[00:00:00] Welcome to Conversations with Catalysts. I'm your host, Jeremy West. So we're celebrating 20 episodes with a twist. I'm Elissa Freeman and I'll be interviewing the host of this podcast. Welcome Jeremy West to your show. Thank you. And Elissa full disclosure is my coach and she is who I interviewed on episode two. So check that out, please.
If you like hearing from Elissa.
Is Jeremy West. How did you end up coaching? Ooh, wow. Fantastic question. I don't know. So I am an American who at the age of 25 decided to go off and have an adventure and went and lived in Japan for a couple of years. And I told my mother that I would only be going to Japan for two years. And I kept that promise.
[00:01:00] I just didn't go back to America. I moved to Australia. Because I met and married an Australian woman in Japan. And actually that leads directly to my coaching because we had we had a 13 year relationship. It was very much in love even at the end and she ended it. It was unexpected to me. It shouldn't have been unexpected.
There were some signs, but I missed all of them. And it took me a little while to get over that relationship. And so this was seven years ago and I felt like I had lost. My own individual identity a bit. And it had . We actually, you know how celebrities like, there's like a name for the two celebrities together, like Benef and I can't remember any of the other ones.
So we made up one for us. Her name's Eliza, so we were Elia, ME, and yeah, I felt like that was. My identity was two of us together and actually [00:02:00] i'll just say Something that bothers me Now and it's because I did it so much Is when I hear couples say? Oh, yeah, we really like that movie Oh, we this and we that and i'm like deep.
Is there any differentiation between you two? Is everything? Are you just one person? So anyway I Then was a bit lost and I A friend Told me about you and I contacted you and we worked together for a while where you are my coach and you helped me find direction I went into pursuing comedy for a bit and then Stand up comedy.
And then I realized that if I was going to put a lot of time into writing stuff that I was going to say on stage. I actually wanted it to be more real and important than me what I felt I was able to do in comedy and open mics and all of that my next guest is going to be my favorite Comedian mike caplan and he actually puts a lot of [00:03:00] self development stuff within his comedy and his podcast and stuff But I didn't feel the freedom to do that at open mics people were just there for random laughs at Or they were even just there to have a meal at the pub or whatever.
So anyway, I decided, you know what, I had a psychology degree and your coaching helped me so much more than any psychologist that I had ever seen, that I decided rather than continuing My studies in psychology, I would go and get certified as a coach and become a speaker and a coach. So that's how I ended up here.
And it's an absolute pleasure to to have coached you and to get to know you and to help you on your journey. Thank you very much, Elissa. You're welcome. You help people, but what would be the one thing that you want to bring into the world? What is the one thing? Ah, okay. Yeah, so this is a question.
Just a [00:04:00] spoiler or a little behind the scenes. Actually, the questions that I asked coaches, I. Gave to Elissa and obviously she can ask any other questions she wants to but This question is one that I was just at work one day and someone said if there was if you were to bring any one or sorry if you could bring More of any one thing into the world.
What would it be? And I was like I had to think about it for a bit and I thought It was freedom was my answer at the time. But I thought, wow, what a profound question to help people to find their purpose in life. And it changed for me from, I still believe very highly in freedom, but happiness is more important to me.
And this, there's a really good book called Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl. Have you read that? Oh, I have, and it's it's one I often recommend to my clients. Yeah, and I'll put it, I'll [00:05:00] put on Jeremy west. net underneath Jeremy chats with coaches is a link to any books that we talk about on Jeremy chats with coaches.
This one was in a concentration camp and he somehow was able to, so he was not free at least not physically free, but he was able to hold on to, his own mental freedom, but more, I guess more importantly, he was able to have a bit of joy. I'm not saying he was happy all the time while he was there, but he was able to think about his wife that he wanted to see when he got out, which spoiler alert, she was Actually dead when he got out, but that was what kept him alive.
Was that hope of seeing his wife again because of the happiness that he had with his wife. So I guess my point is I've decided that that freedom is important, but you have to fight for freedom. You have to, there's, governments are always trying to take away freedom and whatever, but what the one take away [00:06:00] is your mindset.
If you decide to keep that. Mindset of positivity or whatever, even if you're in a concentration camp, you can continue to be happy. That is what I want to bring more of into the world is happiness. Yeah, 100 percent agree with you there. I think it's got a lot to do with what's inside your head because you can also see people who seemingly have it all and they can still be trapped in our happiness.
Yeah, I think it's, yeah it's very much to do with how you see the outside environment. So we all have glasses of some sort that give us a perspective and you can be rich, have it all, have kids and a white picket fence and a spouse and the perfect job and everything's perfect on the outside. The glasses you wear are negative glasses that only see I don't know that the lawn's not mowed or [00:07:00] whatever it is. They only, it only sees the negative. Whereas you can be Eckhart Tolle and homeless and still find the joy in watching birds or watching people or whatever it is. So it's a, Yeah, I'm not saying that you have to be poor to be happy or you'll be miserable if you're rich, not at all.
I'm just saying that no matter what your circumstances are, it's the glasses that you're looking at your circumstances through that are going to affect how you feel about everything. Yeah, exactly. If you've got a client who has these glasses on and they're not even aware of them, and they've got these.
How do you identify it and how do you change that or unlock that person's potential? I find that it really comes down to asking I think maybe this is the same thing you said with it on episode two, but maybe not. [00:08:00] Somebody else said it. I don't know. It was, it's really comes down to just asking good questions.
And more importantly, Drilling down with those questions, because it usually takes a good five questions or so before you, at least before you uncover what's really going on deep down. Yeah, there's something, some reason that the first time we could ask the question on something that's really deep. We only give it sort of surface level answer.
Maybe, and we're only probably just the answer. I don't know. Yeah. Oh, my favorite my favorite response to that. I was taught not any kind of coaching or counseling or anything. It was in but very much psychology. It was in sales. Sales is what got me interested in studying psychology in the first place.
And my sales trainer said, anytime anyone answers, I don't know. He. His next question is okay, but if you did know what would it be? And nine times out of ten they give an [00:09:00] answer then. That's right. Yeah, we're just giving them some time to really think it through because sometimes we don't think about what that real problem is.
Yeah, so it's just really where you use this and you made a difference to someone. Tell us a story. Fav, my favorite one is she may have been my first client. I think she was, but anyway she, her, I'll just give her a name. Let's say Susan. She came to 1 of my seminars called 6 steps to getting over your X. And the reason she came in the 1st place was because. In court in the in divorce court the her ex husband's lawyer had said oh, she's still hung up on something about the relationship and she didn't think she was but She went ahead and sought out Me she I don't know googled or whatever.
She found me somehow and came to the seminar and then became came then to a weekend [00:10:00] Workshop that I held it was going to be in person, but it was April of 2020 or something and covid just shut everything down so it ended up on zoom But there's a group of us that all went through together over Two or three days.
I don't remember this boot camp where we really went deep into everything regarding You Getting past the relationship and she later told me in I, I got her to give me a bit of a testimonial and she told me things I didn't know, but that she had gotten so much more out of my coaching that, sorry, I guess we did end up doing six months together as well after that, and she said she got so much more out of my coaching than just processing it.
The end of her relationship, she was able to go back into old childhood traumas, and then she was let go of [00:11:00] those. She said that when she was talking to me on the testimonial, it was the very first time that she was able to talk about it without crying because she processed it with me in those sessions.
And then and then that has nothing to do with her breakup. And then she said all the different processes and techniques. I had taught her. She was able to take into her daily life to be really mindful in the here and now and also When she saw the problems in the here and now, she was also seeing that those would be resolved and she had a future and she was at that time, really looking forward to that future whether she was going to be with another partner in the future or remain single didn't matter.
She's happy as she is. So that's great. That's Susan. Wonderful. That's wonderful. I'm so and that's all I'll say as well. That's really what a lot of people got confused. Like the people that were helping me market got confused by what I was doing. They thought, or [00:12:00] they thought I should be marketing how to find your next partner or something.
And no, when someone has had this massive breakup, I want them to learn how to be. happy to the point that they can be happy whether they get a new partner or not. And that usually, when people do find the right partner, it's usually when they have no longer need someone else to make them happy. And then they find someone else who also doesn't need someone else to make them happy.
And they're able to be, instead of being this codependent couple that that relying on the other one for their happiness, they're able to Give out of not out of need, but out of just love and desire. And but the cool thing is that while that may make it more likely that you'll find that partner It doesn't matter because you've learned to be happy whether you do or not Yes, they all love thyself first Yes And [00:13:00] then you can love so many people think So many people who are single think I need to find the right partner to be happy.
I think that's backwards I need to learn how to be happy to find the right partner. Yeah. Yeah You Exactly. And with people that have these challenges, how do you guide them through the things that come up? So there's a reason why they're looking for the partner to make them happy rather than the other way around.
So how do you flip that? I, Really, I use processes that come from mindfulness based cognitive therapy, or otherwise known as act, which is acceptance and commitment therapy. It really comes down to 1st. The 1st step I don't know if I'll go through all 6 steps of 6 steps of 6 steps. To getting over your ex, but the 1st step is to really let go of that person, which [00:14:00] usually unless you're needing to keep in contact for co parenting, it usually means cutting off all contact and going cold turkey because that person would.
Is a bit of an addiction in your life because they have been so much a part of your life every day for however many years that you have to treat it like an addiction and really completely let go of it. Maybe sometime in a couple of years when you are. Over it. You can go back to being friends or whatever, but anyway, that's the first step.
But then after that, it really comes down to finding, and I've found as I've been doing this podcast, I've found that every coach I talked to, no matter what kind of coaching they do, and no matter what methods they use and whatever, every coach seems to really be an identity coach. Every coach is helping people find.
Their own true identity who they really are without [00:15:00] it being you know What their parents want them to be or what they feel like society wants them to be Or what their friends want them to be but they find their true self and then and their true values and live according to those values and so That's what I help people do is First, let go of that old relationship.
Second, find who you are as an individual and become that person. And then and then because you're doing that's where you're able to be. happy as yourself as an individual. And then of course, you may find someone else that's happy with themselves as an individual to to partner up with. Yes.
But I guess to answer your question, what it is I help them find their true identity and their values. And live according to those values and be their true self. How does that relate to goals? They might, would the goal be related to happiness and being happy without anyone? [00:16:00] Before you move on to their goal of perhaps being in a partnership or other goals, not relate.
No goals are related. Yeah, once you've found your values, then. Like the sixth step of the six steps is to take mindful action. So you find your values and then because according to your values, then you set some goals and then you go from what your goals are, that may be five, maybe one year, five years, 10 years out in the future, and you work your way backwards, if I'm going to get there in a year, five years, 10 years, then.
What are all the steps that I take to get there and you work your way backwards to the very first step that's attainable maybe today, and Yeah, when you're focusing On I just I've just found it's a natural process when you're focusing on your values And you're focusing on [00:17:00] working towards goals that are within those values You just naturally let go of I need someone else to make me happy That's what I've found.
What about those people that are stuck in doubting themselves or they're lacking motivation? And I know that, this is a common problem that people come to coaches for. What's your strategy to help them overcome those? So that for me always comes down to what we call in. Both of us were certified.
You were certified a few times, but both of us have been certified by Ben Benjamin. Wait a minute. I was gonna say Benjamin Freeman, Benjamin Harvey at Authentic Education, and we talk about chunking, which is exactly what I just described taking that large goal and then chunking it down to smaller and smaller goals until you get to something that can be accomplished.
Thank you. accomplished today. And what they've found in [00:18:00] studies is people think when I feel motivated, then I will do that thing. But it turns out that's again, backwards. Motivation doesn't just sometimes, I guess sometimes it does just strike and then that's great. Use it to do some of the hardest things when motivation just strikes suddenly.
But most of the time when you start doing the little things. Then you start getting motivated to continue trajectory. When someone's having trouble with motivation I'm just going to use an example that's not related to Breaking a breakup or identity or whatever. Let's just say someone's wanting to run every day, but they're just not feeling motivated to run.
Their chunking may need to come down to, okay, today, what I'm going to do is I'm going to put on my running shoes and maybe something that small. And for the next seven days, I'll put on my running shoes every day. And then after that, that I've got [00:19:00] used to that, I can do that. Now I'm going to. Put on my running shoes and I'm going to go out and walk to the end of the driveway or whatever it is, probably most people can do things a little bit bigger than this.
But if they're really that having that much trouble with motivation, we just jump down to that level. And I'll also say something that I haven't used with clients yet, but I've just started using with myself is a really cool free app called Habitica. It's just a fancy to do list really, but it, take it, you make a it's, it, you've got three different sections.
Habits habits, daily things that you do every day, and then your sort of to do list into the future. And every time you tick off one of those things you get experience points and health. It's turned your real life into sort of a RPG a role playing game and it's amazing Yeah, because the studies have shown any time You turn anything [00:20:00] That you need to do into a game It makes you much more likely to do it and get things done you know that with little kids where you turn cleaning up their room into a game or whatever But it works with adults too, and it's so silly.
It's really just a glorified to do list. I don't really care about You The experience or health or oh you go up in levels when you get enough experience or health I don't know. I don't pay any attention to it except when it comes up and says you've leveled up or whatever It's just a little dopamine hit.
And yeah, it really helps get things done. It's pretty cool. It's called habitica h a b i Oh, that sounds really cool because it is one of those things that motivation we can be motivated to do the things that we love to do, or that are fun, but not necessarily motivated to do the things that we know we really need to do to move us forward.
Yeah. And the other thing I'll mention from a book called Eat That Frog. Have you heard of that one? Yeah. Yes. So I don't even know if I've read it. I may have just read the summary, but [00:21:00] either way the idea is that if there's something hard that you have to get done, do that first. Because we, people think that, oh, wow, that guy is successful.
He obviously has a lot of self discipline and he's really motivated. The secret is everybody has self discipline and motivation, but we only have so much of it and we use it up throughout the day. So the first thing. If you do the hardest thing, first thing in the morning or, when you first start doing your work or whatever, then you get that done.
Whereas if you put that off to the end of the day, then you'll put it off to the end of the next day and the end of the next day and the end of the next day. It'll never get done. And then the other thing is another book that I can't think of the name of right now, but you always ask yourself, what is the one thing that I can do right now that will make everything else easier or unnecessary?
Yeah, it's something I ask myself all the time as well. Yeah. And that's the cool thing about Habitica is it gives me like a bit of a menu [00:22:00] of things to do. And then I can look at it and go out of these things, which of these things going to do right now that will be that will make everything else easier or unnecessary.
And I try to do that. Yeah. It's helping with you and you're passing that onto your clients as well. Yeah. I haven't passed it on to clients yet, but I'm doing it right now on the podcast and then I will do it with people working with me as well. Yeah, I think that sounds really good.
And I think use whatever tool you can to make your life better and move yourself forward. I think this is one of the things that what works, do it. And if that works, then it's a great one to do and a great one for people to try out for sure. So Jeremy, what do you reckon your core philosophy is behind like the whole, the big thing behind all of your coaching?
Yeah, behind my coaching and behind my life really is the idea that now is the only moment that truly exists. And so when [00:23:00] we're I don't know where I read this, but it's always stuck with me, that depression is when you're stuck in the past, and anxiety is when you're stuck in the future, and peace is when you're in the here and now.
Yes. That's right. When you've gotten rid of the past and the future and what you're worrying about with those things, and you're in that present moment, the vast majority of us are in a place of a really good place, a place of peace. And then even when there's, even when there's a lot of crap going on in your life, which usually most people have, there's bigger and smaller things, but it doesn't really matter that.
That other people's problems are a lot bigger than yours. If that's the case, that doesn't make any difference. You, we adapt to our level of circumstances. If you're letting those things that are wrong bother you, they will bother you, even if other people have worse problems. But whatever is going on in your life, whether it's.
Much worse [00:24:00] than other people or not as bad as other people doesn't matter. The here and now is Like the eye Of a hurricane so all this other stuff can be going on in your life But if you just come back to the here and now and people will ask me what about if you're if the here and now is that you've got, bombs dropping on you or whatever guess what?
You're just taking action. You're not actually being anxious. You're taking action to do whatever you have to do to save your life. So even in that circumstance, I don't think if you're in the here and now you're having a lot of anxiety, you're just doing what needs to be done. But most of the time in this moment this is, I don't remember who I heard this from either, but in this moment, there is rarely a problem.
Usually your problems are in the past or in the future. And if you can just come back to this moment, you're in the eye of that storm. Love that. The eye of the storm. That's a really great way to look at it. I love that one. I'm going to use [00:25:00] that. Yeah see, if you, so if you're thinking the storm is stuff in the past and stuff in the future.
So if you're, if your mind is stuck in the past or the future, you're whirling around in that storm. But if you bring it back to the here and now, then all of a sudden you're in the eye of the storm and the storm's out there, you're safe where you are. How do you get people to come back to that here and now, that eye of the storm and be in that place of peace?
Well, I. I think, yeah, I've heard people say that you can do this with little exercises throughout your day, and you don't have to learn to meditate and whatever, and you probably can, but for me, meditation is the practice that 100 percent yeah. is exercising that coming back to the here and now. A lot of people say I can't meditate because my mind just keeps wandering, but that's what meditation is.
Your mind, everybody's, no matter if you're a monk that's [00:26:00] been practicing for 20 years, everyone's mind wanders. What meditation is noticing that your mind is wandering and bringing it back to whatever your object of meditation is. Often it's your breath. Whatever it is. And because in meditation, your mind is constantly wandering and you're constantly bringing it back to the here and now, the more you practice meditation daily, for about 20 minutes, I would say, is where the research shows you do at least 20 minutes daily.
Getting something out of it. One minute, three minutes, five minutes, Up to 20 minutes. That exercise every single day allows you throughout the day to then keep bringing your attention back to the here and now whenever you find it wondering. So I do coach all of my clients to to meditate. Yeah, I love that.
I think that's a really good point that you made that everyone's mind [00:27:00] wanders because I hear that too. People will say to me, I can't meditate because I can't. concentrate on just my breath or whatever it is that I'm concentrating on. I'll go off on a tangent my mind. And then do you ever, so I say, do you ever notice that you've gone off on a tangent?
Yes. Okay, good. Then you're doing it right. You've noticed that you've gone off on a tangent and now you bring your attention back to your breath. Then you're doing it right. Exactly. And and this is, this method is tried and true. There's so much research on this. method. It sounds, it's so simple.
It's so incredibly effective. So my favorite comedian, Mike Kaplan, who is the next guest on this podcast. Episode 21 he, I heard him make a joke once that said long time breather, first time meditator, which is cause I don't know if, if it might be American where people call radio shows and say long time listener, first time caller.
Long time breather, first time [00:28:00] meditator. Yeah, nice. Thank goodness they're breathing. That's a good thing. With this method, how how does that translate for results for your clients? How has that helped your clients? What I teach is that when we we do there's a little bit of, in my, okay.
So my my 15 year old has asked me like, if you always focus on the here and now, then that means you never look towards the future or plan for the future or whatever, and it's no. But. Most of us, at least those of us who struggle with depression or anxiety get swept away into thinking about the past or get swept away into thinking about the future.
That needs to be intentional. So when you are planning for your future and setting goals, that's what you're doing in the here and now. And you're intentionally doing that in the here and now. And then. But we then make those goals and then chunk [00:29:00] back to what we chunk back to what we can do in the here and now, and then focus on that here and now.
And it's if you are driving and a big semi truck way off in the distance a couple kilometers away, because it's a long stretch of road. You can. Notice that off in the future, but you need to have the majority of your attention on what's right here on the car in the here and now.
So it's the same thing. We set our goals out there in the future. We have some attention for that, but then we backtrack to what we need to do here and now. What was the question? How does it translate into results so it translates into results because we set those goals for the future but then if you were to for example set a goal to I don't know.
Start get a business started. By and [00:30:00] have 10 clients by a year from now And you just kept your attention completely on a year from now, I'm going to have 10 clients and didn't do anything, then you wouldn't accomplish that goal. You need to backtrack from what you want that 10 clients out in the future to what do I need to do right now?
Oh I want to have 10 clients as a coach. Then what I need to do right now is set up myself as a guest on Jeremy's podcast, Jeremy chats with coaches. No but no it's, It translates into results because we look at what you want to do in the future and then we backtrack to what you can do.
In here now, and where you can focus on in here now, and having those goals. Allows you to now have something to focus on in the here and now, and that then translates as you take step, small step after small step. All of a sudden, here you are a year later, and you've got 20 clients or 30 clients, often [00:31:00] exceeds your expectations.
But it all comes back to what can I do here and now. Yeah. It's a really cool perspective. I love that. So do you find yourself giving some advice that you tend to give all your clients or anyone else who will listen, do you find that there's one thing that you're often coming back to that you're telling, advising and telling people?
Yeah. I don't think I still own it, but I used to own the web URL. thatnowguy. com because you've already heard it over and over again in this conversation and I'd say that's the bit of wisdom that I give out the most is now is the, I've already said it, now is the only moment that truly exists.
And has that helped you in your life as well? 100%. So those who've, I've mentioned it several times over the course of These first 20 episodes. But I on the [00:32:00] 7th of March 2024, so now about six, seven weeks ago, I fell off the top of a ladder as I was stepping off my roof. And the first thing my doctor said to me was, I don't, a lot of people who fall from that height don't see because they're dead.
But. Those that I do see generally are permanently in a wheelchair and a lot of them can't even talk None of that happened for me. I broke 18 bones and But they're all I didn't even have to have surgery, they're all expected to heal and i'm Extremely grateful for that and over the course of the last six seven weeks my mindset has stayed very positive where in the past You I would have started getting very anxious about the fact that I wasn't I'm not able to work for 12 weeks and the normal I've been doing work [00:33:00] with disability support.
I'm not able to do that. And I. And what? Yeah. So I guess in the past, I would have been getting very anxious about where it was money going to come from and what I'm going to do, blah, blah, blah. But I have found that by staying in the here and now. And not getting drawn into the future or the past.
Why didn't I do this before or that before? Whatever. By staying here now, I have maintained a very positive outlook on life, even through this injury and the 12 weeks off work and all of that. Yeah, that's how it's that's one way that it has, that has helped me. And I've actually been surprised by how positive my mindset has stayed.
But I guess all of the things that I've been teaching and now applying in my own life are working. So you really are walking the talk. Yeah. That's yeah, walking the talk. So it's not just what you're talking about and [00:34:00] teaching. You're actually doing it yourself. Yeah. Yeah and i've been doing it i've been doing it.
Over the last several years but testing it in this sort of Trauma event is different and especially because I wasn't doing it when I first had my breakup which is very traumatic event and I learned it over the next several years. And it made this big difference to me, but now seeing how it helps in an acute trauma at the moment.
It helps me see how my clients who have taken my coaching, have been able to, to. To I guess get past their breakups a lot faster than I did because they're using the things that I learned over the course of years They're able to be because they've become my clients right after their breakup they're able to learn these lessons that I learned over a course of years in a much Maybe six eight weeks or whatever they do with the [00:35:00] teaching that I do And able to use it in the moment instead of I think the listeners would agree with me in that it's an absolute miracle that you did some damage to your body, but it could have been so much worse. You may not have been here. You could have been in a wheelchair the rest of your life, I don't know. Would you call that a miracle? I would.
Yeah and also I could have not been, I don't know what, why I wouldn't be able to talk, maybe a head injury or something, but whatever it, when he, that was the bit that hit me a lot harder than being stuck in a wheelchair was that I might not have been able to talk, because as you can see in this episode, even though I think I've been pretty good at letting the guests talk in the other episodes, you can see in this episode that I love to talk.
So have we. I don't want that taken away from me. Lots of wonderful things to share. Do you think that this accident and this miracle and for you to really be in the moment with this and you're laughing and you've been through all this [00:36:00] incredible trauma, do you think it has anything to do, I'm getting a bit woo here, anything to do with your purpose?
Yeah, definitely. Okay. You and I when we talked, I think before we made that episode two, you said that I had a the, hold on, I'm going to think of this, the brick, the, no, sorry, the feather, the brick and the truck experience, is that correct? And so this is a, this podcast as an example is something I've been wanting to create for years and I say it at the end of every episode, it's for two, maybe three types of people.
One is anybody interested in self development and to just learn and glean all this wisdom that they can. From all different coaches all different types of coaching all different philosophies all that kind of stuff and then two Is people who I don't know why I said three The second is people who hear a particular coach and go I need that [00:37:00] person in my life.
So Either way I wanted to make this podcast for years to help People because I knew there was so much wisdom that could be shared by so many different coaches But I haven't Done it and I've just got distracted by other work that I've been doing and whatever else. And so I lost my job in October and I think that I that was the feather but I ignored it and just found a new job.
That's the feather saying you need to go back into, doing your coaching again, and you need to start this podcast and you do that and I ignored it. And then. The. Wait a minute. That was the brick. The feather was just years of thinking about it. And then the truck hit me by me falling off the roof and surviving pretty much intact.
18 broken bones, but none of them even were displaced. And yeah, that, that was enough for me to go. Okay, I'm gonna start this podcast. I'm gonna start it in hospital and get a [00:38:00] few several episodes banked and all that kind of stuff. So Yeah, it has definitely Pushed me back into the world of coaching because as I said i've been doing disability support work but I have that was mainly because tried to change niches with my coaching.
And at the same time as there were changes to facebook where they aren't able to do as targeted advertising as they used to. And so I ended up spending all of the marketing money that I had. And so when I finished up with my last batch of people that I was coaching, I just went, I don't have any money for marketing.
I think I'm just gonna have to find a job. And so I did, and I've been. That whole time I've been that, so it's been a couple of years that I've been just working jobs and I've keep thinking I need to go back to my purpose. I need to go back to helping people in, I do help people in disability [00:39:00] support work, but I feel like there is, my coaching is much more my purpose.
And so I'm finally coming back into that. Yeah. Wow. So you did a full circle. Yeah. And when you're coaching. your clients, what would you say that is the real end result they get from working with you? Okay, so I think that the real end result is happiness. However I agree with this book called The Happiness Trap that the more you seek happiness, the the less you'll find it.
What you need to do is seek To live according to your values and make goals according to your values and work towards those goals. And I think not being focused on the goals, but being focused on more on the here and now what you're doing, working as you [00:40:00] work towards those goals. And then the by product of living according to your values and your true self is.
That you get happiness, but that can't be what you're seeking. What you're seeking has to be living according to your values. So people that work with me, So living according to your values is really what's going to bring you happiness. Yeah. But doing it for the value's sake, not for the happiness sake.
It's a little bit of it. Yeah nice little caveat there. I like it. Yeah. And also I think that the more you focus on other people and helping other people with the caveat, other people that want your help. If you're helping people that don't want your help, that's a codependent relationship. But yeah, people that helping people that want your help the more you focus on.
Helping other people, the less you're focused on your own problems and the happier you'll be.
Now we totally went off on a tangent during this chat, but I'm just wondering if there's [00:41:00] anything you didn't get to say as much as you wanted to, now's your opportunity. No. I think that that is, yeah. Everything that we've covered, I've said everything I wanted to, in this conversation. Okay, so is there anything that I didn't know to bring up that we missed in the life of, and the work of you, of Jeremy West?
Yeah I guess I will just bring in my hobby, which is improv theatre. Okay. And say that for me, impromptu theater is the one place besides meditation in my life where I'm the most mindful. Because when you're, I don't know how much listeners know about impromptu theater, but think something like Whose Line Is It Anyway, or in Australia, Thank God You're Here.
When you're creating something out of thin air with someone [00:42:00] on stage on the spot, you can't be thinking about your problems or what you're gonna get at the supermarket or whatever else. You have to be really in there in the moment to be paying attention, close attention to what they're saying and doing.
And creating to be able to create that together. So if you want something besides meditation to help you be mindful, look in your area to see if there's an improv group, and even if you don't perform, they generally will do classes where you learn all these skills anyway, that translate into real life.
And if you take the class, that doesn't mean you have to. performed. And it brings play back into adults lives. So I highly recommend Improv Theatre to be in the here and now.
100 percent agree with you there. Having done improv myself it's really It's personal development, but you get to [00:43:00] play and act out. Yeah. It doesn't feel like it, it doesn't feel like work at all, but you are doing personal development work. That's right. And you end up leaving a class with huge realizations about the human condition and yourself and and incredible growth.
It's and it's a lot of fun. I would highly recommend it too. I'm with you. Have you performed as well, or have you just taken classes? Yes, I've performed as well. And I don't mind the performing. I think the performing was had, it has its own lessons of course, but I think that the classes where you learn particular games and how to respond to something or how to react to something, which is can be incredible for our personal development and our professional development as well.
And I actually I guess Another thing I need to get off my butt and do besides this podcast is i've been again thinking and planning for [00:44:00] years to start up a class that was Play based mindfulness, so basically improv theater as a mindfulness as training and mindfulness, Yeah, and with no plan actually to even necessarily have the group perform, but it could turn into that as well.
But really it being all about learning the skills of mindfulness through play.
Awesome. So Jeremy, the point of this podcast you were telling me was that so anyone who listens and they can, they will glean things they can on self development and from hearing all your chats and you'll hear different coaches as well. And for those people who are ready to hear from that person that they need in their life to be able to contact them and get started.
So for those listeners who today are saying, I need Jeremy West in my life to help me move forward. How do they find you?
Thank you for [00:45:00] asking, Elissa. what I'm doing right now is an eight week mindfulness course, but I gave away the first week. So, anybody can sign up for my free introduction to mindfulness Workshop and it's live online. So anyone can take it from anywhere in the world just go to Jeremy West net and at the top of the page there Jeremy West on that.
You will see a link to the next free workshop so pop in there and have a look at that and Learn how to live in the present moment. That's an incredible gift to give people a free session with you, Jeremy. I would highly recommend that anyone listening here, if you resonate with anything that Jeremy has said to go to the website, which again is JeremyWest. net. Yep. And click that button. And all my links are there, including the [00:46:00] link to all the previous episodes of this podcast.
Excellent. Thank you so much, Jeremy, for opening up and telling us all about your coaching and how your life works in with that. It was absolutely fascinating. I hope everyone else loved it as much as I did and and looking forward to hearing some more from you. And thank you for interviewing me.
And if people want to find you, Elissa, where do they find you? Elissa Freeman. com. au. I name, I know it's a bit tricky to spell, but it's E L I S S A F R E E M A N. com. au. And there's a a contact form there that you can fill out and fill out. Touch base and we can see where we go from. Fantastic.
Thank you again, Elissa, and we'll talk to you again soon. Thank you very much. Good to hear from you, Jeremy. And I hope that we get to, I get to interview you again soon. . Next time it's my turn to interview you [00:47:00] again. . Done . Thanks. Excellent.