Increasing Connection Through Laughter and Integrity, Part 2 with Jason Hewlett

Have you ever wondered how maintaining integrity and fulfilling promises could shape your life? Well, let's begin our journey with Jason Hewlett, an award-winning comedian, entertainer, and world-class performer. Jason unpacks his life stories and the essence of keeping promises, as well as how his faith steered his actions, especially when dealing with broken promises.

Brace yourself as we delve deeper into the realms of forgiveness and personal growth. We dissect the valid ways of harnessing our spiritual core to steer through the wreckage of broken promises, the process of forgiveness, and setting much-needed boundaries. Discover how to keep a promise to yourself to act as Jesus would do, a commitment that calls for daily affirmation and practice.

To wrap up our enlightening dialogue, we dive into a heart-to-heart conversation with Chad Hymus, a motivational speaker whose physical disability has never deterred his spirit to inspire people worldwide. We explore our personal challenges and how they deepen our understanding and empathy for others. Understand how even in the face of hardship, we can refract the Lord's love and touch more lives than we ever imagined. Let's celebrate Chad's resilience and his magnanimous spirit together!

Jason and I would love to hear your thoughts! If you'd like to support the podcast, please follow/subscribe to be alerted to upcoming episodes and also, leave a review.

Wishing you lots of love on your own hero’s journey,
xoxo, Karen

Thanks so much for listening!  Please share this episode with your loved ones and spread the love to bless others!
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Connect with Karen Hall

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karen.o.hall
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Podcast: The Hero Within Podcast

Connect with Jason Hewlett

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jasonhewlettentertainer/
Instagram: @jasonhewlett
Website:  https://jasonhewlett.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/jasonrhewlett
 LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonhewlett/    

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hey there, welcome back. I'm Karen Hall, your host of the Hero Within podcast. I'm passionate about sharing inspiring true stories of unsung heroes who've overcome some of life's most challenging adversities. Come along with me and learn how you too can find hope and healing to return to love.

Speaker 1: 0:28

Jason Hewlett, LDS Award-winning comedian and entertainer and world-class performer, was inducted into the prestigious NSA Speaker Hall of Fame and was one of the youngest ever inducted with the Council of Peers Award for Excellence. He performed as part of a Middle East tour in support of the US military in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Africa. Jason has many awards and a long-running comedy show in Las Vegas. He describes being married to the most beautiful woman in the world, Tammy, and they have four incredible children Today. In part two, Jason describes why keeping promises is so important to him, along with the importance of being the same on stage as off stage. He offers thoughts on asking ourselves what would Jesus do when dealing with others who break promises to us. He also describes the gifts that he discovered as he dealt with broken promises and betrayal on a personal level in his own life. If you haven't listened to part one yet, be sure to listen to hear Jason's earlier experiences that helped him discover his gifts.

Speaker 2: 1:43

Take the promise to the one as yourself, and I believe that when we are truthfully aligned within our promise to ourselves, then we are doing what God wants us to do. And I wrote the promise to the one first, instead of the promise to the audience or the promise to the family, because it's the hardest one for us to live, and it's actually the reason I speak about promises, because I break them the most myself and I'm really good at that, and that's really sad. So I thought what if I write a book? I feel like a complete hoax being able to write, and when have there been times that I've made a promise and kept it? And when have I made a promise and broken it? And I share a lot of warts in this book and people are actually surprised because I put off a pretty nice persona online and in person. I mean, I have a great life, I'm very blessed, no question. But also a lot of people are sick of people being Instagram perfect and it makes people really frustrated. Comparison is the thief of joy, as we've heard, and I think that, in terms of the promise to the one, I'm sharing so many of my inabilities to keep a promise to myself that it actually connects really deeply with a lot of readers and I've got it on Audible and that's me performing. That's what's fun about the Audible. But book form, e-book form.

Speaker 2: 3:11

The reason I wrote the promise to the one is because I felt like there is not a book like this out there and I wanted to write a book that was worth reading. In fact, it took me years to even pen any part of it. I wrote the introduction multiple times over about a year's time and it didn't ever get past that and eventually I just said to my family. I said, hey, I'm sorry, but I'm going to go up into the mountains in the motorhome until the book is finished and my wife said how far have you gotten? And I said the intro. So she said well, you better take some food. So I packed some sardines and some beef jerky and wheat thins and three days later the book was finished, over 50,000 words. It was an interesting endeavor to have a divine download, as others have said it was. I think those stories were just waiting to come out and a chance for me to really focus on getting it done.

Speaker 2: 4:09

But I speak about things such as integrity, character, god. I speak about things that made it so that the book has been a hard sell, to be candid, because corporations see the cover and the name and they think, oh, we can't give a book of spirituality or religiosity to our people when in reality it's really not that. I guess there are elements of it in there, but it's nothing that's in your face and offensive in any way. I'm not trying to convert people to what I espouse as my faith, but rather I'm trying to encourage them to come along with me on the path of being somebody who makes and keeps a promise. And because I've had so many people that have made and broken promises in my life, and because I've done it myself, I thought what a perfect way to start my authoring career.

Speaker 2: 5:02

Because I have written other little books, but this was the first significant one that was published by a publisher, and so that's why I chose to write it, because I think a promise is the highest level of engagement we commit to in any experience. It's greater than a goal. It's greater than even just a commitment. I believe that when we make and keep promises, our life changes and the lives of the people around us do Even something as simple as this podcast with you.

Speaker 2: 5:33

This was a promise that I made I would be on here with you and I did all I could to figure out this different program to get on time. But I think that you're counting on me, I'm counting on you. That's a promise kept. Here we are. I love it. Now you have listeners who are hopefully keeping the promise to download it and listen, and that's the blessing of the connection that we all have, and that's why I call the promise the engagement experience, because it truly is about engagement, a promise between me and you, a promise between myself and what I'm going to do. It is a true engagement experience. So I hope that answered the question.

Speaker 1: 6:13

I want to ask a little more, because I noticed that integrity is such a strong value that you hold and that carries throughout your life in your examples, and so I'm wondering where did you learn that? Why is integrity so important to you?

Speaker 2: 6:30

I would probably just have to bring it back to the people that I've been around and the things that I believe. I was raised in a church that values very highly integrity I don't know if there's anything higher that they value and so, when it comes to having faith, that's one level of belief. But then there's the integrity of can you live what you believe, can you actually plant your feet firm enough on the ground to allow your heart to go up into the heavens and to give yourself to a character, a morality, a place of saying I want to be better. It doesn't mean that you have to force that on anybody else. It's a private promise and you can share it just by the way that you live, and people will see it.

Speaker 2: 7:20

I think when they see you, they meet you, they feel of your spirit, and I've talked a lot about how on stage. Well, there's an incongruence between the person we see on stage and the person we meet off stage. That's happened a lot to me through the years, meeting really famous, amazing people or amazing business leaders and people that I really looked up to or wrote a book, that just resonated. And then, when you meet them and you get to know them a little more. As a person, you find out real fast if that was an act or if that was integrity, and and it's really special when you meet somebody who's better off stage than they were on, even if they're brilliant on it. So that for me is a real important one.

Speaker 1: 8:06

Yeah, so I I know you start out your book with the example of the dog and do, do. Are you gonna go back and pick it up, or are you not? And you do. And then you said something really interesting that broken promises Don't just affect you, that they affect so many other people, and I know a lot of our listeners are dealing with broken promises, and so could you talk about your experience with broken promises in your life?

Speaker 2: 8:34

Sure, I mean Broken promises to myself or with other people. What would you like me to for other people to you?

Speaker 1: 8:43

Oh yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:44

So one of the challenges that I have is that I have such a high level of expectation for myself to keep the promise that it actually really intimidates a lot of people to even work with me or be around me, and I've had to learn how to be more forgiving and I think the forgiveness part is something that I I wrote quite a bit about in the book too, because I had to forgive myself in that sense where I was breaking a promise to myself, but also lots of people breaking them to me and me being like I don't know if I can ever work with them, talk with them. I mean, I'm that guy, and so I've had to really be careful to be more forgiving, more generous, more willing to Look past or even understand the backstory. I have found, however, that let's say you're about to break a promise and Obviously you don't want to because you made it, but let's say it's just a simple thing, such as You're going to be late for a meeting. Let's just say that's it. The quickest way to be able to get through a broken promise is to communicate, to just send forward a text and say hey, I'm so embarrassed, I'm running a half an hour late. I'll make it up to you. That's way better than not saying anything at all, and Because the person, when you meet them and you get there a half an hour late, they're gonna be steaming probably. And so for that person who's sitting there thinking to themselves Wow, they never texted me, they didn't call. I'm gonna wait for this half an hour, but we'll see if they show the promise comes into a place of saying what is your promise to yourself in terms of the engagement with other people that you're willing to live with?

Speaker 2: 10:27

Sometimes there will be broken promises to us, like a spouse would cheat on us, right, or some Huge thing like that. Or a business partner steals money from you, and now it becomes a matter of what is your promise to yourself for the boundaries you've established for your own sanity, because there could be a situation where a spouse cheats and it's devastating and Obviously you're probably thinking I'm out of here, but we know many stories where Somebody is so strong to the promise that they made of the bond of marriage and of love and of faith and of other things that they can say to themselves. I can forgive this person and we'll have to work through this, but I'm committed to this relationship, possibly more than the person who cheated, but do I want to be with them? And yeah, those are big, big monster questions.

Speaker 2: 11:21

That are things that involve therapy and Reading the right books, watching the right movies or videos and educating ourselves, but mostly we have to go back to our spiritual core and say what would Jesus do in this sense and what can I do to be like that? And if you can do something such as forgiving someone who broke a huge promise to you, then you're getting closer to a higher state of being and living. It's a beautiful thing. I hope that helps.

Speaker 1: 11:55

Yeah, I just love the way you said that, because I think that so many people are dealing with the struggle of forgiving and feeling so isolated in trying to figure out how to cope. You know, when you're in the middle of that, forgiveness, in my experience, has been layer by layer and it seems like you go through the grieving process and it's usually not overnight. I know for some people it might be, but it's usually not an overnight process. And so trying to keep that promise like maybe my promise is that I do want to do what Jesus would do. And so how can I do that? Moment by moment, day by day, in the middle of that process?

Speaker 2: 12:31

Yeah, and don't get me wrong about what Jesus would do. We're not saying he was a pushover here either. He didn't let anyone steamroll him, he called him on it. It was now a new level of accountability. What Jesus do a lot of the times is kind of a cop out for oh well, let's just be real soft and nice and gentle and careful. Well, remember, here's a guy who was the ultimate rebel. I mean, he was going against everything everybody was talking about. He brought a new law, and so that's what I'm saying. If you really understand Jesus, if you understand his teachings, whether you believe he's the savior of the world or not, go read Matthew 5 through 7 in the Bible and read the Sermon on the Mount and see he's not just letting people roll over and playing dead, he's holding them to the fire and saying, oh okay, well, if you did this, then what are we going to do about making sure that you don't do it again?

Speaker 1: 13:36

Right, and that's an interesting process too, because the learning to set boundaries is part of that keeping your promise to yourself and loving yourself as well, and so I think I appreciate you bringing that element into it too, because sometimes people forget that part yeah.

Speaker 2: 13:53

So what would Jesus do as a part of our promise to ourself? That's a big one, that's a real hard one. That's one where you might think, oh, I could never live up to that. Well, yeah, probably you're right, we can't. But we can try, and there's a beauty in doing all we can to try to emulate the people that we admire and we love. And I'll tell you, I had an experience in our neighborhood that was very unfortunate.

Speaker 2: 14:21

In fact, I was wrongly accused of something that was really hurtful to me after I had given a lot in terms of I had spoken and I had given some sermons, and things were not taken the way that I intended. Now I was wrongly accused and now my name was being slandered, especially among those that weren't there, had heard what I had done or said. Now I had a really hard time forgiving everybody because I thought, wait a minute, I gave my time. I traveled up to the mountains. I was serving the people I was with, like who do they think they are? I'm a professional speaker, I know how to communicate.

Speaker 2: 15:07

Well, it was not taken appropriately by the people that I was speaking to or taken in the way that I meant it to, and I had to really reconcile with myself to say well, the savior was wrongly accused, and I'm no savior, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying if he could take it and he was so passionate about not coming down from the cross while he's being mocked that he's so passionate he's not going to just like blast fire and a hail storm around everybody to get the cross off of him while he's carrying it and they're mocking him, spitting at him. He's the God of the world. He could have done anything and yet he was humble enough to take it and he didn't need to prove them wrong. He just needed to move forward and he needed for them to understand eventually, and I think that they did.

Speaker 2: 16:08

Oh, I think that guy was wrongly accused and I think that that's a big thing I've had to learn in the recent years. Actually, this is a couple of years ago. This happened and I had to go person to person, house to house, asking for understanding and forgiveness, even though I was not there to try to set the record straight. I just took it and it was a kick in the butt. It was horrible.

Speaker 2: 16:40

And it still hurts, even right now talking about it. I still feel that pain in my neck that comes up as I talk about it, and so I'm still working through it. I'm still healing from it. But that's my own little grief process. But the promise was to share what I know is true and to do something and say something that I knew would benefit the people listening. The promise was of other people that they needed to set the record straight because I had said it wrong, and that's a really hard thing for everybody because everyone thinks they're right.

Speaker 1: 17:19

It's so true, and I think having your reputation slandered like that is one of the most difficult things, especially when you're a person of integrity and you are so giving, and as a speaker, your reputation precedes you, and so to have your reputation maligned I don't know if it brought you comfort to know that, to save your experience then that's it.

Speaker 2: 17:45

And exactly what got me through was the true friends and that the savior went through it too. And not to say, hey, because he went through it, I can hang on. That's not what it is. It's wow. He went through that and he let it just happen because it had to. Well, I guess I needed to let this happen, and I don't need to go to try and fix it, but rather to know who my friends are, to know that my family stood by me and I still have strained relationships. I found it really interesting. The same week that this happened to me and literally my name was being dragged through the mud in amongst the people that I have served and loved and given and donated money and you name it for 20 years. Almost now, I received an international service award. In the mail it said thank you for your service, you're one of the great servants of humanity, and I'm like well, tell my neighbor, you know.

Speaker 1: 18:51

Wow the timing it's insane.

Speaker 2: 18:55

My wife and I laughed out loud when we opened the box because she had just gotten done with another phone call of a woman in our area that was just so upset at me. My wife was like wow, it's so fascinating what misunderstanding can do, especially almost 20 years of serving, loving, caring can be dashed in one misunderstood moment. That's really terrifying. The promise to me in this area is to first of all, not sell my house and leave. The second promise to me was to just keep serving and to keep going, and eventually, by your fruits you shall know them.

Speaker 1: 19:41

Right and it takes a while for the proof to come out in the pudding. But I think that enduring those kinds of experiences for me the other thing was I became acquainted with God in my extremity and as he suckered me through that, it was such a bonding experience for me with the Lord because he was the only one that could sucker me through that in the way that I needed, because he did know and he did understand and he understood me, and so I'm sure you experienced some very tender moments with the Lord through that as well.

Speaker 2: 20:16

What a great way of saying it.

Speaker 2: 20:17

That was beautiful for sure.

Speaker 2: 20:19

I would second that and say I am a guy who, for the last 23 years of my career, I have essentially had very little conflict.

Speaker 2: 20:31

I've had plenty of naysayers if you read YouTube comments from my comedy and stuff, and that's just goes with the course, but in terms of having any type of real disagreements or conflicts there really hasn't been in my life, and so I needed to experience that aspect of it to be misunderstood, to be misaligned, to have your reputation slandered, to have those things happen to me are important as horrible as they are, and I also had never even experienced a real physical injury in my whole life.

Speaker 2: 21:08

I broke a collar bone as a kid and you heal and you forget about it. But, like I hurt myself last year to such a degree that it brought me to a new aspect of understanding and empathy for people that I am ashamed to admit, I never had sympathy for as much as I should have before people in physical pain, people with mental challenges or emotional anxiety and stress and these types of things. I have been gifted those injuries over the last few years and I never expected that would happen and I'm so thankful because it's brought me to a new level of loving and kindness and forgiving and it's changed my promise.

Speaker 1: 21:58

That is so beautiful because when you had your knee injury I imagine that's the one you're referring to but when you talked about the lessons that you learned, to look at that as a gift and to look at this previous experience of your reputation being slandered, to look at those as gifts, that is so powerful because it changes your whole paradigm when you see it as a gift, and I think that's a process too. Could you speak some more about the lessons that you learned through the knee injury?

Speaker 2: 22:28

Yeah. So it was middle of July last year, 2022, and I was playing basketball with my sons. Over the last year prior to that, I had lost 30 pounds and I was very active and I was eating right, working out, had a lot of gigs lined up, which was special because most people don't realize in 2020, I lost everything. Every single live performance was gone, so I had to shift for the next essentially six to eight months into a virtual performer and speaker. That's a really tricky situation going from being applauded for and seeing reactions of people in front of you to now talking to a wall. And so if we go back to 2020, losing all that work and then trying to build back up to make any kind of income, to save your house and keep your children fed and now they're teenagers and they want and need more stuff and braces and friends and dating and cars, and oh gosh, 2021 was worse than 2020 because of the uncertainty. So in 2020, everything just got canceled and everybody agreed with that. 2021, it was like, yeah, we're having an event, no, we're not. Yeah, we're having, no, we're not. And so I lost more money and time and momentum in 2021, even still than 2020, because I could at least make a living on virtual gigs in 2020.

Speaker 2: 23:56

So my comeback year was 2022. And I'm only setting that up to let you know that I was rolling, I was going, I was doing every gig everywhere. I was doing awesome. I had lost this weight, I was feeling good and I played basketball with my sons at a local gym one evening. It was something I had promised myself years ago I couldn't do when I had somewhat injured a knee about 20 years prior and I thought it'd be fun to play with my sons, and they only saw me play two or three times before this happened. But they didn't know how good dad could be as a basketball player and that. So I wanted them to see and I was doing really well and I jumped up for a rebound and my kneecap Came off of my shin and it went up my thigh. Most people don't realize that your kneecap is the middle ground that's holding your shin bone and essentially, your quad muscle on top of your thigh Together, and so it detached from my shin and the kneecap zipped up my thigh as my leg buckled back because there's nothing else that can do. It can't stay straight anymore and I was in quite a bit of pain, obviously, but the first that I had was I yelled no. I yelled no because I knew I had gigs lined up that I was Be unable to do now and provide for my family.

Speaker 2: 25:24

So after having just come back from all of this financial distress, now here I'm laying there on the gym floor with essentially a viciously broken leg and people thought maybe it's a dislocated knee. I was like this is not a dislocation, this is bad news. I'd never even heard of it, but it was called the patella tendon tear and mostly professional athletes get these, or overweight men in their 40s trying to play basketball with their kids. That was me, literally. I went in the ambulance. They were taking pictures of it because they had never seen it in person. The ER was taking pictures of it because they had never seen it outside of medical school books and I was quite terrified.

Speaker 2: 26:11

I had to have my leg in a straight leg brace for two months and that was really interesting. I had no way of doing everything for myself and I couldn't even put socks on because you can't bend your leg for months until it heals and the surgery. So I'd never gone through a major surgery or major injury or anything. But I'm sharing all that backstory with you because I did lose some gigs and I did have some real, real tough stuff happen. But I remember that first night laying in that bed it was about nine o'clock when it the accident happened. I got home about one. My brother, my bishop and my two sons all had gotten me to the bed and I'm laying there. My wife was at girls camp, but she's in charge of every year, so she was in the mountains with no way of knowing this had happened, and she was there for a few more days before she came home with my daughter and I laid there in that bed alone and I remembered thinking okay, I, I can't walk, I Don't know what I'm going to do next. Insurance is tricky when you're self-employed.

Speaker 2: 27:25

A lot of things came together in that moment. The only thing I could rely on at that moment was a prayer. That was it All I had, and I thought I am so grateful that I have a faith that allows me in this moment to ask for help of. I just need strength of spirit to get through this. And why? Why would this happen now, mm-hmm? And the answer was you needed to learn this and this is a gift and I was like, okay, tell me more. And it was like you're going to be able to now connect with so many more people than you ever have been able to, because you are now going through something that will be relatable.

Speaker 2: 28:13

And All of a sudden it was open to me all of the injured people that were physically injured in my neighborhood and that I had seen on airplanes and that I had not moved for when I was in line for their wheelchair to get by, karen, it was like the heavens unfolded to me of the people that were hurt. And then another thing manifested and it was the injuries we don't see, mm-hmm, like anxiety, depression, the challenges people go through. Like I laid there as if I was being manifested to. It was my Paul of Damascus moment. I'm telling you it was such a gift and I was so determined in that moment to say this is not going to be a bad thing, this is amazing. And I'm going to tell everybody about this journey, because most speakers or performers would hide it and say well, I don't want everyone to know that I got injured, because then I'm not going to be able to jump around and be the guy I was.

Speaker 2: 29:16

To me, this was a manifestation of saying I've no experience, something that a lot of people have gone through, and I'm so and I'm sorry that I didn't know. This was how hard it is, and that's what I shared for the next few months and everything I wrote and did, and it was a very eye-opening but mostly heart-opening moment for me. So I'm so grateful I went through it I I can bend my leg now. My knee is fine, but it still hurts every day and it will, I think, forever. And that's okay. It's a reminder of everything everyone else goes through, because otherwise I'm too selfish to remember.

Speaker 1: 29:56

Well, this life is a war between remembering and forgetting, and so to look at that, even that pain, as a gift to help you remember, oh, that's just so profound, because we could all look at the pain in our life Even as a remembrance to turn to the Lord, you know, I mean, there's so many different things that we can remember, but to remember to be open to others that are suffering. First of all, you have more authenticity now because of what you have gone through and, like you said, the connection that you are able to make with other people, because anytime you experience it and walk in those shoes, you talk differently and you respond differently and you connect differently than you did beforehand, and so that just really touches my heart to hear how that has been a gift. I'm so grateful that you shared that with us.

Speaker 2: 30:48

Well, thanks for asking, and I obviously have been around people that have been injured. My mother-in-law made it through cirrhosis of the liver and had a liver transplant. That's a miracle story and she's doing really well now and I didn't have as much sympathy for her as I should have. I just didn't. I don't know why. My friend, chad Hymus is in a wheelchair and he speaks around the world and he inspires people and he does it alone. He doesn't have an assistant that goes. He has people pick him up that he's never met. I've thought to myself okay, what would it be if I were paralyzed in the legs and my back and my neck? Like how would I function like that? I have people around me like that and what was funny about Chad him being paralyzed? He said all you did is broke your knee. I think I've ever seen he's like that's child's play man.

Speaker 2: 31:54

You know, like I thought, okay, now I get a little more as to why he does what he does. I understand a bit more the struggle of the guy who lost everything in the pandemic, let's say, but can't get it back financially. I can get now way more. The person who's got a debilitating injury and cannot get on a zoom call because it hurts too much. All of those things started to come into place for me and in reality it knocked me off a real high horse where a lot of people, having seen me for so long, is almost like this they put me on a pedestal and I'm Mr, I don't have any problems and my family's perfect, my life is great, and then all of a sudden I'm boom, literally taken out by the knees. It was a profound experience for a lot of people to see me go through that too, cause I am known as Tigger. I'm bouncing around for my whole career using my body. Let me move to the next phase.

Speaker 1: 33:05

Well, I love the way that you said that it increased your ability to love. That is just so beautiful, and I think that that is a lesson that we could all learn from our own pain that if we can gain more empathy for others that are suffering in whatever way, and we can have more love for them, that's our ultimate goal, that's our ultimate promise. Right Is to be more like the savior and to return to live with him.

Speaker 2: 33:32

Well, and you know, when we go through something that tragic or that challenging whether it's financial, physical, emotional, mental, you name it that's truly where, I believe, the hero within shows up. It's one thing to be your best when everything's going great, right, right, different animal. When you have all things against you, you have guns pointed at you, you have no opportunities ahead, you have everything. You're being buried alive. Okay, now what? That's the mark of somebody who truly can say to themselves I want to live the promise that I made to myself that nothing would get me down enough that I won't continue to have faith and to keep going and to keep inspiring others to keep smiling, even when I'm brutally injured inside. Can I still shine a light, even if it's not emanating from me, but rather a reflection of the light that comes from above? I mean, that's what we're trying to do anyway, and so if we can do that, even in our darkest hour, then we've touched a lot of more people than we possibly could have otherwise.

Speaker 1: 34:44

Oh, that was just so beautiful. Thank you so much because it is so true. Sometimes you feel like you're in such a dark place, you don't feel like you have any light to shine, but we can always be a reflection of the Lord's love and His light. So thank you so much. Thank you for being with us today. It was beautiful to meet with you.

Speaker 2: 35:02

My pleasure. Thank you, what a deal. I'm so proud of you for doing this show.

Speaker 1: 35:08

Thank you. It's such a rewarding experience for me to meet with my guests and to hear their stories and I feel like I make a new friend every time and then I feel like we share our faith and share our love and connect, and I love connection, like you. So I felt so connected with you when I read your book and every time you have a post. I mean I remember your post about falling in love with your wife all over again in Target and I had no idea you had 100 million listeners I mean viewers until you said that in your book and I'm like, well, no wonder.

Speaker 2: 35:38

It's kind of a wild thing, but I appreciate it very much.

Speaker 1: 35:42

But I appreciate your vulnerability because so many times, like you said, you just want to know more about what I hear this side of you, but I want to know the behind the scenes story. So thank you for taking the time to share your behind the scenes story with us. Well, thank you. Thank you so much for your generosity to meet with me and share your heart with me.

Speaker 2: 36:01

No, my pleasure. Thank you for having me. This was very special to you. Karen Appreciate it. Thank you so much. Have a great day, you too. Bye-bye, bye-bye.

Speaker 1: 36:11

Go away from today. I felt connected with Jason when I first heard him perform on stage and at other times when I heard him speak, and today was such a wonderful opportunity for me to hear more about his life behind the scenes. I was touched as Jason shared his huge paradigm shift after losing all his jobs during COVID and then additionally sustaining a devastating injury which also prevented him from performing. I celebrated with him as he shared the beautiful gifts that he discovered in those moments, which changed his heart and brought him closer to others and to the Lord. I love his generous soul and the way he continues to mentor others to help lift and bless them. Thank you for joining me in celebrating Jason and his generous soul. Thanks for listening. I know you're busy. Did you know that you help spread the love by leaving a review and following? This helps increase our visibility so people can find us online. I really appreciate your help. I'm wishing you lots of love in your own hero's journey.