What if joy is the most powerful currency we can invest in—and the secret to living a more meaningful life? In this heart-opening episode, I sit down with Brent Neilsen, author of The Joy Cycle and creator of Moving Joy Around, to explore how we can move from emotional overwhelm to intentional joy.
We dive into:
✨ The real difference between happiness and joy
✨ Why being “self-focused” isn’t selfish—it’s essential
✨ How emotions, even the hard ones, are rooted in love
✨ The science behind joy and the daily habits that make it stick
✨ How breathing, gratitude, and reflection can shift your entire state of being
Brent also shares practical wisdom from his upcoming book Breathing Slowly—a guide to creating space for joy, even in the busiest lives.
Whether you’re seeking more peace, meaning, or simply want to reconnect with what lights you up, this episode is full of compassionate insight, soulful tools, and permission to feel it all—because joy isn’t a fleeting feeling, it’s a way of being.
🌀 Grab Brent’s free Joy Cycle Workbook and follow his journey on Substack at movingjoyaround.substack.com
Resources
👉Alchemist's Guide to Podcast Audiences & Best Be a Guest Directory - discover where your ideal clients are tuning in and how to get featured on those podcasts.
👉Podcasting on Substack - the Ultimate Guide for Coaches & Creators to Leverage Substack for Getting Visible
▶ Workshops for leveraging podcasts to attract clients & build authority
🚀Monetize Your Mission Mastermind
Catch the podcast & join the conversation on Substack The You World Order Showcase Podcast
Transcript
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Who doesn't want more joy in their life. Right? Well, our next guest is going to share with us how to create just that, hi and welcome to the you. World order, showcase podcast where we feature life, help transformational coaches and spiritual entrepreneurs stepping up to be the change they seek in the world. I'm your host, Jill Hart, the coach's alchemist
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: on a mission to help coaches and entrepreneurs amplify their voice, monetize their mission and get visible leveraging podcasts and the huge audience over on the Gnostic TV network. Today we are chatting with Brent, Nielsen Brent is on a crusade to spread the most important currency in the world joy!
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: It is universal, but it only grows when it is shared. His 1st book was titled The Joy Cycle, the Surprising Science behind, leading a more fulfilling life, and look for his latest book, breathing slowly, which is slated to be released this fall. Welcome to the show, Brent. It's really great to have you here.
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::Brent Neilsen: Great to be here. Thank you very much.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: I'm really looking forward to this conversation about a topic that not many people really talk about.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: But first, st our big question, are you ready. What's the most significant thing in your opinion, as individuals, we can do to make an impact on how the world is going.
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::Brent Neilsen: So, you know, I think it's counterintuitive to many people. Many of us grow up with these expectations put on us that you only become a good person by doing for others, by helping others, by, you know, giving, giving, giving.
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::Brent Neilsen: The most important thing we can do. To open our lives to joy
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::Brent Neilsen: is to be self-focused, you know, is to people people will call that selfish. I've I've shared that advice with people in the past, and they have gone into traumatic
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::Brent Neilsen: angst where they they're like, oh, my God, I can't do that.
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::Brent Neilsen: but it's you know, it's so simple. It's what they tell us every time we get on an airplane, you know. Secure your own mask before helping others. You can't help people out of an empty cup.
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::Brent Neilsen: And and so the most important thing we can do is give ourselves permission to focus on what we love. And that's where it all starts from.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: I could not agree with you more.
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::Brent Neilsen: So. And it's it's so simple, but it's something that people struggle so much to do.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Well, we're never taught to do it. We're taught growing up that you know. You have to put other people's needs before your own. Think about your family. Think about. You know the teacher wants you to to perform to a certain standard. It might not be what you want, but it's what you have to do. Theoretically, you're always having to meet other people's artificial standards in order, and this goes like across the board for everything.
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::Brent Neilsen: The doctorates.
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::Brent Neilsen: It creates real real tension in people, you know. I think there are a lot of people who spend so much time
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::Brent Neilsen: focused on how others see them and how, you know, are they meeting the standards of other people?
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::Brent Neilsen: And you know, for the first, st honestly, for the 1st 15 years of my career.
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::Brent Neilsen: That's what I did as a leadership development coach is, I took those measures and applied them to leaders and said, Okay, this is why you're not good enough.
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::Brent Neilsen: You know. I look back on those years now, and I'm kind of you know. I don't want to say I'm ashamed. But but you know there's been. I've just realized that that's the wrong way to do things.
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::Brent Neilsen: And you know that's that it's interesting. When someone asks, what's the change I'd like to see? Because it's
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::Brent Neilsen: on one hand, it's so simple, but on the other one it's pretty monumental, because so much of stuff is is rigged the wrong way.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Hmm!
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: When when we have to be told, we're enough.
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::Brent Neilsen: That's exciting.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: You know the by virtue of the fact that you're a human being, you're enough. You're here with a purpose, and you know you're not supposed to be good at everything.
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::Brent Neilsen: Well, and you're not so.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: We'd be God.
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::Brent Neilsen: You're not supposed to be a robot. And and you know, our schools teach kids how to be production units, how to be. You know how to to say, Okay, you're going to be the most efficient at X. You're going to be the most efficient at Y.
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::Brent Neilsen: I would love if we could get to a world where efficiency isn't used to measure people, because
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::Brent Neilsen: efficiency as a former, as a former manufacturing geek
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::Brent Neilsen: is used to measure machines, it shouldn't be used to measure people.
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::Brent Neilsen: and you know it. Just it's it's
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::Brent Neilsen: so. I struggled for a long time to kind of accept the the whole idea.
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::Brent Neilsen: But the most important thing we can do for someone is, recognize that you are the expert in you.
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::Brent Neilsen: and
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::Brent Neilsen: I have no ability to tell you what you need. You know I I need to just listen to whatever you say.
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::Brent Neilsen: and I can tell you
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::Brent Neilsen: how what you do impacts me. I can tell you about my reaction to what you do, and that's all good stuff.
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::Brent Neilsen: But for me to tell you what is right for you
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::Brent Neilsen: is is just. It's it's wrong.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: And it goes from kids all the way to relationships that you have. I mean.
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::Brent Neilsen: Absolutely.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: It's it's not your responsibility to tell another being
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: how they have to behave, or what they have to think, or how they have to feel.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: And well, and it's not
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: to say that they can just do anything. But if you can express, I'll give you an example. I have a grandson have 8 grandkids, but one of them is he's 4, and he's really he's very emotionally aware, and sometimes he'll get upset like he'll he'll be like.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: I'm just so sad, and we'll be like, that's good, Lincoln. You can be sad, and it's usually because we told him no about something, and he doesn't. He wants to get his way, but we acknowledge that you know you have every right to be sad. And this is a sad situation, and we're sad, too. We're sad with you.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: And then
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: it because we allow him to experience that emotion, he moves through it. And a few minutes later
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Lincoln, happy.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: It's so weird that all you have to do is recognize and and acknowledge them. That emotion.
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::Brent Neilsen: Absolutely.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Like.
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::Brent Neilsen: Well, and it's fascinating. Putting my my business coach and consultant hat on for a second. There's been so much research done about feedback and the ability to measure others. And all of that Adp research institute has been huge in doing that research.
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::Brent Neilsen: And it's shown that consistently, we're wrong when we try to measure someone else when we try to say, this is what you should do.
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::Brent Neilsen: That says more about how we are than it has anything to do with with the person that we're supposedly measuring or giving feedback to.
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::Brent Neilsen: And it's just it's amazing as you dig into that stuff
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::Brent Neilsen: that really the simplest thing in the world is to help people figure out what they love.
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::Brent Neilsen: and then help them figure out how to build their life around that.
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::Brent Neilsen: And you know, it doesn't mean a hundred percent of the things you do are things you love.
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::Brent Neilsen: you know. Again, you know, it's been measured extensively, and 20% is about the threshold where.
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::Brent Neilsen: beyond 20%, you don't gain that much.
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::Brent Neilsen: But if you spend a day a week focused on things you love
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::Brent Neilsen: that will. That's a magic number. And
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::Brent Neilsen: we just, you know. There, we need people telling that story. We need to get that out there because
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::Brent Neilsen: it it creates huge change.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Do you find that as people start to experience life where they're doing the thing that they love one day a week.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: that it does tend to morph into more time. And then eventually.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: that's what they're doing. Because they they've allowed themselves to have that that space.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
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::Brent Neilsen: You know. I think of the people who I who I look at.
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::Brent Neilsen: And
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::Brent Neilsen: and again, it's it's a it's a mindset. It's changing the way you see things. But for the for a long time
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::Brent Neilsen: I would look at someone and say, Wow, you know they have the perfect job. You know they they, you know that that job is just, you know, it's exactly what what they should do. Wow! They were so lucky to find that job.
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::Brent Neilsen: And you know, over the the last years where my eyes have been opened to some of this stuff. That's not the reality. The reality is those people created that job.
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::Brent Neilsen: And they said, Okay.
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::Brent Neilsen: I have these tasks in front of me that I need to do as my as an accountant or as a whatever I am.
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::Brent Neilsen: I'm going to figure out which of the tasks I love and I'm going to.
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::Brent Neilsen: I'm going to enjoy doing those.
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::Brent Neilsen: and the more you do that exactly like you said. That becomes your routine, and you know you
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::Brent Neilsen: the the the other piece of the the
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::Brent Neilsen: learning I did through through kind of developing the joy cycle. And all of that is
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::Brent Neilsen: is it's about repetition.
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::Brent Neilsen: It's not about intensity. It's not about feeling things deeply or having, you know, having these love experiences that are so powerful. It's about doing it every single day, you know, doing it multiple times a day and just building it into your
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::Brent Neilsen: your schedule.
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::Brent Neilsen: and that's how you get there again. It's not. It's not. It's simple, but not easy, like any habit.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Well, let's talk about the difference between happiness and joy, because I think a lot of people
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: conflate the 2 together. They think that they mean the same thing, but they really don't.
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::Brent Neilsen: Yeah, so so can I share the graphic that I showed you.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yes, please.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: And Brent's going to be showing a graphic of the joy cycle. And we will put a link to it for our listeners on the podcast so you can look at it too.
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::Brent Neilsen: Yep. So so the the 1st important thing to understand. So down at the bottom of the Joy cycle are emotions, and and they can be any emotions, negative or positive. Fear, grief, love, ecstasy, you know they they're all emotions.
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::Brent Neilsen: And the thing that that distinguishes an emotion is it's temporary, you know it comes and goes. It's like it's like the tide. And and you know you may feel it very deeply right now, but it will. It will go away, and it will ebb to something else.
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::Brent Neilsen: The other important thing to recognize about emotions is every single one is based in love.
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::Brent Neilsen: So fear is when you are concerned that you may lose what you love.
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::Brent Neilsen: grief or sorrow, you actually have lost what you love, anger, something you love is threatened.
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::Brent Neilsen: and so the whole mechanism, because the joy cycle is absolutely about action
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::Brent Neilsen: is to recognize the element of love
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::Brent Neilsen: in the emotions that you're feeling.
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::Brent Neilsen: and then, by discovering that element of love
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::Brent Neilsen: you, you create an opportunity for gratitude.
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::Brent Neilsen: And so your your regular action, your daily, you know I'm extreme, but I do 5 times a day kind of without even thinking about it.
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::Brent Neilsen: Your action is to reflect on what's going on, to have gratitude for the love that that's causing you to feel the feelings you feel.
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::Brent Neilsen: and this creates an updraft that takes you to joy. So so joy as I, as I look at. It isn't an emotion.
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::Brent Neilsen: it's it's a state of being.
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::Brent Neilsen: And and so, if you are joyful, you you will have joy even when you're in the depths of grief.
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::Brent Neilsen: You know you will have joy when you're angry, and it helps that joy helps you navigate those emotions because you see it as a bigger piece of something.
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::Brent Neilsen: And you know, speaking from personal experience
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::Brent Neilsen: as you're going through those deep emotions. Once you recognize that you can find gratitude in those emotions.
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::Brent Neilsen: You experience them very differently. And and it just, you know, that it's almost like, you know, the the old story of of you know, having to trudge through mud and stuff like that. Once you've done that journey.
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::Brent Neilsen: you recognize that. Okay, yeah, I'm going to get out on the other side. And it's going to be okay. And then this is what I'm going to be able to do.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Interesting to me that emotions are all chemically induced.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Expression. Absolutely.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yeah, you think something. And then a chemical is released into your body, and then you have an emotion, and
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: and that's how emotions work. So when, when you're talking about reflecting on it, it kind of reminds me of when my my youngest daughter was little. We used to tell her to smile, because if you smile, even when you're angry or you're sad or you're hurt. It changes the chemistry in your body, the act of smiling.
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::Brent Neilsen: Absolutely fine.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Chemistry change. And and this just kind of reminds me of that. It's like remembering to smile. Yep.
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::Brent Neilsen: Well.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: In the depths of whatever.
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::Brent Neilsen: You know, sales 101, you know, I for different parts of my career. I was a salesperson. They tell you when you're on the phone to smile because it changes your voice. It changes your your way of communicating with people. It slows you down.
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::Brent Neilsen: And it's it's interesting, because, you know, in today's culture.
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::Brent Neilsen: It's dangerous to tell people to smile, because there, you know, there are some people who will go off the off the rails about. Oh, my God, you don't understand what I'm going through, and and you know I get it. I understand that it's
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::Brent Neilsen: there are people who feel like it has been used to minimize.
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::Brent Neilsen: They're what they're feeling, you know. There's this whole subgenre of talking about toxic positivity, which I think is.
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::Brent Neilsen: you know. I kind of look askance at it. I think it's a little bit over over
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::Brent Neilsen: overdone. But I you know I can. I can.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Used to wallow in your sadness.
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::Brent Neilsen: It is, and and I think it's
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::Brent Neilsen: anytime some anytime people attach toxic something.
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::Brent Neilsen: you know. I you know, that tells you where they're coming from. If you know they're going to say this is a bad thing.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: And.
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::Brent Neilsen: Anything done to it. Anything done to an excess, any strength used to an extreme can become a weakness.
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::Brent Neilsen: But toxic. And yeah, I'm not sure about that.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: I think it has to do with manipulation more than.
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::Brent Neilsen: Yes.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Trying to heal, and when I talk about smiling anything I talk about, it's for you to be selfish, you know.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Smile yourself if you want to get out of it. There's things you can do with your breathing through your nostrils can change your emotions quickly.
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::Brent Neilsen: Oh yes!
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Just having control of your own body and and your emotions. It's like.
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::Brent Neilsen: Oh!
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: How to shift those chemicals quickly, and your your spiral of you know reflection and gratitude. It's just a tool designed to help you move through these emotions to a state that it's much more pleasant to exist in as a human being.
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::Brent Neilsen: Well. And and so one of the examples that I use in breathing slowly is exactly about, you know, tied into what you're talking about so where the impetus behind breathing slowly came from is, after I published Joy Cycle. I would get feedback from some people that oh, well, joy sounds nice, but who has time for that?
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::Brent Neilsen: And.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Isn't.
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::Brent Neilsen: Yeah, I totally on the same page with you, but you know there are people who, you know push Joy over here and say, oh, well, it's not going to put food on the table, and you know I don't have time for that. I need to work. I need to get this stuff done?
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::Brent Neilsen: So what breathing slowly looks at is how to make space for joy in your life.
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::Brent Neilsen: And and I use the example of square breathing, because it's a powerful example that I used in my own career, where
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::Brent Neilsen: where I would be going into a tense meeting, and as I was walking down the hall to go into the meeting.
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::Brent Neilsen: I would, you know I would do controlled breathing exercises, and you know you do a you know I don't know how familiar you are with square breathing, but it's a 4 second inhale.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Every night.
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::Brent Neilsen: 4. Second pause, 4. Second exhale. 4. Second pause.
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::Brent Neilsen: And what's really powerful is you do a process of 4, then 6, then 8. And so it takes you about. I think it takes you 92 seconds to go through 4, 6, and 8, and at the end of that your brain is totally clear. You're you're in a powerful state, and
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::Brent Neilsen: you know, speaking 1. 0, 1,
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::Brent Neilsen: if you can be in front of a group and take an 8 second pause. As you're looking at the group, you have them. They're they're wrapped, and they're paying attention. And
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::Brent Neilsen: and and it's just amazing how 92 seconds
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::Brent Neilsen: can change you from being a high change you from being mediocre to a high performer. And so that's, you know, one of the examples that I offer in breathing slowly is how to
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::Brent Neilsen: by by slowing down, how to create space, that then you can fill with these other things.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: That's so powerful, such such simple yet very powerful tools to
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: have more joy in your life that.
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::Brent Neilsen: Yeah, we really do need more joy in our lives because joyful people are fun people to be around.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: It's so productive.
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::Brent Neilsen: Well it, and it's been fun. So so my sub stack, when I created that part of it, was wanting to be able to talk about joy
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::Brent Neilsen: because it's fun to talk about joy. You know, it's so so tasting joy, which is my my primary publication. Is
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::Brent Neilsen: is what it does is it looks at?
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::Brent Neilsen: What do I love to do?
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::Brent Neilsen: And so so back. God! I think it was at the end of last year. The largest
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::Brent Neilsen: public, the largest sub stacker in the world, put out a call to action. I'm not. I'm not sure if it's okay for me to mention her name, so I'll just.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yeah, mention it. I'm all about everybody.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: So reasons.
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::Brent Neilsen: So.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: The tide on substack, because.
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::Brent Neilsen: So so Heather Cox Richardson put out a call to action. Hang on a second. I'm going to adjust the lights here a little bit.
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::Brent Neilsen: Forgive me. I'm hanging.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: You're good.
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::Brent Neilsen: She put out a call to action that someone had asked after the election, what do we do? How do we manage this? What's what's the next step? Oh, my God, what are we going to do? And she said, one of the simplest things to do
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::Brent Neilsen: would be to reclaim social media space.
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::Brent Neilsen: And the way we do that is by talking about the things we love.
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::Brent Neilsen: And if and if everyone got out there and talked about what it was they loved.
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::Brent Neilsen: Then it totally changes media. It totally changes
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::Brent Neilsen: the the tone and the tenor, and and just what's going on.
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::Brent Neilsen: And so, my.
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::Brent Neilsen: my focus is to say, Okay, I'm going to make an example of this. I'm going to say, Okay, here's something I love. This is why I love it. And okay, read it. If you're interested in Japanese food and interested in traveling off the beaten path and doing all of that.
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::Brent Neilsen: But also read it. If you have kind of a niche, love, and you're not sure how to share it.
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::Brent Neilsen: Because what I'm what I'm hoping is that my example shows people.
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::Brent Neilsen: hey? You know, this is a way that you can share.
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::Brent Neilsen: What you love, because the more people who are doing that.
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::Brent Neilsen: the more the better the world gets, and the more fun it is for everyone. I really enjoy reading. People talk about what they love, and that's been one of the things that I've really tied into substack with. I really enjoy writing about what I love, because it's it's fun to do that. And again, it's that gratitude, reflection, cycle. So
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::Brent Neilsen: I'm all about that, you know. Share your loves. That's awesome.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: And the more that we share what we love and what we're passionate about and what we're
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: who we authentically are. And really, that's what substack is to me. It's about living your authentic life
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: and self out loud, and people are kind over there. Not everybody agrees with everybody's position, but they allow you the space to share your thoughts without condemning you or arguing with you about it. It doesn't matter. Opinions really don't matter about anything, and we all have them, but we should be allowed a space where we can express what we're feeling, and have conversations about it
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: that are are geared towards being grateful for the things that are good, and the more that we can crowd out the things that are bad, because all we're focusing on was what's good, the more good that will come, because.
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::Brent Neilsen: Absolutely. Yeah.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: It's what we think about does come about. And if more of us are thinking about good, then that's what we're.
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::Brent Neilsen: We're not thinking about bad.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yeah. The bad just kind of disappears.
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::Brent Neilsen: And you know, I think I guess the one thing that I want to be careful to to acknowledge, because I think it's another
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::Brent Neilsen: change that has happened over time, that that we need to figure out how to reverse
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::Brent Neilsen: is we do need to create space for sharing grief.
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::Brent Neilsen: and you know. I you know I've done, you know. Again I read a lot, because that's you know. That's where where I kind of get new ideas and all of that.
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::Brent Neilsen: but it used to be, you know, and I don't know how far back you have to go for this, but you know I certainly a hundred years ago grief was a public event.
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::Brent Neilsen: you know. You would grieve in public with others.
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::Brent Neilsen: and and then what would happen is the people around you would share grief, you know they would have you know, everyone's had the same experiences.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yep.
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::Brent Neilsen: And because of that you would build connections, and you would make it a stronger community based on that shared grief.
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::Brent Neilsen: Today's world. We don't share grief, it's embarrassed, it's put. It's put in a closet and hidden away, and.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Share birth. We don't share death. We don't share grief. We don't share a lot of these emotions that we used to as a more tribal people, family oriented like extended big tribes of families. You you did things in community. There were rich.
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::Brent Neilsen: Tools that you.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Went through, and it brought it brought people together.
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::Brent Neilsen: Yeah, well.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: It may.
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::Brent Neilsen: Think one of the most powerful ideas
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::Brent Neilsen: is, you don't build trust by helping other people.
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::Brent Neilsen: You build trust by asking for their help.
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::Brent Neilsen: And and so
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::Brent Neilsen: so it's just that, you know. It's that taking the walls down, being vulnerable, saying, Hey, this is going on.
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::Brent Neilsen: I need your help with this
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::Brent Neilsen: is is how you build solid relationships, and
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::Brent Neilsen: we don't do that well in today's world.
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::Brent Neilsen: you know, I love the communication opportunities that we have.
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::Brent Neilsen: But even the the dryness of you know, speaking to a computer instead of speaking one on one, you know. Of course, we wouldn't be able to have this conversation without that. But I think, you know there are a lot of things that conspire against people to separate us, and
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::Brent Neilsen: that's not good for us long term.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: No, it's not, and it it should never be us against anybody else. It's just us.
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::Brent Neilsen: We're social animals that you know. That is, that is a truth about humans.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: and and we need connection with other people. And we need to be able to express how we're feeling without judgment.
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::Brent Neilsen: And without.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Without having somebody try and tell us. No, don't feel that.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Feel your feels.
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::Brent Neilsen: Well. And and I think that goes back to that, recognizing that people are unique
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::Brent Neilsen: and and saying, Okay, I know, you know, you're unique. I'm unique, you know, everyone will encounter is unique. So when they bring themselves authentically to an interaction.
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::Brent Neilsen: we should appreciate that, you know. That's a chance for us to learn something new about someone.
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::Brent Neilsen: And you know just that, appreciating what's going on and and not trying to solve someone's problems but listening to them. And then, you know, maybe we can offer input maybe we can offer our reactions.
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::Brent Neilsen: But
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::Brent Neilsen: I'm careful to say this, you know, recognizing that as a as a coach and a consultant. I sell my knowledge to people.
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::Brent Neilsen: but we don't really have the the right answer.
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::Brent Neilsen: You know
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::Brent Neilsen: my my personal view of coaching is the reason coaches are able to be successful is because it's always easier to listen to someone else and hear what their problem is, because you don't have the
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::Brent Neilsen: you have distance from the situation. So you're able to say, Well, what about this?
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::Brent Neilsen: But it's real dangerous to fall into thinking. Oh, well, I know more about this than you do.
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::Brent Neilsen: because that's not. That's not true.
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::Brent Neilsen: And I've run into several coaches who believe they know how people operate better than now. That that's not true. It's just me.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Really what coaching is supposed to be about either coaching is is to help you
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: discover within yourself, and make you aware of
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: your gifts and your strengths, but maybe the things that can also hit you that you can't see because you're too close to it. But it's not that they have to do anything about it. It's just making them aware. Hey, there's a thing over there that's swinging really close to your head. I don't know. You might want to move.
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::Brent Neilsen: Maybe maybe.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: You.
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::Brent Neilsen: Yeah, yeah, exactly.
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::Brent Neilsen: So.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: You know, giving giving people options. So
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: you do offer the Joy cycle workbook for your free subscribers. You want to talk a little bit about that.
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::Brent Neilsen: Yeah. So so when I wrote the Joy Cycle, I was trying to figure out what was something that you know, as I spoke to groups things like that that I could offer people as a as a takeaway, because one of the parts that I built into the joy cycle is, every chapter finishes with exercises for the reader to to kind of walk away from the chapter and think about, okay, how does this? How does this play into my life.
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::Brent Neilsen: So the workbook is just those exercises. But it has taken the narrative.
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::Brent Neilsen: the narrative, out of the the book. And and so you know one as I'm trying to build this community of people who are who are interested in joy, who are trying to figure out how to how to build that into their lives. That's an easy thing for me to offer folks so that so if someone comes on to movingjoyaround.substack.com, which is my my sub stack
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::Brent Neilsen: signs up as a free subscriber. They'll they'll be able to download that and it's just it's a an instant download. You know I have it set up so that
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::Brent Neilsen: that anyone who is a subscriber can direct message me. I I like to have that interaction. Because I think that's
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::Brent Neilsen: you know, as as an author, that's 1 of the things. Often you're not able to get. And I really appreciate that that interaction. So it's it's all about community.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: No sex really big for that.
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::Brent Neilsen: Yep, absolutely. And I've really appreciated that.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: And and building connections. People can also find you@www.thejoycycle.com as well.
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::Brent Neilsen: Yeah. And and that's my book website, it's there's
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::Brent Neilsen: honestly, there's a lot of replication between my sub stack and
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::Brent Neilsen: and that book website. If you go into the the blog portion of
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::Brent Neilsen: my book website, I've brought some of that stuff over to substack. So hopefully, people don't look at that and go. Oh, my God! It's the same. It's the same thing. That's just how processes grow. So.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yeah. And substack is is much more personal, and that you can connect with Brent and and interact with him on a different level. Websites are so impersonal that.
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::Brent Neilsen: Yeah.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: And substack. It kind of takes the place of of a website. But it's interactive. And it's just it's a marvelous place for people to be.
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::Brent Neilsen: Yeah. And you know, I,
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::Brent Neilsen: it's interesting because one of the the discussions that you run into a lot on substack is people lamenting that it's so expensive to subscribe.
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::Brent Neilsen: You know, it's so expensive to subscribe, because if you're doing $5 a month to all of these stacks, it adds up, and there's so much great stuff to read.
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::Brent Neilsen: I get that. And so I try to be careful, as if I'm ever talking about paid subscribers. I look at them a lot more as sponsors. You know, people who are people who believe that the effort to create a joyful society is worthwhile. I'd love to get sponsorship from them if they're willing to do that.
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::Brent Neilsen: But I also have committed to folks that I will never paywall anything.
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::Brent Neilsen: Because
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::Brent Neilsen: I you know, the the whole idea behind substack is to share ideas. So it feels a little counterintuitive to
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::Brent Neilsen: to say, Okay, we'll start reading my start reading this great thing I've written, and I'm going to cut you off after a thousand words and leave you wanting more.
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::Brent Neilsen: That's yeah.
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::Brent Neilsen: But.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yeah, I don't. I don't do that either. In fact, I I often put up just tip jars
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: on my articles.
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::Brent Neilsen: And and yeah, I do the same thing. I use. I think it's buy me a coffee or something like that.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yeah.
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::Brent Neilsen: People can do that one time. It's
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::Brent Neilsen: it's appreciated, you know it. It really warms your heart when you get those, because it's kind of like, Oh, cool! I impacted someone. But you also don't want it to be the barrier.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yeah. And really, even just restacking stuff over on substack
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: is a huge gift to content creators because it gets their their message out into your communities. I've really enjoyed this conversation, Brent, and I so appreciate you joining me today.
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::Brent Neilsen: Yeah, thank you for being flexible as far as timing and all of that. So thank you very much.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Yeah, no worries. Brent's in Japan. I'm in Idaho.
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::Brent Neilsen: There's no other way. We could have had this conversation so.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: No, no, there isn't Brent to learn more about Brent. Go over to and to get the Joy cycle workbook. Consider becoming a scriber and visit
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: movingjoyaround.substack.com, and we'll be sure and put the notes to or the in the show notes the links to both his website and his substack.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: Thank you for tuning in with us today. If you have a podcast or interested in starting one to get your message out in front of our huge and active audience, be sure to reach out to us at jill@gnostictv.com. We love to help spiritual entrepreneurs and coaches amplify their voice and monetize their mission and offer a variety of ways to do this on the Gnostic TV network platform, join us for our next episode, as we share what others are doing to raise the global frequency. And remember.
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::Jill Hart-The Coach's Alchemist: change begins with you. You have all the power to change the world, start today and get visible.