Shawn Stevenson: Welcome to The Model Health Show. This is fitness and nutrition expert, Shawn Stevenson, and I'm so grateful for you tuning in with me today.

Listen, a big part of our lives is personal development; working to become better humans. If you're like me, we come from various circumstances, and it could be a pretty treacherous terrain in working through our personal issues to become the best version of ourselves.

But here's the thing, there's so much information out there, so many different strategies and tactics on how to become a better person, how to live a better life, it can be a little bit ridiculous.

Some stuff is just absolutely nuts on the surface, even though it might work for some people, but I just want to take a different perspective today and look at the topic of personal development, look at the topic of spirituality.

It's such a big part of our lives that we often don't address. It's something we kind of do behind closed doors, or we do it way too much out in the front, and maybe we can offend people, but it's a part of who we are as human beings and our connection to ourselves and to potentially something bigger than us.

But even that, again, there can be a lot of barriers of entry, and barriers of communication, and inherently oftentimes we think that if we are tied into something with our spirituality, that inherently makes everybody else wrong. Right?

And even that, what's a barrier to that in communication and lifting more people up and connecting? What's a way into it to help to break down those walls?

I think that it can be through humor. One of the greatest gifts that I have in my relationship is laughter, you know?

Oftentimes when we are into crazy situations, if we got into it about some random stupid thing, maybe it's the toilet seat or whatever- I've actually only done that once.

I'm going to put this in parentheses, I left the toilet seat up one time in our relationship. She's never talked about it, it's just part of her life.

I came into the relationship being that guy, I put the lid down. One time, she fell in. I left it up once, she fell in. You know? So just throwing it out there.

Whatever we might get into about, just knowing that we're just a smile or a laugh away from connection. You know? I think it's a big powerful bridge for us as humans, and we've got a very special guest on who's taken some of these concepts in personal development, spirituality, bringing some humor to it so we can get together, we can laugh about it, and we can connect.

And so very, very excited about that. He's here in the studio with us hanging out, and really quickly I want to tell you about something that is a daily part of my life.

Real talk, I didn't get it. I see people walking around with their coffee, and they're just like, "I've got my coffee. Here's coffee." People come into the office, they bring people coffee, and they're so happy.

What's the big deal? I didn't get it because I tasted coffee when I was a child and I was like, "This is disgusting. I don't understand. I will never drink this again."

And it wasn't until a little over a year ago that my wife just kept raving about Four Sigmatic coffee that I had me a sip or two, and I fell in love.

Now number one, the reason that I use Four Sigmatic is that it's actually organic coffee. So it's not coffee that's sprayed with pesticides, herbicides, genocides. It's not all that craziness.

'Cide' literally means to kill, and many of those compounds are either estrogenic or neurogenic. So these are literally compounds created to screw up the reproductive cycle of things smaller than you.

And we think, "Oh, it's just killing pests or rodents, but it doesn't do anything to us, right? They're legal."

Well, many of the laws have been changing as far as those things are concerned. So I want you to be ahead of the curve, avoid those kinds of things. If you can get organic, get organic. So that's number one.

Number two, it's blended with medicinal mushrooms, alright? So the one that I had today because I knew I was going to be on the grind, a lot of mental reps I'm going to need to do, the one that's supportive of our brains is lion's mane.

University of Malaya found that lion's mane is one of the few substances ever discovered that can contribute to something called neurogenesis.

That literally means creation of brain cells. That's powerful. I promise Folgers can't do that. Alright? If anything, you're going to take out about a million brain cells. Alright?

"The best part of waking up." No, it's not real, alright? Four Sigmatic is that deal, alright?

So organic coffee, dual-extracted medicinal mushrooms, so you're actually getting the compounds that they're using in these various studies, making sure you're getting the good stuff, and it's super easy to use.

I just got back from an event in Canada - shout-out to everybody who came out to Dalhousie University - and I bring my Four Sigmatic with me. It is mandatory, I absolutely love it.

So head over there, check them out, www.FourSigmatic.com/model. That's www.FourSigmatic.com/model and you get 15% off everything; all their elixirs, hot chocolates, mushroom coffees. Alright?

Head over there, check them out, www.FourSigmatic.com/model, 15% off. And now, let's get to the iTunes review of the week.

ITunes Review: Another five-star review titled, 'I Believe You,' by KristaInCalifornia.

"Shawn, thank you for your sincerity and homework. Please thank you family for the time you spend working and studying to stay on the growth edge of knowledge and experience.

It makes a huge difference for us, for me, but I know it comes at a cost. Much gratitude to you, your sweet wife, and amazing boys."

Shawn Stevenson: That is incredible, thank you so much for that acknowledgement. Nobody really talks about that. You don't see the behind-the-scenes when somebody is really putting in effort and intention and passion into their service, into their gift.

And fortunately, I do have a good blending of all these things, so I'm not sacrificing too much with my family, but thank you so much. That means a lot. I really do appreciate that.

And everybody, thank you for heading over to Apple Podcasts and leaving reviews for the show. It means everything! If you've yet to do so, please pop over and leave a review.

And on that note, let's get to our special guest and topic of the day.

JP Sears is a YouTuber, comedian, emotional healing coach, author, speaker, world traveler, and curious student of life.

His work empowers people to live more meaningful lives. He's very active with his online videos where he encourages healing and growth through his humorous and entertainingly informative videos, which have accumulated over 300 million views.

JP is also the host of his own podcast, which you've got to check out, make sure you subscribe to, The Awakened With JP Sears Show.

And I just love JP, his energy. I feel like I've been around him so long, but we just realized we met each other in person a couple years back, and he is one of the most intelligent, one of the funniest human beings that I know, and I'd like to welcome to The Model Health Show, Mr. JP Sears. What's up, man?

JP Sears: Thank you, Shawn. I've never been healthier as I almost die at the intro. And thank you for having me in. I feel like I'm in the presence of like royalty.

You're like the His Holiness of the health and fitness world, so I'm so grateful to be here with you today.

Shawn Stevenson: Oh, it's totally my pleasure, man. My pleasure. So I've got so many things I want to ask you about. Obviously you've made a huge impact on the world with your videos, but I want to start with your superhero origin story.

I want to know where this came from. Like when did you fall in love with comedy? Like when did you find out that, "I'm kind of funny"?

JP Sears: Yeah, so I think kind of like that makes me think of Batman. Like little Bruce Wayne falling down the bat cave. So the bat cave that I fell down was filled with humor bats. I'll pretend that's a species.

But the shadow that I was confronting when I was a child was all my insecurities, all my feelings of unworthiness, and insignificance, all those things that I had no clue how to deal with, not even to feel, I dealt with those through humor.

So instead of feeling insecure and feeling insignificant to someone, I learned like, "Oh let me make someone laugh. I'll make that person laugh. Now they're smiling at me, I feel like I matter, therefore I feel like I'm significant."

So that didn't make everything go away inside, but it helped me escape it temporarily in lots of repetitions of that as a child.

So looking back, I certainly didn't know I was doing that as a kid.

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah.

JP Sears: But looking back I can see like, "Yeah, that's what I was doing." I was becoming a comedian to compensate for the pain inside and insecurities that I didn't know were there.

And also not to just be all dark and like, "Life sucked for JP," not at all. Like I would use humor to bring joy to my life as well, and joy to people around me. So it was beautiful.

So yeah, my shadows, I think without the darkness that I didn't know how to deal with, the light of my humor wouldn't have been developed.

Shawn Stevenson: That's interesting. Isn't that a kind of consistent thing though with folks in comedy, that they tend to be utilizing comedy to kind of deal with their own stuff?

JP Sears: Yeah, I think you're 100% right, and the question is does the comedian, or the person, do they make a transition? Because I think what we do to save ourselves will eventually kill us if we don't move onto a better way of doing things.

So what you bring up, like a lot of comedians, they save themselves through comedy, but if they don't start to use comedy to connect with themselves when they're older, and they're still using comedy to escape themselves when they get into their twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, then I think their comedy becomes a source of destruction for themselves.

And we all know some comedians who it's like, "That's kind of dark humor. They might be a genius comedian."

But you look at some of the comedians like unfortunately Robin Williams, Mitch Hedberg, where they were some of the greats of their time, but they self-destructed.

And my amateur little hypothesis is they never made a transition to start using the power of humor, that alchemist power that humor is, they didn't use that to start finding themselves and dealing with their shadows.

Shawn Stevenson: Right.

JP Sears: They maybe kept using it to try to escape themselves, and unfortunately those two guys really escaped themselves.

Shawn Stevenson: Right. Man, that's a fascinating- so it's basically like utilizing comedy to hide in a sense, and then ultimately transitioning it to using it for healing.

JP Sears: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: That's really fascinating.

JP Sears: For sure. It's like the blessing will become a curse, but you can make the blessing an even greater blessing, I think, if we can transition like our 'why' and where is the comedy coming from? What's driving us?

And really I personally am doing my best at this stage of my life and career to intentionally use comedy to heal myself, become more self-aware, and absolutely invite other people to use my comedy as a way of looking in the mirror and becoming more aware about themselves so they can live a more awakened life.

Because cheap laughs are great. Nobody ever goes to their doctor, and their doctor says, "You know, Shawn, you need to laugh less. It's really like bad for your health how much you're laughing, man. You just need to have a worse time."

And so cheap laughs are awesome, yet I think we can add a lot of value and dimensionality and just get more out of laughs when they're directed with an intentional aim to help us develop as people.

Shawn Stevenson: Absolutely. I love that, man. And you're already weaving in things here. In your bio, life coach. So you've been working with people for many years, and helping them with various issues.

So where did that piece come into play? Like what inspired you to do that?

JP Sears: Yeah, so when I was eighteen, I went to college for three months, and I was just so advanced that I finished college in three months by way of not graduation but just dropping out. Figured out like, "This isn't for me. I don't know what is for me, but college isn't."

But shortly thereafter, I got in touch with a personal trainer at the gym I was working out at, and she had been studying these Paul Chek videotapes, and they were videotapes at the time. Are you aware of Paul Chek?

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, definitely.

JP Sears: So it's like, "Cool, let me look at those videotapes." So I looked at them, and there was-

Shawn Stevenson: You had a VCR.

JP Sears: I had a VCR way back in the late nineties I guess. And I looked at how these Paul Chek videotapes, they were looking at health and exercise in a multi-dimensional way.

It really sparked my interest. It was the first time I became passionate about learning. Before that, I just thought, "I'm just a terrible student."

But what I realized through high school and college, I was such a great student at being a bad student of what doesn't feel purposeful to me, but finally I found something that felt purposeful, and at the time, it was exercise and nutrition.

So getting in that- going through that holistic doorway, started studying my heart out, exercise and nutrition with the Chek Institute, and then that got me into realizing like, "Wow, I thought exercise and nutrition was powerful and impacting people's lives," and indeed it is, but then I started to realize "Wow, people's emotional states is just as powerful for the better or worse." You know?

The undealt with pain, wounding trauma can be very destructive, and then when you deal with it, it can be some of the most benefit you ever give yourself. People get out of physical pain, their bodies transform, their minds transform.

So that really got me interested in studying the emotional healing realm, so I started doing that with all these alternative courses and teachers.

And it was great, so I had my little personal training business, and started working with my clients, not just exercise but nutrition, and life coaching, doing some stress reduction healing as well, and as that went along, just my passions gradually led to more and more emotional healing coaching, less and less of the exercise stuff.

Still valued the living heck out of it, but I was just finding like, "Man, my calling is this emotional healing stuff." And I can also look at it like we teach what we need to learn the most.

Shawn Stevenson: Right.

JP Sears: I think part of my passion for the emotional healing was for the first nineteen, twenty, twenty-one years of my life, that was the most neglected thing in my life.

So I think my desire to drink that in for my benefit was also translating to getting passionate about helping other people to help themselves within their heart, and their mind, and their emotions.

Shawn Stevenson: Definitely. And you well know this, that is really the catalyst for the physical part, you know? If we're not doing the work there, this is going to ultimately fall down and break down.

Trying to eat the right food, and exercising; it's really that emotional work. And so that's awesome, man.

So from there, you just obviously with the- and I'll just share this now. So when we first met, and you said when we were talking about this before the show like, "Do you remember?" Because you were, you said, 'a nobody.'

JP Sears: Those were my words for sure, I was a nobody.

Shawn Stevenson: And so we met, it was at a friend's place, but I remembered you like very clearly. I was like- I literally felt like there's something about this guy. You were like literally the guy holding the camera.

JP Sears: Yeah, I was.

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, and I was just like- I called you Red-Headed Thor. I don't think you remember that. I was like, "This guy," I was kind of making fun of you a little bit. But your vibe and just you had just something, you know. There was something.

And it's so interesting for me to even talk about this, I'm a very scientific thinker, but this is something very real and of course I searched for years to find out like, "What is this? This intuitive kind of feeling and connection we have?"

And I came across some research, HeartMath Institute, for example, and they found that they have this magnetoencephalograph. It's this machine that measures the bioelectric or bio-magnetic field coming from the human body.

They found that this field extends out upwards of eight feet from our body, right? From the human heart. And so like we really do kind of interact with each other's energy in a way.

And so like your energy was just like- I just knew that there was something about you, you know?

Come to today, where you have hundreds of millions of views of your videos, and I'm super curious because life coaching can be an uber serious subject matter. How did you pivot? Like where did the comedy part come back?

JP Sears: Yeah, man. I love everything you just said. Also thank you for like feeling and sensing something in me when I was a nobody in terms of having zero following.

That's awesome to hear. I feel full circle. My life is complete, Shawn. I'm ready to transcend and leave my body.

But man, the pivot from life coaching to comedy was messy, insecure, completely unplanned, and just Forrest Gumped my way through the whole thing not knowing where I'm going, but just doing my best to follow my heart.

So the pivot started with me not knowing it's a pivot. October 4, 2014, I filmed my first comedy video. Just like a four-minute sketch, it was called, 'How to be Ultra Spiritual.'

Me shining a light of awareness on how my ego was really infiltrating like my self-development, spiritual life, how my ego was gratifying itself under this like noble looking hiding spot of spirituality.

I'm like, "No, I'm doing that." Like yes, my spiritual practice is helping me grow spiritually, and yes, my ego is really at play here.

So I'm like, "Alright, I've been noticing myself doing these things. Let me make a video about it." And at the time, I thought this is going to be the worst thing I could do for my business because the life coaching dude, life coaching teacher, he's supposed to be sincere, supposed to be serious, and talk in this tone of voice, and just be insightful.

So I had this story in my head of who I was supposed to be, and unfortunately professionally, I had been loyal to that story for almost a decade and a half.

But finally I decided to betray that story in the name of myself and said, "Alright, I'm going to make this comedy video. Even though I swear it'll be bad for business, let me do it."

So I put that video out, and it hit pretty good right away, and it turned out like that's actually not the worst thing I could have done for business, it was the best thing I could have done because my schedule just got flooded with new clients because they find me via that video, and then find sincere videos I was doing and find my website.

Like, "Oh, this guy does life coaching. Let me check him out." And then it was like two weeks after that first video, I decided like, "Wow, maybe I can make another video."

Like it didn't even dawn on me up until that point. So I eventually just got off and running with doing YouTube comedy videos consistently about subjects that were important to me, and that started to open up other doors.

And it also really internally, what matters most to me, is it really helped me get in touch with my creative side, helped me embrace my comedian as not just like something to let come out when I'm hanging with my friends, but like let it come out wherever I am when it wants to.

So it's been a beautiful experience of me embracing more of who I am, and not apologizing for it.

And then doors have just opened. The YouTube videos have led to speaking opportunities, and those sponsorships open up, and that led to some TV possibilities, and all that's led to now I'm doing a lot of traveling doing live comedy shows.

Shawn Stevenson: Wow, so cool.

JP Sears: So I would dare say if there's a single lesson I've gained from all of this- and I think there's many, but if I was distilling it down, what I've learned is the more I follow my heart, even though it scares the living heck out of my brain sometimes, my mind, the more I do that, the more life works out in a way where it is beyond my dreams.

And I think that's a great way to live. I think sometimes when I look back at, "What have my dreams been? They come from my small self." It's like who's dreaming the dream? It's like, well that's a small part of me.

So I look at, "Wow, when I follow my heart, when I get in touch with what HeartMath says is this field that's 5,000 times stronger than that of the brain, the field of the heart.

When I let that be my North Star compass, stuff works out where I realize I'm living beyond my dreams. It's a beautiful spot and I think that everybody has access to that, but it takes a lot of courage for us to follow our hearts.

The safe way is to follow our brains. I think Tony Robbins points it out really well. Our brains are built to make us survive. Not to make us happy, but to make us survive, and indeed they'll do that. But I think our hearts look at that and say, "You know, the purpose of life isn't self-preservation. The purpose of life is self-realization."

So I think our hearts are the ones that take us into the scary territory that have a great pay-off, great reward, and that's where I think the more courageous we can become and unapologetically follow our hearts, the more our life will unfold the way it's meant to; the way that creates more purpose and fulfillment, just like an apple seed germinating.

Like man, that thing's unrestricted. It's just self-developing itself as the apple seed because the little bud, then the tree, then the fruit-bearing tree, and I think all of us have our destiny, and we deserve to unfold in our own apple tree way.

And I think the more we follow our heart, the more we allow that natural self-germination process to happen. Gotten a little off topic of your question, my friend.

Shawn Stevenson: All good, that's so powerful, man. I'm thinking about Johnny Appleseed now, but you know, the thing is, is that that life, like infinite generations of apple trees are in that one seed. Right?

There's so much potential that's locked in there, and it needs the right conditions. And that courage is about having the audacity to put yourself in the conditions where you can become what you're really meant to become.

I think that's super powerful, man. So just to take a step back, I'm curious about this because some of this stuff could be like touchy subjects, you know?

JP Sears: I'm already offended, just so you know.

Shawn Stevenson: Why take the satirical route? Why take the satirical route with personal development and with spirituality?

JP Sears: Yeah. I think there's a couple reasons. One, the satirical route is authentic to me. That's like the genre of my natural sense of humor.

Number two, I think the sort of satire is a very sharp edge, and I think of satire as like a samurai sword. It can very efficiently cut through the scar tissue of the psyche to expose a deeper truth.

The scar tissue of our psyche might be our limiting beliefs, our dogma, our familiar comfort zone, the beliefs that we believe, we never even question. I think that's all scar tissue.

So satire is a very sharp edge, and I think it's a very intelligent edge as well, where typically with satire there's some level of a deeper message that's either implied or pointed to.

So I think satire is really effective for cutting away the crap in our mind so that we can give rise to something deeper that wants to express itself.

Kind of like if there was an apple seed under concrete, you need an effective cutting tool to slice through that concrete so that the apple tree that's deep can express itself and something beautiful comes.

But if you're just slapstick slapping the concrete with your hand, that's not going to cut through it.

Shawn Stevenson: Or just telling it to grow. "Grow!"

JP Sears: "Why aren't you growing? I told you to grow." "Well there's something blocking me here, you jerk."

So yeah, satire, that's my take on it. But most importantly it's authentic to me.

Shawn Stevenson: I think that's a huge key, and you just said it. I want to talk about this, because man, you've heard the statement 'marketers ruin everything.' You know? Right?

And even though some of these things are fundamental truths about whether it's having successful relationships, building a brand, your health and wellness, there are certain fundamental truths that exist in our reality.

And one of those truths I think has been a constant human thread, but it kind of got put under that pavement, but now it's making a big resurgence, is authenticity. Right? Being yourself.

And people talk about that, and talk about how authentic they are being or whatever. This is in and of itself, like I'm thinking about so many different ideas that you could make- so what do you think about this? This movement towards authenticity?

JP Sears: First off, like you and I are unfortunately on the same wavelength. You know, weird minds think alike. Which I think is actually not unfortunate, it's beautiful.

Because I've thought about making a video on this topic, about how authenticity has become trendy, it's become a strategy, and here's how I look at it.

Authenticity isn't something we do, it's not a strategy; it's a state of being.

So the idea- like the marketing strategy of like, "Come on, like authenticity is trending so let's do authenticity." Well, it's not a facade.

Doing authenticity as a strategy is incredibly inauthentic. It's just a facade. So being authentic is different, and truly I think we're the only ones that can decide, "Am I playing the role of authenticity? Or am I really being my authentic self?"

So I think we're really the judge and jury, though I think the energy that we express through our thoughts, words, and actions also reveals the truth to our audience.

But yeah man, I think if however we're doing our authenticity, if we're not getting scared by it, we're probably not doing real authenticity.

I think real authenticity means we're allowing the mystery of who we are to express itself, and I do mean those words very intentionally; 'the mystery of who we are.'

Because I think who we think we are has nothing to do with who we actually are. So when we think, "Yeah, I know who I am." It's like, "Well maybe we know who we think we are, but who we really are, I think we don't know it until we notice ourselves expressing itself with feeling in whatever we're doing.

So I think that's very scary because as children, I think we're all adults dressed up- or we're all children dressed up in adult suits.

As children, we're used to getting validation by being who we think other people want us to be. That's how we get the currency of approval.

We read our mom and dad, or teachers. Like, "Oh teacher, you want good grades? Cool, I'll get good grades, and you'll validate me, but you don't necessarily validate me for being myself. Sometimes being myself is I'm going to stand on the desk and dance and sing. So not only do you not validate me, you invalidate me. You like punish me if I'm being myself too much."

So we're used to the comfort of doing what gets us approval, acting like other people and the way they want us to be.

So I think as kids, a pattern that's not just true for me, it seems to be part of the human condition, we develop the pattern of actually fearing our authentic self because it's the one thing that gets very little approval, very little acceptance.

Granted, sometimes our mom and dad or families will recognize our brilliance, and validate that from time to time, and that's beautiful. Some people never.

But regardless, we don't know how people are going to react. We don't know if they'll even see us when we're expressing our real self.

So the fear of abandonment, or maybe they're going to criticize us. The fear of overwhelm comes up.

So in other words, I think when we're about to risk presenting our real self, it's going to have some butterflies in our stomach.

I remember when I was making my first comedy video, which was very much an authentic part of me coming to light, I was scared.

Thought it was going to be bad for business, thought people were going to judge me, didn't think they'd think it's was going to be funny, so it was a very scary thing for me to do, yet I did it anyway.

And I think the best gift we can ever give ourselves is be ourselves, and we have to have the courage to do that. I think the courage means, "I'm willing to be afraid in the name of allowing my real self to show up, even if I don't know who he is, but I'll greet him when he shows up, and I'll give him a darn hug, too."

Otherwise, if we don't have the courage to be afraid to show up as our true self, then I think that means we're afraid to be afraid, which means we're living in fear.

We're actually avoiding the actual fear because we're afraid to encounter that fear. We're afraid to encounter that dragon.

So we might be living our lives in avoidance of this fear, which means we're avoiding the thing that we're truly afraid of, which means what we're truly afraid of is our real authentic self.

Last thing I'm going to say- I'm on my soap box here, my friend. I'm just getting real preachy.

Shawn Stevenson: Get up there.

JP Sears: I just want everybody to tithe. 10%, send it my way, or else you're not going to Heaven.

I think being ourselves is the easiest most graceful thing we could ever do. And there's a little paradox to that, because it can sometimes be the scariest thing we can do, our mind tricks us into believing that being ourselves - the easiest thing we could ever do - tricks us into believing that's the hardest thing we could ever do simply because it can be scary.

Yet if we become like the warrior of our own life who says, "Yeah, fear? I'm willing to encounter the fear and do the thing that scares me, even though it's scary rather than avoiding the fear."

Then we can realize, "Wow, now I can actually be myself. Now it can actually start to get easy and graceful because I allow the scary thing to be a part of my life."

Rather than saying like, "Oh that's scary, therefore I can't do that, therefore I trick myself into believing it's hard to do the easiest thing I could ever do, which is to be myself."

All those are words, easy to say, yet in practice I think it's the hero’s journey to practice.

Shawn Stevenson: And that's what we're all here for. You know? To be our own hero in a sense, you know?

I think that a lot of times- I talked about this back in the day, about in looking at our lives like a movie, we kind of pass off the starring role, we try to, to somebody else, but it's your movie.

No matter what you think, even if you're trying to be an extra, it's your movie, and to really step into that role, it can definitely be scary.

And I'm thinking about so many different examples in my life, and I just thought of a more recent one. Because I just kind of got into Instagram late, super late, and-

JP Sears: Welcome to 2018, by the way, Shawn.

Shawn Stevenson: Thank you, it's good to be here. But when I got on there, and the IG story started, and I just- people were like, "You're just going to document whatever." Because my son told me about it through Snapchat.

JP Sears: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: And I was like, "What is this? Why? Why?" And so I just decided to share cool moments, like stuff that we do, and one of the things that we do as a family, that we've just done as just a culture I've created in my household, is like we dance a lot. You know?

And so I started to capture some of those moments, and I was a little nervous to put it online, you know? At first. Of me like doing the Running Man and like a cartwheel, or whatever I did.

And I was just having fun, hanging out with my kids, and I posted it up, and people just were going nuts, and they were loving it, and just like really identifying with that.

And the reason that the fear was there is because I'm this cool person, right? I'm the cool guy. I do stuff, right?

And so having the audacity to put this where I'm really just letting go and having fun, and even from my culture that I come from, same thing.

Like seriously, like gangsters don't dance kind of thing, you know? We just two-step or stand in the back corner.

I think about somebody like MC Hammer, how hard it must have been for him. Like, "I'm going to be the dancing rapper with the parachute pants, the whole deal."

He changed the world, but he had all of these- the 'real' rappers hating on him so much. You know? But it's being authentic to yourself.

And here's the great kind of hidden gift within it, and I believe this, and I've seen this. I've taught to this to our students. I'm an advisor and instructor for ITN.

And the right people, when you're authentic to who you are, all your weird quirks, all the stuff you think might be a negative thing that you come from some circumstance; the right people are going to connect with you more and deeper because you are being authentic to who you are.

JP Sears: And amen to that. What that means to me is the curse becomes a blessing. I think when we look at some of our authentic quirks, sometimes as kids, that's what we were made fun of about and sometimes shamed for.

Like as a kid, sometimes I was made fun of for having red hair. Only one in the school with red hair.

Shawn Stevenson: No way.

JP Sears: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: No way were you made fun of for that.

JP Sears: Carrot Top and all that. Nothing too vicious, but there was some shame about it.

So I looked at my red hair and thought, "Oh, that's kind of a curse." But now the curse has become a blessing, it makes me more recognizable, it adds to my character, and I really enjoy it.

And you know, being the hero of our own movie, I think you do that in many ways. You shared one with your dancing on IG stories, which by the way, seeing you and your sons dance is the most joyful thing that I regularly encounter on Instagram.

Like watching your boys dance, and how knowing that you guys are doing that as a family, it just lights me up inside. It really does.

Shawn Stevenson: Awesome.

JP Sears: So thank you for being the hero and not suppressing that part. But also, like looking at how you, Shawn Stevenson, is the hero of your movie, you used to not know anything about podcasting.

You started from absolutely scratch, nothing, didn't know what you were doing, and you had no way of knowing that this would work out for you.

But you went, you started something you didn't know how to do, you had whatever your insecurities were, but you faced the dragons, you went into the dark forest as the hero of your movie, and from my point of view, it has freaking worked out incredibly well for not only you, but the millions of people whose lives you touch and make a very positive impact on, because you had the courage to be the hero of your story.

And that light illuminates further than any words that you'll ever say, in my opinion.

Shawn Stevenson: Fort St. Louis! I don't know what to say, man. Wow, like that is a battle cry right there, man. Thank you. That's powerful. That's so powerful.

I haven't framed it like that in my own mind, you know? Because I was going through the motions, and dealing with those things along the way, and so many of these things we don't talk about, and the more you can peel back those layers, and share those insights, like what was it like for me to start the podcast?

We talked about this earlier, how I was the face of a previous podcast, and building somebody else's brand, which was not a good idea necessarily, but it gave me- it was like my training wheels.

Like I got to work a lot of stuff out, and I came into the game being an intellectual. Just like, "I'm as smart or smarter than all of you guys, let me tell you how much I know."

This kind of- but there was a good intention behind it, but I didn't need to be that person, because I'm not that person.

And it transitioned relatively quickly because I felt like I just really felt a calling to be me, to be more genuine.

And so as the weeks went by with that show, I was just being more and more myself, which I'm a cool person, I'm kind of funny, I love people, I don't really care if you think I'm smart or not.

I know who I am, and so just allowing that to show itself, and you could see the connection with the audience as it grew as well.

And then transitioning starting my own show, I came right out of the gate, "I'm myself." And if people- and I'd get messages from people every day.

And thank you so much, because I know many of you listening right now who have went back and started at episode one, and listened to all 300+ shows, and I feel so confident in my heart.

Because sometimes we'd be like, "Do not go back and read my book from ten years ago." But I feel so good in my heart that people can listen to that first episode and get something so transformational, and also very authentic to who I am.

And so yeah, but it was definitely coming out of and stepping into my role as the hero in my story that this has even come to be. And wow, thank you for that insight, man.

JP Sears: Heck yeah, and I've got to ask you, just a follow-up. When you're looking at doing something new in your life, once upon a time it was start a podcast, so when you're looking to do something new that's big in your life, you have no guarantees it will work out, none whatsoever; how do you deal with your dragons that come up?

Do you have like self-talk? Do you have affirmations? Do you scream therapy? Like how do you be the warrior that you are, the hero of your story, and take action?

Shawn Stevenson: It's a great question. When you asked the question, immediately I thought about it's just building reps.

Because I've taken a step into that discomfort so much, it's not as uncomfortable. It's still there, which is great, because you know there's growth opportunity, but I have such a level of confidence in myself, and in my ability to execute.

If trouble is going to come up along the way, I know that I have the ability to figure things out. And so that's really what comes up for me. I have the confidence that I'll figure it out.

But that doesn't stop me from having those feelings of uncertainty, of what might happen, what might take place, problems that might arise.

I really wish people would get that. The more they step outside their comfort zone and take action, do those things that make them feel like they might not be able to do it, the stronger they're going to get.

JP Sears: Yeah, amen to that. There was a quote I heard recently about confidence, and I'm not going to remember the quote verbatim, and I'm certainly not going to remember who said it, so #authorunknown on this one.

But it was something along the lines of self-confidence isn't knowing everything will work out, or knowing how things will work out, or how to do things. Self-confidence is knowing you will figure it out.

You might struggle, but knowing like, "Hey, I'll put myself in a situation that I don't know how to do whatever it is, but I'll allow myself to figure it out."

And with what you said, it's like doing something new allows you to develop the faculties that are necessary to do that new thing, which to me is just like working out.

Like you're doing a lot of reps, you're doing something that develops your body's faculties to do that something well.

We all remember our first day in the gym, it wasn't pretty. It was a struggle, it was probably very painful, but you get the reps in, and it just develops us to deal with the warrior activities in our lives. Anyway, that's what comes up for me hearing your wisdom.

Shawn Stevenson: That's awesome. I'm thinking of my first time with the weights, my ego was like punched in nuts really, you know? It was my friend down the street, this kid named Jeff who's a world-class coach today. He's like Paul Chek ultra 900-level whatever.

JP Sears: What's his last name?

Shawn Stevenson: Jeff Brakas.

JP Sears: Oh yeah, I think he was in a class I taught in Chicago way back in the day.

Shawn Stevenson: See? There you go. There you go.

JP Sears: Full circle.

Shawn Stevenson: He's always learning, he's always looking to learn. And so he's smaller than me, and I think it was maybe doing bench press or something, and he had been lifting for a little while.

And so I'm just like, "If he can do this, of course." I almost died. Right? And I'm just like, "This little guy is so much stronger because it's not about the physical mass, it's like training these muscle fibers to do this job."

And so I literally still- and this was- I think I was fourteen at the time, maybe fifteen, and he took me to my first gym. I love him so much, man.

And here's the thing, I still have some of the weights that I bought from him at my house now. Like somehow or another, I just keep- I've got these great Onnit kettlebells, and all these cool looking things, and I have these really crappy looking plastic gray weights that you put on the end of the bar.

JP Sears: Oh, I know the kind. I know the kind.

Shawn Stevenson: You know what I'm talking about. So yeah man, but still it's just that exposure.

And speaking of Onnit by the way, the Onnit kettlebells. So we have a mutual friend in Aubrey Marcus.

JP Sears: For sure.

Shawn Stevenson: And so what is your favorite Onnit product?

JP Sears: Man, like all of them is one answer. I'll give you two answers. My gym at home, it's a section of my garage, I'm all decked out and I've got the kettlebells.

But something I've been getting into is the steel maces from Onnit. I've been working out pretty regularly since I was eleven, so that's like twenty-six years.

So I've gotten bored with things, I've done all kinds of modalities. So the steel mace work is something that's exciting and it feels like invigorating to my nervous system.

And then on the supplement side of Onnit, I've got to give you two, the Alpha Brain and Shroom Tech Sport. The cordyceps mushrooms really vibe with me.

In fact, I'm all hyped up on those things now, and anytime before I go on stage at comedy shows I'm always getting my Alpha Brain in, and my cordyceps mushrooms- the Shroom Tech Sport.

Man, I love those guys, and I love how Onnit is an extension of Aubrey's internal landscape. And I mean, I think with what we're talking about, being the hero of your own movie, Aubrey is someone who very unapologetically is the hero of his life, and he allows that to shine amongst other ways.

Onnit is one of the rays of light that he shines, but that's an extension of him doing his inner work to face his dragons, have the courage to be himself in big ways, and I really admire that about him.

I admire that about anybody who I recognize living their truth and not apologizing for it, and in realizing of course we're all going to have our struggles.

It's not a cakewalk for Aubrey, Shawn, JP, or anybody. But man, yeah great crew down there.

Shawn Stevenson: That's awesome. And like the same- those are my- those two, especially the Shroom Tech Sport and the MCT oil as well, the emulsified MCT oils, I love those. Literally every day I have some.

And the Alpha Brain, what I love about it, and I told Aubrey this when we first met, and this was maybe three and a half years ago. They've been a sponsor of the show since early on.

And I'm very, very selective about the people that I share with my audience. Like I love the people that are a part of this community, and so I have to literally love what they're about, what they stand for, the products themselves.

And I told him this very early on, like if I was to start a supplement company, these are the things I would be doing. You know? In the quality and also just the coolness of the brand.

It's so cool and so practical as well. And so with the Alpha Brain, this is another thing, and that was a barrier of entry for me.

It's like, "Well if I'm going to do this, I'm going to have to get some clinical trials done. I'm going to need a half million dollars." No, I'll just focus on something else.

They paid out of pocket to do double-blind placebo controlled clinical trials on the products, and with Alpha Brain, you literally see a significant increase in your working memory. It's nuts! It's nuts.

JP Sears: For sure, and those clinical trials for Alpha Brain, that means a lot to me as well, because I tend to be a little skeptical by default when there's something new, especially something making big claims like, "Oh this supplement, it's going to help your memory, your focus."

It's like, "Alright cool, it's all natural, but you also just said those words. It doesn't mean it will."

Shawn Stevenson: Right.

JP Sears: But then it's like, "Okay you say those words and there's actually legitimate research to add substance to those words." It's like, "Alright, now you've got my attention."

Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, super cool. Super cool. So by the way guys, www.Onnit.com/model, so it's www.Onnit.com/model, you get 10% off everything. Everything.

Once upon a time when we were new in the partnership, they were just like, "Just supplements, Shawn. We'll give 10% off to your audience for supplements."

Everything. If you want a shirt, 10% off. If you want kettlebells, 10% off. These steel maces. Like I've got all of these cool pieces of equipment as well.

I've got the battle ropes, I don't know if you have the battle ropes.

JP Sears: Right, no I don't have those in my garage, and I'm feeling inferior about myself.

Shawn Stevenson: You should, man. So I've got the Big Red. It's called Big Red. It's a beast. I think it's like fifty pounds.

JP Sears: Man, those battle ropes. Sometimes I'll use them when I go into the Onnit facility because I live in Austin right where the headquarters is. Those battle ropes destroy me so fast, such a hard workout.

Shawn Stevenson: That's your nemesis, I like that. Upper body sprints. So I would love to talk to you about relationships. So you're recently married, right? How long have you been married?

JP Sears: Yeah, three months.

Shawn Stevenson: Three months? Super recent!

JP Sears: Yeah, three and a half months. Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: But you guys have been together for-?

JP Sears: So we were together a year and a half before we got married. So you know, I guess a year and nine months is how long we've been together.

Shawn Stevenson: So I want to talk to you about this, man. I want to talk about relationships, you know?

JP Sears: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: You're on a pretty big stage, and you were obviously in love and passionate about your partner, and so what have you learned thus far in this kind of initial phase in your relationship?

JP Sears: Man, it's really taught me the value of doubling down into my feelings. I'm someone, maybe you picked it up from my past, it's just easier and comfortable for me to disconnect from my feelings.

Like, "Oh something hard is coming up, let's not talk about that." So I've learned-

Shawn Stevenson: That's not going to work.

JP Sears: Yeah, it just doesn't. Feelings, that's the energy that we connect other people in our relationships, certainly our intimate partner.

So I've learned avoiding my feelings, avoiding saying something because I'm afraid Amber is going to get mad or upset, and then that would make me scared, so I'm actually trying to avoid the 'I'm scared' thing.

That does nothing but make me feel empty inside, and disconnects me from Amber. It gives me a temporary sense of relief like, "Yeah, got out of potential harm's way in that one."

So it's like one step forward and ten steps backwards. So being in touch with my feelings and communicating feelings with the language of self-responsibility.

I think when we get into feelings in a relationship, it can be destructive if we start to blame other people for how we feel, if we start to blame ourselves for how the other person feels.

But having enough respect for Amber to remind myself how she's feeling, the power of her heart is making her feel that way.

And also respecting Amber enough to know that if I'm feeling sad, maybe angry, maybe afraid, maybe if I'm just feeling depressed on a certain day; having enough respect for Amber to know she's strong enough to handle me if I'm not at my best. I don't have to be ashamed of it.

So that's been very important to me, and communicating. I'll just get back to what I was saying, communicating with a language of self-responsibility.

For example, it might be, "Amber, I feel mad about my experience of what happened earlier." Not, "You made me feel mad."

So just that mental concept of self-responsibility with the language of the heart, which is the feelings, has been very important to me.

And also humbling myself. I love to feel in control, I love to have everything just- everybody's good here, I'm strong, I'm stable, everything's enlightened.

But realizing sometimes that things need to get a little messy, and it's okay to have an argument, and we'll still love each other, and realizing new growth comes from the forest fire.

So yeah, feelings man, is the biggest lesson. There's been so many, but that's been the greatest one.

And also I just have to throw this in there. When Amber is challenged with something, whether it's about me or whatever, it's important to me that I remind myself, "Amber is my teacher."

Like remind me, "She's my mirror. What is she mirroring to me right now about me?" And she's a human, I'm a human, so of course we project onto each other.

We project untruth onto each other. So I don't necessarily want to be a sponge for all of that, but realizing a lot of how I experience her is myself being reflected back to me in the mirror.

So actually just two nights ago we re-watched our whole wedding video, it was like an hour and a half, so I got to witness us exchanging vows again, and one of the vows that I said to her is, "I want to be a student of Amber."

And part of what that meant to me is I don't want to just have in mind who I think she is, and like just be devoted to that, because I can start to miss who she really is.

I want to learn about who she really is while also knowing that allows- being a student of Amber allows me to be more of a student of JP because being a student of Amber means I'm catching a clear reflective surface in the mirror of who she is.

And based on the fact that I'm absolutely going to make up for this next sentence, the word 'marriage' comes from the word 'mirror.' A mirror-age. And I think part of the purpose of a marriage is to realize we've got the most beautiful mirror that we could ever see.

And sometimes we love what we see in the mirror, and it's great. Sometimes we're challenged by what we see in the mirror. We're like, "Whoa, that ugly part of me, I didn't know that existed."

So we can either get angry at the mirror for what we see, or we can connect to the person who's looking in the mirror.

Shawn Stevenson: I felt all that, man. All of that. If we would take that mental approach of seeing it like that, when you see something challenging with your partner, that it's a reflection.

That's tough stuff, but if you do that, it just develops such a level of compassion, it develops a level of introspection.

I haven't really shared this before, but I did an experiment when I was being ultra-spiritual. I was really- and so I did this experiment where- it was about two weeks, and I didn't call it an experiment.

It was like a spiritual decision that everybody that I see- because I was really vibing into this concept of how we're all connected.

And like you know, these people are experiencing the same life force through just different eyes, different perspectives, but they're a part of me.

So I was just walking around, and everybody that I saw, they were part of me. We were all one, you know?

And so the most fascinating things happened during that time. When I'm at the gym, like the toughest, toughest guy that never smiles, like he smiled at me.

You know, it's just like these little weird moments like that. And I just felt so much more peaceful. I felt much more at home on the planet.

And then the most crazy thing probably that I've seen in public took place. Like some girl went nuts at the gym, was like throwing trashcans, and talking crazy, and just the most random thing happened, and I was like, "That's me! I have this potential to be straight up crazy."

And to be honest with myself, I do. Everybody does. We have the potential for the most heinous crazy things and also the most beautiful things, and I got that in that moment because I decided to see this person as an extension, as a mirror.

So it's uncomfortable even sharing that story because it's getting into that discomfort, like you talked about.

JP Sears: Yeah, and I appreciate that. Like yes, you don't have clinical trials to validate like that was all legit, not just coincidence, so I appreciate you sharing like that is your experience, and like what mystery was happening there, who knows?

And like yesterday, when the driver picked me up from the airport- I've been doing this thing. I've been reading a Brendon Burchard book called 'High Performance Habits.' Great book, I love it.

And in it he has a simple practice where when you're going into a new situation, you ask, "What feeling do I want to take into the situation?"

So I read that and I'm like, "That sounds like a cool practice. Let me practice that, test drive it, see if it helps me up my game."

So when I'm getting off the plane, I'm like, "Alright, what feeling do I want to take into the situation in the driver's picking me up." I said, "Kindness. I just want to feel kindness, and I want to bring that energy."

So the driver meets me- and first off, he's the kindest guy you'll ever meet. I mean, that's just who he is, I didn't create that.

But then we get in the car, and he starts talking to me about kindness. Like literally the subject of kindness, and he brought it up, just how important it is for him because he's driving people, and he says, "I just love my work. I get to serve people, and I find when I'm kind to people, realizing even if they're treating me like a jerk, I don't know what kind of day they've had, so I'm just kind to people, and I love it."

I'm just like, "I don't know if there's magic going on here in this unseen energy," but it was fascinating. That's all I can say.

Shawn Stevenson: Those little moments- I know everybody listening has had those little happy coincidences take place. And I encourage us to not- from this moment forward, stop brushing them under the rug, because if you really kind of hang onto those, and like implant them into your Darth Vader box on your chest, like you can refer back to these moments and just realize how powerful you are and how magical life can be.

So I want to ask you about purple. Purple is your jam. What's up with the purple?

JP Sears: Man, what's up with the purple right now is I have four purple shirts in my suitcase for the comedy shows I'm doing in St. Louis, and I realized I didn't bring any other shirts. So that's the story on purple for this.

But you know, in a lot of my videos, yeah purple comes up. And how that happened, when I was making the first comedy video, How to be Ultra Spiritual, I was kind of playing the archetypal spiritual hippie.

Purple is like a 'spiritual' color, so I ordered a purple shirt, and put that on for the first video, and then after that when I was still finding my legs, I'm like, "Alright I did the purple shirt, I was kind of a character, so I guess the purple shirt is part of the character."

So for a while in the videos I was glued to the purple shirt, and I always wore a headband too, at the time.

And so it'd kind of be, just without even having intentionality behind it, it kind of became part of the brand, and now I don't feel absolutely married to purple, though I enjoy it as a color and also realize it's part of my brand so I let it fly a little more often than other colors.

Shawn Stevenson: That's awesome, man. Because I only remember your videos for wearing purple or bikini.

JP Sears: Which ironically the bikini was pink, not purple.

Shawn Stevenson: That was about- was it Instagram Famous?

JP Sears: How to Get Instagram Famous.

Shawn Stevenson: Oh man.

JP Sears: So that- and I still feel a little traumatized by that, but I'll self-sacrifice for my art, bro. It was funny, that video.

And if ya'll haven't seen that, in the video I'm talking all about how to get Instagram famous, and one of the major ways is to always post photos of yourself wearing thongs on Instagram to cater to people's shallow sense of sexuality to build your fan base rather than delivering something valuable or entertaining.

So in the video, I wear a thong bikini for a lot of it, and funny story about that. That video was the first one I was working with my new videographer, Cal.

Shawn Stevenson: The first time.

JP Sears: So we did the- there's a narrative part of the video where I'm just walking around, purple shirt, pants on too. So we filmed that part first.

It was like, "Cool, got that done." And then I looked at Cal and I said, "Cal, I need you to know, here's what's about to happen."

I let him know what's going to happen, and here's why. But once we were off and running with the thong part, there were a few times where I just had to look at him and say, "Cal, I feel a lot of shame right now. I feel embarrassed, I just need to give voice to this, I need to process."

And man, and he stuck with me, so I knew he was the right guy.

Shawn Stevenson: Awesome. That's- well I don't know how awesome that is.

JP Sears: It's not, it's terrible. It's terrible.

Shawn Stevenson: Listen, when you put it out, I shared a clip of it I think on my IG story.

JP Sears: I remember seeing that.

Shawn Stevenson: And I got so many messages, and I got some messages from some ladies who were like, "That's totally me." And she was like, "It is what it is." You know?

JP Sears: Yeah.

Shawn Stevenson: And it's just because it is, it's kind of funny, but at the same time, there's truth in it.

JP Sears: Yeah. There is truth in it for some people, in this case particularly some ladies who try to get famous or build their following through just their sexuality.

Now at the deeper level, what that video is about- I don't think there's anything wrong with that, yet what the deeper message is, what I want people to know is your value isn't limited by your sexual appeal.

If you have sexual appeal, great. Flaunt it. Like that's part of your being, and don't be ashamed of it, it's beautiful. Share it if you're called to share it, yet don't fool yourself into believing that's your greatest gift.

Don't let the bright shiny sexuality distract you from something deeper, more valuable, more miraculous inside of you.

Shawn Stevenson: JP, this has just been amazing. I don't want this conversation to end, but we're at a time to get wrapped up. And you've got a lot going on, you've got a couple comedy shows here in St. Louis. I think you're in LA next, but it's probably going to be- when this comes out a little bit later.

JP Sears: Sure.

Shawn Stevenson: So where can people get connected with you, and also your new podcast?

JP Sears: Yes. All the social medias are AwakenWithJP and my new podcast, Awaken With JP Show, find it at iTunes or all the usual places. Love to have you all come by and check out the show.

Shawn Stevenson: Definitely. We'll put all the links in the show notes for everybody as well. And man, you're just an incredible human being, man. And I'm just really grateful for you having the courage to click the record button on that first video and to get the ball rolling.

And I'm just excited to be with you on this journey and see what you do next.

JP Sears: Thank you, Shawn. I appreciate you and all that you do, my friend, and appreciate you having me on the show.

Shawn Stevenson: Awesome, man. Totally my pleasure, my gift.

Everybody, thank you so much for tuning into the show today. I hope you got a lot of value out of this.

Man, make sure to check out JP's new podcast. I know it's just going to be absolutely epic. And just connect with him on social media as well.

He's definitely somebody who- I've talked about this before. I've curated my social media, and I want you to do the same thing.

Do some housecleaning. Make sure that you have positive information coming in, messages that really keep you uplifted, and on the track of the person that you want to be.

If you've got a little bit of like gutter to you and you're going to do the world star, it's okay. Alright? Just a little. But if it's just like constant drama, and people posting negativity, and people making you feel bad about yourself, and the comparison, and not enough.

You have the right to unfollow people. You have the right to create a positive feed for yourself, because social media really, if anything, we probably need to back off a little bit.

But if we're going to utilize it, we can utilize it in a way that's uplifting for ourselves, and JP is definitely somebody to follow. He'll put a smile on your face, and also to give you a positive message as well.

I appreciate you so much for tuning into the show today. If you got a lot of value out of this, make sure to share this out on social media; Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, all the good stuff. Tag me, tag JP, let him know what you thought about the show, alright?

I appreciate you so much. Take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon.

And for more after the show, make sure to head over to www.TheModelHealthShow.com. That's where you can find all of the show notes, you can find transcriptions, videos for each episode, and if you've got a comment you can leave me a comment there as well.

And please make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that the show is awesome, and I appreciate that so much.

And take care, I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.