Cultivating the Courage to Grow with Dena Jansen

When Dena Jansen left the corporate world to become an entrepreneur, author, and  podcast host, she didn't just change careers—she transformed her entire life.

Her journey, fraught with challenges and rich in reward, is a testament to the power of embracing change. Each moment of fear overcome and each unexpected joy discovered is a stroke in the vibrant painting of her life, which she generously shares with us, inviting listeners to foster a seeker's mindset and find bravery in curiosity.

In a world that seems to spin faster with each passing day, this episode serves as a gentle reminder to pause and breathe. Her eye-opening moment came when she saw her daughter imitating her constant busyness, sparking a realization about the importance of being present. Together with Dena, we explore the nourishment of the soul, drawing parallels to the careful cultivation required in farming. It's a conversation that plants seeds of self-trust and curiosity, urging you to give your innermost aspirations the sunlight they deserve.

Wrapping up this inspiring exchange, we dissect the five U-turns to personal growth—pivotal steps that guide us back to our most authentic selves. These transformative practices are the heart of empowerment and emphasize the value of listening to our inner voice and the strength found in community wisdom. With nods to the profound influence of figures like Martin Luther King Jr., this episode is a treasure trove of strategies to help you embrace your intrinsic worth and navigate life's cycles of growth with intention and authenticity.

Join us on this journey of self-discovery, and let's evoke greatness in one another.

Website: denajansen.com
Instagram: @dena_jansen - https://www.instagram.com/dena_jansen/
Facebook: Dena Jansen - https://www.facebook.com/denaspeaks
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dena-jansen-67859414/

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Transcript

Speaker 1 0:05

Hey there, what's up everybody? Welcome to Evoke Greatness. This podcast was created for those of you who, like me, are driven by their curious nature and fascination with the champion mindset, If you have an insatiable hunger for growth and knowledge, or maybe you're just curious on how some of the most successful people have navigated their journey. We share the ups and the downs, the highs and the lows and all the lessons learned along the way. It doesn't matter what chapter you are on in your story Maybe you're just getting started or, heck, maybe you're halfway through. What I know is, where intention goes, energy flows. It's my most sincere hope that you will hear something in one or maybe many of these episodes that resonates with you and reminds you that you are not in this alone. As we venture into year two, I hope that you find a sense of connection and community when you're here, because we all deserve a place where we belong. My name is Sunny and I am so glad you're here. If you're new, there's a few things you want to know about me. I am a huge book nerd and a wee bit of a control enthusiast, with an obsession for motivational coffee cups. I believe that a rising tide raises all ships and I invite you along in this journey to evoke greatness.

Speaker 1 1:38

Welcome back to another episode of Evoke Greatness. In today's episode, I'm honored to welcome the incredibly inspiring Dena Jensen. Her journey is a testament to the power of embracing change and the beauty of growth. From a seasoned corporate leader to a podcast host, author and thriving entrepreneur, her story is one of courage, transformation and the relentless pursuit of one's true calling. Soul Farmer is Dena's touching and insightful book. It's a journey from a personal transformation. She invites us along to embrace the seeker's mindset, breaking free from the chains of hesitation to move forward with an insatiable curiosity of unwavering bravery. So get cozy, open your hearts and be prepared to be moved and motivated. It's time to grow and, as Dina beautifully reminds us, we don't have to do it alone. Dina, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 2:26

Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here and talk about it Absolutely Well.

Speaker 1 2:31

I always love to kick off by figuring out how are you at the current season of your life? Right, it's many, many roads and twists and turns that kind of lead us to our current reality. But what is that story for you that really crafted your current version of yourself?

Speaker 2 2:46

Yeah, that's such a great question and I feel like my therapist would say you can always dig right. I'm someone who does. Really. I appreciate the exercise of self-reflection and diving in and figuring out. Why do I do what I do? How did I become the woman I am today? Why do I do what I do? How did I become the woman I am today?

Speaker 2 3:08

But I would honestly say that where I find myself today was drastically different than where I found myself eight years ago, when I really I had been a wife, a mother of two, I was a partner at a CPA firm. Everything from the outside, looking in, looked fantastic. I mean I joke because we even we literally have a white fence at our home, like it's, it's pretty, it's comical. But the truth was that I wasn't happy and I and I'm real funny about that word happy because I don't think we're meant to be happy, whatever that might mean all the time. I think life is meant to be the highs and the lows, right, because then you can really feel the full spectrum that we're supposed to feel in life. But I was really more leaning into despair of when you feel hopeless. Nothing feels good and again, I'm happy to say that's not where I am today, but I was very lonely inside of marriage, which is is really a hard loneliness to face. I was in a fantastic firm but walking away like never not not excited to go back you know it was or daydreaming while I was there of other things to do.

Speaker 2 4:20

So I think for me, how I got to where I am now is really, though, tackling so much fear that it took to re-engage in a marriage that I had been in. I'm still married to my high school sweetheart. We had been together since we were 15. And at that point it was really could we decide to basically remarry each other? My therapist and I do. I quote my therapist because Jules is fantastic, but she says everyone has multiple marriages. Some two people just marry the same people, some people marry different people. My husband and I say we're on our second marriage, but at the same time, could I also commit to a professional, pivot one where I would leave corporate security well as secure as I felt it was right where I could leave financial stability and insurance and benefits to experiment with entrepreneurship and what that looked like and what I really found mostly in that moment, honestly Sunny, was.

Speaker 2 5:16

I was terrified of everything, but ultimately I was terrified of change and I was terrified of. One coach that I work with was, like you seem to be scared of the blank page, and so when I wrote my first book which is not this is my second book Soul Farmer, which we might dig into, but my first is Road to Hope, and that was really memoir, where I did dig into how the heck did I get so scared of everything and quickly, after a lot of years of therapy and really being able to step back? I'm the adult child of an alcoholic. He's been in recovery since I was in third grade, but living in that type of home what some would call a diseased home leaves its marks and as a child I wanted a lot of things.

Speaker 2 6:03

I wanted to feel safe and secure, and so the blank page is not one that I lean into naturally, and so for me that where I am today is a woman who can honor and love that little girl who did the best she could, with parents who were doing the best they could, but be really proud of the woman I am today, who not only does my best to embrace change but help other people do the same so that they can live what I you know, what I call an inspired life, one that you're really pumped about living right, one that you're excited for, and I can honestly say that's where I am today.

Speaker 1 6:39

Well, and what's interesting is you talk about the kind of the comforts of having this stable job, right, not having to worry about from a financial perspective because it's like, okay, I know every two weeks that check is deposited. Right, how sometimes that comfort zone actually creates this breeding ground for fear. Right, because if you go outside of the bounds of that comfortable place it then becomes really scary and so you go into a lot of that in the content you provide and the things that you speak about in your book around stepping out of that. But I almost think you have to back up a little bit and recognize you're even in it first. Right, it's like getting introspective enough. How does one start?

Speaker 1 7:25

Because there's a lot of people having been in myself in healthcare leadership in the C-suite I've had more conversations in the year and a half since I left that and started becoming an entrepreneur around women who feel really unfulfilled in these great jobs with great titles and a great paycheck, in these great jobs with great titles and a great paycheck, and it's like you're just kind of checking the box but there's nothing soulful to it. So how does somebody step back out of that place of feeling? You know, we'll just call it unfulfilled right. Unfulfilled to say number one. Why am I unfulfilled by this right? Number two like what do I really want?

Embracing Change and Personal Growth

Speaker 2 8:08

Yeah, oh, my goodness, these are fantastic questions, sunny. Okay, so I would honestly say, like even right now, because I have so many thoughts swirling around that I want to like dive into first, is to do exactly what I would say first is to slow down and take a deep breath. So I'm actually taking one myself. Just slow down the pace. When I was still in corporate, my kids were, let's say, elementary school, middle school, and I remember my daughter one day saying, oh, mom, we've got to go, go, go. And she like put her, like kind of beat her hand into the other hand and when I realized she was mirroring me, I my heart broke. I still just got full goosebumps of just that pace that no one was telling me. You just felt this need to be going all the time, to be achieving, to be moving, and of course, now that was with two young kids Like, let's be real, I did have places to be going all the time, to be achieving, to be moving, and of course, now that was with two young kids like, let's be real, I did have places to be and things to do.

Speaker 2 9:10

But I think that one of the when someone is feeling unfulfilled, the absolute best thing they can do is to just stop and take three deep breaths, just get back into their own body, get back into their own mind. And so I have girlfriends who I have actually tasked with. I'm like, look, whenever you think of me, just text me and say breathe, because I forget and we don't even realize the pace that we're living our lives and we're just not getting the oxygen we need. So take a deep breath and just kind of get back in the moment and just like you mentioned earlier, really, once you have basically gotten yourself grounded and gotten that deep breath and really just you can actually feel yourself back in your body rather than kind of out and about. Which is where I feel when I'm anxious or fearful and you know I wrote this in my first book and I write it here is that I do think you have so many times we say get out of your own way. But I actually think it's really quite the opposite If you have to really learn the practice of getting in your own way by the use of self-reflection and these tools of slowing down, in really having a conversation with yourself about exactly what you'd said earlier what do I want, right? What is this sense of unease I feel why am I? What is this unfulfillment? Where do I feel it in my body? You're creating and establishing that connection with yourself, Because one of the things I say in Soul Farmer is that you have to ultimately believe, and this takes practice, it does not happen overnight. You will, you'll have to get to the point where you do trust that you are your own best guide of toward growth. Right, you are your own best guide to whatever it is you say you want. No one else can really. One, they can't do the work for you, but two, they can't ultimately know the stirrings of your heart and soul. And so you know, and ultimately, that's where Soul Farmer, where this idea came from, is.

Speaker 2 11:21

I am married to my high school sweetheart, but it happens to also be a real life farmer. He is a real farmer and I kill plants, but he grows them very well. But I, on the other hand, do have a love and a passion and skillset for helping people grow, and I was. I was frustrated, as it gets when you're writing a book and you're editing and revising, and I went to him and I cause, finally, I was like this is frustrating me. I know I want to talk about personal growth, but how do I do it? And I was like, why am I not talking to someone who grows things all the time? So I went to my husband and I said, just talk me through a crop cycle. And he said well, from the farmer's perspective, are the seeds.

Speaker 2 12:02

And I remember going excuse me, pause time out as my brain you know the emoji, my brain exploded and I was just like wait, wait, what. And I remember just one, feeling so fortunate to have a new perspective, right that I was that I realized. And two, a little disappointed that I had this. My husband, I was this fantastic resource that I was that I realized, and, too a little disappointed that I had this. My husband was this fantastic resource that I was not tapping into, but what I stepped away with in that moment is just like he really sees his work in partnership. Right, he's a farmer and there's a seed that he has to do everything he can to help it grow.

Speaker 2 12:42

I do believe that every single one of us humans has a soul that I trust is the seed, and we didn't have any control over getting there. We're here, we have this soul, this essence, this spirit that I believe everyone's soul wants to grow and so if we can then open our mind to oh, I then am also the farmer. Right, I am both. It is my work to help my soul grow toward what it longs for. But that also means you do have a very strong brain, you have a very strong mind, you have a very strong.

Speaker 2 13:22

There's things that can get in the way of that growth, but the first thing and to come back to your first question, is the first thing you can do is, after you take that breath, just really start the practice of turning inward right, Rather than looking out to what society says should be your next step. What's your best friend, your mom, your partner, your spouse? It really is getting in your own way, asking yourself really good questions and then just really ultimately embracing curiosity over certainty, which I know sounds hard. But once it becomes a practice, a lifestyle, it's not you end up. You just end up rooting trust in yourself. That, ultimately, is what helps you grow out of that comfort zone, step by step.

Speaker 1 14:13

With some of those. It's almost like the seasons, right, the seasons of our life, the seasons that we encounter, and there are going to be a series of times when it's more like winter, right, and things aren't green and we're not feeling flourished. It's just almost like this time where we got to hunker down a little bit and then, knowing that there's also going to be another spring, and as we transition through those seasons, which I feel like you know, throughout your story is like this seasonal change, right With that comes a change of identity which can be really interesting to navigate. And so how did you, how did you go from you know, being in this firm to then saying, all right, I'm going to do something different, I'm going to navigate this path of entrepreneurship and I'm going to embrace or sometimes we battle a little bit with the identity or the things that came with our old season in looking at this new season. So how did you go down that path?

Speaker 2 15:21

Yeah, Well, I would say you are 100% on point, sunny, that the identity, the identity shifting, is a real struggle and I honestly the my last day, the day that I was leaving the firm. You know, again, eight years ago I went in. It was going to be a pretty easy day, you know, you kind of turn your computer and you read these. I knew it was going to be my last day. I had already cried some tears, I knew it would be sad. But I was asked early in the morning, go ahead and drop off your badge. And I was like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll get you my badge, like not a problem. And then a couple hours later someone came back. She was like no, no, like are you ready to turn in your badge? And she left and I lost it and it really was like who am I without my badge? Right, like that badge, you have access not only to the physical space, but you have access to people and resources. You have not only to the physical space, but you have access to people and resources. You have you're, you're part of a community, right you? You're not alone.

Speaker 2 16:30

And I remember that, not having my badge, that that was when I finally lost it and had to tell myself, like, turn in the badge, we can't, we're not going to run. I did, I did turn in the badge because I'm a rule follower. I did think about just running, but I turned in the badge. But I remember thinking, wow, like you don't realize how strongly we hold to those identities and, and as I think of all the identities I've had in my life, right, I've been a daughter, I've been a sister, I've been a student, I've been then you know, corporate, climb the ladder, become a partner, I've been a friend. I've been all these things. And I think that, especially if you make a transition into entrepreneurship, for me, I have not necessarily really grounded and classed onto the identity of being entrepreneur.

Speaker 2 17:23

Because of the work that I was doing and the first book and then the second book, I really decided I want to become someone who can not only survive but really seek change. That is the identity I want to hold on to, because I do think that the titles that I have will change and I need to then focus on, ultimately, what's the bedrock identity that I want to have, and that is a human who is kind and open and real and someone who is truly like seeking change for the better, Like, and it doesn't have to be big change. But every day I want to be able to know that I've done my best, that I have tried, that I have shown up and cared for the people that I love and that I've shown up and cared for myself and for me. That, then, has given me more freedom and flexibility to not be as crushed when something doesn't go my way in the entrepreneurial space right, or when I get rejected from blank, or when this isn't working or when I'm struggling. I just know I'm me and I'm good with who I am and the person that I want other people to be.

Speaker 2 18:41

And to me, that is where we, a lot of times, that unfulfilled feeling comes from is because we aren't truly filling ourselves, so we are running on empty right, and for me, now I can't prioritize myself. I do prioritize myself, and that does not mean that that in any way sacrifices the love and care and the way I show up for my family and my children and my clients even. It's just a different way of approaching life. Rather than being identity tied to a title and my identity is tied to the values that I want to live by and how I truly want to show up in this world so that if God forbid, something were to happen to me in my life or end, I know I'd actually be good with it, because I showed up as who I said I wanted to show up, as it's not easy but it's where I am Well, and that path is never a straight line, right?

Speaker 1 19:38

No, it's where I am Well and that path is never a straight line, right it is. Sometimes it goes backwards and goes to the side and goes forward and it's sometimes just a big old scribbly line, because it's our own individual and unique process. But one of the things that you talk about in the book is talking around course correction, when you feel lost or when you feel scared, and those emotions are going to happen as those squiggly lines, you know, when you're venturing from one season to the next. And you have created this five U-turns concept to really gain clarity in pursuit of happiness. Can you walk us through what that looks like?

Five U-Turns to Personal Growth

Speaker 2 20:15

Yeah. So the U-turns I love because you know earlier, someone's like who is this woman telling me to get in my own way, and what does that even mean? The five U-turns truly are the bedrock for how we can make those course corrections or how we can shift perspective when we're in a moment and we feel lost or we feel scared or we feel like, you know, a lot of women will say I just don't know what to do. Next, like someone, just tell me what to do. And these are, I mean, I am an ambitious, strong-willed woman and I would look to my husband be like just tell me what to do, right. And he's like I can't do this for you, right, like you, you've got to figure it out. And so these five U-turns and I spell it Y-O-U, so it's a U-turn right, you are turning back towards yourself.

Speaker 2 20:59

There's these five things. So the very first one and again these are things that become lifestyle practices, right there, things that you're going to do a million times and you'll get just more natural at doing them. But the very first that you just have to trust that you matter. And that again seems like they're like no, no, just tell me. Like, walk five steps. Well, no, this is much more. I mean this is grounded in who you are. You have to trust that your life, your journey is unique and is meant to be and that it matters. It matters even if to no one else. To you, right? What you do with your life matters, and it's about taking the focus off. Basically, it's about taking the focus off trying to earn your worth rather than just trusting that you are worthy, right, it's a different perspective. The second is to listen to your voice. A lot of people are going to like, okay, we get it, but intuition is such an untapped power Not for and again, a lot of times for women, but for men too but the more that we can trust our own voice, our internal compass and I wouldn't say that it's always going to keep you on the right course, but it helps you course correct soon.

Speaker 2 22:21

So many times you start going down a path and you're resistant or things aren't going well and you just got to push through rather than stopping and really asking yourself. And people know this about me, I mean, I ask myself a lot of questions, sometimes out loud, and I will answer sometimes out loud, like I stop, and I can ask myself a lot of questions, sometimes out loud, and I will answer, sometimes out loud, like I stop and I can ask myself, hey, what's the next right move here, right? And I wait for an answer. If there's a lot of babble normally means I'm either not ready to answer myself or there's a lot of fear or something, but a lot of times the answer just comes up if you just give yourself a little time, a little bit of silence to ask yourself so that you can listen to your voice, and, again, that is a practice, and it takes time.

Speaker 2 23:08

The third, though and I like to include the third and the fourth because, like you said earlier, I do believe every one of us has a soul that longs to grow, but I also do not think that we are meant to grow alone. We are built to be in community, and so the third and the fourth U-turn really are to share your stuff. I don't know if you cast on this positive, so I'll go with that Just share your stuff, which just means we are meant to process our lives, and sometimes there are things that we need to process verbally, and maybe that means we need to just share our reality, right, like if you go online, so much of it is just the prettiest versions of what's going on in life, but there's a lot that isn't pretty, there's a lot that doesn't make sense, there's a lot that's murky, there's a lot that's just ambiguous, and we need to process that. So I say to share your stuff with someone who has earned the right to hear that. Whether it's your best of friends, whether it's a mentor, whether it's a coach, whether that's personally or professionally, share your reality, because in that honest expression you will free up some space to figure out your next steps forward.

Speaker 2 24:14

And then the fourth is to ask for help. These seem like easy things, but so many times it's not easy to ask for the help that we need and that could be help with just day to day. It could be help, though, from a professional. I'm obviously, you know, I mean, I'm a big fan of therapy and having professionals in my life who can help me unpack anything I might need to and give me new tools. Right when you ask for help, you traditionally are either given time or space, or you're given. You're kind of like, oh, you did it that way and you learn some new tool you can have in your own toolkit to continue navigating through your journey. So trust that you matter, listen to your voice, share your stuff, ask for help.

Speaker 2 25:00

And the last is just to explore more.

Speaker 2 25:03

And that really the reason I include that as a U-turn is we will somehow we will get caught in the lie that there's normally like an AB option, or that your options are limited like an A B option, or that there's only like that your options are limited.

Speaker 2 25:19

And what I want people to know is they are not. I mean, honestly, what I struggle with now is when there's too many options, because I can see that now I'm like, oh my gosh, I could do this or that or this or this, and I don't feel limited by that. But so many times we seem to think it's all or nothing. I'm either in or out, I've got to do this or that. But truly, if you explore more, get a little more curious, ask one other person, google one more time, you will find another option that you haven't explored. And I don't mean that to lead to analysis, paralysis, but just to remind yourself that you aren't stuck. There are options and you might just have to explore them more to give yourself the freedom to step out of that rut, whatever, wherever you find yourself.

Exploring Fear and Growth Cycles

Speaker 1 26:09

To grow, you know to keep growing, yeah, and a lot of this really takes the ability to be really upfront with yourself, right, because we can. If we want to fudge the truth a bit, we can to other people, right, but we in this process really have to be willing to be honest with ourselves and have the courage to to your point, to be curious, to explore. So I think that's where so much of the magic happens, right Is, we're faced with whatever. But once we start going a little deeper and exploring and kind of excavating an emotion, a fear, something like that, it unlocks something in us, right, yeah absolutely.

Speaker 2 26:54

And I think that that, to me, is interesting part, because I'll even say, as I was diving into, you know, pre retirement, when I was, that was very scary for me to really make that ultimate decision, and I remember just writing down one morning, just doing this dump of all of these different fears that I had, and ultimately what was really interesting is so many of us focus on the fear of failure, but for me and I would still say, what I struggle with now and that I'm growing through is the fear of success. What does the fear of success mean to my family? What does it mean to my flexibility? What does it mean? I mean now, of course, you know we're eight years in, so now I have a high school senior and a sophomore, so I'm nearing empty nester, but I want to. I mean they're still here and what do I want my life to look like as an entrepreneur, right? What is that? What boundaries do I want? And so if I were to get really successful and start traveling or doing all these things, what does that do to this world we've created now? So, and I wouldn't have known that if I hadn't really explored a little bit more, I mean the way.

Speaker 2 28:06

I even found that I, honestly, was looking for antonyms to like security and safety, because I knew that's what I wanted. It's like okay, if I really want to feel safe. What's the opposite of that and the answer that came? Well, you know, when I was doing that, freedom came up. So I was scared of freedom, which really can be scary, right Like just looking back at my childhood, having complete like what does that? Even if I don't know what's happening next. That's really scary. So, exploring more and, just like you said, just tapping into that, it's really quite fascinating what you can learn about yourself and what might be holding you back and what you have for you personally to focus on to keep moving forward.

Speaker 1 28:49

And for especially anyone who's been in circumstances like you're talking about the way you grow up, right is the unknown. You want to control the controllables, right? In a situation like that, you want to. I'm a self-professed control enthusiast. I want to control the controllables. You know, and I recognize that there are some things out of my control.

Speaker 1 29:10

But it becomes when you can't control things or you feel out of control that then you create this narrative in your mind about and the story may not even be real, like it just may be what you're creating because of the unknown, and so I think, really trying to buffer that.

Speaker 1 29:30

Or you had mentioned, you asked yourself a question and that is like what is the next right thing to do? Sometimes it's like, as you're going through these narratives, it's is this really real, is this true, or is this something that I'm creating in my mind to just kind of move back into that space of controlling the controllables. And so, as you talk about doing these different things and exploring, it's almost as if you're going out and you're tilling the soil. Right, you're preparing. You have to kind of dig it up and get it messy in order to allow that ground to be able to put the seeds in to water to do the process. And another thing that you talk about in the book is mastering the four-phase growth cycle, and that's what it makes me think about is tilling up the soil, doing all of that really to adapt and change, to get to that place of an inspired life. And so what is that four-phase growth cycle that you talk about?

Speaker 2 30:28

Yeah, yeah, I'm going to try to walk you through it fairly quickly, because, and of course the book talks through Soul Farmer, talks through each of the phases and I I honestly it was one of the things that came to me as I was talking to my husband because he said you know, basically it really all at the at the easiest, highest level, farming comes down to plant grow harvest. And I'm like that is true and this makes sense, and that is how the book is. There's three sections plant grow harvest. But in the growth section, what I wanted, what I figured out for myself, was, just like you mentioned, I do love to be in control of a situation. So if I could, but I did also find that if I could understand a process, a repeatable process, even though the exact circumstances would be different or the exact situation would change, how could I let myself know you're still safe as you grow, you're still okay? And so what I found? And so I started looking at my own world, like the changes that I had gone through, going from thinking I wanted to leave corporate to retiring and starting, like going through a whole cycle. So the four phases are, and what I again found was that the very first one starts with what I call shifting soil, and it really is. If you imagine a seed under the dirt, right it is, it's surrounded all the time, but there's got to be rubs sometime right where that, where the dirt shifts and then the soil shifts. And when I think of our own souls, you know, there's those moments where you just don't feel right, like you just mentioned. There's you feel unfulfilled, you feel just like maybe a little grumpy about a situation, or you feel like real nervous or fearful or sad, or you're feeling something. And to me that first phase, that shifting soil, is just slowing down and asking yourself what's the rub right? What is this discontent? What is it really about? And so it's getting curious and asking yourself questions like do we already know what the rub is Like?

Speaker 2 32:41

For me, I knew I love working with people, I was pretty good at numbers because I was a CPA, I was an auditor, I was great at asking questions and so I was good at certain things. But I just knew that there was something and probably mostly just the compliance side of it never felt right. I just was more creative and I had those longings, but I didn't know, and so it took me a year, two of a 15-year career. I knew I wouldn't be there forever. I stayed for 13 more years, so I stayed in the shifting soil a bit long, but that's okay, because the shifting soil is just staying curious.

Speaker 2 33:16

Just knowing something's not feeling right. There's a longing I have for a change for the better and I'm just going to keep trying to figure out what it is and I'm going to not freak out about knowing that there's a change on the horizon. I'm just going to look at it, I'm going to talk about it. But then it moves into the second phase, which is breaking through. That's where it really can become the most, to me, the most emotionally exposed part of the cycle. Because right now, when you're shifting soil, you're kind of in it yourself. People around you can probably tell like, ooh, she really wants something or she's not something, she's unsettled. But when you break through, it really is when you really go ahead and trust yourself enough to verbalize or to share with others like there's a change for the better I want and I'm going to start making action toward it, whatever that is. So for me that ended up being having a conversation with my husband, then having a conversation with my managing partner then asking for sabbatical because we still couldn't figure it out right, like it was just breaking through. But at that same point, the biggest part about breaking through just like in shifting soil, you stay curious and breaking through the biggest thing is just to continue to get a grip. I call it get a grip G-R-I-P, which just means to self-regulate through the emotional exposure that this change is bringing into your life, because it just will. It's scary, it can be frustrating. You want answers and you may not have them. You want to control it but you can't. So it's regulating yourself and just kind of knowing that after the breakthrough comes the third phase, which is pacing pursuit. And pacing pursuit just means we are changed for the better. Creating an inspired life is a marathon, not a sprint. It is intended. It does not need to be rushed.

Speaker 2 35:05

I was doing a workout video the other day. It was really funny and the woman was you know, a lot of times workout people like, say inspirational things. And she said like and was you know, a lot of times workout people to like, say inspirational things? And she said, like you can't rush a change that you want to hold on to for a lifetime, like you just can't. You can't rush that. So pace yourself while you pursue whatever it is you're going after.

Speaker 2 35:27

So you know, in pacing pursuit it's all about the imagery you can remember there. And I don't know if you've ever seen it happen, but if you have seen something sprout, like if you've seen a plant sprout, and if there is sun, it knows what it wants. It wants sun and water, right, it wants what it wants. And if it sees it, it's going to grow, sometimes grow too quickly, and then very easily through wind or other things that can happen, it can just snap. It's no different with the human spirit. Right, we want to change so many times. We want that. It's like the people who go to the gym in January they do all of these things, they're all excited and then they can't walk because they're so full of lactic acid and then they never go back. It is pacing the pursuit.

Speaker 2 36:05

So you felt this rub. You've had the shifting soil moment, you've decided on a breakthrough which is really about hope-fueled action is what I call it. Right, you're going to keep taking baby steps forward and then you pace yourself. And I had a friend who wrote a song that goes with Soul Farmer, called Let Time Take Time. You just you can't put a stamp on it. I can't guarantee how long it's going to take you to grow toward what you want to build or what you want to change, and you can't know how long mine's going to take. So you pace yourself.

Speaker 2 36:40

But when you do that time and time again, you get to the fourth phase, which is rooting trust, which is just the most beautiful piece of it all, because if you look under a plant or under a tree, it's just this crazy tapestry of roots, right, that? No, none of them look the same, but they hold it really firm, right? They hold it in place, and that is that's ultimately what I want for anyone seeking change. That's why I can feel more confident, more sturdy, more grounded when I want to make a change, because I have learned to trust myself. The goal of rooting trust is that you are learning that you can trust yourself to keep yourself safe through change.

Speaker 2 37:27

So, and then, crazy enough, the whole thing just starts again, and you could have multiple growth cycles happening at one time. Right, it just depends on what you're growing through. But when you have those at least phases and you have a little moment where you do feel out of control. You can ask yourself, like man, where am I? Where am I? It's like, is this just a new long? Is this something like new stirring in me, or is this something that? No, I've already said I'm gonna take action, but maybe I'm going too quickly or maybe I'm not going fast enough. So pacing pursuit again also allows you to go faster or slower, but ultimately the beautiful way that that cycle ends and ultimately begins again is with trust, trusting yourself that you're your own best guide and that you can keep yourself safe.

Speaker 1 38:12

Yeah, and you've had all these journeys around leaving your former career, kind of venturing into entrepreneurialism and writing. You're now two books in. You've authored two books. You also have a weekly podcast called you Just Don't Know it Yet that you co-host it, yet that you co-host what caused you to want to take all that you've experienced and offer those seeds out to the rest of the world.

Empowerment and Growth Through Authenticity

Speaker 2 38:42

Yeah, I ultimately think that when I step back from my life, I just feel that there's been a natural desire to inspire others toward what I know they're capable of. It just has been. You know, when I was in third or fourth grade, we had to do some. You know, we had to pick a historical figure and write a presentation and I picked Martin Luther King Jr and this dates me. I know you're way younger than me, but I went to Blockbuster, got a VHS, I watched the I have a Dream speech and I remember I of course at that age couldn't fully understand the message and heart and root of what he was speaking to, I mean, as best I could, but I did feel the power of his words. I felt that he believed that change for the better was possible. I believed that he could plant that seed in other people and there was something about it. I watched it a million times. It still gives me goosebumps and just the power that we have to potentially impact someone for the better.

Speaker 2 39:50

I have a thing for life and I have a thing for love and I don't know when my life will end and none of us do, and that is wildly out of our control, which is very frustrating, but I want to know that every day that I've lived, I haven't settled and I just believe that I can be just as relatable as I can be and share my journey and hope that whoever's ready to hear it will find it.

Speaker 2 40:17

You know that's the goal and that they have their own moment and they figure out what they want and they figure out what their inspired life looks like, and they do it, they create it, and if I can give them tools to add to their growth toolkit, that's my work.

Speaker 2 40:33

Right, like my husband, something has always broken on the farm. He always says that and you know, he said one day he was really frustrated, something was broken and he was like, look, this wouldn't be that bad, I just don't have the right tools. And I remember going gosh, dang it, you're just nailing it with all of these. Like, it's true, if we don't have the right tools in our toolkit, you can't, you know, you can't fault yourself, and so it is my work to just have tools out in the world and try to get them into the hands of people who really do want to seek change for the better and who want to feel more confident in that, who want to feel more happy I put in quotes but just ultimately really satisfied and excited for the life that they're creating.

Speaker 1 41:19

And once I started doing that, I can't imagine turning back to anything else, the beauty, I think, of us sharing our journeys and sharing the pitfalls and the times where we totally flopped and being courageous enough to show up vulnerably and to show up authentically. I think we give people the opportunity to take from our journey, take from our lessons, our perspective, what serves them, leave behind the things that don't you know but it's like. Then they can take that and go start to, you know, kind of foster their own crops and things that maybe they didn't think were possible prior to. So that's why I'm just such a believer in being able to show up fully and share authentically. You clearly do that as well in books, in person, you know, with your podcast. But for those, you know, for those who want a new podcast to add to their list, what is? Tell us a little bit about your podcast. What would they hear? What would they look forward to listening to?

Speaker 2 42:21

Yeah, so on our you Just Don't Know it Yet podcast it comes out weekly. It is one of my dear friends. Wendy and I are just two local women who have sons about the same age and we got together and just we find ourselves in very different places in life, but the thing that is very similar and the thing that we talk about then is, you know, just we want the podcast to be real talk, real growth, real fun. So really it just means us sharing what's letting our real life inspire the conversation of what we are growing through.

Speaker 2 42:58

We are in a small-ish town, right, we're in a suburb south of Austin, texas, and we also think that small town women are just a really big deal and that we've got so much wisdom and so much experience and so much of so many of these stories that we a lot of time have women on that are like, why would I come on? Because you have a story to share and we like to really dive into their own journeys of growth, right, their own highs and lows and what they've learned, and even in community, what does community mean to them? So if someone comes on and listens, they're going to get an earful, real talk, real growth and real fun with just some super relatable women who can make fun of themselves, for sure, and are obsessed with the meaning of everything we're going through, but also finding new tools, new perspectives and finding other women that are truly inspiring.

Speaker 1 44:00

Well, it's a perfect way to wrap up. I'm so grateful that you came on today and that you're just sharing so many of your fascinating perspectives. I love how there are so many commonalities and parallels into. You know, really like your husband's lens in which he sees the world through farming. You know both of the farmer and the seed and the purposefulness and intentionality that you want to live and lead others to live an inspired life, and so I thank you for fully showing up, but want to make sure that we share. Where can people find you? The podcast, you know follow you.

Speaker 2 44:40

Yeah, absolutely the best way, I would say. You can always go to my website, so DinaJansencom is always a great first stop if you want to head there. On Instagram I am Dina underscore Jansen, and you know to me those are great ways for you to kind of go in and do your own digging on who I am and what I have to offer. The podcast comes out on wednesdays, that's. You just don't know it yet. It's on all the available outlets but really soul farmer is out out in the world at any. You know amazon but other online retailers, so you can barnesandnoblecom, you can find it elsewhere, but soul farmer is really, even if someone's never or has been interested in working with a coach or a guide of some sort, but hasn't necessarily do this. I mean this to me is a really fun way for me to just be with you on every page and if you're not a page like a physical page turner, you can obviously get the version or the audible.

Speaker 2 45:32

I'm your narrator. So if you want to listen or even Apple books, just go find Soul Farmer and let me just kind of pour into you all that. I hope just new tools, but every chapter ends with a tool for practice. So you have a self-reflection exercise at the end of every chapter to really let you bring that book to life and really see change from page one to the end of the book. Really let you bring that book to life and really see change from page one to the end of the book. That, to me, is the exciting part. So the website DinaJansencom Instagram is my babe over at Dina underscore Jansen, but go find Soul Farmer wherever you can and just know that there's good stuff waiting. Whatever you might need, I feel like you'll find something to help you grow.

Share, Review, and Evoke Greatness

Speaker 1 46:13

Awesome. Appreciate it. Dina. Thank you so much for listening and for being here on this journey with me. I hope you'll stick around If you liked this episode. It would mean the world for me if you would rate and review the podcast or share it with someone you know may need to hear this message. I love to hear from you all and want you to know that you can leave me a voicemail directly. If you go to my website, evokegreatnesscom, and go to the contact me tab, you'll just hit the big old orange button and record your message. I love the feedback and comments that I've been getting, so please keep them coming. I'll leave you with the wise words of author Robin Sharma Greatness comes by doing a few small and smart things each and every day. It comes from taking little steps consistently. It comes from making a few small chips against everything in your professional and personal life that is ordinary, so that a day eventually arrives when all that's left is the extraordinary.