Ah

Hello, Hello, and welcome to the Borealis experience. I'm your

host Aurora, and I'm very excited to have Josh zepess.

With me today. He is an identity archaeologist. And yeah, he's

just a lighthouse out there who shines a slide so brightly that

when you come across his videos, when you come across his

website, you feel just drawn into his energy and his mission.

I'm extremely excited to have him here today because I pick

out heart driven leaders, leaders who went through some

stuff in the past, and then were able to liberate themselves from

old structures that were not serving them anymore. And yeah,

I find that very interesting to speak to heart driven leaders,

because we need more of them out there. We need less ego driven

leaders, we need more heart driven leaders.

So yeah, extremely blessed for Josh, making the time to be with

us today.

At first, I would like you to tell us a little bit about your

background. Obviously, I read a little bit about you, but people

who are listening, maybe didn't have the time to look into your

bio. Where are you coming from? And what are the struggles that

you had to go through in order to then connect deeply with your

mission and yourself again, welcome to the show, Josh

septons. Your thank you so much, sir, to be able to share with

you, thank you for allowing me to share time. Hopefully I could

share some wisdom and knowledge and my experience. So I like to

say I grew up as a soldier. I grew up as the good soldier. I

did everything I was told to do. Like, you know, yes, sir. Yes,

ma'am. I was an obedient person. And I was the first one my

family go to college. And that was that was my I was I was it

was drilled into me from a young age, Josh, go to school, get

good grades, go to college, get the safe, secure job, put into

your 401k All these things were told to do. And I did them. And

I thought I was successful. I thought whoa, hey, I made it.

This must be what life is about.

And so as I spent 20 years in corporate America, just being

that shy, negative skeptical, introverted engineer, and I

thought that that was it. And then one day, everything I

thought was right wasn't so right. I just wasn't as happy as

I wanted to be. I knew something was off. You know, when you get

that feeling like, you almost are seeing the code in the

matrix. You seen these glitches and like, Man, I'm just not

supposed to be here. I wasn't as I didn't have the money I

wanted. I didn't have the lifestyle I wanted. And I just

wasn't free.

And you know, freedom. That honestly is my favorite effort

nowadays. Because no, it wasn't I had a different effort,

favorite effort in corporate America. I'll let you all guess.

But now my favorite effort is freedom. And and I believe that

on every level, physically, mentally.

I said, I can't do this anymore. I want out of corporate America,

I need to do something on my own. And I got into the

financial industry. I got into the gym industry. I was a

competitive bodybuilder I was running franchise gyms. That was

fantastic. And then one day I said, Wait a minute. Timeout.

Josh, stop trying to make money for a second. What are you

really good at? What is your genius? What is your real

talent? What is that thing you could do better than anyone

else? The thing that is easy for you to do? What are those

things? I made a list? And then I said okay, how can I bring

this value to the world? How can I take these things and make

money with it? And that's where identity archaeologist was born.

That's what led me to find like, I just started with me first

instead of with what makes money and I said, I'm gonna find a way

to take me and make money with me, because I think everyone

should get paid for being themselves. Yes, yes, no, that's

so very inspiring. And I feel that is a very sustainable and

healthy way to approach success and business. Everything else

that you do is to please others to fit in. And like you say on

on your mission statement there. It's gonna make us sick. Right

like cancer, I strongly believe is not something that just comes

out of the air. It is

When you are constantly pushing against yourself and rejecting

yourself and not accepting yourself, and

it's a, it's a very courageous step that you took there. And I

know there's a couple of people out there who try to get on a

new path.

But they are met with resistance, inner like, doubt,

self doubt, but also from their family and you know, the group

of people they surrounded themselves. And it is very hard

to keep pushing for your mission to keep fighting for yourself.

When you feel all of a sudden you threatening the sense of

belonging.

Did you experience that when you first started out? And how did

you deal with that? You must have felt so lonely. And how did

you not fall back? But you fell forward? Yes, yes. Excellent

question. And I always tell people, I say if you're not

getting resistance to something, you're going in the wrong

direction. That if I if I'm not getting doubted, I'm not happy.

Like I'm not doing something right. That it's not supposed to

be easy. Bruce Lee says, never pray for an easy life. Pray for

the strength to endure a difficult one. Yeah. So it's not

about expect life's easy, and that's okay. It's just is the

hard part worth it? Are you going, right? Everybody wants to

glory, but they don't want to go through the story. Right? They

don't want to go through the pain. But we got to, that's how

it works. People think success is over here and failures over

here. So if I'm in the middle, I just gotta run towards success

where success Josh, I don't want to go towards failure. But

that's wrong. That's incorrect. Failure is right next to

success. Failure is in between you and success. You've got to

go through failure to get to success. That's the only way.

So to your to your question. I had two kinds of people with

actually, there's actually three kinds of people we're going to

meet when we go out and try and do something big. There's the

naysayers, I call them which are like the cheerleaders. These are

this is Mom, this is dad, maybe this is your best friend, the

ones that are like, I'm there for you, man. Whatever you need.

I'm there. You can count on me. And they're really cheering you

on. And then you got the naysayers. These are the ones

that want to tear you down. What do you think about doing that

for you can't do that you're no good at this. Keep your safe,

secure job at the mall. You're you don't need to worry about

that. Keep your head down, stop, stop trying to do something big.

Those are the naysayers. Then you get the fence sitters in

between, which are most people they're like, I'm not going to

say anything, but I'm going to see what happens. They're just

kind of watching. So I say all three of these people are great.

But let's talk about just the to the naysayers you need. When you

fall down, when you scrape a knee when you're bloodied and

muddied and you're on the field and you're like, I just can't

anymore. You need these people to pick you up. You need that

person to just listen to you or to kind of like dust the mud off

and say, Come on, man. Come on. We can do this still. But you

know what, I need more. And what I needed more personally, I

needed my naysayers. My naysayers are my tacklin fuel.

That's what I call them. They they're the ones that I said,

You know what? I'm never gonna let them say I told you so.

There there were the ones that were that kept me going that

that was my honestly my true fuel.

Because if you want to get me to do anything, tell me I can't do

it. Gotta my way. Yeah, that's simple. Yeah.

Wilder warrior. No, this is like very, very inspiring and

empowering. And, yeah, to just tell people out there and also

myself that just pushed through it self doubt is normal, you

know, even Joe Rogan, or whoever you look up to whoever was your

mentor, they went through those stages of self doubt, as well.

And sometimes we feel that successful people they were just

born that way, they have an easy life. And it's not the case, it

is not the case. And we cannot just Yes, see ourselves as the

victim and the others as the heroes and we don't deserve that

path. That's total BS. We all have similar chances, and we

have to just see opportunity and at every corner

of life, reminds me of my favorite C word, by the way,

which is courage. Courage, it's very myths. It's a misconception

that it's the absence of fear. Like courageous people have no

fear. That's not true. Courageous, people are frickin

afraid. They really, really afraid the differences. They

don't let their fear stop them from moving forward. They just

do it anyways. And that's, that's so so powerful if you can

develop your courage. In other words, do what you got

ready to do the right thing? In spite of your fear? Yeah,

nothing can stop you. Yeah, no, that's beautiful and something

that we should write down and have on our fridge to see every

day. Because every day we have a new opportunity to push through

and not be, like paralyzed by our emotions.

I just watched your your little video about the importance, like

when people ask you, what do you do in life? And the importance

to know yourself? And how to answer and how to ask the right

questions in order to set yourself apart from others. And

I feel it doesn't only apply when it comes to business, it

applies like, on our whole life, like how do you feel about

yourself? How do you feel when you enter the room and join

people that you never saw before? Can we dig a little

deeper here when it comes to the questions that we need to ask

ourselves? Yes, yes, absolutely. So now we're getting some be

called identity, or self worth. Like, I always tell people, no

one's going to respect you until you respect you. Every form of

respect, or power or identity or self worth starts here.

So

you're right. It doesn't just apply to business. It applies to

our personal life. In fact, I believe that business and life

should not be separate.

I think you should get paid for being yourself, right? I think

that we should be able to bring our humanity to our business, we

should be able to be ourselves, because that's our true

uniqueness. And that's where our power is.

Now, society rules, they'll tell you to know, be professional,

you got to act a certain way, you got to put on a facade, you

have to pretend to be perfect. Forget that crap. I'm telling

you, the way business is going nowadays, that is bad advice,

you got to be you. Because that's the one thing that can't

be duplicated. Anyone can copy your business or your job, you

know, someone can come in, and they can put someone else in

your job and your position. But they can't replace you. Right?

They your what you bring to the table, your story, your mission,

your values, your stand, the reason why you got out of bed in

the morning, all those things. If you're clear on those things,

there's nothing sexier than when you walk into a room knowing all

that, and your energy issues. Like people just feel it. It's

it's kind of like when you walk into a room and people are like,

I don't know what she does. But she knows what she does. And I

want to find out I needed to go talk to this person that's

attractive, that's magnetically attractive. And that's what you

want to be in life. To get places. You've got to love

yourself. You've got to really, really take stock. And if

there's something you don't like about yourself, work on changing

it, get some help read a book, find a mentor. There are ways to

keep improving. That's the key. Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And

I think of all the people now who are unhappily single and

there it applies to, right. If you know who you are, what you

want, what do you represent, you will shine your light and you

will attract the people in your life that are meant to be in

your life. So very, very powerful statement. And then

three other questions. There's actually three very important

questions just in general, I do courses on goal crushing,

because I like seeing people achieve things. These are the

three most foundational questions if you can answer

these, you can accomplish anything in life. What do you

want, specifically? Number one, what exactly do you want? And I

mean with clarity, you got to see it in your mind. You got to

be able to like see it perfectly like feel it, touch it, taste

it, smell it, hold it. What do you want? Exactly? That's the

question number one if you can answer that good.

Why must you have it? Now why do you want it Why do you want it

to bed? It's kind of a false question. Why must you have it

what happens if you don't get it? Well life go on. If life is

gonna go on I feel like yeah, you know if I don't get it no

big deal. Go back to number one set a bigger goal. So number two

is why must you have it who's going to be hurt if you don't

get it? Who's going to die who's going to be injured like and

then question number three is how are you going to get it?

Because once you know where you are, and once you know exactly

what you want, the middle will work itself out. There's always

a how if I know I'm in Florida, and I want to get to New York, I

know if I

I'm gonna eventually get there. As long as I go north whether I

drive ride a bicycle do somersaults.

Do the mamba right whatever i It doesn't matter. As long as I go

north. I know because I know where I am in Florida. I know my

destination. I will find a way to get

out there through learning through learning how the right

environment, the good right associations, so know exactly

what you want, know why you must have it and know how you're

going to get it, you can answer those three questions. You're

absolutely unstoppable in anything in life or business.

It sounds a little bit like calibrating your internal

compass, to no matter what focus on, you know, the direction you

want to go and make sure that every day or every week you do a

step towards that go. And what I wanted to add to what you said

previously about,

like being authentic and doing your job, because of yourself,

and what you believe you are best in and feels best for you.

People can sense it, as well, like the trustworthiness factor

for instance, I remember, you know, greasy real estate agents

or the greasy person at the bank, when you know, they're

doing this job because someone told them to or because they

want to please some kind of expectation. And you can sense

whenever a person is doing it from the heart. And those are

the people that we tend to trust more and give our money to and

open up to, because they do it from a very authentic place. And

not from a place of expectations and,

you know, weird intentions.

We're all animals, and I feel we can sense these things. And

sometimes it is hard to put a finger on it. But you make it

very clear.

What is important to, to bring into this world and how to

communicate our mission. And when we talk about lighthouse,

for instance, you speak about lighthouse and how

you see a job shouldn't feel like a job, but it should feel

like yeah, an extension of your life.

How did you like how can we imagine your lifestyle now? Like

how do you bring work and pleasure? And like Time Out

relaxing time? How do you balance it all?

Excellent question. So real quick on what you just said.

You know, the one thing that trustworthy people don't say,

they don't say trust me. Right? That's,

I always tell people I say, if someone says Trust me, the last

thing you're probably going to do is trust them. So if anyone

who's listening is in sales, if you have a job in sales, which

is very common,

stop selling, stop selling, that you don't need to convince

people you don't need to tell them, hey, trust me, I got the

best products I got stopped convincing people instead of

selling. Start sharing.

Sharing what Josh well sharing why you care. People want to

know why you care before they care what you know, start

sharing why you care, start sharing value, start just

looking at it as that person that you're talking to, how can

I helped this person? How can I provide value to their day,

whether or not they become my client is irrelevant, at this

point. Provide some value, help them out. Give them some good

advice, because you're the expert, right? If you're selling

something, the expert in your field or industry and help that

person out, that person will appreciate it so much, they

probably will become your client. But if you go out and

with like you were saying the slimy

saleswoman kind of pitch, it's no good. It's fake. And people

are sniffing that stuff out like crazy. So stop selling. Yeah.

So your question was, please Oh, no problem. No problem. It was

how do you balance everything? Like the work life the like,

pleasure and sports and family relationships? Yeah.

Excellent. So by the way, I liked doing lots of different

things. So this is a great question. I run obstacle course

races. In fact, I'm doing one in seven weeks and 10,000 foot

mountains in Mexico City, doing a 13 mile obstacle course. I

love doing things like this. So here's what I do because I have

to train for out of time. I do something called time blocking.

I use a calendar is very simple. But here's the key. I schedule

in my time with my clients, which I don't call work by the

way. I refuse to call but I do work. It's way too easy for me.

It's wait.

I enjoy it too much to classify it as work. I just say time with

my clients time where I get to play. So I have my work time

their schedule. I have time to create I like poetry. I like

writing stuff. I like articles copywriting time for that.

And I schedule in time for fun.

That's the part people miss. Because when you don't schedule

and fun if you don't say, You know what I'm taking this two

hour block, and I'm gonna watch a movie on Netflix. But I got to

do all my other time blocks first, right, I have to go, I

gotta get my work done, I have to do this, I have to do this.

And I'm gonna schedule and fun. The problem is, if you don't

schedule and fun, guess what happens, your fun becomes a

distraction to your work. And you start missing your work, and

then you start wasting time and nothing gets done. So the real

key to time blocking is schedule it and put it on a calendar, I

use Google Calendar, put it down time with my family, from 6pm to

8pm. But then from 830 to 930. I'm working on my book, I'm

writing another couple pages of my book, or I'm reading

something for personal development. Like at, you've

just got to put this stuff in and then be accountable. Just

follow what you say you're going to do. Be accountable to

yourself. But other whole topic, that's another challenge. Oh, I

love it so much. And I love that

you make it important, like leisure time. Fun times are

important, you know, the playfulness, we cannot lose this

otherwise, because it brings us back to our heart and makes us

relax and recharges our battery.

Like some people think yeah, that's just a waste of time.

Like I have to focus on my goals and family and friends can just

wait out there. And there might be phases where where it's okay.

But to see the big picture, it's very important to have these

downtimes. And to schedule them in is, you're the first person

who says that it's it's very important, and it sounds maybe

weird and not romantic. But you're basically making time for

your partner or your friends and you're fully there. You're not

half hearted on your phone, you're fully there, sharing your

presence, like you're doing with me right now. And then after 45

minutes, we say goodbye and move on to a new task. And it's it's

very important.

I have one last question.

If there was three things

that you want the world to

take with, like if we say, all your books, or your videos, or

your posts were deleted?

What are the three things

that you would like for people to take away from you?

Oh, wow. On the spot question. This is a good one. Yeah, take

your time. There's no time pressure. So let me get I'll

give you the first one. For sure. Because I get people ask

me like, what's your number one piece of advice? Number one

thing? And I'll just I'll just say this in general. Don't

listen to broke people on how to get wealthy. Don't listen to the

unhappy on how to be happy, the unsuccessful and how to be

successful you catch the drift? Yes, when you're taking advice

from people, it doesn't matter how much you like them, how much

you love them how much they may care for you. Make sure they are

competent, or they're at least an expert in that area. Please

take advice from the right people. That doesn't mean like

I'm sure mom loves you. Right? My mom loves me. But guess what,

my mom's never done. She's never run a business. So I'm not gonna

say Hey, Mom, how do you run a business? She's just, she's

still a wonderful person. But she's not the right person to

ask that question. So be very, very careful that you don't

confuse competence with familiarity. I see that way too

often.

Well, my dad says this Well, great.

in that field, well, no, but okay.

You might you might be steering you might be getting steered

wrong there. So that's the first thing always ask that question.

Who am I following?

Let's see. Boy.

I would answer this question.

If I were paid in happiness, I'll just ask you in terms of if

you're paid in happiness. So happiness is now the national

currency. Right? money's gone. What would you be doing? If you

had to provide value to the world? What would that be? And I

would compare that to what you're currently doing now.

If they're different, that's okay. Keep what you're doing

now. Start working on what what makes you happy, where that joy

is gonna come from? Where that passion that genius?

I got voracious about personal development. I started reading

every book I could. I was you

What I believe and what I actually I know is true. We're

all born for greatness. Every single one, born for greatness.

It's just that we're conditioned to fail. We're conditioned to

struggle, we're taught how to lose. Isn't that crazy? We're

actually taught how to lose in life. But here's the good news.

If you can be taught how to lose, you can forget how to

lose, you can be untaught. So my big question when I left

corporate America was, wait a minute, Josh, get all these

people that are so successful, what are they doing different

than me? How do they think, what are they doing? I want to know,

just started diving into all kinds of nonfiction. Write all

kinds of books about these people about mindset,

subconscious. And look, I'll be honest, a lot of this stuff at

first was woowoo. Like, you started talking to me about, you

know, affirmations and all this stuff. I'd be like, What the

heck are you talking? I remember, I'm that engineer. I'm

like, That skeptic. But I had to learn, there was something I was

missing. And I just dove in. And I said, I gotta find out what

these people know that I don't. So I had to suppress my ego. I

had to like, empty my cup, so to speak, and assume I don't know,

at all. And I had to go find some answers and be open to

things I never thought possible. Open up a whole new world. So

that's a that's a big thing I would recommend to people just

be open and start voraciously reading anything that changes

the way you think, hmm. Wow, this is so powerful. And

nowadays, like books are at the tips of our fingers. And you can

download a Kindle or audiobooks. And there's really no excuse,

not at all podcast, right? There's tons of entrepreneurial

podcasts. And like, my last guest said, we live like

Emperor's you know, even emperors back then they didn't

have running water hot and cold. They didn't have food all the

time, they didn't have all the books that we can imagine

having. And there's just so much abundance, and so much good

content out there. And we have to be a little bit selective at

times. But I really love your your three pieces of advice and

everything you said

previously, I know it's going to bring a lot of value to people,

it's going to make people feel hopeful and empowered. And

you're very, like approachable. I know that our first meeting

didn't take place. And right away, you were open to

reschedule. And you're also a very humble person, I feel. And

it is so important to, to Yeah, be humble and to share with

people and then people will trust you and want to connect

with you. And I learned so much with this 32 minutes here that

we spent together. I'm so endlessly grateful for having

connected with you. And I'm wishing you all the best and

health. And yeah, we stay connected. Absolutely. And it's

just a pleasure to share with everyone in the audience.

Hopefully everyone got a nugget something. And you're right.

It's not all me. I'm just the messenger. I just feel part of

my life is to help share this kind of information. So

hopefully it's impacted people and that's all I can ask for it

was one nugget. That's it. The only take it all just take one

thing and put it into action. That's all I asked. Yes.

Beautiful. Thank you so much just for being here today. And

you have a wonderful rest of your day. You as well. Thank you

Aurora.