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Audio digitally transcribed by Descript

Introduction: [00:00:00] Welcome to the #PirateBroadcast™, where we interview  #interestingpeople doing #interestingthings. Where you can expand your connections, your community, #kindnessiscool and #smilesarefree. Let’s get this party started.

Russ Johns: [00:00:10] What a wonderful day! What a wonderful day! How are you? My friend.

Meshell Baker: [00:00:20] I'm fabulous. How are you? 

Russ Johns: [00:00:21] Excellent. Excellent. And for everyone, thank you so much for joining us today. This is the #PirateBroadcast. I'm your host, Russ Johns. And we are willing and able to bring you all kinds of great information today from Meshell. We're going to have a conversation today, bring some #motivation, #inspiration, and help you along your journey. So welcome. Welcome. Thank you so much for being here, everyone. So I just want to suggest that it's been a minute since we had our last conversation. I just wanted to catch up on what you're doing.

Meshell Baker: [00:00:56] Oh, Thanks. One, thanks for having me here and cheers and kudos to you. I'm curious. I was just thinking, how many shows is this? Have you been keeping count on the number of shows so far?

Russ Johns: [00:01:08] This is probably episode 450 something.

Meshell Baker: [00:01:13] Absolutely amazing. Congratulations on that.

Russ Johns: [00:01:16] Back to back.  Keep going, there's something to be said about showing up and doing something consistently. Anything.

Meshell Baker: [00:01:23] Anything consistently is, and that's the challenge, right? So it's generally until you find that thing that lights you up and it challenges people. So people hear the word consistently and they hear, do it with this vigor and zest and all of that. And if it's not what's authentically yours, you can't sustain it. And then, the willingness to stop and say, this doesn't light me up like I thought it would. It's absolutely okay.

Russ Johns: [00:01:52] Yeah and the challenge at times, Meshell is, and you know this as well, and we'll get into why the challenge is that there are many occasions where you just feel like, okay, what's the point?  Not many people are showing up or something is roadblock or a challenge, and it's you just have to navigate through that and say, I'm doing this for the greater good, the bigger picture and the longer term goals. And you've been in this world of imagining what the future can be and making sure that we're working at least in the right direction. It's not always a straight path. It's not always a straight path, but it is in the right direction. So for those that may not know you yet, or haven't caught the last episode that you were here, why don't you just give us an update on who Meshell Baker is and what your role is?

Meshell Baker: [00:02:44] Thanks. My name is Meshell Baker, my gift is igniting confidence, and I'm super passionate about working with female business owners and sales leaders to help them identify and connect with more of their ideal buyers so that they can spend more time in their day doing the work they actually want. And it doesn't mean to say that I don't work with male. It's just that my sweet spot are really those women business owners, conscious business owners, B Corp owners to really help them elevate humanity. And that's what I'm really focused on is helping people to re-imagine revive and rehumanize the workforce. And that goes through that authentic selling piece. It's not just a sell for the sake of selling, which is you get really tricky with.  I enjoy really empowering people, to sell from a space where they find the joy in what they're doing, not just the I'm trying to get somewhere or achieve something.

Russ Johns: [00:03:44] I love that. I love that. And I was saying, I was suggesting this last night on a on a call and saying that it's a simple equation. Sales is a very simple equation. Add more value to more people more often and then you don't have to sell. It's just, you're adding value and you attract people that like my good friend Ronald Earl Wilsher would say, attract and engage is a lot easier than chase and convince, right?

Meshell Baker: [00:04:13] Yup, absolutely. Absolutely. It's a harvest, not hunt.

Russ Johns: [00:04:19] I love that.

Meshell Baker: [00:04:21] Yeah. And I got that from a dear friend here in Austin.

Russ Johns: [00:04:25] So let's go back in the archives a little bit and business is a journey. A lot of people don't realize how challenging it can be. And I think that's probably why a lot of businesses don't succeed is that they don't realize how many moving pieces, how many parts, what it takes the energy and the effort that it is necessary to move it forward. So what are some things that you do to encourage an enlightening and invigorating these individuals that you're working with? What's some secret knowledge that you can share?

Meshell Baker: [00:05:00] Great question and great recognition, right? This is why we have the stats that we have that businesses fail at an alarming rate in those first year, five years and 20 years is justabysmal. How many businesses are still around and even us. So I go back to that Simon Sinek principle, start with why. Because what generally people are doing is they're chasing the what, they think that they leave their job because they're following the pursuit of money or trying to do what someone tells them to do or thinking that they're really gifted and talented in this area and they can turn into this hobby or this love into a business skillset, there are certain things that are requisite of vivid business, and I can personally attest to some of the challenges that I've had that being gifted vocally does not necessarily turn into the administrative backend of running a business. So going and getting the coaching and the support and help with that was requisite to having success, but yeah, there are so many moving parts. I've heard it said before if you really want to test yourself, test your capacity, either have kids or run a business. And there's no getting away from a business. A business will only grow to the depth that the business owner grows period. So without investing in yourself, personally, your professional business will not grow.

Russ Johns: [00:06:28] That's very insightful. I love the analogy either be a business owner or raise kids, right?  It's the same thing in a lot of respects cause a lot of business owners treat their business like their baby and , I think there's a certain percentage of business owners that say, okay, this is a machine. I got to treat it like a machine. Everything needs to be running like an assembly line, and all the pieces and the parts need to work together in order to achieve the outcome and the results. Are you working on the mindset piece of this puzzle or the systems part of the puzzle?

Meshell Baker: [00:07:02] So a great question and I'm more on the front end. So I think about the psychology of selling is basically by another word, confidence. And one of the things that I've found in sales and throughout my corporate career is that and I remember what my first mentor in sales taught me something that I've never forgotten. The person with the most confidence sways the outcome of the conversation. Always..  And I started off observing that. And one of the things I've observed throughout my career in pharmaceuticals, medical devices, biotech, did a short stint as a comptroller after I got my MBA and it was the, I don't care how dumb the idea was, if the person was the most confident person in the room, guess whose idea won? And it's so true. And that's why that confidence over competence, because when you are confident, there's a belief in self. There's a belief in whatever it is you are about that endeavor you, that is about to be attempted. So the propensity to fail diminishes greatly. And that's generally what happens if you're confident, if you're competent, you're confident. You're thinking about the process. So as soon as the process doesn't work, there's the blame game that happens, right? Because you are believing in something that's external to you versus when you're confident. There's no other way. And all of a sudden, all of this genius, all of these recent studies show that it's 86 billion, not a hundred billion, which really rattles my cage because I like the round number of a hundred billion brain cells or neurons, but it's actually 86. I've got to stay correct data now. Roughly 86, I'm like where this other 14 billion go. Whatever. So 86 billion neurons that make up the imagination that will gift you the ingenuity, the creativity, the... sorry, I forgot to turn off my phone... and all of those good things so that you can be your own solution. Unfortunately, we don't live in a society where this is cultivated. We cultivate minions in our society. Followers. Even people who are claiming to help people to think still are telling them what they need to, have to, ought to, should do. And all of that does is cultivate someone to do what you said, not what they believe.

Russ Johns: [00:09:32] Yeah. I want to give a shout out to some of the people we got in the room already. Oh yes. Cathi Spooner is here. Cathi, good morning pirates. Thank you so much forbeing here. We got Elize in from South Africa. Thank you so much. I love that you show up on a regular basis here. Howard Kaufman, morning, all pirates. Howard's an amazing individual here in Arizona. He's doing some products and developing some mouth care products that are phenomenal. In fact I love them. I use them every day. And thank you, Howard, for supporting the community. Sheila Chamberlain. Good morning, Sheila Chamberlin from Memphis, Tennessee. Thank you so much for showing up and being here. Hopefully this is valuable information for you. Wendy, in from Minnesota. Welcome Meshell. We need a pirate who motivates the rest of the female #piratenation. Yeah, we might coordinate a nonviolent overthrow of Admiral so he can have a proper vacation. Love the start the, with why. Absolutely. Absolutely. And she also says business owners and parents must learn humility and collaboration skills.  And in both, we have to deal with a lot of unexpected crap.

Meshell Baker: [00:10:49] Oh my God, Wendy, you are singing my tune. I completely preach on the be the unexpected, the unplanned. The unanticipated, inconvenience, uncertainty, all of those good things that people don't realize are a standard.  That is what's happening every single day. And yet the average person is unprepared.

Russ Johns: [00:11:14] Absolutely. And Neena Perez. Thank you so much for being here. She and I are part of the The WinJect Studios. And I actually have another podcast at 11:00 AM this morning. Catch it on YouTube or you can catch it on WinJect.Com and I'll be talking a little bit more about some different subjects around just a lot of relationship building. So Cathi Spooner, we can relate to so much of the conversation. Absolutely. Thank you so much for pitching in and Glenda, good morning from Florida. Thank you so much for being here. Cathi says thanks for the #inspiration. JC Soto. Good morning from Denver. JC doing some great work out there. Thank you so much for being here today, JC. Meshell, I want to know if there's a,  we've already talked about the idea that the most confident person in the room usually has the ability to inspire others, to take on their dream, move it forward and implement. So how do we go about this process of discovering the confidence in ourselves? Because a lot of people, coulda, woulda, shoulda, oh man, what if it doesn't work? You know what, oh, the sky is falling. How do we change that and convert that into confidence?

Meshell Baker: [00:12:42] Great question. Hey, we got Jaclyn here. I know her. Wanted to say good morning from Missouri. Yes. How do we... it's a great question and I just want to dial it back and just relate to everyone here to understand that we are by nature, negative, right? Our brain, the thing that the limbics the thing that causes us to respond in the face of external circumstances is still in fight or flight. It's reptilian. It's still things we need to forage. And our nature is to want to be comfortable. We want to go home, we want to get on the Barca lounger, we want to flip on the TV, eat some chips, drink some beer, soda, chill out, go to sleep, wake up, dust off the chip crumbs, go to bed, get up.

Russ Johns: [00:13:30] Press the don't bother me button.

Meshell Baker: [00:13:33] Exactly. We are automated and I remind people that 80 to 95% of what we do on a daily basis is automated. We love to automate, it's our nature. It keeps us safe. So we don't have to think so much. And so what success is not your nature because since you want to naturally be comfortable, success is where the magic happens with this outside the comfort zone. So until you condition yourself to be comfortable being uncomfortable, uncertain, inconvenience, being prepared for the unplanned, the unexpected, the unanticipated, the uninvited, until your standard is to show up and shine, no matter what happens, be able to be flexible and adaptable, you will always struggle. And that's what all success is. Success is simply the habit of being prepared for whatever comes your way and understanding that everything is working in your favor. And this is the statement I tell people, my clients all the time, life rarely goes the way you think. What is the thing that you do every day that you've never done before every single day. And I want to back up and say that whenever you do something you've never done, you're uncomfortable. It's the nature. As soon as you do something for the first time, you're going to be uncomfortable. You're going to be nervous. You're going to be a little apprehensive. You're going to have some doubt every single time today. Every day, which is today you've never done before. So expecting you to go your way is absolutely ridiculous. Just being prepared for whatever comes is how you create success and how you create confidence. And that comes with, as we started the conversation, consistency. So a consistent practice of building up the storehouse in your mind so that you actually are prepared, your mind's knee jerk response is to go in and synthesize that it has all of these backstories, it has all of these books you've read and have all these courses you take and all of this coaching, all of this investing you've put in yourself. So your mind actually goes, oh, yeah, we can handle it. Oh yeah, that's okay.  But instead what happens is without the storehouse, all it can feed off of is the fear itself. So remember your mind is 86 billion neurons. It is synthesizing. It is a super computer meant to work on your behalf. Without the data, all it's going to read is the past and the current circumstances. So without a future target and what out of belief that has been warehouse and all of these different backgrounds of what you can possibly do, it doesn't know what to do.

Russ Johns: [00:16:27] I love that. I believe that every day is a gift. And just like any gift, you don't know what it looks like until you open it up.  And the only thing in what you're saying is that our experience is only in reverse because we've had that experience. We don't have future experience. We can only have future faith. And isn't it funny that faith and fear both requires to believe in something that we haven't seen yet.

Meshell Baker: [00:16:58] Absolutely. It's just a story you tell yourself.

Russ Johns: [00:17:00] It's just the story you tell yourself.

Meshell Baker: [00:17:03] And the other thing I'll share with you that is a trick of the mind that most of us, I didn't learn this until I was an adult. My parents taught me to be fearful, right? So this is all Meshell investing in herself and doing the daily practices to help me keep moving forward that the unconscious mind. And so what did I say the unconscious mind, think of it like the chatter in your head. As you're listening to me, you're remembering stuff. You're like all of a sudden your neurons are firing. I've got you. You're thinking about all this stuff right now. That is who is in control. So whoever is talking inside your head does 90% of the decision-making. Before you ever have a thought, it's already done. And until that voice inside your head becomes your number one advocate, ally, and  and fan, all bets off. And again, that which is inside of you doesn't know the difference between a real memory, the past of what didn't happen or should've, would've, could've happened versus the vividly imagined future. So until you make it your daily consistent practice to imagine that everything is working in your favor, no matter what you feel, hear, and think, your mind is going to go back to what happened before. And remember, the past is no indicator of a future.

Russ Johns: [00:18:23] I love that. I love that. So I want to make sure that everybody appreciates what is being said here, because I think it's absolutely critical that we understand that we have the ability to solve these challenges in our day. And  there's something in our past experience that we can pull from, whether it's an emergency situation, your car breaks down, or anything, you drop a glass on the floor, there's always something you can relate to in your past that will allow you to propel your future to deal with that circumstance. So panic and fear is just a construct that we create ourselves in our minds. And I know I was talking to the other day about some of this inside voice that we have. If it were our friend, we would probably find a new friend, folks.

Meshell Baker: [00:19:13] Patience. Yes. Yes. And that's so hard to do. So I'll share with you, it is literally not our fault that you are so distracted, overwhelmed, frustrated. Remember, everybody's out there fighting for your attention span. The adult attention span, I think is down toabout eight seconds now, right? Literally, it is so short, your attention. Most of these companies, Amazon, Google, Facebook, they spend billions of dollars to distract you. We live in a world that is literally all trying to get your attention so that they can buy for your dollar. We live in a world that consumes and the number one way I get you to consume is to make you believe that what you need is outside of you instead of inside of you.

Russ Johns: [00:20:03] Happiness comes from within, right?

Meshell Baker: [00:20:07] So then you're going to be chasing it. So to take control of your mind is the number one. I tell people when you get in the habit of believing in yourself, everything else will fall into place. Now to get into that habit is going to be the hardest thing you've ever done. Literally, it's the hardest thing you've ever done.  It will also be the most fulfilling thing you've ever done as well.

Russ Johns: [00:20:30] And it's worth the journey, absolutely worth the journey. Our brain automates the safe energy. Cover zone is a dangerous to our growth. Absolutely nothing really amazing happens inside the comfort zone. Confidence is the greatest gift we can accept, Wendy says. If it isn't gifted, go get it. Meshell inspires me to want to jump on the elliptical discomfort to become stronger. Absolutely. Then she says everything is happening for us, not to us. Cathi Spooner says faith moves us forward. Absolutely true story. Neena says yes, the past is no indicator of the future. Isn't that true? So good.

Meshell Baker: [00:21:21] It is absolutely.  The challenges, it doesn't feel like it and that's the biggest and the one thing I I'll switch this gear and leave you guys with this thought to really think about is that it's the emotions, whatever emotional state you are currently in at any moment in time, that's all you can create more of. So you can not get an apple tree from an orange seed. So if you are an emotional state of overwhelmed frustration, jealousy, anger, and you take action in that emotional state, all you can create is more of that. If you are complaining, if you are talking about anybody, all you can create is more of that. Your soul is energy and the law of physics state energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only be transferred or transformed. And if you want to rule your life, you must become a transformer of your own energy and your energy is simply your emotion.  So once you get a hold of your emotions, you control your outcomes. So you're living... when I tell people, when people say somebody made them, I'm like, you're an adult. Can't nobody make you do anything if they didn't put their hands on you or hold, a gun to your head, you are always choosing. So once you actually take responsible where you become responsible, able to respond, accountable, able to account for your own emotions, that's when you start to change it.

Russ Johns: [00:22:56] And you're responsible for your outcomes.

Meshell Baker: [00:22:58] And your outcomes. But your outcomes are based off your emotions. Like you're listening to me right now today, well everything that's happening you to today was a thought in our emotion you had yesterday. All you can do right now is say today, I'm going to fight to stay in a positive state. I don't care if they call and tell me they're cutting everything off, they're closing everything down, their reporting everything. Just say, thank you. It is working in your favor.

Russ Johns: [00:23:25] Yes. I love that. JC says we have the ability to direct our thinking. Absolutely positively, Jason. Dee Riley says, live on YouTube, live on YouTube. Yes. We're live on YouTube. We're live on Facebook. We're live on Twitch. We're live on Twitter. We're live on LinkedIn. I was going to try this, Meshell, but I have the ability to go live on Amazon too. So I'm thinking about doing that.

Meshell Baker: [00:23:54] Then you got to have me back once you do that.

Russ Johns: [00:23:56] I'll have you back Cathi, Spooner. Yes. This is powerful conversation and proof of the value of building faith.

Meshell Baker: [00:24:05] Absolutely, Cathi.

Russ Johns: [00:24:06] Absolutely. This conversation is so good, Neena says, thank you. #gratitude Nina. Drop your link to your podcast in here. Cause I think it's  worth expanding that Neena is going to come on the show. She's scheduled to be on the show and yes, life comes from us not to us.

Meshell Baker: [00:24:25] I love that JC, from us not to us.

Russ Johns: [00:24:27] Yes. And I think there's something to be said about taking a hundred percent responsibility and not being a victim with our life and our choices and our results, because there are so many things that you could, oh, I could feel sorry for myself really. And then I could feel sorry for myself. And I'm only here because of my choices.

Meshell Baker: [00:24:48] Yes. It is a challenging belief to actually have that I'm in control or I'm the creator of my life. And based off your background, sometimes that's not the easiest thing to do. And it takes work and yes, like you said, it comes from us and that's one of the biggest things. But once you recognize it and you start moving in that direction, it's still doesn't mean that you're going to make the best choices.

Russ Johns: [00:25:15] No, because you either learn or you grow.

Meshell Baker: [00:25:19] Exactly. And it's a practice and this is the one thing I remind people, as I said earlier, you've never done today before, have some grace and patience for yourself, right? There's so many people out there telling you what you should do. And then the immediately we are in a society of people wanting to judge themselves by someone else. The standard, instead of this is an experiment. If you've never done it before, start being your own scientists for your own life and experimenting, and they don't get to tell you and judge, whether the experiment went well or not only you do. And if they don't like it, they're not your person.

Russ Johns: [00:25:55] And here's another secret. Here's another secret that I want to drop before we end this session today is  go out and experiment with your life. Go have experiences, go explore or go do something you've never done before, because all of those experience become the fabric of who we are. And we're an accumulation  of our experience. And the more experience you have and the diversity in your experiences allow you to be more versatile in your future and more resilient.

Meshell Baker: [00:26:26] Yes. Yes. Neena she said, wait, I love that you've never done today before. That's why the present is a present.

Russ Johns: [00:26:35] It's a gift. You don't know what it's going to bring.

Meshell Baker: [00:26:37] What it's going to bring and the ability to just understand that, no matter what it looks like, what it feels like, what you hear, just say, thank you. It is working in your favor. That is the hardest thing for  any adult human,

Russ Johns: [00:26:52] I'm sorry, go ahead.

Meshell Baker: [00:26:54] No, I just said they want to tell a story about what happened  instead of just going, I don't know, it's going to work out though. Everything works out for me.

Russ Johns: [00:27:03] And we have to train ourselves to think about the positive outcome versus the negative outcome. If we think about the direction we want to head, nobody wants to think negative. Nobody wants to be around negative people, even inside your inside voice, train it to say what's the best possible outcome that can happen today.

Meshell Baker: [00:27:25] Exactly. Yes. Yes. And find support, grow, find places where you have support. Where you can have these conversations without judgment and without someone telling you what to do, that's the one thing people want to immediately do when you have a struggle is they want to say, you know what, you ought to do, what you should do. Just asked me, you don't need to tell me, why don't you simply ask me what is I want to do or how I'm feeling before you data dump. Yeah. Find that kind of support and you will soar.

Russ Johns: [00:27:58] As a pirate, you're always welcome back here. Anytime, Meshell.

Meshell Baker: [00:28:01] Yes. Yes. This has been delightful.

Russ Johns: [00:28:04] Thank you so much. Is there any last minute nugget of knowledge that you want to leave with the community here today?

Meshell Baker: [00:28:10] Just starting with the why, get clear on why, because the why is the impetus, right? Which you want, the what is only going to take you so far, but when it gets difficult, when it gets hard when you're down to that last dollar, when you're down to that last bit of fuel, It is the why they get you up. Even when you stumble and fall, the why will get you a time and time again, the why builds up your resilience, your resourcefulness, and your relentless pursuit of what your belief is.

Russ Johns: [00:28:47] Love that. Thank you so much for being here and everyone, please like and subscribe and share this content. I know it's important and somebody needs to hear today. There's somebody out there that is wondering what's going on in their world. And this episode could probably help somebody, inspire somebody, motivate somebody to take action and do something positive. And thank you so much for being here. Meshell.

Meshell Baker: [00:29:15] You're welcome. Can I just say,cause I love Wendy's comments. Wendy just said ask what's the worst thing that can happen. Wendy, I'm going to challenge you to ask what's the best that can happen. What if they say yes.  What if they are waiting, they have the red carpet, start imagining what you want, what is the best thing that could happen? And then hold that faith that everything is going to work in your favor, that it will be even exceedingly more than what you can imagine, because remember whatever you want to call God, universe, the divine, Buddha, Allah, the source, whatever your infinite sources is working in your favor. So start thinking what is the best possible thing that can have and hold the grandest and greatest vision of that. 

Russ Johns: [00:29:58] Much #gratitude. Thank you everyone for being here. And it's always because #kindnessiscool, #smilesarefree and we want you to #enjoyyourday.

Meshell Baker: [00:30:13] Thank you so much, Russ. This is always a blast with you.

Russ Johns: [00:30:17] Be blessed. Be in touch. Take care.

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