Makes Sense - with Dr. JC Doornick - Facing Your Dragons: Interview with Dr. JC Doornick on Self-Mastery and Authentic Living - Episode 129

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

Enjoy a recent Podcast Interview I had the honor of doing with the Amazing Anika Jackson with the Your Brand Amplified Podcast, where we discussed Self-Mastery and Authentic Living. Check out Anika's Podcast below! Central to Dr. JC Doornick’s philosophy is the belief that genuine success arises from a harmonious alignment between internal values and external actions. His own journey of transformation—moving from struggle and self-doubt to lasting change—demonstrates that lasting fulfillment begins with prioritizing both physical and mental health. By urging individuals to confront rather than avoid their fears, Dr. Doornick turns obstacles into catalysts for growth, nurturing resilience, authenticity, and compassion along the way. Through his frameworks and personal example, he illustrates that personal and professional breakthroughs require self-awareness, kindness, and persistent action. His focus is not merely on external accomplishments but on cultivating an environment where individuals are equipped to realize their potential, create meaningful impact, and enjoy a life anchored in purpose. For those ready to engage more deeply with these transformative concepts, follow Dr. JC Doornick’s Makes Sense Podcast or subscribe to his Substack at https://drjcdoornick.substack.com. To further your growth, consider joining his Makes Sense Academy on Skool, and explore his book and related resources at makessensebook.com. We’re happy you’re here! Like Anika's pod? Support the podcast and receive discounts from our sponsors: https://yourbrandamplified.codeadx.me/ Leave a rating and review on your favorite platform Follow @yourbrandamplified on the socials Talk to my digital avatar Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I always begin with their physical health because I don't want them to fail. I don't care how much money people pay me. That's not the best part. The best part is watching them not only succeed, but succeed even more than me. That's the glory of coaching. But I won't work with somebody that's not willing to work with themselves. And they're skipping that. Step into the world of success with your brand amplified, the ultimate podcast,

designed to unravel the intricacies of thriving businesses. I'm your host, Anika Jackson, and I'm on a mission to uncover the stories, strategies, and secrets that have propelled entrepreneurs and business leaders to success. It would be a good name for a podcast. Dr. J.C. Dornick, the dragon is with me. And there are so many connection points that I already feel. And this is the first time we're meeting, even though we're on the same network, believe, which brought us together. So welcome to your brand. and amplified. It's an honor and a privilege to be here. I, too, feel like I've known you. Yeah, I definitely feel that connection. And this is the start, right? This is the to be continued.

There's no better way to start a friendship than in a podcast interview. I do find this is true. People might think that's funny, but it is. Gosh, and before we jumped on, I was just saying there's so much that you do and have done and this amazing, rich life and all this love and energy that you pour into others with the work that you're doing, that I don't even know where to start because you're a life transformation coach, you're a humanitarian, you have a really amazing podcast. You're a kind human. And these are some words that you used to describe yourself, but I would also use them from everything I've read and listened to and seen about you. And you have a book coming out, which I'm very excited about. But let's go back to how you got to be this.

version of yourself. The dragon. Yes. Well, first of all, I'm such a fan of your show, and you know that to be true because I told you that just before. And this is probably what I love about podcasting is you get to ask people questions that you're curious to know, and you're a great interviewer and, you know, the content and the people that you have on your show is of high, high value. So I want to say that it's an honor to be here. You know, just like anybody else that you need. You know, you need. You that seems to be doing a lot and also doing a lot in the sense of trying to help other people. Always a backstory. There's always a backstory. I was not born. I didn't come out of the womb and said, I'm going to help people and save the world. You know, I went through some very, very dark times

in life. And I'm just somebody that speaks openly about it. But it was years and years ago, I was just probably this guy that you would have hated just because I was so confident and cocky in my abilities, which I thought were great traits. I felt good, and I just thought that I was unconscious to the fact that I was a know-it-all, right? I mean, I just remember a mentor one time met me and recognized that in me, and he said, oh, boy, you're going to hit a wall one day. And I sure did. So this is a big element of my book and a lot of my work, but I went through some very, very dark times in my life where I was driven to the

edge to the point where I went from this super confident and cocky guy to sitting in a chair in front of a therapist with her asking me why I wanted to end my life. And I mean, how do you get to that place, right? So a sequence of events happened and just, this is where the concept of makes sense, which is my brand, came from. She asked me a series of questions and brought me to this place where I made sense of how all of that happened because I felt very trapped and I didn't know where I could go. And I experienced what I call a snap moment. And I think a lot of people will resonate with this idea of going from completely offline and in the dark to in a snap coming back online and just so grateful that you did. And recognizing that a process took place that

gave me this gift, and I made two decisions that day, which is probably what I became an obsessive, save the world kind of a guy. One decision I made is I'm never going back to that place again because I didn't like it. And I don't wish it on my worst enemy. But the second was to figure out my life's work was going to be to figure out what happened there, where I went from being in such a dark place to not only back into the light, but in just a beautiful, grateful way. And I decided to dedicate the rest of my life to being able to provide that for others. And that's what you'll get in my book when that comes out and all of my work and my podcast. Now, if you follow my podcast, you'll notice that I spend a lot of time offering alternative perspectives to people. And the premise

of that is, and this is what I've learned from my life experience, is it's very easy in this world to think that you know something and not recognize how you've been persuaded to think that way by your mother-father, teacher, preacher, and your life experience. And you won't know that that's happening because the way the brain works is it thinks it knows. But if you step back from that and you pause and say something like, hmm, we'd which stands for, haven't made up my mind yet, what you'll see is that there's other things that might be true that you didn't know. So I created a system, I call it the interface response system that helps people do that. And it's translated into some miraculous businesses

that I've started. And I've just been on this wacky journey where no matter how hard life gets, Not as bad as that. So I'm kind of embracing the suck and enjoying the ride and helping a lot of people. Yeah. That's a very succinct way of sharing your entire story. Yeah, we're done. It's over. No, not even close.

But I want to dive more into this construct because this is underpinning every interview, every conversation I have with people is we start believing what other people tell us, who they say we are. you know, if you're a stay-at-home mom, you can't have the skills to build an entire business that, a guest a couple of interviews ago with me, built this amazing business for differently able people. And she had a knock on a lot of doors and she had to do a lot of, there was, they liquidated their 401K because she believed in it so much. And now she's seeing the success and she has a nonprofit and she's giving back. And those are the beautiful stories is when we go through these hardships and like you did yourself.

It doesn't matter where you started. It doesn't matter who your parents are. You were talking about that before we jumped on. We are all still human and we all still have to experience this thing, this lifetime, right? And go through these and figure out how to get to the other side or just even thinking about what you're doing in business, what you're offering. And if people see more out of you, like they see that you are more than you think you are, that you should charge more, that you have more value. And a lot of times we internalize all of these other things. So how did you first break out of that for yourself and then come up with this concept and construct so that you could help others do the same?

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But there's so many other factors involved in brand like authenticity and intention and things like that. So to answer that question in hearing my story, and there's so many other pieces of this that you'll get in the book, I'm just this person that experienced the gift of life, and I got to this place where I started to do things anyway. I could read every book. I mean, I'm a voracious reader. I read a book every week, so I write every personal growth book and brand book and everything, because I just became hungry to learn. But I'm a very book. I'm a verocious reader. I read a But at the end of the day, I think that if you interact with me, you'll find out that I really care about you and what happens with you if I share my information with, in that you'll do

it anyway. So I think, call it getting out of my own way, I went from being this guy that was so determined to be right. And it was trying to amplify the brand of being intelligent and valuable and all that stuff. And that got me nowhere. And I had to be kind of torn down by life, and life has a tendency of doing that, to choose kindness over righteousness. And that's when everything started to unlock. So I guess to sum that up, I would just say, if you look at any success story, you know, and you're one of them, you'll realize that success is not actually difficult. It's just inconvenient. It's inconvenient for the person that has a timeline on it and is like, what's my return on investment type thing? But if you look at anybody that has found just gross

success in life, they're just somebody that, you know, set a North Star that was so important to them the likes of the air that you desire if your head is underwater and figured some sort of way of leveraging that into place and just never stop no matter what, no matter what. There's no other formula for success outside of that. So when you look at my brand, you know, if you were to squeeze me, the juice that would come out would be love and compassion and empathy. And my drive is very, very, very focused to the point where I'm doing what I'll die doing, regardless of the money, regardless of the success and the impact. So what does that mean for somebody listening to this right now? Whatever your brand is right now,

it can be amplified. And I believe the way it will amplify it, you will amplify it is through things like authenticity and just where your heart is in the whole thing. And that's a next level of it. So, you know, I unfortunately, like most people, had to embrace the suck. I recognized a long time ago that it is true that life sucks and then you die, because for the most part, life is challenging. It's inconvenient. It's hard. So I just learned, and this is the system I teach, how to dance in the rain and learn how to enjoy the majority of life, which sucks. And that's a big part of it, because I think the biggest challenge people have, Anika, is just simply following through on what you said you were going to do. And when you have a reason to, it's much easier.

I'm just enjoying the process. And if I get a knuckle sandwich later today, which I tend to, I'll just know that I needed a knuckle sandwich. I want to go back to the way you're talking about your brand amplified, because I also see it as I 100% believe that everything we do is based on who we are inside and what we believe about ourselves and that we're holding true to our own values and that we're doing it authentically, unabashedly, unapologetically. And that can be really really difficult. But if you start with your brand from that construct, then it's easier to make decisions. It's easier to stay out of poor decisions and get pigeonholed by people. And so to me, brand amplification, yes, there is the one side that's the business and how do you do as you know.

Leveraging virality and likes and comments and views. But the other side is how are we leveraging our own brands to amplify them in terms of our effect on other people and the good we're putting into the world, right? And I think that's, I mean, you're living obviously in both spaces because you are very successful, but you also have this piece and you found the piece in this sucky life to dance in the rain and two, to all these other things that you're doing. So your transformation wasn't just mental. It was also physical. And it was that part of what then awakened the dragon, which is your monitor. Yeah, you know, it's really interesting that you bring that up. One of my favorite all-time quotes, and it involves what I believe is the first step.

You know, a lot of people come to me at Crossroads and when I'm doing coaching, it's unorthodox, because typically people come to me and they want more success, they want more of this, more of that. But sometimes they have to focus on what they need less of first. And I believe that if you're not willing to take your own self seriously in your physical health, and it shows, and I've been through this, I used to be 80 pounds heavier than I am, what you're going to experience is a log jam. You're not going to be able to, it's a congruency thing. So I, part of my transformation was, and this is around the time that I was hitting a wall, I was kind of touting myself as a successful guy as a health professional, as a chiropractor for about 17 years,

and I built a huge practice. But then all of a sudden, I looked at, myself and I saw this picture of myself on the beach with my shirt on because I was fat and disgusting. I mean, I was clinically depressed as a result of that, but very good at hiding it. So I had this transformation and, you know, the way the universe works is if you're actually open and curious and ready, it provides you. And I, somebody just came out of poof, out of the air and said, hey, I've got this program for weight loss and nutrition. And I'm like, oh my God, it's perfect. It's perfect. And I went on this program. And as my physical started to transform, and I didn't know this.

I mean, it sounds like a good idea, but as my physical transformed, my mental transformed as well. So my favorite quote, and this is a jitter-downer, is that it's only on a healthy body that a healthy mind rests. So as a coach, whenever somebody comes to me looking to amplify their brand in life and their experience, I always begin with their physical health because I don't want them to fail. I don't care how much money people pay me. That's not the best part. The best part is watching them not only succeed, but succeed even more than me. That's the glory of coaching. But I won't work with

somebody that's not willing to work with themselves. And they're skipping that. So yeah, a physical transformation. If somebody's jammed up right now and they're like doing all the do out there, they're like, I'm doing everything that the books say, and I listen to Anika's podcast all the time, and I hear all these experts, and I'm doing, doing, doing, they're forgetting about the who. You know, the whole premise of self-development and personal growth, which you don't really get accountable for, because you can go to a Tony Robbins event and go outside and smoke a cigarette and eat a cheeseburger and think that you're going to succeed. And there's nothing wrong with cheeseburgers. But you're not getting anywhere because you're working too much on the do and not

enough of the who. So my advice to anybody, if you're not seemingly getting anywhere in life, but you're working really hard and your brand looks good and experts have told you it works, but it's not working, you've got to go back and start leading from the front in life. And the cool thing about that is everything gets better when you get better. So if you want to leverage your success and make it highly probable, get in the best physical shape. And everybody's different. Get in the best physical shape or at least get in motion that you've ever been in and just watch how the do starts to happen.

There's a version of everybody that is right for the job. So become the person. And this works in relationships, by the way. You can't go out and find the love of your life. You have to become the person that the love of your life is looking for. And that's the same thing with business success. So that's kind of the sticky part of working with me is there's no bullshit. And that comes from a recovering bullshit artist.

So I know it doesn't work. Yeah. I think this is such an interesting point, but it is so true because stepping out into leaving my last full-time job and deciding that I'm fully engaged in teaching and podcasting. a little side of AI, I have gone through that experience where I've said, I know that I was in the best shape during this time period of my life and I need to get back there. And I've thought that in concert with stepping back out and having to rely on myself, my knowledge, right? And of course, the help of a lot of great people along the way. But it's definitely something that I've started doing is paying more attention. Okay, I had this, this quiet period where I was working on this,

this and this, but now it's time to break out, and now it's time to also work on my health more again. So the fact that you're saying this, just it's the perfect time for me to hear this and take this message. I mean, my name is JC, you know. So, but let's talk about how did you get the name the dragon? Was this a moniker that you put on yourself? Is it something, did you have medicinal experience and it came up? It's funny because there's a lot of people that, because on my podcast, it's called Make

sense with Dr. J.C., but everybody knows me as the Dragon. And I used to have my old podcast before that was my first stab at podcasting before I actually knew what I was doing was called Rise Up with Dragon. And the whole premise of that was just I would have a morning show that I would invite people to come to and get their head screwed on straight. But everybody always wants to know where the name dragon comes from. And I mean, I don't know if you even thought this through, but like you officially now can tell people you have a friend named Dragon, which is pretty cool in general. So what's interesting about, so as it was evolving and kind of like in a leveling up of consciousness way, I just started to notice some interesting things. That's another thing about getting healthy

is you start to get clear and you start to become the dominant force of your life and the shock hauler. So you start to look at things differently. If you change the way you look at things, the things that you look at start to change. So before I considered, myself as the dragon, I just took note of an interesting thing that in all of these different cultures and generations of people in general, there's a lot of stories about fire-breathing dragons. And what's interesting is we know that they never existed, but there's many cultures that spoke of them anyway. So that was fascinating, but I noticed that dragons were what we would call mythical, being unbelievable. And I started to notice that I was kind of becoming unbelievable to

myself. So that was the first connection. But the truth is, is that I went through a phase of my life. And a lot of people listening right now are going through this phase where I just felt like I was always under attack, like the world was happening to me. And I would, experiencing things like anxiety and depression. I remember when I started to do the foolish thing about becoming a public speaker, you know, I started to go on big stages and I started to like realize, oh my God, I'm going to die, you know. So I used to refer to the tough times in life and I used to tell my friends, they would say, how you're doing? And I say, I'm slaying a lot of dragons. You know, the dragons are swooping over me. And that was just my way of explaining that life's been tough. So that was the first time that I kind of made that

connection. But then what happened was, is that it was kind of like the monster in the closet. Like, if you really want to get rid of the monster in the closet, you know, your mom opens the door and turns the light on. It's not there. She closes the door. It's there. So I decided to go into the closet. Most people were trying to come out of the closet. I went in the closet and had cocktails with the suckers. I just decided to take the thing that I was most scared of and bring it as close to me as possible and embody it. So when I started calling myself the dragon, it was the way that I explained to people that I'm not afraid anymore. I'm actually using my fear as something of value rather than running from it and making it big. And what I realized is the dragon was actually my

superpower, facing my fears and embracing those things. So yeah, it just stuck. So there's a lot of That and these glasses. Nobody ever realizes this, but I don't have lenses in my glasses until I do that. And that was another piece of the whole dragon, as I said, I'm no longer going to look at life through the lens that's been given to me. So I popped out the lenses and I've been wearing these glasses for a long time and I can actually see better with them on. So, you know, for anybody out there that resonates with your own version of the dragon, the more you run from it, the scary and bigger it gets. And if you not only confront it, but embody it, it'll become a strength. So I'm fearless as the dragon. Nice. And talk about makes sense because you mentioned your other podcast

and now your entire brand revolves around these words. Yeah. Well, think about what makes sense means, you know. I love listening. I listen to your show and I hear people say, yeah, make sense. You know, it can, it can be a question or an answer. They say, make sense. And then you go, yeah, it makes sense. And every time they do, I go, yes, you know. But the whole concept revolves around, you know, we are kind of sense making machines and we're always trying to give meaning to things.

And the problem with that is we live in a world that's doing the thinking for us. We're so easily persuaded and influenced. And now we have things like algorithms and blockchains and like, we're like, Without even knowing it, you could get in a bad mood and not realize that it happened like five hours ago when you looked at something that triggered you. So the whole concept and brand of makes sense is just recognizing how that is like a full-time job, right? We're always trying to give meaning. And where it gets warily and goes sideways is where we start to take information that we receive from the outside, whether it's a political view. or a religious view or a philosophy or anything like that. And we just say, yes, that's what I'm

going to go with. I'm going to call reality this and I'm going to make my decisions based on this. And you don't even know that there's alternative perspectives. So the whole premise of makes sense is that if I can help you lift the clouds of confusion and make sense of something, which doesn't make it true, but if I can help you make sense of something and alleviate things like confusion and frustration, you're much less likely to get distracted in life and follow through, but also it feels just wonderful to establish clarity. But where it really comes in handy and the systems that I teach, this interface response system, which is all about that, is when you're in a situation that is knocking you off track and having the ability

to reframe it into a way that better serves you. So sometimes you think something makes sense, but if you have the ability to reframe it and have it like better suit and support you, that's a power move in life. So that's what I love to do is I love to help people make sense of things, but also in a way that is in support of what it is

that you truly want in life and the things that matter most. So I like to arm and equip people with awareness and sense making. Does that make sense? It does. And it sounds like you might have dipped your toe a little bit in NLP and some other modalities. I dip my toes in everything. So it sounds like you did a lot of self-exploration.

Yeah. And you did try a lot of things before you figured out. I'm not just interested in one thing because you're obviously you're a doctor of chiropractic for a long time. You still have chiral mission, right? I passed that on to somebody else years ago. But yeah, that was something I started, yeah. Yeah. And you've dipped your toes into a whole bunch of things

and then put them together in what you thought was a great augmentation for you that works for you and that now works for other people. So I love that and I just wanted to acknowledge that because I do think that's, I do some work with a former Zen monk because I realize the way I teach branding and I think about branding

is the way that he teaches people how to love yourself again and how to get plus different barriers, just different language, because I come from the marketing side, and he is a former non-munk, right? So we don't have each other's language, but I think that's one of the most beautiful things, is being able to take those languages and those constructs

and figure out what makes sense for you and what might for other people. Right. And that's all that matters is when it comes to sense-making is you're either making sense of things in a way that supports what everybody else taught you to think, or allowing yourself to make sense of things in accordance with what you think. You know, it's about reminding people. See, I think everybody's trying to acquire things that they perceive are on the outside. We have this illusion that now is not good enough, and things will get

better down the road. Like, we're looking for everything on the outside. And meanwhile, what good is that? If you don't know how to appreciate and embrace the now, well, you're never going to enjoy wherever you're going anywhere. And if anybody has paid attention to everything, the finish line keeps moving away from you. So I think that it's really, really about, you know, reminding yourself that the only place that life is actually happening is now. Like right now, I'm here with you. and my mind has been trained to wander

and think about then and what's up in the future, which are just fantasies. We have no idea, but we spend all of our time there. So I love to embrace The Now, but I also love to let people know that there is a place called The Now. And ironically, it's the only place that actually exists. So I hope that somebody that's listening to this right now that is totally focused and driven,

which we live in a society that tells you to go, go, go, you know, have grit and be indistractable and all of that stuff, all these books that I've read, but they forget about the now, the now. And the now is perfect. It's perfect. You don't need anything in the now. So I think human beings need to remember things that already exist.

And I don't think that we need to acquire as much as we think. think, we just have to remember what already is. So that's a big, you know, people that are like driven, like the Grant Cardones and things like that hate me because I'm saying, well, what about now? Well, you better plan and you better have set goals. And it's December, you're behind and setting goals for 2006 and say, well, I'm just kind of focused on December 2nd right now. It is true that we, so many times you see the offer. You see the urgency. see, online. You see somebody has success with this program or that program, and they're going to show you all this money that they made from it. And one thing I've learned is that I'm much better

if I do live in the now and the present, and I'm really happy with who I am on the inside and know my limits and what I can achieve and go by my own rhythm versus going by somebody else's. But that can also be really difficult to achieve. It's the hardest thing in the world. And you know, you can get emotional about it, which is another thing that you help people deal with, is that emotional side, because no matter how at peace I feel right now and I'm doing things I love and pouring myself into them, I know there's always more I need to do, but I approach that very calmly now. I don't get worked up like, oh my gosh, I need to work 20 hours today to make up because that's not what's important. What's important is here and now. What's important is my daughter's going to

be home in a few hours and we're going to have time together after school and work. But at the same time, you can have that still, that little seat of self-doubt or not realizing your own worth. And having angst when somebody says, you should be charging five times what you're charging for your program or for this, or maybe make this tweak or that tweak because then you'll, because they do see something bigger yourself. And you can still feel it maybe in your gut or your throat chakra and like get, oh, is that true? Can I really believe that about myself? And so how do you help people work through those emotional hurdles? Well, there's something that I call brain awareness perception.

And what it refers to, so I'm very, very fascinated with the anatomy of the brain. And it's important to learn how your brain works before you learn how to command control over it. Because if you don't understand how it works, you'll always struggle because you will be like, I don't understand why I can't do something. Well, most of the decisions that you make and most of the perceptions that you have and that moment where you have an idea, they're not your own. The way that the human brain works is the lower levels of the brain, which some people call the subconscious, the autopilot, dominate most of the process.

You know, there's this area in your brain called the neocortex, the prefrontal cortex, which is the version of your brain that makes you think about something. But you think you came up with the idea, but it actually was delivered from past memories and trauma and all that stuff, right? So that's the problem. And the reason why we're living in the future and the past, which don't even exist, is that we're not in control of our stress response system and our thought process. However, if you're aware of that, that's step one of the interface response system,

is to be aware that your brain and you don't come up with most of the ideas and thoughts and feelings. They're being made for you. past trauma, amygdala fires off, an alarm, talks to the hypothalamus, you know, and they get together and they go, here. And then it comes online and you go, oh, I know what this is. So if you realize that, what you need to learn how to do is not second guess yourself, but learn to dispute and contemplate what it is that you would call your knee-jerk reflex. So if somebody comes up to me and I get triggered or something's unpleasant to me, or I'm worried about money or anything like that. Can't avoid that.

That's unavoidable to have thoughts and feelings that feel icky sometimes. So the first thing I do is I allow myself, I give myself permission to put a pause on that. Say, okay, thank you for making me feel like crap. But if you don't mind, I'm going to put you on pause, and I'm going to step into a space where I can take a look at this from alternative perspectives. So I'm not getting rid of the knee-jerk reflex. I'm just recognizing that icky feeling. And I always teach people to say, hmm, which, you know, stands for having not made up your mind.

Say, okay, good. Thank you for that. But I'm not sure about it yet. I'm going to allow myself to look at things and see what else might be true. If a human being can learn how to do that, think about it. they've just put themselves in the present moment. And here's what it looks like. And this is what my podcast is all about.

I like to talk about common topics, but from an alternative perspective. And this is what a person looks like when they start thinking. Head tilt. Ask somebody a question that makes them think. And you'll see them head tilt up like that. And they'll go, they'll say, wow, that's a good question.

They're in their prefrontal cortex and they're not being affected by their low levels of the brain. So that's how I do it, is I arm and equip somebody with the awareness of how the brain works, which validates taking a look under the hood. And my wife is a therapist. She's a sex therapist, but she knows about all this stuff. That's an interesting character to have on your show. We call her the chicken, so it's chicken and dragon.

But we often talk about it. The science is called cognitive distancing. to distance yourself from your knee-jerk reflex and the stimulus that caused it and sit in the middle. It sounds like you know a little bit about Buddhism by hearing you speak the middle way, neither here nor there, and just giving yourself permission to look at alternative perspectives. And if you do that, it's happening in the present moment, and you have just become a superpower in that moment. Amazing. Yeah.

anybody can do that. All you have to do is just go, huh, huh. And sometimes just leave it at that, because you don't have to know everything. No, we don't. We sometimes like to think we do, but it can make life difficult

as you've experienced as well. You have the podcast, which is doing really amazing. You have a substack. You have a book coming out. You have your communities, courses. Everybody who's listening can learn from you right now.

Do you have a specific persona, though, that goes through your courses, that's part of your online community? The demographic is interesting. I would say it's mostly female, but I would say only because females seem to be a little bit more open and curious. But, you know, a lot of men as well. But there are people that are at some form of a crossroad, which doesn't have to be a negative thing. But the people that come to me are people that are open and curious because they know that. that there's more. They know that there's more. They can't figure it out. And, you know, they're kind of like, I know that this is not all there is. And they're super, super smart and talented people, but not using it

to its potential. So when somebody... I would argue that's almost everybody. Yeah, right? Exactly. Yeah, so it's everybody. And they come to me and they're looking for answers, but that's not what I give them, because I can't give them answers, but I can guide them to find the answers. But what we start off doing is making sure that we arm and equip them with the weapon of awareness. We'll say, well, what else is going on? And very often I'll point something out that they didn't see or they forgot that is the cause of them jamming up. And if I can get them in the place, and I teach them the interface response system, If I can get them in a place where they allow themselves to start thinking about things in connection with

their greatest desires in life and to get them dreaming again and things like that, it's a very, very simple process. It's like getting rid of this prison guard called the ego that's just standing guard and not allowing you. I always say that it's like having an SD card with a right protect switch on, meaning not allowing any new information. We allow new information coming in and people have extraordinary. ordinary breakthroughs, and then all of a sudden, not only do they find success, but they also

become free. And unfortunately, for other people, when somebody becomes free, that person very often has to get rid of a lot of baggage that they've been tolerating and carrying along with them. So that's one of the reasons people are afraid. This is the fear of success. They're afraid of the overwhelm of what it would be like to be successful, but also all the change that is going to be required because I think that we're creatures of habit in the sense that we seek comfort over growth, but that's why there's so few people at the top of the mountain

sitting at the table of success. It's not because it's only for a select few, it's because of the sacrifice that you have to make. So I lost a lot of people along the way, and I'm with my chicken now, and I've got my family, and that suits me. But I had to get rid of some things that I thought were important. Yeah.

That's not an uncommon experience. Yeah. I have a whole group of people that were on that path, right? They were a part of my journey, but they're not part of my life. Right. Exactly. Sometimes it's family members, by the way. It's tough.

It's tough. We always forget about, you know, you pick any of the icons of success, whether you like them or not, What typically differentiate them from most other people is they failed more and never quit. So, you know, success is not hard. It's just inconvenient. So is there everybody here that's listening to this could become extraordinarily successful and happy, but it's going to require sacrifice and decisions and commitment and consistency and all that inconvenient stuff. You know, rather just like the Matrix, just choose the red bill or the blue pill. Wouldn't that be nice? You know, just say, oh, I choose that pill and I'll just have everything. What they don't understand, as soon as you take the pill, it really just opens the door to the work.

And I always say, isn't it mysterious how God in the universe has just placed everything that we desire inconveniently on the other side of a big pile of poop? So how do you succeed? You have to learn how to navigate the poop, and it gets smelly. I want to use that analogy that you just used, maybe not the poop part, but the hard work part. I live close to New York, so there I see a different word. That was nice for the show. To writing a book, because so many people want to do that, how do you decide that it's the right time and the intentionality that you have to put into making sure that you're putting out

a product that really represents you, your brand, your teachings, everything that you've learned? Well, for one thing, that would be the reason why this book, this particular book, took eight years to write because it was about second guessing and contemplating. And what I learned to do there is just simply let other people get involved other than me. Because if I were to control it, the book would be like 700 pages long. And I would reiterate the same things over and over and over again and explain them from alternative perspectives. So just in case somebody didn't get it. So sometimes we have to release from control and just get some good people around you. And just imagine how scary it is to write a book that is called Makes Sense and somebody says,

I don't get it. So, yeah, that was a stupid idea on my part. But part of my journey and process of growth was writing that book. So if somebody's out there and you have an idea, I say, just go for it. Just do it and release from the outcome. even if it's not a success, which my book might not be, even if it's not a success, it's a success that you did it. And what I've learned about life is we get better and better along the way. So maybe it'll be my second book or my third book or my fourth book that everybody will think is cool.

But right now, I'm pretty proud that I finish this one. Yeah. Amazing. Well, I'm looking forward to reading it myself. Thank you. And what is your single source of truth where you'd like people to go? Because I know your book link is not up yet.

I would say, yeah. So that'll be live, maybe even by the time that this goes live. But I mean, you can follow me on Instagram or my substack, make sense substack. But if somebody were to Google my name, they would see that I'm all over the place. But what I would say is don't spend too much time

just reading my stuff and looking at my content, reach out and say hi to me. There's so few people that do that. Everybody thinks that there's no way that you're going to reply to them. That's not true. If you're somebody that goes after life, there's no competition. So reach out to somebody like me and just say, hey, I have a question or I'd like to ask you about this. My Make Sense Academy, me, I have a school platform where in a group format, I coach people and we do masterminds and they're constantly talking to me. That's another thing. I mean, I give high, high quality, high ticket coaching for a hundred bucks a month. You know, and yeah, that's a whole other story. We can talk about some other time, but I've created a business model where people can get high leverage

personal growth, self development, and life coaching and business coaching for a hundred bucks a month. So there's a lot of stuff out there like that. And you don't have to go hire a coach for or join a mastermind for a hundred grand a year and things like that. There's value to those. But there's just a lot of interesting stuff going on right now. And as long as you know what you want, why you want it and you're ready to go for it, trust the universe as well. You know, if you're listening to this podcast right now and this is the first time you tuned into Anica's podcast, ask yourself why that happened. If you heard one thing that I said that resonates with you, ask yourself why? Why now?

And the difference between a jacuzzi experience would be everybody here saying, oh, great podcast. Thank you. I really like that one, I hope. That would be called the jacuzzi experience, because in the moment, it seems like everything's working well. To turn it into a pivotal experience, you would have to go do something about it. And the last quote I'll leave you with is that learning is nothing more than a distraction in the absence of action. So if you find yourself learning and learning and learning and knowing and nothing is happening, it's because you're not taking action. So go do something about it and fail more in life, right? Fail more in life because then you'll be in the winter circle. Yeah. Feel often, fail hard. Yeah. I love it. Listen, it's not easy. It's not easy,

but there's no competition if you go after it. Yeah. Thank you so much. I know we're going to have more conversations, hopefully on this. Yeah, well, I mean, I want to have you on my show sometime. I would love to. Because I can see it. I can see it.

That would be an honor for me to be on your platform as well. So thank you so much for joining me today, J.C. And thank you to everybody who's listening. Take this chance to, like J.C. said, do more than just listen. take that next step, take that leap of face, just get out there. Because if you don't do it, just like creativity, that idea is going to go to somebody else who will take advantage of it and you'll miss out and you'll wonder why you stood on the sidelines. So don't stand on the sidelines of your own life. These are the words going into the last months of the year. If you're listening to it when it comes out

officially. And if you're not, any time of the year is a good time to take that chance on yourself. And with that, thank you again, Dr. J.C. Dornick. And to the audience, thank you so much for listening. I'll be back again with another amazing guest very shortly. But I hope this gave you some things to think about and some things to take action on. Thanks for listening or watching to this episode of Your Brand Amplified. Don't forget to leave us a rating or review on your favorite podcast listening platform. And if you want to learn more, check us out at your brand amplified.com.