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Speech Transcript

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[L. Scott Ferguson: [00:00:00] Time To Shine Today Podcast Varsity Squad. This is Scott Ferguson, and we are with my really good friend, Andrea Johnson, the intentional optimist today. The interview that we had went a little bit longer than usual, but trust me, you’ll understand why when you get to read it. Or, I’m sorry, listen to it.

And just to acknowledge, I guess, Andrea dropped. We’re just above reproach. About really stop dishonoring yourself and lean into your ultimate human potential. So I’m not going to go too long, but if you look, if you know anybody that might be in need of somebody to really level up their optimism, level up their core values, and please share this with them or smash that like or subscribe button, my, , sponsors and affiliates actually like that.

So without further ado, here’s my really good friend, the intentional optimist, Andrea Johnson. Let’s level up.

Time to shine today. Podcast varsity squad. This is Scott Ferguson. And I have found an absolutely stunning, awesome lady who matches my energy, which you know, that [00:01:00] I’m actually an introvert, but when I get out in front of people, I I’ve had this, this energy that’s in the people say is infectious, but my good friend here, Andrea Johnson, the intentional optimist is the epitome of that, and I immensely respect her for her energy and the knowledge nugget she’s about to drop on you here.

And injury is a. Andrea Johnson empowers executives and founders to lead authentically with conviction and confidence by uncovering their core values. She enables clients to become impactful leaders. Her passion is equipping female leaders to define a new culture by trusting their own ability to think critically.

Create imagine imaginatively Donnie. Edit that and lead effectively. And Andy, Andrea, thank you so much for coming on. Please introduce yourself to time to shine today. Podcast varsity squad. But first what’s your favorite color and why? Yellow, yellow, happy. I love it. As a matter of fact, I had to switch out my watchband today to match my outfit because I keep yellow as normal.

Gotcha. Yeah. I thought you, [00:02:00] I thought you just planned with me to rock a little pink today. ’cause I see some pink. You have like salmon . I love it. So Andrea, gimme like, kind of like your backstory a little bit. ’cause again, you’re so infectious with your energy. It’s so fun to talk to you. Every, every time you put out YouTube or now your podcast, which we’ll get to that as well, , people like kind of gravitate to you.

So where, where was the roots? Where did this start?

Andrea Johnson: Oh gosh, , I, I don’t really know how it started. I think there was a period of time where I did not honor it and I didn’t, and I tried to keep it quiet, but I think a lot of it comes from, I inherited it from my mother. My mother was one of those ladies that I would call sanguine in the old language, she was like a champagne bottle.

You pop the cork and the bubbles just come out. And I was the kid that was always happy to be on stage, always happy to be up front, always happy to lead. But I was also told I was bossy and I was told I was too opinionated. And so as a woman, I tried to tap all that down. But when I hit 50, I just said, , I lost my mother to cancer.

[00:03:00] And I had an eight year old adopted son. And I said, I hope I live 50 more years. And I don’t want to do it that way. I want to just embrace. All that I am and so however God created me to be is how I need to be and so I’ve moved forward embracing it that way.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. So you brought you in kind of to a coaching role.

Is that or is it are you more kind of consultant coach or a coach Sultan or which way do you kind of know that I

Andrea Johnson: like the coach Sultan thing because I’m really good at teaching one of my if what your skills and your strengths are then you can actually play into those. And I’m really good at relating to people and I can create a safe space very quickly.

I learned that 22 years of being an office, office manager and operations manager in schools of medicine, doctors and chiefs would come and actually chiefs of departments would come and sit in my office. So I knew I had the ability to create that safe space, but I needed some training. So. While I’m also a good teacher, I am a really good coach, and that’s where I got my training through the [00:04:00] Maxwell team and learned how to kind of help people steward in a specific way into a better leadership space for them, because a lot of times we just don’t know what our strengths are.

So we help people figure out their strengths and then move forward in that way. So I

L. Scott Ferguson: like the coach Sultan. I like it too. I think that works perfect. Me, I like, I will consult when it comes to say real estate, cause I’ve, , been a broker and I own a lot of property and I will my consultant that.

But , I, I kind of lean away. Cause I’ve tried that once before with my coach or in my coaching and they’re like, for you, it didn’t work. I’m just a big believer that everyone knows what they want. They just don’t know how to talk themselves into it. Right. And so, but every challenge that resides in there, their answers in there as well.

I’m thinking that one of your superpowers is curiosity. Is that correct?

Andrea Johnson: You bet.

L. Scott Ferguson: I am. I

Andrea Johnson: call myself a terminally curious.

L. Scott Ferguson: Ooh, never heard of that. And that is unpack that a little bit. Like, what do you mean by that? [00:05:00]

Andrea Johnson: I literally, before Enron had the commercial about why I was that kid and I’m dating myself, of course, but I was the kid that, and that was one of the things that I’d learned to tamp down was I was always asking why now they might call that in the business world, root cause analysis.

I always wanted to know. Exactly why something was happening. My husband is much more of a, what do we do? And I was a much more, and I am much more of a, why do we do it? So parenting my son that comes up in, yes, I understand he’s acting that way, but why is he acting that way? So when we start getting curious about things, it drops defenses.

It means that we start seeing people in their full humanity. We start looking. underneath the behavior. And so as a coach or a coach sultan or whatever you want to call me, as, as, as I sit with people and listen, sometimes it’s better to ask the why question than the what question. And when you start understanding personality types, it’s real easy to see how different personality [00:06:00] types are going to show up.

And when I’m the one asking the why people find their answers faster.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love it. I love it. And speaking of that, so You and I would absolutely not work at a networking event. Cause I, cause my whole goal in networking event is to see, , meet people kind of break off into kind of a one on one conversation.

And kind of, I use the FORD acronym, Family, Occupation, Recreation, and Tourism, right? I kind of get to know them, but I think you and I would be so curious about each other, we would never really say anything. Oh,

Andrea Johnson: we would just go

L. Scott Ferguson: down the hole. Yeah, right? It’s like, because I’m way more interested in other people’s stories than telling them mine.

It’s just, I just found it’s, life’s more fun, and people open up, like you just kind of said, people lean in and drop the defenses. Yeah. That’s crazy. So, you have like, maybe, A one on one kind of make discovery session and you’re kind of sitting with somebody. What kind of secret sauce do you have? If you don’t mind sharing that maybe helps us shine a light on that blind spot that you feel that they might be kind of working through.

Andrea Johnson: Well, we will get into this. I’m sure, [00:07:00] but I specialize in looking at core values because I have discovered, pardon me, through My own work that I was dishonoring the basic non negotiables that I had, and I find that nine times out of ten, when somebody doesn’t know what they want, it’s because they’re dishonoring who they are.

They’re dishonoring their own non negotiables. And when we can figure out what those are, that’s the place for people to start. And immediately boundaries become clear. Relationships become easier. Decisions become clear because you can start filtering them through. What are my core values? And so when I have a discovery session with someone, it’s literally asking them specific questions to kind of get down to, how do we start figuring out what their core values are?

L. Scott Ferguson: Let’s go deeper on core values. Like, , I mean, I feel that. I know what I, mine are, but they also kind of change a little bit, which my coach is always kind of bringing me back to a certain three, which I’m not, don’t want to share them today, but , I kind [00:08:00] of she always kind of brings me back to those cause I’ll change and be like, my new one’s this.

She’s like, no, it’s not, it’s this, , we’re getting back to this, right. I

Andrea Johnson: am proud of your coach.

L. Scott Ferguson: Oh my gosh, Berta. You hear that? Love it. So. Core values. Do you use a testing system or is it through your powerful question asking or is it a mix or how do you get kind of get to the root to find those core values that they’re dishonoring that they’re not progressing and leveling up through life?

Andrea Johnson: Well, first, really quickly, I’d like to give a quick definition because there’s a lot of talk out there about values and core values and they’re different. We talk in business about values and mission and vision and that kind of thing and those are all valid and we talk about aligning with them. Core values are internal, their principles and priorities that guide your actions.

They represent those foundational convictions that you just can’t live without. They allow you to navigate all your own complex situations while keeping your identity Fergie and authority. At the forefront, right? [00:09:00] Because you want to make sure that just like if you’ve seen the viral video of the wave of the guy, the Olympic guy that in Tahiti, he looked completely disembodied from this wave, but he was who he was.

And I think that’s a beautiful picture.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right?

Andrea Johnson: So when we talk about core values, people don’t understand them because they. We’re actually taught to actually function and imitate within other people’s principles and priorities. We are told this is the way we should act. , we hear those words don’t should be.

So what happens is, if we haven’t taken the time. to figure out what our own principles and priorities are, then we, we can’t actually be authentic. We can’t actually do those things. And many times people will figure out one and they’ll say, that’s my one non negotiable. And they might live in a way that honors at least one.

Sure. But they rarely live in a way that honors all of them. And when, when we don’t, then we have, we end up in jobs where like I would responsibility with no authority [00:10:00] always feeling unbalanced, feeling stifled, bored. I was so bored in my work because I was willing to let my own core values get completely stomped on and wasn’t honoring them.

And that’s why I was miserable. And you because like,

L. Scott Ferguson: Sorry to interrupt. It’s because you were trying to live into what other people’s values of yours, right?

Andrea Johnson: Yeah. No, absolutely

L. Scott Ferguson: And

Andrea Johnson: And I do workshops So i’ll do workshops and i’ll start them off with I just want you to know That if you try to tell me that faith family and community or country are your top core values I will push back and we will start over because those are all outside.

You sound

L. Scott Ferguson: like my coach, too

Andrea Johnson: We would get along really well.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah,

Andrea Johnson: but It, those are all outside of us and we’re not taught to look inside.

L. Scott Ferguson: And

Andrea Johnson: you even said it yourself, all of our answers are in here. And for some reason, we’re afraid to look there because we’ve been depending on what demographic or community you come from.

A lot of times we’re taught that what’s inside is bad. [00:11:00] And what we need to recognize is that No matter what background you come from, it could be that there are things in there that are not good, but who we were created to be. Mm. And the fingerprint that is on us and the, the way that we were designed specifically to do specific work Sure.

That was kind of preordained for us was, is beautiful. Yeah. And if we don’t bring that to the table, everybody else is missing out.

L. Scott Ferguson: They’re missing out. Absolutely. It’s like having the holiday meal

Andrea Johnson: with no Turkey.

L. Scott Ferguson: Right. And, and

Andrea Johnson: so. Go ahead.

L. Scott Ferguson: No, no, it’s like I like to call it like a sin and I’m not talking to religious connotation It’s like sin the root the root word of the word it for sin is a Greek word of Sini Which means missing the mark and miss

Andrea Johnson: the mark, right, right So

L. Scott Ferguson: if we’re missing the mark, yeah, we’re not really leaning into our ultimate potential period Absolutely.

Andrea Johnson: Yeah. Yeah. And so to not get super spiritual, I mean, this is that what I just quoted about being created for a specific person to do specific things. [00:12:00] We all talk about feeling a calling. I am called to do a passion or a gut feeling or something. And so many times, because we’re acting within the assumptions and beliefs that we were given,

L. Scott Ferguson: right.

Andrea Johnson: That we didn’t actually, I use the word critical thinking. We didn’t actually break them down. We didn’t look at why we accepted them. We’ve just walked in them because this is what we do. , it’s like everybody follow along and we might think we’re being independent because we’re following along with a group that might not be with the group that we started with.

But a lot of times we just trade one thing.

I don’t really give an assessment because I think that there are assessments you could take that will help you look at them. I think that you can get personality types and kind of get clues. I just actually did a podcast recording coming out next week about. Clues from your personality type that will tell you what your core values might start to look like Because , we just have different proclivities in our personalities [00:13:00] But what I do is I actually have a course that I have people walk through It could even be I even have a free download that it’s just a one page sheet.

That’s just an exercise It’s a little bit of a brain dump starting with what would people say are my most important things? What would other people say are non negotiables for me? And a lot of times you’ll find that You A family member or a spouse or a best friend or a sibling is going to say, Oh yeah, don’t cross Andrea here.

Or don’t, don’t mess with that, , or that’s a third rail, , people see them in us, even if we don’t. So starting there looking inside kind of that’s the place to start. And then we go through a refining process. And if we do coaching, I push back. I just had a coaching session this morning and literally I said, so what is the feeling behind that?

She just went. Oh, , because having someone to do that for you and like your coach does for you bring you back makes all the difference to stay kind of dialed in on them.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love that with the vision. I’m big on vision [00:14:00] myself. Like I take all my clients that I’m blessed to coach here in Florida and I put them in there.

One, I kind of want to see how their car looks to see, , you can kind of tell a little bit about how someone’s life is when you see their car. Right. And they’re in the driver’s seat. I sit in their passenger seat. I’d be like, Hey, this little reverie mirror here. It’s small for a reason. That’s your past.

It’s a great place to learn from. Great place to visit every once in a while, but we’re not there. And if you need a lot of help there, I’m not your guy. It’s kind of therapy, right? Windshield big, huge. Oh my gosh, where are we going? I’m scared. This is nuts, right? But then since 2011, they’ve been putting these things called the GPS on the dashboard, right?

That’s me. That’s why I kind of tell them that we’re going to guide them there through their values with their vision. But I can’t buckle the seatbelt if they so choose to. I can’t start the car. I can’t put it in drive. But to get to drive, you have to go through neutral. You have every car in neutral there.

And so that’s where a lot of [00:15:00] the magic is made is being present. And I can just see you really keeping the people present within their values and before they kind of unleash out into the world. And I love that you said you challenged them. Mm-Hmm. . That’s that. That’s a, did you pushed back? I pushed back.

Back, which I, I call it challenge. Yeah. . And I, let me ask you something. When you work with people, one-on-one, do you. Ever prophesied, and this is from my own learning selfishness. Do you ever prophesied with, I’m going to challenge you now, or do you just kind of ask into the question?

Andrea Johnson: It really depends on the person.

L. Scott Ferguson: The

Andrea Johnson: person I was working with this morning is young. She’s only 18. And so I just. I preface it a little more softly with, with people that, especially if I’ve worked with you for a while and I know how, cause I’m a relater. Like when I knew my Clifton strengths, it’s like, I am all about the relating and I feel given and take.

So I kind of get, I have a real sense of how people react back and forth. You, I can push back on you like night and day. I mean, just no problem. It’s like, boom, boom. Cause that’s. [00:16:00] You’ve given me that energy. So part of that is just me reading that energy. And I think that’s kind of one of the, my specialties as, as a coach being able to do that.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love that. And you just seem to coach because I’m a huge. Believer in coaching from neutrality, right? Yeah, I can just see you really keeping them present and kind of locked in neutral to explode That’s beautiful. So maybe you’re kind of in this discovery conversation and you guys are making sure you’re the right horse for the course Still, to make sure you’re the right person Is there any good question that you wish they would ask you but never do?

Andrea Johnson: Maybe why, why would I want to coach them? Because I have had coach Sultan. I have had consultant type coaching jobs or working work where I have been in contract with an organization where they said, we’d like you to coach these people, right? It’s like this particular manager needs coaching. So it’s like executive coaching.

I’ve done that work. [00:17:00]

L. Scott Ferguson: I don’t know how

Andrea Johnson: much more of that I will do

L. Scott Ferguson: because I’ve been in your, I know where you’re going.

Andrea Johnson: If somebody doesn’t want to be coached, I don’t want to coach them. That’s why I left management. I didn’t want to manage anyone. I wanted to, I wanted to help develop you. And so if you are coming to me and I.

I wish I had had this question asked me before I had one client last summer because she was not corporate, but she was independent, but I didn’t really want to coach her because she told me from the very beginning that she had already decided what she wanted to do. And, and so I think knowing why we each want to be in the relationship is extremely important.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, make sure that it’s right because one of the reasons why I kind of started this show in almost, , 450 episodes in is that when I was super selfish, I want to meet people like you pick your brain to level up my coaching [00:18:00] right? But now

Andrea Johnson: I love that part of doing it too,

L. Scott Ferguson: right? And the best part of it now, well, not the best.

The second best part is that if I’m not the right horse for the course, I’ve interviewed 400 people that could be, and , our moniker here, our credo at time to shine today is we don’t want to have anyone to feel like they have no one, , because if you heard my story, it’s told on a lot of podcasts, blah, blah, blah.

They, they understand why I feel that way. I don’t want to have anyone left in the dark. So appreciate what you’re doing out there. So have you seen the movie back to the future? All right. I can’t believe that. Xer. Right. Next year it’s going to be 40 years old. That’s insane, right? It’s crazy. I was like 12, 13 when it came out.

Anyways, dating myself now. So with, let’s get that, that DeLorean with Marty McFly. Let’s go back to the double dues, the 22 year old Andrew. Is there any knowledge, not to change anything because your journey has been pretty darn good. Okay. But to maybe help her shorten her learning curve or blast through maybe just a little bit quicker.

What would you say to her? [00:19:00]

Andrea Johnson: It is okay for you to think for yourself.

L. Scott Ferguson: I

Andrea Johnson: mean, my 20 year 22, I had year 21, I had just come out of 12 week inpatient program for bulimia and depression. And so I was heading into graduate school or coming out of, yeah, heading into graduate school and looking at, , Becoming a theologian or so I have nearly a theology degree, a master’s in theology.

And so I managed to get myself into a situation where I abdicated my ability to think for myself to smarter, more educated people, right. Or just more trustworthy people. I don’t know. And so I think, and that’s what literally it’s, I end, if there’s ever a last question on a podcast, it’s always, please think for yourself.

It’s always that because If I had known that I would not have gone down some of the roads that I didn’t get anywhere bad by the world standards. I didn’t make any really bad turns per the [00:20:00] world standards. What I had to go through in the last. seven years to break down the things that the roads that I went through internally.

And the work that I needed to do internally would have been so much smaller. You’re so

L. Scott Ferguson: consistent. Like you’re like, you were dishonoring yourself when you weren’t thinking for yourself, that was your words. That’s amazing. So let me, let me, Is there do you coach men as well? Or do you really lean to the lady side the most?

Andrea Johnson: I always answer this question with the right man comes along. I will, I will coach him so far. No, I’ve had one opportunity, but it was in that corporate situation and my, my, my, my, it was already full. And I had a colleague who works with me who actually was a better fit for him anyway. I really gravitate towards women, but I will say this, part of that is because part of my learning was understanding the ability for women to, I needed to break out of my own [00:21:00] personal, I don’t know how to say it without, my sister says, I’m now liberated a woman, , it’s like, and that’s okay for me to say that I feel really good about that.

And I’m still learning this, like I said, to stand tall and own my own things, but I’m also learning how different things like patriarchy, misogyny, and those kind of things, they damage men. And now that I only have one child he’s precious, he’s adopted. It was an amazing situation and it, it. It’s not a girl, right?

So it’s like, I want to make sure that I know how to not only coach women out of or into bigger things. I also want to make sure that I know how to nurture men. So I’m open, but I gravitate towards women.

L. Scott Ferguson: That’s a, that’s, thank you for being transparent about it. And that’s like, a lot of people will be like, Oh, I just, I just feel this, but you actually explained why.

 And also like you want your , i’m adopted as well So thank you so much for like, doing that for one, but [00:22:00] also, saying hey You want to nurture your son as as well And there’s so many lessons that we pick up when we’re in sessions with people that we put into our own life Sometimes you ever feel like you’re coaching yourself I know you’re present with them, but you’re like, dang, I got to write that down for me, right?

Andrea Johnson: And there are times that’s when I really ask permission. There’ll be times when I’ll say, do you mind if I share a personal experience? That will be, and sometimes that is what puts them over the edge because we coach from any coach is going to do this. It’s just whether or not they’re honest enough about it and transparent enough about it.

Every coach coaches from their own experience. Some are better at holding true space for other people, but we. Only have awareness of the things that we’ve been through so, , it’s like we, we do coach from the things that we’ve learned. And I think that’s 1 of the reasons why I can be more transparent and honest is because that’s, that’s all I have, , even with my son the other day, I said, we’re only aware of the Of what we’re aware of [00:23:00] when we’re aware of it.

We only know what we know when we know it. And it’s like that small rear view mirror. Don’t look back and be upset, but look forward because tomorrow you will have known this,

L. Scott Ferguson: but only you got to be in that neutral situation to be aware of what , when , and how you, I love it. So how does.

Andrea want her dash remember that little line in between your incarnation date and your expiration date. Hopefully it’s way down the road, right? Life date and death date. How does Andrea want her dash remember?

Andrea Johnson: I think it’s the by the people that i’ve actually helped I I like to call myself a transformational leadership coach and I talk about moving people from being disempowered to being magnetic and to be able to to To have people say Andrea actually helped me be.

I don’t need to be the person at the top of the pyramid. I don’t need to be the person on on the stage. I don’t mind it. I’m a performer. I love it. But what I [00:24:00] want is to see how many people I put up there. Right? How many other people can I put up there? As a women’s leadership coach, my dream would be to coach the next, , a female president or the next elected official or the next, , even locally, like, I want to coach women to come into their own and leadership that doesn’t Can find them anywhere.

Right. , so I think that dash would be just how many people did I put up on the stage, or I love

L. Scott Ferguson: it. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. And I’m sure that there’s a lot of mentoring that kind of goes into a lot of free work as well, that I’m kind of seeing it. I, I, it, it is, but it, I

Andrea Johnson: believe that’s the fun work.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Oh, a hundred percent. I mean, I go to the. The Palm Beach County Jail on Sundays or one one Sunday a month go to church go there And I’m able they allow me to coach their short term non violent criminals, right? , so they’re like 30 days or less, help them set their vision for when they get out in this is Palm Beach So some of them have like daddies that want to pay for the coaching after If they [00:25:00] have but just doing that and just , hearing their stories, it just helps me , it helps me level up, , I’m a big believer in wanting to live a life of options and not obligations, , to me, that’s success.

And to be in a position to be able to do that, it, it, it feels awesome. Right. I mean, it

Andrea Johnson: always keeps you learning new perspectives. Right.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah.

Andrea Johnson: Every single time. Yeah.

L. Scott Ferguson: And the more we mentor, the more immortal we become, right? It’s like,

Andrea Johnson: yeah,

L. Scott Ferguson: we, we, we pour into people and there’ll be like, Oh, Fergie told me that, , our Angie said that to me, that’s excellent.

So what do you think people might misunderstand the most about Andrea?

Andrea Johnson: That like you they might think I’m an extrovert. They might think that I need to be around people or need to be on the stage because I do shine, right? It’s like, I just get out there and it’s, I work with the local chamber, the business women’s round table and.

We met yesterday and I’m the special events coordinator and we have another financial panel coming up and we do monthly meetings. We’re like, [00:26:00] would you please be the moderator again? I’m like, sure. , but the reality is I am much more introverted. I am a internal processor. I’m a deep thinker and I need my time alone at, in my house.

I’ve instituted mental health Mondays. That is after supper. We each get to go our separate ways. And if I want to go sit in my bed and watch a K drama, which is my favorite little guilty pleasure. Sure. Then nobody gets to veto that. If we want to spend time together, that’s fine. Sure. If I want to stay down here and watch a show with my husband, that’s fine.

But. I need my space. So I think the biggest misconception is that I’m out there and an extrovert. I’m not. I am very much an introvert and an internal processor. You’re

L. Scott Ferguson: definitely a sister from another MISDA, man. I know. I’m just saying, like, I can go to a When you said that

Andrea Johnson: earlier, I’m like, oh, that’s I can

L. Scott Ferguson: go to a coffee shop.

Right and sit by myself. Absolutely. No problem. And one of the biggest I wouldn’t call it a [00:27:00] complaint But one of the things that , asian will come back to me Is they’re like you didn’t spend enough time with them after your speech, right? So get up there and i’ll mingle and talk and yes, I would love to help people more in get compensated but i’m also really in a hurry to Go see a site, , go, , just sit and have a break off.

Yes. Decompress

Andrea Johnson: and to recharge your battery.

L. Scott Ferguson: Exactly, exactly. So, yeah, it’s a, it’s a blessing at the same time, but I’ve been getting a lot better at it. And I, , it’s a dub that I can stack, I guess. So, yeah. How about like it is anything kind of keep you up at night?

Andrea Johnson: Yeah

L. Scott Ferguson: Well,

Andrea Johnson: I I am a worrier and so that is something that I work on a lot I have Like I said, I believe me a depression so I have anxiety so I have worked I’ve I’ve been so I’ve been through it Right.

I’ve been through the depression. I’ve been through Psychiatric work. I have been on [00:28:00] antidepressants but for me Laying awake at night. I a lot of times I’m thinking about how I’m gonna make whatever needs to happen happen and being able to teach myself to have I do some great devotions at the end of the day and some meditation at the end of the day and Reminding myself that everything always looks better tomorrow Because I am a morning person and the sun rises and yellow is my favorite color.

And so it just, , everything, it just looks brighter and different. And when I’m tired and I have to remind myself that when I’m really tired, that’s the, that’s almost, it’s like opening the door to the demons and the, and that will keep me up at night, but. It’s usually over things that I really can’t control, and I try to control.

Oh my gosh, yeah.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. Oh yeah. Am I poking

Andrea Johnson: holes in you right now?

L. Scott Ferguson: Oh, 100%. Yep. Yep. We’re vibing, that’s for sure. Yeah. Because it’s, that’s the only thing that will. It’s never, it’s never [00:29:00] money, it’s never, like, I’m, I, I think balance, , Is junk, right? Balance is like 10, 10 on here, 10 on here, you have balance.

You like the cliche balance when you’re dead. Like I’m

Andrea Johnson: a

L. Scott Ferguson: huge believer in harmony, huge believer. It’s like, you’re going to have, like, I always, , with. Metaphorically say a jazz band like the the God is your your spiritual is like the drums, right? The horns might be your money community might be the piano the guitar might be work, and family and so on But if one of them’s out of tune,

Andrea Johnson: yeah, it

L. Scott Ferguson: kind of sounds like junk a little bit, right?

But I’m not asking to be Beethoven or Eddie Van Halen or anybody that’s good on any of those instruments But if we can get those right then You have a harmonic life where with me That’s where I will be kept awake because i’m seeing something where there’s not harmony in it, even if it’s for like let’s say I coached you like oh my gosh, right and Something that you and I are [00:30:00] working through and I missed a question that I wanted to ask you and stuff stuff like that Will kind of keep me up a little bit, right?

But no, I think we’re on the same wavelength there. Absolutely. So what is Andrea’s definition of a life well lived

Andrea Johnson: Well, I was going to go back to your, you said balance and harmony. And for me, it’s, I call it fulfillment.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, absolutely.

Andrea Johnson: So I would say a life well lived is. A life in which not only I find fulfillment and purpose, but that I actually muster that up or foster that in other people and give them the ability to flourish.

So flourishing is, is a life well lived for me. So when I’m, when I am flourishing, other people are flourishing. And so the work that I do is to help other people flourish and to do it on a community level.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, you do it in spades. I mean, absolutely. It’s just your little spitfire, man. This is so much fun.

 Time to shine today podcast varsity squad. We are [00:31:00] back and Andy at one of these days. We will meet, face to face We’ll talk about some of these questions for probably 15 or 20 minutes.

But today, okay You have five seconds to answer them with no explanations and I promise you they can all be answered that way Level up. Oh, let’s go. Here we go. What Andy what is the best leveling up advice you’ve ever received?

Andrea Johnson: Take time to look back down the mountain. See how far you’ve come.

L. Scott Ferguson: Stack the dubs.

I love it. Share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success.

Andrea Johnson: Weekly reviews.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. So you see me walking down the street, or maybe at an event, and you’re like, man, Fergie looks like he’s in his doldrums, right? What book might you hand me that has really kind of sparked something in you to lean into your ultimate self?

Andrea Johnson: The questions are the answers.

L. Scott Ferguson: Okay. I’ve never heard of that. Who wrote that? Do you remember? If not, Donnie will find it. Don’t worry about it. We’re good.

Andrea Johnson: And I, and I may have it a little bit wrong, but it’s the questions are the answers.

L. Scott Ferguson: [00:32:00] Gotcha. Your most commonly used emoji when you text.

Andrea Johnson: I don’t really use emojis that much.

L. Scott Ferguson: You used one with me on LinkedIn yesterday. Oh, it sounds easy. It was like a thumbs up.

Andrea Johnson: Okay. The winking, the winking one.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love it. I love it.

Andrea Johnson: I use that one.

L. Scott Ferguson: Nicknames growing up?

Andrea Johnson: Andy and you’ve called me that twice.

L. Scott Ferguson: Oh, I’m so sorry. No, that’s no, it’s

Andrea Johnson: totally fine.

L. Scott Ferguson: So do you have a hidden talent and or superpower?

Nobody knows about until now?

Andrea Johnson: Well, I was a jazz singer.

L. Scott Ferguson: Oh, in college.

Andrea Johnson: I sang and so when you said You started naming off the instruments. It’s like, oh, and I’m actually seeing the guys that I played in my, in my band with, I’m like, yep, that guy played the piano and this guy was on the face. Yeah.

L. Scott Ferguson: Chess checkers are monopoly monopoly.

And now we need to headline for your life. It’s

Andrea Johnson: going to sound cliche. Cause that’s it’s a [00:33:00] stand tall and own it. I guess now. Love

L. Scott Ferguson: it. Yeah. Love it. Go to ice cream flavor

Andrea Johnson: sugar. I can’t eat sugar, but I used to eat Jamocha almond fudge. Oh my gosh.

L. Scott Ferguson: That’s amazing. It’s so good. Baskin Robbins. Sandwich called the Andy J. Build that sandwich for me. What’s on that sandwich?

Andrea Johnson: Cheddar cheese, apple, like Granny Smith apple, and grilled. Oh,

L. Scott Ferguson: that sounds actually really good. Like really, really good.

Favorite charity and or organization like to give your time and or money to?

Andrea Johnson: I give to Together We Rise, which is all about taking care of kids in foster care, making sure that they have bags and bikes and, and stuffed animals and stuff so they’re not carrying around garbage bags.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love that. That’s amazing.

Together We Rise. Beautiful. And last question, we can elaborate on this one a little bit, but what’s the best decade of music? 60s, 70s, 80s, or 90s?

Andrea Johnson: 80s.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah, exactly. Well, no,

Andrea Johnson: [00:34:00] actually 70s. I think seventies. Yeah. I I’m a yacht rock girl.

L. Scott Ferguson: Do you have XM radio? They actually have a yacht rock channel. It’s we’re Apple

Andrea Johnson: music people, but there’s a yacht.

There’s plenty of yacht rock channels out there. Like I had one on Pandora and then we switched to Apple. But growing up in Korea, we were just a little bit behind. So I was on the armed forces network.

L. Scott Ferguson: So

Andrea Johnson: even though I graduated from high school in 84

L. Scott Ferguson: and

Andrea Johnson: then in college had all the eighties music, which I love, I was listening to that at the pool yesterday, but I’m really more of a seventies.

L. Scott Ferguson: No, I feel you. I actually, whenever I’m kind of editing a podcast, I love the 70s, not editing, but building my show notes or whatnot. Donnie just shot me a look like you don’t edit anything, but when I’m kind of building my show notes, I like to leave. Like 70s music on because there’s like stories that are being told and it just relaxes my brain now I graduated in 90 so 80s is kind of my jam and everything that kind of happened that decade of decadence and whatnot So but no, absolutely.

Yeah. Okay. So [00:35:00] how can we find you miss and and Andrea? How can we find Andrea

Andrea Johnson: Well, I am the intentional optimist and so my, my website is the easiest place to find that, the intentional optimist.com. And I am on LinkedIn and Instagram is where I participate the most. Okay. If you DM me and say that you heard me on Time to Shine today, I will know that you’re not spam and I will respond

And you can also find me in my podcast stand Tall and Own It, okay. On YouTube, those kinds of places. But my website is the easiest.

L. Scott Ferguson: Gotcha. I love it. And you do have a, is it a course, the, the core value, the values course in which we’ll be in the show notes squad.

Andrea Johnson: Yep.

L. Scott Ferguson: And I got to tell you, very, very affordable for what you’re going to get.

But tell us a little bit about that course. Sure. It’s a simple course that walks you through the main steps of. the process of uncovering your core values. So it’s, I think five modules [00:36:00] and includes downloads and all kinds of stuff. It’s, again, it’s very simple, but you can, if you don’t need that much, you can go with the free download, which is just a PDF.

Andrea Johnson: But then on top of that, I have a coaching program that you walk through the course, you get the course and five coaching sessions that help where I push back, right. Where I help you walk through everything. And I find that some people really need that. So. Both of those are available.

L. Scott Ferguson: And they’re everything’s on our nice, clean, beautiful website.

And again, that URL, the intentional optimist that that’s baller, man. That’s really cool, by the way, in squat, I’m going to do a three value giveaway. So I want you to put core value in the first three people to put core value. And I don’t care if it’s Pinterest, Instagram, anywhere, we’re going to post this your text, , core value to.

561 440 3830 in the Ferguson or the Ferguson team. The time to shine today. We’ll buy your course. The first three people I will do [00:37:00] that for, and it’ll be on my dime. And then, but you have to contact me so I can reach out to Andy to make sure that she’s compensated on that. And Andy, if you could please leave us with one last knowledge nugget that we can take with us internalize and take action on

Andrea Johnson: no matter what anybody else tells you.

You have the ability to decide for yourself in any area. Absolutely. Every single time.

L. Scott Ferguson: I love that. Take ownership. , don’t have

Andrea Johnson: to do it by yourself. But you can do it.

L. Scott Ferguson: Yeah. Love it.

Andrea Johnson: Yeah.

L. Scott Ferguson: Love it. And squad. I have pages of notes and I’m sure that if you’re listening and really internalizing you do as well, , there’s a period of time that Andrea did not lean into her neck innate talents.

, she really found herself kind of wandering a little bit, but then she found herself. Really leaning in and, , helping now. It’s kind of the masses that she’s starting to do. She’s really good at teaching and she let that kind of really play into her strength. She’s [00:38:00] terminally curious, , the, which now they like, she let us know that.

, it’s root cause analysis, but she’s terminally curious. She helps her clients, , drop their defenses or even if prospects or anyone She talks to is she’s so easy To talk to and helps them drop their defenses because she doesn’t want you dishonoring who you are When you’re out there , lean into your internal principles, your priorities, and that somebody like Andrea really helped guide you there.

Let me make a warm introduction to Andrea. She’s out there planting trees that she’s really never going to sit in the shade of because she’s pouring into people. She does things for the intention, not the attention. I don’t see her out there blasting, look at me, look at me. She’s really pouring into people to help them stand tall on their own things.

, she wants to help you move from Disempowered to magnetic like she is like she walks in to her chamber and they’re like, oh Andrea. Can you run this? Yeah, like she wants you to be out there You don’t have to be an extrovert like people like myself like andrea We we kind of like [00:39:00] through I I call it my alter ego.

I kind of push my alter ego out there She wants you to live Fulfilled with purpose and she wants you to live like her kind of in really pour into others foster that and allow others around you to flourish because you have at any time place wherever you’re at you have the ability to decide for yourself.

She reminded us of that and again she also reminded us so you don’t have to do it alone. , she said, , you can build a team, a squad like her around you to not have to do it alone. And that’s what my good friend Andrea does. She loves up her health. She loves up her wealth. She’s hungry, but still humble.

She’s absolutely stunning. She’s earned a varsity letter here at Time to Shine today. Thank you so much, Andrea, for coming out. We absolutely love your guts.

Andrea Johnson: Thank you. It has been my absolute pleasure. Yay!

L. Scott Ferguson: We’ll chat soon.

Andrea Johnson: Okay.

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