Dr Janelle Barlow Joins Us On The Steve Jobs Inspired Join Up Dots Podcast
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Introducing Dr Janelle Barlow
Dr Janelle Barlow is today’s guest on the Steve Jobs inspired Join Up Dots podcast.
She is a lady who has battled many obstacles in her life to become who she is today.
As a child she was diagnosed with heart disease, and then later in her twenties discovered that she was suffering from ulcers too.
But as we find time and time again on Join Up Dots, the things that life throws at us more often than not are the clues to how we should be living in our later years.
The ability to overcome these things is the practice we need to then help others find the same solutions to their own personal issues.
Which our guest has done, and now shares her knowledge of the best stress management practices through her books and her keynote presentations.
Work hard, but work even harder at keeping yourself in peak fitness.
She swims at least a mile day…including a solid half mile of butterflies, and has run several marathons over the years too.
How The Dots Joined Up For Janelle
Mind and body coming together to propel us all on to great success.
But this focus is just one aspect of her that has taken her to the top.
As with an interest in languages, a passion in travel, and a keen interest in the cultural differences that make up the globes different approaches to management, she has pulled together an impressive body of work which is sought after throughout America and the world
She is an entrepreneur, author, award-winning photographer, classical pianist, Mandarin speaking business lady and of course an active swimmer?
But where did she start to feel that her path had started to come together in the direction that she wanted?
And does she feel that her health issues as I mentioned were a key part to becoming who she is today?
Well let’s find out as we bring onto the show to start joining up dots with the one and only Dr Janelle Barlow.
Show Highlights
During the show we discussed such weighty topics with Dr Janelle Barlow such as:
How as a six year old girl she had the strong realisation that she was living in the wrong state of America and was living with the wrong family too.
How she spent her childhood working harder than most kids to become the high achiever that would set her on the path to where she is today.
Why people see themselves as a job, and not as a collection of talents that make them good at doing that job.
How there is a strong contrast between her personal life and her professional one, allowing her to recharge her talents ready to go again when needed
And lastly…..
Why she see her life as a collection of doors that she has walked through with no assurance that she was walking through the right one at the right time.
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Transcription Of Dr Janelle Barlow Interview
Intro [0:00]
When we’re young, we have an amazing positive outlook about how great life is going to be. But somewhere along the line we forget to dream and end up settling. Join Up Dots features amazing people who refuse to give up and chose to go after their dreams. This is your blueprint for greatness. So here’s your host live from the back of his garden in the UK, David Ralph.
David Ralph [0:26]
Yes, hello there. Good morning, everybody. And welcome to another episode of a Join Up Dots. Yes, this is Episode 234. Coming from the United Kingdom, but going out across the world, we’re actually in 132 countries now worldwide. So wherever you are listening, whether it’s hot, cold, dark, light, rainy, whatever, welcome, you can have a good show today. Now, today’s guest is a lady who has battled many obstacles in her life to become who she is today. As a child, she was diagnosed with heart disease and then later in her 20s discovered that she was suffering from ulcers too. But as we see, time and time again on Join Up Dots the things that life throws at us, more often than not, are the clues to how we should be living in our later years. The ability to overcome these things is the practice we need to then help others find the same solutions to their own personal issues, which our guest has done, and now shares her knowledge of the best stress management practices for her books. And her keynote presentations, work hard, but work even harder at keeping yourself in peak fitness. Now she swims at least a mile a day, including a solid half mile of butterflies that’s going to be madness, and has run several marathons over the years to mind and body coming together to propel us on to great success. But this focus is just one aspect of that has taken her to the top as women interesting languages, a passion in travel and a keen interest in the cultural differences that make up the globe different approaches to management. She has pulled together an impressive body of work, which is sought after throughout America and the world. She’s an entrepreneur, author, award winning photographer, classical pianist, Mandarin speaking business lady, and of course, an active swimmer. But where did she start to feel that her path had started to come together in the direction that she wanted? And does she feel that health issues as I mentioned, we’re a key part to becoming who she is today. Well, let’s find out as we bring on to the show to start Join Up Dots with the one and only Dr. Janelle Barlow, how are you?
Dr Janelle Barlow [2:28]
I’m fine. And please, please call me Janelle. And I’ll call you David.
David Ralph [2:34]
Well, it’s just nice to have a doctor in the house in case in case I feel you’re halfway through what what kind of doctor are you?
Dr Janelle Barlow [2:43]
I have a PhD from the University of California Berkeley,
David Ralph [2:46]
in what sort of specialist
Dr Janelle Barlow [2:49]
I got it in, I started in the field of political science and then switched over to education. So the degree is, has been worded from the Department of Education and curriculum and education. But I had a heavy emphasis in politics, and I’m still just totally consumed by politics even today. Is it something that you
David Ralph [3:07]
know, we might touch on this later. But is it something that is a path that you could see yourself going into is politics something that interests you that much?
Dr Janelle Barlow [3:17]
You know, it was when I was younger, I seriously considered it. I just to make it clear, I’m a liberal democrat at this point. But when I was young, I grew up in a state that was basically all run by Republicans and still is, it’s this rural state in the United States, South Dakota, which is sort of right there in the middle and below North Dakota, and above Iowa, you know, Minnesota and Wyoming. It’s really very, very rural. And it was heavily heavily republican and the governor was Republican, the two senators were Republican, they had two representatives at the time, and they were all republican and all the state office, I looked at that, and I thought you’d be crazy to be a Democrat in this state. So I joined the republic guns and really pursued that. But you know, I honestly have to say I didn’t. I didn’t like the way the republicans played the game. I did not. Like. Yeah, well, they did a lot of cheating. I mean, you know, the Nixon’s tricks that he did, they were not so a typical for how the republicans were behaving way back a long time ago. Anyway, I kind of left politics and then got involved in my own career. And I’ve often thought about politics, but you know, you have to be so squeaky clean. And I think I’ve had too many skeletons in my closet to, to really get into politics at this point. So I’m at this point, I just, I’m a supporter, I donate and I’m a supporter, but that’s it, I’m not involved in it on a day to day basis,
David Ralph [4:49]
I have a kind of vibe with politics. And we’re not going to dwell on this too much. But the comedian Billy Connolly says that, as far as he’s concerned, anybody who shows an interest in going into politics, are the ones that we should stop going into politics. And it should be, it should be sort of more of the man in the street who’s got the common sense. And I do kind of go with that vibe, but it is an ego driven boost. I think a lot of people start probably, with a kind of moral moral attitude to it. And somehow, they lose it somehow. And I think it’s, you know, it’s a UK problem, as well as an American problem.
Dr Janelle Barlow [5:25]
It’s a huge power game, but at the same time, there are some people in it, who are really interested in bettering the society, the community, you know, and everything that government does. And I, you know, I’ve met a lot of those people, and they’re great people, and, and we see them in politics. Now, the same time, you have to have a heavy dose of ego, and you have to be able to withstand all of those, those attacks. My gosh, that must be something to be to be attacked, no way Hillary Clinton is going to be attacked in the next few years is is you have to say, Why is she doing that? It’s
so there’s got to be something else is driving these people.
David Ralph [6:04]
So So are you not thick skinned enough to be able to take those kinds of attacks on a daily basis?
Dr Janelle Barlow [6:11]
I think I am actually I’ve really looked at this whole field of complaints. You know, I have a book out called the complaint is, yeah, I know, you really, I really do believe that when people give you feedback, that is something we should be grateful for. Because most of the time, people just won’t say anything. But they’ll tell you know, they’ll tell all their friends, they’ll tell, you know, they’ll talk behind your back, but they won’t tell you. So I’m a firm believer in, in complaints. But what happens with I think with politicians is at this point, it’s just made up stuff that gets said about them. It’s and the attacks are so unfair, I frequently wonder how the people who are head of their parties how they managed to withstand that day after day after day.
David Ralph [6:52]
So if we took you back in time, which we like to do on Join Up Dots, and we took you to the sort of the young Janell may be the sort of five year old to the 10 year old. And we said to you, what would you like to be when you grow up? Not many of us would say what we’re doing now is what was the kind of spirit that was with the young Janell as a small child?
Dr Janelle Barlow [7:14]
Would there actually is a dot that joins up back there. I, when I was six years of age, I remember distinctly the point at which I figured out that I had been born in the wrong state. This is a rural agricultural state. And I and very conservative, and I just knew that I didn’t belong in that environment. But somehow or other here, here I was. And so it was a process of me waiting until I could go off to college to get away from that. And, and, and I did so. So I began, you know, I was a real heavy a high achiever as a at a very young age, I used to play the piano hours every day. And, and I am, but the thing that really excited me was when I was six years of age, I got involved in speech contests. The, when you’re six years of age, a speech contest is you recite poetry. And that was a lesson that I learned. So early on, when I was six years of age, there were a whole bunch of us who had made it out of county districts. And now we are at the state level. And we were at this state competition. And there were a whole bunch of us who recited the same piece of poetry. And I can’t even remember what it was now, some stupid little poem. But I remember thinking, at that time, there’s no way that any of us who are reciting the same piece of poetry are going to win, because we’re all doing the same thing. And that really struck me in terms of how important it is in life, to be yourself, you know, to figure out what your capabilities are. And to be that, and to not be and not be somebody else, I really do believe that each of us has our talents, if we can find them, and focus on them, really, you have to commit yourself to them. So I was at six years of age in speech. And then I continued with that into high school and college, I was in debate. And so I thought about, I was really interested in earning a living where I was in front of groups talking to them. And I remember the day when I suddenly realised that that’s exactly what I had created in my career. I didn’t exactly see how I got there. But it must have been some kind of a driving force that led me that led me to it. And that’s pretty much what I’ve done. My whole life is I make my living, preparing for and then delivering presentations in front in front of groups of people to to find a minute
David Ralph [9:35]
because I’m I find it amazing. Obviously, we’ve only connected tonight, but you’re six years old. And you had the awareness of thinking, I’m in the wrong state at the age of six. I don’t think I even knew where I was, I think I just you know, I used to go to school and come home and your kind of life was your world and your world was your life. So what gave you that awareness that you was actually in the wrong place?
Dr Janelle Barlow [9:58]
I don’t know. You know, I honestly, I will say I also felt I was in the wrong family. I felt like I just got dropped into this. And it didn’t, it didn’t fit me at all. And I felt outside of my experience. For most of my childhood, I remember the first time I felt like I was at home was I had moved from Pennsylvania, where I was, had done a master’s degree in International Relations, and then move to Berkeley, California. And I remember stepping out of the street now this was during the time of the whole Free Speech Movement. So things were really, you know, they were alive. And so the world was happening in in, in Berkeley point, you know, and San Francisco and the Haight Ashbury and all of that, you know, that was that, and the Beatles were coming, you know, it was that time, and I stepped out onto the street of Berkeley, California. And for the first time in my life, I felt at home, I felt like, Okay, I’m here. I’m where I should have been all along. But maybe not
David Ralph [11:06]
because I needed to get there. So but but was that because of the, you know, the Speech Movement? You just found kindred spirits? Or was it geographically?
Dr Janelle Barlow [11:16]
I don’t know. I don’t know. I can just say, though, that I my foot came out of the car and touch the street in Berkeley, and I just felt rooted. I felt this is it. This is where this is where I should be. This is where I am. I’m not there anymore. I lived in the Bay Area for a long period of time. And now I live in Las Vegas, which is very strange, because my husband and I frequently look at each other and we say I do we really live here. And this has been 15 years since we’ve been here in Las Vegas. This is one of the strangest cities in the world, I think. But here we are. It’s our it’s our home now.
David Ralph [11:52]
A I must admit, I’ve been to Vegas a couple of times and I’ve said it a couple of times on the show. I think it’s it’s you either love it or you hate and I just don’t get it. I’ve been there and I’ve kind of enjoyed it as a as a tourist. But to live bear I just can’t understand it. But when I speak to people who do live in Vegas, and they wouldn’t live anywhere else so what is it that’s kept you there for 15 years?
Dr Janelle Barlow [12:19]
Well it’s it’s beautiful geographically, it’s just gorgeous. I love the desert too. I love the dry I love the heat. And and the city is surrounded in Las Vegas, the valley it’s surrounded by these mountains on all four sides. And we live on the west side and they’re the mountains are red and yellow in this call Red Rock area. And we live way out way right up against the mountain say they can’t build between us in the mountains. That’s where we are. And it is it’s simply gorgeous in the morning to wake up and to look at the sun shining on those mountains and and they turn different colours during the so it’s really pretty people don’t understand that when they’re just down on the strip. Now the strip I almost never go to the strip. I’m not a gambler. But when we do go to the strip, it’s the entertainment is fantastic. It’s always fun. It’s always exciting. I mean, everything is is right there. People come from 60 million people come to Las Vegas every year. So it’s obviously attracting there’s something down there that attracts people. But you know that’s that that’s one side of the of the world and then there’s we live we live in another part of Vegas. Everybody who comes to our house always says I can’t believe that we’re in Las Vegas. This feels like it’s it’s completely separate from and
David Ralph [13:38]
so there we are. Have you seen a Barry Manilow? That’s the question I always ask people who live in Vegas.
Dr Janelle Barlow [13:44]
I haven’t I haven’t.
David Ralph [13:47]
By that you all every weekend you go off and these Odysseys to see Barry Manilow but nobody ever seems to have seen him once. I don’t know who’s going to see these concerts.
Dr Janelle Barlow [13:57]
I don’t know but there’s you know, there’s so many people here that they I love about Las Vegas are the the Cirque du Soleil shows there are six, I think it’s six, it might be seven now, permanent Cirque du Soleil shows and, you know, people see Cirque du Soleil shows all over the world. And you know, their temporary shows, they come in and dance and they, you know, and then they do their show, and they and everybody loves them. They’re, they’re magnificent. Well, in Las Vegas, they have built theatres for all of these eat for each of these shows. So the one that I like the best is called car and it’s it’s got a stage that moves perpendicular and they run up and down. I’ve seen this show seven times, they run up and down this stage. It’s just remarkable it was they spent 180 million dollars just designing the theatre for the show. So whoever likes Cirque du Soleil shows, you really should come and see one of the permanent establishments in Las Vegas. And they sell over a million dollars of tickets every night to go to see the shows. It’s it’s quite a phenomenon.
David Ralph [14:56]
So are you a simple person? Are you somebody that likes this is kind of the natural world and the sunsets and the sunrise is more than the kind of the glamour and the glitz that America is known for.
Dr Janelle Barlow [15:10]
Right? I see myself as an extremely average person. I realised when people start talking about my life. I kind of tune it out because I don’t like you know, when you were introducing me, I kind of liked it. I just that’s not me. I’m just this average person who’s living inside this body and struggling to get along in life the way that everybody everybody is. But I realised I’ve done some rather unusual kinds of things, but I’m definitely not I’m no I’m not into the glitz. I’m there’s too much of it around us in Las Vegas. My goodness. It’s just it’s overwhelming. The bodies here, the way people dress the way they behave. It’s, it’s worth, you know, a lot of people just come to Las Vegas and sit in those big lobbies and the casinos and they just look at people it’s the best people watching place in the world. And people behave very bizarrely here. They do things in Las Vegas that they would not do anyplace else. They I can’t say that I necessarily approve of it. But I just noticed that it’s quite extraordinary. There’s there’s no city like this. And I have often felt David that the world needed a place like Las Vegas, the world needs a Las Vegas, it just happens to be where I live.
David Ralph [16:24]
Did you do you think you know on that grand statement that the world needs Janell Barlow The world needs David Ralph, because the thing that sort of touched me in your comments earlier, and it’s one of the themes that comes through the show is being authentic to yourself and finding your sort of real self and you being so aware of as a six year old and being so aware that when you were doing that speech, you none of you were going to win because you’re all doing the same thing. You’ve got to find your your thing. Is that an element that we should try to get out to the audience. But once you find your thing, once you find the thing that makes you come alive, it’s actually easier than operating trying to be somebody else.
Dr Janelle Barlow [17:08]
Oh, for sure. For sure. And and I think that finding out who you are being authentic and true to yourself is really one of the great challenges of being alive. It’s, it’s not an easy thing. There’s so many things that can distract you and pull you in this direction or in that direction. And I don’t by any means put myself up as a person who is, has always been authentic. I’m, I’m got my foibles, and I’ve lived my life the way I think an awful lot of people have lived theirs. But I think it’s you know, when you do feel that you are being who you are. It’s, it’s a good feeling
David Ralph [17:45]
is mad though, isn’t it but we lose that, you know, you would you’d quite simply say, being yourself, it’s got to be easier than being anybody else. But most of us don’t be ourselves. We don’t play the parts play the talents bring the storey himself that we have been given we we make it harder for ourselves. And every time I say that, it just seems lunacy while we do that,
Dr Janelle Barlow [18:09]
yes. But you know, we’ve had a lifelong life worth filled with people telling us and society telling us that we should be some way and we should do this. Parents in particular, you know, they really wanted us to walk a narrow line most parents do in any case, and and my mother did encourage a lot of creativity in your children. But at the same time, she was pretty straight about, you know, there were there were things religion, and social and all of that. And, of course, I rejected all of those things as I got older, but but when I was a child, those messages were there, and they were strong that we should be this way. It’s one of the reasons why I like living in big cities, I can absolutely tell you as a growing up in a small town, I don’t know what kind of a town you grow up grew up in. But growing up in a small town, everybody knows everybody else’s business. And I really dislike that. I like living in a city where I don’t know who my neighbours are. You know, I really like the anonymity that large groups of people together, create for each and every one of them. That’s my idea of that when I have to tell you this funny storey when I was in high school, our teachers asked us to write an essay, English class, and it was to be it was about why is it great to have been born in a state like South Dakota, this little, this little state that has, I don’t know, 2 million people in it with as many as Las Vegas has, and what what was so special about that, and I wrote my paper and I said the thing that is so wonderful about being born in a state like this and growing up in a state like this, is that you would have had that experience because when you got older, and if you ever had to make a choice, should I move to this state? Or should I stay where I am, you would never choose to move into this state. So so it was good that you had it as a child, because otherwise you would never have this experience. And she gave me a very bad grade on paper. Did you finish an irony that
David Ralph [20:05]
you on one side, you’re saying that you like to be anonymous, you you don’t like to know your neighbours, and then literally everything that you’ve spoken about leading up to this point is about getting your your message out there and standing up and being, you know, a spokes lady, whether it’s politics, whether it’s down in San Francisco in the Free Speech Movement, that there seems to kind of the dichotomy between the two.
Dr Janelle Barlow [20:31]
Yes, well, there is a public self, I suppose and, and a private self. And I’ve never really thought about it that way. But I’ve spent so much time speaking in front of groups that, that public self is not always so personal, you know, that public self is practised, that public self is it’s relying on the talents that are there, it’s not, you know, it’s not in your pyjamas line about it’s, you know, it’s put together carefully and very, very different from just being who you are personally.
David Ralph [21:06]
But But how to develop that Ben because one’s against the other. And it there’s going to be a conflict doesn’t know that there’s, you know, your personal side is saying, I’m going to do this, but your professional side is going in a total opposite direction. And so many people would struggle with that, but you you’re flourishing. So how have you done that?
Dr Janelle Barlow [21:25]
I will, I do, I like it. I mean, there can be too much of it, though I look at and I’m by no means famous, but if you look at people, like you know, really famous people, actors, and you know, people who really make their living out there, by being known, and so that when they step on the stage, you’re not only looking at somebody who’s really good at what they’re doing, but you’re looking at a famous person. And those those people are, many of them struggle, many of them struggle in life, because part of the The reality is, is that when you’re on just as you are now on this radio show, or I guess I shouldn’t call it radio, but on this broadcast show, that you there’s a way in which you come alive, that you just do not come alive at other points in your life, you know,
David Ralph [22:16]
what I’m talking about exactly what you’re talking about? Yes.
Dr Janelle Barlow [22:19]
That you know, as, as a speaker, that’s, that’s what happens is you, you have a an experience with a group of people that is unique in your life, you just don’t experience that they’re strangers, and you’re talking with them, and you’re moving them and you’re leading them through knowledge or concepts or ideas or, but ultimately, what you’re trying to do is to give them some space to change. And it’s a very, very rich, alive experience. And there’s really nothing that quite compares to it. And so the rest of the life can feel rather,
it feels different. At least it does to me.
David Ralph [22:59]
Well, it does to me as well, I’ve always been somebody I I described myself as having a kind of mental switch. If I decide to be sociable, I can be more sociable than anyone you’ve ever met. If I decide to be antisocial, I am absolutely off the radar, you won’t get me my wife always laughs But I do this job. Because she says, you know, you are at core, a really anti social person. But then you have the ability to have conversations with people that you haven’t met for over an hour, really connecting, how do you do it, and I say I choose to do it, I choose to do it, because it makes me come alive. But I don’t want to do it all the time. So the telephone rings by the side of me, even if it’s like two inches away, I won’t pick it up because I don’t want to talk to anyone. But then I can come to my recording studio. And I can do these shows. And I can do nine of them back to back love every minute of it. So it is strange, isn’t it, how you can bring out those facets of a personality, which really are your key streams. And it’s, there’s not a lot of strength to it by so powerful that you can build a whole career. And
Dr Janelle Barlow [24:03]
yes, and and you know, and I totally get it, how you can be anonymous with people. And then very like in this conversation, we’re really, I think communicating, I’ve often felt that people as in general don’t really excite me as a Jim as a concept people, but individual people I get really excited about, whenever I stand up to speak in front of a group, I always give myself a moment of reflection, while somebody typically while they’re introducing me. And I reach deep within myself to find that place in me that loves this group of people that I have never met. And that you know, I’m going to go out there and and serve them. In fact, I’m going to do that. And and then then let’s see what happens. Because you know, if you really look at people, there’s so many things that we do that are, are so screwed up, it’s quite extraordinary. I’m looking at an audience of maybe 100 200 500 people, and you think what percentage of these people are mentally ill what percentage of these have abused their children, what percentage of these people have been stealing have been whatever, you know, I Bing now are cheating in their businesses are doing all. When you look at what people do in this world, we’re not so pretty. And I think they must be sitting in my audience as well. They can just be all the good ones are sitting in my audiences, there must be this mix of you know, somebody out there having an affair doesn’t want their spouse to know, and they’re sitting in the audience. And so I just, I just tried to accept them. I try to accept humanity for what it is. And that, you know, we’re not such great enlightened beings on this planet, we really have our, and we really do have our foibles, we really do have a lot of things that we do that are not really, you know, we don’t want the world to know about.
David Ralph [25:57]
So so a part of your storey that I found fascinating was the link between something that life threw at you your sort of your health issues when you was a young child and sort of an older, older child, young lady, and your stress management and the programme that you have created. But is it quite honestly going great guns, and I was looking at your keynote presentations? And it seems a key message for stress management out there. Do you think once again, one wouldn’t have occurred without the other? Do you think you will naturally on that path? Or do you think because you, you had to assess your own situation. But that was once again, life’s way of directing you to where you need to go?
Dr Janelle Barlow [26:40]
Yeah, well, I think I realised as a child that the only way I was going to get out of this state was to be the best person that I could be. So I took advantage of everything that was there. I mean, you know, when I played the piano, I really I really worked at it. And when I spoke I worked at it. And when I went to school, I worked at getting the best grades so that I could get into you know, I said that I could do something with my life. I understood that there was a path there. And and I did that. So I was a high achiever. My
David Ralph [27:09]
cell phone Janelle, although he was a high achiever, do you look back and go, it was all effort.
Dr Janelle Barlow [27:15]
Oh, I don’t look back and see a real happy childhood. I don’t I see what people call the successful childhood. But I can’t say that I was real happy. I didn’t. I didn’t engage in a lot of play. I never watched TV. I’m sort of like, I’m blank. And that part of my life when people talk about various shows howdy doody, and I’m, you know, I didn’t watch those things. So I, yeah, I, I think I could have had a different kind of life. But I’m very happy that I did what I did, because I learned a lot of things. And I got a lot done in those days. And I went through my my education very fast. And I’ve been able to cram a lot in. But it was born into a family of immigrants to the to this country, or if not my grandparents than that the generation before them. And Americans as a nation of immigrant, we come from people who left Europe or Asia or South America, who are different from the people who stayed behind, because you think about what it must have taken for these people. To my grandmother on my mother’s side was 19 years of age and got on this ship. I saw her immigration papers at in New York City them and where they listed her name, and she had I think $19 to her name, and but she spoke enough English or she quit. She was literate. That was it. She didn’t speak English, but she was literate. And you know it for somebody to get on a ship and go across the ocean in those days and come to this country of what they had to have been very unusual people. So married
David Ralph [28:56]
to desperate, he’s unusual, desperate.
Dr Janelle Barlow [29:00]
Maybe both? Maybe both? Yeah. Desperate, certainly. But even in that desperate in us, there were a lot of people who didn’t do that, you know, they were Oh, no, I’ve got to stay with my family, I’ve got to do this, I’ve got it must have been very hard for them to have left their families. I know my grandmother’s mother died and she wasn’t there at all, you know. And once she left to come to the United States, she left that family and to hear for people to consider that you’ve got a nation full of people who are like this. And we’ve net that whole belief in the American Dream is part of its part of what grabs us and drives us forward. And as a child, I was I was told that, you know, was it was never good enough to be second place, I had to be first place I had to do this, I had to do this, I had to do this. And I and I bought into it in a big way. And ended up with some serious problems. Heart disease, when I was nine years, age, always blamed it on the school teacher that I had, who’s scared that really scared me to death. And, and then and then I just didn’t stop it. And finally, it was when I was 30 years of age with ulcers and, and really some serious health problems that I was told in no uncertain terms that I really needed to change how I was living my life, or I wasn’t going to live that much longer. And I heard it, I got the message. And so I began to I began to exercise and then I’ve I’ve maintained that I’ve been doing that my whole life. Now I’m really healthy, I am extremely healthy.
David Ralph [30:36]
Well, you look at the enthusiasm that comes out of you just talking you sound like you, you are firing on all cylinders. Now I want to play some words to just sort of take the show a slightly different direction now. And this is the words from a Hollywood actor, and he said it recently. But it has so much relevance to this show. And I’m very interested whether it actually applies to you. This is Jim Carrey,
Jim Carrey [31:00]
my father could have been a great comedian, but he didn’t believe that that was possible for him. And so he made a conservative choice. Instead, he got a safe job as an accountant. And when I was 12 years old, he was let go from that safe job. And our family had to do whatever we could to survive. I learned many great lessons from my father, not the least of which was that you can fail at what you don’t want. So you might as well take a chance on doing what you love.
David Ralph [31:27]
That was there ever a time in your life that you took that chance and you went for something because you knew it was what you loved? Or has it just been a seamless journey basically, from that that young child to where we are now?
Dr Janelle Barlow [31:43]
Absolutely, I’ve taken chances in terms of in my early 20s, I moved to Asia and lived in Taiwan for three years, I quit one job and moved into an entrepreneurial business. That was probably the biggest one that was after I’d finished my PhD at Berkeley and then just and struggled with I mean, when you’re an entrepreneur, it’s a real challenge, because you don’t always have money coming in. And you have to learn how to live with that. There will be times when you don’t have money. So you have to say I you know, I’m going to stay in here because I know eventually there will some money will come from this. But that’s a belief that you have to have in yourself. It’s It’s not easy. I really like what he says, because I certainly heard that message as well from my family, which was why didn’t you get a job? In fact, that was the message I heard all the way through my adulthood. Well, what should I tell people? What should I tell people Janell that you do? What is it that you do? Because I didn’t have you know, like, I wasn’t a doctor or a lawyer or this or that, or I didn’t have a set job. And for my mother and her generation, they came to the United States, I think to get some security, you certainly are right, in terms of they were desperate, they couldn’t make it work for themselves in Europe, and they thought they could in the United States. And so then many of them had children who just went the opposite direction.
David Ralph [33:03]
Do you do you think that security now not a dirty word, because, you know, that’s what we all want. We’re here to provide for our families, hopefully have nice things and you know, leave the world a better place for us being here. But life has changed and but job for life is just not there anymore. Do you think people shouldn’t focus on that word security, as much as they should focus in on becoming better themselves and flexing the hustle muscle and trying to earn their own income? what’s what’s your view on that?
Dr Janelle Barlow [33:35]
It’s very, very hard in today’s world to see what your path is going to be when you’re looking at it from that moment, and then what’s it going to be going forward. So I think all you can do is to live with principles. And that is to say, I’ve always believed this, that if eventually give me six months, and I can make money, give me that much time and I can take care of myself. So I’ve always felt like if I if I could just survive for six months, then eventually I would make something happen. But you have to have a belief in yourself to be able to do that. I’m really surprised with how many people who are unemployed, these days continue to go out there and try to find the same kind of jobs. I mean, like come on, that didn’t work, let’s let’s try something different. And there’s so many opportunities for people to make money on their own. It’s just it’s not, it’s not essential to have to work for somebody or work in a, you know, in a big corporation, that that strikes me is really a soul killer to work in those great big corporations,
David Ralph [34:38]
what I find strange is the ones that are unhappy in a job. And now I was in insurance for years. And I knew so many people that were unhappy being an employee for an insurance company, and they leave and they go and work for another insurance company. And I think, well, it’s going to be the same kind of thing. It’s just different bricks and Windows all the way around you. And it proves to be the point. But like over and after sort of six months or a year, they’re having the same kind of moans and groans as they were before. So I think you’re spot on there, you’ve got to, if something’s not right in your life, you’ve got to be courageous enough to make a change. And like your your generations did beforehand, when they left Germany and Austria, they made a big change didn’t know and I didn’t even know, you know what they were going to get that. But we do know what we’re going to get, we can make decisions, we can make informed decisions. And with the power of the internet, now, you can really look around the globe, and pretty much know what you’re going to get before you decide to go. So it should be comfortable in many ways. But it’s still scary for people, isn’t it?
Dr Janelle Barlow [35:41]
It is. And I think that what people do that limits them is that when they have a secure job, let’s say somebody in insurance, they see themselves that way they see themselves as their job, they don’t see themselves as the talents that they are bringing to that job, because any insurance person obviously has the ability to talk with people has the ability to assess, to, well what else insurance people are, they’ve got to be able to convey a certain amount of security or people aren’t going to buy their products, they have to have good follow up they have I mean, if you begin to pull out, what is it that makes somebody good in a field like insurance or any other field, you could pull out those talents. And then you can say now that’s what I have. It’s not that I’m in, in insurance, what I have is this is this batch of talents. And I’m applying them right now to insurance. So if I leave the insurance field, can I apply those same talents someplace else, and I think that we can but but it does require that you look at yourself that way. I mean, you have to see yourself not as your job. But as this, the capacities that you bring to that job to that work. And then and then you might feel a little bit more comfortable. If that ends. And you know, I say it’s great if you can get a secure job and it lasts your whole life and you like it and it’s you feel okay with that then good on you. But most people begin to after a few years in those jobs, they don’t feel really great about what they’re doing. They don’t feel like they’re being stretched, they don’t feel like they’re living to their, to their full potential. At least that’s my sense of talking with people.
David Ralph [37:20]
Now you’re in a position where many people will be listening to this conversation thinking Yes, Dr. Barlow, she’s moving and shaking, she’s standing up in front of people, she’s an author, she’s got an impressive body of work. Do you look at other people and feel those same sort of emotions? Do you look at other people and go are, you know that that’s, that’s what I would like to be like, do you have that sort of hero worship that most of us have?
Dr Janelle Barlow [37:47]
You know, I, I feel very comfortable being who I am. I’m by no means, you know, I’m not the best. I’m not the this, and I’m not the most well known, and I’m not the highest paid. And I’m not I feel very, very average and normal in my life. But it feels like it works for me, it feels good. For me, it feels like I’m making a contribution, it feels like I have an opportunity to have an impact on on other people and on the environment. And, and that’s good enough for me, I really, I don’t require a great deal. I’ve never really been into work for the money. And I think I would have been a much better businesswoman. If I had been more focused on that. I like, doing what I like doing. And for me, that’s being able to express ideas Express talent Express, you know, and all the ways in which I deliver my work. I like it. And I and I hope other people like it, too. I mean, obviously, they must, or I wouldn’t be able to continue doing what I’m doing.
David Ralph [38:47]
So So would you say you are as a high achiever now as you were as a small girl, or has a certain amount of that fire, kind of just going out somehow?
Dr Janelle Barlow [38:58]
Yeah, I think I think I am, David, cuz I’m, I’m old now. I mean, I’m, I’m an old person. And, and I’m, you know, I’m beginning to look at my life and realising there’s not as much of it left as there was when I was in my 20s or 30s. And, and, and I feel like, I feel the pressure of time, I feel like there’s so many more things that I want to get done. I feel like I’m more driven now than I ever have before. And I’m also feeling you this whole business of Alzheimer’s, it’s so many people are getting these days, and you just never know that, you know, 85% of people are so 50% of people over the age of 85 have Alzheimer’s, that’s how bad it is, you know, and that you’re pretty, it’s pretty hard to develop a career when I think when that’s going on. So I’m really interested in in getting as much out of my brain as I can in the next few years it as is possible. And I have to tell you something about, I’m really convinced that if we can learn languages, when we’re older, that is probably really, really good for our brains. And if any of that mental activity helps forestall Alzheimer’s, that would be a good thing. My my mother in law died three years ago, and she had Alzheimer’s. And so I really got to watch that whole experience of being around somebody, her life wasn’t bad by any means. As somebody with Alzheimer’s, she didn’t have that kind that was completely debilitating. But my gosh, I look at that and think I don’t, I don’t want to end up my life like that. I want to have as much mental alertness as I possibly can.
David Ralph [40:37]
I’m sure you’re going to it is fascinating, actually, just before we started recording, I was kidding about 1015 minutes in between shows. And this, this article grabbed my attention. And it was a gentleman who reverse engineers, the amount of time he’s got left on earth. And I think he was so Richard Avery. Also Ryan Avery is a New Zealand guy. And he works out if he’s got 30,000 days, how much time has he got for certain things and make sure that he achieves and within that certain things. So basically, he set out his goals, knows he’s time left on his planet, I don’t know how he knows this. And he, he’s working everything he possibly can to make sure that he leaves with a bang. And I looked at that, and I thought what an amazing way to go instead of just thinking Oh, oh, we’ve only got another 20 years might as well just sit on the sofa and watch some Telly he’s no, this is 20 years, I’m going to make the most of it and boom and go for it is
Unknown Speaker [41:33]
not only got 20 years, come on, get going
David Ralph [41:35]
yeah, that does that kind of full inspire you as well, to see what you can deliver to the world before. You know it’s gonna be years. I know I don’t like to talk about it really. But But when you say goodbye,
Dr Janelle Barlow [41:47]
God, I don’t have any problems with that. I feel like, you know, I’ve had a life and it’s going to end someday I’m very accepting of that. I have no problems with that whatsoever. But I do feel like there’s a lot of things I still want to do. And if I don’t, if I don’t push harder and harder and harder and harder. I’m not going to get those things done. So I’m very comfortable with just you know, overachieving is or let me put it this way. I don’t know about overachieving. Can any of us really over achieve, I just know this that I’m willing to put in the time and the hours and work to get things done. And I’m and and the older I get, the more I want to do that not less,
David Ralph [42:27]
because I think the world can actually overachieve compared to where they were. And I think what the, you know, the theme of this show really take action people you’re only on this planet once but God’s sake had the life that you want. And somebody told me this a couple of weeks ago about this book, and it’s really depressing me, but it’s good at the same time, where this gentleman went round, and he asked all these people dying on their beds. What’s the worst thing that’s ever happened? You know, what’s your big regret? And literally 90% of them would say, I’ve lived somebody else’s life. And I didn’t do the things that I wanted to and it’s a hugely depressing fall. So when you say about overachieving, I think when you look at where your life is now, you can move forward at great speed and overachieve. But then you’ve got to do it again. And you’ve got to keep doing again, and it keeps on pushing you forward. I know that the momentum I’ve created in the last two years is unbelievable, and I wish I wish I’d done it 15 years ago. I just wasn’t ready at that time. But I I want the world to overachieve and then look at it and go, I’m ready. I can go again and just keep on going.
Dr Janelle Barlow [43:37]
See, I wouldn’t call that overachieving. I would just call the call that living to your potential, but I don’t I’m not quite sure what overachieving is biting off more than you can chew I guess is over achieving of promising to do more than you say that you can get done that might be over overreaching anyway. But But I don’t know, even though that is possible for humans to overcome, we can only achieve as much as we achieve. So I don’t know how we do that over. I don’t know
David Ralph [44:04]
good because you’ve done some amazing things up and you just just learning Mandarin that’s really difficult, and the half a mile of butterflies now that that’s a swimming stroke, which is a complete waste of time. Janell I don’t know why anybody puts that much effort into butterfly when you don’t do breaststroke quite easily.
Dr Janelle Barlow [44:25]
Oh, boy, the breaststroke is such a judgmental attitude towards it. I realised that people who are you know, who are really athletes, and they’re doing the breaststroke that they’re doing something entirely different than what most people do in the pool. Yeah, no, I’m when I’m in that pool, I’m working at it. And a butterfly is once you learn how to do it, it’s a magnificent feeling. Because you rise out of the water, you leap out of the water, and then you come back down in it in your and your spine really has to twist and turn with it as you’re doing it. And, and it is it is exhausting. But I learned, you know, I could once I could do it couple of laps back and forth. And then I could add another one. And then I could add another and pretty soon I was up to a half a mile it was it was quite extraordinary. I was I was amazed myself, and then I just continued doing it.
David Ralph [45:11]
Is it the thing about sort of fitness do do successful people know the balance between physical exercise and business success? Is there? Did they come together somehow and you get one or the other? Or do you get both by doing the same thing? Did you understand what I’m saying? I don’t Yeah, I don’t know many really successful people. But you see who look like Rex, they all seem to be successful because they’re looking after themselves as well.
Dr Janelle Barlow [45:40]
Well, that there seems to be a lot of that. You know, I’m looking at this this woman that we have on the Supreme Court in the United States, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she’s 82 years of age she’s, and people want her to retire because she’s 82 when they think, you know, they should retire, she should retire. But she’s she’s working out with a trainer. And she does 20 military style push ups at 82. She’s very, very, she’s very skinny, tiny to the lady. And, and she just was working out with her trainer, and this weekend, and she had to go into the hospital and have a stent put into her heart. And after she was awake from the surgery. She said, People bring me some work. I mean, this is this is a woman who is just so focused on what she’s doing on on the Supreme Court and feeling like she has something significant to offer the world, which I think she does. But she’s if you look at her, you would think she has no energy at all, but she’s really taking care of herself. You know, the one thing I will say, David is this, I don’t think there is one way to do life, I don’t think there’s one way to do success. I don’t think there’s just millions of different ways to make this happen. And some people are very successful and never take care of themselves physically. And some people, it’s big. For me, it’s a big part of who I am, is taking care of myself physically,
David Ralph [47:07]
I must admit, I kind of don’t do any exercise at all. I’m one of these people that will sit in a chair all day being go for a little walk just because I’ve got to pick my daughter up from school or something, you know, next exercise is not my thing. Really?
Dr Janelle Barlow [47:21]
Yeah. Well, you know, it wasn’t mine either. And, and then I got into it. And now at this point, it’s it is who I am, you know, I would never think missing. So I am and I’m doing you know Bikram yoga, this is the yoga that’s done in the hot room, hundred and five degrees at 40% humidity, which is very unusual in the desert. It’s it’s really doesn’t feel like the outside world here in Las Vegas. And we work out doing some very athletic yoga for an hour and a half.
David Ralph [47:52]
That’s how it is that’s
Dr Janelle Barlow [47:55]
it is torture. They call it the torture chamber. I don’t know exactly why I do it. But I’ve been doing it for three years and and very hard for me to miss my routine. At this point. It’s, it’s just so much that I get out of it.
David Ralph [48:07]
Is it another thing? Because you seem to be somebody that likes to find something and push yourself? And yeah, and challenge yourself. And the fact that you’re doing something like that, that seems more extreme than I would possibly even want to comprehend. But you’re saying, I don’t even know why I’m doing it. But I’m not going to miss out on it that that seems to be a core part of your character.
Dr Janelle Barlow [48:29]
Yes. And also I you know, everybody who’s in that room with me, they’ve been doing it for a long time as well. So there’s a real feeling of kindred spirit in that room. I don’t know these people. Except I do know their names, because the teachers will use their names, but I don’t know them as friends. I don’t know them personally, and talk with them a little bit before and a little bit after. But clearly, they’ve got the same kind of craziness inside them that I do. Or else we wouldn’t all be in that room.
David Ralph [48:57]
Wherever you got this craziness from.
Dr Janelle Barlow [49:02]
I mean, we there must be something genetic in it. And then obviously some of it is environmental it is it’s both genetic. And it’s and it’s the environment I’m I’m convinced of that we used to think I remember when I study this long ago, we used to think it was it was really the environment. But now researchers have come to the conclusion a lot of this is is genetic. We’re born this way. Or we’re not I mean, my brain just happens to be wired this way. And I have followed it could have been that I was wired this way and didn’t follow it as well. So there’s there’s this combination of what is your brain doing, and then what’s socially inspiring you to do things.
David Ralph [49:42]
Well, let’s play the words, but on a theme of the show, and these are the words that Steve Jobs said back in 2005. And as with the Jim Carrey ones, I’m always fascinated whether they have a relevance to you. So I’m gonna play bees, and we can talk about it afterwards. This is Steve Jobs.
Steve Jobs [49:58]
Of course, it was impacted possible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards 10 years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future, you have to trust in something, your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart, even when it leaves you off the well worn path. And that will make all the difference
David Ralph [50:33]
in your life do you buy into those words?
Dr Janelle Barlow [50:36]
And that’s an extraordinary statement. You know, I have to say I honestly haven’t heard that before. But I just, that’s just totally extraordinary to hear that. Because he’s I think he’s right, you cannot know you cannot know Looking ahead, what’s going to happen because you might step out in the street and get hit by a bus, you just don’t know. But all you can do is to say, I’m going to pursue this, I’m going to try this. And in something in me tells me that this is the right way to go. And still people still sometimes makes mistakes. I mean, Jobs, if you looked at him at various points in his career, you know, when he was kicked out of Apple, he might have had some doubts about the, the the dots that he was connecting. But it’s at some point there. You either just say this is who I am, and this is what I’m doing. And you know, to hell with everything else and and pursue it. I don’t know. I don’t know any other way to live life?
David Ralph [51:37]
And does that excite you the fact that you haven’t got all the answers when you decide to do something?
Dr Janelle Barlow [51:44]
Oh, well, of course, if we knew what was going to happen, it wouldn’t be so exciting, would it? I mean, we wouldn’t know. So it’s a good thing that the brain has a future to pull us forward. It certainly has the past, it certainly has the present. But those are known, we know the present, and we can remember the past. But the future we don’t know. But we know that it’s out there, we absolutely know that someday we will be in that future. And that will be our present them. And so all you can do is to live your present in your past just moving forward. At least it seems to me that that’s the way that human brains are set up. That’s how we experience the universe
David Ralph [52:24]
is almost no experience is wasted. It doesn’t matter if you are in a dreadful job, you can learn something to take to somewhere else. And you
Dr Janelle Barlow [52:34]
Unless Unless Unless you say this is how the world is supposed to be. And I’m not in that world. And then then you judge yourself. Absolutely. But if you know if you if you if it really is open, I don’t know what’s coming up ahead. But I have enough trust to think that it’s going to be related and 10 years from now, I’ll still recognise myself back here today. And so some of these things that I’m doing today are definitely going to have an impact on things that will happen in in the future where I am this 10 years from now. And I hope I will be able to look back and say, I made the right choices. I did the right things. And I could have chosen a number of other things as well. But it’s okay. It’s okay, where I am right now. And that’s I think there’s a lot of happiness and peace in that position.
David Ralph [53:20]
And what would be your big.in life that really put you on this path? Because as you say, your content, you like what you’re doing? You love what you’re doing, even when you’re doing weird yoga and all that kind of stuff. It’s It’s It’s you. So do you have a big moment in your life that you kind of think yeah, that’s when it’s starting to come together for me?
Dr Janelle Barlow [53:42]
You know, I? Gosh, that is it? That’s such a great question. And that very difficult question. I don’t I don’t know. I mean, I can pinpoint several things that happened to me, in my life decisions, you know that those choice points where you you have two doors to go through and you chose this door instead of that door. And I mean, I can look at so many points in my life where I could say yes, there, I chose that door. And that led me to where I am today. And I didn’t choose these other doors. And that would have been I don’t think such a good thing to have done. And fortunately, I didn’t do them. You know, I mean, people look back and they say, Oh, I’m so glad I didn’t marry that person, my God. You know, and I thought I wanted to, you know, I think their choices like that. And then you look at where you are today. And you say how how’s that working out for you. And it’s good. So it doesn’t really matter about all those other choices. I just, but I’ve had so many, so many decisions, so many choices. As a young woman growing up in an age when women were encouraged to be housewives, and I was not going to do that, that some level, there was a choice there that I made to step out and do something that was not expected of me. In fact, a lot of people disapproved of, and just willing to do it. Because something is me, I guess I’m kind of resonating to what Steve Jobs says, you know, that you? You just you feel that inside yourself that this is this is the right thing for me to do? And I’m going to do it.
David Ralph [55:11]
That’s the thing, isn’t it? That is the thing, when you feel that thing inside you and you go, yes. Then it all starts coming together. Yeah, there’s work, there’s effort, there’s financial suffering, there’s all those kind of things. But once you really know what you want to do, then you’ve really got a chance of making Avenue.
Dr Janelle Barlow [55:32]
Yeah, I think so. But, you know, I’m pretty reluctant to give advice to people, I just, I just encourage them to find out what their, you know, what pleases them, what excites them, what they’re good at what and what resonates with them as a person for who they have become today, what resonates with them, and then try those things out. I will also say this I am I say I’m not giving any advice. But at the same time I, I really do think it’s a good idea to make a decision and then hang in there. And my career, if you look at it is it’s been pretty much a succession of dots that are connected, it’s not as if I made any big jump out, left this and went and did that I there’s something in terms of quality, in terms of learning in terms of ability, that depends upon us sticking with something and then just getting better at it, just keep working at it, you’ll get better at it. Because an awful lot of people are going to drop out along the way. And you’re still going to be there pursuing this getting better at it. And pretty soon there’s there’s fewer and fewer people that you have to, you have to compete with that you have to get above the noise that they’re making. You just stand there by yourself because you stayed with it. And they didn’t. And it takes a lot of effort to get good at something
David Ralph [56:53]
that is the gold of the episode, you’ve shared so much gold all the way through. But that is the part if you’re, if you’re listening to this show, just rewind the last minute or so and listen to that, find something and stick with it. Because the majority of people will give up. And when you find that the competition gets less and less. But all the way you’re getting better and better and better. And when you start to get noticed, and that is when it all starts coming together for you.
Unknown Speaker [57:20]
I think so. No, it’s good.
David Ralph [57:23]
So the last question before I send you back in time. Do you think everybody out there listening can have a kick ass life if I want it?
Dr Janelle Barlow [57:34]
You know, I? I don’t know. I think they’re, I think they’re there is poverty in this world. And that that restricts people because they’re just so they’re they’re just struggling to survive. And when you’re struggling to survive, you know, it’s like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs when you’re just struggling to feed yourself to breathe to have a place to sleep. It’s warm and comfortable and out of the rain and the snow. When when you’re when you’re when you’re when your life at that level. I don’t know that people like that can have a kick ass. I’m not sure. I certainly wouldn’t want to try it. But it but most people aren’t. Most people are there anyway. So I’m very reluctant to judge people who aren’t having the best lives. I don’t know why that’s happening that maybe they just needed to work through that. Or maybe it’s yet to come for them in the future. But I’m so glad that I’ve got my basic needs met. So now I can focus on something that’s more evolved more, more human, I would say it rather than just surviving.
David Ralph [58:40]
I agree with that. Totally. I’m going to send you back in time now. And this is part of the show that we called a sermon on the mic. And if you could go back in time to have a one on one with the younger version of yourself, what age would you choose? And what advice would you give? Well, I’m going to play the theme tune and when it fades, you’re up. This is the Sermon on the mic.
Unknown Speaker [59:04]
We go with the best bit of the show.
Dr Janelle Barlow [59:18]
Okay, well, if I were to talk to a younger version of myself, I think I would talk to myself in my 20s I feel like my that talking with my earliest I had so little you know you have don’t have a lot of control over your life when you’re really small. But when I’m in my 20s I, you know, I was really in charge of my life. And I think there I would give myself some advice to have explored a few more things than I did then. Even though I’ve explored so many I would have, I would say Janell Why don’t you try this. I mean, one of the things that I would say to that younger Janell is get yourself a coach about certain things that you’re doing. I’ve resisted coaching, and I don’t know why that is. But I have I would say get myself a coach, get somebody to work with you more directly. I think they’re times too when I would have said to that younger Janell to be a little bit more selfish, and even focus more on, on what you’re doing. But you know, honestly, I have to say, to that younger self just just continued to pursue because you’ve gotten to this point in your life now where your life is good. So clearly, whatever you were doing back there in your 20s, in your 30s, and the pain and the agony and the stress, and all of those things that accompany that life, they’ve they’ve led me to a point where I feel very, very blessed. I’m in a great relationship, I have good health, my business is booming. And I feel like there’s so much more to explore. So how could that younger person have been different? to still get me to where I am today? I don’t know that it’s possible. So I’m just going to say you are a cage and L and your 20s and 30s. Whatever you were doing, however, it didn’t work you did define job to lead me up to where I am today. And I’m really grateful for it. really grateful in this season of thankfulness. So, so grateful that I’ve had the life that I have had.
David Ralph [1:01:35]
Dr. Barlow how can our audience connect with you?
Dr Janelle Barlow [1:01:40]
Well, I have an email address and it is J A Barlow, PA, r l. o w, at tm I us.com. Now that TMI, sometimes people don’t hear that you can think of it as too much information United States, that’s not what it stands for, but to Am I us, and if they want to connect with me, and I love talking with people through email, it just put up there in the subject line, join the dots, because I have a very robust spam filter. And if I see join the dots in the subject line, I’ll rescue your email from my from my spam filter. So that that would be the best way to connect with me.
David Ralph [1:02:22]
We will have over links on the show notes. Dr. Barlow, thank you so much for spending time with us today, joining up those dots. And please come back again when you have more dots to join up. Because I do believe that by joining up those dots and connecting our past is the best way to build our futures. Dr. Balboa, thank you so much. Thank you.
Outro [1:02:42]
David doesn’t want you to become a faded version of the brilliant self you are wants to become. So he’s put together an amazing guide for you called the eight pieces of advice that every successful entrepreneur practices, including the two that changed his life. Head over to Join Up Dots.com to download this amazing guide free and we’ll see you tomorrow on Join Up Dots.
