SPEAKER_01 0:00

Our guest today is Juan. She spent 15 years of stacking achievements in the corporate sales operations, you know, titles, salaries, and results, but she realized that being a world class and overriding herself was actually a structural failure. Today we're talking about why grit got you started, but the internal systems will get you free. And how Juan rebuilt herself after her body finally made the decision to stop that her mic could refuse to make it. One, welcome.

SPEAKER_02 0:27

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

SPEAKER_01 0:30

I'm so happy to have you too, and I I'm just gonna jump right into it because you have so much to share, and I don't want to waste one second. So, one, you know that my audience is built on grit. We all have built our business on grit alone, right? And we're trying to implement some systems. And and you thought that overriding our feelings is, you know, the superpower that all of us try to do to hit our numbers. You argued that this is actually what's destroying you as the business owner and the leader. What does overriding yourself look like as a high performer operator? And what is that long-term cost to that business owner and to the business?

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Yeah, that's a great question. So, as you and I do, we we know how to get shit done. And I think that's how we've been operating for our entire lives, because when we perform, then that's when we get feedback and we love, you know, growing on feedback. That that's like keeps our energy up. But once when we actually overdo it, meaning when we override what's actually happening inside ourselves, whether that is your physical body or your emotional feelings, when we override it and not listen to it and just like continue to go, go, go and achieve, what we're actually doing is that we are accumulating debt in our bodies and even in our emotions that no one could go on and on and on with ignoring those signals because the body and emotions they will start whispering to you when things are getting too much or you're starting to get disconnected from yourself. Um, they're gonna start yelling at you at some point. So we feel like when we are younger and we are in like high achievement mode, we think we can just go and go and go and achieve and then rest, but you are accumulating debt and taking it out of your future self.

SPEAKER_01 2:32

I I love the perspective of the debt. Again, I'm a financial guy, CPA, I've and I've never heard that term using it on their feelings. And so to take us back to the moment of how it felt for you, right? Like on paper, you are successful in the pinnacle of that corporate career, but but like I know behind the scenes, and we have talked offline about this, right? Your body just finally shut down and your mind just refused to acknowledge that. And I think every single business owner out there goes through that moment themselves, but they don't know how to describe it or how to identify it, right? So help us with that.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Yeah, so I went through multiple cycles of burnout throughout my career. Um, but when I eventually like hit rock bottom where I couldn't go further, was back in 2021. And I was in my dream job at GitHub and I was performing really well, functioning really well. Um, but also I was probably working more than 12 hours a day. So I think I would like start at 8 a.m. and then sometimes even go um up to like 2 or 3 a.m. and then get ready for something that I was gonna present the next morning at like 9 a.m. And um what eventually happened was like physically I was like tired, like extremely tired, but I still just kept going because I had to meet the next deadline. And eventually I started developing this like chronic, like dry cough in my body where I would just like cough for no reason. Um, but I just like ignored that as well. And on an emotional level, I was personally like so disconnected and not present. Um, so I was not having conversations with my husband. My son was like two years old at that time. Um, I didn't like spend time with him either. I was like glued to my desk for over 12 hours and just going, going, going until I was so exhausted um and in like high anxiety and in almost like a level of depression that I couldn't physically go another day. So I had to quit that job um because I just couldn't handle it anymore, which was so unfortunate if I think about it.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Man, yeah, so I I have a similar story. I don't know if you know this, but um I when I built was building my CPA firm and I was working full-time for uh a bank here in town and was doing part like I was starting from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m. I will work in a CPA firm and a computer here, and then go to my corporate job, come home to my wife, and then one kid at that point, and our kid's second kid was born, and I was doing that 5 a.m. all the way to you know 11 or midnight. And and what you're describing there is exactly what I went through. So I did that for three years, and my wife was like, I want my husband back, right? And then it was like, oh, it hit hard. Yeah, and so and so since then, since at that moment, right, I've been trying to teach business owners about systems. Hey you gotta you gotta put some barriers around it, you have to be a little bit more efficient, but you take systems into a new level, which is you systematize stillness, right? Like you teach us, business owners, which again, I want almost like a free coaching session with you right now. Yeah, uh, of being still is okay, which majority of business owners, when we sit still, we think that we're doing something wrong, right? Right. So, how do you systematize that process? Or like how do I don't make myself feel that I'm wasting time or I'm doing something wrong or I'm not being productive by just being still and enjoy the moment?

SPEAKER_02 6:36

Yeah, that's a great question, and I think like that's an answer that I got to understand after that severe burnout because I thought something was wrong with me and that I wasn't doing enough or I wasn't smart enough, or like something in the doing um that I was doing wrong. And the negative part of like when you keep doing when you are in an unresourceful state is that you think you're productive, but you're actually not being productive. So back then, if I go back, was one of the things that I really wanted to do was to get a promotion. And I was performing and delivering, but the energy and state that I was bringing to the table was not someone as a leader. It was more of an operator energy. So people could see that. People could see when you're working off of exhaustion, you just you're not showing up as the leader that people need you to see. So it was not only impacting my performance, but it was also um keeping me stuck to advance into my next level of leadership. Um, and what I had to relearn and unlearn, I would say unlearn is the right word, is that the stillness, taking care of yourself, listening to your body, taking a pause, listening to your feelings, like all of that that we continue to ignore, that actually is the sauce that actually makes you a better person. And the you being a better person, a holy person, that will get you to the next level that you want to go in your career or leadership or family or money or everything that you're desiring.

SPEAKER_01 8:24

Man, um, Juan, do you play basketball?

SPEAKER_02 8:27

Um, unfortunately, not.

SPEAKER_01 8:29

Oh, so I'm gonna use a basketball reference here, and and uh it's the new generation of basketball players, LeBron James, is the the one that that pushes this first, which is rest management, right? You know, he's in his 40s and he's he's performing at the high level, and he he he every now and then in the normal season he takes a step back and skip a few games and and all that to recover his body, and he spends a million dollars on recovering his body to make sure he's still performing, right? You you did that uh as you're going through your corporate career, and the people around you could see that. Yeah, was there a specific moment? Yes, you having that cough, right, that started, and the people around you starting to realize they hey, this is not the one that we know. Uh did you start to read that realize that moment gradually, or did it just kind of happen in a snap and it's like I gotta do something different?

SPEAKER_02 9:30

Um, I think though, going back to like what I wanted was a promotion, and again, like the work was delivering, I was getting the feedback. But one of the feedback that I got, like, why am I not getting promoted? And the feedback that I received is that it just feels like you're operating, but you're not leading. It feels like you're lacking the executive presence, which means that you're lacking the presence. Um, so all of that feedback means is that it's nothing to do with the work that you're producing, it's all about how you are presenting yourself in the environment. Um, and at that time, I didn't even know like what presence even meant. Like, what does that even mean? So if I reflect back, like now I understand what the feedback they were giving me and how important it is to take care of yourself. And like, similar to the basketball, it's not like resting is unproductive, it's actually prepping you for the next level so you can perform at your highest level.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

That makes sense. So the people that saw the old one at those moments and you're looking at an operator and not a leader, have you got the chance to see them again? And and have they seen the difference in you and how you're now operating as a leader?

SPEAKER_02 10:52

Yes. Um so funny enough, like I now coach my leaders that I used to report to.

SPEAKER_01 10:59

Um that is awesome. I love that. No, keep going. Sorry.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Yeah, and they come back to me and say, like, do you even notice that you are a completely different person? Um, your confidence level has like shifted so much. Like, now you just like show up as not only being very comfortable and authentic with who you are, like how you show up like builds trust. So even the the leaders that I used to report to, they would say, like, I want the confidence that you have. Like, can you help me get that confidence? And that was the feedback that I received from one of the clients that I used to work with, which was my former boss. Um, so like the work that I'm doing like really makes a difference in your life.

SPEAKER_01 11:47

That I think that's one of the best testimonials you could ever talk about your job and your business and what you do for people. That it's amazing. I I I love that story. I did not know, and it caught me so off guard. I was like, I'm over here, like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:04

Um, so walkers through someone that is going through what you did uh back when you you have the moments, right? So um, you know, think of me, Johnny. Hey, I'm working in the pantry office, you know, working at the CPA firm, they have tax season, you just have output, output, output. We gotta meet the April 15th deadline. What are come the the thoughts or feelings or trigger points that uh I can start to notice happening to my body or my feelings, or even the people around you start making some comments, right? That uh some people out there that are listening and watching to this episode can start paying attention to and start doing some of those exercises that you teach on your coaching calls.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

I would say kind of going back to um who I was and then when I see my clients when they start the work with me, I think some signs that I see is I think a lot of them have a hard time getting out of bed. So I think like that's number one. They have really no motivation. Um, I think the second piece is that they tend to like feel more resentful or feel um that they lose themselves in whether that's a personal um relationship or even with uh a colleague where they would like lose their temper. Um I think another thing is that they they no longer have like joy in their life. Um they don't feel joy where they they used to, um, they don't they don't go after the hobbies that they used to enjoy. That could be another example. Um so they're like, I think most of them are just like going through the motions, um, like living like a hamster wheel life, but they're not really in it, you know? Like you remember like those days where you're like going and going and going, and it's like the days are going, but you don't really remember those days. Like for me, like it's really sad for me to even admit that. But sometimes I don't remember my child in his like younger years because I was just so focused on work that it's hard for me to remember those days. Um, so that's the biggest regret that I have in my life that I wish I was more present with my child when he was like a little baby.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Oh man, and how about your child now is eight, nine? Yeah, do the math right?

SPEAKER_02 14:43

He's nine years old.

SPEAKER_01 14:45

Okay, I need to excel to make sure that my math is right. I'm sorry. Um, he's nine, and then your husband, of course. How how how how do they see you now? How do you see their presence? Because again, I I feel confident that you know, doing what I do all day in, day out, from eight to five, and so some days extra hours, of course, but is because my wife is behind the scenes taking care of the kiddos, taking care of the home, and I got full confidence, like I she got that part, right? And for you and and your chill, your kid now being nine years old, right? He's much older, he can take care of himself a little bit, but he's seen mom and your husband's seen wife. And I love to hear like when was the last thing that they told you? Like, hey, I love this version of you much better than of course six, seven years ago.

SPEAKER_02 15:37

Yeah, and again, I want to like call out that it's not like always like butterflies and rainbows. Um, there are moments, and I think again, I wanted to say that the work that I do is that not like a one and done work, like it's like there is always another level, there's always like things you have to work on yourself and um be real. Um, so I just wanted to caveat that before I like share. Um, but I would say the biggest difference um with my relationship with my my husband and son is that when I'm with them, I don't think about work. So I'm able to like fully disconnect from my work and spend the time with them. Whether even that's like even it's five minutes or 10 minutes or 15 minutes, like I can be present with them. And then the second piece is that because I am more emotionally regulated, and that's some the that's a framework that I want to teach your audience in terms of how do you regulate your emotions, when you are able to regulate your emotions, you can actually create space for the people you love and people you work with where you can like hold their emotions and also process the emotions together rather than being like overwhelmed with your emotions. So you're always just again like projecting anger or projecting frustration. Having a short fuse is like what I used to be, and I sometimes I still have that when I'm not if my cup is empty. There's days that a cup is empty, then I have a short fuse, and I'm able to catch that before I project a feeling to them.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

Man, you you use so many good things here. So let me uh let me bring it back some some of the words you said. So the first the last thing you said would be the first thing. So it's the the feeling the cup, right? Um this is what I've learned having a personal coach last year. It and it's like you as the coach and you are pouring into your people, right? You're pouring day in, day out to your private clients, to your group coaching clients, and to your peers, your friends, your husband, your kiddos. But how many times during the week have you had people in your life that are pouring back to you to fill your cup, right? So you can have water and share it back to the people that you need to share.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

And and I love that analogy that you just said.

SPEAKER_02 18:12

Yeah, for sure. And it's like really easy to there's just so much going on in our world right now, and especially with AI, there's a lot of fear in the world. So it's easy to a lot of people are running around with empty cups, and I didn't even have that concept before I started this work. So, like now I would know, um, and you can you could, and the good thing is that you can plan ahead. Like, let's say that you're having a busy week this week, um, then you know that okay, I have like multiple meetings, I have a big no deal going on, so by Friday I know that my cup is going to be empty. So then I proactively say I I do activities um in like Friday afternoon that is going to fill my cup so that I could be present to my family on a Saturday. Um, so I think this is something that you can always like plan out, and the key of this is that like connecting with yourself, and I think like that's the biggest piece that I talk about is that when you're always overriding yourself, you don't even know whether your cup is empty or full, right? That's like not a perspective that you would have. So um I think like reconnecting to yourself, understanding like where you stand on like a physical, emotional, mental level, um, that's like the first step that you need to do so that you could take the the right action um uh in those times.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

I you know, you talk about planning ahead. So one, I still believe that people have not recovered from COVID. The stress, the amount of stress uh uh that happened and and and all at once across multiple levels and layers of yourself, people are still dealing with that, right? And but then two, you mentioned about the fact that people are still going and overriding their feelings and they have not realized that and you have to plan ahead.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Right.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Um do when do you plan your week? Do you do that like on the because I do mine on Saturday, uh sorry, Sunday evening, right? Like after the kids go to bed, everything is done, the house is quiet, I sit down and I start looking at my calendar to do those planning, right? And I have found that what it what you just said is for me is working out more than just doing massages per se. Like I was I was doing massages once a month to kind of recoup, and then well, that works some, but not enough. And then I start working out, and and it brought back the old Johnny basketball player kind of feel. Then it's like, hey, I feel good, right about this. It's so much better. Do you do your planning on Sunday evening for the week ahead? Do you plan your whole month ahead?

SPEAKER_02 21:15

Yeah, so I do um there is a yearly plan that I do overall, like as an annual plan. Um, so I like to move um with seasons, like um the four seasons. Um like all of us, like we we don't realize that like we are part of nature, right? We are like part of nature. And following the seasons and syncing with the seasons, there there's like so much power that is actually going to help you like manifest more in your life when you follow the seasons. So on an annual basis, like that's how I follow in terms of um like spring. Is when you like plant your seeds. Summer is when you are in like expansion. Um, so you that's when your high energy is like fall is when you start to really downshift, and then winter is when you are more inward, so you I wouldn't do any like big launches or any of that like during winter. So on a macro level, I follow that season. Um, and then on uh a monthly level, that's when I align myself with the cycle of the moon, and I won't get like too much detailed into all of this because it's not a podcast that talks about all of this. Um, but I like to like plan with the moon cycle. Um, but the last thing is like going back to your weekly plan, like, yes, I look at my my schedule for the week, um, but for me, I spend so I don't do anything external in the morning until like 12 p.m. on Mondays. So that's my personal time where I that's when I actually fill my cup because like weekends is where I use a lot of my energy with like family and events and all of that. So Monday mornings is like my self-care time. So I do that to make sure that I am like aligned with myself for the week so that I can like get going, like starting from Monday afternoons.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

That makes sense. I know I love how you plan the year, divided them in quarters. And I think you know, from a financial standpoint, and a lot of financial reports are done quarterly too. So that that's amazing because you can have the evidence if the plan worked or not with the numbers. And and so yeah, I love that. I love that idea. So you about five, six minutes ago, you mentioned the word, the big word that everybody's using, which is AI, right? Um how do you see AI being implemented now, and how are you implementing AI in the business right now to create those systematizing stillness that you that you said you teach?

SPEAKER_02 24:01

Yeah, so I see like AI as like such a big opportunity for us, you know, busy humans, because as you know, AI is great at taking over the busy work where you we used to like spend so much time. Um so I would like to see, and this is what I talk about a lot, is that how can we use AI to take over the busy work so that humans could spend more time being in more stillness or being in more thinking, um, or using that time to really connect with your intuition, um, which is really, I think that's where the superpower is, because like knowledge is no longer uh a scarce resource, right? We all like there's like so much knowledge out there. It's more about like what you want to do with that knowledge and how can you incorporate your wisdom and even intuition and your experience and work with AI to be able to come up with something much more powerful. So I think that um as humans we are gonna go into a phase of an evolution where it's no longer about working, working, working, um, because that's kind of comes from like more of the industrial revolution where we were made to become factory workers. Um, I think like now it's gonna be an era of more like human intelligence where we can tap into something bigger than just you know knowledge, um, to you know, be more being able to produce things that are more creative.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

I I I love human knowledge, and you know, we one of our slogans is that you scale like a machine but sell like a person. I think that will never be replaced by AI, right? This this conversation that we're having, the connection that we're having. I think AI is great, and I use it all the time, and I've I enforce people to use it to be effective leaders so they can go back to the non-busy work, like you were saying. I love that. And how are you currently using AI? So I know you mentioned a little bit of automation and and so forth, but um, are you implementing AI with your clients? Are you teaching some of that AI implementation with your clients right now?

SPEAKER_02 26:24

Yeah, so I do so mostly I work with corporate leaders. Um, so I do I do work with them so that they because the the first question that like when I when I reach out to prospective clients, they would be, well, I don't have time to do this work. That's like the number one question that I get. So then I teach them, you know, well, this is the way to, you know, buy back your time and then use that time to do um more of the work that I do. Um, but overall, like for me personally as a business owner, like yes, any admin work, any operational work, I try to automate as much as possible so that I could spend my time meeting with my clients one-on-one and being able to pour that energy to them. Um and also, I am also currently working towards building an AI coach. Um, so it would be an app that my clients could use. So if they have any questions or they need coaching throughout the day, the AI coach that I built will have you know all of the knowledge and methodologies that I use to develop my program so they can have like on-demand access to me as well.

SPEAKER_01 27:43

Yeah, I love that the on-demand access, I think that's key there. So when we get into the 32 mark, what are questions and comments and things that I have not asked you that I should be covering that and I am not yet?

SPEAKER_02 27:59

Um, so I would say um I wanted to like quickly talk about like how important it is to feel your feelings because we've been taught a lot about that feeling feelings is bad, like being emotional is like bad. Um, so what we tend to do is we tend to either repress our feelings and like push our feelings down, or when we um can no longer push our feelings down, then we project our feelings. Um, so there are like three steps of feeling your feelings, which is feeling it, which is really feeling and naming your feelings. Like I feel overwhelmed, or I feel you know anxious, I feel joy, like naming your feelings. And then the second piece is once you feel it, you want to move your feelings because you don't want to keep it and store it in your body. So moving it could be as you said, like you like to work out and run. That's a good way of moving the feelings. Um, it could be doing breath work, which I do a lot with my clients, or it could be just like journaling and reflecting, like that could be a way to move your feelings. And then after you've done that, then the third step is to learn it, learn from your feelings. So it's like feel it, move it, learn from it. Where I think like all feelings is there to teach you something and tell you something about you know what's working out or what's not working out in your life. Um, so I think like that's one of the powerful tools that I use day to day. Um, so I think like that's something that I wanted to make sure your audience like gets as well.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Yeah, not only my audience, but I'm gonna start implementing that right now.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's feel it, move it, learn from it.

SPEAKER_01 29:38

Feel it, move it, learn it. Okay. Um simple, easy, and effective. Uh yeah. I've started to use AI to have those conversations, right? Like I have taught AI to a little bit about Johnny and what Johnny struggles with, and how Johnny responds to feedback, and how what's the best way to break through Johnny and then having those conversations. And now that you can use your voice, right? Um, I've been using some of that lately, and it has helped me getting stuck and just feeling the fear of rejection right now, trying to outreach do some outreach and cold outreach.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 30:14

Uh, very personal. So one the last thing you said is amazing. Um if here's my final final question, and I just thought about this, and it's like, hey, if you had to go back to the one back in 2021 and then know what you know now, what would you tell her?

SPEAKER_02 30:34

Hmm. I would tell her that you're not broken, um, you're not lost, you just haven't learned a new way. Um, and I want to share that with the audience, your audience as well. Like if you're feeling stuck, if you're feeling something is off, it's really not because you are broken. It's because you are just running um from a different uh uh a different fuel, and you just need to like learn how to manage that in a new way. Um, so I just wanted to like give my my my 2021 version and then the audience a hope that um you will get out of this.

SPEAKER_01 31:22

Yes, yes, you will. Uh one, uh I love what you share today. I think every business owner should put this on on the repeat once a week and listen to and just learn what you just share.

SPEAKER_00 31:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Uh if people want to find out more about you and how what you have to offer, where they can find you.

SPEAKER_02 31:41

Yeah, so I'm very active on Instagram, so my handle is one daily shots. Um, and one of the things that I wanted to gift your audience is that I have put like a short assessment tool to um what are the seven signals that you are either having your business override you or the other way around. Um so if you're interested trying that assessment, you can just um DM me um override and then I will send that assessment book to you as a gift.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Oh, that's wonderful. Yeah, uh I love that. Uh okay, DM one daily shots override for the the the the free gift that she just gave. One once again, um I I love what you're doing on social media. I'm so grateful that we met a month or so ago through the the book signing event. Yeah, um I'm uh one of your biggest fans over here just watching what you're creating and watching what you're doing. And uh I love what you share here today, and I pre truly appreciate your time and and your efforts and your knowledge, and I can't wait to see what else you're gonna come up and create with.

SPEAKER_02 32:57

Thank you so much, Johnny. This was a pleasure. And um make sure you feel your feelings today.