[00:00:00] Kevin Stafford: Yeah, there we go. Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Conversations with Coaches podcast. I am your delighted, and as you can probably hear, just grinning ear to ear host, Kevin. And I have just had the great pleasure of just shooting the S with Ken Jensen again. We said this last time.
He just reiterated again before I hit record. We both really wish we were neighbors. We wish we could just, come up to the fence line, share a porch every now and again. Let me reacquaint you with Ken before I just let you back into our conversation, which has already been delightful and which I’m sure will continue to be.
And I’m just going to go ahead and read directly from his LinkedIn about because he’s on LinkedIn a lot. And in the first couple sentences of his about section, he expresses his mission and his purpose so clearly that I just, I’m just going to quote him. And I quote from Ken, I developed a holistic path to wellness after fighting bipolar disorder for eight hellish years.
I later realized that it was my unique perspective on life that saved me more than anything else. Now, I use what I learned to help others see the things they’re blind to, the things that make them more awesome than they know, enabling them to unleash their creativity upon the world. Ken, thank you for writing that, thank you for being you, thank you for being here, just thank you, and I’m just so grateful to see you again and talk to you again.
[00:01:18] Ken Jensen: yoU’re welcome, and I feel the same about you, it’s it is ridiculous, it’s, we’re brothers from another mother apparently. And then thanks for reading my LinkedIn About I work on that, that only gets edited about every every 12 hours, and I like where it’s at right now and hearing you read it, hearing someone else read it back to me I’m really liking where that’s at.
I’ve had a lot of things change recently with how I shape my message and why. And I’ve learned a lot of it through living basically inside LinkedIn, more than anything. And then coupled with some things I’ve been picking up on real world with people in real time. And I constantly get better at understanding what it is I’m doing and why, and who it can value the most.
And and it brings people like you to me, which is proof in the pudding.
[00:02:06] Kevin Stafford: It’s really, we know this and sometimes we remember this and in our minds, but it’s a constant evolution. We’re constantly moving and growing and changing. Even as we. Locked into our identity like you and I said something like this before I hit record, but you are so so resonantly and resoundingly yourself your identity is so clear and like it’s so like I hadn’t talked to you since the last time we recorded a podcast last year and within literal seconds.
I immediately felt back at home, like I was talking to someone I just talked to yesterday. We just picked up the threads, not of the specific conversations, but the tone, and the context, and the content of what we like to talk about, and what really moves us. And it was immediate, and so your identity is So strong and so bright and also constantly evolving in tiny little ways as you move forward through life and you meet new people and they change you and you change them and you reflect their light differently and it changes the way your light shines.
It’s really, I’m painting a poetic picture, but it really does feel like that. So that the fact that you’re constantly working on it exemplifies just the way a strong identity works and how we grow and evolve together. I think.
[00:03:15] Ken Jensen: I agree. And it’s that’s actually something I like helping people with helping them get getting solid in their own identity and getting the confidence that goes with it.
Whether I’m on the clock or not, just all of life, I talk to people easily anywhere for any reason, half the time is for my own entertainment. I could care less how it’s received because sometimes people get uncomfortable and I just got to see how this plays out and I’m I’m either tired or I’m just having fun or I like them and I’ll help them get across the line with me because people aren’t always used to being so open or sometimes they’re like me and they’re wanting to talk and a really cool conversation comes out of nowhere at the least expected time.
And I find so many people that are not happy with where they are in life. And just in the brief one time conversation I have with them, I spot something. I’m like why aren’t you like running that down in some fashion? There’s survival, there’s needs, there’s realities, there’s hurdles in our way.
We’re all. To some degree stuck right where we are as we attempt to do better, but a lot of people don’t realize they can push outside of that or start something cooking on the side while doing that while there’s no heat or pressure on them, even just explore it because I see something here and I’m really amazed you’re not.
Looking into that further yourself, because it’s something huge. Here’s what the, here’s where you could use it in the world. Here’s who I think probably needs it, or I’ll even reference somebody. I know that’s doing the same thing at a much higher level. Go look at what they’re doing. Cause they’re doing something with a whole lot more zeros in their paycheck than you.
And there’s a template. You don’t even have to invent anything. Just go see what they’re doing. Put your spin on it. And for myself, for a number of years, self confidence was an issue. I had low self esteem for decades. And then I had areas of strength that I’d lean on to compensate for the lack of self esteem.
But if I was not in those settings, I had nothing and I’d feel very small and afraid again, depending on where I was. And the things that I would lean on for strength would be completely and hideously out of place to bring up within that situation, I would just look crazy or dumb, or I would just terrify people because a lot of what I relied on for strength comes from a lot of aggressive parts of my life.
The Marine Corps, I was a bouncer. I was a security guard. That was the most at a violent hospital in an inner city. And I. Never lost a fight there. Love telling him stories. Almost never have a place to tell him. So it’s without those things, how do I get good would just be in me and what I share when I coach people through what I give away for free to teach people is one, one expression of that.
It’s. You got to get good in your own skin because life gets a lot better. And the people you meet and the things you learn and the opportunities that arise just from being comfortable with talking to people, they’re incredible, your life changes. What a simple conversation. I still can’t do like parties.
I can’t do a loud club. I’d rather be with like this with you and I, rather than on a whole, I can talk on stage, but even then I’m it’s like a conversation. It’s just me and the crowd. So in my mind, the crowd is one. It’s easy for me to do. I don’t have stage fright, but I don’t like, I can’t do small talk.
Small talk starts pushing me almost into suicide territory with The mundane and people’s vigor for wanting to discuss the mundane. It not appears on the side of my head. I’m like, how do you want to give of your life force to this role? Pointless, routine, pedestrian topic. Like everyone does yet again, please God say something more interesting.
So it’s Yeah, and you and this is most people and you can’t be a pick a 4 letter word. You got to be good to people because everyone’s doing the best they can. Yeah. I did a lot of work on building my self esteem and self confidence to where I could come up to anybody for any reason and speak my mind.
And then it became a matter of doing it. Smoothly, tactfully, professionally, depending on the setting. And I got, and then I got a thrill out of finding, what can I barge my way into conversationally with is the barest thread of reason for why that makes sense that I’m in the room and then make them glad I said something.
It’s like a challenge I thrive on. Yeah. And it’s a piece of me that’s I really don’t give a crap. Even if this does make them uncomfortable, like now I’m winning . I just wanna say something that. I’m on an even footing with them, somehow, with the points I’m making, and I want to be heard. And I like helping people adopt that same way of being with whatever their mission is as well.
Because if you take yourself serious, but do it right, do it tactfully, smoothly, professionally, you can be very loud and aggressive, and it’s well received. Now you have an audience.
[00:08:06] Kevin Stafford: It’s very it’s interesting because I remember had a, have a really good friend who we were talking about how we’ve grown, I was going to say matured, but grown is probably a better word, over the years, and how I had started out in my life before we’d even known each other we’re relatively recent friends, I’m in my 40s, he’s in his early 40s and how in my younger years I was very shy and learned how to become him.
More aggressive, but the term I used was assertive. And he in his youth was someone who was very aggressive and learned how to channel that aggression into assertion to again, like the way you were describing come into a room quote unquote uninvited. But by the time you’re done talking and by the time you’re done interacting, you’re granted that invitation.
It’s oh, I would have invited you in if I had known it was going to be this good, or I would have invited you in if I had known that you had this much to offer. And so you assert yourself into these spaces and conversations, and you provide so much value. And again, in a way that’s not it’s not putting people off, it’s actually bringing people in.
And there’s oh, I, you have a standing invite now. And it’s really it’s been an interesting journey. It continues to be an interesting journey figuring out. How to do that in different environments, personally and professionally.
[00:09:21] Ken Jensen: Yeah, I don’t, the older I get, I really don’t want to miss an opportunity because I was afraid to shake a hand or say hi or speak up, speak my mind.
anD yeah, it’s just, it’s exciting. And you just, you never know what it’ll lead to. Oh my God, do I have a story for you? Oh my God. Okay. I don’t know how many months ago, uh, the comedian David Cross was in town. You know him. I’m thinking by your eyes. Okay. Yeah, I love everything about that man And so he comes to town.
I go with my wife and the show was fantastic. It was utterly fantastic. It, he has, he doesn’t care who he’s offended with what he’s saying, which is another thing I love, particularly with comedians, comedians are my favorite people. And he, at one point towards the end of the show, and I didn’t even know it was the end of the show.
He says to the crowd, okay, I need a volunteer and time warped because part of me was still. Given the command of my legs, get on that stage now. And by the time the thought registered, I was halfway down the aisle running. It’s David cross. He’s world famous. He’s a comedian and he’s an actor. And I was like, and this is his people that there’s going to be competition and I’m getting on that stage.
This was an instantaneous gut intuitive thing with no rational thought, or even I was on autopilot. Next thing you know, I’m on stage at a David Cross show, and it’s a packed house, about a thousand people. He’s still picking someone from the audience to be on stage when I realized he’s picking people.
This was not part of his plan. He gets a girl to come up on stage, he’s still talking to her, and turns and sees me, and he jumps, he’s startled. And he’s and I realized too late, I was like, oh crap, I jumped the gun. No, I wasn’t nervous, but I wanted to respect him. I’m like, I don’t want to blow the show out of the water because I’m a fan boy.
And I had no humility about this. I was fan boy, but I respected his time. We’re here to see him, not me. So I was like I kinda like, and I’m saying this out loud. I’m like, maybe you can just let her come up. I’ll just go sit down. I got a little out of hand. He’s no, I think we can work with this.
And he turned that into something and the girl, she was a skinny thing, about a third my size. She’s I’ll arm wrestle him for it. And I was like, fuck it. And in my head, I was like, now I don’t care. I’m stay, he’s picking me. I willed it. And then he gets her off stage. He picks me. And then between me and him, the audience couldn’t hear it.
I can’t remember the word he used, but he basically said something like. You got some balls on you. It was just between me and him and all I did. I grinned at him and all I said was Marine and he liked that. He’s like, all right, let’s do this. And they brought out a microphone for me and it turned out we’re going to read a skit together.
I didn’t even know what we were going to do. Oh man, I got to perform a comedy sketch of about, I don’t know, three or four minute long routine with David Cross and I did my part and now I have a script. I’ve never actually read a script, but I know what they are. So I’m I am super focused on handling, handling this professionally and then we do it, it lands well, everyone’s laughing.
And I was like, okay. And now emotionally I’m spent. I’m like, I’m wiped out. And I was like, thanks, David. Nice start. And he just, he paused and he’s just looking at me grinning. That’s all he was doing. And after about four or five seconds, I don’t know what’s going on. So I’m like, thank you.
And I leave, he’s Ken, come back. And he gets, says something, paper comes out, he’s let’s do another one. And in this one, we were two six year old girls discussing our parents political beliefs. And I knocked it out of the park. And I kept up with him. And at one point, and this was one of the highest points of my life, just probably one of the top five points of my life, he looked at me as a peer.
And he was pleased with my work as a master. He was enjoying himself and glad that he picked well. And I was handling my end and I caught all of that in his face. And then we finished, he shook my hand and I got off stage and then the show was over. And then from the walk out all the way to the car.
There’s people everywhere yelling my name. Everyone, Ken! Fantastic show! I was like I was the star. Just getting back to my car and everything. And then I’ll wrap with this. As I was getting into the car, it was, there was a lot of younger people. And some people were getting in their car.
One of them was like, Hey, it’s Ken! This was so fun. And they were like, that was something. You just went right up there and just took charge. And I said, I’m a Marine, see the hill, take the hill. And they lost it. That was like the best thing they’d heard all year. So self esteem, self confidence, seeing an opportunity, that’s how far I’m willing to take it.
[00:14:09] Kevin Stafford: That, first of all, that is a fantastic story. And I could, as you were telling, I could see it play out my mind. Cause I’ve watched so many, David Cross do so much stand up over the years and so many skits and I’m a huge fan of with Bob and David when that show he had with Bob Odenkirk, I was like, I’ve been a fan for decades at this point and I could see it, but my favorite part of the whole story is at the beginning.
Because you didn’t have to think about it. You didn’t have to make the decision to go up there. You made that decision years ago. Decades ago. To make yourself into the kind of person that would take action immediately. It’s not that you didn’t think it through. It’s not that it was impulsive. It’s that you did all the groundwork for that previous.
And so rather than have to have a conversation with yourself, because if you had to stop and have a negotiation, it’s like, should I go up there? Should I not? Somebody else would have taken that spot. But because you already did the work, You were able to barge right in and quite frankly, resonate with the star and become the star of the show.
I just, that was, that’s one of my, that’s my favorite part amongst many favorite parts. That’s a fantastic story. It’s and again, it exemplifies everything that you are and everything that you do, everything that you try to help people to do for themselves. I know I need to let you go because we’ve been chatting for a while, but before I do, man, first of all.
Let people know where they can, if they just want to connect with you and have a little conversation and just be exposed to the light you’re bringing to the world, where can they best go to do that? Probably LinkedIn, but you can guide people elsewhere if you’d like, and then also, if you want to talk a little bit about.
Your coaching in 2024, what you’re up to, anything that you’re particularly excited about and then how people can find out more, connect with you and actually, give you some money to do some work together.
[00:15:45] Ken Jensen: Thank you very much, Kevin, for that. Yeah. Yeah. We’ll go to www.
bipolarexcellence. com. And in there, I’ve currently just developed a 28 day series where I turned two of my big courses, one how I beat bipolar, and one what I did with the realization of what actually happened beyond beating bipolar. Those are two different courses, I turned them into a 28 day series where I just give you all the material in the courses one day at a time for free, if you sign up for my newsletter.
While on that site, on the bottom of every page, you’ll also see the great big image to click and to go to LinkedIn. And if you find me on LinkedIn, I’m willing to go pretty far for no paycheck at all for a while. If you’ll go hang out with me on LinkedIn and talk about me, with me, to me dmm me, talk to me publicly on my page to help me develop my presence there.
I’ll talk to you quite a bit over there as well. And if you’re doing something like what I’m trying to do, you belong on LinkedIn anyway, and I like to. LinkedIn is still new to a lot of people and I like bringing it to my people’s attention because it’s. Gary Vee signed off on, on LinkedIn.
He said in 2024, if you’re not on LinkedIn, you’re out of your mind as a business. You have to be on LinkedIn. It’s the next big thing. I figured that out last year. So I’m glad I’m glad Gary agrees with me. So for 2024. I am looking to go micro and macro. I have learned so much since the last time we talked.
I have figured out ways by studying. I’m a huge reverse engineer fool. There’s people that have changed my life. Even since you and I talked last Kevin on LinkedIn, I’m going to sound like a broken record because LinkedIn changed the whole game for me. And I’m going to duplicate some of their ways that they reach out to the masses for very low pay for low fee.
And it’s in an attempt to build an audience out of which I find my high fee clients who want to build. missions or people even that want to go for a bigger career. I’ve only had 55 or 60 jobs. I know a lot about getting a job and why you’d want to get a job. And I have friends that are leaders in every industry under the sun.
I’ll have something interesting and helpful to say if you want to hire me just to help you with your career. And it’s all centered on who you are as a person and what drives you, you’re wise and how you must be. One of my greatest mentors, Jason Leister, taught me that if you don’t figure out how to be, it doesn’t matter what you do, it’s not going to last long, it’s not going to run well, or it’ll be mediocre compared to if you figured out how to be in this world and why.
And that has become self awareness. That has become my number one mission helping increase mine and helping other people discover the fact that they should look into doing the same. 2024 briefly is going to be a huge period of shaking up. The way I look at this is it’s going to be bad and it’s going to be good.
It’s going to be a time of extremes, but when everybody’s busy with chaos, the. Restraints are loosened. The important people are looking in too many directions at once. It’s a time to make a move. You’re going to have less in your way and there’s going to be fear in the air and people are going to need a leader for whatever it is that you do.
And they’re going to be looking with a need like that has never existed before you show up and say anything helpful about anything under the sun, they’re going to glom onto you. If out of desperation if nothing else, and you can do something just like what I’m doing and what Kevin’s done, because it’s time for change across the board in 2024.
It’s going to give us, it’s going to give us the room to play that, that we’ve all been looking for and take everything we do to the next level.
[00:19:27] Kevin Stafford: Not only is that a message I hear in my heart, that’s one I also need to hear daily. It’s to hear you articulate it so beautifully, it’s the time is now.
I know it’s, I know it’s almost cliche to say that, but yeah there’s a lot of chaos, and that is exactly the time to be bold. And to take action and to make connections and to be a connector, which is what you’re a big part of what you’re doing on LinkedIn. You just grow your connections and your community.
And it’s you might not be the person to help, but it’s like, Hey, I know this person over here who can help you over there and you bring, a thousand people into your audience. And a hundred of them are passionately moved to take the next step and have a business relationship with you.
And 10 of those are. Really excited and maybe want to do more. And then, five of those become these high ticket clients just because, again, because you took action and you put yourself out into the community and made these connections. And that’s, it’s, I know, again, you lay it out like that.
It’s oh, of course it’s community building. It’s simple. Humans have been doing it for as long as we’ve been human, at least as far as we know. But again, like you said, LinkedIn is just, it is such the place to do it right now. And so I’m glad to hear that you’re active there. I’m glad to hear that.
You are constantly evolving and moving forward. And I’m just beside myself with like genuine joy. I have so much energy in my body right now. I’m gonna have to go for a run just from this, 40 minute conversation. So thank you, Ken, for thank you for doing what you do and being who you are, but also thank you for sharing a little bit of time with me.
And especially thank you for that, that David Cross story. Cause that’s that’s going to be, I’m going to be regurgitating that to like my friends and family for a while. It’s you won’t believe. What happened to this friend of mine. So thank you for all of it.
[00:21:01] Ken Jensen: You’re most welcome, Kevin. And thank you for having me.
I’m glad we’re friends. We don’t hardly ever get to see each other, but that could even change in the future. We don’t know. You never know. You never know. We’ve had each other a while and that’s a big part of why I did this. It’s, it isn’t just business. It’s how I want to live and people like you are who I want to live with.
That’s
[00:21:22] Kevin Stafford: right. It’s all it’s about being. I love it. I love it. Okay, I gotta let you go. The audience will let you go as well. You’ve been listening to this podcast for a while now. You’ve gotten two bites at the Ken Jensen Apple, so you know what to do next. At the very least, go to his website, subscribe to that newsletter, and at the very least, connect with him on LinkedIn.
You will not be sorry at the light that shines and the energy that comes into your life. So do that at the very least. And we’ll let the chips fall where they may. Thank you so much for listening. Welcome to 2024. When we’re recording this, when you’re listening to this, whenever it happens to be, I think we both hope this year is going to be consequential and beautiful for all of you.
So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And we’ll talk to you again soon.
