The JJ Identity

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How to Become a Coach. Coaching Business Advice with JJ Jalopy.

Welcome, welcome.

It’s always a pleasure. Come on in.

It’s been a lovely sunny day here in London.

Now the day is drawing to a close and it’s time to kick back, put your feet up and relax as I entertain and educate you. Pour yourself a whiskey. Light a cigar if you like. I won’t mind.

Help yourself!

Over the last couple of days we’ve been talking about the details of building a life or business coaching practice.

It’s been a lot of fun, but today I’d like to take a bit of a time out to talk about something that is applicable to everyone.

I want to talk a while on the power of IDENTITY.

And I’d like to start it off with a story…

I was tired last night.

And when I sat down in front of my shiny silver iMac to talk to you, I was feeling uninspired.

It’s nothing personal. I just wasn’t really feeling it.

I had a clear idea of what I wanted to say and how I wanted to say it, but my creative juices just weren’t flowing. My fingers rattled on the keyboard, but the words that appeared fell flat.

I had temporarily misplaced my mojo!

I made some tea.

I drank my tea.

I typed some more.

I deleted it.

I typed. I sighed. I knew I had the words, the stories and the creativity to make the message work but I just couldn’t find them.

I thought about giving up and going to bed but I wouldn’t let myself. Even when feeling tired, frustrated and uninspired I will l respect the non-negotiable agreements I make with myself. If I say I’m going to post every day, I’m going to post every day. That’s just the way it works.

Mrs. Jalopy walked into my cave. (That’s what I call my study.)

I’m not really feeling it today, I told her.

She gave me a hug.

It’s always nice to have a cuddle with Mrs. Jalopy.

I felt better but I still didn’t feel inspired.

I sat staring at the monitor for a while. Inspirational words were not manifest before my eyes.

I felt stuck.

Now what does master of motivation, powerhouse of productivity, creativity coach extraordinaire JJ Jalopy do when he finds himself in such a situation?

That’s right – I took off my pants, put my headband on, turned the stereo up to eleven and rocked out to Bonnie Tyler’s Holding out for a Hero.

I need a hero!

I didn’t really.

I left the computer and went to see Mrs. Jalopy. She’s a supercoach and she rarely fails to get the best out of me.

I feel stuck, I told her.

Really? she replied. But you’re JJ Jalopy!

“Yes I am,” I said.

And it was back!

I sat down and knocked out a thousand words of creatively honest, educational awesomeness in the next hour.

But I don’t get it, JJ. That doesn’t make sense. And I much preferred the story about Bonnie Tyler.

Well, Mrs. Jalopy doesn’t call me JJ very often. She calls me James, because that’s my name.

WARNING: SPEAKING IN THIRD PERSON ALERT!

James feels stuck sometimes.

James fees insecure sometimes.

James gets grumpy when he’s hungry.

James sometimes wants to hit the snooze button first thing in the morning…

Just five more minutes…

…because he’s only human.

JJ is really an IDENTITY I’ve created (unconsciously) to represent all that I want to be when I’m teaching, coaching, writing or public speaking.

JJ is a creative dynamo. He’s full of energy and positivity. He’s entertaining and a little provocative. He’s ruthlessly productive. He’s loving and encouraging.

Having the identity of JJ makes it really easy for me to tap into these resources. That’s what happened yesterday.

In NLP terms, the identity of JJ is a massive anchor to all of the resources I want when I’m rocking the business consultancy world!

My buddy, Australian persuasion master Duane Cunningham, has made a similar commitment to blogging every day.

If you were to ask him whether he’ll succeed he’d say:

Of course. There’s no way The Thunder from Down Under could fail!

And he’d be right.

Because The Thunder from Down Under rocks as hard as anyone I’ve met.

Duane has done something similar here. He’s created the identity of The Thunder from Down Under to represent the fearless warrior part of him that is that is going to take the blogging world by STORM.

Mate, that's not thunder.

(See what I did there?! )

When we spoke earlier we said that you’ll want to start seeing yourself in a different way as you move from employee to home business owner. You’ll want to make your new business part of your identity. Wonderful things will happen if you can make this identity something that really motivates you.

Now it’s likely what excites and motivates you is very different from what motivates Duane or what motivates me.

You may have noticed that I enjoy exaggeration, hyperbole and novelty.

Earlier in the post I described myself as:

Master of motivation, powerhouse of productivity, creativity coach extraordinaire!

This kind of language and the images and associations it creates in my mind really do inspire me to action.

Your motivating factors will be very different.

Maybe what really motivates you is the idea of being successful so you can look after and provide for your family?

In that case, your new business identity should include an aspect of this.

If you’re having an off moment you can simply remind yourself of the image you hold of yourself as a succesful home business owner, working hard for her family. And let me know how you get on!

Wow.

That was fun!

I enjoyed that. Can you tell?

Please let me know what you think of this. I’d be really interested to know.

Now I’m off to dream world for a while. Maybe I’ll see you there.

Goodnight.

JJ Jalopy.

Become a Life Coach

If you enjoyed my writing, please share it with your friends. Thanks!

23 comments so far

Comment by Lynn Lane
8 April 2009

Dang! James,
I see you got your Mojo back. I think I’ll step out of my pants and put my headband on.

I knew you were a WORRIOR Of Success.

Side question, do you often talk to your wife without your pants and wearing a headband?

Lynn Lane
http://www.Warriorofsuccess.com
Comment by Sonya Lenzo
8 April 2009

I really like that idea of creating a powerful image of yourself that you sort of live up to! When I was in Insurance Sales, the guys in the Office called me Red Sonya Warrior Princess (after the comic book character). They even pasted one of the comic book covers on my office door! It motivated me…warrior, princess…sort of silly…but yes, it was something to live up to!
SunnyMarie
Glamour and Glitz
http://www.sunnymarie.wordpress.com
Comment by Don Shepherd
8 April 2009

JJ,

You always jazz things up and give me a boost. i usually go to your blog as a halfway point to give me some inspiration to keep going. I too am commited to keep blogging even though it doesn’t come easy to me. thanks for the turbo boost.

Don Shepherd
oregon or bust
Comment by Christian Haller
9 April 2009

Anchoring and icons are very powerful for personal motivation as well as marketing.

Christian Haller
http://www.christianhalleronline.com
Comment by Bob Kaufer
9 April 2009

I hope you had a great dreamworld.

While JJ will be here most of the time i am assuming, will james also make causal appearances?

Bob Kaufer
If you MOVE like the Tin Man, you will THINK like the Scarecrow and FEEL like the Lion
Comment by Marion
9 April 2009

Another great article! Thanks for the motivation.
Marion
Comment by Lisa McLellan
9 April 2009

Love the pictures on your blog and the personal tone. Glad you got “it” back. Your blog posts are always fabulous.

Lisa McLellan, Child Care Expert – Babysitters, Nannies, and Au-pairs
Comment by Rob Northrup
9 April 2009

JJ,

I love the use of the anchors and the creation of the superhero character for yourself. Kind of like the Sales Eagles in a way, and my personal twitter name is SmallBizRob. I post a little differently from these different identities and I also feel a little different when I am in these personas.

I’ll have to think about this post a little more and figure out other ways to apply it…

Seize the Day,
Rob
Personal Asset Protection For Small Business Owners
Have You Covered Your Assets?
Comment by JC MacKenzie
9 April 2009

Best one yet, JJ. Glad to see there are others who type…delete…..type….delete….. I’m still looking for my persona, my theme but I am really enjoying the daily “updates” from everybody here.

Enjoy a cigar, you earned it.

Thanks

JC JC
Comment by mark mallen
9 April 2009

JJ, Glad to see you are human. You put up such great positive posts. Great coach’s, salespeople, etc usually change moods for the better when they actually have to deal with people. It is almost like another persona. Mark

Marketingscoops

Glacier Ice Cream
Comment by Duane Cunningham
9 April 2009

DUDE!! You are a frikin Legend my friend!!

And I just don’t say that because I played a starring role in the greatest blog on human development on the web!

The point about IDENTITY is crucial if you want to succeed at anything we have a host of super hero’s that act as metaphor’s for this entire post!

Mild mannered reporter turns into SUPERMAN!! Different Identity creates different characteristics which in turn creates a different set of internal feelings leading to…

DIFFERENT RESULTS!!

Its easy find someone anyone who has an identity (Charactistics) you would like and model them….create your own super hero!!

I did “The Thunder from Down Under

Duane

Learn Winning Persuasion
Techniques that Work Like Magic by Tapping Into the Psychology of
the Mind with Persuasion Expert Duane Cunningham!
Comment by Pat
9 April 2009

How do you do it JJ? How do you appear to ramble on aimlessly with humor and give us all the goodies on anchors, identity and more… It’s the Jalopy Wizard. Stunning!

-Pat
Business Owners Fast Track to Internet Profits
Comment by Paul Sampson
9 April 2009

JJ you are a total superstar!

You’re going to be massive.

Keep going mate!
Paul
Comment by Pam Schulz
9 April 2009

You obviously got inspired – great job Mrs. Jalopy!

Awesome post as usual!

Pam
Great Minds, Great Wealth: How to Raise your Return, Reduce your Risk, Cut your Cost
Comment by Philip Graves
9 April 2009

I’m too British to be as complementary as your writing demands.

I love the concept of the alter ego.

It happened, in a way, to me indirectly as a result of this course last year. John Ho, I think, suggested I call myself “Consumer Behaviour Expert” and, nowadays, I feel like I can put those particular trousers on (metaphorically speaking – I don’t actually own any CBE trousers) and stand tall.

Just as importantly, if you ask Google to point you at a “Consumer Behaviour Expert” you’ll get my ugly mug fairly high on the list… ok, #1 actually.

The recent change in my sign off is an experiment to get myself raised on a second set of keywords – not a sign of a crisis in confidence!

Philip [Consumer Behaviour Expert]
[The Consumer Behaviour Research Resource]
Comment by John Ho
9 April 2009

JJ,

It’s great to have anchoring point(s) to bounce us back to the higher consciousness.

Phil,

Good to see that you adopt the “Consumer Behaviour Expert” title. You’ve earned it!

John Ho
Understanding Personalities for Better Influence & Persuasion (WordPress)
Understanding Personalities for Better Influence & Persuasion (Vox Blog)
Comment by Darryl Pace
10 April 2009

JJ,

Good advice, and great post. I’ve read that these types of anchors can be very powerful for those that use them. It’s good to see the power of anchors in practice (via your story). This is a useful tool to have in one’s motivational tool bag.

Health, Fitness — Darryl Pace
Comment by April Braswell
10 April 2009

SO good that you DID post, because if you don’t haven’t written a reason like, I’m traveling and will be offline for a few days, over at KH”s vox blog, you find yourself the warm and cared for team member of my coaching success.

I’ll nudge you warmly and teasingly at your last blog post.

We all hit writers block and also start to JUDGE ourselves.

Oh this topic isn’t sufficiently brilliant to be worthy of a blog post.

Well, blogging diligently is not ONLY to blog brilliantly.

It is for SEO and for you to develop This Online Success Habit.

You are doing a great job.

Glad to hear receiving a cuddle from the Mrs. was so supportive and motivating.

You’re a hoot and half.

I’d like some of that whisky in my tea, please. Thank you!

All the best,

April Braswell
Dating Expert and Relationship Coach
Online Dating Sites Review, Internet Dating Sites Guide
Comment by Mesha Casper
15 April 2009

You are truly so, so ,so enjoyable to read. Thank you for that you kept me hooked to the end and you are so right”giggle” we are all so human and I have conversations with myself like that daily. “no kidding” You are so creative,delightful and interestingly inviting. Please keep wining those battles because this post of yours is the best that I have read yet on a scale of one to ten. I give you a jalopy 11.
Thanks for inspiring my evening, Mesha Big
Comment by Steven Casper
15 April 2009

JJ, I loved your post. I definitly agree agree with your concept. I’ve got alot to learn from you. you sound like a cool cat.Thanx steve