JJ Flizanes is a powerhouse, laser-focused, blind-spot seeker for her clients as she helps them establish a mind and body connection. Listen in as she shares her secrets for finding the root of a problem and getting right to it.

Hello this is Tonya Dawn Recla, your Super Power Expert. And I am excited to have with us today JJ Flizanes. She is a powerhouse. You can feel the energy pulsating off of her. What I really appreciate about her in the very, very short time that we’ve had a chance to connect, is just that drive, that knowingness, and that drive. And I see the way she appears to me is like these lines, these laser pointed, focus perspectives on how she entwines things. It’s really unique, and so I know you’re going to enjoy listening to her today.

She’s just masterful. She dances around that fitness arena, but it’s so much more than that. She was named Best Personal Trainer in Los Angeles in 2007 by Elite Traveler Magazine, which is no small feat. So, that’s awesome. But what I really loved in getting to know her a little bit better is how everything connects together. So, we talk about the Mind, Body, Spirit stuff a lot. But what does that mean? How do we master that?

And so, if I had to throw her into any kind of mix, I would say that she’s probably really seriously pushing the bounds of the matrix for folks. And I for one appreciate that. So please join me in welcoming JJ to the show. Welcome JJ.

Thanks Tonya. Happy to be here.

Awesome. We are happy to have you. So what are your Super Powers?

I have like a laser-focus, blind-spot seeker. I can just see where the hole is, what the problem is. I work with people in mostly health and fitness. But really, it’s life coaching on top of that. It has everything from food and exercise, to spirituality. And I know it doesn’t take me very long to assess a person anywhere. How far back the root is of what we’re dealing with. I don’t normally tell them right away, but I can identify it very quickly. I just see it because I see things more spring-like. In Tarot cards in numerology, I’m a 12-3. If anyone knows anything about all of that stuff, it’s like love and wisdom, and it’s being able to take little pieces from each part of life and put them together like a puzzle and see what part is what parts missing and how does that connect with that. And it’s a matrix. I heard you say Matrix. I thought that’s absolutely what it is. A lot of people can only think in one line. So, if they’re thinking about weight loss or it’s one thing about food exercise they’re not seeing the emotional components. Or if someone doesn’t recognize their behavior in a relationship and they think, oh well that’s just over there. But over here I’m a different person, they’re not seeing why, what the connections are. So, I just have that definitely has been something that I feel intuitively. I’ve had all my life definitely in this line of work when I meet with people or where I talk with people. I can quickly identify what the real problem is what’s a coming from.

I love that. Especially in world that loves to compartmentalize, to put people in their boxes, and even compartmentalize topics and concepts. To take a broad stroke like that like you mentioned that you feel like it’s something that you’ve had innately for forever. What helped you step into that and really stand in that space?

Well, I say I think I innately had it because I can tell you when I was 12, I was telling my aunts about my mother and my aunts about their children. And I’m the oldest of nine grandchildren on my mother’s side of the family. So, when I was 12 I was noticing the patterns then, and I said this is what’s going to happen to this one is what’s going to happen to this one and it’s what’s going happen to this one. And then when those things happened and my mother said, “Oh Jay said that was going to happen.” They were like, “What! How did she know.” I’m like, “Because I’m watching this like a movie. That’s why.” And so, I remember being 12 and thinking, “Why are you doing that? They’re not going to react the way you want them to. They’re going to do this.”  

And so, how did I step into that? It took a long time. I know that you’ve been wanting to talk about how do you live in your power and stories around that and one of the things and it’s probably a lifelong thing for me. I was definitely raised in a small town that I knew I wouldn’t stay in. Although I do appreciate the community aspect and the closeness to some degree, but I remember being 16 and baby sitting and looking out the window thinking, “What the heck am I doing here?” I just knew there was no way I was sticking there. I had to get the heck out because I just knew. Vibrationally I didn’t fit in. I wasn’t. I was different. But in a good way. I wanted to be. The way I was I didn’t want to be around other people that were not like me. I wanted to walk outside the box. And people who wanted to ask questions, who were curious. Come to find out, 25 years later, that I’m I guess I’m gifted. I’ve been told. 

Now that I’m reading it now and answering all these questions that are on the cover, it’s like do you have to have this curiosity? And I’m like yeah. Anyone else I know like that? No. So, it’s been a hoot.

It feels disempowering to feel so different. It feels disempowering to feel weird to others, and to yourself you feel right on. I’m like no! I know what I’m doing is good. I know what I’m doing is expansive and I know what I’m doing feels good to me. I think not there is a right and wrong way of being by any means, but it just felt in alignment. I felt like I knew this is who I am, but for some reason, not everybody can handle that. So, it’s only now coming to understanding more of why, and then how to balance that.

So, living in my power. My life has gone in so many different directions in terms of following my impulse of passion. And my impulse of passion was to perform originally. And so, I actually went to school to perform and I came out a singer, dancer, actor, although I had been dancing since I was three, and singing since I was five, and acting since I was probably maybe closer to 15 14 13 somewhere in there. And I learn so much on that journey, and I study people’s behavior. If you’re really a true actor, you put yourself in someone else’s shoes to understand what it’s like to be in that person’s shoes and see life like they might see it. It’s not just you getting up on stage and taking people’s applause and attention. It’s you really learning how someone else sees the world differently than you. And I think a true acting training, especially in the Stella Adler method, you get education beyond anything you can ever get in school. Because it is so powerful to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and look at the world differently than the way you look at it. Have so much perspective on that.

And so, I took that education with me. And somewhere along the line I didn’t want to get out of school, and I didn’t want to wait tables, even though I did that too. And I’ve run restaurants and all kinds of things. But I got out of school and I wanted to use my brain. I recognized that that the acting piece, that the singing piece, the dancing piece was all very fulfilling in my body and in my spirit and my energy, but my brain was bored at some point. I need to solve a problem. And this is when I started to learn that I have a pretty balanced right and left brain.

So, then I come out of school and I get into personal training just because I wanted a job. First started out just during the gym and getting a job at the gym. And then I saw the trainers and I thought, “I want to do that. How do I do that?” And my supervisor said, “Take this Test.” And then that started a whole other avalanche of things.  

And I couldn’t tell you that I would be where I am today. Back then it just I’ve allowed my life to unfold by taking the cues of what I’m interested in what I want to do that seems fun and interesting. I care about my body. I want to learn more. I want to age well I want to be well. I don’t want to be the person that I see walking down the street with the cane who can barely half their head up, who has issues and can’t see and has digestive stress and bad skin and bones that are falling apart because they’re not well nourished. I don’t want to be that. I want to be strong and healthy and vibrant forever.

So, that led me into the training business. And then one thing led to another and I grew out of fitness and the talk about exercise and weight loss as my main thing because I started to see that it was way deeper than that. And so, I started learning about hormones and neuroscience,  and biochemistry. And then learning psychology. And then I brought in my acting background, and then astrology in neurology, and then family dynamics, and behavioral psychology. And I sort of look at this and go, “Wow. this is so much deeper than just what exercise is the right one for me.”

And now, I’m highly anal about mechanics and joints because I was taught my very first training as a personal trainer. My very first certification I had a Mr. Olympian. I had a whole bunch of really big bodybuilder guys that were brilliant in physiology, who were teaching these certifications. You want to judge them as being “meatheads,” but once you started to hear them speak and teach you science, you were like “Holy cow! You guys are smart.” 

So this one guy Mr. Olympian got up and the first thing he said was, “I’m Mr. Olympian, blah blah blah.” And he’s teaching a science, and he looks at us and he yells and points and says. “I had 11 injures. don’t do what I did!” And I went and I just sat there like, “OK. That’s all I need to hear. I won’t do the same stupid things as you did to wreck your joints.” Now, I was in my early 20s at that point, but I learned that I have this thing about joints. I get very technical. But each little aspect I dive in and I learn and I see that preventative long-term picture.

So, as I grew out of the fitness conversation I realized that people weren’t listening to me because I was a “trainer.” All they wanted to hear from me was exercise and diet, and I was like, “No! This is not where it stops because that’s not the root of the problem, and that’s not how we’re going to solve this issue of self-care with you!” And so how I actually stepped into my power even more was by creating my podcast. I wrote a book called Fit to Love. And then I did a six-day week podcast show which allowed me to theme every day of the week something I thought was interesting and important for this journey of how you heal relationship with yourself and how you own your self-care, and be the best you can be. And take care of yourself and love yourself from a place of true love and respect and not from shame, and blame. and guilt. and hurt, and hatred, and disgust of yourself because that’s what the fitness industry is fueled by.

It absolutely is. I love how you tie all that together. It’s so in alignment with so many of our members and our listeners’ journey’s is a sense that it really is eclectic. We talked about earlier on. The world likes things to be nice and neat In these little packages, and we’re pretty complex creatures. So, to take an industry like this and turn it on its side and say, “I think it’s going to be a little bit more of a dialogue than that,” it’s not popular. We like quick and easy. We like instant gratification. And so it’s really refreshing to hear you talk about it from that perspective and linking all of those things together with that. Imagine we’re pulling from so many things that you learn in your journey.

And you still have to do one step at a time. Right. It’s not, because it can be definitely very overwhelming to think. You mean I’ve to deal with all that stuff. Well yeah you do. If you really want change now you don’t. If you just want temporary change you can just do whatever you’ve been doing. But I know there are. Millions of people who they feel like they’re failing. They feel frustrated that they can’t get it right because they don’t know what pieces are missing. So I want to introduce that into the conversation way at least when you’re ready you understand where you’re going.

So how do you work with your clients? You do one to one or groups how does that look for you?

Oh I do all of it. I do one on one in person and on Skype I teach classes. I do webinars all over the world getting ready to do one in Switzerland here at the end of this month which is really fun. I did Japan and Europe earlier this year. I definitely travel to present as well. And then I do my podcast show. So that’s a six-day week show.

So, I worked with this psychic, I work with all kinds of fun people. And there’s that person who I love who lives somewhat close by in a very spiritual place that I retreat to all the time. And so I had a session with her I was just go and we can do a 30 minute little reading and see what comes up. And I said to her I feel like a backed-up hose before I started my show. I feel like I have all this creativity all these things I want to talk about share with others or products and create programs for people to get success in this area. But I don’t have that outlet.  I can’t do it to the people that I work with in the ways that I’m working with them right now. So, I’ve had to grow and shift into what I do now, which the show allows me to do that. And once I had once I heard about podcasting, Oh my gosh, that’s where I can do it! And so, that’s why I create a six-day week show, so I could take all those things I want to talk about, and share, and let people know this affects your whole life in so many ways. And maybe didn’t realize it before, here’s how we can. Maybe this is the piece that you’re missing. You’ve been in this line over here trying to do it this way and it hasn’t worked for you yet because you’re missing this piece. So, that’s sort of how I started to do a whole 16-week show. Now, after two years of doing the show and two seasons of like 340 shows, I look back and I said, “OK I think it needs its own show.” So now I am in that process.

And so, I I’m about ommunication. I’m about clarity. And I’m an awesome problem solver. So, really it just from whatever people need. I’m in the process of writing another book. I got a book deal and the book will launch next year in 2017. And so I’m in the process of writing that and relaunching six new shows. And where in my spare time, I’m also creating a membership that people can take all this information and do at their own pace and that will be launched at in time and books. There’s multiple ways to get help and assistance based on what it is that you’d need.

Cool. That’s awesome. I know we talked a little bit about when you make choices and when you stepped in those things. Do you have another example you want a share of a time when you got that intuition or that inner knowingness, and you took action with it? And what transpired? Is a pivotal one that’s sticking out to you right now? 

Sure. This one doesn’t have as much of a result-driven reward on the back-end. But when I wrote fit to love and I launched that book the first time because it can we had a new publisher and then we relaunched it in 2015. But the first time we launched it was 2011 and we made Amazon Best Seller list first day. And it had this big campaign and it was really successful. It was really fun. And I had had an investor. I had manifested an investor, which I was really thrilled about, and I was taking this vision forward and doing all this stuff. But I was clear because I know you guys talk about Law of Attraction and new vibration frequency. And I’ve been studying Law of Attraction for at least 10 years, so I feel pretty proficient in in this work. But back then, I really recognized that I wasn’t living it. I was believing it. I was talking about it. I was thinking about it, but my actions did not reflect that. In fact, I could recognize that, in retrospect, I was powered by anxiety. So, for me, being that love and passion is the highest frequency rate. And anxiety can feel similar. It can feel movement, and it definitely has a movement to it, but it was a result-driven. It was, “I’m doing this to get to this end point, which then I think I’ll get relief.” And I recognize it as it was happening. And I said to my investor, I wanted more money than he was going to put in the beginning and the reason why was because I was trying to start a structure, a strategy to create momentum and he just wanted to get the book out and get it to bestseller and put the money in the front end. I said, “OK we’ll do it your way. And if it doesn’t work I’m not continuing to do this because I need help. I need leverage and I don’t to push anymore.” I’m a great producer. I can produce I can get stuff done. I’m very fast, but I’m doing all the work, and that’s not leveraging the power of the universe that can help me. I am not supposed to do it all. So, to ride the wave. I’m not supposed to be making the wave. So, I read. I realized that I wasn’t really living The Law of Attraction.

So, at around October of that year I had gotten an e-mail. You’re on people’s e-mail lists and you follow certain people and business to help you grow your business, or different mentors in different areas of life. And this one particular mentor I had definitely grown out of. And she had done a video series, and something she said in the video series just sort of turned me off to the point where I unsubscribed. I’ve been on this list for years, and I know these people personally, and I’ve been in groups. And for me, to unsubscribe wasn’t an easy thing. I had to sit with myself for a second and I thought about what I was about to do, and why is it so hard? And I thought, “It’s hard because I am acknowledging that I’m no longer following models that model only one thing.” So, like money. So, if that person was money in business, but her relationships were crappy, her parenting style was terrible, there was just so many other things that weren’t in balance. And I thought, you were present that pigeonhole, “I’m going to follow you to get more money.” OK, what does that mean for the rest of my life then? What do I have to give up or what how do I have to be imbalanced or sick or have bad relationships or get a divorce in order for me to get and attain what you’ve gotten? I don’t want to do that anymore.  

So, I like free falling. I unsubscribed because she was probably the very first and the most successful person that I had followed and known. And it felt like I was cutting myself off from that whole world. I went into this, “I’m no longer willing to do anything that doesn’t inspire me and motivate me. From inspiration and passion only. I will not move a muscle unless I’m in alignment and motivated, not the other way around.” It’s not about anxiety and pushing and fear. It’s about knowing and allowing Spirit to guide me and my higher self, and it to be in divine timing. And that was a big thing for me.

So, 2011, I took a hiatus for about a year. It wasn’t until a year later 2012 that I got because I mean I stopped sending out e-mails. I stopped marketing I stopped. I just stopped because I said I’m not willing to do this anymore because this whole model is based on fear. And since then I just have felt open I mean the podcasts I got the idea for the podcast in a book I was in a writer’s workshop, and the podcast took over. I was sitting there for the Writers Workshop and then also I got to download about the book about the podcasts. And there you go. I didn’t even finish that book because the podcast crept up and became that just took over. And it’s been a great journey.

Very cool. Well that’s a great example. I wish more and more of you who are step into that entrepreneur space or perhaps you’ve been there for a while. Heed what she’s telling you is to have the courage to step fully into who you are and your ideals and it’s powerful beyond measure and it will always result in amazing things. So, thank you for that example. I know people are going to want to know a lot more about you where can they find out more.

Website wise I’ll give you two addresses. The first one’s my show, it’s fit2love.tv, is the podcast website. You can find all my social media links there and anything else you need to know. If you’re interested in one or two of the topics, but you really aren’t interested in the whole six topics, you can come over to JJFlizanes.com. And I have listed all of the different shows that are going up in more specific targeting. So for instance my Movement Monday show on the podcast is about exercise and its video. You can find it on YouTube too, on my YouTube channel. But if you’re interested in exercise videos to see good form and what muscles you’re working and learn how to do things properly that will get you the most bang for your buck. You’re building muscle and be protecting your joints. Understand good form and how to connect your body to that. So, that show’s Movement Monday, but to be republished on iTunes as Smart Exercise. So all the different six days a week and a new channel on iTunes. So you can come to JJFlizanes.com to find whichever topic interests you.

Very cool. Thank you so much it’s been delightful talking with you today. Appreciate you joining us.

Thank you, Tonya, I appreciate you having me.

So, all of you out there as always, we appreciate your loyalty. And until next time, go out and uncover your Super Powers and change the world. Take care everyone.

Learn more about JJ Flizanes.