Sometimes, the thing getting in your way… is you. Your mindset can be the difference between a business you love and one you resent. And in order to improve your mindset, you have to reconstruct your thoughts about yourself and your business.

In this episode, I chat with Johl Dunn, a mindset coach who helps photographers overcome their mindset blocks to build profitable, sustainable businesses.

Johl explains how our limiting beliefs get between us and success, and he shares how you can identify yours. We talk about burnout and how to manage it as it comes. Johl also explains what it means to practice conscious creation and how you can do it yourself.

What’s in this episode:

• How Johl coaches photographers through their mindset blocks [2:29]
• How to bust through limiting beliefs around raising your prices [6:40]
• How to uncover your own limiting beliefs so you can start deconstructing them [9:35]
• Johl’s advice for avoiding and overcoming burnout [13:26]
• How mindset and meditation affect your business, and how to start meditating if you’ve never tried it [17:42]
• Why we procrastinate, and how to stop stalling and get our work done [20:07]
• How your mindset might change as your business evolves, and why you should practice gratitude no matter what [22:29]
• What it means to practice conscious creating and how to do it in your own life [32:09]
• Johl’s advice for business owners struggling with mindset blocks [39:35]

If you want to overcome your mindset blocks and start achieving your goals, tune in to this episode.

SUBSCRIBE: iTunes | Spotify | Stitcher

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Resources Mentioned

Joe Dispenza’s books and website

Meet Johl Dunn

Johl helps ambitious photographers build highly profitable businesses by creating sales and marketing engines and completely rewiring their subconscious programming. He is the 2016 Creative Asia Wedding Photographer of the Year.

Connect with Johl

Visit his website

Connect with him on Facebook

Did you love hearing Johl’s tips for overcoming your fear and pushing through mindset blocks? Check out another episode from Heidi Hope

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Johl Dunn: Successful people make hard decisions or do the hard thing like there’s a saying, I love it’s I choose your heart. So it’s hard to get up early and meditate and exercise and set yourself up for the day. But it’s also hard to not have a successful business. And but you always feel like you’re behind the eight ball. It’s hard to be healthy. It’s also hard to get to the gym every day right. So which heart do you want to choose?

[00:00:27] Lisa DiGeso: Welcome to the Art and Soul Show, where we dove into heart opening chats on photography, business, life and that messy in between. I’m your host, Lisa DiGeso, a mom, a photographer and entrepreneur. And I’ll be sharing honest conversations and advice for photographers with insight on mindset, entrepreneurship and creativity. The goal of this podcast is for you to be able to gain insights and strategies that will get you real results. Because, let’s face it, having a photography business can be lonely, but it doesn’t have to be. This is the place you can go when you need a boost of encouragement, a kick in the pants and inspiration to pick up your camera. This is the art and soul show. Hello, my beautiful friends. Welcome back to the show. I am super excited to dove into today’s conversation with Johl Dunn. Johl is a mindset coach for photographers specializing in helping ambitious photographers build a highly profitable business by creating a sales and marketing engine and completely rewiring their subconscious reprogramming. I am so excited to chat with a fellow photographer on both business and mindset. Two of my favorite topics. So without further ado, here is Johl. Welcome.  

[00:01:44] Johl Dunn: Thank you. Thanks for having me. I’m excited. 

[00:01:47] Lisa DiGeso: So tell us who you are and what you’re passionate about. 

[00:01:50] Johl Dunn: Yeah, my name’s Johl. It’s an interesting question. I’m a father of three, three young kids and a wife. And we live in Melbourne, Australia. I’ve run photography businesses for nearly 20 years now and I’ve been a business and mindset coach for maybe the last five or five or six, I think. I got really passionate about helping out photographers because I saw a lot of people struggling about great photographers, but I couldn’t work out how to run a successful business. So now 90% of my time is spent coaching in the photography business. Pretty much runs itself. I just do the shoots and my staff do the rest. Yeah.

[00:02:28] Lisa DiGeso: That’s awesome. Now, I love that you’re diving into mindset coaching and business coaching with photographers because I think many of us start with a camera in our hand and pretty much no business skills and just thinking it’s going to be easy. I’m going to get the clients, they’re going to roll in and not realize the actual hardness of having a business. So can you maybe share your approach and how you coach photographers just to kind of get out of their own way? Because I think that a lot of the time we get into the sort of stuck place where we’re not really sure what to do.  

[00:02:59] Johl Dunn: Yeah, that was the way I started to. I just assumed I’d take photos and make money, and it was far from the truth. I’m on board for a couple of years and then I got a coach and that really gave me direction and helped me concentrate on the right areas. So I guess what I like to do when I’m looking at working with a photographer is firstly working out where they’re at, what their business is doing now, what you know, what prices they have, what marketing, what habits they have, and then where they want to go with the business. And then I did sort of identify the gaps, like what’s holding them back and mostly it’s mindset. Like firstly, because without the strong mindset and releasing limiting beliefs and stepping outside the comfort zone to take the action necessary, the marketing sales doesn’t matter. So we cleared that up, got some habits formed, and got some real structure to their business. And, and then we work on the process and the marketing and different things that’ll help really get the, you know, the business that they desire.

[00:03:59] Lisa DiGeso: I love that. Now, I think I know that we hear a lot of the time from our own students and I’ve been here myself, is that we get sort of get into this position where maybe we’re serving clients that we may not necessarily want to serve, or we’re stuck in a business where we’re not charging enough or maybe a little bit embarrassed about that and just really honestly just unhappy and really not sure how to change things. So can you maybe share how you work with your coaching clients and how they do start to move past this with their mindset shifts? 

[00:04:28] Johl Dunn: Yeah, it’s a really interesting one. I think the first thing is to show them what’s possible because a lot of people, it’s the same when I’ve got American clients, Australia and New Zealand or UK. If you’re doing a shoot in Balmoral and charge $300, for example, it’s almost unfathomable how they’re going to get charged 1500 or 2000 for an in-person sale. So firstly, it’s showing them that other people are doing it because I think it’s important for people like me particularly, I was like, if someone else is doing it, that’s possible. Right. So that’s the first one. And then you talk about the process like you can’t have the same process and customer experience that you’re doing $300 if you want to do 1500, 2000. So that’s talk me through what the difference is. And yes, it really is a shift in mindset to start with, like, you know, what they’re doing now compared to what they can do. And we stop there and then we work through the process of what’s going to change for them to get them to that next level. And a lot of the time it is having a bit of faith as well. And trust is like having trust in yourself, having trust in the process, having trust in like the universe or what God or whatever you want to call it. I talk a lot about I get a lot into that which a lot of people think is rubbish. 

[00:05:44] Lisa DiGeso: Not on this show. 

[00:05:45] Johl Dunn: Right, but it’s so powerful when you can tap into that. When I talk about consciousness a lot and it really taps into that, having that trust because like I had a client that was doing $400 shooting then and she wanted to average $2,000 and but she does a big gap there in confidence. So I emailed  the last 20 clients and told them. She’s got these amazing new products to offer and she would love to share them with them. And if they’re interested, they get 20% off for the first four people that email back and she sent it to 20 and she had four people. Exactly. Email that she did a site with them and they spent seven and a half thousand dollars in total. Now that’s on top of that. They already had all the photos on USB. So that confidence boost for her straight away to show that people do want this and she is off to the races. So I get a lot of my clients to do that now just too much that that boost. 

[00:06:40] Lisa DiGeso: Yeah I love that you touched on that limiting belief of raising our prices because you know so many photographers are like my clients aren’t going to pay that. Like your clients might pay that, but my clients aren’t going to pay that. So what advice do you have on busting through like that belief that your clients can pay back to you?  

[00:07:00] Johl Dunn: That’s probably the number one thing I hear in my area or my clients won’t pay that and.  

[00:07:06] Lisa DiGeso: My clients are different. 

[00:07:07] Johl Dunn: Yeah, my area is a low socio economic area or you know, it’s a small town. So these are all things that come up. And I had it myself, like we had a package, like I got stuck at a 1300 dollar average for eight years and I thought, that’s the limit. That’s as much as people pay in my area. And then I was talking to another photographer in advance in Australia and he was averaging two and a half hours. I’m like, Yeah, shit. Well that’s possible. Okay, so how do we go about doing it? And then we just started changing our process and increasing our prices and then within a year we doubled it. At the time I didn’t think that was even possible. So yes, he got to you to shift habits first because mindset change is when you change how you show up daily. So I do things like meditation and gratitude and I do statements and visualizations with my clients to build the neural pathways in their brain to shift focus. Because we always go to the negative. That’s just human, human nature and people might pay that. But I get people to go, what if they do okay? And I always do the analogy of like, you know, there’s 100,000 people in your 100,000 families, you only need 100 people to buy your product. You don’t need everyone to buy your products. Yeah. So it’s getting people okay with the word no as well. So when you raise prices, you’re going to get people saying die. But for us, if I sit at a marketing campaign and we get 100 lates I on I’m in eight, ten or 15 of those to convert. I like that I’m not worried about the other 85 that don’t want the service or kind of Florida. It’s not something that’s important to them. 

[00:08:46] Lisa DiGeso: I love that. It’s funny, for years I got stuck in that same 1300 dollar bubble and I was like, you know, just my area. I don’t think people are going to pay more than that. And my dear friend, she’s a boudoir photographer. And so she shifted her business model a few years ago, and now she’s making 3 to 5000 like a session. And that just, like, blew my mind. I was like, Oh, it’s possible, it’s possible. So it’s so funny that sometimes you do really have to even, like, you know, cognitively, like, yeah, it could work, but you actually have to see it to believe it. And I just thought that was so fascinating, my mindset shifted on that.  

[00:09:24] Johl Dunn: Yeah, it’s like the highlights of the three minute mile or whatever. Yeah.  

[00:09:27] Lisa DiGeso: Roger Bannister. Yeah.

[00:09:29] Johl Dunn: As soon as he broke it, I think 256 people broke it the next year and it’s never been broken. So it’s the same thing.  

[00:09:35] Lisa DiGeso: It’s fascinating. So if you don’t know what your limiting beliefs are, I’m wondering if it’s probably harder to change them. So how can our listeners start to discover what their limiting beliefs might be and what even they are? 

[00:09:49] Johl Dunn: Yeah, it’s a really good one. Like if you’re not aware of them, you cannot change the product. One of the questions I ask people is like, okay, you’re here and you want to get to a $2,000 average tab. What negative thoughts are coming up right now for you about that? And I’ll go, okay. Well, my clients, I’m going to pay that and I just start listing things up. I’m not good enough. I’m too young. And they’re like, I got the easy eliminating beliefs. So and then they get like, it’s a bit of a light bulb moment. Sometimes they are, yeah. And then once you’re aware of them, then you can shift them. So the other thing is through meditation, you become much more aware of your thought patterns, so you can pick them up a lot quicker as well. So what I get from my clients is just really quick. Things that I can share today is when you hear one of those thoughts is to stop it right there, because what we do is we have that thought and then it spirals. So we get stuck in the thought that people in my area are not going to pay that. And then it’s like, well, if I change my prices, I’m going to get broken and it’s going to happen. It ends up being at a business, bankrupt and homeless pretty much, right? So when you catch that thought, you can rewire it. And instead of like people in layer, what pay that you find an opposite that sits right with you. Like there’s plenty of clients in my area that are willing to pay my prices. Really simple. Because then you’re rewiring your brain and you’re. I think that pathway is stronger than the old one and it will eventually automatically go the other way. So that’s just a really quick little habit you can get into your bit, catching your thoughts.  

[00:11:19] Lisa DiGeso: I love that and even challenging your thoughts. Like one of my favorite ones is when I get like a thought and a looping thought, start going, okay, is this true? How do I know this is true? Is this like, how do I know for sure that this is true? And then usually it’s like, no, it’s. It’s just something I made up. 

[00:11:36] Johl Dunn: Yeah. It’s like, is that inherently true? That’s what I tell you about. Is that inherently true? You’re like, I question them and they go, Well, well, no. I didn’t know what I was going to find out. Was that inherently true? Well, no, it’s not.  

[00:11:51] Lisa DiGeso: I don’t even or even the belief of a loyalty on my because I’ve been going to my same I get my lashes done. I love getting my lashes done. And she was downtown before working for a different salon and she branched on her own. And so I followed her and she’s like all this, but she’s like, I had to raise my prices by $10. I’m like, I don’t even know what you charge honestly, but you could charge whatever you want. And I love you so much, I will still come to you. And so just having that mindset like, why do I believe that wouldn’t be true for me and my clients? Yeah, right. I’m just talking to myself. Thank you. I’m done tomorrow, but thank you. But, you know, like, it’s like. It’s like, why do we think that? Like, I am so loyal and I will just go to the ends of the earth for this amazing person, but not believe that I would be deserving or getting that myself in return. So I think that’s just so fascinating, right?

[00:12:42] Johl Dunn: Yeah. And I think that’s the whole point. Like it’s at the end of the day with photography, it’s very little to do with your actual photography, like how much you can charge. Like it’s yes, it has to be at a standard, but it’s the experience and how they feel when they work with you on the whole process, from the first phone call to when they get a voucher in the mail to, you know, like we have candles going when they come into the studio, my music going, that’s the atmosphere and like the feeling. So the better the experience, the more that it’s like a restaurant, like you pay $10 at McDonalds and you pay 300 at a really beautiful restaurant because the experience is different. Yeah, the food’s better, obviously, but it’s a different feeling.  

[00:13:23] Lisa DiGeso: Exactly. Exactly. Love that. So burnout is a really big thing in our industry and I know our listeners and truth be told, I have burnout periods myself where the last thing I want to do is work on my business. So what advice do you have for avoiding even getting into burnout mode? 

[00:13:42] Johl Dunn: Yeah, you’re going to get into bed at some stage and it’s not expected. It’s not until you do that. You realize it’s not a healthy place to be. And to be totally honest, I was there for probably ten years. My business and I didn’t realize that I was just burning the candle at both ends and working longer and hotter. And I just thought that’s what you needed to do to run a successful business. And, you know, I tell my clients I got too many points where I nearly gave up like multiple, multiple times. But it wasn’t until I found that balance. And the quicker you can find it, like when you can find it. I’ve probably been there for the last probably six, seven years, say where everything becomes a bit more in flow and you don’t have to work hard to get really good money like it’s slowing down to speed up, I call it. So it’s making time for you. Making time for just being so it’s meditation, it’s walking, it’s exercise, it’s getting it getting your lashes done. It’s like thinking you are right and not feeling guilty about it. Now I coach a lot of moms and mothers guilt’s the worst right because they’re guilty of spending too much time on the business, not with the kids and them and vice versa. And then what tends to happen is that they have no time for themselves, so they burn out. So that’s really balancing that. And I have my clients set out non-negotiables, so things they have during their week, every week that are structured in they must do. So that’s your morning ritual, that’s meditation, that’s your exercise routine, that’s things for you. And then work 15 around that. Yeah, that’s fine. Yeah. And being aware that we feel like burning it so I can really, I pick up on it quite quickly now go right. I need an hour to do this so I need to stop. I need you guys to like. Yeah. So I just sat in the sun for half an hour.  

[00:15:34] Lisa DiGeso: Just the nothing but a letter from D. 

[00:15:37] Johl Dunn: Yeah, yeah. 

[00:15:40] Lisa DiGeso: Well, it’s fine because they always have that saying. It’s like you can’t pour from an empty cup. And I find with burnout, it feels like someone’s taken something to the cup and it’s just continuing to leak no matter what I pour into it. And for me it’s like you hit the nail on the head with writing to two businesses. I do have periods of burnout and just recognizing when I need to do those things for me, whether it’s just having a mindless Monday or just a Friday. Just like, just take off and just. Do something for me, whether it’s creating art for myself or just taking time away from computers and business and and things and just living life. 

[00:16:16] Johl Dunn: Yeah. And I think it’s really important to have things you can go to that are only like five or 10 minutes as well. I have things, like breathing exercise for 10 minutes or going for a half hour walk or. Just little things. And also the whole day is like, oh, two days or three days. Like having an away is I’ve just had a client come back from three days away and she was really on the edge of it and it was the best thing. She was so relaxed when she came back like love. She needed to refill the cup. 

[00:16:46] Lisa DiGeso: For me, it’s also laughter. Laughter and connection is, like, huge. When I. When I’ve gone long periods without seeing people that made my soul laugh. Once in your stomach hurts so much. After seeing them, I noticed I just get sad and it’s just that life doesn’t feel as sparkly and as fun. So just having things that have humor in my life has really been wonderful. 

[00:17:08] Johl Dunn: I think that was the problem with COVID, particularly here in Australia. Not I’m not sure, depending where you were in America, but we were shut down and locked in our houses for months at a time. Yeah. And that was a big thing. Like we had Zoom sessions and we used to catch up with friends and make it fun and do dress ups and try to get that fun back. But it was really hard that I get most of my clients every time we have a cold. They’ve got to write themselves on a joy and on the scale for that week. How much joy and fun was in your life? Because that’s so important. Yeah.  

[00:17:41] Lisa DiGeso: So, so true. Now I love how you teach on how mindset and meditation have a huge effect on life in business. Now, can you share a little why these matters so much? And if someone is new to meditation, where to even start? 

[00:17:54] Johl Dunn: So this is meditations. It’s such an interesting one. But you know, like so many people I’ve tried, it didn’t work or they’re interested in it, but it’s probably the habit that’s the hardest for people to stick to. And I think it’s because people think they’re doing it wrong as well. So with meditation, I say stop very simply, say 5 minutes guided meditation. There’s some really good apps out there. One giant mind is one I recommend. It’s a free app that teaches Vedic meditation. So that’s a really good intro there. When I started, I couldn’t sit still for literally 5 minutes. It was a battle for me because I can’t sit still like I’ve got to be tired. I think so. And now I can do 30, 40 minutes and it’s no problem. So I was just building that up. But you’ve got to remember, when you’re meditating, not everyone feels like you should be blissed out, but that meditation is actually hard work, particularly at the front at the start because thoughts are coming up and they’re just automatic. All it is is just being aware of your thoughts. And with this one I teach, you have a mantra. So just come back to the mantra, let go of the thoughts. And I guess over time you feel there’s so many benefits like but it’s about consistency too. Like it’s like going to the gym, you can’t go twice and won’t get any benefits. So I recommend five days a week at least. I would say it’s Monday to Friday and ideally 20 minutes, but start with five. And when you do it like this, with so much clarity and focus, you’re way more productive. I think the biggest thing is not being as reactive to life. So, so much like everything slows down a little and you can take it in without quickly reacting. You can sort of sit with it and go, okay, this is what I’m going to do. And then the other thing I think is really passive business is your intuition is really shopping. So you hear certain whispers from the universe or from yourself of what you should be doing and when you trust and do it. And that’s when magic happens. And then you can, that’s when you start getting floaty. 

[00:19:53] Lisa DiGeso: I love that. As we age, we definitely run our business with a heart centered business. What feels right, what feels right as a good business decision. 

[00:20:02] Johl Dunn: So yeah, the hot spots haven’t. I was stronger than the mind as well, so you should always follow it.  

[00:20:07] Lisa DiGeso: Yeah, I love that. So can we dove a little into procrastination? Because I think from what I have heard from our students and listeners, it’s something we all struggle with a bit. So I would love to ask what advice do you have on how to stop self-sabotaging procrastination behavior and just get your darn work done? 

[00:20:28] Johl Dunn: Yes. So procrastination with photographers particularly, it all usually comes from perfectionism. So they want everything to be perfect and it’s also fear based. So we put things off that we’re a bit worried about, like it might be a marketing campaign and we do little bits around the edge all the time. We don’t actually call that person or set it going because what if it doesn’t work? What if they say no? So I guess the key thing for me is that productivity is really powerful. So I get in my class the time block and they all have to do a pledge. So every week that’s one big action that I have to take and that’s the pledge to the group and to me. So having that accountability with. A coach helps because you’ve got someone that’s done it. And when you’re doing it by yourself, it’s easy to give yourself an excuse. Like, I’ll do that next week, I’m too busy or I’m not in the mood today. So it’s about decisive action and sticking to your word. So if you say you’re going to do something, this is just seeing yourself as what people want it to be. Secondly, something. When you do it, you hold yourself to account and it’s about stepping outside your comfort zone and going, okay. And I always look at my list for the day. What’s the thing I don’t want to do the most on that list, and I’ll do that first and get it done. And that’s just self-discipline as well. 

[00:21:45] Lisa DiGeso: For me, it’s always on like what’s causing me the most stress right now. And if I ask myself that question, what is stressing me out the most or what’s the looping thought that I’m having about something that I need to do? And I’m like, Well, that’s what I’m going to do right now.  

[00:21:56] Johl Dunn: Like, yeah, and that’s like that. So, like, successful people make hard decisions or do hard things. Like there’s a saying, I love it. It’s like, choose your heart. So it’s hard to get up early and meditate and exercise and set yourself up for the day. But it’s also hard to not have a successful business and to always feel like you’re behind the eight ball or it’s hard to be unfit. It’s also hard to get to the gym every day right. So which hard do you want to choose?  

[00:22:25] Lisa DiGeso: Yeah, I love that. So true. Now, I would love to chat a little bit about your mindset and how that can change over time. Running a business and what we can do when things really do start to feel heavy and not very fun.  

[00:22:40] Johl Dunn: Yeah. And look, this can happen. Like, you know, you can get into a rough business for sure. But I think one of the big things is changing things up, changing routines up. So for example, because of COVID and everything, we I worked at home a lot, obviously, because that now I took out of my son’s bedroom and incumbent I’m still still in April little fella has to share with his brother but yeah like for me, I can get stuck on zoom for five 6 hours a day, right? So I make sure I go out and twice a week I go to a café and just work from the café or go to a photography studio and just work from there. So it’s changing the environment and changing what you’re doing. I think that’s really powerful and like you talk about before bringing some fun and joy into it. Like if you feel like you’re getting into that right or it’s a bit heavy, what can I do that’s fun? Oh, what can I do that’s different? Who can I catch up with for a coffee? Just to break it up. And you want to get into that flow state. So for me, when I teach my clients that flow states, when you’re in love, joy and peace. So how can I bring love, joy and peace into the business in my day? And the heavy is like stress, anxiety, fear, guilt, sadness. They’re the restrictive ones. So when you’re there, you’ve got to work at How am I going to move up that ladder? And acceptance is that the middle ground? So once you can accept that, okay, I’m a bit stressed. I’m a bit frustrated here, accept that, instead of pushing it down, you know, we like to push these emotions and just accept it and feel it and sit with it. Okay. I want to move through this and what’s the best way forward? What do I need to do to change the environment or do something fun or do something for myself? I think about day the day things.

[00:24:27] Lisa DiGeso: Yeah. I forget what I was watching. I think it was on the Gaia network and it was all about gratitude and how that can change your vibration so quickly. More than anything else. Love and gratitude. 

[00:24:40] Johl Dunn: Gratitude is a daily practice that we take pride in. And it’s so simple. It’s so simple, but it’s phenomenally powerful because. And you gotta do it right. Like, Wait, I get my class, right? It’s three things that are great from four in the morning. You can easily go through things like my family, my house, my business and then off you go. But when you really sit down and feel it is the key and like to be specific like instead of my family. But the hug my son gave me yesterday when he got back from school or the way the sun was coming through the window on my face this morning, or, you know, the amazing new client I just bought, you know, things like that. And you really feel it because it was your chemistry, was it right? Yeah. It’s really one of the most powerful things you can do. But people often get, you know, it’s too simple. Yeah. One of the other things we do. Yeah, well that. Well, the thoughts become things. That’s part of our morning ritual as well. What? What are three things you want to happen today? Hmm? Like, instead of what? You know, we always go. I don’t want this to happen this time. It’s like, okay, what do you want to happen? And we write them down and it’s so spooky how much that comes true for people like I want the other day, I don’t do many sales anymore, but I, I just write down, I want this out of $3,500 and it was 3500 on the dot. Exactly. I should write 4000. Yeah. But just little things like that when you put it out there, you’re putting that energy and vibration out what you want to happen. Now, it doesn’t always happen, but it’s more likely to happen when you put it away. 

[00:26:25] Lisa DiGeso: We have a well, I wouldn’t say game, but it is kind of a game we play in our business and it’s. Wouldn’t it be amazing if and like and just like keep going. Like, wouldn’t it be amazing if we did it? And our whole team loves to play that and it really just helps us expand what’s possible for the business. And just because it’s easy to just get stuck in like and thinking small and not having big goals. So I think that’s really helped us stretch to.  

[00:26:53] Johl Dunn: There when you said stretch, no, I call it Stretch Goal, we call it in the business like oh, and I always get paper, go right, write down your ideal loss and I’ll write it down and I’ll read it. I’ll go, okay, if anything was possible, steal your idea off and they get well. Not like they’ll go, I want a good house or I want a car that works, or I want to, you know, like that’s not stretching. That’s just like because what we do is we set goals on the path. So I’m here. If I do this, this and this, I think I can get here. But when you let go the how, because that’s what gets stuck. 

[00:27:28] Lisa DiGeso: Like, oh, how gets us stuck. How, like, how is my mind, you know as I make my biggest thing is how and they’re like and because until you explain to me how I’m stuck.  

[00:27:39] Johl Dunn: Yeah, but we get stuck in the how. Like, let’s say you want to, you want to live in a full million dollar house, but at the moment you’re living in a $400,000 house. And like in your brain, there’s no way you can afford that. Right? But let go if you want it, like go to hell. And just and what happens is things start to fall into place and you just follow the breadcrumbs and like, okay, I’ll go here. And then he like, it can come from your business. It can come from an investment, it can come from an inheritance. You can win that. Like that’s what heaps of different ways you can manifest them. Yeah, but this is one story that I love about one of my clients. He had an autistic son and he is about 20 or 21 and he said he didn’t believe in any of this stuff and I started coaching in manifestation. You guys actually get my son to do this a lot and he told me this story and I can’t remember what it was. It’s like a thing is something so random is like a green, bright green wooly sweater or something. And he went for a walk and he said, he goes, I want a green wooly sweater. And he said, Because what? Why is a love green and it’s winter and so okay, whatever. He went for a walk. He came back with a green boy’s sweater and he goes, Hey, where’d you get that from? Okay, so just walking. Lady walked out and went, Do you want this? And he said and he said things like that happened to my son, like on a constant basis. Now I think because he’s autistic, he’s tapping in differently, right? Because his brain works differently. It’s like that’s just how he operates. Like this is just what happens today. It’s like he doesn’t even question it. Like.

[00:29:10] Lisa DiGeso: I love that. So I hear I saw something recently and it was like, you know, asking the universe for things like you would ask Siri or Alexa and just being like, of course, or even like ordering food at a restaurant. You just don’t question that it’s going to arrive. You just made the order and of course, it’s going to be delivered. You’re not sure how long it’s going to take sometimes. Sometimes you have to just get out of the washroom for it to arrive and then suddenly it’s there. So that’s just an order.

[00:29:34] Johl Dunn: Yeah, it is. And that’s why when we get goal setting, we say we’ve got to go out in the present tense. So when you get into quantum curating and stuff like it’s already happened in the future, like if you can have the thanks and the clarity that you know it’s already done, you can move towards it so much quicker. But the hard thing is to actually get into that feeling of gratitude and like knowing it’s done, bit like when you can get there, it’s powerful.  

[00:29:59] Lisa DiGeso: In a book I’ve been reading recently and really diving into is Joe Dispenza work a lot and I could love him. Yeah like the Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself and with it Becoming Supernatural. And there is actually a series that he’s got on Gaia that I just think I’ve watched it three times and I keep going back and taking notes and I just think it’s so fascinating. 

[00:30:20] Johl Dunn: I know that when I watch that a couple of times myself and I made a whole program based partly on that and some other work on quantum creating for my small clients and took me five or six months to put that together because it’s so mind bending. 

[00:30:34] Lisa DiGeso: It’s so it’s it’s like, you know, it’s so funny because this is a limiting belief of mine that when I start getting into it, I have to walk away sometimes because I keep thinking to myself, I’m like, I’m not smart enough to to learn this. And so it’s like, no, you are. You just take your time, just a bite at a time. You don’t have to swallow the entire elephant, just like a little bit of that each time. So it’s interesting. 

[00:30:58] Johl Dunn: Like when I listen in particular, it’s like this guy is so smart and I like I can’t take and look. It does. It takes me when I’m like I’ve got so many books on the go to talk to anyone. I have a little diary like this. It takes me something to write a book if I write notes on like all these psychology books or contact books and then I’ll read the notes back. Then it starts to make sense to me and I just need to absorb it slower. It’s slower here. 

[00:31:27] Lisa DiGeso: I agree, because it’s like these here are these people that like a book a day and I’m like, No, I’m a lot slower than that. But like I do, I want to absorb it. And, I think I just I don’t retain much if I go too fast. 

[00:31:41] Johl Dunn: No. And no point reading a book in a day and then not doing anything with it either, but the information you learn. So I like the text I enjoyed one month because it takes me a long time. I go through the notes and yeah, that’s how I do it. They go. 

[00:31:57] Lisa DiGeso: Yeah, I joke with my friends. I’ve got two hobbies. One is buying books and one is reading books.  

[00:32:02] Johl Dunn: Yeah, book type. Book type is a store that I’m on online and they must love me because I supply puts, see. 

[00:32:09] Lisa DiGeso: So I’d love to chat a little bit on conscious creation. Can you share a little bit about what that is and how to be a conscious creator? 

[00:32:18] Johl Dunn: It’s a good question. I think creating is very broad. So it’s about your life. So it’s creating the life you want and what that is. So I think firstly you want to be aware of what that looks like. I get a good picture in your head of what you’re and this is where I get my classic what’s your perfect ideal lot like what are you driving? Where are you living? What’s your business like? Who are you with? What are your kids doing? If kids like everything like detailed data detail and then write it down. And then when you read that, how does that feel? And that’s the important thing is the feeling, okay, hold onto that feeling. And then we close our eyes, we visualize that it’s already done. So then we just start moving towards it. So we start slightly, okay, what do I need to do? Let’s start with some habits and let’s take the time to do that. My business needs to be doing this. So what do you need to do first? Or I need to market or I need to meditate more. I set up a sales system. I can just slowly move towards and we really break down and I get into that every day and I do it myself. I’ve just started reading a book on breathing as well, which is fascinating. I had to read three nos compared to brains, does a lot of mouth breathing and it’s detrimental to our health. And I think but one of the things is slowing. You write a break, so you’re breathing in and every 6 seconds and ad every 6 seconds is like to get your joe to spend it talks about this getting you into coherence right it gets your body into it. So when your mind and heart cohere, then you can manifest a lot quicker and like everything. So now I’ve tried it on when I’m doing that visualization, signaling my breathing down to that five and a half, 6 seconds and really feeling into what that is and that’s consciously creating. So knowing what it is and then moving towards. Because most people just turn up and go through life. Right. Get up. Go to work. Kind of like it’s a Friday on Fridays. You have fun on the weekend shift. My life here. Yeah. And they keep doing it. That’s just my life. That’s just what I have to do. But you can change any time, whatever you want. 

[00:34:26] Lisa DiGeso: I’ve been doing a lot of reading research about quantum timeline jumping, and I just find it so fascinating. And what’s your take on that?

[00:34:36] Johl Dunn: This is one I can’t, this is I’m trying to wrap my head around, but because in the quantum realm, everything’s happening at the same time, right? There’s no yeah, I still this is what the one part of quantum created was still wrapping my head around. 

[00:34:48] Lisa DiGeso: Okay, cause I’m the same. Yeah, I’m figuring it. 

[00:34:51] Johl Dunn: Out because I’m like, I get that, you know, everything. You know, it’s already happened. You move towards it, you have like it, but like the whole thing. Everything happening at one time just blows my mind. So I’m still diving into that chart to understand it. But like, I think it’s so powerful. Like when you can collapse time like we talked about when you I get that point where if you know it’s already done, like let’s say you want you’ve got a business that’s doing 50 K and you want to do five and you know it’s already done in the future use maybe towards it and you know with absolute certainty that that’s done and have that feeling. And then you just follow what, you know, what action steps you need to take. Obviously the thing with manifesting is the people get it wrong with the sacred and stuff is like, okay, I’m going to get obsidian manifest, you know, spiritual bypassing, that sort of thing, but you need to take action, so you gotta set it with action steps. So the thing is, once you start taking action, other things will pop up that will lead you in that direction. So what I like to do is set some intention system action steps, move towards that, and then all of a sudden something out of left field might come to you or your intuition or someone, you know contacts you. Okay, let’s try that. And then you sort of see that when you follow that and then you keep going. Yeah, but the whole timeline thing and.

[00:36:11] Lisa DiGeso: I know it’s so funny because well, it’s funny because I, I sometimes just geek out on TikTok four and I’m somehow in like quantum physics tech talk over there. And sometimes I’m just like, you know, and I just find it so fascinating. But you were a nail on the head because I think a lot of time people do. We sit back and we’re like, okay, so manifestation like I’m just going to sit back in like all millions of dollars are going to flow to me. And that’s really not how it works. Like you have to, there has to be inspired action towards that manifestation for that to come to fruition.  

[00:36:43] Johl Dunn: Yeah, 100%. 100%. Great. Like I think with quantum physics and stuff, it’s like because when I was in high school, I played football and life sciences for nerds and you know, not doing any science I really went against. And now I’m wishing I had done the sciences because that side of me, all right, I’m reading books on them and stuff and yeah, psychology as well. The same sort of thing. It just fascinates me.  

[00:37:07] Lisa DiGeso: Yeah. Agree. So I love it. So you ready for the lightning round? 

[00:37:12] Johl Dunn: Yeah.

[00:37:13] Lisa DiGeso: Okay. What is your go to karaoke jam? 

[00:37:18] Johl Dunn: Boom Shake the Room. Love that song. 

[00:37:22] Lisa DiGeso: That’s the most luxurious vacation you’ve ever been on. 

[00:37:25] Johl Dunn: Probably Bali went to it. It’s beautiful without kids, which is great. My friend got married there and we hired at this amazing villa with, you know, driver and cook and everything. And it’s like it was so luxurious. Like, we didn’t have to lift a finger. It was amazing. 

[00:37:44] Lisa DiGeso: I love that I selfishly ask this question because I want to add it to my own bucket list.  

[00:37:50] Johl Dunn: We did actually apply in Thailand on our honeymoon. We went to one place that was a six star resort and they had four staff for every couple. And those nine kids that were next level are like and everyone knew your name. Like every staff member in the whole thing. Every time you went through a door that opened the door and said, you know, welcome Mr. and Mrs. Dunn. And that was when I was only 27 when I got married. So it was pretty fancy for us. 

[00:38:18] Lisa DiGeso: So I love that. So what was your favorite TV show as a kid? 

[00:38:23] Johl Dunn: Probably The Simpsons. I grew up on them. I love and I still love seeing them every now and then. They still pop up on TV. 

[00:38:31] Lisa DiGeso: Morning person or night owl. 

[00:38:33] Johl Dunn: I used to be a night out. Now I’m definitely a morning person. Yeah. I had to train myself to be a morning person.

[00:38:40] Lisa DiGeso: Children will do that to you.

[00:38:42] Johl Dunn: And I have to get up early to do what I need to do now before work. So, yeah. 

[00:38:47] Lisa DiGeso: What did you want to be when you grew up? 

[00:38:49] Johl Dunn: I wanted to be an AFL footballer. So for those in Canada and America, that’s the football club here. So like rugby, I guess I’ll gridiron over there but without the pads but wasn’t quite good enough to get to the top level.  

[00:39:06] Lisa DiGeso: I don’t think you’re doing too bad doing what you’re doing. 

[00:39:08] Johl Dunn: Yeah, I’m having fun.  

[00:39:09] Lisa DiGeso: What makes your soul light up?

[00:39:11] Johl Dunn: That’s a good question. I’d say it’s probably number one Spy Kids. I think in their laughter, when they achieve something they really want to achieve. And also the look on my clients faces when they achieve a goal or they do something that I didn’t think was possible. That’s probably the two things that come to mind. Yeah, I love that.  

[00:39:35] Lisa DiGeso: What’s been the best piece of business advice you’ve ever been given? 

[00:39:38] Johl Dunn: One of them would fail fast and fail often. I really like that one because so many people are scared to fail. And I for some reason I can’t remember who told me that or where I got it, but I was never scared of failing early on, luckily, and I just went for it. Like I just started a business and I didn’t even have a camera. What I started. It’s pretty silly when you think about it. I didn’t have a camera. I had to borrow money to buy a computer. Right. That client says that’s pretty crazy. But I had no fear, but I just had no fear. And I didn’t care if it failed. Yeah. 

[00:40:12] Lisa DiGeso: What advice do you have for someone just starting out? 

[00:40:15] Johl Dunn: Oh, look, this is going to sound biased, but hire a coach. Like, 100%. Like, I’ve hired four or five coaches in my career. The thing is, it just strikes you like you don’t know what you don’t know at the start, and you can fumble your way through it or you can pay someone and they can show you a quick way to do it. That would be number one. The second thing is, it would be just to work on yourself, personal development, like find out who you are and what makes you tick because you’re the business. So those two would probably be the two I recommend. 

[00:40:48] Lisa DiGeso: So can you share a favorite success story from maybe one of your students. 

[00:40:52] Johl Dunn: But probably the one that stands out purely because of his attitude? Was that client I had? So when I started coaching, he had a full time job and he was a wedding photographer on the side and he won. And he had a pregnant wife and an eight month old, I’m going to say a ten month old baby. And he wanted to get out of weddings, out of his job, into fortunes and stuff to go. And within five months, he quit his job. And now he’s full time in portraits and he’s dominating, I think doing so well. Like he’s he’s like it happened a lot quicker than I expected as well, because a lot of time there’s that fear of quitting a job and going into business. But the thing with this particular client is he took decisive action all the time and he listened to everything I told him, he put it into place without question and just kept doing it. And that’s the reason he had so much success, because he backed himself. He trusted it, and he just took a really scary action, like quitting a job is super scary. When he told me, I said, great, I’ve got some work to do. And then he had more time to put into the business. So really the upswing was quick because when he had his job, he had limited hours he could put into the business. So it was going to take longer, but he realized this guy’s only just going to do it. And he did that with a pregnant wife and a ten month old or whatever. So it was ballsy but powerful when you have a really focused like intention and you want to get there. And this is what he did. Another one that I talk about manifesting is when I started work with her she wrote down her ideal life in great detail and we put that aside and then say, I’ve got a 12 week program. And then she came into my last months. I think coaching it for this was a retreat we just had. And she found it again and it blew her mind. I was like a year and a half ago, she wrote every single thing on that list was now reality. And right down to the puppy, she said she wanted a puppy and she just got a puppy and she didn’t. She wrote obviously she read it a lot, then just put it away. But it blew her mind because when she wrote that, she said that was not even possible. Like I said, this is ideal, but that’s not going to happen. Like she sold it, bought a house, bought a studio, all these things. And that was one of my favorite stories. Like, I loved that she created what she wanted.  

[00:43:22] Lisa DiGeso: That’s awesome. So where can I listeners learn more from you?

[00:43:26] Johl Dunn: Facebook is probably where I put most of my stuff, so it’s Johl, just Johl. You can find J-O-H-L, it’s spelled a little differently or job done dot com is the website but most of them stop putting videos on Facebook and updates and different things. So yeah, feel free to jump on there and private message me if you have any questions about what I do. I’m happy to sing it. Some information on coaching or whatever as well, if anyone is interested. 

[00:43:54] Lisa DiGeso: Marc Fisher We’ll make sure to include that in our show notes. So I love it to end my interviews with this last question and it is what are you currently curious about or artistically curious about? 

[00:44:06] Johl Dunn: It’s a good question. I think artistically, I have had close to zero focus on anything artistic for a while and I’m okay with that. But I do feel myself being drawn back into creating again. But I think for me I’m really curious about consciousness quantum creation, which we talked about and psychology, and I’m always writing on these sorts of topics. The other thing is psychedelics. I’m looking very deeply into that at the moment and why I look at different things that I can bring to my clients and different avenues and structures. So they’re probably the things that I’m most curious about. Yeah, probably quantum credit, quantum timelines, all that. I’m still trying to wrap my head around those. 

[00:44:52] Lisa DiGeso: I know. Do you love that? Well, Johl, thank you so much for joining me today.  

[00:44:58] Johl Dunn: It’s been a pleasure. And it was a really fun interview. 

[00:45:01] Lisa DiGeso: Oh, my friends. That was such a fun conversation. Thank you so much for tuning in and I appreciate you so much for listening and hanging out with me each and every single week. I am sending you so much of my light today and every single day. We’ll see you next time.