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Connect with Melissa
http://melissatempleagosta.com/
http://KannaWoman.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissatempleagosta/

Connect with Russ
https://russjohns.com/
https://thepiratesyndicate.com/
https://nextstepnext.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nextstepnext/

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] Melissa and I were talking before the show is it's almost as if we need to have a pre-show party started. So welcome. Thank you so much for being here, Melissa. How are you?

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:00:20] I'm awesome. Thanks for having me.

Russ Johns: [00:00:23] Absolutely positively. Welcome back. And if you're listening in and you're just watching this for the first time thank you so much for being here. If you watching this in the future or listening to this on a podcast, please like, comment and share. If there's somebody that needs to hear this information or needs to be connected with Melissa, let's make it happen. So Melissa catch us up. You've been here before for those that may know you, awesome. Thank you so much for being here. For those that may not know you and know what your focus is, give us a snapshot of what's your up to and what kind of shenanigans you're causing tonight?

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:01:01] Lots of shenanigans are happening. I've done a lot of things, but for the last six years, I've been an entrepreneur in the hemp industry. My partner and I founded the hemp lifestyle network and we partnered with a company Kannaway, which is the premium cannabis company that actually changed everything in America, the first people to bring hemp legally to America and change laws and help a lot of people in other countries too, that really needed it. It was a time in my life when I had spent a career of over 25 years in corporate America with L'Oreal and it was time for a change. I took the dive and took the step and became an entrepreneur because I think it drove me, I had a real profound, personal experience with hemp and CBD and cannabinoids myself, and I couldn't stop talking about it. And it took on a life of its own basically. So we gave it a structure called it a business and six years later, here we are doing amazing things. So it's exciting.

Russ Johns: [00:01:58] And before we were talking on the show and thank you for sharing that, and I want to make sure that people understand that part of the transition and transformation that you went through, from corporate America and being the exec flying around the world and doing things like that to resetting and changing your lifestyle and going through the stress and everything else to something that you can manage. And it takes a lot of mindset, takes a lot of transformation. And so I want to talk about that, dive in a little deeper because I think that's really important for people, especially right now, because we have the gig economy. We have the freelancers, solo preneurs, entrepreneurs, a lot of people in transformation. One of the things that when I exited corporate for the last time, it was like, okay, what am I going to do now? And once I got my training wheels on and continued to do the entrepreneurial thing, I've never looked back. Let's dive into that a little bit. And so what was the seed of change that took place in your world that caused you to see a different outcome and imagine a different outcome?

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:03:09] It's crazy because I was talking about recovery and re rejuvenation on a a talk yesterday I was doing on clubhouse and it came up that sometimes you have this catalyst in life. Sometimes it's a physical thing that happens to you. Sometimes it's a job loss or just anything. For me, I was shaken by a lot of things. One was breaking 10 bones above my waist in a car accident. That was a long time ago, but it led to a chain of events in my health and my becoming a mother and all these things. So six years ago, I finally lost my job for the last time. I kept getting laid off and brands would close at L'oreal and I'd get a new gig with them and I just kept rolling. It was amazing. I loved my time that I spent with L'oreal but after that last time in 2015, something just told me, okay, we've been trying to tell you this for many years, but it's time now to be your own boss. You have earned this right. You need this flexibility. You need this freedom. Like I started listening to those voices, my conscience, my higher power saying, let's do this. It took a long time though. It was definitely a mental process. I was so used to being part of an organization that kind of gave me structure and now I had to create my own structure and my own disciplines and my own habits because in the beginning it's a little chaotic and you don't really know. You wake up in the morning and you think I know my why, I know I want to help people. I know I want to give back, I know I'm here for a purpose, but how do I do this? How do I remind myself that I'm not going to work and punching a clock or I'm not emailing somebody.  I just wake up and I do my thing. So there's a process for sure.

Russ Johns: [00:04:55] And there are a lot of times where we feel like you start with the end in mind and you have to work backwards and the road is not always as smooth as you would anticipate. And there are times where I'm going through this process right now of, I know I've been consistent. We're almost 450 episodes of the #PirateBroadcast and I've developed the #PirateSyndicate to build strategy and help business owners understand and appreciate how content can actually help them. And then I'm launching a mastermind to... my Dubb videos... my favorite tool is Dubb and how you can actually engage with people online in actually attract them with video. My whole thing is video and having that engagement and there are so many times where you think okay, I'm hustling, I'm grinding. I'm doing all of these things. And you're not seeing the exact results you had imagined. So you have to sit back and say what is the data telling me? What is the universe telling me and what do I need to change? And what do I need to tweak and adjust that is going to move the needle and make a difference. And so how do you think through that process yourself and how have you done that in the past? Give me some clues here.

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:06:15] You're only a life preserver. It's not easy. The journey's bumpy. If it's not hard, it's not worth it. People say that, but you learn through every stumble, right? It's through every time you fall down and you get back up, you learn something. And the older we get, we realize this. And when we were a lot younger, we're probably thinking, just hustle. I'm into the anti hustle culture. There's nothing wrong with grinding to meet a deadline or getting something done, but this whole hustle culture is counterproductive for us. It's not good for our mental health. It's not good for our relationships and for our goals. So I think we just need to breathe for a second. Over the last year I've been working on my inner game. The pandemic was another catalyst, right? For so many people it's like freeze or go try something new or just stay stuck. And you may not have been able to determine that in any case, but I just started working on my inner game and my mindset and listening to neuro tools and aligning myself with people that had a growth mindset like me. I had to just really think about that because then when you fall, you have a network. You have people surrounding you that get it because they've all failed or had problems, or maybe they didn't get there as quickly as they want it. Story of my life. Huge success and then bam. Huge success and then bam. So some of the mindset training taught me to reflect back on a really amazing experience that you felt like on top of your game, that you felt like you were the best. And I had to reflect back to a time that I was on TV. I was actually on HSN selling some L'Oreal products and I remember getting off camera in my green room thinking I did it. I can't believe it. I don't know what I said, but the sales were going up. See it's live, so you're on this huge adrenaline rush and then you get a moment. So I tap into that exhilaration when I need to, I just try to relive it in my mind and think I did that once, I can do that again. I'm still that person, I'm that woman that achieved that and she didn't go anywhere. She's actually better now than she was before. And I think that's part of what drives me in addition to my emotional barriers to exit and those types of things that keep you going too.

Russ Johns: [00:08:37] Yeah. A lot of times we have this mental image of what we are, who we are and how we move forward. And it's just a story we're telling ourselves. And the reason I bring this up is because you can tell yourself any story you want, the successes that you've had. The challenges that you've lived through and all of these bumps in the road always lead to more experience and more exposure to two alternatives that we know may or may not work. And so I just want to remind everyone how important it is to understand that you have a gift, you have a message, you have the ability and opportunity to actually succeed in whatever that happens to be for you, whatever the end result looks like for you. And not every day is going to be perfect. Not every day is going to be smooth. However, every day is going to be productive and just be consistent and show up every day. And the results will actually turn out. It may not turn out exactly how you imagined them in the beginning, however, the journey will teach you what you need to know. 

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:09:45] So true.

Russ Johns: [00:09:46] So on, on this journey the last six years, a lot of changes, a lot of rules, regulations, all of the changes that have taken place. And I know that it's probably impacted you in a positive way. And so what are the biggest challenges that you face right now in your world? Day-to-day activities that are taking place.

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:10:11] The biggest challenges. There's probably so many to identify one. I think it comes down to not even the industry anymore because now, six years ago it was still taboo, hemp and CBD and all of that. And that's gone now. It's about the competition. There's so many things out there. So many things that are not regulated or not being honest about what they are not coming from reputable sources. And I can't imagine being a consumer, so I try to think about that. Like how can I navigate for people trusted products that are safe for their families and try to educate people or help them educate themselves. I can't spend a whole lot of time educating them because you could go down this rabbit hole of millions of brands.  So it's about proving who we are. We know we're the premier cannabis company. We know we have the best product. So I've actually shifted to talking not about the products, they speak for themselves. They're amazing. I speak more about our business and our opportunity and because it's such an entrepreneurial revolution, like you mentioned earlier, the challenge is now letting people know that this even exists. That if you are thinking about doing some kind of purposeful pivot, now that things are opening up and you're feeling good and you're feeling like you want to do something, did you know that you can work from home and participate in the cannabis industry? Did you know that you don't have to put in billions of dollars and you can just start making a difference? So our vision of having have been every home is a daily thing. One person, six people, 10 people, every single day, sharing the vision, sharing the purpose and seeing if it aligns with them. And if we see eye to eye, then great, come on, I'll help you. So I think that's the thing is just finding the right people. Making it clear what it is. So I've had to hone that a lot, especially over the last year. Two and a half years ago I think I shifted the way that I was working because I physically relocated myself and started on a new path building a business on the east coast versus the west coast and thinking internationally more than ever. But now in the last year, of course, we've been pushed to do even more, go more digital, which is exciting for you. We met during this time. I think we met right before this time. So that's exciting. So you have to look at the good things for the shifts, but then evaluate all the time. Am I effective?  Is this working? And if it's not, why not tweak it? I think our brain is just always saying the fear centers, trying to get triggered and saying, wait, that's not safe. Wait, don't do that because it's normal. And you have to tell your brain I'm okay. That was then this is now. We're not doing that anymore. Let's go. It's exciting. It's exciting.

Russ Johns: [00:12:58] Like they say, progress always happens outside the comfort zone, right?

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:13:02] Oh, yeah. And you got to make it bigger. I'm trying to make my comfort zone bigger to encompass these new things instead of living outside in fear all of the time. And it just little by little starts expanding. For example, last night, I went to do my first live meeting here in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and I was sitting there and waited an hour. Nobody came. What happened during that hour, I actually was doing some work and reaching out and connecting to people. I connected with all these new people. I got an opportunity to speak at a hemp expo. All these things were happening while I was just sitting there. I made it my office and I made lemonade out of lemons. It was hilarious.

Russ Johns: [00:13:45] So that's the attitude we have to take going forward. A lot of us, even if we're employees, we have to take the idea and the attitude of let's make progress, daily progress. Let's learn something new, let's reach out and make connections and contact and collaborate with other people. This is a collaboration, this pirate nation and the pirate community is all about making connections and I connect people all the time and make introductions and it's amazing to see what can develop out as a result of that. I want to give a shout out to some of the individuals that have shown up here today. Nick Gemmell out from Canada. Thank you so much. You have my producer in the house. Tracie, thank you so much, Tracie. We got Elize from a South Africa. Thank you so much for being here. We got Howard in from Arizona. Howard, oh, you're on my mind. I need to call you and catch up on see how your weekend went. Ed is in the house. Thank you so much for being here, appreciate that. Neena Perez from WinJect Studios. Thank you so much. Love that you're here. And she says, I had been thinking about this. How funny this is the conversation. Absolutely. Wendy says top of the morning pirates. Welcome, Melissa. Thank you so much. Russ, you have the best guests.  You need to be on the show show Neena. Thank you so much everyone for being here, like comment and share because obviously this is how the algorithm works, feed the algorithm. The reality is that we're all able to have an opportunity to be an entrepreneur. Or at least have something that we have outside of our normal day-to-day activities that can actually supplement either, even if it's a hobby, something that can change and impact our mindset. And I think it's important that we think about that and an outlet. So how do you relax? How do you go about relaxing at this point time?

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:15:49] It's not easy. I do a lot of breathing exercises. I do box breathing. I do different types of measured breathing when I find myself getting a little chaotic or a little cray. I love box breathing, which for those of you that don't know about it, that you breathe in for four counts, hold for four counts, breathe out for four counts, wait four counts and you make a box with your breathing and it really makes you... it's like forced meditation. Even if you only do it four times, it's worth it. It resets you and tells your chaotic brain to just stop. What craziness and let's get refocused. I also have been using this amazing program. I don't know if you know Deb Erickson, but she has this amazing neuro tool program. The I can Institute and it's all the stuff, she has all of these recordings that keep you going. Bells, mindfulness bells, but also ocean waves with her voice telling you that you can do whatever you want to do. Very empowering, particularly for women entrepreneurs, that's her focus, but everyone could benefit from it. So she taught me a lot of techniques, even literally holding a stop sign up in front of your face, that it's like a little tiny stop sign. And when you start doubting yourself and thinking what people think about you, and when you start going there in those negative thoughts, you put that stop sign up in front of your face. Stop it. Stop, it's this physical thing.

Russ Johns: [00:17:18] I like that. I like that because everything that we tell ourself is just a story, right?

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:17:23] Yeah. Yeah. Stop the insanity.

Russ Johns: [00:17:26] Have you looked at Wim Hof ever?

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:17:29] I don't know what that

Russ Johns: [00:17:30] is. Okay. Wim Hof is a gentleman, he's called the Iceman and  his whole philosophy is around breathing and ice therapy. So he's done some incredibly amazing things. You should look him up. I'll track it down and send it your way, but breathing is important. And I know that it's very common. I use an app called Calm.

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:17:53] Oh, I've heard of it. I've heard of that. That's right there when you need it, daytime through nighttime. Awesome.

Russ Johns: [00:18:02] But I have to block time out for that because I seldom think about meditation or getting centered.

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:18:10] It's true. And I think we judge ourselves, like maybe we say I need to meditate, but I don't know how, and then you're sitting there trying to be quiet for 10 minutes in your brain. You can't judge it. You just have to let it happen.

Russ Johns: [00:18:24] Let it go.

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:18:24] The thoughts will come. I just did a cryotherapy float. Have you ever had the float experience?

Russ Johns: [00:18:31] I've floated, but not with cryo. I floated with the zero, what is it called? The tank. In fact, I have three, I got the gift of that for Father's Day.

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:18:42] Oh yeah. Yeah. So I just did it. I actually got that for Mother's Day. That was my gift. It's the perfect gift this year, because if you don't think you can meditate or pray or whatever you're trying to do. Go to a float tank because you are completely in the dark, or you could have some mood lighting or some light music, but you can completely check out. The water is the same temperature as your body, and you don't really feel the difference and you get into the zone. And the things you think about a friend of mine owns a float center in another city and she has this book when you come out on this coffee table and it's all the stuff that people have done after they floated, written music, written books, created art, whatever it is because of the place their mind went to. Amazing. So that's a good thing.

Russ Johns: [00:19:36] Yeah, it's a good release to just reset is the way I look at it. I have all the hectic thoughts in my head and all the you can't slow down because you're thinking 20 things at once and you're like, okay, I need to go reset.

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:19:50] Monkey mind. I call it the monkey mind.

Russ Johns: [00:19:53] Monkey mind. Exactly. Yeah. Wendy says she's joining us, hi #piratenation, this is a huge opportunity for us to see each other as brave and bold. Absolutely positively. She also goes on to say, Admiral, you asked Melissa the hemp lifestyle, how she relaxes. We were having a conversation before the show, I wanted to expand on that a little bit. Martin says yep, the Iceman. Yes.Hiett Ives, tapping is my thing, daily morning and sometimes evening. Michael Baker. How are you doing my friend? Good morning. Jenny Gold is here. Hi #piratenation should check out the float center. They have a few in Denver. Absolutely. B. Lee Jones is here. Good day. Thank you so much for being here. Before we wrap up, I know that there are so many things we could talk about and I wanted to go into this mindset because I can really relate to you as a result of being in corporate, having lots of responsibilities and doing lots of different things and then changing it and you have to slow down. And also refocus all of your time and attention on something new. So I know for myself, I love to create, so I went that direction. I went into the creative direction. I'm also someone that likes to build communities cause I'm curious. So that was natural for me. Your personal experience led you down to this journey with hemp and CBD, but is there the entrepreneurial piece, how have you been able to fit that into your lifestyle and how have you changed your lifestyle as a result of being an entrepreneur versus an employee in a corporation?

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:21:47] It was drastic, hugely drastic because I was working on someone else's time before, and I was able to create more flexibility. Like I almost felt guilty sometimes taking my son out to ride his bike in the middle of the day. It's two o'clock when everybody's working and sitting at a desk. So I had to give myself some grace and say, look, if you need to work late at night or early in the morning and have your day, it's my choice. So I had to be thinking about that all the time and just thinking about how am I going to deal with this. So I've managed to create my days. I in my routine now that I'm an entrepreneur in a different way, and the hemp does help. Speaking of that comment that we just heard, talk about dialing in my focus. People have no idea. Like they think that it's only for people that have serious issues. If you want your mental focus to be targeted, if you want to be able to relax in a non-psychoactive way, you can do that because there's a lot of different things now... actually, we just started using CBG and we just launched a product for that. CBG is another cannabinoid. There's over 140 of them in this amazing plant and we're just discovering them. It's the tip of the iceberg, so this is still in its infancy, but that one is for mood and it helps you to dial in that craziness and to keep a positive attitude because it's working with your brain. All of these cannabinoids trigger all of these things in our entire body. So that helps too. It's the mindset, the new structure. It's thinking differently and giving yourself excuses sometimes. Not every day, to your point, is going to be perfect. But if you set a few tasks and accomplishments and at the end of the day, write them down. What did I accomplish today? Because I think you're going to find more things than you think, because you're judging yourself.

Russ Johns: [00:23:43] Yeah. And the reason I want to bring it up is because I've been thinking a lot about reducing the complexity in my life and reducing and removing as much as possible. So I can appreciate what I need to focus on.

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:23:59] I love that. I love that.

Russ Johns: [00:24:02] So because when we're first starting on our on the journey of being an entrepreneur we have all these things we want to gravitate. We want to try things, it's like a kid in a candy store, and then you get to the point where it's like overwhelming. And the next thing is. I have to make a choice. Now I have to decide what I want to do. So it's an interesting conversation to have, and I love having it.

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:24:25] I love it. I think simplicity, you're so right. Yes. We have all these ideas, but we've got to pick a couple and focus on that. I think when we as a family, even humble ourselves and took our lives down 10 notches from a big, huge, expensive life in California to a more humble, more manageable, peaceful life in North Carolina. That triggered something that affected my business as well. I'm glad I did it. I still can get into the I want to do all these things because I'm a consultant as well. I do other things and it's so true. You have to decide, you have to make choices. It's up to you. No one's going to tell you. It's you.

Russ Johns: [00:25:05] Yeah. It's you. Jenny Gold says, CBN for sleep.

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:25:11] Yes, I love that.

Russ Johns: [00:25:13] She says CBG is awesome. Neena says exactly. Russ really loved this topic. Thank you so much, Neena. I really appreciate you. Marcia. #piratenation good morning. Things are going great in the land of germs. She's another entrepreneur here that's doing some great work in the world of copper and anti-microbial copper.  Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate you coming back and sharing some topics with us, Melissa.

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:25:41] You're so welcome. Anytime.

Russ Johns: [00:25:43] How do you like people to connect with you? Is there any one way that you appreciate the connect?

Melissa Temple-Agosta: [00:25:49] Yeah, I know all my information is in the bio for this thing, but it's my name without the hyphen L'oreal or Kannawoman.com. That's Kanna with a K. Kannawoman.com is where you can check out all the goodies. All the hemp goodies and MelissaTempleAugusts.com is my personal website with all the different things that I do. So I'd love to connect with you guys.

Russ Johns: [00:26:14] Thank you so much. And everyone, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate all the comments and the guests. And this is such a critical topic that I know that there's mindset resetting, removing things from your life. All of these topics and subjects are absolutely critical to share with as many people as possible. There's a lot of people struggling right now. And going through this process of deciding what to do next. And so I would like, I love the opportunity if we have an opportunity and if you like this show and you want to learn or connect with me, let's talk about the #PirateSyndicate. Cause you know why, #kindnessiscool, #smilesarefree, so you #enjoytheday. #enjoytheday everyone. Take care. Bye.

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