueled by some demons to prove and defend? To a degree? Yes, to a degree, yes, and every single entrepreneur I've coached up to this point typically has some inner demons that are fueling them as well. But the fulfillment comes when we conquer the inner demon and then we just play the game because we love the game that we play. If we're not loving the game that we play, then quit playing that game and choose a different game, because there's nothing wrong with ever choosing to play a different game, because, at the end of the day, that's really what all of these things are, when we let all of our egos and attachments go.
Speaker 2:
That explains why. So most business owners that reach out to our company they often comment say I've read these books, I've watched these, I've done all this and nothing's changing. And that, right there, what you're saying is that's why I know a lot of business owners also will pick up a book that says here's how to scale your business 10X or whatever. And they get to chapter eight and they're like nothing's changing. It's like because that's not your journey, that's theirs. We can always take, like you said, we can follow and be inspired by the Michael Jordan's, the Steve Jobs, but let their story be theirs. And I have a mentor, one of my mentors. He always said quit following everyone else's statistics and make your own. So in other words, like these people that just know every statistic about every athlete, it's like you're spending a lot of time when you could be creating your own. You know, put yourself on the stage, you know and do it that way. So I love that you got into entrepreneurship. Why.
Speaker 1:
That's a really good question. So I grew up in a family of entrepreneurs. My grandfather started a construction business and did a bunch of government work boardings, note plants which was private work. But then he got into building schools and stuff and then my dad took over the business and they grew the construction business to about 20 million a year or so, learned that that was more work than they wanted to do because they like to hunt and fish. So they scale the business back down to about 5 million a year because that gave them the time freedom to just go out and travel and hunt and fish and things that they like to do.
Speaker 1:
So I've just always kind of grew up in that environment. That was kind of you know, you be a self made man, you be self sufficient, and so for me the reason I got into entrepreneurship, I think, was a lot of that and just the idea of freedom. I want to do what I want with whom I want, whenever I want to do it. That has probably been the biggest reason I've ever done. Entrepreneurship is just the promise of freedom.
Speaker 2:
And back to your earlier point when we started that freedom looks different for different people, right, like so you, like your parent or your dad, was let's do, grow and scale and build this empire. And it's like okay, maybe that's not what I want, let's go back, because I want more time is what I'm really after. So you're listening to small business PIVots, a podcast created exclusively for small business owners. Small business PIVots is supported by boss. Boss helps business owners create a business that runs without them through business coaching, lending courses, events, additional resources and much, much more. Go to business ownership simplified comm to learn why small business success starts there.
Speaker 2:
If you're enjoying the podcast and want to stay up to date with all our latest episodes, make sure to hit that subscribe button, and if you're loving what you hear, give us a thumbs up or leave a positive review. Your support means the world to us and it helps others discover the show too. Thanks for tuning in and don't forget to hit subscribe and like. Now. Let's get back to our guest. So you mentioned earlier not on this episode, but in a conversation that you traveled the world in a podcast. Was that before you started a business, or daring, or was that part of it?
Speaker 1:
That was part of it. So I've been doing coaching for quite a bit of time. I've been doing coaching full-time since 2012 and before that I was doing like consulting, social media, marketing and stuff. So but coaching I've done for more than a decade now. So I started the podcast and that was in 2019, did it all the way through to 2020? And so, yeah, it was just part of like how do I continue building my brand and my audience is what led me into podcasting.
Speaker 2:
So what do you do?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it's a great question. At the end of the day, I just like to say I like to help entrepreneurs be the greatest version of themselves across the board. Right before this I was talking with one of my clients. She's a book writing coach and so with her I've been coaching her for four years and so she had transitioned from doing ministry making Around twenty four thousand dollars a year, and she is now making this. This year she did over a hundred and twenty eight thousand dollars in revenue. It wasn't infantaneously, but she's done the work over the past three years to create that, the marriage that she has with her husband. She's like man. I feel more in love with my husband than ever before.
Speaker 1:
She used to kind of flog herself if she didn't weigh a certain weight I know what that weight is, I'm not gonna not gonna say it and now she's a very healthy individual. But she carried a lot of guilt and shame based upon her upbringing, and now she's like still super healthy, still super fit, but it's not from like, oh, I can't do this because she's just, she relates her body in a healthy way. She used to have a lot of fear for her child. She has a daughter that's eight years old or nine years old now, and so she's had a lot of fear about, oh, if she goes here, is she gonna be heard, or she goes here and now she has a lot more freedom being a mother, and so that's why I say I like to help a Driven entrepreneur be the greatest version of themselves, right, and that's different things for different people, you know. And so what, the only way I can describe it it's almost like I'm able to be with an entrepreneur. And like Michelangelo, how he sculpted David If you've ever studied kind of the way that he did it, he said he just kind of carved away everything that wasn't David from the stone. That then revealed David.
Speaker 1:
And I feel like, as a coach, that's what I do with an individual like I'm not here to be your cheerleader, I'm not here to be your friend. That doesn't mean that I won't cheer you on, that doesn't mean that I won't lift you up, but I also sometimes will kick you in the teeth, because my job is to cut away that which is not serving you so you can embody being the greatest version of yourself. And I've learned that usually consist of kind of three, three things or three phases, or three elements. And it's a never-ending game, which means we have to learn how to transcend your trauma whenever it arises. We don't have to go searching for it, but if we're driving a car because we want to get from Oklahoma City to Vegas and I know we have a flat tire, the the engine blows or whatever, we have to pull the car over right and address what needs to be addressed so we can get back in the car and head to Vegas.
Speaker 1:
And that's one thing. We have to transcend trauma. We can't pretend like it it doesn't exist when it does, for every single human being, out care what your willpower is. So when it surfaces, we transcend it and then from there we have to learn how to elevate the way that we relate with people.
Speaker 1:
A lot of us we grew up and and just being indoctrinated that relationships take life from us.
Speaker 1:
Well, we have to control or we have to dominate, and so we're either played a victim or a villain, or we're playing a hero role when we have to save our children, we have to save our parents, we have to save ourselves, we have to save humanity, and all of that is going to breed drama, drama, reaps, drama.
Speaker 1:
So there is an elevated way of relating to human beings that does not Exist in drama, and so we have to learn those strategies and be able to be called out when we're playing that so we can Transcend that and have elevated ways of relating, which does bring more joy and peace and purpose when we're dealing with human beings, which does have an impact on our business and our turnover and our longevity of having people wanting to be with us. And then the last thing is we got to create outcomes with, be clear on what we want. We have to own what we want and we we do have to to believe at some level or another that we are worthy of that, whatever that is, and it's different things for different people, and so that's how it's a kind of I help entrepreneurs, michael Hope that makes sense.
Speaker 2:
That's right on target with where I come from. So I have a quote that I often share, and I actually start, when we get a new client, a business owner, that they still they're not clear first of all. That's why they come to us there. The reason most business owners have a lot of challenges is because they don't have clarity, and so I always say, the first thing we're gonna work on or the first thing we're gonna learn is a quote that I often Say and that is until I change, nothing around me changes.
Speaker 2:
So all these business books, they're great, they're great principles, they're great frameworks, but until you I change individually, nothing around you is gonna change. It goes back to your very first point you can't outdo yourself. So, yeah, I love that, and so a lot of business owners can help themselves Just understanding that first that with a business coach, if you're looking for outside guidance, mentorship, and they're there just to show you another framework, do this, this than this, that's not really gonna help you in the long run. Right, is that kind of on the same path?
Speaker 1:
I totally agree and the way that I kind of framed this. There's kind of three areas of each one of our lives there's what we know that we know, there's what we know that we don't know, and then there's this whole other huge space, like if this was a pie chart. There's what we don't know that we don't know. So if you and I know something well, then we can handle it like we're like alright, if I, if I know that I don't know it well, then I, you know, I'm a driven person, your driven person, somebody listen to this podcast, probably driven person, like I need to read a book, I need to hire a course, need to work with coach no problems. But the growth and the transformation that really moves the needle is in the area of what we don't know, that we don't even know.
Speaker 1:
Yeah example of this. I was coaching this client earlier today. She is working with this one client who's this demanding, demanding, demanding, demanding, demanding, demanding. And I and I know this person's history she's been with me for four years and I was like, hmm, does this person remind you of your aunt? And she's like, well, now that you say that, yeah, I'm like great, was there ever a time when you, your your aunt, said something inappropriate or she was not taking her out of Responsibility and you asked her some questions, just objectively, holding some space for her, fully accepting her as she is, but you asked her a question where you don't let her transfer her shame on to you. You just asked a question that I gave it back to her to see what she wanted to do with it. And she get think of an instant, a Time that that happened and it radically altered her aunt's life.
Speaker 1:
And I was like, hmm, were there other times when you didn't do that? And she's like, oh, yeah, there's all this other times. It's like, well, why was that? Well, as she felt angry than I would feel triggered. I was like, hmm, and is that because you felt you would? It would bring up those, those feelings, those suppressed feelings of you feeling abandoned as a child, and she's like 100%. I'm like is that not exactly what's happening with this client? She's like 100% and I'm great.
Speaker 1:
Now you have a choice. Are you going to choose to run from the pain of feeling abandoned or are you going to choose to be there for yourself, connect with something greater than you, surrender it and then be you. I just be you. Be a coach. That's what you're here to do. Be a coach this lady. She doesn't like it, refund her money. She don't like it, tell her, get lost. Like, just be you. Yeah, just completely Transformed her. Now, why am I sharing this? I'm sharing this because this is an area of when you have a really good, great coach. That's not just teaching you tactics and frameworks and I'm all for tactics, I'm all for strategy, I'm all of that but a great coach is gonna help you constantly live in the land of you don't know what you don't know, and when you have a new perspective, you change your position. You change and transform your positionality in the problem which, by the way, problems only exist in the thinking. How you think right, they don't exist anywhere else you can't make a problem like Michael's.
Speaker 1:
I hate where the problems exist we're can we point to them. At the end of the day, we're gonna get hit on my tongue as the only place that problem. So when we change our positionality in our perception, now we can take a new action Right. And so this is the power of coaching, with somebody who's gonna be able to help you understand and see what you don't know, that you don't know there's a reason we get along.
Speaker 2:
For those listeners and clients and prospects and anyone else that knows me, I would say they probably get tired of me always saying we don't know what we don't know, and so you're saying it. So, folks, I'm not the only one that says that. Okay, it's true, we don't know what we don't know. And, as a business coach myself, I even have business coaches and some people are shocked with that. I'm like, because there's things I still don't know. There's people that have been in Unchartered waters that I've never been, and I want to just keep learning, evolving, because the more I learn, the more I can help others and impact Others. So that's all good stuff. So you work with a lot of business owners, right?
Speaker 2:
Yes, yes the show is about pivots and I was called out a few shows episodes ago by one of our guests who brought up a Relevant point. He said they're more like in iterations and I said pivots iterations Kind of the same to me but in some people's eyes are not. What are some Pivots that people have made that were radically changed their trajectory of their business that you've seen in some people that you've worked with? Is there anything that comes to mind?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, one that comes to mind is I was working with guy who owned a software company. They're doing about four million a year. He was really struggling with depression and he was also really worried that he because he was only working four hours a Week and he had a pretty large team that team about 20 or 30 people, and so as we talked, we got to, we got to this theory which was truth for him is he had built a four million dollar a year company because he was terrified of being a loser, like he just couldn't. He couldn't handle it. If he that was true, if at an identity level he was a loser, he's like I know that's game over for me. I never want to be a loser and this is what I mean for driven entrepreneurs. We always have these demons that typically drive us to build something and at some point in time, that that demon will completely Burn us out. And this is where he was in depression. Because he was in this place of like, yeah, I have a four million dollar a year company, I have time freedom, I have enough money where, if I don't work for another 10 years, like I don't need a paycheck, like I've invested it Well, but I have this overwhelming fear that if my my team members find out I this is he only worked four hours a week that they're gonna think I'm a loser. Why aren't you working harder, right? So, as we worked through that and we we did the work to dissipate all of that loser stuff that then changed his perception and his positionality to the business, where nothing changed externally, still had the same team, still had the same business, still had the revenue, but the way in which he was perceiving himself completely changed, and then he was able to enjoy the business. That's, that's what you would call, I think, a pivot.
Speaker 1:
I would call it a shift right, because typically, anytime we're stuck, or we're trying to figure it out, or we feel blocked, what is drifting, we're doing, what is drifting, drifting, drifting, drifting, and and this is normal this is part of the beingness of being humans.
Speaker 1:
I do it, I drift, you drift, as part of being being humans.
Speaker 1:
The name of the game, though, is how much awareness can we cultivate to then connect to the truth, to just admit I'm drifting, and then can we have the skill sets and the tools and the courage to shift out of the drift, and the faster that we do that, the faster we get back into being a creator, and then we start raising our threshold or upper limits that people have studied, like the big elite from Gay Hendrix or any of that, which is like, how good can I actually stand life being, and then, at the same time, can I start raising my standards for life, if we want to, where we start creating a new threshold which our way of being is gonna operate in, and so I've come to learn. The name of the game is just how fast can I become aware of when I'm drifting, take radical responsibility, shift out of the drift and then start raising my threshold for where my life experience is gonna be, and I get to do this until I exit the service, which is kinda cool.
Speaker 2:
I'm an open book. I always share with people. I mean, most people have heard my upbringing. But one of the reasons I started my business my first business well over two decades ago was because I felt the same way. I was tired of people labeling me in my mind that I'm not worthy. My self-worth was knocked down.
Speaker 2:
I went back all the way to my high school days when we were in a classroom setting and the teacher asked what do you wanna do when you grow up? And we went around the whole room I was like one of the last ones and I said I wanna be an entrepreneur for some reason. And she said what do you wanna do as an entrepreneur? And I said own a landscaping company. And before I even got that out of my mouth, the most popular kid in class said I wouldn't let you landscape my dog house, you know that kinda thing. And everybody laughed but me.
Speaker 2:
So when I started my first business, I pinpointed I used that as fire to fuel my adulting into entrepreneurship, if you will, to start a business. And then, with a lot of help, mentors and coaches and things like that, I shifted that. So you're talking about shifts and things. So I wanna say all that because I know a lot of business owners feel like they're on an island by themselves and they may feel like I'm the only one that feels this way, and I'm here to tell people that most people feel that way. We just have to find how to shift that, as you're talking about.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I find every person feels that way. Few just have the self certainty or the courage to be willing to just admit it.
Speaker 2:
Amen amen.
Speaker 1:
Or just putting frosting on some poop yeah.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, well, and we're into episode 30 or so. So if this is your first time listening, go back and listen to some of our other shows. That's not a plug, because we have had some high profile people on the show, and even them the pivots, or most people on our show have not been in their business. It's been transformed within Something they pivoted in their life, is what changed the trajectory of their business, and so this is all good stuff. What are some pivots that you've actually made?
Speaker 1:
I'll talk about the one I'm recently experiencing and I wouldn't say I'm fully there yet, but I want to share it as I'm working through it, because I believe it will serve at a different level that maybe others haven't talked about, which is this idea of radical responsibility.
Speaker 1:
I've always been radically responsible to the best of my ability, and now I'm entering into a new fractal which is like am I being radically responsible with the thoughts I'm thinking and the feelings I'm choosing to feel?
Speaker 1:
And so if I'm not, let's say, believing in myself, or if a thought of doubt comes in, even though I know in my heart and my soul I'm called to go wherever. I'm called to go to Oklahoma City, we'll use that one. And if a thought enters in that's like oh, the drive's going to be too long, or traffic on 35, is it going to be terrible? Or road construction, is this a pain? If I allow myself to entertain that thought and think that thought and continue thinking that thought, which creates more thoughts, then I'm not being radically responsible for what my calling is. Or if I'm feeling like, oh, I don't know, then I'm not being radically responsible with my feelings, and so that's kind of my own edge in exploring is how radically responsible am I going to be with the thoughts I think and the feelings I feel, and only allow myself the freedom to feel and think that which is an alignment with that which I'm called to?
Speaker 2:
A book that kind of aligns with that thought is Mindset by Carol Dweck. Have you ever read that Talks about that? Are there any books that you're reading or are you just self-discovering this?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I'm probably coming at it from a very different angle. And so, yeah, there's stuff I'm reading. So I'm reading the autobiography of a yogi right now from Parma, hansa Yogananda. That was written like in the 20s. I'm studying the path of Kriya Yoga right now, very deeply, been on that path for the past year. So I'm kind of coming at it from a faith angle, from a spirituality angle is kind of the place that I'm really exploring my edge around that.
Speaker 2:
Is there anything that you've seen consistently with all the business owners that you work with, a theme that's consistent, that you could share, saying so many business owners are going through this. This is what you can do to help that.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, great question. I find all of the business owners they're struggling on some level or another. And so if we look at somebody like an Elon that's what we talked about today and if we ever have these thoughts that's like, ah well, he's not struggling, and I'm telling you that dude's struggling, he's a human and he's struggling. I'm sure there's challenges in his business. I'm sure there's challenges in his team, which probably challenges with his children, his partner. He's going through challenges just like you are. And so I know this isn't like super strategic or tactful and hey, here's how to generate more leads and sales, but this is the thing that's going to move. The needle for you as a business owner is don't fall into the trap, thinking that people outside of you that you're looking at, that you're admiring, aren't struggling Like they're struggling like you are. That's good.
Speaker 2:
I have many stories of entrepreneurs that need to hear that, because I'm often asked by the clients that we work with. At some point or another they go Michael, am I like the worst business you've ever worked with? Do I have challenges that no one else does? And I'm like no, you're like easy breezy compared to you know, this other company, like you know. But it is all mindset and just the understanding. My mantra is every day is an exciting adventure, with problems to be solved and memories to be made, and that's what I wake up to every day, along with my devotional that I go through to set the mindset for the day and as long as I remember that, which kind of goes back to your path of if I'm driving from here to there and I'm thinking of how long it's gonna be long, his pride can be longer than it really is if that's your mindset.
Speaker 1:
The other thing I'd like to say, michael, that I see a lot of entrepreneurs struggle with, it's actually the emotional intelligence, and so I think I coach a lot of people and I've seen they grab a hold of like, well, mindset is the answer, and they turn it into a limitation which is basically like positive psychology a bit. There's nothing wrong with being positive, but if, as an entrepreneur, if we're feeling anger, like it's okay to be angry, and we can't just repress and suppress that energy within our body and then use mindset as like, oh well, let me think positive thoughts, because we are a biological energetic system as a human being, and so that energy that's in the body, it has to go somewhere, and if we're just taking it into our brain to think about it's a complete trap and it's a limitation. So you know, find a way to go get that anger out of you in a healthy manner, not where you're taking it out on you or your family members or your team members or your dogs or whatever Like. Go find a way, whether it's through exercise or whether it's through getting in the truck or the car, and just if you could put a sound to it, what would that sound be? Or if you could put a body movement to it, what would that body movement be? Until you can purge that energy out of you.
Speaker 1:
If you feel sad, you know, one of my favorite shift moves I teach people is like call a friend. Basically like call a friend, somebody you can trust, and just tell them hey, man, I'm feeling sad, I'm feeling depressed, I'm feeling whatever you're. You're feeling like, get a place where you can just dump it. And if you don't have that, pull out a piece of paper and just write it unconsciously, just give you a place to a self of places to express it and get it out of you, rather than defaulting to think, oh, I have to sink my way out of this, that is a trap as well. So it really is a combination between mindset and what I call body set. And when we can have those two skill sets, both from the way that we're thinking and the way that we're feeling, that's where we can just start being a human as we navigate the challenges that we're navigating.
Speaker 2:
And I do have to do a shameful plug to our listeners. These are the kind of coaches you want. I tell our clients all the time I'm not like an attorney. Our sessions are not from this time to that time, only on this day. You call me anytime you need me. I'm here for you, and that's really what I mean. That's what a good coach can do or should do. How can people reach out to you? Tell us a little bit about your company.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, so you guys can find more about me at AJAmex, ajamyxcom, and so I just I do life and business coaching for business owners, and so I believe business is life, life is business. You know, I think a lot of times when we put business in a silo, the truth of the matter is if we got some stuff going on at home, it is impacting our business. So whether it's a parenting thing, whether it's a marriage thing, like we have to address it very holistically. So life is business, business is life, and so that's what I really work on with an individual. Of course, we set some targets and then we go on the journey of doing our best to make those targets a reality and then whatever life surfaces in them, and of course we're going to burn through that and let it evolve us, and so that's the way I coach.
Speaker 2:
I'm curious to know because actually this morning an influencer posted something about work-life balance for solopreneurs and there seems to be a debate on there. I'm on the flip side of that. I don't consider there. I don't see how there is a work-life balance when you own a business, but I do see there's an integration which is kind of what you're talking about. We're talking about your life, your social, your marriage, your family. It can't just all about be business or you're not going to have a family and that kind of stuff. What are your thoughts on work-life balance versus integration, or do you have a completely different angle on that?
Speaker 1:
Yeah. So I would tell somebody right now around work-life balance. You know, if you're sitting down, well, if you're driving, don't do it. But the moment that you can get into a place where you can stand up by yourself and just stand on one leg, let me know are you balanced, are you just completely still, or is your toes moving, is your body twitching, where you're actually having to do work to maintain this thing that we call balance? And so really, it's from my frame. There's just balancing. And so who am I to tell you that you shouldn't work 90 hours a week? Maybe you want to. Who am I to tell you that you should be married? Maybe you don't want to be married. Who am I to tell you that you should be a father? Maybe you don't want to be a father.
Speaker 1:
What my job as a coach is? To get you really, really clear on what is it that you want to experience, and then hold you accountable to being and doing what is required to create that. I'm not here to say my values are better than your values or that my way of living and balancing and navigating life should be your way. And I think in this game of coaching unfortunately, I think a lot of coaches kind of do that. I have the answers. Let me give you the blueprint. I have a lot of possibilities for you, but at the end of the day, it really is this is your life Work with a coach who's going to help you live your life.
Speaker 1:
I've worked with business owners, but also helping them in their marriage, where we've at least explored the conversation of are they polyamorous? Do they want to be monogamous? Who am I to tell them that they should be monogamous? I am, but that doesn't mean that every human should be. But I'm also going to ask some hard questions, which is like well, are you wanting to be with other partners? Just because, I don't know, you're addicted to sex. That it's easy for you. Are you trying to get away from being like? We're going to have some hard conversations to get down to your truth? But at the end of the day, I feel like that's my job as a coach is to help you see your truth and then hold you accountable to walk it out. And I think sometimes that's why some people don't like me, and I'm okay with it, right. But if we're about results, that's what a great coach is here to do.
Speaker 2:
So you listeners, anyone that wants to reach out to AJ, you will be in good hands, I promise you, because these are the types of coaches you want to be with. These are the ones that can really impact your life. What is the best platform for people to follow you?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, the best platform for people to follow me. I guess I'm a little old school. Assist still Facebook. You guys can find me over at facebookcom. Slash ajamex. I am getting on LinkedIn. I've been on LinkedIn but I've never really like go fully into the platform, and so that's one of my intentions for this year is really diving fully into LinkedIn, being more active there.
Speaker 2:
We can grow together on LinkedIn. That's where I'm most active, so feel free to everybody follow both of us. How about that Final words of wisdom? Do you have one thing that you would share with everybody?
Speaker 1:
I would have you just consider the possibility that you have nothing to prove or defend, not to yourself, not to your husband, not your wife, not to your kids, not even to God. You have nothing to prove or defend. You're here just to simply be you and experience life. As you experiencing life and whatever is that you genuinely want to experience, then of course, be willing to be and do what's required to have that experience, but don't do it from a place believing that you have to prove or defend something.
Speaker 2:
Beautifully said. Aj, appreciate your time today. You've helped a lot of people.
Speaker 1:
Awesome. Thank you, Michael.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for listening to small business pivots and welcome to the recap and coaches corner. Today, aj dove deep into the powerful concept of unlocking greatness, not just as a business owner, but in life as well. And as we recap, I want to leave you with a thought. Greatness resides within you. It's not some distant goal, it's a journey, it's an experience. It's your experience and not someone else's, so create your own. It's a process of unlocking your potential step by step, and in the coaches corner, where I share an applicable action item that will help you grow your business.
Speaker 2:
Now I challenge you to take immediate action on this because I want to help you. I'm going to offer you, free of charge, my get serious course that looks at your past, your present and your future and builds your life for you, only because you listen to this podcast, and I want to help you succeed. But all you have to do is take the action and, to see how serious you are, email me at Michael, at Michael D Morrisoncom, and in the reference line type get serious. In the body of the email, tell us the top reason you are ready to unlock your potential and greatness. Again, this is free of charge to you for listening and there is no cost, but if you order it online, there is as we sign off. Don't forget your business should work for you and not the other way around.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for listening to small business pivots and don't forget to subscribe and share this podcast. If you need help growing your business, go to business ownership simplifiedcom and schedule a free conversation by clicking the orange button in the top right corner. If you have a guest or topic suggestion for our podcast or just want to talk anything small business related, email me at Michael at Michael D Morrisoncom. We'll see you next time on small business pivots.
