[00:00.5]
Welcome to Inside Personal Growth podcast. Deep dive with us as we unlock the secrets to personal development, empowering you to thrive. Here, growth isn't just a goal, it's a journey. Tune in, transform, and take your life to the next level by listening to just one of our podcasts.

[00:19.9]
Well, welcome back to Inside Personal Growth. This is Greg Voise and the host of Inside Personal Growth. And sitting over in that other chair with all of that stuff behind him is a really cool guy, John Diggs. Some of you might remember him from the football days.

[00:38.3]
But here he's here to talk about his own personal journey and some of the things that he's used to really make a difference in his life and how he can do that with you. For all of you who are interested, just go to John and that's-I G-G-S.com J-O-H N diggs.com There you're going to find there's a video.

[00:59.9]
He's got information about himself. He wants you to join the community. His coaching, his map and ear villa. Podcast guesting. And you can reach him@john diggs.com.

[01:15.9]
that's the way to get in touch with him. So John, I'm going to let the people know a tad bit about you before we dive into what, what we're going to call his double header here. Two books, that he has written and both of those are going to be linked in our show notes below, for Amazon for you to do it.

[01:36.4]
He says at his website that he's the mapineering mentor, as a transformational speaker and coach and author dedicated to helping individuals from all walks of life, unlike their, unlock their full potential. And that's really what he's about, is helping you unlock your full potential.

[01:52.9]
Potential. A former, college and professional football player, John knows what it takes to succeed under pressure. And he's turned those lessons into a powerful system for personal development. Now, along the way, he hasn't been without his own little hardships, including losing everything during the mortgage meltdown.

[02:14.2]
John understands the power of resilience and reinvention, which he had to do. And that's when he found Tony Buzan, which is why he is so into the mind mapping. And we're going to be talking about that because it is a transformational tool.

[02:29.8]
And he understands, as he said, he's really passionate about teaching others how to harness this power of mind mapping to transform their lives, whether it's from one on one coaching keynote speaking or as online courses. And so he's here to help our listeners today.

[02:47.6]
John, welcome to the show. Thanks for taking this time. Yeah, thank you for having me, Greg. I really appreciate it. This is awesome. Well, we appreciate the fact that you're going to spend a little bit of time talking about both of these books. And, you know, the one book is the I Am book and, that is available at Amazon and that is his most recent book.

[03:11.6]
And the other book is Around Map and Earring, and that will be in our show notes as well. And our listeners can click on that to get a copy. But you had quite a journey, from professional football to the mortgage industry and then losing everything during this great recession.

[03:30.0]
And it was a tough time for a lot of people. And I'm assuming you're referring to 2008, is that right? Yeah. Well, 2007 is when the mortgage meltdown hit. Okay. Session came a year later, out in 2008. Yes. So can you take us back to this lowest point when you were sleeping on your mom's couch?

[03:51.5]
What was going through your mind? And you know, what, what were you doing? What. How are you planning on getting out of this? John, you've been in a lot of tough situations in your life, but that was a big one. Yeah, this was a huge one. This was, yeah, the lowest part of my life.

[04:08.4]
You know, having played professional football for five years, then, transition into the mortgage industry and made more money in the mortgage industry than I ever did playing professional football. I actually own one of the largest mortgage companies in Southern California.

[04:24.8]
So I was living this incredible lifestyle. But like in 2007, when the mortgage meltdown started melting away everybody's businesses and lives, you know, all of us business owners head on, companies really hit it hard. And, you know, I literally lost everything.

[04:40.8]
I mean, not just my business, but my family, you know, my wife and kids at the time had had, left and actually moved from Los Angeles to Arizona. And, it was a time period, Greg, that, I haven't shared too much, but it is, very important to my story.

[05:01.3]
Story is that when I found out that my kids were actually going to Arizona, when I was thinking they were just going not too far away from me, it really kind of shook me. But that same day, it was April 27, 2009, actually, I went to our apartment that we just got evicted out of, and I was grabbing the last stuff out of the apartment building and walked into my empty daughter's bedroom.

[05:26.3]
And it just hit me. You know, it hit me really Hard. It was like a body blow to the solar plexus from a, healthy, in shape, Mike Tyson kind of deal. Just really, just buckled me worse than the biggest blow you'd ever taken on the football, fields, Yeah, it was bad because it just really realized that my life was just totally different in transition.

[05:51.1]
I lost everything, and I cried on the floor, literally like a baby that whole night. You know, I had all of these things swirling through my mind from ending my life to. I mean, it was just a very, very tough night for me, to really deal with how my life has changed so rapidly and just what am I gonna do?

[06:10.1]
But amazingly, when I woke up that next morning, I had this, this sense of reset. Like, it's like I, I survived death. It was like my soul was cleansed. It was like my, you know, that old me had died that night because I woke up with this newfound kind of energy of just, all right, it's time to just reset myself.

[06:32.9]
So I left, put stuff in storage, and I went to my mom's house with just a gym bag, a bicycle, and this big box that I had that was full of motivational tapes, books, CDs, and things that I've collected over the years because I knew I had to go back into that box to reset myself and re.

[06:52.3]
Rebuild my life. And as I was going through that box, that's when I fell and, found, Tony Buzan's mind map book. I don't remember ever buying it. You know, I didn't never read it or anything, but if whatever reason it resonated with, it popped out, it popped up.

[07:08.8]
And I say it popped up. It did. And you're a spiritual guy, aren't you? Yeah. Yeah. So maybe, you know, you look at the cleansing. You talk about cleansing like that overnight and waking up and getting this big hit, but But really a hit of relief.

[07:25.4]
And then you open a box, right? You look at the synchronicity of a book like Tony Bazon's about mind mapping. And at that point, you needed to kind of like, organize what was happening in your mind, right? And I didn't know that I needed to organize what was going on in my mind.

[07:43.8]
I just knew I had to go look at those Tony Robbins books that Think and Grow Rich Again, Stephen Covey books. I knew I had to go back and reset myself. But, yeah, this Tony Buzan book just really just blamed like a big spotlight that I.

[08:00.5]
I read it first and I made one of the most powerful decisions that I ever made in my life. And that was to, I decided to mind map all of the contents of that box. So I spent literally like three months just mind mapping every book, every cd, every tape that I had in that box all day, every day.

[08:21.6]
And this is a part of my, the TEDx, talk that I did a couple years ago. So if you know, any of your listeners want to see the fullness of that story, encourage you to watch that TEDX talk. But just the high level is that I went through and mind mapped all of that and I started to understand the power of what mind mapping was doing to visually start to see, sir, certain components and, and things of that nature.

[08:44.6]
And long story just really short on this is that that power, that mind mapping allowed me to transform my life in less than eight months, to go from literally homeless, broke as a joke, to making a solid six figure income in less than eight months.

[09:03.2]
And I'm absolutely positive that it was all because of the clarity of what mind mapping empowered me to have and to do, to reset myself, reset my life and get myself back on track quickly because of what mind mapping was able to do for me.

[09:20.7]
Well, it got you to, you know, I say the turning point was kind of fighting back rather than giving up. Right. So the cleansing, this spiritual awakening you had that night in April where you woke up and you felt relieved from all of this anguish and crap that was going on was really a big part of it and was, you know, you've, as you said, you found this during a dark period.

[09:45.3]
And for the listeners who've never heard of this, which there's going to be some of them. Can you explain what mind mapping is and how it differs from your concept of map, and earring? Right, right. There it, there is a difference.

[10:02.1]
There is, there's a big difference. And what my mapping, for those, Well, a mind map essentially for your listeners is just, it's a visual information management tool. In other words, it's a way for you to visually see what you're thinking about whatever you have going on through your mind.

[10:21.1]
A mind map is a way to give those thoughts structure, give those ideas some kind of organization so you can get a greater perspective of what's happening in your mind and what you're trying to do, whether that's decision making, problem solving, goal setting, whatever it is you got going on in your mind.

[10:39.0]
A mind map is a way to give it structure and organization. And that's exactly what it allowed me to do. Was this just kind of structure My life and to get clear and just real quick, I think it's important that I share that. After the first three months of, mind mapping all of the contents of those books, I came away with two real big distinctions that really altered my life.

[11:04.0]
You know, with mind mapping being the visual information tool that I just shared. I started to see connections of what all of these great thought leaders were actually communicating. You know, I started to see how common what Stephen Covey was saying to Napoleon Hill and Les Brown and all of these things.

[11:21.9]
And I walked away with two big things. One was that life is meant to be loved. You know, that's really the flat out basic of what all of the thought leaders have always said is that this life is meant to be loved. They all have different systems, philosophies, thought processing and tools to do it.

[11:42.4]
But ultimately that's what everybody is trying to do in a self help industry is just try to help you love your life more. So I really got clear with me that life is meant to be loved by. But then the second thing was that I'm in control on how I love my life or what love and life means to me, which for the first three months after I mind map all of those books and got that distinction that then parlayed into me creating, this mind map to really get clear on who I am.

[12:12.9]
I really needed to redefine myself now that my whole reality has been shifted and everything that I loved and identified with was essentially gone. I had this blank palette, if you will. I had to realize, all right now, who am I? What do I want my life to be about?

[12:30.2]
And that's when I started developing, you know, a mind map to clarify who I am. And over the years I've been using that, that mind map that's now known as an IM mind map. Yeah, to really get clear on who I am and to use it as a compass and a guidance and just to button that up as I've been doing that.

[12:52.2]
And when I really started getting involved, well, let me say the I am my map allowed me to not just rebuild my life, but I've since become, since 2009, 2010, become one of the country's top mortgage software developers.

[13:08.3]
Then when I build the infrastructure for computer banks for the mortgage industry for the last 15 or so years. But when Covid hit and we were quarantined, that's when I decided, hey, it's time for me to start sharing what mind mapping has been allowing me to do. Live this, live love and live My best life.

[13:26.0]
But then when I started getting into the mind mapping world, I started to realize that I'm really the only one in the world that's promoting teaching and coaching. Mind mapping as a personal development tool. Most people use mind mapping for brainstorming, note taking, project management, but I'm using it really as a personal development tool.

[13:46.7]
So that's where I wanted to come up with my own name for my own style of how I use my map, which is mapineering. So when. So, let's go back a little bit because you skipped over something. You know, you went and developed this big mortgage company, then there was a collapse.

[14:05.5]
So during this period, just prior to that, you know, you had obviously gotten out of football, you went into this mortgage business. As I'm making an assumption here, but it sounds like the right path. Yeah. And when were you, when was your self meaning, John Diggs, what was the false sense that you were living during that mortgage thing that you felt made you collapse internally?

[14:33.0]
Because look, a lot of people can follow your story right now. They're like, hey, here's a football guy, got a football. He went in the mortgage. He went on the mortgage thing. Now he's got a company that sells software to mortgage people. But he's also out there Speaking. He's on TEDx. He's doing all these things.

[14:48.3]
But during that dark period, there must have been a period longer before it all the lights went out where you weren't, knew you weren't living who John Diggs really was. Right? Right. And so during that period where that false John Diggs was like, hey, hey, I had these cars, these houses, all this and everything around me.

[15:10.8]
And I thought I was hot, right? Because I, I had this stuff. That's the trap that many people out there fall into. Yes, indeed. So my question would be for you this. I know I'm going a little bit roundabout, but I, I've interviewed Marshall Goldsmith so many times about achievers.

[15:30.7]
Look, a guy who made it in professional football was a high achiever. A guy who made millions of dollars in the mortgage business, a high achiever. John, when is enough enough? And when do you learn how to be content with inside yourself to say, I know who John Diggs is?

[15:51.1]
Yeah. You know, prior to my experience with developing my I am, mind map, I identified myself with my, my lifestyle. You know, my lifestyle was who I was. You know, I was a mortgage guy. I was a former football player. As I was successful, I was a millionaire.

[16:07.9]
You know, that was my whole identity right you know, and then when that left, I didn't know who I was, you know, I really didn't, you know, and now, since having rebuilt myself from the inside out, if you will, you know, I realize even though I'm more successful than now than I ever been with my mortgage company doing my software business, it's a different energy around it because it's.

[16:31.9]
I know who I am and what I do for a living is my software industry business. It's not who I am, it's just something I do. I know who I am now, you know, Clear. And even though my jobs may change, who I am stays the same where.

[16:49.9]
So how do you so without. I don't. I hate interrupting, but I'm looking at this going like, okay, that's the name of this book I am. Right. And your approach centers around four anchors. And I want to get there. Yeah. I am healthy, I am wealthy, I am successful, and I'm happy.

[17:07.6]
So, all right, these four things were core to where you needed to get to when you were in your darkest before the dawn. Right. Darkest point. Why did you choose these specific four and how did they emerge from this personal experience?

[17:27.3]
Because, you know, look, if I did a wheel of life, I could look at, you know, my physical health and my spiritual and emotional and my educate, my learning and, you know, that's the wheel of life. We only have so much time. That's what's good about mind mapping is it tells you where to focus.

[17:43.7]
Right, right. How did you get your focus and your juju back? Right. And why did you choose these four? Yeah, great question, great question. Great. Well, what it was is that when I realized I needed to create a mind map to clarify myself, I started to have some very deep, thought provoking, authentic conversations with myself.

[18:06.1]
You know, hours of just me and myself just talking about what's most important in my life. Truly not, you know, the surface stuff, but on a deep level. And after hours, weeks or months of grappling with this, I landed that there's nothing more important in my life than my health.

[18:25.2]
There's nothing. You know, without health, you have nothing. So that put that on my mind map. First, health. I gotta be have great health. But then I started asking myself, all right, well, what is next most important? You know, what would I like? You know, health and wealth kind of resonated with me.

[18:42.2]
Then I started asking myself like, you know, is wealth truly just money? Then I started researching and I realized that wealth really means an abundance. You know, abundance of something. So I Started asking, I said well, what would I want a lot of? For me to truly love and live my best life, what would I want a lot of?

[18:59.7]
And I was like, well I've had a lot of money, but I wasn't necessarily happy. So it's not really money that I would want a whole bunch of. What is truly do I want a bunch of. And that's what I landed on. I want a bunch of positive emotions. I wanted a, a bunch of a wealth of specialized knowledge, skills, you know, because I realized if I'm vibrating in a good emotional state and I got great skills, money's gonna come, you know, so that's kind of like that order where wealth landed.

[19:28.9]
Then I was like, well, what else do I want? You know, I. Health. If I have wealth, I was like well I want to win, I gotta win, I want success. You know, if, if I have health, wealth and success, yeah, then that will be definitely some core principles that will help me love and live my best life.

[19:48.0]
Then ultimately the last one was happiness. You know, if I happiness, I gotta be happy, I gotta be happy. So those just kind of was the thought processing on why I chose health, wealth, success and happiness.

[20:03.3]
That started my and My mat. And as you know Greg, and for your listeners, once you start with a mind map like if you can imagine, I had IM in the center. Health, wealth, success and happiness. The beauty of mind mapping is now you can brainstorm and really give some serious thought to those subtopics.

[20:23.5]
So I started going around like, well what does health mean that's so broad in general? You know, that's too broad in general. What, what really do I, what I mean by health? Then I landed on spiritual health, physical health and mental health.

[20:38.5]
I was like yes, okay, that, that makes sense. Spiritual health, physical health, mental health. If I can really focus on improving those areas of my life, that's going to help me be the highest and best version of myself. And I did the same thing with wealth.

[20:54.0]
Like I said, positive emotions, specialized knowledge and freedom were the subtopics of wealth. Then when I looked at success, I had to ask myself, you know, what do I want to be successful in? You know, everybody wants success, but what specifically do I want to be successful in?

[21:10.8]
And I said well, I would like to have successful relationships, successful results and recess, successful rewards. Then when I moved to happiness, I said, well, what really needs to happen for me to be happy? You know, and again, I've had so much material items that I knew it wasn't A material thing.

[21:29.0]
You know, once I buy a house, I could be happy. I didn't want to. I wanted to go really deep. And that's when I landed on. For me to truly be happy, I have to be blessed for my past. Meaning that when I think about my past or I, remember my past, be blessed for those experiences, while at the same time I need to be grateful for my future, while at the same time being in the present moment, feeling fulfilled right now, if I can achieve that state, meaning where I've been there.

[21:59.9]
And I'm sure, you know, people, Greg, that when they think about their past, it's guilt, it's regret, it's a whole bunch of stuff. Then when you think about their future, it's fear, anxiety, then that prevents them from being present in the moment, which you can't be happy.

[22:17.3]
So I figured that if I can be blessed for my past, when I think about it, grateful for my future, and stay present and fulfilled in a moment, I'll be happy. So that's. And I, I would agree with you, John, that, you know. And the other thing is, you also found that looking outside yourself didn't bring happiness.

[22:37.9]
No. So what you've realized is that happiness is an internal job. It's. It's about John finding himself. And along the way, much of that's about your spiritual side. Because once you find this connection and, and when you talk about spiritual health, you mentioned it in that just a few seconds ago.

[22:58.8]
It's a connection to a source energy. You just said source energy and a feeling protected by a higher power. What does someone who might be skeptical about this need, to know about how this could work for them and how this spiritual side will benefit every aspect of their life from somebody like yourself.

[23:25.3]
By the way, just so you know, I have a clock over here that says now on it, and it has no hands. Yikes. Sits on my desk. Nice time. Right. And so you have to remind yourself, like, hey, I can't move to the future.

[23:40.4]
I have to be in the past. And, and as, you know, somebody who does podcasts and somebody like me, you got to stay, present with the guest. It's important. Yeah. Because that's how good questions come about when you're present with the guest.

[23:57.5]
So, this one about spirituality is an important one, so I'd like for you to, you know, address that with the listeners. Yeah, well, I've come to believe in my journey, you know, and I've had a. A serious, experience when football ended, you know, due to the reconstruction of my right knee.

[24:16.4]
I got two screws in my knee that I spent from 95 to 97, literally two years of just on a religious quest, just trying to understand what God was. I was never really raised in a church, and ultimately I just landed on that.

[24:31.9]
That, you know, humans, you know, we have this energy in our body that pumps our heart, that causes us to breathe and things of that nature. And there's an energy there that keeps us alive, and there's an energy there that leaves when we pass.

[24:51.3]
And that energy is such and so powerful that I think at this stage of our human evolution on Earth, if you will, we may not thoroughly understand what God is and the meaning of life and all of this stuff. Stuff. But there is something energetically going through our body is.

[25:07.7]
Which I kind of call a spirit. You know, our spiritual energy, that source that may be plugging into some higher power that's guiding us, that's giving us grace and things of that nature. So when I talk about spirit, I'm talking about that higher source of energy that keeps our heart beating.

[25:28.4]
Maybe that could also lead into that inner voice, that inner dialogue that we have, that intuition that we all have. That's what I mean by that. And really having a healthy relationship with that inner voice and having a healthy relationship with a higher power energy, that knowing that you're not alone and there's someone or something that could be guiding you, that loves you, that appreciates you, that maybe also want to experience some wonderful things through you in this life.

[26:01.3]
I'm just open to believe that. That it's possible. That that's, what spirituality, is. And that's what I mean by having a healthy spiritual relationship is that, you know, you have good feelings, that you're living, your, a life, you're living your life in a good manner, you know?

[26:22.9]
Yeah, I know. I think. I think you're absolutely right. And you have a good definition of this for, for you and for many of our listeners, it's their own definition, right? Yes. What is that? And you're leaving it open for interpretation. Right. I would say whether you're talking to this higher power, you call it God or you call it Buddha, or you call it whoever it is.

[26:42.5]
The reality is, is that when you can get in conversation. I know this sounds kind of strange to some people, but when you talked about. Listen to your intuition. For some people it's a voice. For some people it's a feeling. There's different types of intuition, right?

[26:59.2]
They're kinesthetic they're auditory, whatever they are. The reality is, is however you feel this experience, that's the most important thing. The other thing is to be discerning. Then listen to it. Listen to what it's trying to tell you. You know, you always hear these stories like, hey, I didn't get on that plane.

[27:15.8]
And that was the plane that went down. Right. I, could have been on that plane, or I didn't go here. I took a left and a right and there was a big accident over this direction. Right. So. Or the one I hear most is something told me I should have, you know.

[27:30.8]
Yeah. The other way around. And I didn't. Yeah. So. So how do you help people reframe painful experiences as blessings? So here you are, 2007, living on your mom's couch.

[27:49.1]
Wake, up in April, kids are gone, wife's gone. How do you help people reframe that so that it is a. The painful experience is a learning lesson. Yeah. Yeah. And, and a mind map is a perfect tool for this, you know, because you can take that painful experience and put it inside of a mind map.

[28:09.3]
And now we can just ask some serious questions, some thought provoking questions around that experience, which I find that a lot of people, my clients that, you know, students that I work with and things of that nature that, a lot of the pain is due to not having enough perspective about that event.

[28:30.8]
You know, I remember thinking about, you know, hearing Tony Robbins say at one point that when people eventually get over something, you know, of death or pain or something in their situation that happens, where when it initially happens, it's very sens, it's very painful.

[28:48.4]
But over time, you know, it's not as painful and not as, you know, triggering as it once was. The only thing that really changed is a person's perspective of that event. The event stayed the same, but you just eventually started growing a different perspective about it, which didn't have that same charge that it once had when it first happened.

[29:11.2]
So I agree with Tony. You know, if that's eventually what's going to happen anyway, why take so long to open up your perspective to that event? You know, when knowing that life is so short, so mind mapping in a way is that you could take that event and start to grain different perspectives of it.

[29:28.9]
And I work with so many clients on this that, you know, initially they believed it to be one way and only one way. You know, my dad treated me this way, you know, and it damaged my life. He was so evil and Mean, we're not necessarily considering the fact that, you know, your dad did love you and he was probably unresourceful.

[29:48.2]
Well, that was not really loving you. Yeah, that was that. So I say that was his perspective. In other words, I, I love what you're saying because, you know, I remember interviewing Byron, Katie, and many people know who she is. And yes, she would get him up on stage and she said, well, is that true?

[30:04.4]
Is that really true? Yeah. Right. Because you tell yourself a story, you make up a story, tell yourself a story, then you start believing it, the story, and then you start living the story. But basically it's MSU you're making up. But this is really who you are. You've made it up.

[30:19.4]
So that's. That's what you're living. And so what you're saying about reframing painful experience is important because it's really perspective. I think it's like I had an author use this example, which you'll get right away. Imagine there's a big painting of you on your wall, and you go right up to that painting and you put your nose on it and you're like, well, I can't see John.

[30:43.7]
Right, right. And then you take a few inches step back, and it's like it's blurry still. Then you take a few more feet back, a few more feet back, and now it comes into perspective, it comes into focus. And I think what mind mapping does is help us take that picture of ourselves and have us take a step back and look at it from a different perspective.

[31:08.4]
Right. And I think that's what you're helping do. And I want to get to this because this mapineeringville.com is your online commuting. So what really happens there? And how does a community support amplify the people out there listening's individual work, that they might be doing for.

[31:29.2]
And what I would call their I am A mind map, which is, you know, that's the one you're really talking about is the four quadrants and the I am Mind for helping people get there. So when you coach people, I presume you ask them to go get basically do it on a pencil and paper.

[31:49.7]
But I think you're using Mindmeister you said was one of your favorites. I'm not here to commercial to put a commercial out for them. But I, I have had him on the show and he's a great guy. And it's yeah. Have offices up in California and they've got Austria So the question is, are you using that software to help people and what happens in your community?

[32:16.2]
Yeah, I use that software primarily. I've kind of grown with it over the last 10 years. It's a great one mind my. It's one of my favorite and I've been a partner with them for like one of seven last seven years and I think I'm one of their top partners here in the US Just because I'm a high user and I train it and a lot of my presentations, keynotes, workshops that I deliver, I'm using mindmeister as my slide deck if you will.

[32:43.7]
And it's just easy. The functionality of it is, is good. And inside of my community, Mapineerville is actually what it's called, Mapineerville and or the Ville for short. Mapineerville.com we have a users but they get to it John through map A P P I N E E R V I l l e.com Correct.

[33:06.7]
Yeah. Mapineerville.com so we'll put that in the show notes People look below here because that's where you can find the community and that's where you help people with this. I am Mind map. Right? Yeah, that I am My map and so many other things. I mean we have spaces in there.

[33:23.9]
It's really a nice community of people that are really loving, caring and supporting. We have spaces in there called weekly ways, Sunday sensationals where every day of the week a person can post a mind map specifically to that space to you know, for if they need more love, they need some more support.

[33:48.7]
We have so many different things in there from quizzes and polls and challenges and it's really around mind mapping just to get people that are really excited about visually seeing their thoughts and visually articulating and getting greater perspective of whatever they're doing.

[34:06.6]
It's a community of people that are understand the power of mind mapping and understand the power of giving which I, which I really like is that they really lean in to support. You know, a lot of our members will reply to questions before I get a chance.

[34:23.9]
You know, hey, you want to try this or think about this or let's get together. I've dealt with something like that before and these are some of the questions that I've asked myself to gain greater perspective and things of that nature. And yeah, so it's, it's, it's really. I have a question for you John, because frequently when you spin off all of this activity around the mind map.

[34:44.1]
To actually implement your thought into action requires it doesn't require a separate piece of software, but there becomes a lot of to do's. Right. Right. And are you using the bolt on to the software to help with people to dos or do you know because there's a separate little to do?

[35:06.2]
Yeah. Meister Task. Meister Task, yeah. So are you using Meister Task too? I use Meister Task too. And for those who are don't have a kind of a task list or task software or project management software, whatever, I, I train them on how to use Meister tasks and how I use my combine boards and checklists and things of that nature to make sure that they get things done.

[35:31.1]
But that's normally for more of my advanced users primarily. Like for instance on that image, mind map section. For each one of those specific topics we'll have a purpose, mission and vision section.

[35:46.3]
You know, what is the purpose that you're trying to achieve with this subtopic? What is your mission? Which is your to do list, essentially high level to do list. What are you know, you need to do then? What's your ultimate vision? You know, once you achieve these, what are the emotional feelings that you intend to have?

[36:04.0]
What are some of the results? And I'll do that for every one of those topics and subtopics for the IM mind map. So when a person is done, you know, they're looking at a mind map that not only clarifies who they are as it relates to health, wealth, success and happiness, but they'll actually have some action steps, reminders if you will, on what they need to be focused on daily to make sure that each one of those topics are moving forward or progressing or you're developing in those areas as well.

[36:36.0]
Well, and just so people know, I mean there's the people that use todoist and use all kinds of asana, you name it. But the reality is once you get down to the to do's, once they spin off, you can pretty much track them in any piece of software. So anything. Yeah, you don't, you don't once you're clear, but you got to get clear first, you know.

[36:55.2]
So hey look, you've created a three level course series and Enlightenment, Empowerment and Embodiment. Yes. Without giving away all the details, what transformation do you typically see in people who complete this journey?

[37:13.9]
Wow. Yeah, major transformation. Things of like, well, just the, the, the embodiment or the enlightenment section is just to introduce them to I am Mind Map, the four anchors.

[37:30.7]
I have them just really just put whatever comes to their mind first, then on the, the next level of it, we, we have them actually start the task list, prioritize everything they put on their mind map. Then the last level of embodiment is where we actually take their mind map.

[37:48.2]
Create a script, if you will, of their mind map where I have them recorded, where they can start listening to it every day and every night of what they put on their mind map on who they intend to be, who are you? It walks them through how to do that so they can start meditating, visualizing on everything that they've now mapped out in their life.

[38:09.9]
And what I've been finding is that people are become so, let me say confident, empowered, clear and focused. Where you know, now they have boundaries. You know, just a funny story that just happened just yesterday that I'll share with you is, you know, my kids, my, my daughters, my youngest is 16 and they all have built their own mind maps and we've talked about their Im mind map and so interesting that, you know, my 16 year old was talking about this little boy in school and stuff.

[38:44.4]
Every time I pick her up from school, dad, just guy named William. William, William. And I'm like, la, la, la la. I don't hear that, I don't hear that. But anyway, after about a week or two or something, she stopped talking about this guy. And I was like, well, you know, whatever happened to that, that boy you was talking about?

[39:00.2]
She's like, oh dad, I let him go. And I was like, really? Why? She was like, he didn't fit on my IM mind map. And I was like, there it is. You know, and that's what I've been seeing happen over and over again, is that people are now getting clear on who they are and, and get the power to confidently make adjustments in their life that's more in alignment with who they are.

[39:24.6]
You know, I've worked with clients that realize that, wait, this job is not working, you know, this is not bringing me my fulfillment. Now I'm clear on what it is that I really want to achieve or what I want, you know, from relationships to all of that stuff. So people get this empowerment and they get this confidence that, you know, I don't have to deal with this less than optimal situation, you know, or this relationship anymore.

[39:50.7]
I'm clear on who I am and what I need to do. I work with a lot of students in college and this is one of the things that I do is, you know, especially freshmen is let's get clear on who you are by creating your I am mind map. So you'll navigate your college with clarity and focus versus, you know, how college is.

[40:09.0]
You got all this peer pressure and all these temptations and all of these things that are coming at you. Now that you have an imap, you have more clarity on how to navigate all of that stuff that you're going to go through in college. And been getting some very great feedback from students like, thank you for that, you know.

[40:27.3]
Thank you. That really helped me understand that I can do certain things with boundaries and limits. Well, I think, John, you bring up an important point. It's the I am Mind map, not the my parents wanted me to be my man.

[40:43.1]
Exactly. And so the reality when kids go off to college, it's usually frequently around, hey, look, my, my, my father and mother wanted me to come a doctor. Well, no. Is that what you wanted to become? You figure out who you are and what you'd like to do.

[41:00.3]
Right. I think, what you're doing is you're offering them a new perspective. I'm not saying to throw that back in your parents face, but you can tell them, hey, I'm not happy with this track. My major was X and I want it to be psychology now. Right. Or something else.

[41:15.6]
And I think that's important for them. If they can find that early, that's good. Now students though, great. Not just students. I've been finding this with adults as well because like I was when I had my mortgage company. And what I've been finding over the years is very, very few people have ever just sat down and consciously decided or defined who they are.

[41:40.1]
You know, most people are, you know, they inherit their title and inherit their job or whatever that may be. But as far as consciously saying, wait a minute, this is who I am, very few people have ever done that and even fewer have ever clearly visually mapped it out to use it as a guide, to use it as a compass, to use it as a commandments, a command, personal constitution or whatever to guide through their life.

[42:06.2]
So it's not just students, but I've been finding older people that are like, you know, that are now empty nesters, are now divorced or whatever. They're like, who am I? You know, I don't know who I am anymore. Which I've been finding I am, this I am mind map to be beneficial to as well.

[42:23.9]
Yeah, definitely. It's so important. And you bring up some great Points. And I think the best thing is if people were to take away today, John, from our show, just two things that they could actually put into their life.

[42:40.5]
What would you want them to be, and why do you think that it's so important? Yes, great question. I would think the biggest thing out of all the possible mind maps you can make. Well, first it'd be start exploring mind mapping.

[42:58.3]
It's a, it's a great tool to understand and utilize when necessary. Out, of all of the possible mind maps, the thousands of possible things you can use a mind map for, there's none more important than to use the I am mind map to just click get clear on who you are and what you want your life to be about.

[43:18.4]
It's so illuminating. It's so empowering. It's so, so. It's just amazing to get clear on who you are because that will help you determine where you're going, where you're heading, and help guide your decisions to be in alignment with who you are intending to be with your life.

[43:36.8]
So of all of the things I would say pick up mind mapping, understand mind mapping. But most importantly, start just defining your IM mind map because it would really empower you or put you in a better position to love and live your best life fully.

[43:54.8]
Well, and I would say to you, John, thank you for exposing this to our listening audience, especially the mind mapping it. You know, it's been an honor having you on. There's two books. He's got the IM book. We'll put a link below. Look there. He's, got the book on map and earring.

[44:12.2]
We'll have a link to that one. As you can see, there is definitely a correlation here. It's a strong one between the, IM book and the map and earring book and his community. So go to www.john digs-I g g s.com to learn more about his books, about his courses, about what he's doing, podcasts.

[44:35.2]
Everything's John doing. It's just@john diggs.com and John, again, a pleasure having you on. Appreciate you appreciate your approach to helping people gain clarity in life through mind mapping and focusing on the four core principles of I am.

[44:52.8]
Thanks so much. Thank you for having me, Greg. Thank you so much. Thank you for listening to this podcast on Inside Personal Growth. We appreciate your support. And for more information about new podcasts, Please go to inside personal growth.com or any of your favorite channels to listen to our podcast.

[45:11.4]
Thanks again and have a wonderful day.