Scott: My next guest believes that your pain can be a crutch or it can be a thing that launches you. Joseph James is a CEO and founder of Professional K-9 Solutions, and he joins us via Zoom tonight. Welcome to the show.
Joseph: Welcome, thank you so much, Scott. I appreciate it. It's honored to be here.
Scott: Absolutely. Unpack that for me, how pain can be a crutch or a launching pad.
Joseph: Know Scott, we all go through pain, I believe that pain is life's greatest teacher, and it can also be life's biggest crutch. At some point in time in our life, we've gone through something, whether it's a loss of a loved one, maybe it's something detrimental, a pandemic like we've all across America has faced the last couple years. Loss of businesses, loss of finances, a divorce, broken relationship, just we all experience some sort of pain, maybe even an abusive relationship or an upbringing, but I truly believe that through pain, we had the choice of keeping it being stuck like glue, keeping a stuck like glue or launching us into our destiny and finding the purpose through the pain that we go through. And it's all based off of just my upbringing and then losing my wife and my father all within the 22 days of each other.
Scott: Wow. And I was gonna ask you about that, within 22 days. I thought it was within a two year span, so that's even closer. So that personal pain of losing your wife and then losing your dad, where did that sort of spark the idea of taking that pain and turning it into a podcast? Because, man, I gotta tell you, most people are not thinking about others when they're going through that process.
Joseph: Absolutely. You know, I've, I grew up in a faith-based family and I always learned about serving other people by watching my mom, you know, and so I've always had that mentality, but the night my wife passed away, I'm watching a, just a small clip of a sermon and from another pastor, and he talked about in the book of Hebrews, he says, for we have not a high priest who can't be touched by the feeling of our infirmities, and it just really spoke to me that we can't touch what we cannot feel. We go through the painful process so that we can reach minister, inspire coach, help other people. And when I realized that, I knew that was my why, and so I just, I took it and ran with it. Now, don't get me wrong, I had my challenges, of course, but I knew that I can live in the excuses of my wife and my father passing away and leaving me with three amazing kids or I can take that and let it launch me, I can take that pain and that hurt and discomfort and let it used as a fuel to launch me into what I was gonna be doing over the next couple years.
Scott: And how much, if you don't mind me asking, Joseph, how much did it help you personally? Like was it therapy for you as well, going through the process of using your pain to help others?
Joseph: Oh, it was a hundred percent therapy for myself. And one of the things I kept on getting people asking is like, how do you stay so positive? And I really didn't know, I just, I knew two things, I either stay positive or I just live a negative life and I knew I wasn't going to live negatively. And so in that, I've created the, my own coaching material on just how to get through those things and one of the things is, is taking that time to grieve, which I learned through the process. I had to grieve myself and then I had to go back in and be strong for my family and not that they couldn't see me grieve or cry or go through that pain, but I had to be strong for them in that moment. And then in the process of that, by me sharing my story through social media, not only it was a way of venting for me, and we all get relief through venting, but so many people would reach out to me as like, man, you've helped me. You've helped my family, you've helped my divorce, you've helped my kids on drugs. And there was never my purpose, my purpose was just to share my story. And by realizing that, I realized just gotta find somebody and help them, and that allowed me to go through and get through a lot of the painful process.
Scott: Doesn't mean you didn't have some dark moments, right? You didn't have your own valleys as you mentioned, but then to hear those stories, would you say it's that kind of feedback has been the biggest impact with you being transparent and sharing your story just affecting other people's lives anyway?
Joseph: Absolutely, Scott. I mean, when somebody comes up to you that you don't even know and they tell you how much you've impacted your life, then you, the thought in your head just comes across as well. That's what makes it worth it, you know? And knowing that nothing could bring back my wife or my father at that moment in time, I could grieve over that and be pitiful over that, but that wasn't going to change my circumstances, but knowing that I was changing other people by being transparent, by being vulnerable, it not only brought healing to them, but it also brought healing to me just by being vulnerable.
Scott: Such a powerful story. And Joseph, your podcast, talk about that. So you use your story and other stories and you share in your podcast. How often are you pushing out?
Joseph: So we push out content twice a week, one is a solo interview of just me sharing my life's experiences, and it can be from everything from I was born and raised in a very abusive family, my father was very abusive, I learned to hate him, but I also learned so much about rejection and always an approval, and all those things stemmed into my adult life, okay. And then of course, the transition of my wife battling cancer and then passing away. So that's the solo interview, and then the, the guest interview is based off of people going through pain in their own lives, whether it's been from divorce or, um, attempted suicides or losing their own, spouse or children addicted to drugs, you name it. That the abuse, the neglect, the rejection, it's life's trauma, grief, pain and shame that we're, that they share on the show.
Scott: That's great, and where, I'm assuming it's available anywhere you get podcasts, right?
Joseph: Yes, sir. Apple, Google, Spotify, and it's called Purpose Through Pain. And it's just, it's helping people find, take that pain that they've gone through in life and helping them find that purpose because we all have a purpose through it.
Scott: Joseph, I'm gonna give you an opportunity here, by the way, your website, meetjosephjames.com. For someone who wants to get in contact with you or again find the podcast, got a little over a minute left, I wanna give you an opportunity ‘cause you never know Joseph, someone right now could be watching this interview Who's going through the worst day of their life. What would you say to them?
Joseph: You're not alone, you're absolutely not alone. There's so many people in this world that have gone through the same exact thing that you've gone through, but by keeping your story inside of you doesn't allow for healing for yourself because vulnerability brings healing, but the transparency also lets other people know, and you'll be surprised at how many people will come along you and pick you up and help you because they've gone through the same painful process No matter what, you do it in life, do it from a place of pain, and you'll be able to reach so many people with your story because your story's way too big to play small.
Scott: It's Joseph James, good word. And I appreciate your vulnerability, not only in your podcast, but coming on tonight and sharing your story. Joseph James, thanks again.
Joseph: Thank you.
Scott: This is create, build and managed daily.
