House of JerMar

Unlearning the Past to Find Your Purpose

• Jeanne Collins • Season 2 • Episode 60

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We all know that success doesn't always lead to happiness. Sometimes, the life you've carefully constructed is built on someone else's blueprint.

This week's podcast guest, Eli Bowman, has a story that is precisely that. A successful entrepreneur traveling the country in an RV with his wife and five homeschooled children sounds like the perfect life, right? Yet beneath this picture-perfect exterior lurked what he describes as "quiet desperation." Despite checking all the boxes society told him would lead to happiness, Eli found himself questioning everything during what became a full-blown midlife crisis on wheels.

"I was checking all the boxes, doing all the things I was told I should do that lead to happiness. But the fruit on the tree was bitter, and I was confused," Eli shares candidly. This profound disconnect between external success and internal fulfillment led him to question every foundational pillar of his life—from his spiritual beliefs to his career choices and even his marriage.

The turning point came unexpectedly when Eli stumbled into a neuro-linguistic programming certification event. Now a master practitioner in NLP, he's dedicated his life to helping others recognize and break free from unconscious programming that keeps them stuck. His forthcoming book "Rewrite the Program" outlines the transformational journey from conformity to authentic self-expression.

Whether you're feeling that inexplicable disconnect between your achievements and happiness, or simply curious about how your unconscious mind might be running the show, this conversation will leave you questioning what programming might be holding you back from living your most authentic life.

Eli's book recommendation: The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

More about Eli:

Eli Bowman is a top-selling author, entrepreneur, and expert in human transformation who has dedicated his life to helping people break free from the mental programming that keeps them stuck. After experiencing his own rock bottom through self-destructive patterns driven by limiting beliefs, Eli discovered the power of identifying and rewriting the unconscious programs that govern our behavior. This personal transformation led him to bootstrap a startup to a multi-million dollar valuation with over 40 employees, but more importantly, it revealed his true calling: guiding others to remove the invisible barriers blocking their path to fulfillment.

As a Master Practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) certified by the American Board of NLP, Eli specializes in revealing the fascinating connections between our unconscious mind and daily experiences. Eli's mission is simple: to help people rewrite their internal programming so they can discover and live their true purpose.

www.EliBowman.com

www.facebook.com/eliotbowman
www.x.com/elibowman
www.instagram.com/eli.bowman
www.linkedin.com/in/elibowman

House of JerMar: houseofjermar.com

Empowerment Fundamentals Course: https://members.houseofjermar.com/empowerment-course

Instagram: instagram.com/houseofjermar/
YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@Houseofjermar
Read Jeanne's Book: Two Feet In: Lessons From an All-In Life
WELCOME TO OUR HOUSE!

Speaker 1:

That kind of hit a breaking point right at the beginning of the RV trip, where I was kind of discovering myself who I was. There was some dissonance internally in my soul about the life that I was living day to day. But the fruit on the tree was bitter and I was confused. I was like why aren't I happy? I'm checking all the boxes, I'm doing all the things I was told I should do that lead to happiness. What is going on? And, as you can imagine, all of that energy had to go somewhere and I kind of went through a bit of a midlife crisis when we were on the RV trip.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the House of Jermar podcast where wellness starts within. The House of Jermar is a lifestyle brand, empowering women to live all in through interior design and personal wellness. We are a destination for women ready to reimagine what is possible in their homes and lives and then create it. We are honored to have you join us on our mission to empower 1 million women to live all in. I am your host, Jean Collins, and I invite you to become inspired by this week's guest. Welcome to the House of Jomar podcast where wellness starts within. I'm your host, Jean Collins, and today's guest is Eli Bowman. First of all, folks, his story is crazy. When we get into his story of transformation, it is absolutely insane. I will share how I met Eli, what he's working on, which is really cool. He's got a book coming out. He's got a framework and a process for helping us deal with the things in our past that are keeping us stuck, and we all know we have things in our past that keep us stuck. So everybody, welcome Eli to the show.

Speaker 1:

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

It's great to have you. So, before I get into it and start asking you questions, I don't normally read people's bios, but I do want to read part of your bio. It'll be in the show notes, but I want to read a part of it because I'm excited to learn about what it is, because I don't actually know what part of your bio is actually talking about. So, like I said, you are an entrepreneur, an author, you're an expert in human transformation who has dedicated your life to helping people break free from the mental programming that keeps them stuck. But here's what I don't know about. You are a master practitioner in neuro-linguistic programming, nlp, which you specialize in revealing the fascinating connections between our unconscious mind and daily experiences. Wow, I am excited to dig into that. So thank you.

Speaker 1:

Cool.

Speaker 2:

Let's start with your story Because let's also give a plug to how I met you. So you and I are both part of Brand Builders Group, which is such an incredible organization that helps us build personal brands. It's all for mission-driven messengers, of which I feel like we both are. You are in particular, and we met on a webinar there and part of that was introducing ourselves and saying something unique about us. And you got on and you said I have five kids and they're all homeschooled. And my first thought was are you insane? I have one child, are you crazy? And then you dug into your story of how you got to where you are now and I was just mesmerized by your story because it is so cool. So if you wouldn't mind, can you share your story? Homeschooling five kids Are you crazy? And there's an RV involved in this folks and driving across the country. So share a little bit about your story so everybody can understand more about you.

Speaker 1:

I'd be happy to Um and thank you. I think you're a mission driven messenger as well, jeannie and um, it was really, it was really nice to to to for you and I to be able to connect on that call and that webinar, and I feel like your mission is an important one. I feel very honored actually to be on your podcast. So thank you so much for allowing me to be here and spend some time with you. But, yeah, so we do homeschool and we have five kids and it can get hairy and I'll tell you about the RV here in a second. But we had twins and you know, twins run in my wife's family, but everyone on her side of the family that had twins, they always stopped having kids after they had the twins. So we know what happens if you go past the twins, you get triplets. So that's that's, that's our, that's our five set up there.

Speaker 1:

We had twins and then we had triplets and we we knew we wanted to homeschool, uh, pretty early on.

Speaker 1:

So, um, you know, my wife went to college for education and so she's got training in that and she's an amazing homeschooling mom and we decided that as a part of the educational piece for our kids. We would get an RV and pack our whole family in it and just travel across the country for two years and that's what we did from 2018 to 2020. And it was. It was a very interesting thing and we're we're just big on educational experiences and it's it's one thing to to learn about the, you know, the founding of our country in a textbook. It's something completely different when you go to Colonial Williamsburg and you walk the streets and you see the buildings and the homes and you immerse yourself in that and you see the, the, the actors reenacting all of these things and that that's the kind of education we wanted for our kids in those early formative years.

Speaker 1:

So, um, that's what we did and we, you know, I was able to to kind of work a little bit while we were on the trip and, um, it was crazy packing all seven of us into a 40 footfoot Class A, but we did it and when it was time to be done, it was time to be done. Let's put it that way.

Speaker 2:

Well, and you did this before COVID. I know people who did that during COVID.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, we wrapped up with our RV trip just after just before, covid. We wrapped up. The timing was. I don't know if it was good or bad, but it was what it was.

Speaker 2:

Right, okay, so I'm going to ask what might be an obvious question for some of our listeners. Okay, you have to make a living. It costs money. Even if you're in an RV and you're driving across the country, you are still feeding a family of seven. What were you doing for work that this concept of living in an RV was going to be possible?

Speaker 1:

My oldest company that I have in my portfolio is a payments processing company and if you're familiar with that industry, most people aren't but it's a recurring revenue model. So I had a book of business and I had customers that were using my services and every month I was getting an injection of revenue and income from that. So I didn't do much work at all and I just kind of lived off of that residual income from that company during the RV trips and that's kind of how we pay for it. Now, like any other business, if you don't, or you're either growing or you're dying, there really is no true stagnation in business.

Speaker 1:

You're either growing or you're dying. There really is no true stagnation in business and, as you can imagine, the residual income wasn't going up by me just traveling the country. So when it was time to wrap it up, it was like, well, I gotta go back to work, gotta get some more customers, but I wouldn't change it for the world. It was quite the blessing for us to be able to go and live off of those residual income checks and I could just be there with my family, with my kids, and really experience all of that right alongside them, and it was neat.

Speaker 2:

So present Were you always an entrepreneur.

Speaker 1:

And since I was a kid I was an entrepreneur. I remember getting into baseball cards. I don't know if Gary Vee tells a story about when he was a kid. There are so many striking similarities between Gary Vee's childhood experience with entrepreneurship in mind, namely the sports card element. And I would buy baseball cards from my friends for cheap. I would wheel and deal with them. I would never lie to them, but I would always try to get a really good deal and then I would flip those cards to other friends for a profit.

Speaker 1:

I'd go door to door trying to shovel snow from these Ohio winters, trying to shovel snow off of driveways. I mean, I was always doing something as a kid to earn money. So I did go to college, though I did go to college, though this kind of actually is a great segue into some of what we will probably talk about here with some of my frameworks is this idea of the conveyor belt. And even though I was an entrepreneur as a kid and always kind of felt that in my blood I was no different than just about everybody else, I kind of got onto the conveyor belt without even realizing it, kind of did the whole like here's what you're conditioned to do and here's what you should do because it's what's expedient.

Speaker 1:

And I did go to school. I went to Ohio State University, graduated with a degree from there in business and worked in corporate finance and all of that entrepreneurship that is just in my bones just had no place to go. And that is just in my bones just had no place to go. And I was never really cut out for the corporate world and I kind of learned that the hard way and was really kind of unhappy in my life trying to veer away from entrepreneurship. So am I an entrepreneur? Yes, and that will happen for a long time.

Speaker 2:

All right. So I want you to share with everybody because I've heard this story what happened on the RV trip that really has propelled you into where you are now and really wanting to genuinely help others.

Speaker 1:

When we are living lives and I can't remember who said this, Was this Rudyard Kipling? He said that men are living lives of quiet desperation. I don't think that was him, but it's a common quote. And I was living a life of quiet desperation. I was sort of going through the motions of doing the things that I was always taught and told were right, and some of this has to do with my religious upbringing and all of the conditioning since I was a kid and I kind of checked all those boxes but there just wasn't a lot of fulfillment, wasn't a lot of joy, and so that kind of hit a breaking point right at the beginning of the RV trip, where I was kind of discovering myself who I was. There was some dissonance internally in my soul about the life that I was living day to day. But the fruit on the tree was bitter and I was confused. I was like why aren't I happy? I'm checking all the boxes, I'm doing all the things I was told I should do that lead to happiness? What is going on? And, as you can imagine, all of that energy had to go somewhere and I kind of went through a bit of a midlife crisis when we were on the RV trip. Now I feel terrible for my wife and kids because they were present with me throughout all of it, particularly my wife, who I really put through the ringer. God bless her. She was so strong and so stalwart and was such a good support for me as I was trying to navigate who I was, what I really wanted out of life.

Speaker 1:

I questioned all of the pillars that you could think of in someone's life. You know, where do I stand with God? Do I even believe in God? You know, what am I doing career-wise? Why am I even doing that? Am I going to the church I want to go to? Should I even be in this relationship with my wife? Really hard, tough, pretty questions that shake the foundation of somebody. There wasn't a single pillar that held up my foundation, Jeannie. That wasn't cracked during this time and now I didn't know then what I know now with neuro-linguistic programming. But, to answer your question, I went through that midlife crisis during that RV trip and it was a catalyst for lots of change thereafter.

Speaker 2:

So how did you go through that deep questioning of yourself? What was that process like?

Speaker 1:

I did not have a lot of knowledge of how to do that in a healthy way. And so, when you don't know how to channel those questions and how to channel that energy of curiosity and rediscovery about yourself, and I did what I think most people would do, which is you kind of act out, sort of lash out, you have to, it's like try it. Some people have to touch the stove to know that it's hot, others need to see someone else touch it and they're like I'm good.

Speaker 2:

I don't need to touch it. I saw them touch it.

Speaker 1:

I am someone that needs to touch the stove. Now you might think, oh, that's a terrible thing to know about yourself. That just sounds awful. Well, the truth is that there are times in my life where being the person that has to touch the stoves has served me very well, because it has driven a lot of my entrepreneurial endeavors. But in the case of my crisis but in the case of my crisis I just acted out and I did some self-destructive things because I didn't know who I was anymore.

Speaker 1:

Give us an example. Oh man, what does that look like for you? Because?

Speaker 2:

we all have different ideas of what that looks like, so give a little glimpse for yourself. What does that look like in your world?

Speaker 1:

For me, the self-destruction came in the form of really allowing myself to veer philosophically from all of the things I'd always been taught. Um, you know, I I was very clean and straight by the book, and so another form of that acting out came. It came in the form of well, I'm going to maybe try a chemical substance that I've never tried before. Right, it's like maybe this is something I like to do or maybe you know so it was. They sound a little vanilla now, but those were major, major things for me, and to move forward with those actions felt very. It felt like I was really breaking the mold.

Speaker 2:

So how did you get into linguistics programming? How did that happen?

Speaker 1:

After the RV trip, business was finally starting to go really well. And then in my main company, the bread and butter company where I get the most income our biggest customer I don't want to say who they are, but they have rollback savings and they have massive big box retail stores everywhere you go. They're blue and yellow they pulled out and they decided to go with a different supplier, a competitor of ours, and that news really hit me out of nowhere, because I had just had meetings with them about growing and scaling with them, and so that shook me and of all the people in my life, my tax strategist, who I thought would just be like a numbers person, reached out to me and said hey, I think you need to do this event here. It's in Dallas and it's something where it's about your mind. It's called neuro-linguistic programming. I had heard of that in sales and negotiations. I had heard of neuro-linguistic programming and how that's used to communicate. But I said I need something right now. So sure, yeah, I'm going to go.

Speaker 1:

So I booked the ticket, got the hotel. I thought a week's a long time for an event like this, it's a long time. So sure, yeah, I'm going to go. So I booked the ticket, got the hotel, I thought a week's a long time for an event like this. It's a long time. So I was like you know, I'm just going to go.

Speaker 1:

So I go and I'm sitting in the room waiting to be poured into and very quickly after this thing starts, I realized, oh my gosh, this is a certification event. This is not for me to like, grow like as a recipient. This is for people who are a lot of people, who are coaches already or you know, they have licenses or certifications and other bodies of work. This is for people who want to be a practitioner in neurolinguistic programming. So I had to make another quick decision Do I stay and go through this or do I leave and go home?

Speaker 1:

I thought I'm already here, everything's booked, I'm just going to do it. I'm so glad I did, because learning about that body of work really changed my life and it answered a lot of questions I had about myself and what I went through during the RV trip and a little bit thereafter and everything beforehand, and so I decided to. So not only did I finish that week and got certified, I took my education, my formal education, in it as far as I could go. I have a master designation attached to my certification, so that's I kind of stumbled into it because my tax strategist of all people- Of all people I kind of love that.

Speaker 2:

So what is neuro-linguistic programming Like? What is it? For those of us who've never heard of this, I'm sure I might've heard of the concept, but what exactly is it?

Speaker 1:

Well, let's break it down Neuro, the brain, linguistic language and programming. We all know what programming is, so it's really it's the programming language of the brain. Okay, it is the body of work that really concerns itself with the unconscious mind and how the unconscious mind impacts and affects our day-to-day life. Nlp concerns itself with that.

Speaker 2:

Right, okay, that makes perfect sense.

Speaker 1:

So how in your life are you helping people understand that, helping people understand the unconscious you know the body of work is. You can do a lot with it. There are people that do a lot of one-on-one work and I have one-on-one clients as well and they do a lot of the NLP techniques that are used to release negative emotions or to integrate parts. Those are very useful things uninstalling, limiting beliefs. I incorporate all of that into my work on a one-on-one basis and even on a one-to-group basis. But my personal mission with NLP is to use that body of work to help people understand the programming and conditioning that happens from the day they're born up until present moment and how that impacts their day-to-day life.

Speaker 1:

Now I believe we are happiest, Jeannie, when we are pursuing something that is meaningful and purposeful. That's why I think we're here. This is just Eli talking about Eli's philosophy. A lot of people think there are other reasons why we're here. I think one of the biggest reasons we're here, this is just Eli talking about Eli's philosophy. A lot of people think there are other reasons why we're here. I think one of the biggest reasons we're here is to break free of the programming and conditioning that we've always had with our lives and to find out who we truly are authentically and then pursue a life that's centered around the purpose and mission that feels unique and tailored to who we are. And so that's my goal with it is to use NLP to help people wake up to the fact that there's uninstalling that needs to happen because the programs aren't serving them anymore, and then help them reorient to who they authentically are and pursue that purpose in a big way.

Speaker 2:

Okay, and all of that sounds incredible. Right, you and I are fortunate. We both are sort of in our path of finding our purpose. How, like very specifically, if you can, how are you planning to help someone figure that out for themselves, since we all have different programming from the past? What worked for me might not work for somebody else, so how do you help people uncover that and go through that transformational journey?

Speaker 1:

so specifically, um, I will work with someone to determine what in their life, in their past, is. You know, it could be a traumatic moment or it could just be some conditioning over time. How is that showing up for them today? And it's about going back and actually ironing that out. There's a, just a couple of days ago, one of my clients we had him talking to his seven-year-old self and he was able to express love and validate that seven-year-old self.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and he was able to express love and validate that seven-year-old version of himself, validate the feelings that he had, the experiences that he had. He was able to. You know, we had an exercise where he was able to hug and hold his inner child and, as you can imagine, that's a moment that's full of emotion and release and and say, well, how does that help him now? Well, what happens is a lot of the subconscious influences that happened all those years ago are still affecting his professional choices today. And so by working that out with his inner child, we were able to now and he's even expressed to me, sending me texts. He's like look, I'm able to make decisions faster. The way that I approach risk is different. So that's a direct way and a specific way that I can help someone take care of something in the past, uninstall it, so that their day-to-day life improves. And that's just one example.

Speaker 2:

Sure, of course. Do you find that most people who come to you would say they would define themselves as successful, yet unfulfilled?

Speaker 1:

I think that's a great description of the person that tends to gravitate toward me. I think it's a mix between my experience as an entrepreneur and the success I've had there and the messaging I'm putting out there. So it's typically the people that are reaching out to me to work with me are typically high achievers or entrepreneurs who they have outward success but but inside, like you said, they're they're. They're trying to figure out why they're not happy or something's not right, and they want to figure out why.

Speaker 2:

Right, sure, so you talked about something that I'm interested in. You talked about sort of like your programming, which is guiding your life, versus living your authentic life, like what are some ways that people can know? Like maybe the life that they're living is actually their authentic life? So how does someone know the difference?

Speaker 1:

Well, I think that when you're living authentically, there's an innate sense of peace that you feel, and if that peace isn't there, there's going to be something else and that's going to be what I call internal dissonance. And I think that when you're living authentically, there's a joy, there's a peace that exists there and you know it's there. And that's hard to achieve. It's really tough, it's not impossible. It just takes a lot of work, especially if you have to navigate some negative programming that's holding you back. So I would say the way to identify if you're living in a place of authenticity is looking at all of the areas of your life. Are you free to express who you really are, or do you have to hide some of your expression, or do you have to calculate the way you express yourself? It's okay to be careful. We don't want to hurt people's feelings, so sometimes it's not wise to just blurt out all the things we're thinking and feeling. Authenticity does not mean like no filter it just means right.

Speaker 1:

I mean, we gotta be careful socially and that's that's important, especially in the home. You know, for mary, we we want to be careful with how we communicate when we want to communicate well, but but there's a difference between between that and just living your authentic life, and it's kind of one of one of those things. Jeannie, you know, you know if you are and you know if you're not.

Speaker 2:

You know and you know, yeah, yeah. Do you find when you meet people and you interact with people, is there a part of your conscious brain that sort of goes through like a quick evaluation of them and is sort of like, okay, now that I understand human behavior better. Do you do a little like one over on someone, as they're kind of talking to you, to sort of figure out, are they in their authentic self, are they not? Do you go through that little dance mentally for yourself now that you know so much?

Speaker 1:

I can't help it. I've just because of my training I can't help. But every time I interact with anybody it's built in for me to look for these little cues. And you know I of course I never like, oh you know, you just exhibited a sign of this and I'm never going to do that, right, but? But? But yeah, it's to answer your question, it's built in, it's automatic. When I'm interacting with someone, I noticed things that I never used to before being trained to notice those things. And in myself, yes, I see the limiting beliefs come out from time to time and thankfully I've got I've got the training required to kind of nip that in the bud. But I do have to notice it first and I've gotten a lot better at noticing when those limiting beliefs are starting to creep in.

Speaker 2:

That's good. You're not perfect. None of us are no, which is a good thing. Yeah, so you're working on a book. Talk to us a little bit about your book.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, happily the book is called Rewrite the Program, and it is about the linear journey that someone goes through when they are navigating the challenges of recognizing that the conforming that's been going on is not leading to happiness, and then the subsequent deconstruction that must occur for someone to find out who they truly are.

Speaker 1:

Because if you're living a life in one way, you don't just start living authentically.

Speaker 1:

There has to be a taking apart of who you once were, kind of a phoenix rising from the ashes. It has to burn first right. And then the subsequent ascension of the natural expression of who you really are, actually embracing the core values that you have, letting them come out rather than being bottled up in order to live a conformed life to someone else's expectation. And then, lastly, it's about when you have landed on the, when you have the bravery to express who you truly are and to live authentically, the impact you can then have out in the world. Because I believe if we can lift people up and pull people with us, you know, pull them up out of unhappiness and in a place of darkness where they're unhappy and lack joy, I think it's our responsibility to do so and I think anyone that has found their authentic self. This might be a bit of an unpopular opinion, but I believe it behooves us. I believe we have a duty to reach down and pull others up with us, and the book touches on that as well.

Speaker 2:

Good yeah, you need to lead by example. When are you planning to launch this book?

Speaker 1:

It's published on June 2nd 2026.

Speaker 2:

Okay, how exciting, that's great.

Speaker 1:

Stoked for it. Yeah, thank you so much. That's very cool.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah. And, as you'll find, writing the book is just the first part of the process. There's more that comes after that. All right, I would love to switch gears for a minute, because you are one of those people. You walk the walk, you talk the talk and you are super authentic on social media. You share about your struggles, what you're going through, give a lot of words of wisdom. We'll put all of that in the speaker notes, but let's talk about wellness in your life. What does inner wellness look like for you?

Speaker 1:

Inner wellness. To me it looks like a couple things in particular. It looks like making sure that I am providing, I'm giving myself space to be me and to take care of me. As an entrepreneur, it's very easy for me to sweep my needs under the rug because I've got a wife, I've got five kids, I've got a mortgage, I've got this and that, and then it's easy for me to to kind of and a lot of this is because I kind of grew up poor and grew up with nothing and it's easy for me to kind of let that that money, trauma in in you know, inform my decisions right now. So to me, inner wellness is making sure I'm taken care of, and the only person that's going to do that is me. I mean, my wife does a great job, she does, but there are certain things that only I can do for myself. But then the other aspect of inner wellness and this is, I guess, the second part is taking care of myself spiritually.

Speaker 1:

I've done a lot of growing in a spiritual way, and I would even say religious way. In a spiritual way, and I would even say religious way, the way that I kind of view God, has evolved into something beautiful that is actually authentic for me now, rather than the way I was told I should see God, if that makes sense and to me that leads to this feeling of healing and wellness. And, very specifically, I like to go disc golfing alone. That is a huge variable for me in my personal wellness. I love it. It's like meditation and prayer and exercise and being in nature and grounding. It's everything all at once.

Speaker 2:

Everything all together. Yes, all right, I would be remiss if I didn't talk about fasting, because you just did this. Let's talk about the role of fasting in your life. I'm fascinated by this. It has nothing to do with your book or anything, but I just think it's really fascinating it out too much, all right, so let me be succinct here.

Speaker 1:

To me, water fasting has been a beautiful expression of self-control, of discipline, but also really prioritizing my health. So I'm a huge believer in water fasting. Now you've got to do it right. You've got to make sure you're getting your electrolytes in in the proper ratios and make sure that you, when you begin to refeed, that you're doing it well. I like water fasting because it brings on what is called autophagy, and that is when your body is eating broken and mutated cells and damaged cells as fuel. I know it sounds gross, but really, jeannie, it is the thing that helps prevent things like cancer and other serious diseases. So water fasting I hope people look it up. I hope people really do their research on this and always, of course, consult a medical professional before you do it. But it is a beautiful exercise, beautiful.

Speaker 2:

And you just did it. For how long?

Speaker 1:

My most recent one was seven days.

Speaker 2:

Okay, you have five kids. Let's just ask that, like you have five children, how do you not want to eat sometime in seven days? With five children, I mean, your wife has to probably constantly be making food of some sort in the house. How do you do?

Speaker 1:

that it's hard. It's hard because my kids are, you know, they're like classic teenagers. They like to eat the things that are quick to make and they smell good. And of course, yeah, my wife is cooking and making food and it takes a level of discipline. It does. Those first two days are really tough because you really just want to eat, but it does, at least for me. It because you really just want to eat, but it does, at least for me. It gets to the point somewhere in the second half of day two into day three where the temptation to eat starts to really become controllable. And the only reason I stopped that seven days, jeannie, was because physically I was showing some signs that it was time to stop. I was having some irregular heartbeat issues going on and that's one of the red flags, but mentally I could have kept going. It was easy for me to not eat, so it does get easier. I encourage everyone to start with three days. That's what I encourage people to start with.

Speaker 2:

Three days. I'm like proud of myself. I make it 22 hours, 23 hours, every once in a while. I'm like proud of myself, I make it 22 hours, 23 hours, every once in a while. I'm like, and I spend the last five of those hours thinking about what I'm going to eat when I can eat and try to find ways to distract myself.

Speaker 1:

That stuff still sticks around. After day three or two you start thinking about it. But it's good. I recommend it. Highly recommend it.

Speaker 2:

All right. So what is on your bucket list, personally and professionally? For someone like you who has traveled around the country in an RV and is an entrepreneur and you're doing all these mission-driven things, I am so curious what is on the bucket list?

Speaker 1:

Entrepreneurship has been a great ride and it serves a great purpose, but it is not why I am here. I will continue to own the companies I own because this is currently how I pay the bills and it's just kind of what I do. But what I'm doing now with the book coming out next year, I'm doing a lot more speaking, I'm doing a lot of podcasts, I'm doing a lot of work with clients and group work. This is what lights me up. So for me, my bucket list is just continuing to try to get this message out there in a big way.

Speaker 1:

We've got a TED Talk coming up. I don't have a date for that, but we have one of those coming up before the end of the year have a TV spot in Bakersfield, california, for their good morning show local news. So we've got some things moving and it's just all about like, how many people can I talk to about this? And that's what lights me up. So that's my laser focus is just what impact can I have with this message and how many people can I help with helping them raise their self-awareness of how their unconscious mind is impacting everything they do today?

Speaker 2:

Beautifully said, because I was going to ask you to summarize your what is your message and you just did it. So that is perfect. That's it. That's perfect. What is the best way for people to get in touch with you and to find you?

Speaker 1:

I'm just really active on social media. So you know, on Facebook it's. You can just look at. Look Eli Bowman up, you should find me. There's a verification check mark there. Instagram Eli Bowman on Instagram. Twitter Eli Bowman You're going to see a lot of everything on my socials. You're going to see a lot of personal stuff, but you're going to see a lot of purpose driven stuff as well.

Speaker 2:

Which I love, and we'll put all that in the show notes, all right. So, which I love, and we'll put all that in the show notes, all right. So, before we go, I'd like to ask all my guests a question, which is what is a book that you would like to recommend that has impacted you personally or professionally? And we forgot to talk about this before we started recording. So if you don't have one, I've got one, that's okay, but I figure you do.

Speaker 2:

Most people like us read a lot, so what book would you book? Or books, I should say. I have people who can't even like narrow down one. They want to recommend a couple. What would you like to recommend our listeners read?

Speaker 1:

I do have one for your listeners. It is called the the power of now by Eckhart Tolle, and that's that's probably been recommended to your audience before I'm guessing. Listen this book. It's a must read. You got to read it. If you're listening to this or watching this, please grab a copy audible or physical copy, audio, whatever you can get your hands on. This book is important because it emphasizes the importance of now, because have you ever been to the past? No, have you ever been to the past? No, have you ever been to the future? No, you've only ever been here right now, in this fleeting, ever-moving now and now is a powerful place to be, and the book emphasizes that. So that's the book that I would share and that has impacted me not only professionally and the message that I'm able to put out there and the work I'm able to do with my clients, but personally. It has changed the way that I see my day-to-day life and the way that I focus my energy.

Speaker 2:

I love that and you're right, that book has been recommended. But what I personally find it really interesting? Because I think the book that someone recommends says a lot about that person and a lot about their journey. So even though someone else recommended it.

Speaker 2:

it always ties back in a really interesting way the way the messages hit, and I also find for a lot of the books that people recommend you might get a different message if you read the book at a different time and stage in your life, depending on where you are in your transformation and personal development.

Speaker 2:

So a lot of these books who are like, oh yeah, I read that 10 years ago, go back and read it now. It might have a slightly different message. So I thank you, Eli, for being a guest. You've been fabulous. We will put all of this in the show notes. We will link everything so people can come and follow you and best of luck on the launch of your book. We will stay in touch.

Speaker 1:

Thanks, jeannie, appreciate it. Thanks.

Speaker 2:

Have a beautiful day. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the House of Jermar podcast, where wellness starts within. We appreciate you being a part of our community and hope you felt inspired and motivated by our guest. If you enjoyed this episode, please write us a review and share it with friends. Building our reach on YouTube and Apple Podcasts will help us get closer to our mission to empower 1 million women to live all in. You can also follow us on Instagram at House of Jermar and sign up to be a part of our monthly inspiration newsletter through our website, houseofjermarcom. If you or someone you know would be a good guest on the show, please reach out to us at podcast at houseofgermarcom. This has been a House of Germar production with your host, Jean Collins. Thank you for joining our house.