The Fearless Road
Entrepreneurial insights, stories, and advice on embracing fear, breaking boundaries, and achieving goals on the road to success.
Join Michael on a captivating odyssey down 'The Fearless Road' and brace yourself for a life-altering transformation. This groundbreaking podcast is not merely a conduit to success; it is a profound exploration of courage, authenticity, and the pursuit of passions. With each episode, Michael and his dedicated team embark on a quest to uncover the secrets to triumph and support the unwavering determination required to chase dreams fearlessly.
The Fearless Road is committed to exploring the road to success and empowering our audience to navigate this journey with confidence, resilience, and fearlessness. Pursuing your passions and being yourself requires tremendous inner strength and vulnerability. It’s important to consistently recognize and appreciate the confidence it takes to follow your heart and your dreams. Stay Fearless!
The Fearless Road
02. Unleashing Gratitude: Dr. Johnny Bergstrom's Journey From Fear to Freedom
When fear and gratitude collide, what transpires? We invite you on a journey of self-discovery and resilience with Dr. Johnny Bergstrom, the Gratitude Doctor, a beacon of hope who has walked through the fire of bullying and emerged stronger. In an episode teeming with authenticity, we explore the transformative power of gratitude and the pivotal role it played in Dr. Bergstrom's life. We delve into the heart-wrenching global issue of bullying, and how it shapes our youth. In the spirit of National Bullying Awareness Month, Dr. Bergstrom shares his personal battle with bullying and the five steps that led him to a path of healing.
Feeling trapped or paralyzed by self-doubt? You're not alone. We journey through the treacherous terrains of self-worth, fear, and the daunting leap into entrepreneurship. Together, we unlock the chains that bind us and explore the power we possess to design our lives with the help of a powerful tool - the MULO (My Ultimate Life Outline). We share personal stories, trials, and triumphs, highlighting that the path to success isn't linear, but rather a collection of experiences that form our unique narrative.
Strap in as we venture into the realm of vulnerability and authenticity. We emphasize the importance of safe spaces for self-expression and speaking our truth. As we discuss excerpts from Dr. Bergstrom's enlightening book, Gratitude Changes Everything, we underscore the potency of gratitude as a superpower in our lives. Join us, as we assure you that it's okay to be afraid, it's okay to be vulnerable, and most importantly, it's okay to be YOU. Let's create our reality, overcome fear, and breed gratitude together. Join us for an episode that promises to uplift, inspire, and transform.
Hey there, everybody, welcome to the Fearless Road podcast episode two. Last week we dropped, with episode one, our premier episode with the amazing Jen Stornow. I'm so proud of that episode and her she's amazing. I hope you watched it. I hope you listened this week. You know we keep the insights flowing.
Michael Devous:With episode two, with the amazing Dr Johnny Bergstrom, the gratitude doctor, he changes everything. That's his message, that's his mission and now that's his book out on Amazon, so go get it. By the way, we talk a little bit about gratitude and the crossroads of gratitude and fear and how that they come together to shape a person's life. Speaking of shaping a person's life, dr Johnny shares his challenges with being bullied as a youth, and this is relevant because October is National Bullying Awareness Month, right? So this is oh, oh, and October 2nd is World Day of Bullying Awareness, and that just happens to be the day that we drop the episode, monday, october 2nd and I went through my own torturous years middle school, junior high school with bullying and of course, this was in the 80s, which you know was a long time ago, but it's still happening today. People Like it's still going on. It's a terrible issue for this world, it's global and it impacts so many lives. In fact, here are some stats for you 46% of teens report being cyber bullied. 60% of these teens, 60% of our teens that end up becoming mass shooters, were bullied. 25% of LGBTQ students bullied at school. 22% of all our students all of our students bullied every year. 22%. 43% of them stated that if they witnessed it, they wouldn't intervene, they wouldn't help. Why this is a problem? This is a problem. 53.8% of our Latin brothers and sisters get bullied at work. 53% of our Latin brothers and sisters get bullied, not at high school, at work. I mean, come on. So anyway, this month is National Bullying Awareness Month. We can do something about it and we're having a conversation on the Fearless Road with Dr Johnny Berkstrom about bullying but, more importantly, about gratitude, and you can talk to your kids about that. When you get them at home, you can let them listen to the episode. So, yeah, this is your chance to get in on the conversation. This is your chance to actually bring some awareness to the issue. So many of us have been bullied and we've been down this particular road. So this episode, you know, we talk about gratitude, we talk about fear, we talk about how both of these two things come together to shape our lives and Dr Johnny shows us with his book especially five steps you can take to help bring more gratitude into your life, and he shares with us how it's really changed his and that's his mission around the world to change everyone by bringing a little gratitude, helping them find gratitude. So, yeah, episode two comes out on Monday, october 2nd. So download it, subscribe to it, like it, do all the things, all the things you know, and, yeah, let me know your thoughts. Hashtag at mentioned, tag us you know all those things that probably bad for sunlight. Anyway, all right, kids, I'm walking back up the hill and the breathing is going to get heavy. So stay fearless, stay healthy and be grateful. I am for you. Bye, okay, let's go ahead, let's begin, let's dive into this.
Michael Devous:Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the Fearless Road podcast. I don't even know what episode this is going to be, but it's going to be a good episode. Why? Because we've got Dr Johnny on the show. Fearless Road podcast. Dr Johnny is the gratitude doctor. He's an award-winning coach and doctor of metaphysical science and an entrepreneur. His podcast, which is gratitude, changes everything, can be found on all of your major networks and a new book that just came out. You can get it on Amazon. Gratitude changes everything. Dr Johnny has been diagnosed there it is. Dr Johnny has been diagnosing, prognosing and generally dosing all of us daily with gratitude medicine that helps to mend our minds, heal our hearts and strengthen our spirits all over the world, by coaching clients to live ultimately with gratitude, with a lot of gratitude. Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome Dr Johnny Bergstrom.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Yay, everybody goes crazy.
Michael Devous:I hear the applause, I can feel it right now, there we go.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :How are you? How are you? I'm well. Thank you, I'm grateful. How are you?
Michael Devous:Well, you should be grateful. You're going to teach us a little bit about gratitude. Hopefully, I'm going to dig in here and find out how Fear plays along with that on the Fearless Road podcast today. We're going to get a little into this. Before we do, though, I want to get a little background on you so the audience knows kind of where you came from and how you got to become the doctor of gratitude. Would you share with us a little bit about that journey?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Sure, I started coaching in the general vicinity of coaching about 15 years ago. It was for a leading weight loss company. We'll leave it at that. I myself lost 120 pounds at the time. I know, can you believe it? After I got myself to goal, I thought that that would be a great place to work, and it was For the next four years. After that I was coaching people throughout my county tons of people to lose tons of weight.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :I really found that there was a calling within that to really speak to the issues that were underneath why we were eating and why we mismanaged food beyond what we needed it for Generally. After that was outgrown, I decided that I could do that kind of stuff on my own. I decided to open my first private practice and that was about 11 years ago. That was working with people, one-on-one, small groups about four or less, then sometimes some corporate clients as well, taking it to their places of business to take the same approach. But my own twist to it to really go farther than what I was not previously allowed to go beyond, because that's what the niche was. I wanted to go beyond where I was allowed to take the needle and then have to stop because we didn't do that I was like okay, I want to do that, I want to ask the hard questions.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :I needed to open the door myself for that. I've been in practice ever since 11 years 15 total, 11 on my own and changing lives every day and now mastering that approach of gratitude globally yes, globally.
Michael Devous:Your journey to entrepreneurship. That's right. Six countries, six continents. How many countries Continents too many, too many?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :of course you haven't decided what episode this is going to be. You don't even know how long your show is going to be. Maybe we're not going to dive into the counting countries. Let's not do numbers, because numbers hurt A lot.
Michael Devous:I'm not a math person so I just don't even bother to go there. That's why my consulting firm is called Fifth Quarter Consulting, because math was not my thing and when I was in college I thought there were five quarters to a tank of gas. I called my dad from the side of their road, so upset and irritated. He's like you've always been like that throughout life. You've always had a fifth quarter of a tank. No matter what you do, you always think there's extra there. I was like well, that's what I'm going to call the business is Fifth Quarter Consulting, because we can always find more in the tank. Speaking of the ultimate life LLC your entrepreneurship journey into business. You created this LLC, which is sort of a bespoke six-week lifestyle coaching process. Two things I think it's really cool about that, but two things. How would you describe your philosophy on entrepreneurship if you have one and two? There are no days off. Can you elaborate on that?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :I'll start with that one first, and then you can think about a way to expand the initial question of that, because that's a loaded question about your philosophy. Yeah, there are no. Yeah, that one, we'll get back to that one. A little circle, not quarters, though we know how we are with quarters.
Michael Devous:Yes, I've been jumping here. Did anybody see that video of that girl trying to describe 30 degrees and how hotter it could get? Because 30 degrees on the circle was only part of 360 degrees and that if we're at 30 Celsius right now, it's just going to get hotter? I shared this with my dad and my family. It was like that's my math. I totally understood what she was saying. So sorry about that to digress audience, but if you check it out, go to TikTok or Instagram, wherever it is. Some lady in Britain is describing how hot it is based on 360 degrees, and it's a blessing. It's hysterical, but it's really good. So sorry to interrupt you.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Yes, You're fine. There are no days off. There's something I have to see?
Michael Devous:Yeah there really aren't.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :No, there are no days off, and there could be essentially days off if I didn't manage the time well and didn't have clients who were overlapping. But I'm always on a call or a text thread with somebody about something, but it's all my doing. That's what I wanted to do With life coaching, which I've evolved into personally. For me, like style coaching, it's more about being able to pick up a phone and saying you know what? I'm stuck right now. I need you and you know I wear an Apple watch, I have an iPhone, have access to everything and everybody, so there's no reason why I'm not reachable, unless, as it's understood by my clients, that I'm with another client or that, you know, I'm just currently unable to actually just take the call. But there's nothing that expands more than an hour and it's just that much better to be able to jump in and keep somebody from choosing something they wouldn't want to do.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :So, whether the client's trying to manage weight loss or other issues that we've been working on to build, it's those life moments where might really dive into, you know, with the fearless road. You know dealing with fear and approaching a situation that would normally scare them. And okay, I'm about to do this. I need a boost. Where's my coach, Where's my guy? And I'm right there. It's like I might not physically be right there, but I'm right there, and so that was there I do. It makes it yeah.
Michael Devous:Because I imagine that them, that a client knowing specifically under the circumstances of being coached lifestyle coaching as well as personal coaching to know that they have access to you, could be make the difference between being successful at certain choices and not feeling successful at certain choices, as well as overcoming some of those fears in making those choices.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Right, exactly so there is a little bit of a disclaimer there.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :So, as you mentioned in the lead, in for that, there is a six week program for everybody.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :At the outset of the six weeks I do a consultation, we talk, I see if I think that I would be good for whomever, and then, if they agree, we start working on it. We're committed to each other nonstop it's not 24 hours a day, but it is most hours of every day into four six weeks and then at the end of the six weeks, based on progress, based on feelings, mutually, it determines if it goes on again and it's been working really, really well, because a lot of people have a fear of commitment and a lot of us don't really want to lock ourselves into something, especially at a coaching rate. It's not cheap and but you are paying for extremely rare access that is responded to, cater to and customized to you, and that's why I wanted to really open up this venture with ultimate life was making it so that it was accessible and really ultimate, do you work with a lot of executives and entrepreneurs as well, and you find you have a lot of those reaching out to you when you coach.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Yes, and because of that demand and their schedule, it's got to be. You know I might be at the drop of a hat. It sounds like, okay, well, you're available all the time. Well, I'm available most of the time, but I'm not needed all the time. Like, hey, I have three minutes between this client and this client. What do I do? You know, how do I handle this type of personality? This person is really just my ultimate thing. That really just gets me nervous before a meeting or does not pan out well otherwise than that is one of the one example of how it works and how it just makes it better.
Michael Devous:And how would you describe the intersection of gratitude and fear?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :I would describe the intersection as one that would be dark at first, but then a light would turn on and, once illuminated, you see that there is nothing to be afraid of, because most of us would you agree that most of us fear the unknown Absolutely?
Michael Devous:100%. I think the majority and this is I've said this before, I think, on the show as well as in other ways the majority of the fears that we discuss on the fearless road when talking to entrepreneurs and business executives and subject matter experts and business and things like that almost every fear that they have in regards to their business, that they have in regards to making choices and becoming. This is what I say we either want to do, be or have something different than what we currently are in the state of where we are, and we want to step into that new space of our new selves, the greater, better version of ourselves. And in doing so, that brings up all of these fears. They're all mental, they're all about the unknown and they are usually projections we put out in front of ourselves when, a we don't know the outcome and, b there's a sense of unworthiness when there's a question about our worth in taking this on and becoming this thing and doing or having the next, that next thing right. We have, for some reason, built in our heads a space that is available for both dreaming big and making magic and being little gods, little creators in this world that is simultaneously pitted against fears of unknown doubts of ability to complete worthiness and value in doing these things.
Michael Devous:And I think we live in this space between the two things, between the seven-year-old who wants to be a space astronaut and a seven-year-old who's terrified of the world and what it means to grow up in it and I think that's where we've been almost all our lives and for those of us who live and work in the entrepreneur space, which is constantly creating opportunities, creating services, creating goods, creating whatever we are always going to be met with, I think those fears, because they come from inside of us, very few of them come from outside and a lot of them have to do with our self-worth and value and what we perceive, our worthiness of taking this thing, getting this thing, having this thing, becoming this thing. So, yeah, I would agree with you. I think that was a long way of saying yes.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Just draw it out. I love your perspective and it's exactly right. So much of a sphere of what we don't know and it's the inherent fear that blends with the conditioned fear that blends with everything else that just doesn't jive with what we think we want and everything that we decide that we want for ourselves. As we age, whether it's from childhood into adolescence, into adulthood, we gauge what we want and what we think we're capable of, based on what we've been conditioned by other people to think, like you mentioned, what we're worthy of. And then, based on what we think we're worthy of, then we start to doubt and we start to wonder. Well, they said I couldn't do this, that person said I couldn't do it, this one said I couldn't do it. So maybe I can't do it, maybe I shouldn't do it, maybe I shouldn't even bother trying.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Because what if I try? And then everybody laughs at me? And then the what ifs start. And then what if I do it wrong? What if I don't know how to do it? What if it's ugly? What if it's not worth other people's time? What if they laugh at my face and tell me that that's not going to work? So many different what ifs, what ifs, what ifs that it makes you just want to pull all of your hair.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :So, as far as circling back to the question about entrepreneurship and my philosophy with it, if you have a goal, if you have something that you think that you can do better than anybody else, do it. But it's not that easy. Anybody who's ever said anything about coaching for entrepreneurs or anybody who wanted to start their own venture. It's hard as hell, and that's the part that they leave out. It's exhausting. When I started coaching, I thought on my own because it was a quick pivot when I decided to go on my own. I had left the other job and it was within three days that I incorporated the venture for the first time. And that was a very long but very exhausting three days. But three days later I had enough capital, I was in with an attorney, I started setting up the business and then I opened. And here we are and luckily enough, because enough people missed me from the previous venture and it's been long enough that I can say that now. Then my phone number started to get passed around and people wanted to continue what we had started out there together on their own otherwise.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :But it's a scary thing and it requires a lot of time and I really I do not have children. I haven't decided if I want them or not. I'm still young and gorgeous, so we're going to keep it this way as long as I can, kidding Anybody who watches this. And you think well, you ego. No, I'm, I really just try to make you laugh, because if you're going to watch this and you're going to listen to anything that any of us do in the podcasting world and anything that takes up your time, if you're still here, you know that you've. You've got something here. So, but with the philosophy with it, it's not just if you want, if you have something that you want to do yourself, to do it. I discovered a long time ago because I had a lot of jobs. I mean a lot of jobs. I've done everything. Well, not the manual labor jobs, but I did a lot of jobs.
Michael Devous:And an indoor guy. Let's be clear, they're still, they're still good. Well, I mean.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :I'm very, I live in South Florida, I'm very fair skinned, I can't really be outside without getting burned, so I wasn't going to do outside stuff. So indoor stuff, fine, but labor, labor all the way. But I realized that I had an issue with everybody that I like at somewhere where I worked, and it was like is this me? What's the problem? And the answer was yes. But it wasn't that I was a lazy worker, it wasn't that I didn't have what it took to do the job, it wasn't anything negative about me.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :And that's where that fear comes in as well. From an employment employee, employer to employee relation is that we start to wonder well, I lost this job. It must be me, yeah, it must be you, because you must be meant to be somewhere else, not that, oh, I'm not good enough, or anything else. So my discovery, michael, was that I could not work for other people. I had to work with other people. Yes, so it had to be my control. So that's the way it. You know, even right now I teach indoor cycling at a spin studio near my house and it's like I don't work for them. Technically I do, because they catch these right paychecks, but I work with them. You know, if I wanted to walk away I could, but there's a big way of changing that. But anyway, that's a whole nother tangent. But yeah.
Michael Devous:So I listened to Fearless Motivation. Not sure if you're familiar with it, but it's just an incredible audio. It's like really inspirational music set to these guys and these ladies who do professional speaking and motivational speaking and stuff these incredible words Every day. I like to like take these walks and listen to them and I get this message bombardment all the time. You need to know your why you got to believe first, and then step out onto that road, and I kind of don't agree. I think you know. Step onto your road, whether you know it or not, whether you believe that you can do it or not. If it's something you think you love, it's something you think you're passionate about, something you really want to do. You're going to get good, but you're only going to get good after you practice, and you can only practice by putting your foot to the pavement and taking those steps and you will be in the. You were going to be in that space of unknown and that space of unsure and that space of. I don't know if I believe in myself enough yet, but I want to do this.
Michael Devous:This is what I did with podcasting and I was like I came in and I built this thing and I don't know anything about podcasting. I mean, I know a little bit from my entertainment background and stuff I haven't worked with and produced other things, but but I didn't know what it would take to get this done and I didn't know enough about fear. Like I'm not a doctor, I don't have a degree in psychology or philosophy or any of that stuff. What, what's? What's my business? What do I have, you know, to do with fear and why do I feel like I'm in a position to be the subject matter expert in this field? Well, I wanted to become it, I want to step into it and become that, and the only way to do it is to try and put yourself out there. So I figured, well, I can ask questions. I'm really good at interviewing people. I can ask you about your fears and then hopefully, I can begin to learn a little bit more about my own and why my life has been so impacted and so shaped by fear and by the opposite of fear.
Michael Devous:I should say the whatever we do to deal with fear, right, whether that, whatever methods we use coping mechanisms, you name it. What I found interesting was each of us deals with fear, obviously, and most of us are like, you know, crush fear, kill fear, take it down. I'm going to overcome fear, thinking that along the way, you've, you've, you've beaten it, you've, you've, that fear didn't affect you, that fear didn't have an influence. And I'm like, oh no, it did 100%, because you chose to make steps in spite of fear as opposed to with fear. And for me, what I discovered, I think, along my journey, was that when fear came up, I didn't want to do things in spite of fear. Well, actually I did. I would say I didn't want it, I didn't want those things and those moments to define me. I was so adamant that those, those elements of tragedy and violence and whatever that occurred in my life that created fear and surrounded me with that doubt, I refused to allow them to define me and therefore decided to do something, whether it was the complete opposite or reinvent myself. Well, that's fear affecting and shaping my life, because I'm doing things counter to that, that moment, counter to the effects of that, of that, of that outcome, and yet it's shaping who I am and my choice is based on that. And then I was like well, I didn't realize I was doing this right, I wasn't aware of my, of my actionable choices. I wasn't intentionally doing these things. And when I woke up about a year ago, sort of going, whoa, I've been at sleep at the wheel unintentionally doing these things. What if I lived a life of intention where I was actively pursuing, actively engaged with my fear and actively making these choices? What kind of life could I lead? What kind of happiness and joy and outcomes would would I get? And then that's when I discovered putting myself on this path of the fearless road and asking other people about their experiences. So that was a big tangent. The reason why I say I think I bring that up is because you wrote in your thing heal, the whole hum, doom and gloom sentenced to life perspective that some of us adopt. And I saw that and I was like, yes, yes, that is exactly what I was feeling a little over a year ago.
Michael Devous:I was waking up every day, thinking I don't want to wake up. I was thinking do I have to eat and sleep and do the same thing every single day, rinse and repeat over and over and over for the next what? 20, 30, 40 years? When is it in what? What's the point? I was in that space where I didn't. I just didn't want to wake up, I didn't want to get out of bed, I didn't want to come back tomorrow. I was like I'm done, like this is boring, I can't take it any longer. I went out, and my family, of course everybody was very concerned. I like you, you know manual labor. I would never consider physical suicide or harming myself because I think I'm too beautiful and I don't want to do that. But you know there's, there's, there's. I can't do all those things. You know what I mean. I'm like, oh God, that's just, that's horrifying. You know that's too much, but I'll just sit here and complain. And so I was like why are you going?
Michael Devous:to lie around bitching and moaning and being this version of yourself every day, or are you going to try to change it? You know, and that's when I think the opportunity to reinvent myself yet again, to examine my life from this new perspective came, came up and set me on this path. So what do you say to those of us who are stuck in that sentenced to life perspective? Why do we A why do we get there, like what's going on with our brains and our minds and our emotions, that that keeps us feeling like this, and then how do we begin to sort of pivot out of there?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Well, well, for everybody's base reason. You know of the why, like you mentioned earlier, you know what is. It's hard to say what the why is, but the reason why we stay there is different for everybody as well. But the main thing that we have to do is you have to decide, and it often comes from an outside source. It's never this, it's really just. It's rarely the draw from within. There are very few people who can be self starters with this. But there is something with Realizing that what you think about you bring about and it's not just something that people you know in the new thought and anything else say it's like oh, what you think about you bring about, just have a grateful day. It's like, no, really, what you think about you bring about, there's the law of attraction. If you think that your life is gonna suck, it's gonna suck if you think you're like draw more yeah draw more of that to you.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Yeah, you will draw more of that to you, you know, and in my book, gratitude changes everything. Cute little bug there, there we go. Yeah, pick it up, it's available. By the time you see this. It is available, launching on the 21st of September, which happens to be world gratitude day, so no coincidence there.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :But but I outline in, by the way, so the this book. So I'll just hold it here, since I don't have one of those fun little displays behind me. But this book is everything. Okay, it looks nice on a coffee table, but what's inside matters? There is not a single chapter that takes even the slowest reader more than eight minutes to read. I I spaced it out because I don't like books that squeeze in all the, all the. You know, the font is this big and I have to strain to see it. Then I got to figure out where I was and then I my mind drifted somewhere else. I'm a no, it's nice and easy. Plus, I didn't.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :I wrote it as a book that I would want to read, because I don't like to read things in order. My brain doesn't work in order. I want to go and jump around and look at things that attract me to them. Hence the law of attraction. So when there's one, there's one, so pick one. But it could be if you're in the doom and gloom and you think that every day is Destined to be just like how they've always been and that's what's gonna happen. But be aware, wake up a little bit. Let somebody say something to you when people are genuinely nice to you. Don't just sit there and say, oh, they're just being nice me because they feel sorry for me. No, they're being nice to you because people are nice.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Where did we get to this point that people are no longer kind? I cannot tell you how many people I see on a daily basis where I hold the door for them and it's not just like, yeah, I'm walking out of it, out of the building, holding the door here, take it. It's no, I'm holding the door and I'm waiting, and I'm waiting for the eye contact because I want them to see, I see you, I want you to see me seeing you holding that. Someone's holding the door for you and I'm changing your date right here, in five seconds, and then, just because you held the door, somebody's gonna change how they walk to their car, how they get in their car, what they think about as they turn the key or press the button and then back up out of that space and then move on with their day. It takes something so minute, something so small, and if you doubt that, think about the last time you got really pissed off and you're having a great day. It took how big of something it was this big to piss you off and it make you really mad. And then what you think about you bring about. So then, right there, snowball, everything just turned a crap right from that point.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :But in the book and in my coaching and in everything else that I've been talking to people with for more than 15 years, it is always a matter of switching it around in the blink of an eye. Just because you started that way doesn't mean it has to stay that way. What you see now did not look like this. I started this process a year ago. I needed to lose 50 pounds because of 120 that I lost, I gained some back. We had this thing called a pandemic and I found this thing called wine and I had friends who found wine and we just you know, I thought it'd be funny to do. I had this video that I did little interjection of Working out with wine. So, yeah, watch this. So we have wine set curls.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :So pretend this is a wine glass and it was, and one and two we didn't sip, and then we got to ten, and then at ten you could have a sip.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :The reward and you know by the end, I mean great arms, but geez, now we were doing curls with bottles and it was funny. But anyway, so you know, the habits changed and things changed. No, I didn't need to go to meetings, I wasn't that bad. But and mad respect for everybody who has to and who chooses to and shake your life for charge, I love that. But I needed to change the habits. But I knew that and so I knew nobody was going to do it for me and I knew there was hard work involved and I knew what to do. So you just have to start doing something. So, whatever that is, do something. So, if your job sucks, to get a new one, but make sure you get a new one before you leave the one you don't like, because nobody needs to have a gap in the pay. Okay, the other thing we got to do is we have to figure out what's gonna make us happy again. This book will tell you how to figure that out. I have this little tactic, this little tool. You can even write it down in the book workbook to come, I'll hold you, you can hold me to it. It's called a mulo, m? U L? O, right, mulo, so it means my ultimate life outline. So you do a mulo for everything that you want in your life, whether it's a relationship, whether it's a new job, whether it's a new car, whether it's a new house, whether it's whatever you do a mulo for, that it teaches you. I teach you how to get specific with designing the mulo, an exact language to use with it. And then, once you've done the mulo, you realize it's like an order You've sent to a company for something you want to buy. When you do that, you don't think about it. After that You're not like, oh, am I gonna get it? Is it gonna come? You start to wonders gonna come today, maybe tomorrow, maybe tomorrow? And you get excited about it. But then finally shows up Ah, there it is, and I just start to get used to doing that. You just start to custom order your life into how you want it to be.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :And I tell a funny story in the book about when I met and well manifested and met my husband and I was right. I'll tell you the story and then maybe you'll read about it the. I Was at a Starbucks one day and I was writing in my journal, as it often did, and I decided that I had just had a little background. I just come out of a three-year relationship and it wasn't that great. Probably should have ended a year before it did, but anyway it ended. But so I was sitting in that Starbucks and I was writing in my journal.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :I thought you know what this is silly. I need to design who I want and I need to really itemize a list as many things as possible, as Specific as possible, right down to, like birthmarks what do you want, who do you want? Write it down, serve, wrote it down, and then I put it, my journal, in my bag, and I left for the day, and that was in July of 2013, and Few months later I'd gone a bunch of dates by October, got introduced to Christian, okay. And Then things went really well, as you can read about in the book, talk about it. And then I moved into this house, his house, this house, hmm.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :But one day I was unpacking a box of journals the one that I had written in most recently. That one was on top and so I saw that's funny, let me take a pen and see. You know what I, what I've done in this book, just happened to be bookmarked to the page of the Itemizations of who I wanted in my life. So, while I had the pen in hand, little click, let's see. And I'm checking off the first one. Well, that's funny. You know gender, yes, we know that one's correct.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :And next, and you know funny things. And then you get to the seventh one and the eighth one and I'm a list of 19 things. By the time I got to nine item 19 every single box had been checked. And I was not only just checking those boxes in the book, I was checking the boxes in the book that came out of a box of books that came out of my storage In the house that I had manifest to come with the guy. And here we are 10 years later. So if that doesn't just say, how do I do that? Tell me everything. There you go. Somehow. I muted you, michael Holden. I.
Michael Devous:Did it to myself.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :I apologize, you did, it wasn't my fault. I'm like I was so riveted.
Michael Devous:I was riveted, ladies and gentlemen. I muted myself so I could just listen. That was crucial. Where was, like?
Michael Devous:I was gonna say that, oh, this should be like the next thing that you do, which is called customized custom order your life by dr Johnny. If you want to custom order your life, you actually should pick up his book about gratitude changes everything. Get it now and custom design your life. Maybe you can custom design your mate, because it's like Manifesting and I know people think it's cliche and I know people think that it's. You know the law of attraction and all the lot of all these weird things. He say these cliche, these things that are out there. But there's a reason why they're all out there. There's a few reasons. One we need it, the world needs it. We're in such a state of scarcity and fear, we're in such a state of pessimism, and you know that that that's why so much of it is coming up. I think it's because so many of us are desperate for these options and opportunities and alternatives to the current state of our thinking and being. That seems to be really sort of like, you know, underneath this cloud of constant bombardment of fear and scarcity and Politics and all of the stress that that comes with you know, and I think it's as a society, I think we're we're also genuinely reaching out to the world with our own energy, asking for more and ask you for other opportunities. And that's, I think, where this comes up.
Michael Devous:One of the things that I Read many years ago and conversations with God. I don't know if anyone's familiar with that. Neil Donald wash wrote a series of books called conversations with God and in this particular, in the first book I believe it's first or second Well, all he's having a conversation with God and and God is reminding us that we are little creators, little gods in his image, brought down here to create, to build this world in, in our, in our image, from our imagination. And, yeah, so if, if, if you believe that, if you decide to buy into the knowledge and the idea that we come from a great creator and we are, in essence, a physical manifestation of that very energy, that energy that is creative. We come from stars to our dust, whatever you want to call it Then, yeah, our ability to manifest what we believe and what we think, our ability to draw to us the world that we create, in fact, everything around you don't think exists on this planet that we didn't invent, other than, I suppose, nature, which we perceive through our eyes, but everything else we created, it took someone thinking it, thinking about it and doing it and then creating it, and then it's here. You now enjoy it. We're on the camera, we're on TVs, we're on doing podcasts, we're doing radio shows, we're writing books, we're driving cars, we're flying across the planet on planes. All of this from the imagination of a human being.
Michael Devous:And so, yeah, if you are out there and you aren't sure that you can manifest these things, I beg to differ and I think that practice is key, and I think that's what Dr Johnny brings to the table, especially with this book, I think especially with his six week program, six sess, if I could say it correctly, and, of course, a lot of the other people that I've had on the show talk about practice, and I've mentioned this before one of the things that my yogi instructor has mentioned before, which is we fall to our practice, meaning that if you have a bad day, if you have a downfall, if you break your stride or something, what you fall to the foundation you've built for yourself is your practice, and it takes practice. It takes consistent, constant, ongoing, daily, if you can manage it, practice to do these things to address our fears, to adjust and change our habits, to step into a different version of ourselves, to invite and manifest a new and beautiful version of our lives. Because if you don't practice, guess what you get. You get what everything else is. You get the fallback, you get the leftovers, you get whatever's coming right, whatever's coming, and that's what you're left with.
Michael Devous:And it's no wonder some of us forget, because our lives get busy, we got children and jobs and driving in traffic, you name it, all the distractions that you can list, that can thwart your practice, that can drive you away from it, you know, and it can be easy to fall off. So that was another soap up. We are all here for it. We're all here for it. Do you have an origin story with fear in your own life? Oh God, well, would you describe your relationship with fear? I?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :have a very, very, very deep root with fear Sure.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :I do and it's taken a long time to realize that that's the actual emotional root that causes a lot of strife and things that I've had to overcome. And I mean similarly to you. I know that you shared on another show that we were on, on the Networking Diva Hour with our friend, janice Carlson. Janice, and back in August yeah, yes, when you were on with her, that you shared, that you know a very poignant moment in your life when you were 14. And just realizing that you had to own up with the fear, you know, and for me, I was bullied. I know you said you were bullied and the bullying for me started at a very young age. I mean I did not look like you know this when I was five or six years old.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :When I was five I was adorable and then I had like an eight year ugly span, like I mean when I'm talking ugly, I went for ugly, okay, yeah. And I mean when you're the fat and chubby, you know pale skin, freckled, you know orange-haired kid, and you're going to private school and you're going to public school and you don't look like anybody else, no matter where you go. You know you stick out and you are obviously a target. So years and years of being the easy target and then not having, you know, a very big system of support behind me to say it's okay, they're all stupid, they're all kids, all kids are stupid. Like at that point, just stop, just wait till you get older, it'll all stop. But then you know what it kind of does because it took a certain, it took getting to a certain age that it just kind of stopped because adults don't really act like that. And then the ones that do, we just kind of look at like what's wrong with you? And we walk away and live our lives because they don't matter.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :So if anybody who's going through bullying and who is young and the teens watching this today or any day they see it and hearing it, trust me and it is cliche as well, but it gets better. It does get better. But all those people who are looking at you, telling you whatever you don't want to hear and making you feel how you don't feel, like you should feel, they will all change in the next 10 years and so will you. You just got to hang in there Because then in 10 years you're going to be scarred with everything that they did to you and then they're going to be like what do you mean?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :What did I say? I didn't say anything to you. Yeah, you did. And it doesn't help when you have a photogenic memory, because I can tell you exactly where I was and when I was, every single time I was bullied in high school and in middle school, and where I was and who did it. And if I told any one of those people today, do you know what you did to me when we were 13,? And like, what the hell are you talking about? I don't remember what I did when I was 13.
Michael Devous:They don't carry it forward so as much as it rolls off they don't care, but it's an imprint on you.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :And so you get to choose. Am I going to let this imprint continue to leave its mark or am I going to remove the mark, remove the brand and allow myself to be whole within myself again? And that is a personal choice that comes with time and that comes with support from somebody else, whether it's a coach, whether it's a best friend, whether it's a family member who gets it. Somebody else needs to tell you I've got you. And then it's up to you to trust them to say, yeah, I do see that you've got me. Thank you and be vulnerable and be you.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :But as far as fear and the OG story about fear, there isn't really one thing that really sticks out as far as fear is concerned. But fear followed me into adulthood, it followed me well into my 30s, and it wasn't until working with my own coach over the past year, both mentally and physically, did I come to the evaluation that a lot of my choices, of things I choose to do and choose not to do, are completely based in fear, and it's a specific fear of the unknown based on what happened when I was a kid. Yes, so everything is circular. It always finds its way back. So we've got to break the cycle.
Michael Devous:Well, thank you for sharing that. I forget, I suppose that there could be teenagers and young kids out there also listening to this show. So, as a reminder to all of you who may be listening, or parents of kids who are suffering from bullying, it is a real thing, it is a very real thing. I have two minds about it, which I'm very, I don't say troubled, but I will say, struggle a little bit with. I became who I was because I went through that. It built me and I had the mindset to deal with it, address it, use it as fuel to fire my life, and I think maybe that's lucky, maybe that's blessed, maybe that's DNA, I don't know. There are others who don't have that gift, who don't have the ability to see that as fuel for their fire and suffer greatly under the pressures of that kind of bullying for years to come.
Michael Devous:What I will say is whether it builds who you are or you are stuck in the middle of it right now. As Dr Donnie pointed out, there is a future out there for you where life gets beautiful and none of that stuff exists any longer, where it literally is just in your rear view mirror and as you get older. I invite you to think about who you surround yourself with. We have the option of putting in our lives and surrounding ourselves with individuals that raise us up, support us and love us for who we really are.
Michael Devous:And if you're presenting to the world someone other than who you really are, you will live a life where you don't feel satisfied and where you're not happy because you're not living your truth. And regardless of whether those teenage kids are bullying you or those kids in college or school, whatever it is that they're saying, doesn't matter. You live your truth, you live your authenticity, and you will find reward in that, you will find happiness in that, and then begin to surround yourself with people who love that version of you, because it starts there. It starts with you loving who you are. And if you don't know who that is, I encourage you to get on that journey. Pick up Dr Jarn's book and you will help find your way to discovering who you are and loving yourself better. I don't even know where I was headed with this. I think it was like maybe it's back.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Well, while you figure that out, can I just jump in there and piggyback on that? It's like if you don't know who you are now, you don't need to, but I can tell you who you are not. You are not anything negative that anybody who knows you or thinks that they know you in any capacity would tell you that you are. Because who you are is who you decide to be. So if anybody has an opinion about that, that's their opinion. That's not a fact and the facts come from you. So you decide who you want to be and you know what the silver lining is the platinum lining also talked about in the book that I can tell you you are and what you have is that platinum lining is that you always get to change your mind. If you don't like who you are, you can always turn and do something else. You don't like where you are? You can turn and move something. You are not a tree. You are not rooted. Even trees don't move. So decide what you want. It's always up to you.
Michael Devous:That is very true. Every new moment we step into in this world is a brand new moment. Our cells are changing constantly. We lose 280 million an hour.
Michael Devous:You are not the same person that you were 20 minutes ago when you started this podcast. You are a different human being physically. So we are built for change. We are built to adapt. That is exactly what we are built to do on this planet. So if you think you're stuck in a place, trust me, you're built to change. You're a human. You are built to adapt. You're built to change. You're built to learn and with those three things in your pocket, you can jettison everything that came before and step 100% into a new version of who you wanna be. Dr Johnny's book will definitely help you get there and help teach you about gratitude. Take me through a couple more of those chapters in the book. A little bit about what those steps may help us get to. If we were to take the book and we were to pick it up today and randomly just pick a selection, what would you think that we would guide us to first?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :The book has a lot to do with turning negatives and depositives, no matter what they are. The book is very much based on describing and determining what you want your ultimate life to be and what you want that to look like. So that would be the mulo. And then there's a lot of it that deals with the shift that has happened post 2020. And initially everybody thought that, oh, I was one of them. I got excited and I'm still excited for the pandemic happening, not for every reason, obviously, it's morbid, but for the good stuff and I mean, come on, but it's like there, when 2020 was approaching, I thought hindsight has always been said it's hindsight is 2020. You have the perfect way to look back and see something that you would want and to have happen, and after that hindsight was not 2020. Hindsight, we were just getting started. So really it's foresight and it's all kinds of sight in 2020, if you're willing to look Because when 2020 occurred, we were barely in it before COVID happened and then suddenly everything changed. We literally had a global shift. And so, to your point of who you are now and that you weren't 20 minutes ago, you are not who you were three years ago and you're not who you were four years ago, but think about what your life was like at this month in 2019. Where were you, what were you doing? What was life like? And what's different now? There's probably a lot that has changed and, if that's the case, great. So the ho-hum, the doom and gloom, anything else? If that was happening then, is it still? If it wasn't, what changed? And for all the different things that you have to try to figure out, just start with one little thing.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :But every single chapter in this book is uplifting. Every single thing in here will help you. There is nothing in here that you know. It is in the genre of self-help, but there are a lot of self-help books that I've read where, at the end of it, I'd read the same thing about 16 times. There was a lot of fluff in the book to make it seem like it was this fat like life manual that everybody needed to have, but then by the end of it, I couldn't answer the basic question of what was that book about?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :This book, it tells you exactly what it's about on the cover. It's right here, and I'm not plugging this book in this cover model, I mean hi, but gratitude changes everything. I open it in the introduction and I tell you, for this massive problem that we have in the world, there is a solution and it is gratitude. I introduce another problem into the mix. The solution is gratitude.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :You cannot feel negatively when you feel grateful. Gratitude is a positive emotion. When you feel positive, you feel good. When you feel good, you think good thoughts, you think about good things. You feel good so when you think about you bring about from a few minutes ago, bringing it right back in. That's why you start with gratitude, because if you are not feeling great, if you're having a day from hell, if you're having any situation that is not good, what am I grateful for? Have your fast five.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :The book teaches you how to do that too. Five things that you can always depend on to whip your head back in a shape and say, wait, that might be terrible, but this is what I've got. I've got A, b, c, d, e, one, two, three, four, five. Pick them, don't pick them. Pick up letters, numbers, whatever, it doesn't matter, but you have to have your fast five. And then, once you've named them don't just name them to say, yeah, he told me I needed to have five things. Here they are.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Feel them, think about them, allow them to affect you, and then from there is whatever was bothering you, that big, and usually it's not so then you start to feel good, you start to think those grateful thoughts, and then you start to look around and say, well, I did five, how about five more? And then, how about five more? You got five minutes. How many can you think of in five minutes? And you know what? Honestly, if you have time to go to the bathroom during the day, you have time to think about what you're grateful for. I'm just gonna leave it at that, however.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :I will also say that their gratitude changes everything, everything, and that's why I really hope that and I wanted this to come out now, because I wanted it to be out in time for Thanksgiving for Americans and then for you Canadians and anybody else doing. You know, canadians celebrate Thanksgiving when we have our Columbus Day, indigenous People's Day, so we will. You know we misalign with the months, but either way, the gratitude appreciation, the day of giving thanks, is coming, but why is it just one day? So if you think about how gratitude changes everything, you take that day event where we eat too much, don't sleep enough and have to deal with the family members we really don't wanna see more than once a year into this daily occurrence of these things. That will literally change your life. So if you live in a life of doom and gloom, ho-hum, I hate everything. What am I supposed to do about it? You're supposed to start with gratitude.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Get the book, walk through it, pick it up, put it down. Pick it up, put it down. It looks real nice on a copy table, but I remember I told you in the beginning this wasn't meant to be read cover to cover in a day. Look at the table of contents, pick something that feels right, read it and say okay. But I do want you to read the introduction first. It's not that long but it sets the tone for the whole book and then you can piecemeal and jump around and just see what grabs you, because it really truly does work and it's full. To finish answering your question, the whole thing is depicted with real life examples of how to do exactly what I've been saying to do, based on what I've done in my own life to go from an absolute 180 negative to complete positive.
Michael Devous:Wonderful Is there. Can we be grateful for fear?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Yes, and we should be grateful for fear. You want to know why.
Michael Devous:I was waiting. I'm like, I'm on bated breath.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :How do we Like I see your face and like he wants to know why I do I want to?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :you should be grateful for fear. You should be grateful for grief. You should be grateful for every single emotion. Why? Because for every emotion that you feel, there's an opposite. So if you're feeling something you can assess, do I want to feel this or not? And if you don't, then the answer is what do I want to feel? Whatever you don't want to feel, you want to feel its opposite. And then how do you feel its opposite? Say it with me, start with gratitude you got it See already get A plus right there and that's where it starts.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :But, yes, you should be grateful for fear, because that's the stuff that helps you feel like a victor. When you finally face the fear, you have to remember to with fear. It's not something that's just on the surface. Fear is the deepest rooted emotion that we must. I mean, that's not, I don't have a scientific basis to say that, but I'm going to say it anyway. Fear is the deepest rooted emotion that we have because it navigates every single choice you make, whether it's good, whether it's bad. There's something in there. So be grateful for that Because, like you said, part of everything that you overcome and everything that you've dealt with fear based has made you who you are, and that is the biggest thing for anybody still trying to figure out who they are, no matter what age you are, you, no matter what phase of life. If you still don't know, there's still time. But you just have to start asking yourself what do I want and how am I going to get it? You don't have to worry about the how. The how will figure it out. You just have to decide what it is that you want. And so, for me, my want and this is the no g part. The want was to bring gratitude and healing to the world. That's what I wanted to do. And ever since I decided to do that, here I am.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :And I didn't know. I wanted to have a podcast. When I started that, janice told you when you were on her show that I didn't want to do this. I didn't know how to do this. Yeah, people had them and I'm still looking at some things in code and I'm like what the hell is that? I mean, I don't know and I have to use that lovely thing called Google. And then I still don't know. But in less than 60 seconds I'll tell you why I was. I was every step finished with the podcast. I had it recorded when I first started doing it. I had them, I had the episodes ready to go. I just had no idea how to extend it beyond and push it to to Apple. No clip. I attended a conference and I met a woman at a at the hot bar at Whole Foods after the conference. We were both going for these roasted vegetables and she grabbed the tabby of activity at the hot bar at Whole Foods.
Michael Devous:Like you can meet all kinds of people there, you know bell pepper, a little eggplant you know, but so she reached for the tongs and I said, okay, after you.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :And I saw that she had the name tag on, and so did I, and I said, oh, you went to the thing next door, which, thanks to that, was great. And then we started talking and then, under your name, said where you're from, and she was from where I was from. So how funny, we were both in Miami, both from Palm Beach Gardens, even though I'm in Jupiter and they're very close and we got to talking and we exchanged information and she was literally like a mile away from me, location wise. So we had coffee one day and she said so if I can ever help you with anything, let me know. I said well, you don't know anybody who knows how to do a podcast, do you? And she says I have a podcast.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :I'm like okay, I have one question. I've done XYZ. What do I do now? Literally blah, blah, blah. Thank you, couldn't figure it out any other way. And if anybody's looking at that going, god, you're dumb, no, I just didn't get it. Like, I'm really smart, I just didn't know how to do it. So it just takes somebody telling you that one key ingredient, and so for that, here you go. I still don't know how to put it to all these other ones, but maybe you'll tell me how to do it.
Michael Devous:It's funny because I'm I I love. It's so bizarre for me to say this. I love information and I love finding out things, especially if they fall in line with things that I find interesting. I mean, I can get lost down rabbit holes of discovery about those topics. You know, if it's something that I don't, if it's not interesting to me, oh, my brain will be like you don't exist and I can't. I can't get past that barrier to learn, to learn.
Michael Devous:This is one of these things recently that I was dealing with. It's a new piece of software I have to deal with. I had tried everything to try to get around doing it and somebody else can do it. Maybe somebody else is smarter, Maybe somebody else can do that. So I'm doing whatever and I finally had to have a conversation with myself to say you have to learn this, You're going to have to like it and you're going to have to learn it. So you're going to switch that part of your brain, tell your brain look, guys, we need this to work, we need this to be successful. This is going to help us in the long run. How do we get to a place where we a we like it, be, we're interested and see we're now learning it really easily, Because if I like it and I'm interested, I'll learn very fast, and that's probably true for a lot of people out there. So, if you're hearing this or whatever, take this tip or trick if you like. If you can sit down with yourself long enough to convince yourself that this is something that's valuable to you and you can enjoy it once you're on the other side, because things that I know, things I'm familiar with, I enjoy so much better because I've beyond the learning stage and beyond the unknown space, right, I'm now into the space of using it, utilizing it, putting it, putting it into practice in my life, applying it to certain things that help me. Right, it's now a tool in my toolbox. And if we don't, if it's not a tool yet, but it's just another awkward thing that you're carrying around and you're like, oh no, do this then I can understand how that can be difficult. But it's one of those things. Yeah, when I was trying to do the podcast, I want to learn all of it, I'd love to do it all well, but then again, there are places where my energy needs to be spent, and so for me, it was a struggle in some areas where I was like I have to carve out time and just make that happen. I think that's also true segue we have to carve out time to make it happen for gratitude, Fear and gratitude, which can play incredible roles in our lives One we try to avoid, one we're not familiar with, one we're not, you know, always chasing down.
Michael Devous:And I encourage you to get comfortable with and familiar with your fears. I encourage you to have a dialogue with it. I encourage you to find gratitude for that part of who you are, Because your fear is constantly telling you things about life and about the world around you and about your own thinking. And if you can become comfortable enough with it, to have and engage with it in a dialogue where you now are grateful for the energy and the information it's giving you, you will begin to act on life so much differently than you did before. And I think gratitude I think you're right, I think I have a gratitude for fear that I didn't know I had developed.
Michael Devous:I don't think I have been actively and this is what I was saying before. You know, I don't think I was actively operating with intention in my life from a place of gratitude. I don't think I was intentionally living my life from a lot of different places and now that I know that those things are tools that I have lived with and had, that those are things I've applied in different ways in my life, now I can actively do that and, yeah, I think finding your gratitude for things in life is a game changer. It is a mindset game changer for so many things. If you find yourself being pessimistic and negative and I get into this headspace sometimes so irritated you got to find something, whether it's a maybe, it's something you like, a stone that you hold on to, or a-.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Did you really just say that?
Michael Devous:What's that?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :It's literally been in my hand the entire time. There you go, come on, come on, it's there.
Michael Devous:Yes, ladies and gentlemen, he didn't know I had this. I did not know his gratitude stone was in the palm of his hand.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :It's actually a touchstone.
Michael Devous:It's a touchstone If you need a touchstone and I encourage you to find something that just reminds you of a grateful moment, of a beautiful opportunity, something that brings you joy or happiness or whatever. It's very, it grounds you, it takes you to that place and that space and that moment. So, out of your head, out of whatever negative space that you are in temporarily, touch the thing, do the thing, whatever it is, tap your wrist 27 times I don't know whatever you got to do Rub that stone. You can sort of switch your brain a little bit and find the gratitude. And if it's hard to find the gratitude, obviously you can pick up Dr Donnie's book or the five things you wrote down, by the way. You know, write them down, remind yourself, pick them up, look at them every now and then put them into a little wishbox.
Michael Devous:I had this beautiful little wishbox behind me on everybody's seat my mom gave this to me which sort of a Japanese or Chinese woven box that I used to put cards of, wishcards and things and manifestation things inside of it once a year, close it and then open it up a year later or whatever, to see if anything came true, and then burn them in effigy with a bottle of wine. Have that backyard fire where you're like, get the wine bottle out, we're going to take these suckers and we're going to light them on fire and send them out into the world. You know, which I was a lot of fun. I think, too, if you have ever done that kind of manifesting where you write them down on pieces of paper and blow them into the world for wishes, then that could be a lot of fun as well.
Michael Devous:So the end the year is coming to a close here fast for us in 2023. You've just completed your book. It's out now and it's in. It's making its way through the world. The International Day of Gratitude is coming up and 2023 will be coming to a close. Do you have any major well, milestones or challenges that you that are up in front of you that you want to share with us?
Michael Devous:Other than your accomplishment that you've already done. Like you congratulations, by the way. I mean, you've hit them all out of the park this year, so I'm not trying to put any more pressure on you for the rest of the year. Maybe you need to just slide it into home and be all right, but that's kind of where I was going I was kind of like chill. The rest of the note.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :I think it's not a fear based. It's, I think. Well, let me reach out, let me phrase that. It is fear based and there is a fear with what I want to do for the rest of the year, and it's not a fear of it being possible. The fear is remembering to do every single thing that I want to do, seeing it through, bringing it to market and to making sure that it actually, like, comes to fruition. This book is six years into making and it's very. It's euphoric at the same time that it's surreal that I cannot believe I finished it.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :And short story real quick the other day I was cleaning out a closet in a different bedroom. It was the same closet. I actually had the box of journals from the beginning of what we talked about and the holder that was holding a bunch of files. It was this thing you wrap around part of the closet in Zvilcro. Anyway, I've had that forever and it finally gave. So everything that was in there just bursted through the door and almost broke the door down. It was a mess. So I left it there for a couple of weeks because it was like yeah, it's not a room I use all the time, I'll just go, I'll get to it. And then I finally got to it because it irritated me, so I dealt with it. And that's what I do with the irritation emotion is, I deal with it eventually.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :But I sat there and I was going through all these papers and things and then I found some handwritten manuscript notes from the first manuscript of this book. That was not this book at the time, but it was this book and that was in 2017. And I'm looking through and I'm just laughing because I see some of the chapter titles and those actually made it into the book. And then, as I kept sifting through all the stuff that fell out of the closet, I found the first type copy of the first beginnings of the manuscript. So now I've got this next to me, I've got the manuscript over here and it's like, okay, this actually finally happened.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :So, whatever you're working on, whether it's a manuscript, whether it's whatever, if it's been six years, it doesn't matter, you'll get there. You just put it down and pick it back up when you're ready to do it. But as far as the rest of the year, last year, at the end of the 2022, I said 23 is going to be the year of me and it really has been. I changed my mind, I changed my body. This year I changed this book and I hope that that changes the lives of everybody who picks it up and reads it. It's a great thing to bring to Thanksgiving this year. Instead of a dish, maybe bring a dish and a book, because if the conversation gets a little crazy, and we all have that relative who likes to talk about those things.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :We really shouldn't talk about it Thanksgiving. Then you say and we're going to open the book and we're going to pick a chapter and we're each going to just say one thing A little bit better.
Michael Devous:Just flip to an activity page. I mean, come on, hey, what better gift to bring than your mom's dish of green bean casserole and the book from Dr Johnny? Gratitude changes everything for Thanksgiving this year, or it just people take.
Michael Devous:I love that, do you? Are there three? I mean, I say three things that you could. You know that you want listeners to take away One, two, three things, whichever they are, other than you know, obviously, to pick up the book, read the book, buy the book, get down with it. What would you leave the audience with today if you could? Just one lasting thought or impression?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :I really want everybody to remember that, as much as gratitude changes everything, that is really something that drives at home book or notebook. Just remember that. That's what changes everything, and everything that you want and everything that you desire has already been and always will be inside you. So you just have to listen to that little voice within that's telling you what you want and what you desire. Nothing has to be earth shattering right now. It doesn't have to be. You don't have to have every answer right now. What you have to have is a conversation with yourself what do I want? And take it from there.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :But if you're going to have the questions, you've got to be able to write down the answers. So you might as well start documenting them, whether they're a wish that you burn in the backyard with a bottle of wine saying maybe, or write it down in a book and you keep it in a prominent location to say I've ordered that, where is it? Then you have to make sure that your actions are in line with what you've ordered. So all kinds of great stuff. You know, and if I can be of any help, please reach out to me. Johnnyverksoncom, and you know six weeks could be all you need for six weeks, six sessions and success.
Michael Devous:Yes, you heard it right here, dr Johnny. You can get his book. You can get your life back in order. You can find your gratitude with your attitude, you can change your practices and your habits and, ultimately, you can change your lives.
Michael Devous:Josh, I wanted to ask, I think, a few other things. Oh, about vulnerability. First of all, I want to thank you for being vulnerable and sharing your stories and your time with us today. I know that one of the things I ask of my guests is to share their vulnerability with us, to create a safe space where we can all talk about those vulnerable sides of our life, where I think vulnerability is a superpower. I think gratitude is a superpower. I think understanding our fear is a superpower. So, if you want to change your lives and you want to be more just, more I don't know more anything more happy, more gratitude, more everything, vulnerability is a great place to start.
Michael Devous:How does vulnerability play a role with gratitude? Where do these two come together for us in terms of how we deal with them? I know that people avoid vulnerability a lot because it's an uncomfortable space for them, but I believe that that's where creativity and love come from. I believe that that's the origination of our. That's the soil where we plant our seeds for all the great things that come out of life Is gratitude and vulnerability. Are they sharing some space there?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Sure sure, Vulnerability. A lot of us don't want to be vulnerable because of that magic F word. Yeah, fear. It's a fear of what people will think if we are vulnerable. It's a fear of making other people uncomfortable if we share something about ourselves that they didn't see coming at the wrong time. And there are just so many things. So we all just kind of lock that up and we don't show ourselves to each other. And we also have this lovely conditioning by a world that lives through social media's lens that we don't want to see things that don't look optimal or aren't ready for a show and don't have perfect lighting and don't have perfect backdrop. And be authentic, be messy, Put your best foot forward.
Michael Devous:Yeah, be ready to let. Is the other foot bad? Is that a bad foot? Is that like a club foot? No, no, not supposed to bring that foot with me, just the best foot Like. That's my foot. How?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :about the foot that gives you the most balance. Put that foot forward, thank you. How about that Exactly? How about that one? Yeah, I think that's a great gratitude because if you realize your power and vulnerability, you realize that everybody else is aching to be vulnerable. Everybody is aching to show you who they are, if they feel safe enough to show you that they're just like you.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :But we haven't created as a society, we haven't created that as a world, global population. We have not created that. So let's create that. Let's make it safe for everybody. Just to say this is me, yeah exactly, and I think it starts.
Michael Devous:In order to create a world where vulnerability is acceptable, it begins with you. You have to be vulnerable and you have to show other people that it's okay, and whether they agree with you or not, whether they take that step and appreciate it or not, whether they respond positively or not, it doesn't matter. Their response is not. What's important, your understanding that you've created that moment and that opportunity to be vulnerable and to share yourself, and it's different than speaking truths. Let's be clear about this. There's a lot of people out there who said well, I just said the truth. Well, yeah, speak your own truth, not other people's. By the way, it's not your place to speak other people's truth. It's your place to speak your own truth. And if you're not prepared to do it, certainly don't shout other people's from the mountaintops and none of your business. It's not your place to do it. But if you want to be vulnerable and have a vulnerable space, knowing that other people can share that, without that judgment, without that truth telling, by the way, you know, which is what people hide behind, just truth telling. I think that and I think people are dying. Brinay Brown, who talks about this, of course. I've mentioned her several times is you know. She talks about vulnerability as a superpower.
Michael Devous:I think today, what we've learned, ladies and gentlemen, from Dr Johnny is that gratitude is a superpower. I think it's a lost art form, or maybe it just needs to be reminded. You know the artist's way Big journals, oprah Winfrey, you name it. It's out there. People have been trying to share this with us for some time now, and if you need a really good reminder of gratitude, pick up Dr Johnny's. Gratitude changes everything. Get it today, write to him and tell him how it's changed your life. Write to me, hell, write to the show, talk to us, let us know how it's changed you and, as he mentioned earlier, you can get him at drjonybergstromcom. Is that right, dr Johnny? That's right.
Michael Devous:No, just johnnybergstromcom. Oh, johnny Bergstromcom. I call him Dr Johnny, because that's how I met him on the Janice Carlson show, the Diva Hour. Is there any other place we can catch you other than getting your book on like Amazon or?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :A book is available on Amazon. The Kindle version is also available on Amazon. I'm working on the audio to follow, so stay tuned, for that. Podcast is available on Apple as well as BlogTalk. Radio for gratitude changes everything, launching a new season starting soon. I don't have an exact date for that, but stay tuned. I'll let you know so you can let everybody else know. Instahandel, dr Johnny Bergstrom. That's where everything's going to be, so that one does have the doctor. So any social medias will have that there. But those can be found through my website, johnnybergstromcom.
Michael Devous:Awesome, awesome, all right, well, thank you Much gratitude to you today, dr Johnny, for sharing your time, your book with us, your journey with us, everything. I'm going to be doing my homework with his book and I'm going to be journal. Oh, you said it's going to be turned into a workbook. Are you do you have workshops and stuff that we could attend? Is there like a group related or is it one on one for these?
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Those will be works in progress, oh 2024.
Michael Devous:Probably you know as of now, the team is very small.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :So you're looking at it. This is me, this is the team. Well, I love to help you. I'm down for career.
Michael Devous:I'm down for workshop in the workshop. I will, I will, I will be there with you every step of the way, if you want, maybe not 24 seven but uh, but I would.
Michael Devous:I would enjoy the opportunity. All right, ladies and gentlemen, thanks for joining us again on the fearless road podcast. This has been Dr Johnny Bergstrom, the gratitude doctor. His book is out. Gratitude changes everything. Like I've said, pick it up, get it. It's a life changer. It makes a difference in everything that you do see and have and receive. Dr Johnny, thank you so much for coming on.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :Congratulations on your new show. Thanks for making me such a part of it in the beginning Ground battle. There we go Boom.
Michael Devous:Fearless road.
Dr. Johnny Bergstrom :We're paving it, here we go, we're off.
Michael Devous:That's it All. Right, ladies and gentlemen, go, be fearless, have an amazing day and share your gratitude with someone today, and let them feel embraced and warmed and welcomed. Otherwise, stay fearless. Check you later. Bye guys, bye.