#66: Welcome to PEP TALK! Let's Catch Up!

Ever wondered how a simple shift could reignite your passion? This episode of Pep Talk unveils the thrilling start to Season 3, where I share the journey of transforming "Pep Talk Podcast" into "Pep Talk," reflecting our mission to give you that essential weekly boost. I will recap my own hurdles and victories, exploring how a supportive community and honest conversations with loved ones can anchor us through the storms of self-doubt and imposter syndrome.

Season 2's challenges with statistical growth took a toll, but I've emerged stronger and more committed than ever. This chapter is a heartfelt recount of those struggles and the small steps that fueled my growth. Join me in this candid narrative where we emphasize the power of community in overcoming personal battles. Your feedback and topic suggestions are invaluable as we embark on this journey together. 

Tune in, engage, and let's make Season 3 the most impactful yet.

Chapters

• 0:00 Pep Talk Podcast Rebranding and Changes
• 15:24 Pep Talk Season Three Updates

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

When's the last time you had a pep talk? Pep talk, pep talk, yo. When's the last time you had a pep talk? Has it been a minute? That's okay, you're in the right place. I've got you. Welcome to pep talk. Let's get it, yo. What is up out there, pep Squad, how you doing?

Speaker 1: 0:28

Welcome to Pep Talk with your host, coach J, life Coach in Dallas-Fort Worth, and this podcast signals the beginning of Season 3. It's been a minute. I've been in the basement for about two months just enjoying life. Life's been busy, closing out another school year, lots of cool stuff happening, but I missed y'all. I missed you and I'm glad to be back here with you. Welcome to Pep Talk, the podcast that cheers you on and coaches you up.

Speaker 1: 1:04

If this is your first time listening, the belief of this podcast is simple. I believe that everybody needs a cheerleader to encourage them and tell them how great they are, but we also need a coach that's going to help us to elevate and begin to turn that potential and move it towards a productive purpose. And so I'm your boy. I'm your boy for that. And this is season three, y'all. We have two seasons in the books, approximately somewhere between 64 to 65 episodes, and yo we've been rocking and we've been rolling and, like I said, I took a break toward the middle part of April and I've just kind of been enjoying life, just enjoying life, enjoying the family, and just thinking about the podcast and what I wanted to do with it. And so in this first episode I want to talk about kind of what's been happening with me with life and what's going to be different about the podcast as we move forth. Now the big thing that you're going to notice is I no longer refer to the podcast as the Pep Talk podcast.

Speaker 1: 2:14

I thought that Pep Talk podcast, while it kind of rolls off of the tongue, I really like it. But I also like the idea that I mean, y'all are tuning in. You know that this is not, you know, a song. This is not a music video. This is not first take with Stephen A Smith and Shannon Sharp. It's a podcast. So you know, if you're tuning in on Apple Podcasts, spotify, wherever you're listening, you know it's a podcast. So I don't think that I needed the podcast at the end because you're coming for the pep talk, right.

Speaker 1: 2:44

And so I thought that pep talk, rebranding the podcast just as simply pep talk. It gets right to the purpose of what we're doing, the heart of the matter, what we're trying to accomplish with this endeavor. We're trying to give you a pep, a pep talk to get you through the week, to give you some place to run so that when you're out there living life, you're crushing your dreams, you're crushing your goals, or maybe you're not. Maybe life is hard for you in the moment. You still have something in the back of your mind, something in your toolbox that you can use to make it through the remainder of your week, and so that's what we're trying to provide that pep for you. So it's no longer the pep talk podcast, it's pep talk, a podcast that cheers you on and coaches you up.

Speaker 1: 3:31

You'll also notice that our intro music is different. Y'all I know so many of y'all out there messaged in saying how much you all really vibed to the old intro intro music. I hope that you all will vibe to this one equally. I like it. I'm doing my chair dance as it's going. You know it's a little bit more hip-hop-ish, uh, which I I love, and I love a lot of different musical influences. So I can't say that this is the last time that the music is going to change. But for right now, we're going to rock with this one and I hope, hope that you all can rock with it. I think it's fire. I hope you think it's fire, all right. So we've talked about the name, we've talked about the change in the music.

Speaker 1: 4:15

Now, this season, in the podcast, I am going to be incorporating mindset strategies, but I'm also going to be incorporating more of my faith into this podcast. I'm going to talk more about my life, of faith, my failures in it, how it's impacted my mindset and things of that nature. I'm gonna bring in a lot of different guests, not just from motivational spaces and mindset spaces, but I'm trying to broaden our horizons because I believe that, no matter the sphere of influence, no matter what category of life someone's living in, I believe that everybody has something that is motivational. I believe that everybody has a pep talk inside of them. And so, as I begin looking for guests and reaching out to guests who've already let me know that they wanted to come on, my aim is to really give you all of me first two seasons. But also, as I was thinking and listening back to the episodes, I think that there was some really impactful avenues for me to integrate my faith into the podcast and now listen.

Speaker 1: 5:34

I understand that everybody who listens to this podcast may not be a Christian, may not believe in God, may not believe in anything. You may be atheist or agnostic, whatever it is. Believe in God May not believe in anything. You may be atheist or agnostic, whatever it is. This is still the podcast that is inclusive. I still want you to listen. You are still a member of the pep squad, but in our quest to be more authentic and to just be more Just, more of me, because I've talked about my faith a lot in different episodes and I'm not going to preach to you. I'm not going to come every podcast giving you a chapter and a scripture and a verse, but I don't want you looking at your podcast crazy when I start talking about my faith and talking about biblical references that are helping me through various points in my life.

Speaker 1: 6:24

I believe that's important. I really do, and you know if me sharing more of my faith and being more transparent in that vein, if that helps you, if that encourages you, hey, I think that's great because, truth be told y'all, I am a former pastor. My wife and I served on a pastoral staff for a church for a long time in Joplin, missouri, and so that is an important part of my life and I want to start bringing more of that into the podcast space. So, you know, just keep listening, keep rocking, keep rolling, and I need y'all to let me know what you like and what you don't like as far as the content for this season and if there are topics that you loved from the past two seasons that you want us to dig more into, I want to hear from you. Hit me up at thepeppodcast, at gmailcom, or hit me up on IG at underscore JBSpeaks. I am contemplating starting an Instagram account for the podcast.

Speaker 1: 7:27

I just don't know. I don't know. I know last season I tried to do a Facebook group that I may resurrect. I'm not sure about that. Listen, at this point every option is on the table and there's gonna be some tinkering here and there as we're going through this, but yo, it's the same heart, y'all. It's the same motivation, it's the same energy, it's the same. Coach Jay, I am rooting for you as much as I ever have. I want to see you become the best possible version of yourself and I want to play just a very small, small role in helping you get there, to help you become unlocked.

Speaker 1: 8:09

Now, what has been happening to me? Well, let's see, I did a sample episode on Mother's Day and I just kind of talked about mothers and I talked about the fact that I'd been in therapy, and I think I alluded to that fact as we closed out season two, that I was going to be in therapy. Now I view therapy so much different than I did prior. My wife had tried to get me to go to therapy countless times and I just, you know I wasn't against therapists, but I also, you know, wasn't in favor, because I had this opinion that I think, you know, if you poll a lot of people who don't go to therapy or people who don't believe in therapy, they probably say the same thing I can do it on my own and I'm one of those people who self-therapizes.

Speaker 1: 9:02

I think I'm really meta when it comes to myself and my mental processes and my emotions and all of that things. I think about those things all of the time, and so I thought honestly that no therapist could do what I could do for myself. Yet when I looked at my life and I've said this on the podcast several times success leaves clues, but so does failure. And, as I looked at my life, there were so many things that I could honestly say I know this, but I didn't have the fruit to bear it out. This, but I didn't have the fruit to bear it out. Right, I'm planting apples, but apples are not sprouting. Oranges are sprouting or pineapples are sprouting, and so as I looked at my life and I could see that my fruit was not indicating that I actually knew some of the things that I thought that I knew.

Speaker 1: 10:02

Okay, and also the fact that you know, as I talked about in the Mother's Day episode, I was still processing some things grief-wise, on the anniversary of my biological mom's passing, I got a therapist and it has been incredible. My therapist is really helping me to understand how I can come onto this podcast every week and tell you that you have to eliminate the negative self-talk, that you have to treat yourself like your own best friend, that you have to give yourself grace and mercy and forgiveness the same things that we extend to other people. He helped me to understand why I could say that to you and believe that it's true for you but not for me. And I'm just going to be. I'm going to be completely honest with you y'all, everything that I say on this podcast I truly, wholeheartedly believe and I truly wholeheartedly want it for you.

Speaker 1: 10:57

But when it came to me it was almost like listening, going back and listening to episodes. It was almost like the Charlie Brown, the Charlie Brown adults. You know how the Charlie Brown adults sounded. You know the kids would sound normal and then you would hear the bra, bra, bra, bra, bra, bra. You know it was gibberish, it was unintelligible, and so my therapist has really helped me to begin breaking down the reasons why I have perpetuated these stories about myself that I continue to tell myself almost on a loop. And it's been just really, really good for me to take a break from the podcast, because at the end of season two, y'all, I was tired. I was tired mentally, I was tired emotionally, and being in therapy has really helped me to begin to self-regulate in a very, very healthy way. And I've given myself several pep talks, because you know we're not millionaires yet. You know what I'm saying. There have been, we've had some, a lot of bumps in the road since I was last here with you regularly, and being in therapy has helped me in the way that I think about those things but also how I think about myself and my identity in the middle of those chaotic moments. And I think therapy has also helped me to really begin digging into some questions of what do I want my life to be.

Speaker 1: 12:42

I tend to identify myself as a multi-hyphenate creative. I know I have some of y'all out there. We have talents and giftings in a lot of different places and spaces and so that makes it hard for us to really narrow down a lane to stick to. And one thing my therapist told me he said yo, you are good in a lot of things, you can talk your way in and out of a lot of things, but you're going to have to pick a lane. You're going to have to pick a lane and you're going to have to stay in that lane and watch what happens in that lane. And I can't tell you the shiver that went down my spine not the good kind, like the ooh, my goodness, pick a lane, pick a lane, because what I had been doing was okay.

Speaker 1: 13:27

So I published a book back when the pandemic first hit. No book tours, any of those things, but it's still a five-star rated book on Amazon. But books are evergreen right. So why don't I talk about my book more often? Talk about my book more often. Okay, I can't tell you how many semi-introductory manuscripts I have saved in my Google Drive that I've started, that I wasn't feeling, and so I set it aside and I've never come back to it. I can't tell you how many ideas for businesses I've had that I haven't written down, that they've flown away, the number of songs I've written that have flown away.

Speaker 1: 14:08

And so, because my mentals, my mentality, is not organized, or or or and again, this is just transparent I try something, it doesn't work or people don't respond to it. Then I think that maybe it's trash, maybe it's garbage and I shouldn't be doing it or I shouldn't be putting my energy toward it. And so I move on to the next thing, and my therapist was like bro, you cannot keep running from one thing to the next thing. You're going to have to pick a lane, you're going to have to stick to it and you're going to have to go through the ups and the downs of that path. And I'll admit that I have been afraid to stick with something, because I've always been afraid that I was going to pick the wrong thing to lean into. I mean, I quit thinking about pastoring a church because number one I'm not perfect, because I don't think that I'm worthy of that calling, worthy of that purpose, but it's still something that lights a fire under me. Planning a church just sounds like the coolest thing that I'm not worthy of doing.

Speaker 1: 15:24

Podcasting is the coolest thing that I it's one of the coolest things that I've ever done in my life. Y'all, I love coming on every week and being here with you all, but somehow, in season two, I let the lack of statistical growth murder my self-esteem and murder my ability to look at the positive things that have come out of this podcast. And again, we're being honest. I'm catching you up on what's been happening with me since we last talked. I'm in so much of a better place now. I am so much of a better place now I am, and it's just a really cool thing. And I'm not going to say that I have picked a lane to lean into. I'm still wrestling with that. My therapist is still working with me. God's still working with me. I'm still praying about some things on that, however, I can tell you that I'm no longer afraid of picking wrong, because I understand that some of the greatest things about life are that we pick wrong and we still have an opportunity to remedy it.

Speaker 1: 16:41

Life is an adventure that we don't always pick. It's like a pick your own adventure book. You may not pick the right thing at a particular juncture, but that does not mean that God cannot order steps. Life cannot bring you back around to the pathway that's going to lead you to the culmination of that adventure before you partake of the next adventure. And I'm saying all of these things because there's somebody out there. You may be at the same juncture as me. You may be heading into that juncture. Somebody needs to hear this.

Speaker 1: 17:16

I really firmly believe that somebody needs to hear all of this that even as a life coach, I don't have all the answers. As a Christian, I mess up every day. As a teacher, my lessons don't always land. As a husband, I don't always do the right thing. As a father, once we make a decision and I've said this before and I firmly believe this that when we make a decision for a particular direction, life begins to conspire. We begin to notice the patterns in the pathway. We begin to notice which directions we should take intrinsically, because I believe a lot of the answers that we seek. We already have them within us. We just need to pause and we just need to listen and we just need to be more aware and we need to shift our perspectives. And those are some of the things that I have been working on since we last met. That's it. That has been my life.

Speaker 1: 18:32

I have been doing a lot of silent work on myself. I have been working through some imposter syndrome things. I have been working through some areas where I have not treated myself like my own best friend. I've been more aware of what I'm thinking and why I'm thinking it when I'm thinking it. It's just, it's been really really met up and it's been really really good. It's been really challenging. In some spots it's been heartbreaking.

Speaker 1: 19:03

And I asked my wife. I asked my wife and I think I said this in the last episode. I asked my wife. I said babe, am I broken? She looked at me and she said you are, you are broken, but you wouldn't have admitted that to yourself before. Now you admit it to yourself and I think that you're working on it and I think that you're working on it and where her admitting to me that I was broken might have I don't know caused some cracks in the facade at some point prior. Now I love her even more because she was able to be unabashedly truthful with me, and I loved myself even more because I was able to accept that type of honesty from her and not get into my feelings or not get quiet or not feel some kind of way.

Speaker 1: 19:49

Y'all. Every little bit of growth is still a magnitude of growth. So I don't know what you are working on with yourself and I don't know where you are in your heart and in your mind. I don't know where you are in your heart and in your mind. I don't know where you are in your journey, but I hope, my deepest desire is that I hope that you will continue to come along this journey with me on this podcast, as I work on myself, as you, at the same time as you work on yourself. Let's work on ourselves together, let's achieve together. Let's form a community where we are cheering one another on and where I don't have to have all the answers.

Speaker 1: 20:43

But you give me some answers. You email me and tell me topics you want to hear about. You tell me what I got wrong in an episode and we can talk about that and we can hash it out, because I want to hear from you, because y'all are my people, you are my people and I love y'all so much and I'm just so thankful and I am so grateful that y'all are still going to rock with Pep Talk in season three and allow me to come into your lives on every Monday morning and whenever I feel like dropping bonus content, but just speak to you from my heart and hope and pray that it encourages you and hits you in a spot that you need at that particular moment. I believe it's gonna happen. I believe the magic is still there. I believe that everybody needs a pep talk and if you haven't had one lately, guess what I got you, because that's what we do here on pep talk. So I need y'all to do me a favor. Holler at me, shoot me an email, shoot me a dm, let me know.

Speaker 1: 21:46

Should I start an ig for for the podcast? Uh, what topics do you want me to address in this season of the podcast? Are there any guests that you would like me to reach out to, to bring onto the podcast for this season? I have, I put a questionnaire out there and I have some really, really cool people to reach out to about coming onto the podcast. But y'all, I think this is going to be the best season of the podcast yet, and whether each episode gets one listen, or whether it gets 200 listens or 2000 listens, we're still going to bring the energy, we're still going to bring the hypness, we're still going to bring the belief in you and I'm still going to believe in me, because that's what we do here in the pep talk community. So, hey, let somebody know about the podcast, let somebody know that it's back, share it on your socials, tag us and yo.

Speaker 1: 22:42

All I can say is I'll see you next week for episode two of season three of the Pep Talk, of Pep Talk. I've got to get used to saying Pep Talk. I'm not the Pep Talk podcast, but yo, it's been your boy. Coach J, thank you for letting me catch you up on my life. Hopefully you'll reach out and catch me up on yours and, if not, I hope to hear from you at some point in this season, because it's going to be good and we're going to do this work together. We're going to do this work together and y'all know how we close. That part is not changed. Keep it love, keep it light and keep it, peppy. Thank you for tuning in to pep talk. It's your boy, coach jay. We'll see you next week. Y'all be blessed.