Mastermind Unleashed: Go From Surviving to Thriving with Jennifer Takagi

Catharine O'Leary: Hello everyone and welcome back to kick start the conversation and I am super excited to have my guest on today. It is Jennifer Takagi. I'm going to say it wrong. So Jennifer is going to correct me about that in just two seconds. But Jennifer and I have met a couple of times as we've done the speaker kind of circuit and she is a wealth of knowledge both from a leadership perspective as well as from an intuitive coach and kind of a wealth Weaver, if you will. Jennifer Welcome to kick start the conversation. How are you?

Oh, great. Thanks for having me. Catharine. I so excited that we actually get to connect again, you know, on the video world.

Catharine O'Leary: Yes. And you need to correct me on my on your your pronunciation of your last name, because that was just bad,

right? No, it's taKagi Jennifer Takagi anybody who watched like karate kid Mr. Miyagi taKagi Miyagi, and also on Bruce Willis movies. What are those movies? Bruce Willis, and diehard? Yeah, and the one where he goes to his wife's office. And the boss gets shot right at the beginning. Spoiler alert Bosket shots. He was Mr. Takagi that owned the company. So yes. And to cookie came about because I gave one of our mutual friends a sugar cookie that I baked homemade, where I'm going to start calling her to cookie instead of to Kagi, which just screw people up,

Catharine O'Leary: obviously, so now I won't. Now I won't forget it. Neither will you folks. So Jennifer, tell us a little bit more about your business and who you serve and what you're doing out in the world.

Yeah, so I've always been a Christian born on a Monday, first time in church was the next Sunday. But I always had these little messages that would come through and I just knew they were from above, it can be God, it can be higher self, whatever anybody likes to call it. And sometimes I would act on it. Sometimes I would not. On several occasions, it literally saved my life to pay attention to the voices, the the information that was coming down. And I've come to learn that that's like the spiritual side of it. People ask how I how I can be a Christian and spiritual like, those are two separate words, worlds, words and worlds. And it's very easy for me because religion is how I'm going to worship God in a group setting with people with similar ways of worshiping. But spirituality is how I do it on my own, and how I connect personally one on one versus in a group setting. So that's kind of how I break it out. It's kind of easy for me to break it out that way. And I heard from my godmother years ago, that when you get a message from the Divine, it's soft and gentle, even if it doesn't make sense. But if it's from your ego, or the devil, it makes perfect sense. But it's very harsh. So simple illustration, I was going to my girlfriend's house, I'm driving down the street. And it was like five in the afternoon. I'm in Oklahoma City, we have a rush 15 minutes, if you leave after 445 No telling how long it will take. Had I left at 534 30 It would have been fast. So I went into Google Maps and I put her dress. And as I'm driving. I call my GPS Lola after you know, Robin Williams on RV, and Lola says, Turn left at the next intersection. And I was like, no, no, I go straight to the highway. Know, every block I hit Lola would say turn left turn left. And I was like no I'm not. I'm not. I overrode the message, right? Because my ego mind was way smarter. I go to get on the highway and there's nothing but red taillights. There is a wreck ahead. And if I had turned left, I would have gone north and up and over and miss the wreck as it was. I was stuck in traffic. So how do I listen to the gentle voice of you should follow your GPS. You will get there safely and quickly. Instead of my ego going I know how to get there. I know. Why do you have the GPS on if you're not going to pay attention? So super simple little example because someone asked me well how do you know if it's you or if it's your ego? Like how do you know soft and gentle follow the GPS turn left at the next intersection or heart? Well, you're stupid I'm going to the highway like this isn't right If I hope that makes sense to people, because that's like the fastest, easiest way of explaining it.

Catharine O'Leary: Well, and it's, it's, it's interesting because I talk a lot about there's, there's a shift, I feel in the industry in, in the way that people are consuming, and then people that are way that people are buying, and that push energy, that harsh energy, if you will, buy now buy now, or it's going to go away forever. And, you know, like, if you don't buy this, you're kinda like, you know, something's wrong with you, and you're cuckoo, or whatever. And, you know, this whole, like, time sensitive lack, like, that feels like it's shifting away. And that there's more of a pull energy of an offer, or a, you know, like, like people want to be, build relationships and be be spoken to, in a way that is more of a friendship than, you know, than a than a transaction. And so listening to that inner voice, really does get you to kind of calm down and soften things and just say, you know, relax, like, listen to the GPS, right? I think that that's amazing. And you have an interesting way of kind of working with clients in in a kind of a three pillar conversation of surviving to thriving, because I think a lot of people right now coming out of the pandemic coming out of this push energy and everything we're surviving, you know, we're just kind of like going day by day. So like, how do we move like, you've got three pillars? So talk about some of the, you know, the pillar, pillar one, for example, of, you know, getting through those, you know, getting to thriving,

awesome, yeah. So one of the things that often happens is we have these messages in our head. And I'm an energy worker, I'm an energy healer, I work with people, we identify these pesky thoughts quickly and easily and clear them out. And if you're doing it on your own, like, what's the framework? How do I make this happen? And the first thing is to start noticing the messages that are going through your head, what are you saying to yourself, if you're baking something, and you don't set the timer, and all of a sudden you start smelling it? Do you say, oh, my gosh, look what I did and just move on? Or do you start beating yourself up? I'm so stupid, I should have paid attention. Why did I walk out of the room? Those harsh hateful messages are the things that are going to consistently trip you up? So identify? Let's make it simple. Three things you find yourself saying all of the time, that are negative and harmful, like you wouldn't say it to your best friend, why are you saying it to yourself, jot them down, what are those three things, then flip them around and write them in the positive. Once you have three of those written in the positive, record them on your phone, there's an app I use all the time, it's called Think up, I don't get paid by them. They have a free version and a paid version, the free version works fine. And you can record your own voice, those three messages that you want in the positive, you want to flip it to a positive spin. And then they even let you have a little music to play in the background. Listen to him 234 times a day for five to seven minutes at a time. And you will start catching yourself as you start to go negative and make it positive. And so like the first thing to get out of survival mode and beating yourself all the time beating yourself up all the time, is to change that thought pattern, change it to something positive. We're inundated with the negative with that scarcity. And we don't need that.

Catharine O'Leary: We first my

first tip, identify your pesky thoughts, write them in the positive and then record them in some way and listen to him. Your subconscious likes listening to your voice better than somebody else's.

Catharine O'Leary: I love that. That's the golden nugget for me is record it and listen to it and it's okay. If you don't like your own voice your subconscious does.

So a lot. It really does. Yeah.

Catharine O'Leary: Okay, so what's, what's the pillar number two.

Number two is create a vision for your life. And we hear about this, we talk about this. But there's one thing that typically trips us up and that is we tell the wrong person. And when we tell this wrong person what our vision is, then they start creating doubt for us. You can't Do that nobody will buy it. That's too expensive. Why would you you have a good job, blah, blah, blah, I mean, like it, they will inundate you with it. And it's kind of like when I was a kid, I would lay in the grass with my sister, and we'd be looking at the clouds in the sky. And I'd say, look, there's an elephant. And she had looked at all over the sky, and she's like, there's not an elephant. I'm like, yeah, it's right there. Well, in a matter of seconds, in Oklahoma, the wind comes sweeping down the plane, and that CloudFormation is gone. And it's truly not there anymore. But the point is, she could not see what I saw, because she was three feet away from me. So her vision was different, what she was seeing was very different. So when you start building out your vision, share it with someone who can support you in that, like, you don't need them to fund you, you just need to be able to share with excitement and have them being excitable with you. I know excitable is not the right word. I just like it and I like to drop it in. So as you're creating your vision, what do you want your life to look like? And start with, when you wake up in the morning, I have a friend who is very adamant. She wants the blinds open somewhat, she wants to wake up naturally with the sun coming up, not me, I want to sleep in a cave, let the alarm go off, or I'll just wake up when I do. What's your vision of waking up? What's your vision of how you're going to spend your day who you're going to spend it with. And very importantly, how are you going to feel. But very specifically write out your vision, and be a little bit discerning on who you share with.

Catharine O'Leary: Perfect, I love that. So the golden nugget there for me is really, it's it's not just about putting it on paper, it's about saying it out loud. But you need to trust not so much trust, you need to make sure that the person that you're sharing it with this is going to support that vision, and not try to you know, poke holes in it. Because, you know, like, we have a lot of people around us that, you know, they mean the best. And sometimes they think they're protecting us. And sometimes, you know, like just they just don't see it, those aren't the people that you want to share that with, which is fine, that's okay, you know, but find that person. And this is where coaches and mentors and so on can really help you out because sometimes your family or, or the friends that you have right now aren't in that same mindset as you are in building a business or you know, whatever it is that you're putting down for your vision. So I love that. Okay, so that's the second point. The third point or the third pillar is

take a baby step. So we we hear about these coaches, those of us who are entrepreneurs or small business owners, like we see the big guy, the big gal, and we're like, oh, I want to be them. And there are so many steps to get from where you are to where they are, that you can get lost in translation, and you're like, Oh, I can't do this, you become overwhelmed, the negative thoughts kick in, because they're not totally gone. And you're like, what are three simple steps you can do to start moving forward? Because if you're not growing, you're dying. I mean, that's scientifically proven. You're not growing, you're dying, your cells are either regenerating, or they're dying off. So what three things can you do? So if you had like a physical fitness goal? Well, I don't walk at all now. Well, what if I walked to the mailbox every day? That's one simple thing. If you're starting a business, and you need to do social media, and you're like, oh, I don't know, I heard somebody call it recently, I think we're at the same event because I quit calling it social media and started calling it Business Media. Because I'm going to grow my business through these platforms. What if you just did one simple posts a day and you spent 15 minutes a week, outlining what your five posts could be? That's a simple step. That's not overwhelming. That's not a lot. And the more you can do things in little increments, the longer you can do them, but we get caught up, we think we have to do like 12 hours at a stretch. We'll know. People didn't just wake up one day and run a marathon. I mean, I will personally never run a marathon but the people who love it love it. But they didn't just wake up and go running unless they were already physically fit. Like you don't go from a couch potato to running a marathon. Overnight. Takes a little training. So start your training. What's your baby step? What's the one thing you want to accomplish? And what's one thing you can do? I love the book like thinking grow rich and the power of positive thinking. Those are phenomenal, but if you haven't read them You get caught up in the title and you think, Oh, I'm just gonna think my way to wealth, no, you're not, you got to do something. So what's a little tiny baby step, pick three baby steps you can do to start moving towards that vision.

Catharine O'Leary: And I'm going to I'm going to add to that and and say that if you are growing a business and you are, you know, part of our entrepreneurial and small business segments, you know, don't get caught up in the shiny object syndrome. So it's not necessarily growth, if you're taking 150 courses and not doing anything with them. I mean, it's growth in the sense of learning, and that's fine. But if you're growing a business, you need income generating activities. So you know, if you focus three baby steps, try to make them three baby steps of things that are going to, you know, result in a conversion and a sale, as opposed to I'm going to learn how to create a, you know, production house that's going to you know, how's my, my podcasting or something like that? Great. If you're at that point, if you're just starting out, probably not going to be the magic bullet that you think it is, right? Because that's one thing. One thing, Jennifer, and I know there is no magic bullet, right? This is this is a one step at a time, very few people go from zero to hero in 2.4 seconds. You know, those, you know, unicorns that have made $2.5 million, and in a day and a half. Great they've have they probably been overnight successes that took them 20 years to get there. So just remember that.

Yes. And I I'm in Brendon Burchard altra group, and he was speaking at his event, the first of the month, and he said, Do one thing, and then add a thing, like, get that thing, right and add a thing. And he said, so I decided I was gonna do a webinar. So I had a microphone and the camera and I did the webinar, and it was kind of okay, but I didn't get any sales. So then the next time I added this, and I still didn't get any sales, but it was a little better. And the next month I did this. And so from the day he did his first one, and I believe he said he did them every month, from the time he did his first one until the ninth month. And every month, he was adding on a little bit a little bit a little bit. And he added JV affiliate type partners to help promote it. That last time, he made $2 million, but he didn't make $2 million the first time or the second time or the third time or the fourth time. So it's the baby steps like he did the first one. And he was like, Okay, well, now I need to do this. If I add this, it will help. And so each time he added on and I love that analogy, and I was like, Oh yeah, I'll give him total credit for that. But it just completely aligned with my baby steps.

Catharine O'Leary: Yes. Yeah, absolutely. So so there's the pesky thoughts, record yourself doing, you know, changing your negative thoughts into positive, and listen to it, listen to that's the key guys. So you gotta listen to it. I'm writing down your vision and sharing it with somebody that you know, that can support you. And then there is the baby steps and just getting going just like you know, the way to eat the elephant is one bite at a time. So you gotta you gotta like, you know, keep moving forward and avoid the shiny object syndrome, if you can. Because entrepreneurs are, I am. I don't know about you, Jennifer. But I like it's ridiculous.

Absolutely, yes. And I get towards it every time.

Catharine O'Leary: And yeah, I fall for it every time. So and so I just want to take a couple of minutes. Jennifer, you and I talked about this briefly, before we got on. But the three point pillars that you have here, align very nicely to doing something like a quiz. So, you know, the last portion of this podcast is always talking about what kind of a quiz that you might be able to put together for your business. And you know, having a survive to thrive quiz, the one thing stopping you from thriving or what's the one challenge that you have to moving from survive to thrive? If that's the 3am question that your your clients are asking themselves, like, how do I get you know, how do I how do I move ahead? How do I you know, how do I grow in the in a sustainable way? That's nobody wakes up at 3am thinking that because that's not language that people use. But, you know, getting to the three question of, you know, how do I move from survive to thrive? You could ask people a few questions of where you are now. Like we're, you know, maybe it's more of an assessment of us. or, you know, one is poor 10 is excellent. But asking people, you know, like, how are you feeling physically? How is your, you know, your process for understanding and living your vision, and your, you know, kind of your mindset and and, you know, the, you know, negative thoughts versus positive thoughts. And then you can move them into one of those three pillars, being your outcomes. So, you know, you can move people that are really challenged with those pesky thoughts into understanding better even even deeper, how to move through those pesky thoughts, people like, you know, that are more challenged with vision. Okay, let's sit down. How do you this is one thing that I've learned that especially people coming out of corporate, they've kind of forgotten to dream, and they've forgotten how to do it. So like, how do you? How do you get into that vision? How do you live that vision? How do you get into the moment of that vision and feeling it? And then the third pillar could be those baby steps of okay, you know, what, now we've identified that you need to kind of take some baby steps, and like, how can how can you start doing that? Right? And then that way that people have, you know, an answer to a question that they're asking themselves at 3am. And they have solution to it. So they're walking away, and if they, you know, if that's all they get from you, then they've gotten huge value, right, and they can, you know, they can walk away and say, Oh, that's how I start my vision, or that's how I get through those pesky thoughts, or that's how I start taking the next steps. But the invitation then is obviously to learn even further, and to, you know, learn from you and to really heal those, you know, some of those pesky thoughts and, you know, moving into that thrive zone, of living from, from physical to emotional, to, to spiritual and, and beyond, and really living in abundance, which is I know, which is, you know, what you want for everyone is to live in abundance. So you have a free gift for us, I believe. So tell us a little bit about that. I do

my free gift is the actually the three point blueprint. And number one, I love PDFs. And number two, I really like seeing things and being able to jot it down. So I've given you a little format so you can jot down your pesky thoughts, you have a place to convert them to the positive, then, again, start writing out that vision for your life. What do you really want it to be? I was on a call, and we did a short little exercise. And her example was what if you had 10 new clients, and my whole business was set up as one on one only? And I had said, Yeah, I want 10 clients, I want 10 clients. And then when I realized how much time it was going to take me to provide service and value to 10 clients in a week was way more than I wanted to do. So I've been carrying around this vision. That kind of wasn't mine, and it kind of wasn't fleshed out. And now it's like, oh, yeah, that's not how I want to operate. So when you play with that vision, play with it. What's it going to feel like if I get it? Is this really what I want? My vision was very sketchy. Thank goodness, it didn't come true, or I would not be a happy person.

Catharine O'Leary: So we'll have that in the show notes. Jennifer, thank you so much. How can people reach out to you they want to learn more about working with

you. Right, my website, Jennifer takagi.com. And then again, when you click on the link for the blueprint, that'll that'll get you into my website. It's on there too, because Takagi it's not that hard. It just sounds hard. TAKG I Takagi so yeah, on my website,

Catharine O'Leary: both will be in the show notes. Any final parting words, Jennifer?

Have those childlike dreams. Oh, they're all getting you for a reason. Embrace them. Let them grow. I love that.

Catharine O'Leary: All right, so that everyone out there go off and have lived those childhood dreams and have those childhood dreams and try to remember what those childhood dreams were. And have a great week and we'll we'll see everybody back here on on next week's episode. Thanks, everyone.