Why Laughing at Life’s Absurdities Might Just Save You with Janet Hogan

Can Humor Really Heal Your Pain? Yes—And Here’s How.
In this unforgettable episode, Janet Hogan joins Kellan Fluckiger to share how humor, honesty, and shadow work can free us from quiet despair and unleash our true selves.
From the depths of financial ruin and emotional breakdown to the liberating power of laughing at life’s ridiculousness, Janet shares a journey that’s inspiring— a call to action for anyone tired of pretending everything is “fine.”
🔥 You’ll Learn:
- Why humor disarms fear and unlocks transformation.
- How to identify your emotional shadow—and laugh your way through it.
- What “quiet despair” really means (and why it’s more dangerous than you think).
- How to stop hiding your gift and start living in joy, truth, and lightness.
🎯 Want to Start Your Own Transformation?
🧠 Take Janet’s Core Needs Quiz: 👉 https://janethogan.com
💬 Book a free 15-minute follow-up call with Janet (if you complete the quiz)
🎧 Share this episode with someone who needs to hear it
📘 Subscribe to Your Ultimate Life for weekly insight & inspiration
🔥 Take Action Now:
🌍 Want help creating your dream life? Send me a message at: https://www.yourultimatelifepodcast.com/contact.
✅ Interested in what Kellan's been up to? Or want to learn more about Kellan, visit https://kellanfluckigermedia.com.
🎁 Free tools + community: www.yourultimatelife.ca.
🔥 Ready to finally write that book? Join the FREE Dream Build Write It Challenge starting June 2 at www.dreambuildwriteit.com—turn your story into impact, income, and inspiration! Kellan has written 20 books with numerous #1 Best-sellers and knows how to show and teach you to become a best-selling author with a killer book that sells.
00:00 - None
00:09 - Creating Your Ultimate Life
04:21 - The Journey of Overcoming Fear
09:31 - The Journey from Despair to Awakening
22:18 - The Journey of Self-Discovery and Connection
28:03 - Exploring Shadow Work: Embracing the Hidden Self
37:30 - Discovering Your Gift
Welcome to the show.
Speaker ATired of the hype about living a dream?
Speaker AIt's time for truth.
Speaker AThis is the place for tools, power and real talk so you can create the life you dream and deserve your ultimate life.
Speaker ASubscribe, share, create.
Speaker AYou have infinite power.
Speaker AHello and welcome to this episode of your ultimate life, the podcast that I created just for one reason, and that's to help you, listening or watching, to create a life of purpose, prosperity and joy by serving with your gifts and talents.
Speaker AI am grateful to have Janet Hogan here with me as a guest, special guest today.
Speaker AWelcome to the show, Janet.
Speaker BThank you so much for having me.
Speaker BIt's an absolute honor.
Speaker AWell, I'm delighted.
Speaker AAnd so we'll just jump right in.
Speaker AI'm not going to spend the time introducing you.
Speaker AThat'll sort of unfold as we get talking here.
Speaker ASo I'd like to ask you first, and I don't want you to be bashful.
Speaker AI want you to be fulsome, as a matter of fact.
Speaker ASo tell me the things that Janet, in her life right now, intentionally is doing to add good to the world.
Speaker BThe thing that I'm doing to add good to the world and be the best version of myself in the process, because I think that's how we do the greatest good.
Speaker BSo it's an, for me, it's a never ending journey, is to help people understand who they really are and come to terms with some of the painful aspects of their life that they might not have been confronting.
Speaker BAnd so at the moment, how I'm doing that is experimenting through humor.
Speaker BBecause I think humor making people laugh makes some of the painful, unspoken aspects of our life more bearable and more ready to be digested.
Speaker BA lot happens when we laugh.
Speaker BWe open up and then we become open to and receptive to something that we might not have been ready to accept before.
Speaker ASo I love that.
Speaker AAnd we're going to dive into several pieces of that.
Speaker AYou said two things in the beginning.
Speaker AYou said, help people become the best version of themselves, which is a sort of cliche phrase that we all use in the personal development world.
Speaker AAnd you said by being the best version of yourself.
Speaker AAnd so that is a way and a fabulous way to help people be the best version of themselves.
Speaker ASo why do you equate being the best version of yourself with helping others and adding good to the world?
Speaker BI think how we transform ourselves is how we resonate with others.
Speaker BIt's almost on an energetic level.
Speaker BSo how I, and I agree, I hate that trite expression, becoming the best version of yourself.
Speaker BIt's the first thing that popped out of my mouth.
Speaker ANo, it's okay.
Speaker BIt's not an absolute.
Speaker ABut it's, you know, it's just one of those things.
Speaker BIt's not an absolute.
Speaker BBecoming a happier, more contented, more joyful version of myself.
Speaker BBut I feel that we do that in the way that we least want to do it, which is actively embracing discomfort, the things that we're most scared of.
Speaker BSo I did an exercise.
Speaker BIt wasn't even that long ago, might have only been about six months ago actually, where I wanted to break down.
Speaker BI mean, we all know that we're scared of stuff, you know, and of course it's a, it's a fear mongering world that we live in.
Speaker BWe only have to tune on the turn on the nightly news to, to know that it's all about, this is what you should be scared of today, folks.
Speaker BBut also I feel that we've got our personal brand of fear within us.
Speaker BThat's almost like it's our job to identify what that fear is.
Speaker BIt might be a fear of scarcity.
Speaker BIt might be around money.
Speaker BIt might be a fear around asking for help.
Speaker BIt might be a fear of making a mistake.
Speaker BI mean, you know, there are hundreds and thousands of different types of fear.
Speaker BBut to get clarity on what it is that we are personally each of us most afraid of and going there, the place that we least want to go to.
Speaker BSo when I did this exercise on myself, and I've been living in Bali for 12 years, and I've been fascinated by personal development, just like you, Kellen.
Speaker BSo let's say I've done a lot of this work on myself already.
Speaker BBut to my surprise, what I discovered was that my greatest fear was actually getting up on stage, wanting to make people laugh and everyone just sitting there, po faced, going, she's not very funny, thumbs down to her.
Speaker BThat was my fear.
Speaker BAnd so I thought, right, I've got to go there.
Speaker AHow did you figure out that was your fear?
Speaker BI was running, actually I was running a group session with someone else.
Speaker BWe were running it together and he was doing the part on what are you most scared of?
Speaker BAnd we had a list of about 18 different types of fear.
Speaker BAnd I thought, oh, he's going to run it.
Speaker BI might join the folks and do the exercise myself.
Speaker BAnd it jumped off the page at me.
Speaker BIt's to do with the fear of being visible.
Speaker BAnd, you know, that's a very common fear, the fear of being seen and coming out of obscurity.
Speaker BAnd so.
Speaker BAnd I realized also that there was an aspect of that fear.
Speaker BIt was the, the air.
Speaker BIt's two things.
Speaker BIt's what you're scared of, and then who would you most like to be?
Speaker BBut you're telling yourself, I could never be that.
Speaker BAnd I was thinking, you know, the people I admire the most are the clowns, the comedians, the people who have the courage to speak out when everyone else is staying silent and putting a funny spin on it.
Speaker BAnd I thought, they're my heroes.
Speaker BAnd yet I'm saying to myself, I could never be that.
Speaker BAnd I go, okay, I've got to stop saying that.
Speaker BAnd even if I fail, even if I'm not funny and no one laughs, that's totally okay.
Speaker BAt least I've gone there.
Speaker AI love that.
Speaker AI love that.
Speaker AI love several pieces about it.
Speaker AOne, identifying it, being honest about it, and then saying, I don't care if I fail.
Speaker AI'm going to put fail in air quotes because that's a constructed definition.
Speaker ABut even if I fail, I'm going to do it anyway, just to try it and say, I did it.
Speaker AThere it is.
Speaker AI did it, I went there, I did my thing, no matter what the outcome.
Speaker ASo I want to go back to the best version of yourself.
Speaker AWhat do you think the differences, some of the differences are between a person, you, me, any of us that are just sort of going along.
Speaker AI use the phrase addicted to mediocrity but just kind of going with things.
Speaker AAnd a person who is actively trying to be the best version of themselves, what is that?
Speaker AWhat is the difference there?
Speaker BI think the difference is if you are attuned to that whisper of.
Speaker BThat whisper of quiet despair that you feel in yourself, you go, how come my life on paper looks fine?
Speaker BI've got a roof over my head, I've got money in the bank, I've ticked all the boxes.
Speaker BI'm in a good relationship, I've got kids, I'm a successful human being.
Speaker BWhy is it now with all those boxes ticked, I feel so unhappy?
Speaker BWhat is that feeling of quiet despair?
Speaker BWhat is it that I'm not seeing?
Speaker BAnd I think it's being sensitive to that feeling.
Speaker BIt's like a wake up call, but it's a whisper, a quiet one.
Speaker BAnd doing something about it.
Speaker AThere you go.
Speaker AAnd doing something about it.
Speaker ABecause.
Speaker ABecause I love the phrase resonated with me, quiet despair.
Speaker ABecause we get locked up in the idea that I feel this thing, I'll shut up and go away or can't do anything about it anyway, or it's not my season, or it's not the right time, or I've got all these obligations, or, you know, a whole hat full of excuses that are all true meaning.
Speaker AI have all these things, but not a reason not to do that.
Speaker AWhat made you jump on the journey of answering the call to quiet despair?
Speaker AWhat made you jump in there?
Speaker BWell, here's the thing, Kellen, I didn't.
Speaker BI heard that, that whisper of quiet despair when I had everything.
Speaker BI had a multimillion dollar waterfront mansion, private beach next door, living in Australia's equivalent of the Caribbean.
Speaker BIt was a.
Speaker BIt was an idyllic lifestyle.
Speaker BAnd that's when I felt the whisper of quiet despair.
Speaker BAnd I didn't do anything about it.
Speaker BWhat I did was I did my default behavior, which was it was a Sunday, and I went, oh, I'll quieten this feeling by doing some work.
Speaker BSo I went up to my office and solemnly ticked off some more things on my to do list.
Speaker BAnd so by ignoring that feeling, things cruised along in that way for a while.
Speaker BAnd then we were hit by the 2008 financial crisis that so many people were, oh, no, I'm not alone there.
Speaker BSo my belief is that if you don't pay heed to this feeling of quiet despair, you're going to get whacked around the head anyway.
Speaker BIt's going to come and get you.
Speaker BIt's like we were just discussing prior to this that we've got a cyclone coming for us right now as I speak.
Speaker BAnd you can ignore the warning signs, you can ignore the gusts of winds and the heavy rains, or you can do something about it, and if you don't do something about it, you're going to get bashed around.
Speaker BAnd so that's what happened in 2008.
Speaker BSo I got to a point where I wanted to check out.
Speaker BI just, you know, shame is what it's all about, of course.
Speaker BAnd I'd taken out a risky margin loan which set a bonfire to our accumulated wealth.
Speaker BAnd I just watched every day as we were losing so much money that in the end I had an equivalent to like a nervous breakdown.
Speaker BIt was like a total meltdown where I couldn't put two thoughts together.
Speaker BThe synapses were no longer firing.
Speaker BAnd I went up to my husband at 2 o'clock one morning and I said, listen, I just don't want to be here anymore.
Speaker BI can't do this anymore.
Speaker BI think if I disappeared, the world would be a better place.
Speaker ASo what happened?
Speaker ADid you take.
Speaker AObviously, since we're talking, you didn't take action or effective action on that.
Speaker AAnd I'm not joking about it at all, because a couple times in my life, I actually attempted to end it.
Speaker AAnd so I.
Speaker AIn this, as serious as it is, what happened?
Speaker AI mean, you felt like that you had a dissociative event or a nervous breakdown or whatever you want to call it, and that acted as a wake up call.
Speaker AWhat happened next?
Speaker BI think what happened, the reason I felt so much shame, Kellen, was that I took full responsibility for losing all our money.
Speaker BI felt it was all my fault.
Speaker BAnd this goes back to programming from my childhood about being the naughty girl.
Speaker BSo once again, I.
Speaker BI committed the extreme, the ultimate act of vandalism with everything we've worked so hard for, for the last 30 years.
Speaker BAnd I think it was one gesture that pulled me off the edge, which was my husband, who'd been really angry about it up until that point.
Speaker BHe just put his arms around me and he said, darling, we can get through this together.
Speaker BAnd it was just like this tiny light that I wasn't alone in that point.
Speaker BAnd from there, over a period of months that turned into years, I found myself just having to find out what the hell am I supposed to be doing with my life, because I've got all the material assets, and clearly that hasn't ended well.
Speaker BWhat is it that I'm doing wrong?
Speaker BAnd that's when I went on my journey, as so many of us do, to try and find the answers externally.
Speaker ASo I'm going to dive into a thing you just said.
Speaker AClearly I'm doing something wrong.
Speaker AUp to that point, you were doing exactly what you thought you were supposed to be and doing everything right.
Speaker AAnd so when that all burns down, does that really mean we're wrong?
Speaker AOr does that constitute a doorway, an invitation to a different possibility?
Speaker AAnd I ask that not because I have a thought about an answer.
Speaker AYou can make it wrong or you can not make it wrong.
Speaker ABut it just seems to me, you know, we're divine beings, we're dual.
Speaker AWe have a spiritual element, we have a physical element.
Speaker AAnd for whatever reason, you can make up stories.
Speaker AWe have a world where we worship money and we create value by how much you have or crap you have or whatever you've accumulated.
Speaker AAnd I walk down this, you know, we share that sort of experience.
Speaker AAnd so what do you think?
Speaker ADo you think it's just a wake up call to look at something larger instead of having the narrow view of.
Speaker AI won't call it even.
Speaker AStupidity, ignorance, myopic view of what is really important.
Speaker BYeah, it's not stupidity.
Speaker BI agree.
Speaker BAnd I never judge anyone for wherever they are in their stage of life.
Speaker BI'm not particularly religious, but apparently there was a line from the Bible that went something along the lines of, forgive them Lord, they know not what they do.
Speaker BAnd you cannot blame someone for just being unaware.
Speaker BAnd I was incredibly unaware at that point and I still am.
Speaker BI mean, it's not like I've got 100% awareness, but I'm a little more aware than I was back then.
Speaker BAnd I think where the awareness brought me was that we are wired to do.
Speaker BThat's how human beings measure success.
Speaker BAnd I agree we have to take action, but from a foundation of knowing who we are.
Speaker BSo I wasn't, I was doing things wrong because I was being someone who was not me.
Speaker BIt was the being that was wrong.
Speaker BSo I was being like so many of us, the self sacrificing martyr, just putting my head down, working really hard, you know.
Speaker BWe ran six different businesses, a cafe, then an advertising agency, then we did massive land development, then we ran a wedding, destination wedding business of all things, and creative consultancy.
Speaker BAnd these were all aspects of doing, but none of them actually felt fulfilling.
Speaker BSo that was the quest.
Speaker BHow do I get this feeling that is the opposite to this inner void, this, this lack of feeling full?
Speaker BHow do I get that?
Speaker BWhat is that all about?
Speaker BSo that brought me back to, okay, what am I really supposed to be doing with my life?
Speaker BHow am I supposed to be.
Speaker BWho am I?
Speaker BThat's, that's the question I think we probably all come to.
Speaker AOh, but I want to, I want you to answer it now.
Speaker ASo you've had the meltdown and an awakening, an invitation, as it were, to explore a larger context, something more meaningful, more powerful, more valuable, more, you know, find the right word.
Speaker AAnd so if you were, if it was in the.
Speaker AIf it is in the being, which I agree, and who you were being before was somebody else.
Speaker AWhat is valuable to you now?
Speaker AAnd who are you being now?
Speaker BWhat is valuable to me is probably the aspect of myself that got squashed in childhood.
Speaker BAnd I'm only sharing this because I think it's universal.
Speaker BSo I don't think I'm alone in speaking about this, but something, an aspect of our true being tends to, from what I observe, get repressed in our childhood.
Speaker BAnd it sits there as a very heavy emotion.
Speaker BSo it's like we have a signature heavy emotion.
Speaker BIt could be sadness, it could be frustration, it could be anger.
Speaker BOf course we feel all these Things, but it tends to be.
Speaker BThis tends to be one that weighs us down like a big, big anchor on a tiny boat.
Speaker BAnd so mine was sadness.
Speaker BSo I understood that.
Speaker BSo while we're carrying around this excess baggage of sadness, it's almost like being permanently pregnant.
Speaker BWe're carrying it in our stomach.
Speaker BIt literally weighs us down, and it makes the experience of joy just about impossible.
Speaker BSo for me, it's been, And I see that for others as well, and it's been about the processing.
Speaker BSadness in itself is not a bad thing.
Speaker BNo emotion is hate.
Speaker BIt's wonderful.
Speaker BIf we're feeling something, numbness is probably the worst.
Speaker BBut if we can start to sit with this heaviness that we're carrying around, this leaden weight, whatever it is, and just be with it and start to then release that, what happens is that then creates space for the light.
Speaker BAnd then we go, okay, now that I'm feeling lighter, what is it that might help me perpetuate this feeling where I'm constantly feeling like.
Speaker BAnd for me, the answer was clear.
Speaker BIt was in making others laugh, helping others see the silliness of life.
Speaker BBecause I had no silliness.
Speaker BI was way too serious.
Speaker BSo that's clearly where I feel I have to go now.
Speaker BAnd I'm only a tiny, tiny way along in this journey.
Speaker BBut that doesn't matter.
Speaker BIt's not about being the world's best.
Speaker BIt's not about getting public acclaim.
Speaker BIt's about staying true and in alignment to what I have to do so that I don't feel that I'm letting myself down.
Speaker BSo that, for me, is the light.
Speaker BIf you like seeing the silliness, connecting with others through a mutual recognition of how ridiculous life is, and feeling the release and the connection within that, a giant.
Speaker AIt's okay.
Speaker AWhatever it is that's happening, it's okay.
Speaker AAnd a lot of it's funny.
Speaker ALike, who could have predicted.
Speaker AWho could have said that this or that would be the case?
Speaker AAnd someone who hasn't even released a little bit of that anchor and has that giant ball of whatever that heavy emotion is in them, has no space.
Speaker AAnd I love your description about letting it go, sitting with it and not judging it, but letting it gradually go and creating space for something else to take its place.
Speaker AAnd for you, it was just pure the ability to both laugh yourself and to make other people laugh.
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BIt's very interesting that there's an endangered species of frog, Kellen, in Australia.
Speaker BAnd why it's so unusual is it gestates.
Speaker BIt's the male, it gestates, it's young in its stomach and it gives birth to them as tadpoles out its mouth, if you can believe that.
Speaker BIt's kind of a metaphor for what we do when we're releasing that energy, we carry it around, we gestate it for most of our lives, whatever that dark energy is.
Speaker BIf we don't, by the way, it tends to show up as depression, chronic depression or anxiety.
Speaker BIf we could only know how to actually.
Speaker BIt's almost like we need an emotional midwife here, which I believe we do.
Speaker BIt's very hard to do this on your own, to actually release that.
Speaker BIt comes out the top of us.
Speaker BMaybe not through the mouth, but at the top of the head.
Speaker BIt comes literally at the top of us.
Speaker BAnd that's when we start to free ourselves up.
Speaker BAnd.
Speaker BYeah, feel that.
Speaker BYeah, that.
Speaker BThat wonderful lightness of being.
Speaker ASo is.
Speaker AI love this.
Speaker AI talk to lots of people, guests on shows, this show in LA show and television show, and the different things I have.
Speaker AAnd I hear so much, so many different ways of describing this release and this freedom and this evolution and this awakening and a hundred different ways.
Speaker AAnd this is number 101 or 1001.
Speaker AAnd that's cool.
Speaker ATalk about this.
Speaker AAnd then when we experience for ourselves this.
Speaker AFor ourselves, we almost always feel this yearning to help other people.
Speaker AWow, this is so good.
Speaker AI want to share it.
Speaker AI want to help somebody with it.
Speaker AIs that true for you?
Speaker BAbsolutely.
Speaker BI think at that point what happens is we go from woe is me to hey, life is fun.
Speaker BAnd so we get out of our own way at that point.
Speaker BAnd then in my own experience, and of course, some people are more people oriented than others.
Speaker BI'm more people oriented.
Speaker BThat's when I just will automatically strike up conversations with strangers.
Speaker BAnyone I sense has a feeling of sadness around them.
Speaker BI go to those people and just start talking to them so they feel less alone.
Speaker BAnd that's just in a very small way.
Speaker BBut when you can actually start to affect people in a larger way as a group, then it starts to gather up its own momentum.
Speaker BBut that's my driver.
Speaker BSo you could even say it was selfish in a way, because it makes me feel better in that process.
Speaker BIt lights me up when I make that connection.
Speaker BBut I think this, again, this is universal.
Speaker BWhen we are not carrying that heavy sack of potatoes around, what happens is we then seek connection.
Speaker BSo instead of our focus being all about what's wrong with my life and blaming others, all the politicians and all the people out there for making my life such a misery.
Speaker BInstead, what we do is we go, oh, actually, there's nothing wrong with me this life.
Speaker BThere is joy here.
Speaker BAnd if I sense that someone is suffering, then I'm going to go towards them automatically, because I'm part of a much bigger system than my little physical body.
Speaker BI'm part of a much bigger system.
Speaker AI love that.
Speaker AAnd, you know, it's funny because you're right.
Speaker AWe're focused inward on this, and when that's gone, it automatically turns us outward.
Speaker AAnd I ask this often when I hear people say that in however many different ways they've said it, and then they go to.
Speaker AAnd then I ask the question, well, great, you figured it out for yourself.
Speaker AAnd so now you're released and joyful and happy.
Speaker AWhat is in Janet's heart that makes it important for her to help somebody else get rid of their ball of crap in the stomach?
Speaker BYeah.
Speaker BSo I think at this point, and this is the turning point, where we drop everything that we were taught at school.
Speaker BSchool did not help in helping us understand our gift.
Speaker BIn many cases, it.
Speaker BIt forced all of us to a level of mediocrity.
Speaker BYou know, if you weren't good at math, I'll get a math tutor so that you can at least be average instead of identifying, oh, you're really good at this, or you've got a talent for this.
Speaker BThere's a.
Speaker BThere's a.
Speaker BA wonderful measure of intelligence, which you're probably aware of.
Speaker BHelen Kellen called the Howard Gardner eight Types of Intelligence.
Speaker BAre you familiar with that?
Speaker AI'm not.
Speaker ATell me.
Speaker BI love it.
Speaker BBecause it's a very simple diagnostic tool.
Speaker BIt takes about 15 minutes to complete.
Speaker BAnd what it does is it teases out.
Speaker BThis was created by psychologist Howard Gardner.
Speaker BI think he might have been from LA back in the mid-80s.
Speaker BAnd so you know how at school we.
Speaker BThe focus has been really on compliance, keeping us compliant, which means we have to learn how to read and to write and add numbers up.
Speaker BAnd that's pretty much been the limit.
Speaker BAnd if we weren't good at one of those three arbitrary things, then we weren't very smart.
Speaker BSo what he said was, no, there are all these different ways to be smart.
Speaker BYou might have strong interpersonal skills.
Speaker BYour intelligence might be around how you relate to others, or it might be intrapersonal, how you see the world from a more philosophical, spiritual perspective.
Speaker BYou know, your ability to understand yourself.
Speaker BOr it might be naturalistic.
Speaker BYou know, back in the days when we lived in caves, someone with naturalistic Intelligence would have been our equivalent of Einstein.
Speaker BYou know, they understand the environment, they know what, what animals to hunt, what, what plants to cultivate.
Speaker BIf they were cultivating plants, they're totally attuned with their environment.
Speaker BOr it might have been kinesthetic, understanding your body and how it relates to your mind and all of that.
Speaker BSo in a matter of moments, you can actually do this quiz and find out your top intelligences, the ways, not how smart you are, but how you are smart.
Speaker BIt's nothing to do with IQ and I.
Speaker BThis is the area where I work, helping people understand what their actual gift is so that they're not barking up the wrong tree.
Speaker BAnd yeah, so I knew that my intelligence was linguistic.
Speaker BIt's about language, and it's also interpersonal.
Speaker BIt's about people.
Speaker BSo now that gives me some valuable clues.
Speaker BOkay, so what could my gift be?
Speaker BIt's all still foggy at this stage, right.
Speaker BWe have to try a lot of different things.
Speaker BBut basically where I've gone in the last 10 years is to help people figure out who they are through words.
Speaker BAnd using words gives clarity.
Speaker BIt's not the final solution, it's not the end product, but it gives us an entry point.
Speaker BSo I help people become clear on what it is that they need, their core needs.
Speaker BNow I'm looking at how I can use words to create fun stuff and funny stuff because I love writing.
Speaker BSo, so the next step, once we, once we've released our sack of potatoes, of sad energy or negative energy, then we are open to the possibility that we might be good at something.
Speaker BBut what is it?
Speaker BAnd so that's the next step, getting clarity on what that gift, what is the nature of that gift?
Speaker BSo I can start to focus my energy in the right direction.
Speaker BSo that's the next step.
Speaker AI love that and thank you for teaching us that.
Speaker ASo I'm going to look it up after we're done.
Speaker AEight types of intelligence.
Speaker AI don't think I've heard that before, so I'll be curious to go play with that.
Speaker ASo specifically, what do you.
Speaker AI know you're getting into improv and comedy because you have discovered for yourself that helping people do that, one, overcomes a fear that you had, and two, allows you to help people release their second potatoes through laughter and communal enjoyment.
Speaker AAnd that whole community support feeling that we get, especially when we laugh together.
Speaker AWhat is the work like?
Speaker AWhat is your mission and your work?
Speaker AHow are you now visioning the world after Janet has finished with us?
Speaker BWell, I think one of the big problems that anyone in the personal development world faces is that people don't want to go within.
Speaker BThey want to stay in a space where they blame external factors for everything.
Speaker BAnd most people are scared of lifting the lid on themselves.
Speaker BYou know, the comments that I've received from clients say, yeah, but what if this is a Pandora's box where I don't like what I see and I can't put all the demons back?
Speaker BAnd I always say the same thing.
Speaker BWell, in my experience, that has never happened.
Speaker BThat's fear.
Speaker BThat's speaking to you right now.
Speaker BThat's never happened.
Speaker BWhen you see who you really are, that's where the love is.
Speaker BSo for me, it's how do we make personal development more fun so people don't shy away from it?
Speaker BAnd to give you an example, I want one.
Speaker AI want to know how you make personal development more fun.
Speaker ASo have at it.
Speaker AGo for it.
Speaker BI think there are a number of factors.
Speaker BI think it's, it's.
Speaker BIt's a collective.
Speaker BIt's a number of people coming together, ideally in a physical space.
Speaker BAnd together through words, we identify our two extremes, who we are not.
Speaker BSo it might be someone, for example.
Speaker BI'll use myself as an example.
Speaker BOkay, so now we're getting into the realm of shadow work.
Speaker BI don't know if your listeners are familiar with shadow work being in la.
Speaker BI'm sure they probably are.
Speaker ABut if you're not, shadow work is that side of you that you're scared of.
Speaker AThe dark side, the whatever.
Speaker ALots of names, but that's enough info.
Speaker AKeep going.
Speaker BYeah, so this is where we use words to help people make visible what has been invisible to them.
Speaker BTheir shadow.
Speaker BThat's a blind spot.
Speaker BAnd so we just take people through a whole list of different ways that they may show up.
Speaker BSo I identified myself straight away as someone who was self sacrificing.
Speaker BOkay, so that's my shadow side, the martyr.
Speaker BI put everyone's needs ahead of my own.
Speaker BAnd then we go, okay, what's the flip side of that?
Speaker BThe side that you would never in your wildest dreams ever be.
Speaker BAnd so the flip side of self sacrifice is neediness, being constantly needy, saying, I want this, I need this.
Speaker BOkay, so in improv shadow work, what we do is we get a chance to be that side that we've never allowed ourselves to be, but in a comedic situation.
Speaker BSo then we get the audience involved and we say, okay, what's the situation where it would be really inappropriate to be needy?
Speaker BAll right, so in this real life example that I'M using here.
Speaker BSomeone said, well, let's say you're in charge of rescuing a drowning person at sea.
Speaker BIt would be inappropriate to be needy in that situation.
Speaker AAbsolutely.
Speaker BAll right.
Speaker BSo then I had to act out the person who's in charge of rescuing this person, but I had to make it all about myself.
Speaker BSo we got some people on the stage.
Speaker BThere was the drowning person who was just yelling and waving their hand around.
Speaker BAnd then there was my two ic, the person who was trying to keep me on the straight and narrow.
Speaker BAnd so I was saying, well, yeah, yeah, I know we've got this mission, but actually, I think at this point, it should be acknowledged that last week I was working at McDonald's behind the counter.
Speaker BNow I'm in charge of this important mission.
Speaker BAnd I just think that we should recognize that at this point.
Speaker BAnd so now I'm being ridiculous.
Speaker BAnd the audience are not just sitting there at that point.
Speaker BThey're starting to laugh because it's so ridiculous.
Speaker BAnd so my two ICs saying, yeah, yeah, no, that's.
Speaker BThat's wonderful.
Speaker BAnd I also think.
Speaker BAnd I know there's a drowning person out there, but I also think that it's my lunch hour, and I haven't taken it, and I don't want to sacrifice myself.
Speaker BI need my lunch.
Speaker BAnd so this goes on and on and on until it escalates into something ridiculous.
Speaker BWhat's happening is I'm feeling the connection with the audience who are laughing at how absurd this is.
Speaker BAnd I'm going, oh, my God, that was really fun.
Speaker BI loved being needy.
Speaker BThis aspect of myself that I've never, ever given my.
Speaker BMyself permission to be.
Speaker BSo that's just an example.
Speaker BThat's.
Speaker BThat that was relevant to me.
Speaker BWe all have these diametrically opposed aspects of our shadow self, how we're showing up.
Speaker BMost.
Speaker BMost people, our friends and family can probably recognize it at a thousand paces, but we can't.
Speaker ARight, Right, right.
Speaker BAnd then the invitation is to be the opposite of that.
Speaker BThe part of you that you could never in your wildest dreams, imagine yourself being and allow yourself to be that and have the approval of your fellow humans, saying, you're funny.
Speaker BThat was really funny.
Speaker BThank you.
Speaker ANo, finish.
Speaker BIf there was more just to say that in that particular session, other people played out their shadow aspect and got a similar response.
Speaker BYou know, there was the manipulative coach who was saying, I'm not going to touch you doing Reiki, and then touching this person and saying, I'm not touching you.
Speaker BAnd they.
Speaker BThey, for them, the devil was being someone highly manipulative.
Speaker BAnd yet as they were being this highly manipulative person, everyone was laughing because it was so ridiculous.
Speaker BSo this played out over and over and over.
Speaker BAnd it's just a great example of how by using humor and laughter, we can release something that we've been holding onto.
Speaker AYou know, there's a lot of this negative thing.
Speaker AWe're so afraid of it.
Speaker AWe're equating, you know, that's bad and, you know, some form of death or dismemberment or banishment if we be this thing that's so terrible.
Speaker AAnd yet when people laugh with us and, you know, it's a form of not only releasing, but acceptance.
Speaker AAcceptance and stuff.
Speaker AEarlier you said several businesses that you had before you imploded.
Speaker AWhat are your businesses now?
Speaker AWhat do you do now?
Speaker ALike, is this work that you're doing now for people as you do do it for businesses and stuff, or.
Speaker BSo at the moment, I'm still doing my.
Speaker BI'm working one on one with people.
Speaker BI work with people to take them through their shadow so they identify what it is or who they're not.
Speaker BAnd the shadow, by the way, I think it's probably the least understood part of us, Helen.
Speaker BYou know, we almost see it as a monster.
Speaker BI liken it to being an overprotective bouncer, an inappropriate bouncer at a nightclub.
Speaker BIt's just not letting the right people in.
Speaker BIt's being overprotective.
Speaker BIt's what keeps us small.
Speaker BSo I realized that for us to really step into our power, we first have to make friends with the shadow.
Speaker BWe have to befriend it, not get rid of it.
Speaker BThen from there, I help people actually understand what their gift is through doing diagnostics, like I mentioned before, the eight types of intelligence and many others as well.
Speaker BAnd then from there we can start to direct our energy, which at that point has been kind of broadly focused.
Speaker BWe can start to make it laser sharp towards a particular.
Speaker BIdeally, who is our ideal audience, what do they want or need, and how do we deliver that through our talent and our passion, the two coming together.
Speaker BSo that's what I'm doing on a one on one basis.
Speaker BBut I'm kind of taking a sabbatical now.
Speaker BI'm giving myself the space to actually develop this humor further and see how I can translate it to personal development.
Speaker BIt is a work in progress, but that's where I'm at in this journey.
Speaker AIf someone wants to follow you or find out more about you, I know you Said you're in sabbatical a bit right now, but someone's curious, wants to chat, wants to.
Speaker AI don't know if you do a lot of social or any social posting or if you write medium articles or whatever, where would that be a good place to as a follow up to hearing you talk, what would they need to do?
Speaker BMy website's probably the best place to understand what I do and why I'm suggesting that too.
Speaker BThere's a quiz there where you can identify what your core needs are.
Speaker BBecause that's where I find as a, as a recovering martyr, I never understood what I needed and I never thought that was important anyway.
Speaker BSo I start there with needs.
Speaker BAnd we're not talking about more money in the bank or more friends.
Speaker BIt's the more what would I say?
Speaker BConcepts of need, like, I might need to feel more power, I might need to feel more connection.
Speaker BI might need to feel more freedom.
Speaker BThere's something about putting this into words through a process of elimination.
Speaker BSo there are 150 or so options with this quiz.
Speaker BSo you can start to become clear on, okay, what is it that I need?
Speaker BAnd that sets a goal, if you like, a target.
Speaker BSo anyone listening to this, if they go to my website, JanetHogan.com, they'll scroll down and find that quiz link and do that.
Speaker BAnd then I'm happy to jump on a 15 minute call if you've done the quiz.
Speaker BJust to help you.
Speaker BWe call it the Triangle of Success.
Speaker BThere's a way of reading the results that give you your life's mission statement.
Speaker BAnd because I'm a word nerd, I'm very good at helping people become clear on what their life's mission statement is.
Speaker BAnd so I'm happy to do that for any of your listeners.
Speaker BAnd if they want to go further with it, they can do that.
Speaker AWhat a generous.
Speaker AWhat a generous offering.
Speaker ASo, Janet Hogan J A N E T H O g a n janethogan.com find out what your core needs are.
Speaker AThat is a valuable thing.
Speaker AAnd you know you can think in your mind, wow, it's just another silly test.
Speaker ABut the truth is those words that you're talking about really matter.
Speaker AAnd helping people find the words that light them up or shut them down.
Speaker ABoth.
Speaker AEither.
Speaker ABoth is important.
Speaker ASo what did I not ask you that you want to talk about that you'd like to leave people with in terms of either humor, laughter, personal development, shadow work or anything else.
Speaker BI suppose what I'd like to the thought I would like to leave people with.
Speaker BAnd I'm hopeless at one liners, by the way, so I'm not going to crack some funny joke I think is this, after hearing all of this, if I go back to where I was, I would be saying, yeah, but that's not me.
Speaker BI don't have a gift.
Speaker BAnd I would say to that little voice, yes, you do.
Speaker BYou absolutely do have a gift.
Speaker BAnd if you don't pursue that gift and put it out there and share it with others, in other words, if you squander it, that's where you come to the end of your life and go, I never discovered who I could have been.
Speaker BAnd that dreadful, dreadful feeling of letting yourself down, if I can spare one single human being that feeling, that's pretty much why I'm here.
Speaker BSo that's what I'd like to say, that you do have a gift and you do owe it to yourself to find out what it is.
Speaker AYou do owe it to yourself and you actually owe it to everybody else too.
Speaker ABecause the best thing that we can offer to the world is who we really are and what we really have outside of all this baggage and gobbledygook.
Speaker ASo delightful.
Speaker AThank you for being with us today and sharing your delightful story, your wisdom and your humor.
Speaker AAnd I encourage you to go check out our website and find out more about Janet.
Speaker AThank you, Janet.
Speaker BThank you so much.
Speaker BIt's been an absolute joy to be here with you.
Speaker BKellan.
Speaker BThank you.
Speaker AYou're welcome.
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