EP 01: How To Be Unapologetically Your Authentic Self : Ava Johanna

Show Transcript

Thank you all for joining us here on never settled content to move your body and move your mind today a dear friend and inspiration to myself as well, Ava. Johanna, she is an empowered embodied entrepreneur. She is also the founder and leader of the Academy of breath, Ava, thank you for being here. Le, thank you so much for having me.

I'm so, so excited. Stood so honored as well. I feel like we've known each other for years. Like we actually connected in the very very beginning of at least my journey and so it's so cool to connect now after so many iterations of both of our Journeys to come together and conversation, you interviewed me on your podcast, the alkalized life, a ways back.

And right before we got into the actual recording of this, we were talking about the evolution of what You are and how is really hard to put it into a context and that damn Instagram bio that limits us. Don't limit me to 100. It's like who becomes so many things so I'd love to see your Evolution as well which we'll get into. We were talking about embodied entrepreneurship.

I want to hear what that means because I think as a fellow female entrepreneur as well. You know, we try and create we don't want to be a title, but we also need to make Make it relatable to the public. So why don't we kick it off with that? What is embodied entrepreneurship?

Yeah, yeah, I think that that's such a great place to start, and also such a great point, because I think so much of what we're doing here today. What'd you do? What'd I do with many leaders? Do is in a way.

So ancient. And like deep old like embody like in our body wisdom, but in also another way so buried. And so new to Many people that we have to bring it to the world in a way that makes sense with words. Like with a vernacular that makes sense.

And so embodied entrepreneurship to me and what I really Inspire my clients to weave into their, their life is to be that living breathing example of their work. So that means that from the moment that they wake up to, when they go to sleep at night doing Doing the best that they possibly can to be in alignment with and live their life through the lens of the medicine and the practices that they preach to their community and to their clients into their customers. Because the thing is, if we are not embodying, what we, what we teach, what we preach, we lack confidence, and belief and certainty in the power of our tools. Because, if we're not doing it, then how the hell would we know?

How powerful Our work is and if we're not doing it, how are we going to be the walking testimonial? For what life looks like having gone through the process of what we teach and so embodied, entrepreneurship is really this. I'll go first, I will be the living, breathing example and the walking testimonial of what it means to go down this path with me so that my work. I my beingness is the example of What's waiting for you?

If you say yes to this product or this experience or this service and it's such beautiful work because it really doesn't what all that's necessary is to devote yourself to to your passion into and to your path. So you're really the the mirror of integrity For these entrepreneurs because I have known a few who has said, I'm going to lead you down this path and it's what you see behind the veil is quite opposite from the words being spoken. So to feed back into what you were saying, you know, that's that's pretty much the physical embodiment of the Imposter syndrome, where it's not just a mindset but it's actually, you're not walking your talk, man. Yeah.

And that's a hard. Playing like you were saying to authentically preach in a way that you wake up with a pride and it becomes correct me if I'm wrong. And I know you're also a very big believer in energy as well as one of the things that initially connects us. You can see it when somebody is not walking their talk or they feel like they have to put a mask what are your thoughts on that?

Totally. I mean and you know working with so many entrepreneurs you know, they come to me and they I say, well, I wish I was making this much funnier. I wish that my launches were easier. I wish that I, you know, I was able to have the success that I desire and then I ask them.

Okay. Well what are what's like what's your day? Like what do you what are you doing? Like what is it?

What is it a where is that? Like where's the disconnect right and it always comes back to not actually sitting their asses down and doing the things that they know are going to make them feel good. And I think that that's Like honestly, what separates the amateurs from the pros. That's what separates the people that you see, have this, like Quantum level success from the people that, you know, are just showing up online and doing what everyone else is doing.

There's that there's that missing piece of Integrity there and, you know, coming back to the energy piece of it. We can, we can see it, we can smell it. We can feel it from a mile away. And I think that so many people go into those relationships from, you know, what you what you shared was like Like, I will die will take you down this path.

It's kind of like this like this, this like black, right? This like oh you like, you have to come with me in order to do that. And so, what's being attracted from that? Place is not from this, like, calling people up into like, this is who I am.

This is my life. These are the practices that work for me and like if you want to play with me, if you want to play in this energy, like come on in. Like I am here for you that is like calling people hire into like yes, like sauce. T, like, I'm empowered making this decision versus the like lack of Integrity of like.

Yeah, you need these tools or like come, like, you have to jump down this path with me, it attracts a person that's not necessarily ready to make that decision from a place of empowerment. Does that make sense? I get it. And I think the words that I'm hearing from, I get a butcher saying and the he is lack in abundance.

Hmm. When you're lacking, you attract those who are Also really, really Latin, it's all low energy stuff. Yeah, then when its abundance and you're like, I'm walking this, I don't need this extra. My cup is to the brim and that's why I'm here to present and show this to you.

Then it pours out in a way that it's intuitive. It's natural. And that's the attraction as opposed to look at me. I have all of it but it's more up.

Here's what I'm doing. Follow this shiny path because it's real, you know, it's a white light and it's a difference of a dark energy, a low energy and a light energy and freeing one's the way that I think of it. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, and to add to what you were saying.

It's like, I don't need you to look at me because I'm looking at me and I, like, what I see and I think that's attractive as hell, right? That's what we all want. We want that. Feeling of being grounded in our worth.

We want that feeling of knowing who we are, we want that that abundant energy like, that's, that's that's part of the souls evolution is to step back into that to remember that. Because the lack, the scarcity, that's just a forgetting, right? There's a big difference. What you were saying about loving yourself?

There's a big difference to to anyone who's listening, and I know where you're coming from. And I agree with you to love yourself. And to say, Say I have plenty, I am in love with me is very different than an egotistical narcissistic. Like, love me.

Love me. Love me, love me. It goes back to that scarcity and the abundance Factor. So how I love that you started to bring up examples when when do you use the word client?

Or do you use what do you use for people who dances students couldn't students? Little production really. So I want to ask. Yeah, no.

I mean, in on the business side of things, they're my clients my Sisterhood and then inside the Academy of breath, as it is a certification program, they are students that turn into teachers. I love that you're teaching that and training that what is the Cameo breath? It is a breath work and meditation, certification program, all online and really pairing Neuroscience with spirituality. Like the Ancient practices of pranayama and, and meditation and bringing in the modern the modern world of.

Okay, we'll why are we meditating? What does actually controlling our breath do for our bodies and for our nervous systems and, you know, going back to the embodiment piece breathwork meditation. These are the ultimate embodiment tools that can I mean, gosh, if we had five hours to talk, I would I would talk your ear off but can ultimately change your, like, the entire fabric. Of your existence and a high level explain.

What is neuroscience when it comes to meditation and breathwork? Yeah, so Brett Brett, Brett, a tation breathwork. I actually just had lunch, so I'm still thinking about food. Yeah, and so breathwork and meditation.

When we're talking about the Neuroscience of both really, what we're doing is working with the autonomic nervous system which is our subconscious nervous system. It's our fighter Flight, which is our stress response or our survival response and our parasympathetic response, which is the rest and digest or as one of my favorite meditation. Teachers, Emily Stella Fletcher says, stay and play. And so when we're working with breath and meditation as tools to influence our autonomic nervous system, what we're doing is not only working with our immune system are our hormones are our digestive system.

We are working with our subconscious mind. And so, when we talk about, like embodiment or limiting beliefs or self-love, you know, all of the all of the pieces that make us us, so much of that is programmed into our subconscious mind. It's not happening on a conscious level. It's happening on a subconscious level and when it's happening on a subconscious level, we can't just think our way through it.

We can't just strategize our way into a new mindset. It requires Dang, it requires emoting, it requires expressing. And so that's really where breath work in meditation come in to support the kind of like unlocking and also subduing of the subconscious mind. So that the things that were thinking about consciously can actually come into coherence with the subconscious So if I because I hear it a lot and people say no but I suck at meditation.

What's your response to that? So yeah, I mean I remember after a couple times meditating, I was like, well, maybe I'm just not the right person like I don't need meditation, I'll just stick with yoga right? And so it's normal. First of all, you're not the only person that thinks it and I think that there's a big misconception with meditation being this practice where you're sitting for hours and hours.

Hours with absolutely no thoughts in your mind. And that's just simply not what meditation is, you know, the most shallow of meditations are actually, the ones that are doing the most for your system because when you enter a meditative State. And what I mean by that is you're dropping in by closing your eyes, you're starting to slow down your breath, you are focusing on something specific. Whether it be a mantra, or your breath, or even an object in front of you.

Like, right now, I have a candle going just like focusing on the flame. What's? Happening. Is that you are bringing your body out of that stress response into a state of a state of rest and digest.

That parasympathetic response are rest response. And when that happens, our body is finally given time to recover. And so, what that means is that we might experience a stress release. Now, that's not the same as a stress response though, or stress reaction.

It is the release of stress that has been stored in the body and usually, in the beginning. Is a meditation. We're experiencing a lot of that because we've never given our bodies time to recover. We've never given our bodies time to settle down after we received that horrible email from our boss or had that crazy altercation with somebody in the parking lot, right.

We just like kind of go about our days. And so in meditation it's our bodies like okay let's just let's release this and so maybe thoughts will come up or maybe it's like I can't sit still or maybe frustration and anger and rage comes up And in those moments, it's easy for us to say oh I suck at meditation, I'm not doing this right? Because it doesn't look like how I see in the pictures or in the movies or in the books. But those are actually the most beneficial meditations because that's what meditation is for.

If we look at it from a neurological level, it's there to support your nervous system and regulating itself. It's there to support your body and releasing that stress. And so the next time that you sit down to meditate if thoughts come up, Rather, Rather than thinking I stock instead, I just invite you to stay off. It's working the meditation.

I like that. It's working. What is a been? A struggle for your cell?

I'm going to take that away to. That's a good take away. It's working. If I wasn't done with tattoos.

What's a time that you personally struggle either in your well-being in your business, that you face an uphill battle that you had to dig deep towards your resilience self, which I know you are. And before we get to the other end of overcoming it, tell me about that that moment leading up to. Yeah, you know, that it's something I don't really talk about a lot, but it is, and from the outside, it likely looked like everything was peachy but when my husband, and I decided to move up to Allah in 2019, right after we got married, it was actually a really, really hard time for me, living there. I had just barely gotten my bearings.

Was like being a business owner and starting my own business and I was so easily influenced by every single person around me. I hadn't yet grounded in who I was, or what I actually desired or what was actually important to me. And so it felt like almost like being a fish that had just been hooked in, on, on a, on a piece of bait, right? Where it's just like thrashing around thrashing around through.

Rushing around. I felt like that was my, my personality and my Persona and might the masks that I was wearing and just like, all of these, all of these very ungrounded Pieces of Me came alive in LA and it was really hard because it was really lonely, you know, it put a toll on my marriage as well because my husband didn't want to really be in LA, and I wasn't really happy there. And I wasn't fully like allowing myself to be Who I wanted to be because I was so easily influenced by other people in the wellness Space by what other people were doing career-wise and just like relationship-wise, all the things and it was really hard to be honest with myself that the decision that I pushed so hard for to move to LA to like be up in LA and be doing the wellness thing and teaching at all the top Studios, it was really hard. Hard to attain all of that and look around.

And be like, oh, this like this actually isn't making me happy this, this, this wasn't it and it felt like a really scary decision to admit that I had gone down the wrong path. And that I in some ways felt like, I was starting again by leaving it all behind. Now, I Look at it as just continuing to expand and who I've always been meant to become. But initially at that point, that turning point where it was like do we stay here?

Do I continue going down this path. It was it was terrifying, right? Because you build your whole life around something and have success in it as well too. But when all is said and done, you're like this isn't like, this isn't this, isn't the role that I meant to play.

This isn't like actually me. It's not what I thought it was going to be, I guess. Yeah. I think thank you for sharing that with us too because I know you so that you don't usually share that.

So thank you. Yeah. Opening up about that. Something I've learned as an entrepreneur and I know that you embody as well because you just shared it.

Sometimes we need to say you know what, I go through. I made a mistake and now I'm going to take action I think that's one of the biggest parts of being in an embodied entrepreneur. 100% because we are going to make mistakes but it's what we do. Afterwards to rectify that.

So you guys been picked up and you move back to San Diego. Yes. Where your base now? Yeah.

So we ended up we actually left our house in January of 2020 in La, which thank God we did because we had no idea what was to come the curve. Yeah. No. That was like a big act big like thank you, God for it, for giving us that, that little push.

Yeah, we ended up moving out of our place in January and He spent some time with his family. I spent a little bit of time with my family and that I went to Australia by myself for three weeks, just on, like a solo road trip, which was so, so needed for my soul. And then, once I got back, we came back down to San Diego and have been there ever since. And I'm so grateful that we are to that's great.

And it, how you landed with where, you know, I see the happiness in your face and even after a whirlwind, you know? How things have happened, so fast for you too, because you're talking 2019 to 2020 and it's one year later. So how much can change in a year? Yeah.

When I want for you? Well, that's like that's the thing though, right? It's like when we have those knowings of of who this isn't right? And it's scary to admit that.

It's scary to say that about this relationship or this career path. Or you know, this place that I've put myself in It's scary to leave that all behind, but that knowing that we have is our greatest gift and had I not made that those decisions. I don't think I would be where I am today. I don't think that I would have had the success that I had over this past year, right?

Like when I decided, no, I don't want, I don't want to be teaching at Studios and driving all around all day. I don't even want to be in La. I don't want to be working with brands that I don't really care about. I don't really even want to be working with Brands.

Like I want to make enough money that I can just pay for whatever I want. Don't want it to be from this place of lack and once I made those decisions and was like, I really want to focus on like embodied entrepreneurship and and breathwork and meditation. That's when the world just expanded for me. That's when my business went from you know struggling to make for 25k a month to now making over 50k a month, right?

And it was like, it was very quick, like, I know that that's like a little time lapse of like 5K 250k, but it went from like five Kata 20K 30k 50k 50k 50k and so it's like, not even just the money aspect of it. I think the money is like a very easy thing for me to point to and be like that's like how quickly things changed but also, yeah, just the relationship that I had with my husband. We were able to come back to loving each other more again. We were both in a place where we were happy and thriving and felt more creative because the relationships train wasn't there and the, you know, the putting it all on four other people wasn't there anymore.

And so, Even though it was a very short period of time because there was that like deep deep honor of like, I know that this is the right decision for me, all of the pieces just fell into place so quickly. And had I not again, I don't think that I would be anywhere near where I am today. If I hadn't listened to that decision and I continue to push past my own intuition, you're an inspiration and that inspires me in many ways. So thank you.

Q4 just being that the beacon of light and for other female entrepreneurs and all entrepreneurs, you know, following the intuition, it's a scary thing to lead when you've spent a lot of time or you've uprooted in move and you dedicate energy you know your time and energy to something and then you decide like this is not what it's all. I thought it was going to be all cracked up to be and you brought up a great examples that all hit home to me, be it about a relationship, be it about a career path. No, I personally have changed careers many times but now finding where is you mentioned about wellness, and about teaching, and all the studios. And I used to do the same here in Miami pose so unfulfilled and like, I don't want to even be teaching yoga.

Like I get angry, like not angry, but now I'm people are like come teaching yoga class. Seems like, thank you. I don't do that anymore. One of the production, I'm happy to help because I love to create.

I love to create these and I'd love to talk and How we're storytelling when it comes to acting. Like creating move it like that lights, me up more than anything. How you're talking about, teaching the inspiring others like that. Likes me up, but we need to go on those Journeys.

And be honest with ourselves that if I'm going in this path and I had my head very dead said. This is what I want to do, but then you reach that destination you're like there's no Lucky Charms, okay? It's like back it up, take that lesson. Then we move in a different direction but it's not always that easy.

Just throw the bag over but it's what lies on the other side is just worth that that extra breath, you know? Yeah, absolutely. I mean it's the difference between pride and humility, right? It's the, it's the ego and then the soul and I think that it is terrifying, but the more that you do it, the more you're like, oh okay, no I dunno.

I dunno much. Much better than Anything outside of me could possibly ever tell me, I know, much better than how that girl is living her life on Instagram. I know much better. Then how this Wellness brand says, I should I should be trying to structure my day.

Like, I know and, you know, I think for the thing is for women because we have lived in a society where we have been property for so long, there's deconditioning meeting to happen where we actually start to trust ourselves. And start to really validate the feelings that we have. And the knowing that we have in a world that has I mean, historically never validated it. Historically never never given us the opportunity to to follow what we feel and or if we do were burnt at the stake, right?

And so that's where again, the embodiment piece comes in, how do we train our nervous systems to trust ourselves? Selves to validate ourselves to know that that knowing is the right step. As you're talking and speaking and I hear especially when it comes to breathwork and meditation to from you have far more experience than I do in that realm but the little bit that I have incorporate into my life and I'm the same person is like it's not working but I'm going to keep doing it every morning and it does work because I know I'm also a person when I set my head in a direction of doing something it happens. It might not be tomorrow but it happens with time because you're putting yourself into that mindset and that dedication.

It's what I was thinking is, is you're sharing, its, the ripples in the water. And when you start to calm that water a little bit through the breath work through the meditation, you activate the parasympathetic nervous system. It's becomes a lot more clear to what your intuition is saying. This is this is good for me.

This is not feeling so good and how do I redirect is that in a smaller sense of what you're saying? Yeah. Absolutely. Because if you think about it from like from this state of survival rate, when we're in a state of survival, are only focuses on Survival.

So why would we be listening to what is the best next move for us? For six months down the road, our brains don't care our brains are thinking about how Can I survive the next six minutes? Right? So the the work of breath work and meditation creates this ability to zoom out, right?

It's the wide lens for a. Putting it in production term. I love how he creates. This was really a joy.

We knew time was going to fly? We've yeah. Where can we find you? I want to hire you.

Where can others take your classes courses? The end. Thank you so much for having me. This is so much fun.

So, my website is Ava Johanna.com on my website, you'll find information about my my certification program, The Academy of breath which I've kind of been driven in through this conversation and then if you're interested as a as a entrepreneur and working with me, I have group coaching programs, I have one-on-one mentorship. I have a mastermind and you can message me at Ava, Johanna on Instagram, if you're interested in any of that. Wonderful. You guys know where to find her Ava.

Thank you so much for being on this kickoff at the so Dove. Never settle. I can think of somebody better to do it with. Thank you so much Warriors.

See you in another upcoming episode here from never settle. Wonderful. You guys know where to find her Ava. Thank you so much for being on this kickoff at the so Dove.

Never settle. I can think of somebody better to do it with. Thank you so much Warriors. See you in another upcoming episode here from never settle.