JD created the GPS to Life Success App in 2022 and it is a mecca for personal growth!

About the Guest: 

J.D. Leisky is the founder of an APP called GPS To Life Success

Apple Store:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/gps-to-life-success/id1637484295 d. 

Google Play Store:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.actionera.gpstolifesuccess&pli=1

About Deana:

Deana Brown Mitchell is a driven, optimistic, and compassionate leader in all areas of her life.

As a bestselling author, speaker and award-winning entrepreneur, Deana vulnerably shares her experiences for the benefit of others. As a consultant/coach, she has a unique perspective on customizing a path forward for any situation. 

Currently President of Genius & Sanity, and known as “The Shower Genius”, she teaches her proprietary framework created from her own experiences of burnout and always putting herself last...  for entrepreneurs and leaders who want to continue or expand their business while taking better care of themselves and achieving the life of their dreams.

In 2022 Deana released the book, The Shower Genius, How Self-Care, Creativity & Sanity will Change Your Life Personally & Professionally.

Also, Deana is the Founder & Executive Director of The Realize Foundation. She is a suicide survivor herself, and vulnerably uses her own mental health journey to let others know there is hope. The Realize Foundation produces events and publishes books that let people know there are not alone.

“But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds” Jeremiah 30:17

https://www.realizefoundation.org/

https://www.facebook.com/RealizeFoundation

https://www.instagram.com/realizefoundation/

https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-realize-foundation/

https://www.youtube.com/@realizefoundation5598

https://twitter.com/ScarstoStarsTM

Thanks for listening!

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.

Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!

Subscribe to the podcast

If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.

Leave us an Apple Podcasts review

Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.

Deana Brown Mitchell: Hello, everyone, I'm back today with Jeremy or JD. So I met us Jeremy. And so it's really hard to break that habit. But JD is written in two of our scars to start books. And he has an amazing, incredible stories of his life and what he's been through and how he's overcome it. So everybody can go get the book and read it. So he wrote in volume one and Volume Two, you find them on Amazon, you could find them on Barnes and noble.com, you can find them many places. But what I'd like the JD to talk to us about today is, what he's doing now, and how he is changing lives for people. And I'm so excited for what's to come. So JD, I'm gonna let you take it away.

Jeremy J.D. Leisky: All right, Deana, thank you very much. And, man, Deena, you've been with me there for years, pretty much from the start of the project that I've been working on, which is absolutely amazing. And you've been instrumental in really giving me support at times where I just was like, Man, this is a stupid idea, how am I gonna be able to do it, and you were like, Okay, let's, let's go ahead and wipe it out and stuff like that. And so, really, it's been great knowing your DNA, and I really appreciate what you do. And I love to be a part of this. And I'm very privileged, because I know that this is going to be reaching a lot of people and you're going to be changing a lot of lives. And that's what we're supposed to be doing. Right, we're in this world together. That's one of the tech lines, I say, we're in this world together, we need to be lifting each other up. And I take that to heart. And that's how we thrive you know, all these hard times that are going on, and all the fear that's going on out there. You know, you the big thing for me, that changed my life was finding a tribe, finding people that are gonna lift you up, and they're gonna be there with you, when you go through the hard times and help you go in the right direction. And, you know, that's really essential, especially the times coming up. So it's awesome, the space you're making the tribe you've created. And, again, it's awesome to be a part of that. So, you know, we were talking a little bit about what it is I'm doing right now. And in order for me to really let people know what I'm doing, I have to give some context behind what's going on. And so I'm gonna tell you a little bit of my story and why I'm doing what I'm doing. I grew up in that household, but I had loving parents that gave me everything they wanted, or I wanted, but the problem was that I had a father that had a very, very bad temper problem. You never knew what kind of father you were gonna get when you came home. So I grew up in that household abuse and uneasiness and never knowing when the other foot was going to draw up, or she was going to draw and, you know, so everything that came along with that growing up as a teenager, I was cutting and then I started just hitting myself and I hated who I was. And I didn't know how to deal with the frustration and anger in my life, except for to lash out into fights and to do all these other things. So we're gonna fast forward this just a little bit. So grew up in that environment was a very troubled teen. When I was 18, I was living out of my car 19 I was the getaway driver in a robbery that went bad. The person went in and did this robbery, and they shot and killed two people. I never thought that was going to happen, but it happened. And so anyway, 19 years old, I was sentenced to 10 years in prison. So I did that. And while I was in prison, I ended up getting my GED. And I was going to college and I was doing everything that I could to educate myself. When I first got in. I had some old school convicts that sat me down. I'm very grateful for that. And they said, listen, the world is going to be against you. When you get out. You need to educate yourself. As you see, I don't have tattoos all over. At the time I was in tattoos, were considered a no go when it came to business, things like that. And so I use that time to really help myself grow. When I got out, started working with troubled teens. Next thing you know, youth groups and different places were calling me saying, Hey, can you come and talk to our teens? And I'm like, Heck, yeah, let me go out there. And it was amazing because teens don't hold back they ask you all the crazy questions, anything intimate. How did you feel at this point? How did you feel at this point, and you have to be open and honest with them, otherwise, you lose them with your you'll you'll lose their interest. And so I was always upfront honest with who I was what was going on and was able to really influence them and directions in life and it's amazing to see where a lot of them are at right now. Anyway, so worked with you the next thing though, speaking out a lot of stages and that was going all over speaking on stages. Started a limousine company from scratch started with a couple of Lincoln Town Car limos built up had an entire fleet where I had the Hummer, the Escalade, the whole nine yards, nice fleet of limos. 2008, of course, took its toll lost everything, then went through what I call my Forrest Gump. face. That's where I decided to one day tarry a cross the length of Illinois than What's New York, Long Island. Now, I'm not a super religious guy, I'm not out here, you know, trying to push anything I believe on anybody else. It was a journey that it was a self discovery for myself, and turned into something amazing. And I talked about a little bit of that in one of the books as well, I think, you know, I did that thought I was gonna be like the next Arthur blessing if you don't know who that guy is, he's somebody who carried across around the world changed so many lives, thought that was my lane. Then shortly after all sudden, I was having chest pain went into a hospital, they said, I had 90% blockage in my coronary artery the entire time I did this crosswalk. So what that means, basically, is that I was living on this store the whole time and didn't even know it. And so I had five stents put in and I had a stroke when I was in there, had to rehab lost everything, found myself that living without home again, then at some people take me in whole nine yards, I started building myself back up and got that call, and my mom passed, came out to take care of my father, really grateful for that, because we got to really resolve a lot of issues that I had. And he had with me and we became good friends. He passed when after what I thought was my dream company started another one, which was a sweepstakes marketing company and did all the networking and went over all the stages do it all the other stuff again, and that didn't work out and lost everything again. When I was at that point, my health was really bad. I was at about nine stents at that point in time, I was having really bad health issues, losing everything again, and I just really wanted to give up. And I was at a point where I had just got done with an event, one of my dream cars was a Polaris, slingshot, or both. If any of you guys are familiar, you can look it up on the internet, they're a three wheeled car, really fun to have. That was my dream car. I just really love that thing. They're not super expensive, but it's awesome. Anyway, in the garage, close the garage, had the vehicle running, and I just was done. I was tired. I wasn't sitting here crying, I wasn't angry, I was just completely tired. And I said, I'm just done. And I was in the car. And I'm letting the car run in the garage. And then I said to myself, just give one reason, just one reason to turn off the vehicle. And I really remember because I was looking, I was trying to search for that vehicle. And what really was amazing is those teens that I had talked to, when I got out, save me that day. Because they came to my mind.

And I started thinking about those teens that where they were at now how it was able to impact their lives. And then I started thinking about other people, what I was able to do in life when I had my limousine company through the crosswalk through even my health issues and talking to other people that had health issues and being able to really influence and change those lives. And I knew at that moment that I had a purpose in this world. And my purpose was to be here to help other people to feel like their life is out of control. They feel like they have no future to feel like when they're at that point when they just go I don't know where to turn anymore. I have no idea what to do. I feel so lost. And I said I need to be there for those people.

So I turned my vehicle off, went back in the house lost everything. So I found myself living out of vehicle again, I was on my laptop, actually using Burger King Wi Fi, and stuff like that to get some work done, and still didn't know what I was going to do. Then I got this phone call from somebody saying, hey, we need you to work in what's called a coaching zone. This is when the pandemic first hit. And they said you know, this is where we're doing virtual summits, blah, blah, blah. And I said, Sure, I'll do whatever I came in. And next thing I was immersed in this world of inspirational speakers, business people, motivation, people, life coaches, all these other things. It was absolutely phenomenal. And I got to know those people over the years to working with these systems. They got to know who I was. And it was amazing because I knew I had this dream to change these lives to influence people to use my story to help other people grow in life. Didn't know I was going to do it. Now I had these people around me and they were instructed me and I spent all this time with people.

And then next thing you know, I worked with somebody and got this app from company called Action era man. Absolutely amazing. I actually worked with them now. Got an app with them and built what we call GPS to life success. And that's where Deena came in, helped me hash this thing out and really worked with this. And now we have our app in the store that people can download. You can download it and Apple and Google. I've learned a lot of different stuff on the back end to be able to do all the tech things. I've got programs in there. We've got amazing coaches that are in there. I have something we just called the Jumpstart program and that's to take you from zero don't know where I'm going to giving you a firm direction and giving you the tools you need in order to become accessible, were community platform. So on there, we can chat with one another, we really hold each other accountable. That's what the whole thing about finding that tribe, finding people that are going to be with you help lift you up and keep you going in life and keep you on that right track, which is what we talked about earlier. So that's what I've been working on. I'm very excited to have that. And now I've been working with a wonderful, wonderful man, ladies, that have so many degrees and have so much in the education system. And we're working on a program right now, to really reach out to mostly teens, but it's going to be able to apply to business and other things on how to do conflict resolution, how to be able to deal with different emotions, how to be able to sit back and set your goals and set things in life, and really get a good direction and take that time to really get away from the pressures in the world and have that escape and really help transform them when they're in those hard times.

So I'm really excited that we're going to be able to target a lot with teams. And again, like I said, we're doing that for business and regular individuals as well. But I'm excited on that project work again. The ladies that are they're just working very hard, and they are tremendous. And it's absolutely amazing. And don't tell them. Well, when I'm in a room with them. I feel like the idiot in the room, honestly, they've got all these degrees, they've got all this education stuff. And they're talking about stuff. And I'm kind of just nodding like, alright, what am I supposed to be doing? They're teaching me as we're going along, it's absolutely amazing. But don't tell them that because you know, then they'll get big egos and you know, all that sort of stuff. So yeah, again, being able to be in stars, the scars, my stories there and working with you, Dina. Absolutely amazing.

Deana Brown Mitchell: Well, I think the cats out of the bag, because yeah, this is streaming live. So Oh, man. Oh, in trouble now.

Jeremy J.D. Leisky: This one, we're in trouble. All right.

Deana Brown Mitchell: Well, I also want to say, I know you're talking about teams, but also, the platform has a lot of different coaches that offer their own content inside of the platform as well. So do you want to just speak to that for a minute? So people understand that the full scope of it?

Jeremy J.D. Leisky: Sure yeah, we have coaches that are in the platform that have their stuff as well, but they teach, I think, no, no? No, it's great. I designed this platform. So like, Dina was just talking about having the different coaches. When I came through what changed me wasn't a single coach, it was working with numerous coaches on different areas of my life. And I saw big frustration with people, there's coaches that make a program. And then you have people to take the program become very successful, and other people who take the program and don't become successful. And it's because programs and different coaches reach people in different ways. So what I wanted to do on this platform was create a way that we have different coaches in different areas that teach with different styles. And so people can come on and find the ones that they really work that really gravitate to, and really get the best thing going. So what we do is we have our main program, we get them started, we give them the basics. And then we have like set these other coaches when it comes to fitness mindset, we have grief and loss. We have a lot of different coaches that are on there that are there to help people. And then the big thing about my platform is that I vet the coaches very carefully. And I only have a limited amount of coaches that I allow my platform. Why because I don't want you to get on a platform to see 10 million different coaches and just kind of throw a dart and try and find one that might work with and do that over and over. And then the other thing with those platforms is they don't know what those coaches are teaching all that other stuff. I want to know where the heart is, all my coaches are heart centered. They've been through it. They know firsthand, it's not something they just read in a book, they have fought the battles, and learn from it so that they can teach other people not to go through that or if they're in it, how to overcome it. And that's what's amazing. And then, matter of fact, Dena is one of our coaches that's on there. Absolutely amazing. Or you can also get her books through our app, just letting you know if you ever want to go on our app to find our books. No, and it's absolutely amazing. And then we post the events that are up there because coaches like Dina and others have different events that are very important you can come to and so I really am trying to make this a one stop shop where they can come and get everything they really need for personal growth in life. And it's also these coaches are amazing.

Deana Brown Mitchell: Yeah, it's really cool. I've met and talked to several of them. And, and really, they're it's a diverse group of people with different talents and expertise, depending on what what people need in their own personal world, you know, journey and It's really awesome what you've created JD and I think it's, you had the vision, I did help, but you had the vision and you've done a great job, getting it to fruition and getting more people involved. And there's, it's just a great thing that you've done. And he even has, like, he does a Christmas event on Christmas for people who don't know, maybe have family that to spend the day with and stuff like that. And it's really fun. So there's a lot of cool stuff going on GPS to life success, so you should check it out. And like you said, go to Google or Apple, and download the app for free, and you can see a lot of this for free, or you can subscribe to get more in depth. So I'm so excited for how far you've come with that and what it's meaning to other people in their lives. So congratulations.

Jeremy J.D. Leisky: Well, thank you. And you know, I am I am actually humbled to be able to have this platform and work with so many wonderful coaches, you know, it's it's a two way street. It's not just me, l giving the coaches a platform, it's these are coaches that are coming along and teaching me and helping me grow. And they hold my feet to the fire. I'm, you know, when I went out and going out there, like, where's this at? Okay, okay, I got to do it. And so it's an amazing, and it really feels like a full team that's come together. And that's what I wanted that whole team environment. And then like you said, you can, people can come up free, we have some basic stuff. And then I've done a membership right now that we're doing for 25. And that's a month, and that's a whole community. So you can come through, and you have the support, and we've got more different programs and everything like that. So I really wanted to price that because one of the things that was very frustrating to me, was when I didn't have anything, and I wanted to change my life, and everybody's like, we're gonna change your life and help you make $5,000 for only $5,000. You know, and it's like, great, well, I don't have $5,000, I don't know where my next meal is coming from. And so I really wanted to reach people that really don't have much money or times are tough for them. And I didn't want to leave them out, because those are the main people that need a lot of help. And so I priced it, I'm going look, if somebody can see here and pay 25 bucks a month from Netflix, then they can spend 25 bucks a month to improve their life, and to be a part of a community and part of something amazing. And I also found out that unless people invest a little bit of money and put what they call skin in the game, then they don't get as active and they're not as involved and they have nothing to lose. And so, you know, it's important that they put a little skin in the game when it comes to that. So I priced it so that anybody can get involved with this. Because this is very important. And I have people that come to me all the time ago, man, you could charge 250 a month, you could charge all these other things. I know I could, I could definitely do that. But then what happens all those people out there that can't afford that? No, we got to help them build. And that's why it's important to me, and I love it. So I'm very happy.

Deana Brown Mitchell: I'm very excited for everyone involved and what's to come?

Jeremy J.D. Leisky: Absolutely, absolutely. Oh, wonderful. Coaches. Don't tell deem of that, though.

Deana Brown Mitchell: You're funny. Yes. But I want to also talk to you a little bit daily about your experience with the realize foundation and you know, our events and our books and being part of writing in the books and what what the whole experience on that side has meant to you and what you've gotten out of it, because I think it's, you know, we talk a lot about our mission of suicide prevention and stuff like that. But we don't always hear from the people who've been involved. They, they send me messages saying how great this has been for them. But we don't share it enough. So I would love for you to talk a little bit about what they experience been involved in scars, the stars is meant to you.

Jeremy J.D. Leisky: It was absolutely terrible. Now I'm saying that and I can't not do it and see your face now when I just said that. But I had to have a little bit of fun with that one because she was like everybody's giving me praise. So I want to be the first one it was terrible. All right. It was absolutely amazing. l working with the what got me is that I used to go and speak on stages all the time getting back into that. I never really wrote my story out. And so Dena, she said, Hey, I'd like you to be in this book and I'm going okay, this looks really good. Love to be a part of your book. And it won't take me long to write my story out. To like, Hey, Tony, do truly a paragraph and I did that no problem or not a paragraph but a chapter. No problem. I could do that in my sleep. When I went to go out actually write my story out, holy Criminy, it was a whole different experience, something I had not done again, I had spoken at numerous times, but to actually sit there and write this out, it took me it gave me more time to reflect it took me actually back to those moments and a lot of those feelings and different things that I had. And there was so much that brought up when I was writing this, it was actually a very transformational experience. And that is where it was freeing as well to be able to put that on paper and know, hey, this story is now out there. For anybody to be able to see this story, to be able to learn from the story, even if God forbid, anything would have happened to me, well, it's going to happen to us all eventually. But if something happens, I still have something out there that people can read 20 years from now, 40 years, 50 years, 60 100 years from now, and still learn from and it's absolutely amazing. So I'm very glad to be a part of that. And to be able to work through a lot of those blocks and actually do that. So I fully understand a lot of amazing things that these people are doing and going into the stories and how they change people. And I love it, I appreciate it. And I'm very thankful, again for being a part of that. So definitely go out and do that.

Deana Brown Mitchell: Thanks, Jeremy, I do get part of it. It's crazy to me, because, you know, I say this multiple times. But I think that the process, we have a variety in our book is extremely different than most collaboration books out there. And I know this, because I've been part of three that someone else produced. And all three of those, they did not edit anything for us, they did not introduce all the others to each other, we never even had calls or got to meet each other. And so our process is very different. It's 12 weeks, and it's holding your hand through all of it through the what story to pick all the way to how to help get the word out about it and marketed and, and present the book to the world after it's done. And how you can use your chapter for yourself to promote whatever you're doing. So it's there's a whole lot of things that go into this process. And, you know, we have a professional editor of professional or their coach, a professional publisher, that is all part of this project. And it is the conversations we have through the process is invaluable for all of our healing. And like what the conversations we get to have in that small group is, is so impactful, even to me, it to learn about people and the relationships you build in this process is crazy. So I just wanted to mention that because it's really why people keep coming back. Like JD wrote in two books, I have two or three people who've written in all three books, because they just enjoy the process. And they're enjoying learning how to write better. So there's different reasons that people do it. But all of the people who write in them have the goal of helping other people know they're not alone. And what what they don't know coming into it is it is going to be a massive experience and value to themselves. Writing their chapter in like JD was saying, you know, I thought this was gonna be easier, just downright it. But it's, it's more than that. And we, you know, our editor will take your first draft and come back and say, Hey, why don't you add a little more in the story about this? Because it's not clear to me, or why don't we we take, you know, make something out because of whatever reason, but you're getting that professional editor to to give you feedback on your draft, which I never got in those other books I wrote. And so I've learned so much about writing and editing and books that I never knew before. And it's been a fantastic experience for me too. So I hope if you're interested in writing your story, you can go to our website.

Jeremy J.D. Leisky: If you don't mind, I want to share a story about this. I was telling you guys that I had nine sets that time I'm up to 12 At this moment, as Deena knows, over the last few years building everything I've been in the hospital numerous times. Been on death's bed a few times since then. And one of the things that happened when I was in the hospital is that I gave the book scars the stars one to a lady that was in there and next thing you know I came in the hospital a little bit later I shared the story with you. And I had one of the nurses or cleaning ladies that was there. And she came in she cleans and she says I know you from somewhere and it was a little while Alice goes, you're in that book I read. And I was like, what? And she goes, Yeah, I seen your picture in the book, you're. And she says, yeah, we've been passing that book around. And there was different nurses there were there. And there were different people. That book had been going around in the hospital to different staff. And I didn't know that it was just one book. And, you know, most of time when you give a book to somebody you're expecting, well, it's gonna sit on their shelf for about seven years and collect 10 inches of dust. At least that's what happens in my house. You know, when somebody says, Here's a book, great, it's a great place for you to set my coffee on top of just a shameless plug salad to go, there we go. All right. Anyway, I expect sponsorship from him later on that the No, it's It's absolutely amazing. And that really hit me hard. And even when I went down to do the surgery, one of the ladies that was there was talking about oh, my gosh, yeah, you're you're that book, we heard the story and stuff. So it was really cool to see that and know that that book has actually touched lives and see it firsthand, from people that said that I mean, absolutely blew me away. So you know, lives already, I noticed that and of being around your other authors, people, and they put books all over the United States. And I know that it's already touched countless lives. And I can't wait to see how many people are changed just from these books, let alone the programs. You're doing everything else. Absolutely amazing.

Deana Brown Mitchell: Yeah, no, thank you. Thank you for that. It's, it's been crazy. And it's it's way farther than the US. We have many other countries. We've had royalties from books and other countries as far as Japan and Australia. So and we have some Arthur's from the UK. And so it's a it's an international thing now. So it's really exciting. And I'm

Jeremy J.D. Leisky: sorry, I was thinking small from saying coast to coast. I'm sorry that I was thinking small potatoes there, I apologize.

Deana Brown Mitchell: Okay, no, but I think it's, it's just, it's so cool to see who comes together in these books from all places on the planet. And they have people from totally different backgrounds and experiences. And they just bond through this process. It's amazing. And we get so much feedback. But if you're interested in telling your story, you can go to realize foundation.org and go to the scars to stars page. And there's a place where you can fill out a submission. And there's a video there of Eric who wrote books three talking about his experience. So you can hear from other authors in our on our YouTube channel or an email or different platforms. And you can also fill up that submission. And then I would get in touch with you we have a conversation about all the logistics of how this happens and answer your questions. And then we're going to start our next book in July of 2024. And it will be released on September 22, of 24. And that is in honor of Suicide Prevention Month. So an all the proceeds from these books, go back to help us, you know, have more books and have more community and promote what we're doing. So we don't, you know, nobody in this organization gets paid anything. It's all volunteer. And we're just excited to get hope out in the world. So thank you so much JD for being here. And I'll give you the pleasure.

Jeremy J.D. Leisky: Oh, sure. I always like to have the last word. I mean, you know, who doesn't when it comes to that? No, I one thing I just want to say is that you have an amazing team that works through the writing process as well. And so when if you're stuck, you don't know where to start. Some amazing people you're working with Christopher and other people can, can come by and help you really get through the steps and create the right kind of story and get it out there. It's not like they're designed to give the story to us and leave you they're going okay, what can we do to help you get what you need out to the world. And so it's absolutely amazing experience. And you definitely have to do this. That we all have a story to share. We all have a story that will impact somebody.

Deana Brown Mitchell: We do. And we have had people who think well, my story's not, you know, like about suicide, or my story is not as impactful as yours. And I'm like, You don't know that because you don't know who's going to read it. And even the people who think their story means nothing and it's not going to help anybody. It does, because we never know where who's going to read it, and what what place they are in their life. And he essentially we all go through trauma. And we can't say that one trauma is bigger than somebody else's trauma, like trauma is trauma. And all of us have to learn how to heal from that. and writing and having conversations about it is the best way to get through trauma and heal from it so you can move on with your life and take it as a lesson and not carrying that heavy stuff around as much. And so, I hope you'll consider sharing your story in one of our books and again, go to realize foundation.org You can find all kinds of things there. But you can also find this submission to apply to the inner books, and I hope to hear from you.