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Ep 00: Let's Get Personal - Life Set Me Up
148 Plays1 year ago
Becoming who you are meant to be is a powerful and transformative journey. In this episode, meet Vaneese Johnson, The Boldness Coach™️, as she reveals her riveting backstory. Discover how she has leveraged her life experiences—ranging from exhilarating highs to challenging lows—into creating a life filled with joy and fulfillment. Get ready to be inspired! Vaneese’s story will prompt deep reflection and provide new perspectives as you evolve and embark on your own journey of boldness.
Tune in and start your transformation today!
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Transcript
Introduction to the Evolution of Bold Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to the Evolution of Bold Podcast, where we celebrate the power of women and their journey to greatness. I'm your host, Denise Johnson, also known as the Boldness Coach. I'm excited to take you on a journey of self-discovery, empowerment, and transformation. Whether you're just starting out or well into your journey, I'm here to guide you through the challenges, help you find your purpose, and to help you let go of anything that's holding you back. So take a deep breath, relax, and get ready to dive into some juicy topics that will inspire and empower you to find your level of bold and evolve into the best version of yourself. But before we get started, let's take care of a little bit of housekeeping. Make sure that you hit the subscribe button so that you can join a community of bold women who are transforming their lives.
00:00:52
Speaker
make sure that you hit that notification button so that as new shows are released that you get notified. And also connect with us on social media. We want to hear your journey. We want to celebrate you on the journey. We want to support you on the journey. And also when you share, you inspire other women in the community to share their journey as well. So now that we got the house kicking out of the way, let's get into the juicy topic of today. Welcome to this episode of the Evolution of Bold podcast show.
Personal Insights and Background
00:01:24
Speaker
On today's topic, I'm getting personal and I'm going to share with you four important areas that I think you need to know about me and how life set me up.
00:01:34
Speaker
I wanna make sure that I'm bringing some vulnerability and transparency in our conversations. And I think the best way to be able to do that is to tell you some inside stuff about me that you may not know. And I also wanna connect with you a little deeper so that you can see that I am just like you. I'm a woman who is intentionally on a journey in her life to really become her highest self. and to discover you know what that really looks and feels like. And so this is my way of inviting you you know to the journey you know a little bit deeper in the evolution of your own level of bold.
00:02:20
Speaker
So now that you hear that backstory, let's get into some juiciness. So the four areas that I want to share with you about myself is who am I, where did I begin, what's important to me, and what I'm doing about what's important to me.
Spiritual Beliefs and Life Roles
00:02:38
Speaker
So let's start from who I am. I am a child of the most high. Mm-hmm. Yes. And I'm so excited to be able to share that and say that. Some people call the most high God. Some people call the most high source. Whatever and however you identify with that level of energy and realness and spirituality in your life, then you hang on to that. I'm going to hang on to this. I'm also an open, trusting, and powerful woman who embraces her unique strengths and helps other women to do the same.
00:03:14
Speaker
and I'll be telling you and sharing with you through different aspects um you know and topics on the show about you know those specific areas of being open, trusting, and powerful. I didn't forget about them, but just stay tuned. They're going to come up and reveal a little deeper in future episodes. I'm a mother. I have an adult son. I know that because I know that's hard to believe because I look every bit of 25. But yes, I have an adult son. I am a daughter, a sister, and a lover of life.
00:03:47
Speaker
I'm also a seasoned businesswoman. When I say seasoned, I have been in business now almost 30 years, full time. I will be also sharing different levels and aspects of that and uncertain future podcast shows as well. But just so that you kind of have a general sense of who am I.
Upbringing and Family Influence
00:04:10
Speaker
Now, where did I begin? Where did I come from y'all? Okay, I'm gonna warn you before I get any deeper into this that part of my vernacular is about to change.
00:04:22
Speaker
Look, it just happened a few seconds ago because I'm about to share with you that I'm a Southern girl. I was born and raised in Louisiana in a little town in the corner of Da Boot called Bastrop, B-A-S-T-R-O-P, Louisiana. So I was born in an area that we call the Arclamis. So that's where Louisiana, Mississippi, and Arkansas all connect in the top corner of Da Boot. So I was born and I was raised there. I lived there until I was 17 and I left home two weeks after I graduated from high school. um I had an invitation to go to college, but I was like, I'm out of here.
00:05:05
Speaker
did Y'all know what it's like when you've been growing up in your mama's house and you like, um I can't wait to get grown. I can't wait till I turn 18 so I can get out of here. So back in the day, you know, when you were at 18, you was grown, right? Today, a whole different topic, you know, for and another podcast show. So I left home um two weeks after I graduated from high school and I moved to Southern California. And that's really um the second part of my life, where Southern California really invited me to step into young womanhood. The first part of my life in being in Louisiana, I want to take a step back for a second. The first part of my life in growing up and being raised in Louisiana really gave me um a set of foundational life skills.
00:06:02
Speaker
and character development that would be important even at this point in my life. In that environment growing up in the South, um I had some really strong, resilient women in my life. um I had the opportunity and the blessing to be able to meet and have a relationship with my great-great-grandmother. Even though she was bedridden, you know, by the time I was really aware of the significance of that relationship, but I got a chance to have a relationship with her nonetheless.
00:06:39
Speaker
And I remember brushing her hair. And her hair was was was this pretty gray, but it was like a blue-silver gray, and I had seen nothing like it before. um And coming to learn, I think my great-great-grandmother had some kind of Indian in her. and so um But I had a chance to have that relationship. I also had a chance to have a relationship with my great grandmother. um And so that was really interesting because my great grandmother was a woman who really was resilient and knew how to ah make a dollar out of 15 cents because she really taught me about stretching, you know, resources. And I learned from her canning, you know, how to can preserves and how to um
00:07:31
Speaker
store food for different, you know, when you're in a season, but you would want that food at another season, you know, when it wasn't growing and available. So she she taught me that. um And then also my grandmother. And so my grandmother was definitely a strong personality, but she also had a certain charisma about her. where When she walked into a room, you know, there were no strangers and she just had this really interesting personality and character about her. So that helped me to really see how, you know, your personality and character can influence, you know, people in the room or people around you. And of course, there's my mother who I really learned some life skills, you know, and homemaking skills from.
00:08:17
Speaker
So each one of those women in my life really helped me again to develop um the the the foundational skills and to develop the character you know in me as a woman so that I could be able to use you know that foundation oh you know at a different part of my life and perhaps all through my life at different aspects. So I'm bringing that up and giving you the depth of that because I want you to to have some, you know, to get into reflect retro, in retrospection and reflection and really think about the influences that really helped you to develop the skills that you've been leveraging at different points on your journey and maybe even now, right? And to think about those individuals who influenced you on your journey.
00:09:13
Speaker
and good, bad, or indifferent. There's something that you learned you know along the way. The last component that I will close that out with as I move on to the other areas of my life is that I am the first generation in my family to not have to touch cotton other than the clothing that cotton is made from. so My great-great-grandmother, my great-grandmother, my grandmother, and my mother, all touched cotton. um the The first three ladies, they actually worked in cotton fields. And my mom worked at a cotton gin, you know, for a short period. And so I am the first. So I also want you to think about from a generational, you know, standpoint in your life, where do you sit on the lineage, you know, of
00:10:07
Speaker
of women you know that you have been exposed to in your life. and It allows and allows me to have a greater appreciation for the way life set me up because sometimes we think life happens to us, but it's really happening for us.
Cultural Shock and Independence
00:10:27
Speaker
The formative years helped to set me up for who I am today and being here and having this conversation with you. So just think about you know that question, right? Who influenced you? How did life set you up in your formative years to be able to have achieved and to be in the space of achieving where you are right now?
00:10:54
Speaker
So back to the second phase of my life, when I relocated to California, I moved to Sub Central Los Angeles. Let me tell you, talking about a fish out of water and a culture shock like I had never seen before. Some of y'all that relocated from your kind of nucleus of safety, you know, from where you were reared and you and you kind of landed, you know, in this other realm of your of life for you, um It may have been a culture shock, even if you were off to college, you know, but certainly if you weren if you went in the military and certainly if you relocated to another city altogether, right? Leaving home is just a culture of shock, you know, at best, right? So I lived in Northern and Southern California for a while. And when I was 19, I got my first apartment.
00:11:47
Speaker
And I didn't know how to manage a household at all because I grew up in households that were managed you know by other women. So in that aspect of my life, I had to figure it out. And that was a moment in time in my life on my journey where I learned and developed the skill of figuring it out. And that would serve me immensely when I stepped into the role of being an entrepreneur. So as I lived in Southern California and navigated the culture and stepped into my young womanhood and where I really started to um create my own values you know from the belief systems and the value systems that had been entrenched to me you know in the formative years. right
Reflection on Values and Beliefs
00:12:38
Speaker
And I would build on those and use those up until a particular point. And I'm going to get to that in a future show. But I want you to think about, for a moment, what were some of those values. I maybe even are some of those values and belief systems that you were able to take from your formative years and you were able to use them perhaps at the point of crossing over into the next level of your womanhood to really help you to set some of those foundations that you operated on, operated from in that time or maybe even operating from now, right? So that was a really important time. Then I moved from Southern California up to Northern California and I moved up here um
00:13:28
Speaker
to have a change in life, but this was also the opportunity that I moved up here, unbeknownst to me, to become a mother. And so when I moved up here um in my early 20s, I became a mother by the age of 25. And that opened up my life in ah in ah and a really magical way. Because in my life, for the first time, I had an opportunity to really impart to this being that I was in charge of, to impart you know the knowledge, the skills um that I had learned in those formative years.
00:14:08
Speaker
And I stepped into mothering. And some of you know what I'm talking about if you you know have your own children, whether they are biological, whether they are adopted, um whether you adopted them or they adopted you, or whether you have taken on the role of mothering in any aspect of your life. You know what it's like to have something to be more responsible for that's bigger than you. And that really catapulted me into you know dreaming a bigger dream for myself so that I could be able to give my son the opportunity to have a bigger dream you know in his life. And as I moved through the journey of mothering, um the next thing that I got a chance to birth was to become a businesswoman.
Entrepreneurial Journey
00:14:58
Speaker
And let me tell y'all this, I had no idea about entrepreneurship. I had no formal training. I had no formal education. What I did know, this may make some of y'all laugh, or you might even appreciate it. I knew how to add, subtract, divide, and multiply. ah hat of fractions I I needed percents but I knew how to do math and I felt like this if I can use my math skills and you know use my intelligence of understanding my street smarts my common sense that somehow I could figure this out
00:15:39
Speaker
And to remember um that I had you know in round 19 when I got my first apartment, I was i knew I could figure it out. right And so that's what I brought to the role you know of entrepreneurship at the age of 27. So I had my son at 25, and I started my first business at the age of 27. And that really, oh my goodness, that really commanded a whole deeper level of womanhood that I could have ever imagined in my and entire life.
00:16:18
Speaker
And as I mentioned before, I'm going to share other aspects of that with you on future episodes. And so, but in the journey of entrepreneurship, and I mentioned, you know, that I've been in business almost 30 years, what it has allowed me to do is to really get to know who I am because of the circumstances that were born out of Being in that area, you know that career path, you know in my life and it really You know pulled forth in me um The requirement to develop spirituality
00:16:56
Speaker
the requirement to get clear about religion and how that played a factor you know plays a factor you know in becoming your best and highest self. It pulled forth um about me going introspective you know in myself to really get clear about you know who am I? you know It also challenged me with you know developing in my intelligence and really learning how to maximize my intellect And it's like a school of learning that I've never been in before. And I want to just kind of pin this, put a pin in this for a second, because you know a lot of you listening to you know this podcast and watching the show, you may not be an entrepreneur and that's completely okay. But what I invite you to do is to really look at and be in reflection of a pivotal moment
00:17:52
Speaker
you know, in a career move or even in a job, right? That kind of springboarded you into a career area where it called forth in you things that you didn't, you probably didn't know or character, you know, skill traits or character traits, skill sets that you didn't even know you could develop. But it called forth in you something deeper and higher about yourself that you probably were just so surprised like, wow, look at what I can do. And that's what entrepreneurship did for me. it It kind of really brought me to the culmination of all of the other things, the skill sets and character traits, um the values, the behaviors you know that I had brought with me and fine-tuned and learned you know along this journey of life up until a particular point.
00:18:49
Speaker
And now, you know, where am I in life is that I'm here as the boldness coach. I'm going to introduce to you in the next episode of how I became the boldness coach, baby. Let me just tell you this part. I didn't wake up and say, please sign me up for that. So, but again, I'll tell you that in the next episode. So now where I am in my life, as I reside in Northern California, San Francisco Bay area, and This is a really incredible place for me. I've been searching in my soul. Is there any place else in the world that I want to live? And the answer for me at this moment is no, because it it's a perfect environment for me. My home is perfect for me, the city that I live in, and the community that I get to engage with and around.
00:19:41
Speaker
the spiritual energy that um comes up in me and that supported in me by the nature that's around me. So this is a ah really perfect place for me at this moment and journey in my life. So now that you know where I began and how life set me up, I'm going to move you to the next um important area is what's important to me. There are three areas in my life that are really important to me. The first is my personal mission. My personal mission, this is what what drives me. This is what I lean on and lean into every day. My personal mission is to live a life that is bold, big, and bad.
00:20:25
Speaker
And that's more than a nice phrase or, you know, kind of what I wanna say, like a a tagline. There's depth and meaning into each one of those words. And I'm gonna go deeper into that in the next episode. But I think about boldness as really owning who I am and the originality and the uniqueness. Think about big. And look, y'all can see my my my ruffles. yeah But those of you that are listening to audio, I have this shirt on with ruffles on, right? But the bigness is about, you know, an overview of this is and part of it is the essence of who I am, not only just in personality, but also in skills and how I use them. And then being bad, you know, that has and and an essence and energy of audaciousness to it.
00:21:15
Speaker
You know, so that is my personal mission in life. Every
Mission and Ministry for Women
00:21:18
Speaker
day I live my life from different aspects of being bold, big and bad. And sometimes it's all three of them at the same time. And baby, when it is, and let me just tell you, uh, get out the way.
00:21:34
Speaker
The other area that's important to me is my life's ministry. You see, each one of us, this is my belief, each one of us you know in this planet, on this planet, we were born with the ministry of what we can do to help others succeed. And I'm, I've been very fortunate and blessed to be able to tap into that in my life early on. And that would be also content for a future episode of how do you identify your life's ministry and how to tap into that. And so my life's ministry is to help women evolve into living life from the highest version of themselves.
00:22:15
Speaker
And that's whatever you feel like your highest version is. But my ministry is to help women to evolve you know in their life. And that could be through coaching, speaking, training. There are different facets to me, but what I'm bringing you know to I guess you can say what I'm bringing to the the the structure, the strategy, the methodology, you know, of helping women to evolve will be different, you know, at different periods in different moments, you know, along, you know, in our relationship together through this podcast. And I will always tie this, whatever show we're talking about,
00:22:58
Speaker
whatever content I'm sharing with you, I'm always going to tie it back into my life's ministry of helping women to evolve. The third thing that's really important to me is my business mission. So not only am I doing what I'm doing from a place of personal and life, but I'm also doing this from a place of business. My business mission is to guide women on their journey of self discovery, empowerment and transformation so they can create a life that is bold, big and bad with no permission needed. So my business platform allows me to really
00:23:37
Speaker
create different avenues to be able to support women in their evolution. So um some of the avenues I mentioned a moment ago is about coaching, speaking, and training. And each of those avenues have different prongs to them because you are a multifaceted woman. And to help you and support you in your evolution is not going to be just one way. So it's important from a business standpoint that I bring in my talents, I bring in my expertise, I bring in exp experiential, you know, information to be able to help you to develop perspectives.
00:24:19
Speaker
on how your evolution can unfold and to give you those tools so that you can pivot if need to, reinvent if need to, um or embody certain aspects of your life when and where you need to. So those are the three things that's important to me. So I want to ask you a question and get you to start to thinking about what's important to you. What's important to you? You know, what would be those three areas for you? What's your personal mission? What do you know? if If you know at this point, what's your life's ministry and what's your business mission? Now, let me say this about the business mission. Again, some of you may not be entrepreneurs and that's completely okay. Maybe you have a career mission.
00:25:06
Speaker
You know, or maybe your mission is another type of mission. Maybe it's a volunteer mission. um maybe it's Maybe it's a motherhood mission. I don't know. But what I do invite you, what I i want to invite you to do is to really think about what's important to you. And this foundation helps to drive my behavior. It helps to drive the actions. It helps to drive the decisions that I make and or support the decisions that I make. And your mission may change, ladies, it may change. And anyone else, men are welcome, you know, in listening as well. You know, it may change, but the, and the important question still remains is what's important to you?
00:25:50
Speaker
Now that I've out shared with you and outlined what's important to me, what am I doing about it?
Empowering Women to Discover Boldness
00:25:56
Speaker
What am I doing about what's important to me? So my life's journey is a culmination of all of the aspects of who I am. And as a result of being clear in my life, I now know that I'm a gateway for women. I use my platforms and my influence to help other women discover and evolve into their boldness. So I'm not sitting over here being cute, where I'm telling you and having this show just because I don't have anything else to do. Clearly, like I got lots to do.
00:26:29
Speaker
What I am doing about what's important to me is to take all parts of who I am, the culmination of these life experiences and the development of these skills and to bring them forth. to be this gateway for other women. I'm gonna be sharing with you through different parts of the show, sometimes in solo shows and sometimes um I'm gonna have the opportunity to interview and have conversations with remarkable everyday women. But I'm gonna be talking about you know just what are they doing you know in their life to help you know that's supporting them in their evolution, but how are they helping other women you know to evolve around them?
00:27:16
Speaker
I'm not here to do lifter lip service. I'm bringing transparency, vulnerability, and compassion in a way that will inspire you and then encourage you. So just wanna do a quick recap about what I've shared with you ah in terms of how life has set me up. So I know who I am and shared with you who I am, where I begin, what's important to me and what I'm doing about it. So I want you to share with me your comments you know in the feed, share with me your ahas, what's come up for you.
00:27:58
Speaker
and I'm not looking for you to, you know, to be as clear. Maybe you are, but I want you to start the conversation, start the conversation with yourself, start the conversation in the community with other women and start a conversation with me. And let me know if there are particular areas of anything that I've shared in this episode that you want to go deeper into. And I'm more than happy to go deep and bring that transparency, that vulnerability and the compassion in that area. So as we wrap up this, as I wrap up this episode, I want you to tune in for the episode, the next episode around um how the boldness culture was born.
00:28:43
Speaker
and What does it mean to be bold, big, and bad? and How do you live a life of no permission needed? so Make sure that you click the subscribe button so that you can join the community of other amazing women that are going through transformation, such as yourself. right Also, click the notification button so that every time a new episode drops that you get notified that Denise is here with a new episode, something to say. um And also make sure that you connect um with me and other amazing women um that are in this conversation on on different social media channels. so And that information will be listed in the show notes so that you know exactly where you can connect with me and other like-minded women.
00:29:32
Speaker
So thank you for hanging out with me today on this episode. And until we see each other next time, I want you to strive and thrive in your boldness. Thank you for joining me on today's episode of the Evolution of Bold Podcast. I hope you found the conversation as inspiring and empowering as I did. It's always a pleasure to share the stories of my journey along with those of other remarkable
00:30:01
Speaker
I'd love to know what stood out to you the most. Your feedback is really important to me, so please leave a comment in the feed or on one of our social media channels. And don't forget to hit the subscribe and notification button before you go. Stay connected with us for more insights and exclusive content. Keep evolving, stay bold, and always live your truth. Thanks for listening and stay tuned for our next show. Until next time, I'm Denise Johnson, the Boldness Coach, cheering you on in your journey towards your level of bold.