Witchy, Weird, and Wildly Successful: MJ Kast on Building a Brand That's 100% You

What if the version of you that's showing up online is real — but it's only a fraction of the truth?

In this episode, Jazzmyn sits down with MJ Kast, a witchy website-building alchemist and brand strategist who has been unapologetically herself since she was 11 years old making $10K designing graphics for cam girls on MySpace. (Yes, really.)

MJ breaks down the difference between performing a polished, "professional" identity and actually stepping into full-spectrum authenticity — and why so many entrepreneurs are stuck showing up as a curated sliver of themselves without even realizing it.

We cover: — Why people are collectively exhausted by performance culture and what that means for your brand — The magnet theory of visibility: why repelling the wrong people is just as important as attracting the right ones — How MJ went from corporate creative director to aligned service provider — and what she had to unlearn to get there — Why "fail fast" isn't just a mindset hack — it's a price you're going to pay anyway, so you might as well pay it joyfully — The difference between creativity and curiosity, and why following the thread changes everything — What MJ is doing in 2026: abandoning the rules, trusting her intuition, and seeing what grows

If you've been waiting until you feel polished enough, brave enough, or ready enough to show up — this episode is your permission slip to stop waiting and start being seen.

Transcript

[00:00:00] Are you sitting with thousands of hours of B roll content and telling yourself, I'll start posting tomorrow? Are you in your head worried about your friends and family thinking you are cringe for choosing to be visible? Are you chasing trends instead of building influence? Welcome to the visibility standard where the visionaries of today are changing the rules of their industries and letting their voice be heard.

I'm your host, Jasmine, and we are setting the standard.

Jazz: I'm so excited for my guest today. She is your Witchy website Building Alchemist, MJ Kast I'm so excited to have you here today. 

MJ Kast: Hello. Thanks for having me. I'm so excited. 

Jazz: What is a trend that you are seeing online that you are actually really loving?

MJ Kast: I think. People are getting sick of the shit. I feel like [00:01:00] collectively people are starting to get very tired and I started seeing it happen a few years ago, like. Honestly when we were all in quarantine time and there was like this really big retail and commerce push, I feel like it like maxed us out and peaked us out.

Mm-hmm. And since that point I've been seeing more and more people getting really tired and burnt out on like being sold to and really tired of just buying and the, just the overall like market trends that have been happening for a long time. I think people got really sick of. Playing professional.

Jazz: Mm-hmm. 

MJ Kast: Everyone got a little taste of working from home and just like kind of having to be themselves and having their kids run in and out of zoom calls and stuff like that. And when the shift kind of started going back into like how things were, everyone was like, but why are we doing that?

I actually hate that. And kind of pushing, pushing against it in that [00:02:00] way, and it's been picking up speed. I feel like every year that goes by, more and more people are starting to reject that shit and reject mm-hmm. Playing a role in performing and spending their money because they're told to spend their money, they wanna spend their money on things that they align with and things that they believe in, and people that they value and stories more than like just products or whatever.

I feel like that shift has been lighting me up 'cause I'm right there with them. I've been there for a while and so feeling that like collective shift has been really exciting for me to witness. 

Jazz: Yeah, there is this exhaustion with performance and like a lot of people who walked away from traditional work roles recognize like, why am I bringing this shit into.

My, my business, like I left here for a reason. Why am I bringing it back with me? And, and so we've kind of exhausted the Oh, show up really nice, [00:03:00] neat. Perfect. The idea of professionalism and allowing authenticity to drive, like how we reach our ideal audience. 

MJ Kast: Yeah, a hundred percent. And I think it's like, for me, it's not that it's funny, but I've always, I've never really felt like I had another choice but to be myself, like I don't feel like there is the same level of performance for me from a very young age.

And so I went. Kind of down my own path to get places and showed up in a lot of spaces where I was not really like expected or they were expecting something different and I just couldn't do that. And so now that everyone is kind of collectively going that way, and I also think that. There's maybe a little bit of an awakening happening with people wanting to know what, what am I doing and why am I here, and what am I good for, and who am I as [00:04:00] outside of what I've been told to be and outside of who I've been told that I am?

Whether it's. Society, culture, pop culture, whatever. And so because we are spending so much time at work and online, we're kind of starting to say, well, does this align with what I wanna do and how I wanna live and who I am and the things that matter to me or not? And kind of challenging that, uh, a little bit more.

So now it's starting to show up in these places where performing was something else. And so without really intending to be, I ended up kind of. Ha being a, I don't wanna say a role model, but like a leader where people were coming to me being like, you have been just doing your own thing for a long time.

I wanna do my own thing. Like, how do you do that? Mm-hmm. And it wasn't a part of what I was thinking that I was gonna be doing. For sure. 

Jazz: Well, according to your website, you started working for yourself at 16. 

MJ Kast: Yeah. [00:05:00] I mean, I actually made my first money like online when I was 11 years old. 

Jazz: Wow.

MJ Kast: Actually, it's a crazy story. It's a little bit inappropriate. But not, like, not horribly. So I used to love drawing these like dolls, these like vector dolls. I don't know. Mm-hmm. How old you are. So I don't know if that's a good thing, but, uh, before there was like Photoshop really, and Canva and stuff like that, like there was these like little design programs.

So I would design these kind of like doll. And I started to try and make them more and more realistic. And I started doing vector drawings of celebrities and there was online forum sites. I would post on them and share my work and they'd have little like contests and stuff like that. And then MySpace was big back then and some people started reaching out saying, oh, can you make a vector of me for my MySpace page?

And I was like, yeah, sure. And then, someone reached out to me who was a cam girl. Which is like the OG only fans, they used to have like private [00:06:00] campsites. Mm-hmm. And she was like, could you make a vector of me for my private campsite blog? And I was like a hundred percent. So she sent a picture of her in a bikini.

And I did, uh, not realizing that I was 11 years old at all. And I did, vectors of her and then she loved it. And then I started making a header of her website and then I started designing it and she would refresh her website every single month. And she was a really popular cam girl. And so then other cam girls started hitting me up.

And by the end of like the summer between grade seven and eight, I made almost $10,000 on this brand new site called PayPal. And I was telling my parents I need their debit card. 'cause I had all this money on the internet that I needed to deposit. And they were like, sorry, what are you doing? Me internet and what is going on?

And that was kind of my first journey into self-employment in the arts. 

Jazz: Oh my gosh, I'm upset. I mean, you found a target audience. You've, 

MJ Kast: I 

Jazz: guess so honed a survey, a need, and then another profession. And you supported 

MJ Kast: it. Yeah. [00:07:00] Yeah. But my first like official side hustle, I was like 16 and then my first legal, like registered business, I was 19 and I stopped working, like for someone else, like I had a day job during that time, obviously I stopped working for anyone else when I was 20 years old.

Jazz: Okay. 

MJ Kast: And I never went back. 

Jazz: Yeah. And now, like you said, you are in a space now where you are leveling up your, how you show up, how people mm-hmm. Receive you, what your work looks like. Tell me a little bit about what that process has been like for you. 

MJ Kast: My first, business, I was a photographer and I was a photographer for almost 10 years, and I do feel like I was really myself during that time, but I also was an artist in the arts and I.

Feel like that was actually something that was expected of me. Like I used to joke that every time I [00:08:00] got a tattoo I would make more money because people were like associating this like alternative person with the work that I was doing. So I never felt like it was difficult to show up as myself, if that makes sense.

However. In 2018, myself and another, photographer opened an event, venue and creative studio. And we had a team and it was this big business and we had investors and we were going to like board meetings with like, uh, our financial team and marketing team. And we were wearing like overalls with like paint all over it.

'cause we were renovating the studio at the time showing up and they're just all in suits and stuff like that. Mm-hmm. And that's what I started to feel like. Well, like the person that is expected to be in this seat is not the way that I'm showing up. And then I ended up leaving the studio for a while and I moved into creative direction and ended up working a lot of like corporate and commercial retail [00:09:00] roles where again, I just don't feel like that's what I felt like was expected of me.

I was also growing up myself at the same time. Right. There's a difference between being yourself at 22 and being yourself at 29 and being yourself at 30 and 35. Mm-hmm. Like I personally was shifting and trying on different versions of myself and different identities at the same time. And so somewhere along the way I started really trying to like play the corporate professional girl role.

Mm-hmm. And just dropping like unexpected f-bombs in meetings to shake it up a little bit every now and then. But I, and it was working and it was working and I was. Making good money and I was well respected and I had a lot of, you know, exciting roles and it just didn't feel like I was making the most of mm-hmm.

Myself and what I could be doing and my energy and what I was kind of like called to do. And I started [00:10:00] getting this like little feeling to move away from it and to work one-on-one. With women in like service provider roles specifically. Also 'cause I wanted to move out of, retail work and product sales because I'm not a huge fan of consumerism and I didn't feel good about adding to the, like, waste and mm-hmm.

Products and the buy this and you need this and the whatever. It just didn't feel like a good use of my. Talent and skillset and energy and time. And so I moved into working with women. I felt like I've been a service provider and a woman for so many years. I have a unique perspective of that on top of my skills in like design and strategy and that that would be something that I could put together and I really.

Could not have anticipated that when I actually got into it. The main thing that I would end up doing would [00:11:00] be drawing out someone's authentic self and kind of mirroring their identity back to them, and then giving them permission to step forward with that and in that role. And so through that evolution of my business, I started evolving into trying to become more and more authentically myself because.

If I'm gonna lead you to it, I have to be ahead. Right. I have to be doing it myself. I have to be walking the talk and realizing how many layers there are when it comes to being authentic. Mm-hmm. And it's not that I was not showing up as myself because I was, but I was showing up as this one little version, little sliver of myself.

It wasn't that it was inauthentic, I think. That's where a lot of people get tripped up because they're not showing up fake. Yeah. It's still a version of them. It's still a part of them. It's real. It's just not the whole truth. It's like [00:12:00] this little tiny bit that they've decided is gonna be acceptable for whatever role they're trying to play or whatever person they're trying to connect to.

And it's just this little bite-sized morsel and. That's what ends up feeling a little bit disconnected and inauthentic because where does the rest of you go? 

Jazz: Mm-hmm. 

MJ Kast: Right. When you're trying to funnel it into this like little sliver, where does the rest of you live and show up? 

Jazz: Yeah. 

MJ Kast: So getting to a place where you can show up fully and wholly, um, and still feel just as good it is.

It is. A journey. It is a personal journey to go on. I recently made a thread. Talking about how I'm 36 years old and I have a teddy bear and I've slept with a teddy bear for so long and it went crazy. And I ended up connecting with like 12 new clients from it. And like a post about my teddy bear has nothing to do with my business.

You wouldn't think that this was relevant at all. And it almost, I [00:13:00] almost didn't post it for the sake of like, would this be embarrassing? Are people gonna like think that I'm childish or whatever because of this thing? And then I ended up connecting so deeply. With so many people. Mm-hmm. But from the other side of posting it or sharing it, I would never have kind of put the two together.

So I'm kind of on my own journey of going deeper and deeper and like, how deep can I go before it's too much and how me can I 

Jazz: mm-hmm. 

MJ Kast: Feel comfortable being in these layers as I like kind of guide people to do the same thing. 

Jazz: Well, like you said. People are tired of being sold to or saying, you need this, you lack this, and this is something that I can offer you.

Part of branding and marketing right now is can your client. Connect with you on something. Is there something about you that your client sees themselves in and they're like, okay, this person can support me [00:14:00] in building my website and allowing me to step into a different version of my business, allowing me to, uh, gravitate to some more authentic side of myself and not just.

Compartmentalizing this one aspect that seems digestible and leaving the other 90 per percent of myself on the shelf for later. Mm-hmm. I wanna bring a hundred percent of myself into business and this person can support me in doing that. 

MJ Kast: Yeah. I, there's like a quote and I, and I wish that I remember who I heard it from so that I could give them the kudos for it, but basically just that.

You only need to be 10% ahead of your audience to be a hundred percent of service to them. Mm-hmm. And so showing up just a little more authentic, a little more, you a little more. You know, learning, but not [00:15:00] having to put yourself on this pedestal of like, I actually know everything and I'm so far ahead of you and I'm good.

Whatever. It's, I think that being more authentic about your whole self, I don't wanna say the good and the bad, but the things that you're great at and maybe the things that you're still trying to figure out. It people relate to specific things about you now and go, oh, I see myself in her, but also I see what, where I wanna be, or, 

Jazz: mm-hmm.

MJ Kast: The way that this person is now aligns with this future version of myself that I'm kind of trying to step into. So I feel like they might be a good guide for, for me, and so I think the biggest thing that I've seen in. Showing up authentically is people connecting with where you are now, but then when they want to work with you, they're also seeing something that they want for themselves or wanna align with in the future.

'cause you're just that little bit ahead of them by like showing and owning that thing, if that makes sense. [00:16:00]

Jazz: Yeah, absolutely. It's it's the aspirational piece of. Content that I believe is still very alive and well. I made a post today actually about relatability and how a lot of people will comment, oh, this isn't relatable.

This isn't relatable. And I feel like that's become a catchall term for people to use in and projecting an insecurity or a frustration that they're having with a creator. But as like aspirational content is something that is still valuable because a lot of people are still very ambitious, are still striving, are still growing, and so being able to embody somebody that people can see themselves as, and again, it doesn't need to be all the way, like a hundred percent expert know it all just being.

Two steps ahead of your ideal client can [00:17:00] be so valuable and portraying that out into the world. 

MJ Kast: A hundred percent. And also I think that the whole like, oh, that's not relatable. If you're only taking in content, that's exactly where you are now. Like you're only staying where you are now. That is not actually.

Helping you. It might be affirming, it might be mm-hmm. Comforting because it's very familiar to you. But I think where people get like really caught up is they're looking at aspirational content or inspirational content from someone who's like 36 miles ahead of them. You know, like 

Jazz: mm-hmm. 

MJ Kast: We have these like millionaires, multimillionaires, billionaires that people are following and hanging off their every word.

But the person making 150,000, 200,000 is a lot closer to you than this person who's making $20 million a year. Like there's so much you have to go through mindset, energetically, lifestyle, whatever. [00:18:00] If you ever wanted to aspire to be that person. Right. So it's like they're looking at things that are like, oh, I, I aspire to the private jet.

And it's like, can, what? Don't you just aspire to like a regular schedule and routine, like follow someone? Mm-hmm. Who's just like a little bit ahead of you because that is so much more, attainable, I guess you could say, like step by step. So I think when people are looking for just like straight up, relatable, I, it's like this thing where they either want everything to be relatable to where they are now or they're looking so far ahead of themselves that.

I don't wanna say that it's unrealistic because I think that ev anything is realistic if you, if that's what you want and that's what you kind of like put, put yourself out there for. But there's like the gap missing in the middle of like realistic aspiration of just like the five steps ahead, the 10 steps ahead of you.

And that is, I feel like the stuff that's kind of starting to come in now, like the people, the influencers with just like the nont. Aesthetic houses that are just doing regular [00:19:00] shit and, people that are not models, they're not rich, they're not this, they're not that. They're just like doing something really well or doing something really authentically or with heart or in a way that maybe you haven't thought about before.

Jazz: Yeah. What's a mindset shift that has allowed you to show up more whole online?

MJ Kast: I've had many. I still am continuously having them all the time. A mindset shift to show up online. One that people's perception of you or opinion of you is none of your business. That's been like the thing that I consistently repeat to myself over and over again. Mm-hmm. The second thing is. To fail as quickly as possible and to start things off, like not good at it.

Mm-hmm. And be totally fine with that. And not just, oh, I'm not gonna [00:20:00] mind that I'm shit, but, or cringe. But like that I am excited about it. Mm-hmm. My son, one of my sons, he loves making art and he often will like try new things and then get really frustrated because he's not good at it his first time.

And his instinct, like all of ours be like, oh, forget about this. This isn't the path for me. But. If you look at the people who are doing the things that you really wanna do, and ask them either how many times they were bad or how many times they failed without failed, they will tell you hundreds, thousands, constantly for years.

Everyone, there's not a single person who's a master of their craft that is incredible from the jump. Mm-hmm. So if that's the case and every single person has to be trashed for a certain amount of time, that is. Like, uh uh, the price you pay, that's an unavoidable fact. So you have to kind of pay the price of doing that to reach mastery or to get better.

[00:21:00] So it's kind of like. I get really excited to sit on an airplane to go somewhere because I feel like the discomfort of the travel is like the price that I'm paying for this beautiful experience that I'm going to receive once I get there. And it's kind of the same thing, so I almost started to feel like.

Excited to fail or be cringe as much and as fast as I could to pay the price that I needed to pay to get to the place that I want to be. So rather than just kind of being like, I'm gonna thug it out and just, oh, I guess I'm just gonna be bad and I'm not gonna watch it. I wanted to like embrace it and be.

Open and excited about it. Like, oh, this is me practicing. This is me failing faster. This is me trying, this is like, I got 10 crap videos, or 10 times that I showed up and made myself cringe online. That is 10 steps closer to the place that I wanna go. And if I cannot avoid paying that price, I might as well pay it joyfully and fast.

As fast. Mm-hmm. And with as much acceptance as possible. [00:22:00] And when I do feel super cringe, I just refuse to re-watch it. I also have been telling myself recently not to be too precious about anything. Like it doesn't really matter. Like it doesn't have to be so perfect. No one's really looking at this with the eyes that I'm looking at, with the scrutiny that I'm looking at, and it's going to be gone.

Like, the way that the algorithm moves, shit goes out there and then it's gone. It's gone. It's gone. It's gone so fast. And yes, it's still there on the internet, it's whatever, but like, you don't have to watch it again. Like it doesn't, don't be so precious about it. Just make it and mm-hmm. And get it out there.

And, you know, so I, when I find myself going back and forth on the details of something where, oh, the lighting wasn't great, or the volume wasn't whatever, don't be so precious about it. It's just I love another step towards where you're trying to go. 

Jazz: I love that because as the person who's creating and posting it or like, oh, this is, everyone's gonna see this, like, everyone's gonna notice every tiny detail about it, and, [00:23:00] but the algorithm moves.

It, it is so quick. People have maybe about three seconds with the video and the next video comes along, and so being able to remain consistent, showing up. Remembering, like someone's going to resonate with something that you're putting out there, but if you stop, they're never gonna find you. They're never going to meet you.

And so keep going. And like you said, that fail early, fail often. I mean that also like increases, like our bounce back time. Our ability to bounce back, keep going to get it better the next time. There's never going to be a. Perfect. Especially when you're in the creative space, there's always, yeah, something to improve, to grow on, but being able to fail, bounce back and keep going, it sounds like, has been a really big, motivator for you.

MJ Kast: Definitely. And I also think the [00:24:00] more that you do, that you build. Trust in yourself to do the bounce back. And then these little like things or these uncomfortable feelings, they start to feel like a bit exciting 'cause you're like, Ooh, where am I gonna take this? Or like, what is this gonna lead to in my own growth or my own?

Um. You know, that like ability, it's like a muscle that I'm flexing. It's like I'm working out and I have a little two pound weight, and then I lift it enough times. Now it's a five pound weight. I lifted enough times. Now it's a 10 pound weight, so how many times do I have to lift it before I go to the, to the next, to the next weight?

I, I, every once in a while I'll post like videos of me singing in my car while I'm driving. I don't drive very often, but when I do. I like music, so I would like be dancing and singing and I like know the lyrics to every song, like the, I just have like a memory like that. So I was like jamming out and then I forgot that I posted, I had a busy day and I came back at end of the day, watched my stories and I almost threw up.

I was like, oh my God, [00:25:00] how. Could you put that on the internet? Like that is horrible. And then I went into my dms and I had people, oh my God, it's my favorite song. Oh my God, I totally do that when I was in the car. That's so funny. Blah, blah, blah. You have so much confidence posting this. And I was like, girl, when I rewatched this, like my throat was like closed and I was like, I need to take this down.

Like this is horrible. And then I was like, you know what? Don't be too precious about it. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. That's actually what I was doing. I really was singing and dancing in the car like. Fuck it. Mm-hmm. If somebody sees it and they don't like it, they're not for me anyways.

And it's something that, the thing is that with authenticity, the deeper you go into it, the more you're gonna turn people off. 

Jazz: Mm-hmm. 

MJ Kast: And I, I, it's something that I've kind of spoken to a lot in that a lot of us really wanna be magnetic and we wanna like attract the right people, the right clients, the right friends, the right relationships.

But magnetism, I. The key word there [00:26:00] is magnet. And a magnet has two sides and one side attracts and one side repels. And the strength of the magnet is equal both ways. So if you wanna be super magnetic and you want your people to be drawn into your orbit, to your energy, you have to be repelling them with equal strength, the people that are wrong.

And so I think people like they. They don't wanna repel people with the things that they think are like embarrassing or unsightly or whatever, and so they end up also not being magnetic to who they really are on the other side because they end up just a super weak magnet. You might attract somebody who, or there, but you can't repel anybody with who you are.

You're definitely also not attracting them either. 

Jazz: Hmm. Yeah, it is. When we think about being polarizing or being authentic, the, it's not that we're going to attract everything or everybody, and honestly, if you're doing that, there's something about you that's [00:27:00] probably not being authentic. If you are able to relate to every single person that comes across, being able to have that discernment and having that self-trust in yourself, that how I'm showing up is authentic and the people that are meant to find it.

We'll find it. Like you said, we can't be too precious about anything. We can't be too precious about how we show up, what we post. Um, we can think about impact and, but there's so much that we can't be in our heads about if we're truly gonna show up authentically. One thing about your story that really resonates, um, and that seems to stay consistent for you is your commitment to your creativity.

MJ Kast: Yes. It doesn't, I don't think it's an option. Okay. I think creativity. It is definitely something, it, it shows up differently for everybody. I think that people I'm [00:28:00] automatically think of like visual creativity. And there's creative thinking. There's creative. There's so many ways to be creative and I think that all of us as human beings are just inherently creative beings.

Um, my commitment actually isn't to creativity though. My commitment is to curiosity. And my curiosity often leads me down very creative path. And I kind of think of it like this little thread, like at the edge of like a sweater or something. And when I feel or see this little thread of curiosity, I follow it.

And sometimes I pull it in. The thread is like only a few inches long and I reach the end thread and. You know, I go some, I go another path and sometimes that thread unravels a whole sweater while I'm, while I'm going down it. So whenever I feel curiosity towards something, I will explore it, um, whether it's a person or a place or an experience, but also it's led me down so many different [00:29:00] creative paths.

Uh, I, I was like knitting for a while and I like. Uh, started creating like knitting patterns for many years and then at a certain point it just kind of like burned out. I was a visual artist, actually that's one of my paintings right there. I was a visual artist and for, for over a decade and I did my own solo shows and then, you know, it kind of transitioned and at the end of this year, I kind of felt last year I felt this little voice inside telling me that music was, uh.

A direction that I should pursue. So I go DJ decks for Christmas just to Why not? Why not? And I don't know where it'll take me. I have no idea, but I feel curious about it, and that's enough for me to pursue it. And if I mm-hmm. Go down that path a little bit and then. And that's it. And they all kind of lead into each other.

One thing leads to the next thing needs to the next thing. Or sometimes you go down a path and it ends really quickly and you don't really know why. And then five years later, something else going on and then the skills or the thing you were [00:30:00] doing back then comes back up again. So my true truest commitment is to curiosity in general, and it has led me down some very creative, unique.

Paths and expressions of self. And I, that's my, that is my true commitment in my life is to my curiosity. 

Jazz: Hmm. That's a, I mean, that's a really powerful reframe, be I. It's what's allowed you to not only like keep going it sounds like, but it's allowed you to continue feeling excited about what you are creating or what you're pursuing is that there is a curiosity behind it.

There is a, a deep heated interest behind it, and so. When we have that self-trust and that belief in ourselves, it's like, well, my curiosity hasn't steered me wrong yet. Let me see where this can lead me. Where, let me see where this is trying to guide me. 

MJ Kast: Yeah. And I also think it stops things from becoming [00:31:00] stale because when my curiosity reaches the end, I don't feel like I have to keep going in something just because I've been doing it or because, you know, I, it's been a part of, I've been down this path for a long time, and I think sometimes people start going in one direction or get interested in something and then they can't, they feel like they can't divert from that because mm-hmm.

They've been, oh, well what about all this time that I've wasted? Or What about all this walking I've done down this path. I have to keep going. And I, I just don't really feel like that. Like when I get to the end of the string, that was just the end of the string. There doesn't necessarily have to be this bigger thing or I have to continue on with it.

Once it's run its course, like I can just follow it to the end. And when it's the end, I think. Thank it for the experience and then keep my eyes open for the next, the next thread to follow. And so I never really feel like if I do pivot. Away from it that something was like lost or missed after 10 years of being a photographer.

I felt a really strong [00:32:00] tug of curiosity and I just started following it and everyone was like, but don't, but you were a photographer for so long, like, Don, don't you wanna stick to that? Don't, you're so good at it. You have so much going on. And I was like, yeah, but I think I just reached the end of the thread and I.

It is not for anything. I don't feel like sadness. I don't feel remorse. I, it was a great thread. I loved following that, and I hope to love many more things. I can't wait to see all the threads that I'm presented. 

Jazz: What can people see? What are, what can people expect to see more from you in 2026 

MJ Kast: this year?

I. Have committed myself to not reading any more like business books or learning any more tips and tricks or, I'm just putting a pause on education. Mm-hmm. And I want to expand spiritually and like joyfully. I wanna kind of move [00:33:00] away and against a lot of the stuff that we are really told to do.

Especially right now, and like, if you're not doing this, you're whatever. And I wanna move in a way that's following the curiosity and following kind of just my intuition and things that make me feel really good and I wanna see what happens there and, 

Jazz: mm-hmm. 

MJ Kast: I made a, a post about it on threads and I thought it was funny because so many people were like, well, good luck to your business because you're not gonna be consistent anymore and you're not gonna do this, and you're not gonna grow.

And I was like, I never said any of those things like that. That has nothing to do with anything you act. There's actually no fucking rules. Mm-hmm. There's no rules. There's no like, you gotta follow this and you gotta do, if that was the case, everybody with a college degree would be a millionaire right now.

Like they told everybody that they were gonna be, and there's no rules. You don't have to follow anything in order to get to that path. So this year I really wanna [00:34:00] see what grows in me and around me. By kind of, I, I followed the rules. I've built something for myself, and now I wanna see what expands when I just pay attention to my spirit and the things that move me joyfully, and see kind of what comes from that for me and for my clients and for, for the people around me.

And I'm excited about it. Like, as I moved towards 2026, the last few months of the year, I felt like this, like bright light. And at the closer I got to the end of the year, the, the brighter it became. And I was, I just felt so, and I had been saying this and thinking about how, what, how I was going to approach it for, for a while before that.

And the closer it got, the better it got. And now that I'm here, I feel so. I don't know. I would like, whatever is the opposite of resistance. Like I feel very like in flow with that energy and very excited to see what comes of it. And I'm not disillusioned into [00:35:00] thinking that it's gonna be all great and all glamorous and all easy at all.

But I'm also very excited to see the challenges that come from that as well within me and my own maybe like resistance or whatever. How I can move through it and see what comes out at the end of it. 

Jazz: Yeah, 

MJ Kast: it's an experiment here. 

Jazz: I'm so excited to see everything and how your journey continues to evolve this year, and I am so grateful that you've taken the time out to join me today.

MJ Kast: Thank you. Thank you so much for giving me a place to chat. I hope that I said something meaningful and I wasn't just rambling. 

Jazz: Absolutely. I think people can take so much away, like from this episode about self-trust, about curiosity, just about f. Following the path that is in front of them and that there are no rules, like there, it, it's truly all arbitrary, and what works for [00:36:00] someone else might not work for you.

But if you're following your curiosity, you're following like that gut feeling, then like you, mm-hmm. You really can't. Steer yourself wrong. 

MJ Kast: Yeah. And even what is even wrong? Even if you do happen to take a misstep and you end up in a dark part of the woods, like do you not trust your own legs to walk you back somewhere else?

Jazz: Yeah. 

MJ Kast: Thanks again for 

Jazz: joining me. 

MJ Kast: Thank you.