Episode 219: Service Before Sales

Knowledge is power and sometimes all it takes is one conversation to realize there is more out there than you thought. Dr. J took some time to sit down with one Elder in particular to truly learn history - needless to say his mind was blown! 

In addition to this, Dr. J recognized the importance of being of service to others, no matter what it is that you do. ConsciRise is focused on spiritual wellness, but education takes precedent. 

Tune in to episode 219 as Dr. J speaks on astrology versus astronomy, details the focus of his other company: A Locust Group and much more! 

For more information about ConsciRise:

Website: ConsciRise.com 

Instagram: @jlocustjr ; @conscirise

LinkedIn: Jonathan Locust Jr.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Definitely one of our most interesting episodes to date. Big shout out to Dr. J for joining us on today's episode of the Down to Business Podcast. Look, started the episode off talking about Conci Rise, his platform that is designed to promote wellness and spiritual products as well as services. But then we also got into a locust group, his market research platform, which he really ended the episode telling us some interesting things they can do around prediction, what they're looking forward to working with, how they're looking to serve the people, and what they can do for you specifically. This episode was a bit out of my wheelhouse because I am not your astrology, I am not your astronomical person. But I will say that I caught myself so many times during this episode just looking to Dr. J in such interest because he was putting me on a game. Two words I want you to remember for this episode: alchemy and hypnosis. I won't do any more explaining than that. Without further ado, enjoy episode 219, Service Before Sales. What's going on, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of the Down to Business Podcast here with Tamar Turner. Look, y'all know how I feel about the live. Y'all know how I feel when I'm right next to somebody live and direct, man. Y'all know I give my all. I give my all with every episode, but the live energy is just different. Doesn't matter the time, the place, the space. Tomorrow's gonna do what he got to do. So I really have to give a big shout-out before I even give a big shout-out to Dr. J for connecting with me for being here. Big shout out to my guy Aaron Caldwell, man. Shout out to him and wifey putting on for Favor, man, doing everything from taking over Hotel High and Ybor City to really just making sure vendors and business owners and entrepreneurs have a space and place to really do what they do. So Aaron has sent me a multitude of just advice, a multitude of connections. He even reached out to me earlier this week just to tell me how proud of the young guys that he was, and just proud of just he spent like he said he was passing a baton and passing the torch. So my God, I know you're gonna be tapping into this. So thank you for that. But obviously, even a bigger shout out to Dr. J1. We got some divine non-connection in the house today. So I'm very excited for that for all my Greeks tapping in. But again, we were able to connect last week. Quick turnaround time. You know, we hashed out some things, we figured out the schedules, and now he's here sitting right next to me. But I'm very, very, very excited to tap into what he's here to talk about today. You know, I feel like it's something that everybody may have an opinion, everybody may have read up on, have information about in some capacity. I've come across you, may even know somebody, if not yourself, that's passionate about this. But very excited for him to break down why he really got into what he's doing, what he's really doing, and how you can even be a part of it, how he could be a resource to you. Before we get into that though, how are you doing? How's everything on your hand? I'm good, I'm good, man. I'm I'm happy to be here. It's a pleasure, it's a pleasure. Thank you for having me. Absolutely. Not thank you for taking the time just to be with us, as I said. So, one, I know that we're gonna have a lot of people tapping into this interview. We're gonna have probably some mutuals and Aaron and maybe some people who've come across our profiles. We're gonna have your side tapping in, we're gonna have my side tapping in, but we're gonna have some new people tapping in just the same. People who probably know nothing about us, people who may even be on the IG Live but want to kind of find out more, want to follow along the journey. So, can you just do two things for me? Can you one tell me what brings you on the down the business podcast today? Well, I said that out of order. One, tell me a little bit about yourself. Okay, two, in that, also tell me what brings you on the down to business podcast today.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Yeah, yeah. So just a little bit about uh myself. My name is Dr. Jonathan Locus Jr. Everyone calling me Dr. J. Uh my background, my career has been in higher education. So I've spent the last 13 years um in higher education as a chief diversity officer. The last five and a half years have been in Minnesota uh as a chief diversity officer at Winona State University. And um I really got to the point to where um, as I was on that path of becoming a university president, so I was really close. We were doing a lot of things with uh black success, brown success, making sure students were successful. I even told you uh one of the things I did was I uh I brought a black barber to campus, uh, had students getting chopped up, um, had the tutoring services there. So we did a lot of wonderful things. Um, but as I started to then really progress, I realized that that's not really what I wanted to do. And um, you know, I started to then so I had this thing happening, but then also when I was out there, I learned a lot from the indigenous people. Because you know, with us as black people, we don't have a we don't really know our country of origin, right? And then the way education is taught, it's taught from slavery on out, right? So there's a lot of things that are disconnected from our past, our country that uh other people do have. So I was working with one of the indigenous brothers, um, Osheti Shakaween, one of the elders out there, and he's telling me about the star system their people come from. So I'm just like, I'm like Florida, I'm like, I'm excited. I'm like, I go up to him, I'm like, was there anything that you can share with me that wouldn't be private information or an impedance on their people? And he was like, I can share anything, but do you know why you're asking me that? And I'm like, well, because I like to read. And he's like, well, you don't know your own spirituality, which he was 100% right. And that was then something I started on this path of investigating that. And um, he I started to look at ancient Egypt. And as a lot of your viewers may know, before Egypt was Egypt, it was Kemet, right? And uh that was the epicenter of spiritual metaphysical knowledge, they were invaded by the Greeks. The Greeks took all of their spiritual knowledge and it became Greek mythology. So as I started to study all of these different things of the celestial connections that we have with people and a lot of those things that have been forgotten, especially from a mainstream Christianity perspective. My father's a Pentecostal bishop, so just how I get up, I know that type of the type of framework. And that framework does leave out a lot of historical spiritual context that I believe could be helpful to black people, people, myself. Um, so that was one of the reasons that I then started to quit my job and I started a company called uh ConciRise, which is a platform for spiritual wellness services and products. And as I became more spiritual, I started to understand that because there's no platform that actually vets practitioners, um, people get scammed. And people your viewers may know about the Ms. Cleo scam. That was over a billion dollars of scamming people. The USPS, which was just even recent, the United States Postal Service scam, 1.2 million people impacted, $175 million. So I started to just see the impact of not having a platform where people could actually vet practitioners for spiritual wellness, and that's what I've been focusing my time and energy on. So that's the first, that's kind of the first question. And the second question uh to answer is like the the why. For one, we we shot out our brother uh Aaron Caldwell, uh Silent, and then I saw the wonderful things that you were doing, the divine nine connection. And I'm like, if there's a way that we could then partner, collaborate today, and share each other's stories, other platform that way we can progress and share each other's messages, which I really support what you're doing. I wanted to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

Absolutely, yeah, because even then when Aaron made the connection with us, I started immediately going through the content, just seeing what you were doing, and we were really in the same space. And when I say the same space, I more so mean connecting with people in this field, connecting with people in the industries, connecting with those real life experts, those practitioners, as you said, those people who could then be vetted. And I I love that you even spoke to about why you or what more so propelled you into this, because a lot of times I'm so interested to hear about origin stories, about why the name came about, why you did this, why you did that. You talked about quitting the job and leaving. You talked about how one conversation not only propelled you into this, but it transformed just your mode of thinking, what you were, you know, having that conversation with that elder, he was absolutely right, you know. Because to hear that you don't know your true spirituality, everybody might not take that the best way, you know what I'm saying? Everybody may want to call him wrong and say, Well, what do you what are you how you gonna tell me?

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Well, that was the first level of ego, like, well, who you talking to, right? You know what I'm saying? I'm like, but the intention was pure for sure. His intention was pure and he was authentic. So when somebody's right, they right, no matter how the message was delivered. So he was absolutely right.

SPEAKER_02 8:42

And I and I love how you know, with that though, you to there's one thing to have a call out, but there's another thing to have a call out, but then have an action follow behind that. You know, somebody could have he could have easily told you that you could have been like, man, okay, cool, whatever, kept doing what you were doing. But the fact that you were like, hmm, I know he doesn't mean this from a place of malice, a place of harm, but more so introspection. Let me do some reflection by myself. I'm not perfect, I'm a huge, you know, even us being raised how we were raised, God bless you. God bless you, allergies could be totally different. You know what I mean? Like, I, you know, I was raised Christian. Yes, sir. But at one point I was in a Catholic church, I went to a Catholic high school. My main church, my home church is non-denominational, so you get a little bit of everything, but ultimately the framework remains very similar through all of that, even going to Catholic schools. So, one of the things that stood out to me about what you said though was the quitting of the job, the taking of that leap of faith, the really starting of Concy Rise. So, when you made these decisions, when you got to the point where you were like, Okay, I'm ready to go all in, I'm ready to just, you know, guns are blazing. Was there any apprehension behind this? Was there some second guessing? What was that process as you propelled into true business ownership?

SPEAKER_00 9:47

Yeah, yeah. No, there was there was definitely like um some apprehension, but then you know, one of the things as you go through what I believe is like the spiritual wellness process, you start to then peel back the levels of fear because fear can really you know stop you from from doing things that you're here to do that you feel like you're supposed to do. So there were two things that had happened at that time. One of them was for my my birthday, I ended up having a past life regression. Uh, and uh uh for you who may not be familiar, a past life regression is when it's a process of hypnosis, and it's where the unconscious mind is connected to the conscious mind, and you can then experience memories from previous incarnations. And I had this experience that was not only one of the most profound experiences that I ever had, but it also really shifted my frameworks that when I left that experience, I saw the world completely different. Because not only did I have the experiences from this life, I was able to have the experiences and all the emotions that I had from that previous life. So I was able to really understand if I don't do what I'm supposed to do or what I feel impelled to do, then there could be a life of being stuck. And in that life, I was very, very lonely. I didn't have any family and friends, um, but I needed to learn I realized I needed to learn loneliness in that life. However, so I have that experience that has let me know. So I'm having these metaphysical realizations, and then parallel to that, I'm having dreams and I'm interpreting my dreams. Uh so I have a process of it of kind of interpreting my dreams. What do they mean? So um, whenever I have a dream, I write down the details, I meditate on my dreams and understand what they mean. So I was having these dreams, so I'm recording it, and I started to then see, okay, that there were just things that I was, of course, worried about having a family, two children, a wife, a nice six-figure salary that was really good, really well. And then we wanted to move to Tampa and build a home. So there were all these things there, but as I started to then think about, okay, these are the things that I could start doing and the steps that I can start taking to then alleviate that fear. So one of the things was was money, right? That was a fear. So then the question became then how can I then create a process to where I can start getting paid? So I then worked out with the institution I was working at when on the state, that when my position officially ended, the following month, a consulting contract started. So then I was able to then, of course, have those funds to then do and then I with other stuff, with other stuff. So it was just, you know, what I learned is you just take a step of faith. Um, and in each step of faith, you're also what I believe expanding your consciousness because there's there's a removal of fear from your vibrational aura. So then as I just kept making those those steps, um, I've gained more faith, I gained more momentum, um, and I'm less fearful than I was about some of those decisions that I made in the past.

unknown 13:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

That's you know, that comes with a lot, you know, to in my host of business owners and entrepreneurs and creators who I've talked to, that's always been that step where they can say it plainly, but there was a lot in the mental that was going on. You know, there was a, as you said, you had a whole setup, but the setup was also pertinent to what your responsibilities, as you said, two kids, wife, family, you know, the household, the the having to be the male figure in there to make sure everything is handled. So to think about all of that security in a sense, to think about that foundation and to think about altering that or changing that, you know, that could bring about a lot of just is this really what I want to do? Is this but at the end, I think what truly prevailed was that you recognized that this was something that you needed to do if you truly wanted to one tap into your full potential, but also to live the life the way you want it to on your own terms. And I think that that's so important. Oftentimes we get so caught in this trap or so stagnant because things just seem to be working for us, or things seem to be paying the bills, or things just seem to, okay, I can get by, I can make it another week. But you know, if you really start to step into what you really want to do or what you really love or what you're really passionate about, you could find that you make it for weeks on end, you make it for months on end. You don't even start to, you know, there are going to be some struggle periods, there are going to be some life, there's just not going to be a walk in the park. It never is. Even when you're working that stable job, even when you have that foundation, there are still things that come up. Life happens. It'll happen if it can, you know. So I think that one that transformation that you had was needed, but it was also something that caused you to, you know, have to take a step back and reflect a little bit and make sure that you had everything in order. So something that you also kind of spoke about from the Conci Rise perspective was the wellness aspect, the product aspect, the service aspect, everything that you guys offer to who you serve. When you got this off the ground, when you were building things, when you were truly making this a business and a brand, was that all encompassed from the beginning? Did you start to add different things as you kind of move and gain experience, or was this kind of your mission and your plan all along from the get-go?

SPEAKER_00 15:09

Well, no, it wasn't my plan all along. Um, I like like I had shared, like um the goal was to then I started to see a problem as I started to then I would say expand my consciousness, progress spiritually. So all I know is that as I became more spiritual, I just wanted to be around more spiritual people. I wanted to talk about what I consider high vibrational things. And um, I just knew that in the environment, even as a university president, the things that I would have to deal with are just not always high vibrational things. Um, so it was for me about just knowing the type of environment that I wanted to be around, the type of people I wanted to be around. And I knew that there's a certain type of people that can allow me to help me to be able to progress. So I had these this inkling of that I wanted to actually start a company. Um, but then there was one part of it then I that I um want to mention is that I was also able to see what a successful example looks like. Um we mentioned the Divine Nine Connection. I'm a member of Iota Phi Theta Fraternity Incorporated. One of my fraternity brothers uh from my chapter, Better Epsilon, University of Cincinnati, um, started a company, solo funds, they're in the process of like raising tens of millions of dollars. So I've been able to see also a pathway of success of when you leave a good paying job, but you grind, there is a pathway of success that you can actually end up end up having. So for me, it was being able to understand what are those things that I needed to then start to accomplish to then start knocking out those steps. So the first one was okay, kind of the technology piece. Yeah, uh, to do a two-sided marketplace, I have to actually hire somebody to do that. So one of the things that I didn't mention is as soon as I have another company called the Locust Group, which is a is a market research company. And that's really what really funds all of this. And some of the market research that we do is we predict jury outcomes. So we do very, very, I would say, intricate market research to where we can pretty much we can pretty much predict anything. Um, and I can give multiple examples if needed. So that I knew I like that, but that's not what I love. Okay, so that has been really the pathway for me to actually be able to fund Conci Rise. Then I started building out kind of the platform, the technology, but just kind of uh MVP or minimum valuable product, because you don't want to put too much money into building something that is in your head, you're building it for users. So then I just started the process of okay, I needed practitioners. So I was then able to find, I would say, different systems and technologies that I could use to then get practitioners to then start notice who we are, and then on the as a two two-sided marketplace aspect, um, started then sharing. Because as I mentioned, since there's so many scams, a lot of the practitioners have an issue building trust in the market, right? So somebody who's offering Reiki, they have they have problem marketing and trying to offer somebody who's offering hypnosis, human design, all of these astrological readings, they have these different issues. So then I started to then say, okay, what are ways that we could then be of service? Because I believe that we should serve before we sell. So then, how can we be of service? So then what we started doing, and what we are doing is um for people who are going through a tough transition, any type of transition, we're offering a complimentary transitional support session. And that was one of the ways we not we don't take credit card, it's not even about that type of time. We just want to be able to then be of service to that person, and it's a win for us if when we talk to that person and they feel better than they did prior to, it's a win for us, and that's a way that we've been able to be of service, help, and then a part of it after we've talked about whatever they want to discuss, we do show what what Conci Rise is and some of the service that we offer, and maybe they want to connect with a practitioner, and if so, then we then be able to facilitate that.

SPEAKER_02 19:32

Okay, service before sales. I like that. Hey, that's gonna be the episode title. Um, we're gonna I like that we're gonna like that one, and I'm all that's when I started looking around. Y'all saw my eyes lock in a little bit. I said, Yeah, he just he just dropped the gem orders. But that's that's that's important though, because I I love the idea that a lot of companies that I've talked to share the same mantra and the same mindset, the same, you know. A lot of times we see these big brands or we see these influencers, we see these these social media, these gurus, these marketplace people, and we always don't don't necessarily feel that personal connection, that personal just that I can put a face to a name. I know that hey, when I'm talking about Conci Rides, I know we're talking to Dr. J. I uh and a lot of times with these bigger companies, with these more even more so companies that you can kind of like franchise and stuff like that, you find that you you don't know who you're talking to, you don't know who these people are, you just know that they're trying to make a buck and they're trying to, you know, obviously they may in some regard want to push a message forward or do something like that, but ultimately it a lot of times it boils down to they had some funds together, they put it all together, and now they're trying to make some money to outpush it out there. But something that I want to kind of highlight and speak to that you kind of mentioned a few times now are the scams, are the you know, now I know within any industry there are scams, there are scammers going on right now. I'm from I'm from Philly, so I I know it through it through. So that y'all, I'm not trying, I'm not going to like cover, but y'all know what y'all do up there. But um, so for do you think that there is anything specific that you can speak to as to why this industry experiences the credit, the lack of credibility that it does, why practitioners have to go kind of the extra mile to establish that trust and everything? Why are people just deciding to scam within all of this? Is it because of the accessibility? Is it because of all the information out there? Is it a little bit of everything? What have you kind of noticed in your experience?

SPEAKER_00 21:13

Absolutely. So I would say, like, uh, when you look at, well, let's just talk about like the latest scam.

unknown 21:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Um, the United States Postal Service scam to where there were uh people who were targeting elderly people and lower people with lower social economic status. They were receiving um mailers asking if they wanted advice, psychic advice, because they have like these huge winnings and wealth and things coming, if they would send in money. So there were there were specific people that were that were that were targeted, right? So we have the elderly and then the the people who um cannot actually lower social economic status people. So that was one of the scams, one of the other ones. Um have been like the Miss Cleo. I don't know if you remember Miss Cleo.

SPEAKER_02 22:02

So refresh my memory with that one because I that name sounds familiar. I feel like once you start talking about it, it'll probably dog me.

SPEAKER_00 22:08

So it was a um it was a um it was a it was a black woman a Jamaican woman who was on uh who would be on TV that would be talking in the accent and and she was actually an actor too so that was one of the things that they they found out. Okay. But she would be talking about how she could help um provide all the answers to the questions that they need answers to relationships and people would send in money and they actually build over one billion dollars over the course of all of that time. So that's really the problem and so I think you have you you have these the people genuine a genuine interest in this and and so because there's a genuine interest and there's not again a way that people can actually find or even know how to find vetted practitioners you have a disconjointed market right because even if you if you want to know about all the different kinds of spiritual wellness modalities you have to if you want to look find a good hypnotherapist you got to find a person who does hypnosis then you got to find a person who does raking then you have to find a person who maybe is good at meditation or a person who does evolutionary astrology but why not have again a place where you can learn about all these modalities the the experts and the practitioners who actually offer them as well as the lining products that that could be able to that could be able to uh to help and to go back again to your question because everything is so disjointed people have taken advantage of that and the most vulnerable populations have then been targeted those as you said those mailers I smile not because that's funny that that happened but it instantly refreshed my memory and I was just like but I can also see why that demographic was the target.

SPEAKER_02 23:55

I can also see how you know when for people that are because I think too it comes from a sometimes I I get a little not necessarily naive but I just get a little like come on like how did you fall like I've read that that sounds fake but there's also to the the way you vet things I think in a sense and as someone who is used to vetting I think I look at it just a little bit different you know because now being a business owner and entrepreneur I get those emails all the time hey I can take your YouTube channel to a million viewers and do this and do that and then you click their page and they have 11k followers with 12 likes and it's just like what are we like what are we really doing all the time it's just like you know in the beginning I'm just like wait no hold on like how did you find my page and I'm I'm realizing that oh Nike is reaching out to me but it's reaching out to me from a Gmail account and what is really happening here but you know for the for for some people who like you said have a true genuine interest in that they may not really be thinking of it from an analytical perspective from a scam perspective because for me like I said it may even be where I'm from that makes me just vet things a little bit differently because I know this sound just some things just sound too good to be true. No matter how much you love it no matter how much you want to be in it. But I also do recognize that there are a host of vulnerable populations out there and there are a host of vulnerable yet curious populations. And I feel like that's curiosity can time and time again kill the cat or kill the account kill the bill because a billion dollars that's a crazy bill but the USP USPS to see sometimes these these viable sources sometimes compromise and do different things like that it can also be confusing too because you're just okay this isn't Sally Joe reaching out to me this is Walmart. It's just Target this is you know I didn't double check that that email but this it said target and thing they had the logo at the top it looked pretty legit to me until you go three lines in you realize they misspelled something or the signature doesn't work or the link doesn't work you know so I think the vetting process is also very interesting but I want to now take it a step further. So I know we're gonna have people that are tapping into this that are listening to this that are interested that are curious but now that you say kind of the scam perspective it may kind of cause them to draw back a little bit they may have some apprehension some second guesses. So for people who are curious for people who recognize that as you said there's a lot of disjointment out there but they they want to appreciate everything that comes under this umbrella what suggestions do you have to them how can they really get started where can the education really come for them so that they can develop more of a comfort with this yeah no that's that that that's a that's a really good question.

SPEAKER_00 26:14

So I would say like for example um just to even talk about the vetting process because I I want to talk about like just make sure like um the the solution right so uh each of the practitioners that are on the site um and we're in the process now of like on board we're onboarding more practitioners consistently uh but it takes a little longer because it's a process and so they fill out uh they fill out an application and that I would say that that that application has uh certain psychometric um certain types of psychometric things that we're measuring to even make sure like what is a person that's that is service driven so these are things that you can actually measure like right um so there's an application process and then there's an interview so we actually talk and have a conversation and actually see if these things are are are true. Then we double check this if they're on LinkedIn so we there there is I don't want to say like a there we're doing like a background check but we're vetting to make sure that this person actually they say they are a Reiki master practitioner then we want to actually see that that certification right so um so then that then becomes the process that everybody be that everyone on Conci Rise actually experiences. Now if you're if you're interested I would say then maybe just start kind of looking and learning about just different ones that may uh that may interest you so there's so again there's so many different ones from whether you're looking at chakra balancing from evolutionary astrology reading and getting your birth chart and your your birth chart is essentially um when you were born the stars and the planets had a certain arrangement and because they had a certain arrangement that becomes like your universal identity and it's unique to you even if there are twins twins are always born seconds and minutes apart right so everybody has a different uh astrological birth chart so what do those things actually mean and when you look at the the similarities between astrology and astronomy one of them well I don't want to go into a lot of the differences but you start to see the parallels of like these things are true. And even when you study astrology there are certain reasons as to why astrology is looked at as something that is I guess not important. And a lot of of it because and I've studied this and I say this as my father being a Pentecostal bishop the um the Christian religion had a lot to do with that of making sure certain aspects of it did not or did not look good or did not look good or was not welcome uh or or was was looked at with caution or with a with with with not a good eye um so I would say just start being curious and start just start reading about some of the some of the modalities that are out there again like whether it's hypnosis whether it's human design whether it's chakra balancing um any life coaching any of those different things just seeing what's out there and on our um platform just like a LinkedIn the practitioners share their story they share what their credentials are and why they're doing what they're doing.

SPEAKER_02 29:35

Okay so like a profile setup so you can really see kind of what's going on and I think that is important and that as you spoke to can can even enhance that credibility or just make people feel a little bit better you know because even with vetting people on your own you can make fake pages you can you can you can make something look good you can pay to appear at the top of Google and be that most reputable because you know a lot of times people just think whatever you type in and pops up oh that has to be the best of the best no I've gone a couple pages into Google clicked a couple of those O's and found what I've needed or kind of moved around and navigated from there. So you know I think the fact that y'all have even taken a step further to really cut out the extra work of people and become that middleman in a sense to make sure that once they're on constancy rise oh you know these people have that check mark in a sense or have that glorification that trademark now of the modalities that you've spoken to of everything that's encompassed under this do you have one that you would say is a favorite of yours or one that really interests you the most because of kind of what it entails? Because I'm hearing you speak to a lot of this and just how you're explaining it and what you're you know for me a lot of this is surface level because I haven't really dove into this but to hear you speak about it to hear the depth that would you go into it and to hear the the sense and the knowledge that comes along with it too I'm interested so is there one that particularly stands out to you or one that you place a lot of emphasis on with what you do?

SPEAKER_00 30:51

So yeah I would say there would be two the first one would be um what would be called um alchemy okay or in no stream magic which there's parallels between the two and the reason I started so I would say just to kind of explain um so magic or alchemy would essentially be the process of energy movement and changing energy. So um it's it you go through a and I would say there's there's three different types um generally speaking so of course there's different aspects of culture because um mysticism in particular cultures will have various ways in which they they work with these energies which overlays with culture okay right so one of the things I would say is there's like three different types of magic generally there's elemental magic where you are working with the energy of the elements right uh wind water fire there's astrological magic where you're working with the energy of the signs now the signs are actual physical locations in space that you can tell they're physically different because the planets act differently when they rotate around the sun and then there's planetary magic and you really go through a process of making sure your vibration is of a high vibration that no matter what happens you can still respond in a high vibration of love. So it takes on the the aspect of if the universe is the macrocosm and our individual bodies is the microcosm you go through a curriculum of aligning your personal energies with the universal energies. So you go through a process of doing that. So I found that to be a very very very healthy spiritual exercise because um you go through a um you go through a process of cleansing yourself yeah that way uh it be it really becomes certain it becomes difficult for certain energies to actually impact you. That's probably the best way to say it. So that would be the first one and the reason again I started doing that is because um I strongly believe this is what uh ancient Africans the people of Kemet were actually doing when they had when they had a celestial connection that that wasn't um stolen from them. That's the first one. The second one would be hypnosis um and I talked about and I can go out I guess as deep as possible as far as so even when I talk about hypnosis there's a few different aspects of which ways it can go. So you have something called a past life regression which I mentioned is where conscious mind connected with the unconscious mind experience memories from previous lives. Then a longer session is called the life in between life session to where you would enter into a previous life and then you would stay in we would call it the spirit world a lot longer to better understand your we would say soul cohort group the type of people that you're learning from why you picked a particular body that you had and all of these these different things and one of the things that I ended up finding out and I had this this the life in between life session which was about four hours about two months ago for my another birthday present for myself um and what I found out was I was uh an indigenous warrior who was we were fighting the British soldiers for encroaching on our land. And long story short because I can um to kind of get to finish it um I I realized I had two daughters in that life um there was a there was a lot of us in our tribe um they had technology guns they killed a lot of us a group of us went back to their camp that night to kill a basic kill as many of them as we can um three of us were caught I was one of the ones that were caught they tied us um and they basically shot us in the back of our head and that's how I died in that life from there I ended up basically descending so basically as you when you go through the process um you ascend upward and then as you move higher and higher you typically will feel those more heavier energies become less and less okay because you're moving further and further away into another meta to a met another metaphysical environment um when I end up getting there I really started to then understand the aspect of I would say my personality and who I was because at this time I've had the experience of the indigenous life the life that I had as a corn farmer that was my second life and then this life. So I've had three different lives and three different races um three different personalities so I needed to wanted to know then who am I in the essence of who I am after having these different experiences memories and emotions and so forth that came along with them. So went through that entire process and another thing too and if anybody's interested in learning more there's a book called Journey of Souls uh and Journey of Souls is a book by the guy name of uh Dr. Michael Newton who he was really I would say uh innovated hypnosis to the point to where he was able to regress people to a deeper state of hypnosis to where they can stay in the spirit world longer and he was able to then understand how we would say the progression of a soul of the color they were admitting when they were in hypnosis. For so uh it's the very very and this person ended ended up putting about over 3000 people under hypnosis and created a framework of what happens when when you when you when you die but then you reincarnate and so forth. So there's experiences of people actually reincarnating on other planets. And having these because what one of the things that they talk about is when we go into the incarnation process we have a the the universe is large so there's a number of different planets that we can choose as a soul but we also choose things where it's not just only the lessons we need to learn but there's also lessons that align with the metaphysical environment when I say the metaphysical environment I'm talking about the vibrations right so electron rotation speed and as these speeds increase then that gives way to different laws of physics right so there's a I don't want to get into like I guess get too deep into it um but one of the things that I wanted to know is um some of the experiences that I had as a kid that I realized that this may actually be I may not be from this planet. And while under the process I realized that I wasn't and I realized this again this is my this is my third life here I realized the lessons that I needed to learn was able to actually go back to visit my planet of origin understand what it is that I do there had that experience and then after coming back realizing that what I'm doing as far as focusing on spiritual wellness is exactly what I'm supposed to be doing. And that process and I'm trying to condense down four hours of hypnosis um but that process really not only informed that I'm that I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing but even it aligns with when you follow other research like Pew research that actually will show that people are not um people are not experiencing religion like our parents and grandparents did. And they're tracking that like less and less people are experiencing differently so I um those would be the two things that I would say that to be long magic and hypnosis.

SPEAKER_02 38:48

Now to put to to make a long hypnosis session short that's that's still wild though you know four hours but to really have all of that in front of you to really realize like oh this was what this was and the reincarnation the hypnosis you know as someone who back in um back in undergrad actually I was there was a hypnotist that came to my school and I was one of the volunteers that got selected but I was one of the ones that actually went through for because they kind of gave us a preface like you know if you're not really like open and relaxed and there was a lot of host of things that you needed to do to get you right elementally. That's true. And you know the for what I felt like like afterwards people were asking me or I was asking people how long were we up there because I felt like I was up there for hours and they said that I was literally up there they said 20 minutes if that like if but you know to really when your mind and when your body and when your soul is really connected and all into something it's amazing really what can happen what you can see what I felt what I was just tapped out in a sense but in a totally different world in a different realm. So no that's very interesting and those are things that now I want to kind of even look more the alchemy because I'm not too familiar with that. I know the the once you said that the first thing I thought of was the book The Alchemist that was the first thing that came to my mind you know but I want to look more into these things because I feel like you know there are connotations that surround these words these phrases these things and there are actually then what they really are and what they really can do for you. And I feel like a lot of just misinformation the misconception a lot of the ignorance and even naivety can come from when people are just believing what they see or what the mainstream is saying or what's out there when you first Google it. But until you really do that as you said that in-depth research because even as a business owner even as this being your specialty what you love and what you hone in on you're still constantly remaining a student of the game. You're still learning you're still even even with meeting with people with dealing with people with doing these consultations and and going for all of that you're still learning. You're still you know opening up to different things and there could even be the reason why you're experimenting and diving deeper into these modalities because there's so much that encompasses it is well and then what I was going to say that the main thing that I found out during my last hypnosis session was that I'm here to enhance the light of light workers.

SPEAKER_00 41:04

So people who are doing high vibrational work I'm here to enhance that. So the starting point just as I'm as I'm doing what I'm doing is spiritual people who have spiritual gifts that have to offer but they have a difficult time marketing and finding people that they can actually do it to so for me with this problem and me knowing that I'm supposed to enhance the light of light workers I'm on mission and vision what I'm supposed to be doing. And not only do I have that confirmation that I that I know but I carry with myself now the memories of two other lives. Things that I did do that I maybe should have did well there's no mistake. So I'm not I don't want to but certain aspects that or certain things that I could have did differently um so now that I have that information I am now equipped to be able to navigate the challenges and difficulties of this life from having the knowledge and experience from those other two previous reincarnations.

SPEAKER_02 42:18

Gotcha okay yeah that's man to hear this is like it's it's really just like mind blowing but eye opening at the same time because it's just like when you really start to be diligent about things be cognizant of your surroundings and recognize how this as you said even two twins are going to have a different astrological structure astrological birth chart is going to look totally different you know and to really realize how those planets that that positioning the the axis that it was on the rotations what time of day it was everything that was going on how that all plays a part and shapes who we are what we can be that our life experiences and so on and so forth it's just it it makes me even more curious now to want to dive deeper into it because as I said like I tell people all the time that I'm not really an astrology person. But I say that more so because I'm not a fan of the people who just attribute zodiac to everything that's what it I don't like that you know I don't like that when people find out I'm a I tell people I'm a Leo and the the light bulb goes off or their face turns up and they're just like oh well you're one of those people you do this and I'm just like look I don't I'm not getting into all of that. Now have I been sent my birth chart or have I been sent kind of what Leo's are like based off the timing right now this is what it says for Leo. Have I read through that now and I'm looking like whoa that's scary like that's actually very like relevant to like what I've got going on paying attention absolutely and which makes me want to take deeper dives into things you know because these just aren't people on chat GPT or Google just coming up with you know these are things that are studied these are things that have to arrive these are things that have to you know real people really making real analysations I've even been sent some of those the people who kind of do I can't I don't even are are they the Reiki masters, the people who kind of do the cars, the Reiki masters. Oh, Tarot? Oh, the Tarot. Okay, we got that too. We got Tarot too. We got real tarot people. So it's just like I think about all of that. And I think about how some of these people really are real life making analysis. And like you said, have been vetted, have done this time and time again, know what they're doing, are diligent about it, and have really been able to change the lives of others. And it's really just amazing and exciting to see the potential that comes with all of this. So with potential, as I speak to, with just a futuristic outlook and a perspective, what's next? What does and as you said, you know, you are involved in a host of different things from the market research side of things to the concierge side of things to just even still remaining a student, still remaining that sponge and still even educating and learning yourself. So for the people who are tapping in, even down the business now, following, following you along this journey from here, so on and so forth, what can what can people expect? Is there anything, any new services or products that you're looking to kind of debut or experiment with now? I asked this question, not to spoil anything. So don't reveal or don't give us any big drops that you got coming or anything. But I'll ask this just to give people something to look forward to, but also something to kind of keep in the back of their mind. Because something that people realize, whether you're a business owner, entrepreneur, or creative, is that there can be what meets the eye on this interview. There can be what we talk about here. But as soon as I click that in stream, as soon as I click that X button, there are a host of different things that still have to get done. There are a host of things still moving and grooving to prepare us for the end of the year, 2025, and so on and so forth. So, from your perspective, from everything that you're doing from the business side of things, what can people expect moving forward from you?

SPEAKER_00 45:33

Yeah, I would say um more more progress. So I was my research company is called the Locust Group. So on that side, I would more things with AI.

unknown 45:44

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 45:44

So one of the things that um we do, okay. So let me take it back a little bit because I actually I like to explain kind of the origin. So some of the some of the work that we do, I mentioned is in jury outcome prediction. Some of the attorneys started to ask us if we can predict when somebody is lying. What we found is we cannot tell when somebody is lying, but we can predict how they would lie. And how they would lie is all based upon IQ. So then you can then assign personality types and then make predictions on a lot of different things or facial expressions. So one of the things that we've done with AI is to then be able to then make predictions on behaviors and actions based on facial expressions. So um how what are some use cases, right? So what does that mean? So uh one of the use cases is um right now we're working with a um um an investment firm that um wants to make sure that they are pairing investors. So if you're an investor and I'm the portfolio manager, they want to make sure that the money that they're they want to make sure that you're not risky and I'm not too risky because then we can both lose money. So they wanted us to asset basically create a risk profile. So basically assign risk from one through 10 to all of the different um their different agents and people who are selling, and then understand a lot of aspects of what makes them risky. And then when we are able to do that, then we can then make portfolio recommendations on what would what would not help them lose money. Okay, and then we can then make further investigations of okay, what types of things should you be investing in that would actually lead to more success? So it's called human assistant AI, to where we're building what's called learning and teaching modules, to where we are giving the AI a ton of information and data, and then saying, run particular uh and asking the particular questions. Or we're having a lot of data sources feed into one particular AI and then asking queries based on that. So I would say more with uh more with AI, I'm in the process of hopefully the contract will be signed uh by the time this airs out. Uh, but um doing some stuff with with some state organizations on some AI and training and making sure it aligns with how can AI be used for EEO and pushing forth uh equal opportunity and things like that. So that's the AI is I would say more of an interest uh because it's fun and it it has me, because I would say I'm an academic at heart. Like I've been in higher education, I still teach master's in strategic communication classes. So I really am an academic in the AI piece. I work with some some very, very intelligent people with that. So it allows me to stay in that academic realm. So that's the AI piece. And then with Conci Rise, um, that's what I'm really excited about. Uh eventually we'll be looking to do a uh a pre-seed fundraise. So we'll be looking to do some uh do some fundraising um and then as as well with expanding uh our service offerings and then start, we want to start doing events. Uh so we'll start doing events and conferences that are are are spiritual wellness related. And then the last thing I'll say is we're also paying close attention to the federal regulations in regards to psilocybin, uh, mushrooms, um, and other types of, I would say, medicines that have been deemed uh federally legal. Um, so we are uh taking a close look on that because our goal is to really be whether you look at it as the EPSI, the upwork of all spiritual wellness, and be in all of those different areas from spiritual medicine, from spiritual event, from spiritual services, as well as the spiritual products. So we'll let kind of those as like the kind of the categories that we really want to be able to um to really help people in and be a service in that way. You can have that one place that you can go that's trusted, that's vetted, and you can actually track stuff too. You can actually see the types of practitioners, what their rating score is. You can read the reviews just like you if you get a microwave, you should be able to see how the microwave is. You should see how your recipe practitioner is. So we feel the same way.

SPEAKER_02 50:08

Okay. So so basically what I got from all of that is don't be out here lying because the locust group is showing the finding now. But that's you know, I I love to really hear that dude because as I said, you know, a lot of times we can cover a host of different things in a 30-minute, 40-minute, 50-minute interview, but it still does not speak to what your mind is doing, what you're thinking about, what you're experimenting with, even feedback and reflection. But I always like to just get people to realize that as business owners, as entrepreneurs, as people, we are always thinking about room for improvement, what we can do better, how we can even hone in on things and learn on things. Because, you know, even with keeping up with the times, as you said, AI, artificial intelligence is uh a monster in itself. But is it a monster that you fear, or is it a monster that you use to your advantage to help you propel and move forward? And that's what I think a lot of times is gonna be the differentiation between people who really want to hone in on certain things or really want to take it that next step to realize, you know, are we gonna fear monger and are we just gonna keep looking at what the media is saying and how they're portraying this? Or are we gonna Google Chat GPT and are we gonna throw some props in ourselves and figure out how it works and figure out how we can use it to help maybe curate our content, create different things, get ideas, tweak a resume. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_00 51:17

If you're not using AI, I'm and I just to be completely honest, like if you're not using AI, you really should. Yeah, and just really to just start getting familiar with it, like um, some of the things that are being developed um is just start doing it. And I'll even I'll even give like a um I'll even give a quick tip, you know, for uh so one of the things that you can do if if especially if you're a business owner, right? So if you're a solopreneur, um one of the things that you can do is AI is really good at at playing roles. So you can give an AI a particular role to play. So for example, uh in my AI, I have an exec board of full of different positions with different chats. And I can then actually I can then actually say, okay, I need you to play the role of my vice president of marketing, growth, and advertising. And all of the responses you will see then will be focused on that. And so you can well, all ways that you can prompt it to get it to do and be very, very specific and give certain insights that won't necessarily get so that's something that um that's something that you can actually do is uh have it play certain roles as well as communicate in certain certain tones. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 52:36

That's a word from the wise, y'all. Take it from Mr. Conci Rise. I'm I'm just letting y'all know really what to do because I was one of those people who I didn't want to Google it, I didn't want to touch it, I didn't want to, you know, I and it wasn't even I'm not a news person, so everybody people who know me know that I'm not the media guy, I'm not your foxy CNN, you're none of that. I'm gonna I'm gonna figure it out, we're gonna get to it. But I was somebody who I was letting what social media and what other people were telling me about it allow me to make my depiction about it. And it wasn't until I started to use it, and it wasn't until even some of the business owners and entrepreneurs who I spoke to that are implementing this in their companies, they told me how they're doing it, what they're doing with it, and how they're using it. And then it really opened my eyes because time and time again, they they a few of them pose this question to me just in different ways, and it was more so along the lines of are you more so are we nervous about the capabilities of AI or are we nervous about what we can do as humans to make AI capable of? And that's where I think the fear comes in. You know, it's not necessarily the AI itself, the AI is gonna do the models are gonna take what you as someone who I have a part-time in AI. So the models only really go off of you and what you're telling them and what you're feeding them, that's how they train themselves in a sense. So, how are we training them? How are we, you know, what are we putting into them to make them think that this is right? It's almost like a baby, in a sense, you know, babies are always in those beginning stages, they're observant, their first words. A lot of times, why do they repeat the curse words and different things like that? Because they hear it, they're listening, they say this or they say that and they laugh because they see our reaction to it, but they don't necessarily know what they're saying or what they're doing. But it's not until you know you put that instinct in them to realize, okay, unacceptable. No, no, or you you put that reinforcement positive or negative, and that's when they realize it. So I love that you I love that you share that and you said that because I think it's something that as we continue to move forward, we need to just be keep an open mind to. Now, before we wrap things up, before we tell people where they can tap in, what you find you, everything of the sort like that. Do you feel like there's anything that we haven't touched on today that you want to leave for the people? Even any last words for the business owners, the entrepreneurs, the creatives, the people coming across this episode, even those who may be curious in a lot of what it is that you do?

SPEAKER_00 54:36

Yeah, so I would just say, you know, um, the one thing I would just leave that, you know, in in any moment of stress or anxiety, um closing your eyes and just breathing, finding that peace and that love in that moment is available anytime. And there's just so many times where we just don't take that opportunity. Um, and when you I have I have a I would say I have a uh brother Dr. Moore, one of the practitioners on on Concirze, um, like throughout the day, he will just visualize releasing emotions and things that have built up over the day. So when you start to then think about the implementation of the impact of that, releasing those energies consistently, the vibrations of that actually happening, the impact of what that does to his consciousness, what that does to your aura sensation, and then how when you encounter those experiences again, less of an impact it had because you've released those things. So I would say at any point of time that that moment of peace and love is available by closing the eyes and just finding that finding that space.

SPEAKER_02 55:56

I like that. I like that I'm gonna do that tonight, tomorrow, the next day, the day after that, and all we need that, you know. But no, I I think a lot of what I want people to take away from this is just intention. And it's just really wanting to take that step to you know to know that there is a host of information out there. There are a host of different experts, gurus, people out there who want to maybe adopt certain titles or adopt certain things, but just always make sure that you are one intentional about what it is that you're doing, but you also do your due diligence and you also utilize the resources around you because time and time again, I also do feel like you know, we there are a lot of different companies, people, products, services that are out there because they've done the groundwork. They made the mistakes necessarily, they figured out what works and what doesn't work, what's right, what's wrong, what's vetted, what's not vetted, and they want to make sure that they push that out to share with people so they don't have to go through the same, you know, hamster wheel of just turning things. And I feel like that's a lot of what Conci Rise has done. You know, he recognized the problem. But instead of just recognizing that this is a problem and we're gonna just complain about it, and I'll try to navigate however I can. Hey, I'm not gonna complain without putting forth a viable solution, thus forth why they're doing what they're doing now to help people. And I'm sure they've saved countless amounts of research, of time, of just pain ache, of billions of dollars of loss through scams or you know, our own postal service, you know, responsible for something like that.

SPEAKER_00 57:16

So it's just and just to say, like the postal saw the post office was uh helpful in catching the people who did it.

SPEAKER_02 57:22

So I want to just make sure I'm I don't want to say that the post office be sending through USPC as that year and that, but to you know, to hear that as I was saying, you know, that the credibility of these big companies can sometimes be on the line too. As I was even telling y'all about the emails, you know, I have companies that I've shopped from and that I have money with awards with that'll send me, and I know that it's not them, but you know, people use their alias or their namesake or their likeness and image just to appeal to people. So I I a lot of what I want you guys to really realize today is that it it one, it takes you just wanting to do it, but you also have to be intentional about it. Not just because Tamar is telling you, not just because Dr. J is telling you, but because yourself wants to really do that. So now, the arguably the most important part, you know, I feel like you spoke on a plethora of information today, a lot of insight, a lot of education. But this is the part where, as I spoke to that intention, we really feel and we really see who wants to take that next step. If it's even nothing more than following along the journey, educating them, because as I spoke to Dr. J connects with a lot of different experts in different realms. I was going through the page, I've here had people talk about chakras and different crystals and what that means. I've had people talk about mindset, hypnosis, and everything. So I definitely encourage y'all to to explore that and go on. But you know, obviously he spoke to a lot from wellness, from products to services, and even things that he's trying to implement. And like I said, if you if you're worried about somebody lying out there, he can take care of. But no, so for as far as people wanting to tap in with you, find the websites, the app, um the websites, even yeah, your episodes, everything that you do, um, figuring out the products and services, following along with your market research, and just the same. What are the best places from social media, best places to reach you and get in contact with you?

SPEAKER_00 58:54

Absolutely. So um you can go to concirise.com and ConciRise is uh consciousness rising. So that's what it is. And it's C-O-N-S-C-I-R-I-S-E dot com. And then from there, you can actually not only see the practitioners, the services, the products, as well as our podcast. Our podcast is called How We Heal. Um, we have uh practitioners not only talk about their stories, their process of healing, as well as their expertise in the particular healing modalities. Uh so, and then that's at how we heal, that's on Instagram. Uh and then you can follow me on Instagram personally, uh at JLocus Jr. J L O C U S T J R. Uh, and then if you want to just follow me on LinkedIn, it's Jonathan J-O-N-A-T-H-A-N, Locus L O C U S T Jr., Dr. Jonathan Locus Jr. And I'll I'm on LinkedIn, I'm on Facebook. Uh, if you put in Locus Jr., you'll find me.

unknown 59:56

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 59:57

All right, y'all. So look, we we put it in front of you as we do time and time again here with the podcast. But you know, another time and another just opportunity to just be able to learn. So, you know, I know that I'm gonna have some people tapping in that are familiar with this space in a sense that may even have utilized said experts or have looked into this and researched this in some capacity. I'm gonna have people that may more so adopt my mind frame with this, whereas you're curious, but sometimes you necessarily didn't know where to start and you were more turned away from it because of what people done versus you know what you really realize. But you know, now after having this conversation, I'm not only curious, but I'm now I'm eager to really figure it out, to really piece some things to figure my life out in a sense, you know, to really make sense of a lot of different things. But as I said, it it it it all boils down to just that intention and that authenticity as we speak to just that genuine nature, the same way he came, he came on here and he can tell you, you know, he can break everything down, he can be transparent with you, he can walk through the four hours of hypnosis, he can walk through kind of what he was doing, he can walk through some of the falters and the steps and the trials and the tribulations along the way. So he can absolutely do that. And yes, to whoever just asks, is this recorded? Absolutely. So we'll be able to, it won't air right away, but you'll be able to see this very, very, very soon. But it'll definitely be on our YouTube channel as well. So to everybody who continuously taps in with us, everybody who show love with us, whether you we got a lot of feedback on this episode. So whether you joined us live, whether you dropped a comment, whether you were with us on Instagram live or anything like that, I think y'all, I love y'all. This has been another episode of the Down to Business Podcast here with Tamar Turner.