Well, hello, everyone and welcome to the podcast for this week. Ooh, this week, I have a power couple with me. I had the awesome Joe and Maritza Kelly. Hello, guys, how are you?
How are you? Thank you for having us.
Oh, it's such a, I'm really excited about our conversation today, because we are talking about how to ignite your passion in life. But not from a place of where a lot of you may be right now. Where you, you know, you'd be doing a personal development, and you're getting an idea of what you want in life. And then you're thinking, wow, I want to ignite my passion and figure out what my purpose is. But the interesting take the with you guys, is that, especially with you, Joe, is that you got to this place from a Can we call it Rock Bottom? I think it was pretty much rock bottom, wasn't it?
I believe so, I believe so.
Yeah. So coming from like, beyond like way behind the the eight ball to a place where you are living a really fulfilled and passionate life, where you, you know, with an amazing partner, and you have been so inspired to help other people find this for themselves. So that in itself is one of the reasons I'm excited to go through this podcast with you guys today. Because it really is, I think, something that we want to all tap into. Because I think without that passion or without that purpose, we're kind of just going through the motions. And I think very easily influenced by things outside of us that may not be for our highest good. So with that little segue would you Why don't we talk a little bit about your life experience, like your experience getting to this place where you realize it was do or die I had to figure out what my spark was? Or, you know, I was going to lose this.
Yeah, absolutely. So my background law enforcement canine Emergency Response Team, and I went through a dark period of my life.
Sorry, guys, I've just realized I'm not I'm not recording on Zoom. Sorry, I'm out of practice. Okay. Sorry about that. I can take two.
Well, hello, everyone, and welcome to the podcast for this week. This week, I have an amazing power couple. So this is something a little unusual. But we are talking about a very exciting topic today. So I want to welcome Maritza and Joe Kelly to the podcast, how do they how are you guys? Like I said, we're talking about how to ignite your passion. And not from a place of, you know, feeling good. And you know, having a lot of things that you want in your life and, you know, going well, what's my next thing, which maybe a lot of you who are listening to the podcast, that's kind of the place where you're at, because you've done some personal development, you you know, you are working on yourself, you are asking these questions, but really from a place of rock bottom, when we say that, you know.
Absolutely.
Yeah, a place where if it's, I don't find my spark. I don't know how I, you know, I could lose it. So Joe, what we might do is just start with your story first, because it was your story that really interested me and really, you know, got me motivated to want to talk more about how do we get to this place of fulfillment, when we're at a place where we can't see the light.
Absolutely. I'll start off with you mean, my story started off in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, born and raised. I grew up very athletic. My sports athletes paid for me to go to college. And my dream job coming from a family of first responders. My dream job was become a police officer ever since I was a little boy. I attained that position. Prior to the Academy, I had knee surgery, they told me I need it seven years later, seven years later came and I hurt my knee on the job, wrestling somebody to the ground. But at that time in my life, it was a huge difference between when I first started now, you know, being a police officer for over seven years, I saw things that most people don't see on a regular basis. I don't see in their lifetime that I saw on a regular basis. You know, especially being out of the emergency response team. I saw more than most officers see because I'm called for those most important things. And what happened there is when I got hurt, they gave me high powered pain medication. Because of who I was, my status in the community. I took more and more. And I was I took this medication to go back to work fast. I was never one to sit on the couch, but also subconsciously, you know, it was numbing all those feelings of the stuff that I was seeing a daily basis and the stress, and the anxiety. And as as a police officer, we're taught to give the help, you may not ask for it. And you mean I gave notice a lot of red flags popped up, you know, and fast forward not to go through like a lot of the war stories unless you'd like to ask specifically. But, you know, I started off taking these pills, I ended up progressing into sniffing these pills. And at the end of, you know, my addiction, I ended up shooting dope for a small period of time as well, which I was never raised like that. You mean, and, through the process, a lot of people tried to help me out. But I was afraid that if I came forward, that I would lose everything that I ever worked for my entire life. Little did I know, I was about to lose it anyway. And fast forward, you know, I, I landed in prison. And I did two and a half years in state prison. And that was probably you know, I woke up in a jail cell one day going, how the hell did I get here? It's like my life. Flash fast forward right in front of me. You know, what? A high ranking police officer went up through the ranks really quickly married with two married my college sweetheart, had two young daughters, great family, first responders, all the all the accolades you could possibly have. And now I'm sitting in a jail cell with some clarity after like two weeks going, how did I get here, you know what I'm short period of time.
So with, with your career as a police officer, and I want to say thank you for your service. I have other police friends, and I understand how extremely difficult it is to, you know, to see what you see every day, to be slowly you know, having that PTSD, you know, building up and not having the support that you need, you know, so thank you so much for that. But when you're in the in the force, and you're on the job, like did you feel like you had fulfilled your passion? Like, did you feel like this is it this is, you know, this is everything that I've worked for, and I'm feeling good?
Yeah, before that, you know, being from Massachusetts, a blue collar state, you made my you mean, up there, it's like to be a police officer, as a young kid, that was like, my top goal. I didn't know anything outside of that. It's like ingrained in you, you know, get a job union benefits. You mean, that was like the the big the big to do within my family. So when I had gotten that position, I thought I had arrived. I thought there was nothing more, you know, to go except for up in the ranks of that job. Yeah, so I was very, very happy, you know, with my situation. And I was very happy with what was going on. And, you know, I was very proud to be where I was.
Yeah. And was there a point where you went? Maybe this is the passion that I need to stay in? Like, you know, was there a point where you went, Okay, maybe this is not quite what I thought it was going to be?
Yeah, you mean going? You mean, I loved my job, you know, man, and everyone always asked me, I mean, did you did you like your job? I loved my job. I hated the politics of it. You mean, because the inner stuff is stuff that you see inside the courtrooms and everything else. You mean, I love to be I always wanted to do that job because I was very active, very athletic. I want to use my athletic ability to help people and get out there and do things. So there was never a person to sit behind a desk. So the job itself I absolutely loved, but the politics behind everything that goes on in house, outside of the house and everything else I really disliked. But I always loved the job, I loved the position of being able to help people. I just wish that I knew then what I know now, because there's much more I could have had much more of an impact on the community, with the experience in all the different modalities that I know now. You know, I would have been a totally different police officer.
Right, so, um, one more question, then Maritza, we're going to come over to you, but so you're in a way that you're in a jail cell, you're like, Okay, how did I get here? What was the thought process they got you to feel positively to be optimistic about, you know, the, you know, moving forward in life?
Yeah, you know, some of the simplest things is, I started picking up reading. Yeah, I mean, obviously, I had to watch my back and being who I was, and, and being from that area, but I started reading and when I started reading different things, one of the first books I ever read, you know, when I was in prison was the Four Agreements. I love that book was right up my alley, because it was very short. I didn't believe I was in computer, but it was very to the point and, and I read other books, but really what motivated or inspired me is to see other people that had been documented in terms of what they had been through and how they had turned their lives around. And for me, I stopped, up until that point in my life, I kind of carried shock around with me and said, "Hey, look at me, look at me, I'm the victim", I played the victim role very well on the manipulation. But when I started reading about other people overcoming different challenges in their life, whether it was with addiction or not, you mean, it inspired me. And I'm like, if that person can do it, why can't I? You know, anything that I could read that I could relate with somebody else that I thought was successful, or thought that had been through something that actually did something with their lives, without the distraction, so the stigma of society saying you can't do it, like, I love the underdog, you're, I, always have, you know, it inspired me to be more, regardless of what was waiting for me when I walked out. So that for me, was the big changing point was actually picking up books, start reading about stuff, and knowing that other people, you know, had took the same situation I was complaining about, and they won with it. So it inspired me.
Well, and it's come full circle. So now you've written your own book, which is "Badge Bars to Beyond", which we'll talk about in a moment. But Martisa, I just want to, you know, switch to you for a moment now and talk about, like, so, how did you, how did you come into Joe's story? Like, how did how did that happen?
So I met a guy now. So I did consulting for drug and alcohol treatment centers, I had owned a couple of drug and alcohol treatment centers, and I started doing consulting, for other facilities to make sure that they were up to par clinically, clinically sound and making sure that they were doing the best for their patients. And he happened to be working for one of those facilities. And we met at a barbecue that I almost didn't go to. And he asked one of the girls there that I was friends with, if you could get my number, and we just, we were married six months later, right from that date, and we were married six months later. And you know, we're going on 10 years. So we haven't looked back,
Right. And this is part of your work as well. So not only was this something that Joe was feeling very strongly about, but this is something that you do. So what do you think, are the reasons that people don't want to see or don't try to find their passion? Like, what do you what keeps them in this holding pattern? Do you think?
I mean, failures, failures are really scary thing. I think when I look at things, whether it's athletics, whether it's business, whether it's, you know, writing a book, I think one of the things that really keeps us back is the fear. Because what what if, what if we put it all out there, like we go 100% And my 100% is a C+, you know, do I get to be proud of myself for that? You know, what if i What if I write a book and it doesn't go bestseller, do I get to be proud of myself for that. So I think fear really holds people back because people like Joe had said, like, he played the victim very well. And he was very manipulative that and it's very easy to tell people why we can't do something, why we shouldn't be number one, and not own our greatness. And a lot of it I too, I think too, is, you know, owning maybe our what our parents think is great, and really not knowing that's why we created ignite your passion, because it's not about it's not about what his parents wanted him to be a first responder, but it's finding like what is inside of Joe, that sparks him to being the best version of himself.
Right. And so is that just the process of like, following the breadcrumbs and going okay, well, what is it that you know, and really trying to figure out what what is it that lights me up? Because I mean, some people, they are, they live a life of obligation, or they live a life that they believe society wants them to do or whatever that is. And, they, if you ask them to go, Well, what are you passionate about? They can't come up with an answer. So is it really just like a lot of introspection and going well, okay, I got to figure out what I liked to do or what could possibly be.
Yeah, I think our first step that we take people through is first breaking it all apart. So before you can, like you said, I love following the breadcrumbs. Let's deconstruct it right let's see what it looks like at its core. And once we look at its core we can see that the infrastructure so to speak, right because if we have shaky foundation we don't want to build on that. Right we want to build on solid foundation. So let's go ahead and take a look at what it what we're dealing with like not just what are you passionate about? What are you good at? What do you like do? What really like when you're doing it? It's It's fun, it's effortless and it really lights your I like to use the term like lights are so on fire like you just like you can do it all day long and not You know, not have a problem with it one instances, I love to drink juice. But the process of juicing is exhausting. Bar people are like, oh, you should juice for people. I'm like, That sounds terrible, right? So it's something that you personally enjoy, something that you're good at, and something that you're willing to put 100% of you in all the time.
Right? So given that all your experience, Joe, what how did you come into going? Okay, well, this is what I want to do. Like, how did you follow that path?
Yeah, no, absolutely. For me, it was I was embarrassed and ashamed and guilt driven, and everything about my past. And here's the thing, as much as I wanted to change that one year out of my life, which is a very, very bad year. I mean, I couldn't change it. I could not change it. I couldn't change the fact that I was on the front page of the paper and everything else. But what I could do, was being an example out of how come back from it, and that lit my soul on fire. It like called me out saying, hey, you know what, you know, this is the deck is stacked against you. You know what i mean? So what are you going to do? How are you going to respond, Joe? And I actually had friends that's in my book that had sent me letters that talked about remember who you are, Joe. And when they put football terminology stuff that really like lit that spark, and I caught fire. You mean, you've you've dropped fumbles before and turn them into touchdowns? What's stopping you now? You mean, so terminology and communication that I could really relate with. And it really for me, I had two young daughters, you mean, that probably didn't witness a lot of this because they were young, but they did. And for me, I can't change any other things that happen. But what I can do is be an example and be a positive example of what you can come back from, but not only come back from and survive, and thrive. You mean?
Yeah. And that's the thing, I think we can even, like, identify something, Okay, this, you know, just lights my soul on fire. This is exactly what it is that I want to do. But then there's so many nuances in how that can show up and how you fulfill that mission. You know, and I think that identifying a passion is like just one step of it. But then the other thing is like, Okay, now how do I fulfill this, you know? So, we, you know, with your program, ignite your passion? How do you help people step into that fire had that, you know, that passion for themselves?
So one of the things that we do is we go through, you know, where are you at currently? Right, like, where are you at currently? What are you doing on a daily basis? And then take you to where do you want to be daily? You know, where do you want to be on a daily basis, because I think we've, we've come so far as a society. And I think it's really unique. And I think most of us don't acknowledge how far we've come to where we can make these choices. It's not like our grandparents and their grandparents had where it's like you said, it was an obligation you provided for your family, you did these things. So we we are now have the opportunity to take who we are and who we want to be. And then we start to reverse engineer it to say, okay, like, what do I need to do to become that person? If that's one, and then it's just about inserting the daily habits, the little tasks, the little, the little, little tiny things that create that person and create that the fulfilment. And one of the biggest things I will say is that it's okay to pivot, right? Because I've gone in one direction and been like, I've looked at him, and I'm like, oh, no, I don't think that's for me. Right. And it's okay to completely do a 360°. I mean, I had a very successful business for 15 years that all of a sudden, I woke up one day, I didn't wake up one day, you know, you know, Natalie, it happens over where I am today. And yeah, this isn't for me anymore. And he goes, "why?" And I go, "because I feel" and I literally, like I always get like that very kinesthetic, right? I'm like, "I feel that I'm doing a lot but I don't feel full. I feel empty." You know, I look at it as like, like, if you have a craving for a certain food, and you know, the person tells you to eat something different to fill that craving. I'm like, no, just eat one of the things that you want, and fill that craving, because you're going to eat 10 Other things, and they're not going to feed that. So that's how we kind of do it. I
But I also believe you know, Nat that you mean when we teach us all the time. There is no failure. There's only feedback. You mean, you adopt that mentality, you apply those lessons learns in different areas of your life to become the person that you want to be. You mean it helps a great deal.
Yeah. Well, and that's the thing. I think that it's amazing what human beings will do to avoid disappointment. Because when you really break it down and go, Okay, let's say I fail at this. And I'm gonna use the word fail in inverted commas because you know, I don't know whether there is really such a thing. But let's just say I'm not successful at this one thing. I mean, what's the worst that's going to happen? Maybe you lose some time, maybe lose some money. But it's not like if you know how to build a business, or you know how to do something that if one thing doesn't work out, it doesn't mean that you can't just brush yourself off and start again and do something different, like, you know it. And I think I love that how you talked about pivoting, Maritsa, because, you know, I think that when you have, like, for me, I'm a server, I love to serve. You know, I'm the face and the teacher with our mind movies company. And I love it. I love one on ones I love group, I love teaching, and this is all my thing. And I want to help people that this is what I want to help them to, to have a better life and to see life in a different way. But the mission on how that shows up, is always morphing. And it's always something different. You know, this year, we're doing more, you know, live things, I'm actually starting to work with children in schools and teachers and parents and the whole thing. So, you know, I think that the pivoting is like it may be not even just a pivot, maybe it's just a progression to go, Okay, I've done this, you know, I've ticked that box, I'm good. Now I can move on to the next thing.
Well, and that is the evolution that we have to you know, we can't stay the same person, it doesn't work that way. The Mexican proverb, you never stick your toe in the same body of water twice. And every time we do something, we're constantly evolving into the industry that we serve are the individuals that we serve, how we do it, like I look back decades from when I started, and say I am absolutely not that there was anything wrong with the girl who started out, you know, 20 plus years ago, but I've evolved, and our methodology has evolved, you know, our partnership has evolved our relationship and the way that we serve other people, because we're the same, you know, it's the same thing, Natalie, like, we like I aim to please, you know, I aim for 100% success rate, and we want everyone that we work with to be happy and healthy and live their best overall life. You know, that's our goal.
Yeah. Yeah. So you alluded before Joe to some tools, and modalities and things that you you know, that you know, now that that helped you on your journey? What are some of those things? Like, what, what are some of the things that you teach people to really help them to embody this new version of who they are, who they need to be?
Sure. You know, for me, I talked a great deal about that stuff that I carried on the inside, until I changed some of that, and my perspective, I had a lot of limited beliefs, you know, about myself because of the situation that I was in, because of what society was going to stigmatize on me coming out. But also, a lot of other stuff that was going on in the inside, in terms of, you know, that I would learn from a young child or, you know, as my experience growing up, and that's when NLP, which is neuro linguistic program, was recommended to me. And when I got into that, it gave me the chance to get rid of some of the anger, some of the sadness, some of the guilt, and I didn't have to couch for, you know, three months and talk to somebody and talk about my problems, get rid of this, I got rid of this sitting down in a session for three minutes. And it blew my mind. And when I was able to get rid of those internal things, it opened up my mind and allowed me, you know, to do some of the things that I wasn't capable of doing because I was carrying around so much anger and so much resentment and so much guilt. So when I'm working with clients, a lot of the times is, you know, looking at where they're at, and where they want to get to what they're carrying with them right now that's no longer serving them. And it's important in order to get rid of stuff that's no longer serving you so you can implement stuff that's going to carry you to your next destination and maybe you can add to that as well.
Yeah, so he loves the NLP and I love it as well. As a therapist. Some of the other tools that I utilize is EMDR, which is eye movement desensitization reprocessing, also EMI eye movement integration. I'm also a Neurofeedback practitioner and we have a full biohacking center. I don't know if you knew that we have like a full biohacking center which is a lot of fun because we actually bring people in for wellness retreats. So where we do everything from Neurofeedback to whole body cryotherapy to saunas, biofeedback, so bioenergetics is a huge one, because as we know, the Body Keeps the Score. And so releasing that negative energy from the body through either I like to utilize the accordion process As or bad tantrums or just other ways for people to get in touch with their bodies, lymphatic yoga. So I use a lot of body nutrition, neurofeedback, because I truly believe if we only focus on one area, maybe we're only focusing on mindset, or we're only focusing on the body, we're going to miss the other part, I gave an example the other day, it wouldn't be like me telling a friend who's an amputee to walk it off, right with giving him the tools to do that. And just saying, like, you got this, just walk it off. Now, maybe if he had a prosthetic, he would be able to do that more successfully. And that's where some of our tools come in, because there's no cookie cutter way. So everything that we do is to create that container of success for our clients, by looking at where they are, where they want to be, and then creating that infrastructure. Now, we may not do some of the one on ones, we may not do some of the other support stuff that they have. But we create a blueprint of success, and then how for them to move forward, you know, passionately, successfully, and with all the tools necessary to carry that out to fruition.
Yeah, I love that. Because there is no blanket, you know, cookie cutter solution, and everyone is different. And I do like how you are incorporating the health piece. Because if our health isn't right, and sometimes we don't realize how bad our health is, you know, we're not eating well, we're drinking alcohol, we're doing whatever. But until you actually focus on that and start to do some work in that direction, you realize that you kind of were going through life with one arm tied behind your back. Because you're not, you know, you don't have the motivation to do what it takes a step into your passion. You know, you don't have the brain clearness, you don't have, you know, any of the, you know, the the vitality and the energy to be able to step into this new version, because it's not like we go and look, here's your passion, off you go Have a lovely life. It's, it's, it's a journey. So, and you need to be equipped for that as well. So I love how you're incorporating all that as well. So, Joe, you wrote a book? Yeah, "Badge Bars to Beyond". Now, how was that process, because I've written a book as well. And it's not that bloody easy, I can tell.
You mean, I'll tell you why I, my my wife twisted my arm, you know, to kind of write this book. And it wasn't because I didn't want to write it. It's because I had two daughters. I mean, that are now 18 and 16 years old. And I just say I want to rehash but my my big thing is remaining authentic, but also sharing my story, because I think it's very important that, you know, people like myself if we if we can be boisterous and vulnerable about our situations and what we went through in our life, maybe it's going to be help somebody who's dying silently, who's not boisterous. You mean, regardless of what it is that they're going through in their life. You know, so the process of writing the book, you know, you mean about 10 years removed from a 10 to 12 years removed from it, I had to go back in really, while writing that book, step back into that old person who I don't recognize anymore. But stepping into that old person, it brought up feelings, it brought up emotions, you know, it brought up stuff that that I may not have wanted to feel, but I thought as necessarily should go back that to tell the story from that person's point of view, who was me, and then spend most of the time on the book is on the solution on who I am today, how I got to where I am today. And that's why I was so when we talked about different modalities and stuff and why I'm so very passionate about what we do. Because I'm a product of my book, I'm a product of the modalities that we teach, you know, it made me a better father. It made me a better husband, it made me a better human being. So I enjoyed the process of the book. It also led me going back to Massachusetts to hold a big substance use and mental health awareness. And we had how many people that we had close to 1000 people 1000 people, but while I was there, I always you know, I'd stop back and go to Massachusetts to see my kids and stuff. But I was kind of hesitant resistant to doing that event because it was other people that were going to have to be there. And I'm like you know what, it's time for me to go back even though I had been back many times to give back to the community in which I did some destruction in and present in bring outside resources from all the people that we know Nat, right? that they typically would not have the resources to get those people there. And one of our close friends came up to me after The event he goes to, "you know, you just did there, and it would like hit my heart, you know", and he goes, "you just close the loop". And it blew it like something in me changed. And it just made me feel so good that I could take the most vulnerable situation of my life, the worst year of my life and be able to turn it into a positive to give back to the community in which raised me, but also to be able to use everything that I learned up to up till now, even before all that stuff happened to me and be able to work with people around the world to make, help them elevate their life, in every aspect that they chose to, you know, so I love it. I'm so
Well, and that's the thing. I mean, you read other people's stories, when you're at a low point that inspired you. And your book is fantastic. You know, there are there are some people who can tell a story about the worst time of their life. And it kind of feels indulgent, it feels like I just want to tell you about my really bad story, which is not what you've done. You know, you're gone. Yeah, this happened. And I'm illustrating this to show you how low a human experience can be to still be able to get to this, you know, high life of passion and fulfillment. And this is how I did it. And this is how you can do it too. And what a lot of what you share really is very helpful. So congratulations on the book, you've done a fantastic job. And I know that if you are listening to this, this podcast, you will be able to download a free chapter of Joe's book. And you can find the link in the show notes for the for the podcast here. So guys, I want to thank you so much for for spending the time for being here for sharing your story. And for the amazing work that you're doing. Because I feel like now more than ever, it is a time on the planet for for people to kind of step into, you know, a life of meaning. And I think we will all we're all here at this time at this moment in history, for a reason. And to be able to help people to discover what that reason is for them, I think is just amazing. So thank you so much to both of you for your time today.
Thank you so much. And Natalie, we'd like to give your audience too, a free access to our five-day Ignite Your Passion challenge, as well as the first chapter of his book.
Awesome, fantastic. Tell us a little bit about that.
Yeah, so it is a five-day pre recorded access to our Evergreen product, which is Ignite Your Passion, which many of our clients have gone through to kind of get a taste of what it looks like what we've been discussing today. How to really start on that journey if you're not sure whether you're coming from loss of finances, freedom and family like Joe did at the lowest point of his life, or when you've been following Natalie for a long period of time and and maybe you're in the personal development world and you're doing great. You're just trying to figure out maybe who that next version of yourself is. It's good for wherever you're at. We're just happy to meet you there and take you on a journey.
Wonderful. Alright guys, well thanks again and make sure you look out for the links for both of those items in the show notes.
