194 MINISODE Jules Schroeder: Embrace The Unique You

Jules Schroeder believes life is too short not to embrace the authentic you and make every moment count. Founder of Unconventional Life – the podcast, the column, the epic experiences – Jules advises women entrepreneurs to reject conventional wisdom, move past all the “should’s” and trust your truth.

Melinda Wittstock:         Jules welcome to Wings.

Jules Schroeder:               Thanks so much for having me. Good to be here.

Melinda Wittstock:         It’s great to have you and you’re such an inspiring person that the first question really has to be what’s inspiring you?

Jules Schroeder:               Yeah, so, so many things. I live my life being very multi-passionate from being a musician, artist who also, entrepreneur having several different companies and initiatives to, you know, a health enthusiast to a cross fitter and I think the biggest thing in this moment is really allowing more space for creativity and really allowing my creativity to drive all the areas. Almost like my nucleus. It’s my center right now and what I’m finding is giving a little bit of extra space in the day, so just drop in. I’m actually having my whole day workflow and then I’m a songwriting at about 10:00 at night.

I’m actually working on a new album that I’ll be recording next week, is allowing me to feel this whole and complete sense of myself and I’m finding the more I’m doing it, the more I’m explicitly putting creative practices. Ironically enough, the more joy I’m having, the more business that’s coming in, the more money that’s flowing in and ultimately just the more overall satisfaction and fulfillment I’m feeling.

Melinda Wittstock:         Isn’t that interesting that, when we get into that zone of, of happiness or joy or flow and we’re really creating, magic happens. I mean that’s when we attract so many opportunities and yet we’ve all been kind of brainwashed to think that the no pain, no gain, you know, somehow we have to work hard.

Jules Schroeder:               Completely and for me, you know, I call it those hits of joy are so much the indicators that I live my life by. It’s like the field good skill, you know, and actually did this thing when I was coming back from our unconventional life, business accelerator in South Africa a few months ago.

I was on this 20 hour plane ride back and I asked myself, how do I actually feel moment to moment in my life? Like there is this idea that I was chasing, of happiness. You know, next time I take this trip, when this client closes, when the this thing happens, then I’ll feel that sense of happiness, but my direct day to day experience of being happy was really only happening about 40 percent in my day and when I actually got clear, I ranked everything in my life on a one to 10 scale of where I was experiencing moment hits of happiness and joy. Majority of the stuff that I do, I was doing was occurring at about a six or a seven and when I started shifting to what actually gave me that joy, literally singing, performing or speaking at live events and doing Crossfit in the morning, were like the 11 out of 10. I started restructuring and I’ve found that by incorporating more of that, it’s just giving me the fuel for everything else, so.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, that’s wonderful. And so we all have challenges somewhere along the way in our journey and hopefully we’re increasing that proportion of joy, right? We’re all human. Right? And there are these moments when we are challenged as kind of part of the journey, the ups and downs of entrepreneurship. What are some of the ones that you face?

Jules Schroeder:               Yeah. So, you know, ironically enough I went through a separation with my romantic partner about three months ago and you know, we finally are at the stage now where we’ve gone over like the hurdle and the separation. We’re starting to be back in the communication again a little bit more, which is nice and you know, every time that I create these Unconventional Life events or I have this company, Billionaire Society where we’re bringing together these unique billionaire unicorns for these dinners. I go through these freak-outs and I literally, I called him up and I was just like, “Hey, like, I’d love if you could like hold space for a little bit.” And he’s like, “Let me guess. Now, you feel like you’re not good enough. You feel like the world’s ending. You feel like you bit off more than you can chew. You feel like none of it’s working.”

And like literally listed off my series of grievances and I share this on, I actually started laughing during our conversation because I find that, the more that I say yes to whether it’s a new company, whether they’re my latest music, you know, game is called Project Grammy, which is like in a process of getting nominated for a Grammy award. It’s, I find that in these big momentary games, all of our stuff comes up and I don’t care how successful you’ve been as an entrepreneur, I find for myself that those recycling’s of hitting my wall of my comfort zone to play that next game, all those tapes arise, at least for me, I’m in the process.

And so I don’t know if I will ever not, you know, I hope I never come to a place where those freak outs or where you know, that stuff comes up because I think it’s a direct testament to how big am I willing to show up and how willing am I to step in and actually sit and feel resistance to actually come through the other side and then ultimately achieved so much more in the process? And so for me, it’s definitely a continuum. It’s a constant process. I’m constantly iterating and I think through the process, you know, I call it, I go through an incubation period for awhile and stuff feels good and then boom, spike activation on the other side. It’s an integration period and then it’s like smooth sailing again and then boom, you know, activation and integration. And so I view that as the cycle and as a result of seeing it more cyclical, in some ways feels more normal, so that when it happens I find it’s not like, “Oh, there’s this thing again. Let me feel afraid or not be an action” but actually let me just recognize it as a cue that I’m on the right track and how can I allow it, welcome more of it and still be an action anyways?

And I find that those micro shifts and refrains, in so many ways for me, gives me the fuel to keep going and to recognize those challenges as like indicators. It’s like, “Oh yeah, there’s that thing is happening again.” So much so that I could be separated from relational partner and be like, “Oh, Jules, there’s that thing you do again about once every month when you’re playing these big games, big games in the world.” So, that’s just how I view it. And for me I would say it’s definitely a normalcy in my life as I move through all the areas and chapters.

Melinda Wittstock:         Oh, that’s so beautifully said because it is a journey. I mean, I think it’s never really over. We all come into life with these lessons that we’re learning and every now and again the universe tests us, you know, are you sure? Are you sure you’ve let that belief go or whatever? And as we play bigger, I mean, I think what you say is so true because as we played bigger, we get out of our comfort zones and, and that’s where the magic happens. It’s why comedians even, you know, really famous, you know, Jerry Seinfeld or whoever, still gets butterflies, you know, before he goes on stage. So I think we get the entrepreneurial version of the butterflies when we’re, when we are stepping up to playing big or bigger.

Jules Schroeder:               Yeah, completely. I mean it’s something I constantly ask myself, is I’m either totally crazy or I’m absolutely honest. So, teetering that line.

Melinda Wittstock:         Well, you’ve been through it enough, right? That you can recognize the pattern and there’s a real comfort in that. And what a wonderful segue into the advice portion of this Minisode. Jules, what are your top three go-to pieces of advice for women in business, conscious entrepreneurs, people starting out wherever they are in the journey?

Jules Schroeder:               Yeah. I love this question. You know, I think the biggest thing is one is the overall reframe into what I call this unconventional life, which is essentially looking at it from this, you know, not moving in shift from conventional wisdom, which we’ve all been taught, you know, in so many ways. We go to school, you know, we get a, you know, we go to college or we get a job, we get a better job when we perform in these various different ways. And that’s also translated to how we live our life. You know, we work really hard, you hustle really hard, and then we’ve got our time for family and then we’ve got our time for fun and then we have our time for hobbies and it’s all compartmentalized.

I think so many of us, including many of those that are listening right now, is that life is more fluid than that. We’ve shifted from this one of 10 ways to make money in the world, to now there’s infinite ways to make money in the world. Infinite stories, infinite examples. You know, every day a new industry is being modeled for us differently. And so, you know, the first piece of advice I would say is just recognizing your own truths of where your own wisdom lies. You know our world hasn’t caught up just yet. You know, when I think about my children or our children’s children, it’s like some of the things that we’re pioneering actively, you know, of like, is YouTubing even a career? You know, is running a business online, is that acceptable?

I mean, I remember on my journey, I had eight companies and it wasn’t until I started writing for Forbes that my dad was like, “Oh, I think you’ve actually done something with your life. Like I get Forbes, that actually makes sense to me” and so it’s just allowing your own truth to be your truth and saying that not everyone will get your vision and that’s why you have your vision. So even if there are people really close to you in your life that don’t fully get it yet, just keep trusting, keep being on the forefront, keep being the pioneer. Know that you are modeling for a reason, and as you stay with your truth, that truth will live in a world, so keep going and you’re the only one that has your vision is the first piece.

And then the second piece is that you literally can create, in as quick of a timeline as you want, coming back to this conventional wisdom piece. You know, I often work with this concept that I call nonlinear reality creation or rapid visioning. How do you take things that by conventional timelines such as, you know, winning a Grammy award winning album, being nominated for one, people would be like, “You should spend over, you know, 10, 15, your whole life’s work on this album.” Where for me, I’m like, how fast can I do it? And then not only how fast can I do it, how can I then give people more permission, in the process, to show that you really can create what’s possible?

And so what I would say is if there’s something in your life right now, you might know what it is, something that keeps you up at night or something that you think about on your drive to and from work, something that pings you in the shower and it feels really big, so big that you’re like, I don’t even know where to start. Maybe it’s you want to launch a podcast. Maybe it’s you want to bring people together for an event or retreat. Maybe it’s you’ve got this idea to impact this community or do some type of social work and where you’re standing in this moment to where you want to go feels so quantum.

Chances are you’re right, and when I look at rapid visioning, I look at maybe you’re viewing that as that step 100 or step 10. What’s the next thing you could do before then? What would that step nine be like? Step eight, step seven and working your way backwards all the way to, in this exact moment, what is the very next step that you can take? And it might just be a phone call. It might just be a post on Facebook. It might just be saying, you know, to your friends, “Hey, I’ve got this crazy idea and I want to do like a trip in Spain, is anyone interested?” And then letting that be your cue for the step you then take.

And I find when you act in that way, one, it becomes more accessible. Two, you build confidence and you get wins on the board along the way and three, it takes the timelines of which, how fast things conventionally should be true, to come through a lot faster. You know, and I’ve done this in so many ways in my life where I actually was out of another relationship with years ago and I was sitting alone in my mountain house and I said, you know, I wrote a post on Facebook and I was like, “Where are my ladies at? I would love to take a trip around the world somewhere, bucket list experience” and I said to myself, I was like, if no one answers like, I’m going to delete the post, we’ve all been there, go into the kitchen, get a glass of water and my Facebook was blowing up with comments and messages. It ended up being my most viral post of women tagging women saying, “Hey, we would love to come on a trip” and flash forward I asked myself what would be the next step?

I was like, “Uh, this is getting crazy on Facebook. Let’s put them all into a Facebook group.” 100 women come into the group. I asked myself, “Huh, what would be the next step?” Well, they all said they wanted to come on a trip. Why don’t I just say it’s for $2,000? Within three days, 40 women said yes, and I had generated an $80,000 revenue stream, literally out of one Facebook post. Out of one idea, one insight, one ping. I was like, I’m lonely and I want to find women and literally men reaching out to me saying like, “Uh, I think you should start a women mastermind. There seems to be a lot of interest here.”

Like seeing business potentials all around the board but more than anything, coming back to the simplicity of just ideating moment by moment by moment, from a conventional perspective. I could have research trips, I could’ve researched my art avatar, could have researched groups but in reality actually just going back to I have an idea, is there anyone else out there that thinks it’s any good or is interested? And then from there, let that be your cue.

So the world needs your light. The world needs your ideas. They’re your visions because they’re your visions. It doesn’t matter if no one else sees it yet. I see it and you see it and just keep going and ask yourself what is that very next step that you could take? Literally pause this right now and get into action to start bringing more of your gifts forward.

Melinda Wittstock:         I love that. You know, because so many people put so many blocks in front of them. They plan for revenue, you know? They plan for customers, right? But they don’t like, ask or just go out and put it out there and you don’t really have a business until you have customers. So the first people like, “Hey is anybody interested in this?” and not being afraid of like, no actually and, and you know, that’s the kind of heart palpitating moment for a lot of people and maybe the fear is what holds them back. But I think that’s beautiful advice and it’s so, so, so important to like just market test it before you even build it, you know?

Jules Schroeder:               Yeah, kind of completely. It’s like simplicity 101 and at its core, like you actually, I find I get to stay more present to what’s actually happening versus sometimes you project so far in the future that by the time you get there it’s like the landscape’s completely changed. And so I find it gives a lot more room to say present and once again, come back to joy in the process, so.

Melinda Wittstock:         Yes. Gosh. And that can happen so, so easily, especially in technology and other things, you know? You build it, you perfect it and then, “Oh, whoops. Oh. Hm. Nobody actually needs this, huh?”

So Jules, this is beautiful. So how can people find you and work with you? You have so many things going. I mean your music and then Unconventional Life. What’s the best way?

Jules Schroeder:               Yeah. So Unconventional Life is my primary company that got birthed out of a near death experience, a wake boarding accident. You can either watch more of the next segment or come look up the story but what it is, it started out as a Forbes column, we’re a top ranked podcast for entrepreneurs on iTunes, so you can search Unconventional Life on iTunes, find us there.

And then we host these amazing masterminding life and business accelerators in exotic locations all around the world. And we’ve got another one coming up in Bali so you can head over to unconventionallifeshow.com to get all the details. And as an artist and musician, I love talking about these unconventional life concepts, non linear reality creation and all these things in the form of song and spoken word poetry and I’ve gotten to do a lot of stuff with the UN and some really amazing delegates in different places. And so if music is also your thing, Julesschroeder.com, you can find me on iTunes and listen to some of the new stuff, so.

Melinda Wittstock:         Wonderful. Thank you so much for putting on your wings and flying with us.

Jules Schroeder:               Thanks so much for having me. Thanks everyone.

Subscribe to Wings!
 
Listen to learn the secrets, strategies, practical tips and epiphanies of women entrepreneurs who’ve “been there, built that” so you too can manifest the confidence, capital and connections to soar to success!
Instantly get Melinda’s Wings Success Formula
Review on iTunes and win the chance for a VIP Day with Melinda
Subscribe to Wings!
 
Listen to learn the secrets, strategies, practical tips and epiphanies of women entrepreneurs who’ve “been there, built that” so you too can manifest the confidence, capital and connections to soar to success!
Instantly get Melinda’s Wings Success Formula
Review on iTunes and win the chance for a VIP Day with Melinda
Subscribe to 10X Together!
Listen to learn from top entrepreneur couples how they juggle the business of love … with the love of business.
Instantly get Melinda’s Mindset Mojo Money Manifesto
Review on iTunes and win the chance for a VIP Day with Melinda
Subscribe to Wings!
 
Listen to learn the secrets, strategies, practical tips and epiphanies of women entrepreneurs who’ve “been there, built that” so you too can manifest the confidence, capital and connections to soar to success!
Instantly get Melinda’s Wings Success Formula
Review on iTunes and win the chance for a VIP Day with Melinda