The Secret to Your Best Life! Ignite Hope & Embrace the Miracle of Being Alive with Nicole Avant!

I'm just gonna say it. You are undeniably one of the most powerful women in Hollywood. How do you practice discernment over people's intentions when you meet them? I usually know within my energy readers really good. Yeah. And I think energy speaks volumes more than words. Because vibration tells me everything. I was a waitress too. Yeah, absolutely. I was the people too. And I was in the service business. When you serve others and you're not paid anything and you're constantly in the position to serve other people and they can be treating you horribly. It gives you a detector. Every day I pray God brings the right people in my life and has the wrong ones leave. 100% right? Same prayer. Do you? All the time. Right now in your life are you truly remembering to live? Do you truly feel the day and feel the gratitude for the miracle of your life? Or have you gotten perhaps unknowingly so busy, so distracted, or maybe even so numb with routine and responsibilities? It's left you feeling disconnected from yourself, from your body, from the feeling of true gratitude for the miracle of being alive. Today we're talking about grace, grit, gratitude, and how to remember to live with one of the most inspirational, iconic, legendary women I know, Nicole Avott. Ambassador Avott is an award-winning producer, including the Academy Award-nominated film 6 Tribal 8, Entrepreneur, philanthropist, former US ambassador to the Bahamas, an author of the best-selling book Think You'll Be Happy, a spirit-lifting memoir on how to turn pain into purpose, how to live with gratitude, and how to face down tragedy and turn it into love. She and her husband, co-CEO of Netflix, Todd Cerandos, live in Los Angeles, and our impact and work has touched people all around the globe. Nicole Avott was raised surrounded by some of the most extraordinary legends of our time, and her parents, entertainment mogul, the Black Godfather, Clarence Avott, and legendary philanthropist Jacqueline Avott, turned their home into a place of refuge and inspiration for a generation of notable icons and culture-shifting artists. In December 2021, an unthinkable tragedy struck. Her mother Jacqueline was fatally shot by a home intruder. And her incredible memoir Think You'll Be Happy, and Nicole turns the pain of her family's loss into the fuel that pushes her forward. Think You'll Be Happy, her mom's last words to Nicole, provides a roadmap for anyone working to remain positive and anchored in hope. And whether today you're listening for yourself or because someone that you love shared this episode with you, I want to welcome you to the Jamie Curran Lima Show podcast family. And for everyone part of this right now, can you do me a big favor if you like the show and the guests that I bring you, please hit the subscribe or follow button on the app that you're listening or watching on. Truly means the world to me and thank you. And I just want to remind you, this episode is not just for you and me, please share it with every single person that you know because what you're about to hear will change your life and theirs. Welcome to Jamie Curran Lima Show. Oprah, how are you to find the heart? Her show is unlike any I've ever done. A revelation. When you listen, it feels like a hug, but your brain and your spirit and your heart is like, wow, Melinda French Gates. When I look into Jamie's eyes, I feel like I am on some other cosmic level with her. I could see the light around her. She's infused with light. Imagine overcoming self-doubt, learning to believe in yourself and trust yourself and know you are enough. Welcome to the Jamie Curran Lima Show. Jamie Curran Lima is her name. Everybody needs Jamie Curran Lima in their life. Jamie Curran Lima. Jamie, you're so inspiring. Jamie Curran Lima. Nicole Avaunt, welcome to the Jamie Curran Lima Show. You're having me. I'm going to take your every word. I love your introduction. I am so excited you are here. Thank you. I'm so happy to be here too, really. I remember the first time we met at a friend's birthday and you had shared that you listened to an episode of the show and we just connected and I just remember having this knowing you would be in my life. I didn't even know much of anything at that point. You are someone who is so tremendously powerful, inspirational, impactful, kind, faith-filled, loving, generous friend. When I talk to pretty much everyone about you, those are the things that they say and have done extra research for the center of view. I'm just, I'm excited and I know so much of your journey up into this point is filled with so many stories, so many incredible moments, so many legendary moments. We'll touch upon some of those and I'm also so excited to talk about right now and everything going forward. I'm just so excited you're here. You say studying history, growing up, helped you decide who you wanted to be in the world, which I'm so excited to dive into that, because I think that's so profound. When you say that studying history, growing up, helped you decide who you want to be in the world. My first question to you right now, Nicole, is who are you in the world right now? It's a very good question. I don't even think about who I am. I know that I want to be a person that brings goodness into the world. I think of myself the most important thing that I know about myself every day is to remind myself that I am a good soul. My intention is to be a good soul, just a good person, not a positive person, not a really good soul. When I traveled around the world, what I would read, world history, and I would think about all the heroic people, you read about all the tragedies through history. But I was always focused on the people who came into the tragedy and tried to transmute it and tried to transform it into something better, something good, make it light-filled. They went into the darkest places and I'm always focused on the people who run into the darkness versus running away from the darkness or creating the darkness. So for me, I always wanted to be a person who was light-filled, a person who would focus on the light, stay in the light, even in darkness. So yes, I've had to learn along the way. Sometimes I would get into spaces with that were uncomfortable or unkind and I would shrink and I would dim my light, don't be so this, don't be that. But I would always go back to, no, that's not one of those people did. So I'm not doing it either. I just, I will stay me and everyone else can stay who they are, mine, no judgment, but I am going to use discernment and I am going to move through my life like that. But if I have a life force, I know what I want my life force to be in the world. So I want people to walk away feeling hopeful or inspired or listen to or I like to laugh a lot. But I do enjoy life because I think that life is a privilege and living is a privilege. And just the idea of being alive and being here knowing that we have a finite amount of time, it gives me the reason to show up the way I want to show up and do the very best that I can but be very proud of myself even when I don't get it right. I'm proud of learning, proud of growing, proud of, well, I used to be like that and I may not be exactly where I want to go, but at least I'm better than I was before or I could be in the present moment. Wait, I know better and I used to be this way and it was really great. You know how some people always say, what would you tell your younger self, you know, that much all the time? And for me, I always think I would tell my younger self, Nicole, don't change anything. I loved my year old self. I loved my 10 year old self. I loved my 12 year old self. I mean, I, and I noticed when I got into my 20s, a lot of her went away. Really? Yeah. Yeah. It just I, I started thinking about what other people were thinking. I stopped listening to my intuition. I stopped listening just as soon as the first gut feeling came in and then I would take that gut feeling and then go ask 20 people, what do you think about this feeling? Well, they didn't get the feeling. Everyone's intuition is not connected to everybody else's intuition. So I took me a long time to get back to that person that just, I heard that message. I heard that in my heart. I heard that in my spirit. I just got it. So I need to honor that and stay in tune with that and not be so busy where I forget to disconnect. Oh, I don't have time to meditate. I don't have time to pray. It's just, you know, I just, you know, I just, you know, I don't know what I'm doing. I just said everything else. So of course, you know, it's just managing time, making time, but getting back to that part of myself where I trusted myself. Mmm. So you disconnected from that, starting in your 20s and when did you reconnect where you felt like, oh, I trust myself? Late 20s, I made a very big turn. And I remember being in this relationship and I, and it wasn't fulfilling, but the person was very kind and compassionate. But I had to learn that you can be with the kind and compassionate and fun person, but that is still energetically not a match. Mmm. It can still drain you. It can still, and I was getting pulled on and pulled on and I was exhausted all of the time and I was never like that. And so I made this turn where I thought, you know, I need to stop asking myself, why do I keep attracting these type of people? And then ask myself, no, why am I? I'm attracted to this type of person. Not why are they coming into my life. I have, you know, people have lots to give. So light workers all the time will say, I don't know why I attract all these people that just drain me and I said, because they're trying to plug in. Mmm. You know, they want to plug in and get things, but it's always like the ATM. I always try to tell my kids, I said, you know, if you look at yourself like an ATM, you have to realize with people, some people are always going to make deposits or mostly deposits. And some people are only going to withdraw and you have to figure out the balance here. Some people are going to do both, but you want more people depositing. You don't want someone only coming to you when they have a problem, when they're angry, will you fix this? Will you do that? They won't take responsibility for their life. And then they want you to take responsibility. And then all of a sudden you have no energy for yourself, for your intentions because you're exhausted. Yes. So it's that no, it's getting back to self. It's becoming the hero of my journey. Again, and that I would always go outside of myself. And then I'm always, and then the end of the day, you realize I'm sure you did too. Oh, I'm what I, who I've been looking for. It's me. You know? Yeah. You know, I think, I think about every person listening right now, and this is going to be new for a lot of people. I think, I think, and I think it's going to ring true in a really strong way. I think there's a lot of people that I think were raised to just somehow, and it starts in their 20s for a lot of women, especially. These are taking care of everyone else. And then they think, okay, well, you know, if that person's happy, then I'm, then I'm good. Or if my kids are happy, then I'm, and this is, and that. And then they don't even know who they are anymore. For like, how to hear their own intuition, how to hear their own knowing, how to have discernment. 100%. You lose yourself. You lose yourself. And then you feel so guilty and sad because you missed yourself. That's where the sadness comes in because you miss yourself. You miss that part of you, that your spirit, your soul. And there's nothing wrong with everything you just said, taking care of kids, being a good friend, being a good wife, all these things. But you must take care of yourself so that you can give and be those things to other people. Yes. And then you get yourself. And I realized, Jamie, I was betraying myself. I was betraying my soul. I put everybody else in front of me, everyone's dreams in front of everybody's everything before me. And then I realized it wasn't that I was just exhausted. I was also very sad because I betrayed myself. Mmm. Okay. So we're going to dive into so much about, oh my goodness, so much about so much. Yeah. So, you're reading and your incredible book, think you'll be happy, which everyone needs to grab right now. We're going to link it in the show notes. It's phenomenal, phenomenal. And also the new paper back with the forward. Yeah, I'll get into that. But I'm remembering a part where, is it, did your mom not have a weekend to herself for 50 years? Yes. Okay. So I want to call this out because what you're saying right now, I already, I know when I feel it in my body, the people at home are like, okay, I want to make that shift. I want to, you know, I want to prioritize myself, but maybe they saw a different, something different growing up. And your mom, who is, of course, legendary, iconic, all the things people dream of being. And also, tap to not take a weekend to herself in 50 years. So for you to see that, because she's pouring into everyone else, taking care of everyone else, doing all the things. And then how do you see that and then also decide for yourself to not maybe do that exact thing forever? It was, it was tough because when I married Ted, my husband, when I married Teddy, obviously my husband, when I married Teddy, he came, you know, he had two children, Tony and Sarah. They were, they were 12 and 14 at the time. So lots of fun for me. And all of a sudden, everything was the schedules just for, you know, this soccer, this baseball, this karate, this over and over homework. And then, you know, this, that, this, that all of a sudden, as all mothers go through. And then, you know, I'm with Ted and he has his big job. And I'm working and all of a sudden, I was thinking, right, right. And then, you know, we used to live near an elementary school that I used to go to. And I would see all the mothers early Saturday morning for the soccer and this and that. And I remember calling my mom one day and I said, Oh my God. We need to pause for a super brief break. And while we do, take a moment and share this episode with every single person that you know who this could inspire because this information can truly change your life and theirs. In life, you don't sort the level of your hopes and dreams. You stay stuck at the level of your self-worth. When you build your self-worth, you change your entire life. And that's exactly why I wrote my new book, Worthy, how to believe you are enough and transform your life for you. If you have some self-doubt to destroy and a destiny to fulfill, Worthy is for you. And Worthy, you'll learn proven tools and it's simple steps that bring life-changing results like how to get unstuck from the things holding you back. Build unshakable self-love. Unlearn the lies that lead to self-doubt and embrace the truths that wake up worthiness. Overcome limiting beliefs and imposter syndrome. Leave your hopes and dreams by believing you are worthy of them and so much more. Are you ready to unleash your greatness and step into the person you are born to be? Imagine a life with zero self-doubt and unshakable self-worth. Get your copy of Worthy plus some amazing thank you bonus gifts for you at Worthybook.com or the link in the show notes below. And what you do if you fully believed in you. It's time to find out with Worthy. Who you spend time around is so important as energy is contagious and so is self-belief. And I love to hang out with you even more especially if you can use an extra dose of inspiration. Which is exactly why I've created my free weekly newsletter that's also a love letter to you delivered straight to your inbox each and every Tuesday morning from me. 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It's a free how-to guide to overcome that negative self-talk to build confidence and develop unshakable self-love so that you can dream big and keep going in the pursuit of your goals. Don't let self-sabotaging thoughts hinder your progress any longer. It's time to rewrite the script of your life when filled with self-love, resilience and unwavering belief. If you're ready to take charge of your narrative, build unwavering confidence and empower yourself to persevere on the path to your dreams. You can grab your free guide to stop overthinking and learn to trust yourself at jameycurnlema.com slash resources or click the link in the show notes below. And now more of this incredible conversation together. We used to live near an elementary school that I used to go to and I would see all the mothers early Saturday morning for the soccer and this and that and I remember calling my mom one day and I said, oh my god, I owe you an apology and I owe you a huge thank you because you never really, you never got a break. She was well when you have children, where are you going? What do you, you know, I mean, yes, I might have traveled here and there for, you know, to go see my mother saying, but she said, you're always on. You have to be ready. You're a mother. You have a responsibility. You have things. So that's why I always say to people, if you can't physically be by yourself and you have to say, go away for a week, you know, a lot of people can't do that. They can't just leave for hours or whatever. But if, but I started waking up a little earlier, carving out a little more time for myself, whatever it is that you can do for yourself. I don't care if it's 10 extra minutes in the morning. It makes the biggest difference in the world. It makes the biggest difference in the world because there's just no life gets many times a lot bigger as you get older. And when you do bring other people into your life, their life becomes a part of your life. And then your children's lives become a part of your life and all of a sudden, then you could feel very lost of, wait a minute, wait a minute, but it's also the greatest blessing to nurture and raise. And I look at Tony and Sarah, now they're 28 and 30 and thriving and I'm so happy that the time I invested and the time that Teddy and I put into them and now we see the, but it was, it's a lot for women. It's, and I think that the idea of disenquering from our soul and our needs and just our sanity, we need our sanity. You know, it's, it's, it's, you know, it says in scripture, if we have, if we're given power and love and a sound mind and we find ourselves out of power and out of love and not in sound mind, then you got to get back and anchored in spirit. We have to get back and anchored in the divine. We have to get back and I, for me, it's, it's about, even if it's five minutes of the morning and Jamie and I do it every night, but I started doing it morning and night. I appreciate my life. I appreciate being alive. I appreciate the fact that I have running water. I appreciate that I could take a bath. I appreciate that I could do. And then I realized as I was saying all these things that I can do, many of the things I wasn't doing. You know, so I have to just, so it's the idea of really getting back to being alive, what it takes to be alive, the energy it takes to be alive, but also reminding yourself that as we were saying about my mom, I mean, yes, she was alive and she was happy and she loved being a mother and a wife. But when she said those words to me, Nicole, I haven't had a real weekend in 50 years. I mean, you know, she's like, you're 53 or brother's 51. I mean, what are you, what are you thinking? I'm married. I mean, where, where am I going? And she said, and I didn't come from that generation where you guys now, you'll say, now I need a day and maybe you'll go when you fight it out with your husband, but you go. She said, but I was born in 1940. We didn't have that. We didn't really get to do a lot of that. Mm-hmm. I love what you shared to you getting up earlier, also the ATM analogy. There's going to be so many people listening right now. They're going to just stop for a minute and think about their friends. People they spend time around. Are they making withdrawals over and over and over and over and over? Or are they like, do you, you know, when you're around them, do you feel like, ah, like you just feel like they need a deposit into your soul? Or does it not feel that way? Exactly. That's a really good. And it helped me so much when I learned that. I thought, oh, and I still have the people in my life, but they do not have the same access. Yeah. It's just the relationship change. It didn't even have to be a conversation. I just kind of, you know, pull, it just, just you figure it out. But all of a sudden, you know, if you don't have your energy, if you don't have the gasoline to move in life and to do whatever you need to do to, and it's based on someone else's energy that's taking from you when you really start to think about it that way. And as soon as you choose to prioritize yourself and prioritize, I'm not in a selfish way, but prioritize your soul, your energy, your life force because it's such a gift. And the more you remind yourself, like my time on earth is a gift. I don't know how much time I have. We all think we do. We don't know. So as often as we can, let's try and make the most of it. And yes, people will need us at times. Yes, people will really be pulling on us. But that's if they really need you. But I'm talking about the kind of just noise. There was so much noise, Jamie, in my life. There was so many, oh, did you hear this? Or did you hear it? And it was just everything was just pulling me down. And I don't want to be like that. And you really, we all are responsible for who we want to be in the world, how we want to show up, what we want to give. But at the end of the day, my choices of how I spend my time, who I spend my time with, who gets manage, those are my choices. And those seeds that I plant today, that will be my garden in two months, that six months a year from now. And so I have to focus on the seeds that I'm planting, my words, my actions, my energy, my thoughts, what am I doing today? Because it is going to show up. And then the only person I can turn around and really be either really proud of or really excited is me. It's because it's my, it's my energy. What is your friendship circle look like right now and has that changed over the years? It has changed a lot in a really good way. And I have friends, you know, what I love is that my best best friends are from five years old. We still, we all grew up in Los Angeles together, we went to camp together. We did all the, we fully grew up together. And then, you know, maybe lost touch, but we always come back. And the, from COVID, something happened in COVID where I noticed, oh my gosh, the people I wanted my tribe. And it was my tribe from childhood that I wanted. And many of us are still in Los Angeles. So they've come back, which is great. And then I've really built a great circle of friends that are creative and smart and of service and very focused on being very focused on being purposeful and not superficial purposeful, but really purposeful. And and they're not, it's not about always being famous or fancy or this. It's just really being anchored in their souls. And so they, they show up. And I love my friends. I love being with my friends. And I love my girlfriends and also have a lot of male friends. I was a tomboy when I was growing up. I've always had more guy friends than girlfriends. Yes. And I noticed I started slipping away from the guy friends. And I was always still focused on my girlfriends because everyone kept saying there's anything like girlfriends, which is true. But for me, I realized, oh, wait, no, but my guys have been around for a long time and they've protected me for a long time. And they have kept me aware of things and alert and just even about myself. Or when I became too hard or I was becoming, you know, they would call me like, where's your grace? Where is, where is that Nicole who could be tough, but who could also have a little grace? And you know, a lot of women weren't saying that. But the men in my life were, but very supportive, very loving. And I need the male and female energy for me. It's very, very important. And the male energy, I think we've all kind of pushed away and it's only about female power. And for me, I'm like, no, power is power. And good is good and light is light. It doesn't matter. It's, you know, it's everything. So it feels good. It's good that about you. Yes. And I think I've done my research either way. So I was a whole, I mean, I, I didn't wear, I mean, I'm only in dresses and skirts now, but I didn't wear a dress. I mean, there's a prom picture of me where I had my soccer cleats on underneath and my mom was horrified. So she didn't even take a full full length. She only took it from the couch because she was like, take off those cleats. Yeah. And I said, I don't want to wear heels. I don't want to wear this stuff. But I loved sports. She put me in sports. Yeah. I was so happy. I went to Olympic Boys and Girls Club. And my mom at the time was like, listen, it was right when they separated boys and girls sports. And she said, and it was the birth of girls sports. And she said, you need to learn how to compete. You need to learn how to be uncomfortable. You need to learn how to lose. You need to know what it feels like to win. And you also need to learn what it feels like to lose. Even after you've tried your best, because that is going to happen to you in life. You will try your best at something and do everything right and study your hardest and walk into that presentation and give the best presentation. And there will still be people who think, not right, not right for me, not good enough, not this. And she said, I don't want you to be shocked when you get there. And so she thought, you know, competing in sports from a young age. And it definitely helped me for sure. Yeah. Did it help you not fear it? Yes. So much of my youth, especially with meeting new children, if I went to camp, for example, this camp, I sleep away camp, I was, oh, mom, I don't want to go. What if I make no friends? What if what if what if what if what if what if what if? Yeah. And she'd turn around. What if you do make a lot of new friends? What if you do love your counselor? What if you do so? She would always flip, always give me the flip side. And she'd always say, Nicole, you have an imagination. All of us have an imagination. It's working at all times 24 or seven. You may not think it is, but you're always just like you said, what if no one likes me? What if I don't get along with the counselor? What if no one chooses me to be on the team? That is your imagination working. She said, now use it and flip it. And imagine that you do make friends or you make one friend or you do. So it was a really great gift that she gave me about remembering that I had an imagination and to imagine the best outcome, even if you don't get the best outcome, but try to imagine the best outcome. Because what are you going to do? Sit there and just create the worst thing? Right. Right. I love that. And I love that way of explaining it. I'm going to use that for a wonder and wilder. Yeah. Yeah. That's really, really good. Because she's my daughter's at the age where she's starting to say things like that, being new to school. Yeah. And that kind of thing we're going to do at Easter party. And she, which you're invited to. And she says, what if, you know, what if none of the kids from school come? Like so she's starting to ask those questions. Yeah. That's so beautiful. Because earlier we were talking about planting seeds. You're like, what I plant the seed now. I'm going to have to answer that in a month. And those are, I love, love reading about and also seeing some of the seeds your parents planted into you and kind of what they've blossomed into. Thank you. Yeah. When you talk about discernment, you talk about friends deposits versus withdrawals. My best friend, I was a waitress at Denny's. She was a waitress at the steakhouse across the street. It was way nicer. And we met in college. And my two closest friends actually have been friends with long before any of the and cosmetic successors. Any of that. After, after the, you know, after we sold our business. And after that was public everywhere. And Lori, I'll disclose the purchase price. All the things that happened. I found that meeting new people was always a little bit different. And I always had to really try to, I still wanted to have an open heart. But it's different. You, I'm just going to say it. You are undeniably one of the most powerful women in Hollywood. Most of all, your husband, Ted is co-sealed Netflix. How, how do you practice discernment over, over people's intentions when they, when you meet them? Yeah. Oh, it's such a, it's so funny you ask that it's perfect timing because we just, I just was at a birthday party. And it was so great. But I noticed my discernment really kicking in or I noticed what my energy was a track to tune what it really was like, Oh, wait a minute, what is this? But there was a gentleman standing next to me and it's my friend's husband. And I didn't realize at the time I just ordering my drink and he was ordering his drink. And then I was talking to a girlfriend, but I heard over and over, yes, please. Thank you. I appreciate that. Yes, I would love a straw. Thank you. And it was a male voice. And I thought, who is this? I just, because it was so refreshing that someone, and this person is, very powerful, extremely successful. And I'm listening to everybody else. No one's saying, please, no one's saying thank you. No one's looking at the server. So I was looking around and I'm thinking, right, OK, I usually know within my energy reader is really good. Yeah. And I think energy speaks volumes. Yeah. More than words because vibration tells me everything. And so when I've just decided now, you know, usually I, I, I discern by, I, I see how, how people treat other people, like I was saying, that gentleman at the bar, and how he was treating the server, the bartender was so powerful to me. That that, that would actually told me everything I needed to know about him. I didn't care about anything else. I didn't care about how much money he has in the bank. I didn't care about how powerful he was. I didn't care about who he was in the world. I cared about how he treated another human being in that moment and that other human being who could absolutely do nothing for him. And it was such a great way for me to realize, right, this is a really good soul. That's, that's a good soul. And now, you know, because I grew up in the entertainment business and I think because I saw so a lot of goodness, but also a lot of fake people. And a lot of people who were just only transactional. And it's, it's a lot. And, and I feel for a lot of young people coming up in the business and becoming famous because you don't know right from left or who's pulling and everyone's pulling on you. But I think I got fortunate growing up in the business and my parents keeping me very grounded. And the way they did that was they made me work. So I, there was no question that I was not working. So I was a waitress too. You were a waitress too. Yeah. I was the waitress. I was the waitress too. And I, and I, I was in the service business quite a bit and I liked it. And, but it was good for me because I would see the way and I did the same thing with our daughter Sarah. I soon as she turned 16, 17, I'm like, okay, you're getting a job and she was a waitress. And when you serve others and you're not paid anything and you're constantly in the position to serve other people and they can be treating you horribly. It gives you, um, we need to pause for a super brief break. And while we do, take a moment and share this episode with every single person that you know who this could inspire because this information can truly change your life and theirs. Who you spend time around is so important as energy is contagious. And so is self belief. And I'd love to hang out with you even more, especially if you could use an extra dose of inspiration, which is exactly why I've created my free weekly newsletter. That's also a love letter to you delivered straight to your inbox each and every Tuesday morning from me. If you haven't signed up to make sure that you get it each week, just go to jameycurnlema.com to make sure you're on the list and you'll get your one on one with Jamie weekly newsletter and get ready to believe in you. If you're tired of hearing the bad news every single day and need some inspiration, some tips, tools, joy and love hitting your inbox, I'm your girl. Subscribe at jameycurnlema.com or in the link in the show notes. I am so excited for this book. You know why? Because it's going to save so. Were they your new beautiful beauty? Get this book. This book, I'm telling you the book that can change anybody's life. We picks it up. Anybody who's ever felt that they were not good enough didn't measure up. Something's missing in your life. I just tell you it's powerful. It's happening. It's worth. Imagine what would you do if you fully believed in you? I went from struggling waitress facing non-stop projection to founder of it cosmetics, a billion dollar company by learning how to overcome self-doubt and believe I'm worthy of my hopes and dreams and I'm sharing how you can too. And my new book, Worthy, how to believe you are enough and transform your life. If you're ready to truly trust yourself and break through that barrier of self-doubt and know that where you come from or even where you are right now, doesn't determine where you're going. Then Worthy is for you. It's time to go from doubting your enough to knowing your enough. It's time to step into all of who you are and into the person you were born to be. And it's time to believe that you are worthy of it. Because in life, we don't become what we want. We become what we believe were worthy of. Join the worthy movement today by grabbing your copy of Worthy anywhere. Books are sold and head to worthybook.com now for free gifts, including my five part course on becoming unstoppable and my 95 page, Worthy Workbook Action Plan that teaches you how to implement the tools from the book into your real life right now. Worthy is groundbreaking. It's book. It's going to change lives. This book literally will teach you how to actually feel worthy so that you can have the strength. You can have the confidence. The lessons in this book and the strategies will change your life. You will never be the same again after you read this book. Jamie's book Worthy is a must read. It is going to inspire you, empower you, give you the hope that you need and the kick in the rear end that you deserve. Jamie's book Worthy is incredible. The gifts are going away, but they're off free right now on Worthybook.com. And now more of this incredible conversation together. When you serve others and you're not paid anything and you're constantly in the position to serve other people and they can be treating you horribly. It gives you a detector. I really do believe it. I think that a lot of people now are, oh, my kids just only going to do internships. They only do internships and they only do internships where I know the people. There's not a lot of growth there. There's just not. You have to learn how to function and adapt and adaptability. And I think, you know, for me, it's, I just play on energy and, and then I go into the judgment. I'm like, okay, I'm not going to judge, but I'm going to discern of, okay, that's not an energy that I really want to connect with a lot. But we're in the same room. So I'm going to be me. But the idea of I see people, Jamie, just give their power away, give their energy away to people that could care less. But they really do believe that that they look at people, you know, that saying that I forget there's some pastor who says it's so great. I think it's Stephen Ferdick. He's like, you know, there is a throne. There's somebody on it. And it's not me. You know, and, and, but so many people live as if they are on the throne and every must, one must come to them. So for me, I think knowing who I am, knowing who I am in spirit, loving the divine, that for me reminds me and keeps me grounded in focus. And I think I've seen people who aren't connected to anything. That it just you can, and then you'll fall for anything. You know, and so I think just being rooted and grounded in truth, rooted and grounded in the divine, rooted and grounded in spirit, and then whatever comes at you, you're anchored in something that is unshakable. But when you're not anchored in anything, you're floating all over the place. And you have no discernment. You don't know who's telling the truth. You don't know what this print, you don't know anything. Yeah. That's, that's, that's what I see. So that's helped me a lot. Is my faith has kept me sane. My faith has kept me grounded. My faith has kept me focused. My faith has, has gotten me on track. It isn't me. I've never gone off track. But it gets you back on track. You know, my mom used to say, say, mom, my cushions were not in the army. You're treating us like this. She says, listen, you're in my army and it's called home training. And you will thank me when you're an adult. Yeah. And I now, and it's an adult, I'm like, oh, wow, right. Thank you. You know, the thank you notes all the time. Of course, of course you might have think you know, what is wrong with everybody? Yeah. Taking that one extra step of everything she taught me, she would always say, you know, everybody wants a really great society. Everybody wants a peaceful society, but they don't want manners. They want good manners. Can't have. It's one or the other. Tell me about good manners. You're about good manners. The good manners, I mean, you know, for my mom, a big thing for her was, and my dad, of course, because he's Southern. So yes, I grew up in Los Angeles, and yes, I grew up in the entertainment business, but with a very Southern father. He was North Carolina, very backwards, North Carolina, and my mom is from New York. And if I had stationery, I was writing a thank you note all times, but her thing was everything, if I encountered anybody, yes, please, no, thank you. Look at the person, finish the sentence, Nicole, how are you fine? And she'd say, no, fine, how are you? Finish the sentence. But manners are, you can't really, if you don't have good manners, then I don't really know where we go without them, because good manners really are just showing respect to whomever is in front of you. That's the point of having good manners. Whether the person gives them back to you or not is not the point. The point is to, like, we all have that saying, with all due respect. Well, what we're saying to that person is, with all due respect. Everybody is worthy of respect. We don't always get it, but it doesn't mean you're not worthy of it. That's another lesson I had to learn, when people were disrespectful. I thought it was always me, and what's wrong with me? What's wrong with me? And that, you know, as I think we talked about once, you know, that are all of our friends talk about this code of shame that people like to wear. It's like, no, I'm taking this code of shame off. I didn't even do anything wrong. You know, shame on you for being the person. I'm wearing the code of your shame. What sense does that make? Yeah. But we do that as humans. We do that as humans. Yeah. You know, when you share that you waitressed and you sold shoes. Oh, I sold shoes. Worked at the dry crackers. Sure. Here's the thing I want to call out that I love so much about the, some of the choices your parents made is because you're raised also Hollywood royalty, right? Hollywood royalty. None of these things needed to happen. And they were a lesson after lesson. And now they're one of the things I love so much about, think you'll be happy. Your book is just seeing the lessons, seeing how the, the, the, the, the learnings they taught into you, the seeds they planted, and then how they've blossomed. Yeah. I was at an event recently where, where they were talking about how important it is to prepare your child for the road, don't prepare the road for the, for your child. And we're kind of in this, this day and age, like you said, you know, only do the internship with people I know and, you know, all the things and, and, and we're sort of like trying to prepare the road for the child, but then they don't have to handle stuff. They don't know how to deal with when someone wants to put their coat of shame on them, or they don't know how to handle tough times, or they're afraid of failure. They're afraid of rejection. And there's so many things you talk about that it's like, you know, your, your mom sending you out into the world, like, okay, you're a waitressing, you're learning about people. You then, you and Ted, you know, having your daughter waitress, you're son, and having those real life lessons that you're able to sit here and actually know what things feel like in your soul and your spirit. When someone is, you know, divinely supposed to be someone you connect with, or you kind of feel it in your body, like, you know, I'm imagining, you know, because my husband, Paul and I do this for each other a little bit, but do you and Ted, like, do you ever feel like you have to protect him or he protects you when someone comes up and you just know, like, they want something. Yes. All that I bet it happens all the time. Yeah. All the time. Yeah. And, you know, then I, oh, thank you. No, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Great. But Ted is very, he can see things that I can't see sometimes and I do the same for him. Yeah. Like you and Paul, and it's, yeah. It's important to have that partner with that friend, that person that can see or pick up on that we might miss the intentions of someone or, but going back to your point about the, I just love what you just said, because the preparation on being human, this is, this is on being human. We're on the planet earth. The things do not just conform to your liking for anybody. And so the idea that there are so many, there's a new generation of, of people, young people that have zero idea of how things really work or not into what their feelings, because they haven't been allowed to feel anything in order to protect them from feeling bad. But then it's, they, they have nothing. Yeah. And they're not robots. These are human beings. Yes. And they're going to get their feelings hurt. And people aren't going to be nice to them. And people are not going to be fair or just or what have you. But you have, they have to learn how to be in that. And they have to learn how to hopefully choose not to want to be like that. But the earth is hard. It's beautiful. Life is beautiful and life is a gift, but life is also hard. It's a blessing and it's also very challenging. I wouldn't change it for the world. I love being alive, but I would be lying sitting here into anyone listening. That life is, oh, it's just so great. And it's always so perfect and it's always so wonderful. And you get exactly what you want. I don't care how much you, how many affirmations you say, how many good intentions you put out. Yes. Do those things work? Sure. It's great. I do them every day. Does life still throw you a curveball? Sometimes here they're, yes. And we have to be ready for those curveballs because they are showing up. And you just have to look at life and know that they're showing up. You know, I went to children's hospital one day and I walked out. I walked in with, I can't believe this person did this. And I can't believe this person just silly, stupid things. Yeah. I walked out of children's hospital. I'm thinking, oh, my Lord. Oh, my gosh. I'm looking at these parents, looking at their children, not knowing how long their children are going to be alive, thinking about them working three jobs. And then they come and see their children or their child who's, you know, got, you know, tubes all over and just shifting perspective, just reminding you, this is why we all need to tread lightly. Walk as gently as you guys. I don't know what's going on everyone's life. I don't, I used to be a huge, I used to be the person that was always on the horn. Like hurry up. Get it, you know, and then you realize you get older like you don't, you know, we just don't know. We don't know. I don't know everyone's story. I know this much of everyone's story. When I meet someone and I'm making a judgment, I'm making a judgment on this much. Yeah. Of that person's story because that's basically all I know. You know, I am, I, I love that you're already talking about faith in your life. Yeah. And one thing I want to call out right away, you know, I think we probably have both had friends that have been in incredible, whether it's a job title or a big thing or they're known for something, you know, and you know, I dated a pro athlete when I was much younger. And I was like, it was the first time I ever witnessed someone that didn't actually ever have to learn how to make friends because everyone just wanted to be around. And I was like, wow, this is fascinating. And then I've seen people lose that thing. That that that was the source of sort of like external significance. And in the course of that, lose a whole lot of who they thought were friends. And if they don't have that grounding identity in something, you know, in my life faith of who you are and right. And also just the awareness and ability to do your best to discern who is supposed to be my life. Like every day I pray God brings the right people in my life and has the wrong ones leave. 100%. I write the same prayer. Do you? All the time. Yeah. I do. I really do. I always say, you know what God, if this person is, I'll take a lesson, you know, and look, we need people in our lives that do challenge us. Yeah. And that do bring us pain because that's when the soul grows. You can't have growth without a challenge. Yeah. You can't have growth. You can't learn about boundaries until someone tests their boundaries. You can't learn about your worth really until we know it. But then when people start really tapping on it, like you've said so many times, it's like, wait a minute. Wait a minute. And I've seen the same thing. Jamie, so many people who've never had to do anything because everything came to them. And so they were grounded in nothing. And they were anchored in nothing. And when you're not, when you're not anchored and then the tides come, we've seen it. And it's disastrous. Most of the time. It's disastrous. Yes. And so that's why I do the same thing. I always say, oh, you know, thank you for bringing the right people into my life. Thank you for removing undergrace with ease. Hopefully as many as possible, the ones that are meant to leave, please, you know, and whatever lesson I was I was supposed to receive, I will look at it and take the lesson because I always want the blessing, but I also want the lesson because I need to grow. You can't grow without the lessons. So true. I remember, you know, being so proud and I am to this day in my team, we built a team of over a thousand people growing at cosmetics. And I was like, these are my riders died. Is my family? Like I just love them. I'm also aware that when you're the boss and it's also a different relationship. And I'll never forget when we sold the company to Lourial, I stayed on a CEO. I gave him my word. I would say for three years. And I still was working 100 hour a week. So we doubled the size of the business first two years post acquisition. Everything's going great. And what started shifting was now Lourial decided who got promotions, who got raises. That like stuff started shifting. And it was the first time where there were people I thought, oh, they're my people. And they started a couple, not a lot. A couple of people started completely changing because now I wasn't determining, their salary, their raises, if they got a huge, you know, jump to a big position. And I watched it and I'm like, oh, wow. And at first I was really heartbroken. I was heartbroken. I felt like, oh, that wasn't a real, not that it's a friendship, but it wasn't a, you know, I thought it was a sort of rider, a dialoyalty. And I was like, whoa. And, and, you know, we've all had experiences like that in different ways in our life. And the more I have them, more, the more I try to tune in and go, okay, how did that feel? Let me see. Could there have been other signs leading up to it or that person maybe was that way because, because I'm in this position at the time and then I'm now not in a different position. And so it's kind of like the, the whole transactionality people are their real friends versus deal friends and just, right? And just getting more tuned into it. But in that experience had I not been grounded in faith. I, and I had, and I had just been about maybe what, what power seemed to look like in that environment? That would have been really hard. Oh, it would have been really hard. And I've seen that, I've seen that up until a lot of girlfriends where they had their friends, they built up big company, same thing. And the ones that were rooting ground in faith, even my friend, thank God she was rooting ground in faith, but then I had other friends in the same position, not rooted in grounded in anything, but everything came from herself. Thought she was the, you know, the creator of the universe. And when it all came to, and everyone would just leave. And she had nothing. Yeah. And no one. Yeah. And it's heartbreaking. Yeah. You know, you've probably seen them imagining a lot of people who get fame in, in, in, in, in whether it's the music industry or, or acting or any other industry. And then, and then if that ever goes away, oh, and they're not grounded. They're not grounded. They have, you know, they think it's going to, you know, my mom always used to say, also, I used to go to the surfing camp and my mom used to say, I said, Mom, I was under this wave. And I thought I was never, ever going to come up. It just kept coming over and over. And she said, yes, but you always come up. But what did it teach you? You have to ride the wave. And there are waves in life, you know, you've got to ride. And some are going to be really smooth and cool. And you're going to love it. And then some are just going to take you down. And I have seen the people who just only focus on the pretty shiny object. And they think that the pretty shiny object is going to stay there forever. Or that status is going to stay there forever. Or a title is going to be that for it changes things, change life moves. People go away, things happen. And then like we said, and then there's an all of a sudden, it's there in quick sand. Yes, they're in the sand. And they built a foundation in the sand. You cannot build. You cannot do that. It's just it's not stable. And the only thing that's stable for me is my faith. It's the only thing that I can depend on. It's the only thing that's not going to change on me. The truth doesn't change. The truth is truth. So the good news is that it doesn't change on me. It's not going to be like, guess what? Just joking. Yes. You know, have you always had strong faith? Have you ever doubted it? Um, when I was younger, I would doubt things because I think, as I think a lot of us did maybe, maybe not you, but when I was younger, I'm like, because I never understood that bad things could happen to good people. And because I didn't understand what faith was. So when I was younger, I said, Oh, I have faith. And anybody who has faith, that means that nothing bad happens to you. And if you have faith in God, then everything's going to be okay because God's going to handle everything. Well, yes, the divine will handle everything, but it still doesn't mean that, you know, bad things happen to good people every single day. Yes. And you could be child, you could be an adult, you could be white, you could be black and brown, yellow, doesn't matter. And we have to remember that. And so, you know, it rains on the just and it rains on the unjust. And we have to remember those things and still decide who do we want to be? Which side do I want to be on? It's not about being perfect. It's not, of course, we're going to make mistakes. We all miss the mark. But the, my mom would always say, I'm trying to teach you everything. And I'm strict on you, not because I don't think you're going to not make a mistake. I know you'll leave home base, you used to call it home base. I know you'll go off in the wilderness and do things that you regret, but you will have a home base to come back to. That's the danger of I don't create the truth. If I don't create a place that you can come back to, that you can reground and reroot, you saw that's where it gets dangerous. And I do see that a lot of the people I know in the business film, television, athletes, especially athletes, they get older and, you know, and they don't play as well. And they're not on the team anymore. And they go through something. And again, the people that I've noticed that are rooted and grounded in faith, are rooted and grounded in something outside of themselves and serve other people. It's usually many athletes I know who've done really well. It's usually they, they create organizations that have to do with children, putting children in school and scholarships is always giving back and they come right back up. It's very interesting. Yeah, it's because your identity is bigger than just that thing. This is applicable to every person. Everybody, the person that's, you know, worked at the bank for 20 years, loses their job. And if it's like, you're not rooted and grounded or you somehow get kicked out of a friend group or the PTA turns on, you know, just whatever. Like, y'all have these exact experiences. And I'm just thinking to you and Nicole that, you know, with your book, I think you'll be happy. Oh my gosh, don't even get me started on. I feel like of course it's this inspiring memoir, of course, for anybody. Going through grief or, or, or wanting more grit and grace and gratitude in their life. I mean, it's so powerful. It's so moving. Also, what I was just thinking right now that keeps coming to me is, and this is separate. I don't know if this is even what the book was intended to do. But holy moly, this is an incredible parenting guy. And what I say by that is there are so many things your dad has starled by the way. I love when someone loves Jesus and drops a phone. Oh, yeah, it's a whole thing. I love it. But like, there are just so many just, just seeds in here. I'm taken as a mama and I am planting them in my kids. So this is like a whole other, a whole parenting guy. I mean, there are so many things in here that are so good. And there's so many things you've come out with and said that surprised me. And also are going to resonate so strongly with people, even just about things like progress in our country. Things about victim mentality. And so I'm, I'm, I'm excited to dive into that. And I really, you know, I've, I've, of course, watched so many just powerful interviews you've done. And, and there's some out there that dive really deep into the book. And I, I, I want everyone to go pick up, think, you know, think you'll be happy. Because no interview can do the book justice. I mean, you have to read it. And for anyone hearing about the book for the first time, can you just share what happened December of 2021? So December of 2021, I, I received a call for my husband, middle of the night. And his words were Nicole get up and get to the hospital. Your mom's been shot. And of course, you know, it's two in the morning, I'm discombobulated. I'm like, what, what are you talking about? What are you talking about? What, what, what, what, and I didn't even think she was talking like, where was she? Wait, and then I said, no, she wasn't. I'm thinking I'm dreaming. And I said, yeah, I just talked to her. Yeah. Just six hours ago, I just talked to her. Yeah. And I got to the house again, not knowing what had happened, not knowing that there was a, you know, a robbery gone bad. And I got to the hospital and I'm waiting with my father and, you know, and then long story short, we get the news that, you know, she crossed over and she did not make it through surgery. And it just, as you can imagine, you know, is 53. And I, my mom was 81. And I thought, in that moment, Jamie, I just, it's interesting because the way my husband describes it, you know, my brother was at the end, I remember it. Alex wailed, wailed, wailed like a, like a wounded animal. His girlfriend got very quiet trying to console him. Then my father was next to me. He fell into me. My dad was 90 and he was almost 91. He falls into me, but Ted says, Nicole, you sat up like this, Phoenix, you just rose. He goes, and I knew in that moment, he goes, there was this spirit within you that was taking over that, but it was covering in light. But okay, I became the matriarch. I became Jacqueline Ava. I became, oh my God, I'm the matriarch of my family. Oh my goodness. And in the worst tragedy, everyone was scared. Everyone's confused. But I remember, I remember just saying, okay, I'm standing in my faith. I'm standing in my faith. Okay, I just, okay, I don't understand what's happening. But I noticed I had to keep talking to myself and saying, and I would just, you know, I praise the Lord, his mercy and the earth for I would say it's so interesting. You go back to childhood prayers, memories, things that you're just trying to move forward and stand. And I had a night, like I said, I had almost 91 year old who just became widowed. And I don't have anything for that. I'm like, okay, I don't know what I'm supposed to do. So that is what happened on December 1st, which shook me down a whole different journey. And it definitely challenged my faith, but made it so much stronger. And, and then that's how I just, and then think you'll be happy. Like we said, my mom six hours before that, you know, we were talking about the sweet potato pie that my dad took home from Thanksgiving, because that's what my father would do, is bring me a gift and then take it home with them. He's like, well, no one touched it, so I'm taking it home. And my mom was so mortified and pissed off. And we would laugh about this cake at pie. And I was like, mom, okay, enough with the pie, but she know what's interesting about discernment and energy. I was writing my mom a text and I was a little sparkly. I was being a little sarcastic when I was writing her back. And I was like, oh my god, you lady with you in this pie, relax, calm down. I was trying to be funny, but it was a little sarcastic. And on a stack of bottles, I heard my intuition immediately, Holy Spirit immediately said, do not send the text, she's not going to think it's funny. Mmm. So I was deleted, deleted, deleted, and I then I rewrote the text, sent her, sent her her favorite emojis. And when I look back on that, because I don't have any regrets with her, because I was able to clean up a lot of, you know, we were able to talk through a lot of stuff. Yeah. But had I sent that text? And had that been the last thing that I sent to my mom with the tone? Would have, would have just destroyed me, but it just broken my heart over and over and over again. And so I'm bringing that up for any listener to say, when you hear your intuition tell you something, listen to it. It doesn't mean intuition isn't logical. It's not linear. It doesn't make sense all the time, but it always has your back. It really always has your back. And I learned it in the hardest moment, and I look back at that text, I'm like, oh, thank God, I took the sarcasm out. Thank God, I took, and thank God I listened. I literally, I put the phone down, I was about to hit, and you just, you know, you hear it in your heart. Yeah. Don't send that. Don't send that. And, you know, now I know, and it's in the book where my mom's friends were saying, she had a weird feeling that day. She just was feeling a little off. She, she just, she knew something. She just didn't know what she was dreading. She knew, I thought it was, it was a school shooting that day in Michigan in Oxford. There was a terrible shooting, and I thought, this is what it is. And I called my dad as a dad. Mom's taking a nap because if you look at the news, there was another school shooting. And for the, I'm telling you, Jamie, it's the one thing that she really was so disappointed in our country and just who we are as a people, not laws as people. Because she said, Nicole, I was born in 1940. I'm telling you, in 81 years, I never, ever thought, ever that we'd be every month, children going in and killing their classmates, every somewhere. She just, she said, that's the one thing that just really shocked her where she's, you know, there was just such a disconnect in humanity. There was such a disconnect of children at home, children with their parents, where their family is, how no one knows anything. She just was so disturbed by that. And it's interesting that it was that day that that happened. And then the next morning, she was gone. Just gone. And you're talking to her about the, the pie. Yeah. She's telling you to get it. Yeah, she said you'll be happy. Think you'll be happy. She said, I said, Mom, okay, I'll get the pie. I'll send the text and then she writes right back, okay, think you'll be happy. And when I, again, when I look back now or when I looked back at that as I was writing this, of course those were going to be her last words to me. Because my mom would always, she was very big on happiness and she knew the difference of being a happy soul versus being a happy person all the time. There is a difference. You're not going to be happy every single day. That doesn't mean that's not when you're happy. But being a happy soul, being a grateful soul, being a soul that's thankful and appreciative, that leads to joy, that leads to delight. That's what she meant by happy. And also she meant think happy thoughts, think positive thoughts, think constructive thoughts. Happiness is also about constructive thoughts. Not just, oh, everything's going to work out the way I want to. When it's going to happen. Well, but think constructive thoughts about yourself, about other people, about what you want to see in the world. But be constructive because she was so big on choice, Jamie. She was always, you have a choice. You could be negative. You could be positive. Pick one. Pick, you get every two seconds, you get to choose no matter what happens. And that's why after she was killed and taken away from us the way she was, I thought, wait a minute. She lived 81 years and great years and she did so much for so many people and was so strong. I'm not going to have, when everyone Googles Jacqueline Avon, oh, it's only going to be, Jacqueline Avon was murdered at a one-years-old during her home invasion. No. She was so much more than that. And I'm going to talk about it. And yes, that will still come up. But there's so much more now and people got to get to know her through this book and her parenting skills and her life lessons that she shared with me and that I wanted to share with readers because life is messy and it's complicated. But after COVID, I just thought, you know, and I shared a birthday with my mom. Yes. So we had that very March 6th. March 6th. My sister's birthday. Oh, that's right. Yeah. You're, you know, and you say, you know, the lessons you're sharing, it's like, no, I'm sharing these lessons with my kids, with my, you know, it's so powerful. Your mom was big on vibration. Yes. Right? Can you share about like the radio station analogy? Oh, yeah. Yeah. She always say to me, and to quote, you know, if you look at yourself as a radio tower. And think about when you're in the car with me and you say, I don't want to listen to K rock anymore. I want to listen to kiss FM. She said, all we do is turn it off. And you don't, you have no, you're not controlling what happens, but you change the knob. And the knob tunes into a different vibration. And then you get kiss versus K rock versus, you know, whatever. And her point was you have to think of yourself as a radio station and what you're emitting. What are you putting out? And if you don't like it, change, change your thoughts, change your words. And as soon as you change your thoughts and your words, your vibration is going to change. And when your vibration changes, for example, I would be the most prepared in journalism class. I view this as, but if I wasn't sleeping a lot, yeah. If I worked all night, if I was on the phone, I was talking about nothing to my friends. The next day, even though I was intellectually prepared, and I knew everything and I knew how to present, my vibration was low because I was talking about nothing, gossiping about nothing, doing nothing. And the vibration, so what I was tuned into, tuned into friends that were not going on the same path as me, tuned into just low vibration things. And then my vibration was down. So her whole point was at least have the intention to have the highest vibration possible for the day. And however, it's, however you're going to get there, it's if it's through music, if it's through dance, if it's, and when I say dance and music, I don't mean you have to go join a dance class or take music lessons. Sometimes you turn on the radio, you dance for two seconds and your vibration is going to change. You know, so she was, and she was so right about that. And music, because growing up in the music business and being around artists, when I was in the studios listening to music and watching people write music and the engineers, everybody putting the song together and just the vibration that they wanted. I noticed like, wow, this really is real. This is, and that's why we can listen to a song. I can ask you, you know, if you, any song in the 70s, 80s, 90s, and if we play it, we'll remember which boy we had a crush on. Yeah. You know, which party we were at or somebody hurt my feelings and this, you know, and I was at the party. We remember things through music. Yes. Isn't it fascinating? You know, what I just think is so profound to you is how, you know, we're in 2025. So many people are just hearing about this idea of vibration for the first time. Your mom is teaching you these lessons. When Oprah was the very first guest on the show and we talked about how wild it is that, you know, the first time she was ever talking about the word mindful and the whole country is like, what's happening? And there was sort of this backlash or remembering your spirit, different things. Yeah, show. Yeah. And it's just like, now, you know, people get away from it. They're saying, my, every, my unfolds everywhere. Every. And I think about, and that's just another reason. One of the many reasons I love your book so much and why I'm excited to talk about it, why everyone listening is going to get so much value out of it. Because this, these, these seeds, these learnings, these lessons, these things that, you know, I think are really inspiring. And you just said something to Cole, I want to touch on where you explain when you learn the news that your, your mom passed and, and, and your, your brother's whaling and, and your, your 90 and a half year old dad, you know, leans on to you and, and you realized in that moment, um, and you said you felt your mom almost take over your body in the book and you realized in that moment, you're the matriarch. Yeah. And I just think about so many people listening who have had a moment like this and it may not be that someone had passed. It may be that they realize in their 30s, oh wait, I'm having to take care of my kids and also my parents for the first time. Oh wait, I'm now having to take care of my in-laws and myself somehow and, you know, my niece or we have this moment where things shift in our life and we realize we're the matriarch. Yes. What was that like for you? Like how did that feel and, and, and, and, and what's your, your insights to navigating that? I felt very confused. I felt very heavy. I felt, um, I felt untethered a little bit like un-inkered, un-inkered. And, but I also felt a sense of, in a positive way, a sense of, you know, my dad always used to say, love to say, you know, it is what it is, what it is, what it is, what it is. And I felt myself in that moment, okay, do not deny my mom always used to say, you can't pretend it didn't happen Nicole. You can't pretend it didn't happen. And I heard her in that moment just this has happened. So first let's accept what's happened. First you have to just, because you're in shock, you're in trauma, you're interested. But the inside I have about it is, you know, I mean, I know everyone says in it so cliche, but it's true. Perspective is everything. And the perspective I had was, okay, we're just going to stand in the truth and not deny anything. And it may not be what I obviously, it was not what I wanted, it was not what I expected, you know, for the 30-year-old out there who's now taking care of in-laws that they didn't expect that to happen or you don't expect a child to get sick. You don't expect to have to work three jobs, four jobs to take care of this sick child. There's so many things that happen unexpectedly and that feel like such burdens. And it doesn't mean that they aren't, but how we choose to look at it is makes all the difference in the world. And honestly, accepting what is before you even decide how you're going to do anything else, accepting what is, because my dad would always say, when I'd say, why do you mean by that? He said, it is what it is, not trying to push you away. I'm trying to say, accept whatever situation, be truthful about what happened, and then out of the acceptance, you make a decision on how you're going, what your next move, your next play. And he was trying to teach me, Jamie, that when you're in constant spinning and constant, I can't believe this happened, I can't believe this happened, I can't believe this happened, he goes, good luck trying to make a good decision out of that. Good luck. You said, you gotta, you have to just look at it. You have to look at it for what it is. And like I said, you know, it's whatever life throws it, you know, it's like, okay, okay, I'm going to do my best and be my best and make the best even out of the worst situation possible. I mean, I started pretending I was Paul Leanna because Paul Leanna never said, pretended that things were okay. She looked for what to be glad about in the worst situation. That's the Paul Leanna story. She didn't fake anything. This terrible thing happened. What do I have to be thankful for in my life? What do I, what can I say I appreciate? What for me it was I have, okay, this is terrible that this happened to my family. It's terrible that it happened to my father. But I have my father. Oh my gosh, I live here and he can get to come home and live with me. And now we're going to eat every meal together. And my dad and I are going to start over together and all of a sudden it became, I get to do this, this is this, but it, this is, this is how we're going to move forward. And that's what I told my dad. I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring. I have zero idea what just happened to us, but I do know that we're on this earth together. We have a little time left. I don't know how much time I have with you. But dad, you're not alone. We're going to make the best out of this. And this is what family is. This is what we do. And you've been here for me all my life through the ups and downs. And now I'm here for you in your worst moment. And your dad came to live with you and Ted. And when you are going through the initial grieving process, the whole start of it all, will you tell me, this is, I think, I think this moment where you and Ted were so declarative. Right? The moment where you and your husband, Ted, said, made the declaration, we are going to stay together. Because what a lot of people will talk about is, you know, when all these shifts happen in life, it can take a toll on everybody. Anybody? Right? And I know exactly, I've read the statistics. You've read the statistics. We all know when tragedy strikes, many families fall apart. When it struck mine, I can see how, because you're just so shattered in so many ways, and you're trying to pick up the pieces and put yourself back together, let alone somebody else. Yeah. So that's why Ted and I just looked at each other. I said, listen, this is good. I don't know what this road is going to look like, but I do know that I am dedicated to you. I do know that you're dedicated to me. And we now have to declare it to each other that no matter what happens, we are staying together, no matter what. Because I knew if I didn't declare it, I knew if we didn't say it and look at each other in the eyes, that anything could have really happened. And anyone would have understood. Yes. It's such a life-changing moment and a shift in your spirit, and a shift in your energy. My father came to live with us in the house. Ted wasn't ever expecting, you know, my parents come live with us. My parents have lived in the same house for 56 years. And, you know, they were so full of life, and you know, we knew they weren't living forever, but no one expected a tragedy and no one ever expected that we'd have any of them come live with us. That was a whole new situation. And Ted, God bless him, was really great with my father. I mean, they had a great relationship, thank God, but it got much deeper. And Ted had a good relationship with his father, but he always says, you know, the kind of said I think in his forward. He didn't, his dad didn't really understand the business he was in. And my dad did. And so they had so much to talk about. And so all of a sudden, living with my father, it was a master class on life all over again from Clarence Avaunt. And for Ted, he was like, give it to me. Tell me, and he could come home and say, this is what happened at Netflix today. Can you believe this stuff? And my competitors were saying this, and my dad's like, this is what you do. And then I remember when this happened to me in 1968, this happened to me. And it was so great for all of us. So there was, there was a shift that was made, but we had to lean into it. Yeah. And then like you said, we declared to each other, we are staying together no matter what. And there will be ups and downs and times where we are just not connected. And you're not going to understand my grieving process. And you're going to just, I need you to, you don't have to understand it, but I need you not to crap on it. I need you not to say, don't be like that because a couple of times, he's like, you got to get over like, uh, no, no, no, no, let me just get through this, the way I get through it and you get through it the way you're going to get through it. I took this away from the book that moment with you and Ted, just declaring, yeah, we're deciding, we're going to stay together no matter what. Through this, whatever happens. And for me, it was this huge, I guess, aha moment where I thought about moments in my marriage. And I thought about things I've gone through and I've thought about times in the past 15 years. Where I'm like, hmm, this could go either way. Yeah. This could go either way. And I just thought this is really powerful and profound because sometimes, couples make it or hope makes it or faith makes it by like hanging on one more day and believing for one more day. And what I love about what you and Ted did was it's a decision. Okay, if we're going to make this through and we're declaring, we're going to make it through this. We don't know what's coming. It's not, it might be a windy road, it might be tough, it might not be, but we're just going to declare right now, we're staying together through this. The safety that gives you even on a bad day or even like for me personally, that would give me, I would probably be less feisty. I'd be like, all right. Whatever the bad, what I mean and I just thought, wow, like that's one of the things and one of the many reasons I'm excited for this conversation, but also for every person listening to get think you'll be happy is because for me personally, there's the number of lessons I took away from it because we learned so much through the power of other people's stories, right? Yes. And other people's lessons are like, whoa. That's why I put all the lessons in the book because I'm not going to know what, this is an offering. Yes. I'm not going to make this, I'm not going to sugarcoat my life. I'm not going to pretend that I was the perfect wife, perfect daughter, perfect this. My mom was the perfect mom. This is the time for healing and my mom would have wanted that. Yes. So I could feel my mom while I was writing, I was like, oh, mom, I want to tell this story about our birthday and I want to tell this story about how you, I said, you know, you didn't do this, you didn't do that. I want to, and then when I declare it to her, well, it's complicated until it's not complicated. And now I'm saying it's no longer complicated. It was right after COVID. I want to talk about that. This is really, really big because you know, in our conversation today and in remembering to live, remembering today. Remember to live. I feel like just about everybody who's listening who's watching us right now is going to think about their life right now when I share this story. And when I asked you to share this about your mom, when I was, you know, I was adopted and I didn't know I was adopted. It was a kept secret until I was 29. Long story. I mean, I searched for my birth mom forever, finally found her, all the things, learned that her mother held me the day I was born and then, but never my birth mom. I was adopted in the parents that raised me. I'm closer to my mom. She's passed now, but the mom that raised me, my mom, nine, I'm closer than any person in the world. Like I just, and I would not change a thing. Meanwhile, fast forward, I have the gift of meeting my birth mom and getting to know her. She's in my life now. And I realized that it always kind of bothered me that she never helped me. And with this idea, which is something that's almost embarrassing to say out loud or you think, oh no, I'm a smart, educated, bad, asked powerful woman. Why would it bother me that my birth mom never helped me? And Nicole, just with this story, I'm about to have you share and also the intention of our whole conversation today, which is like, remember to live. I decided to remember to live and I told her. I told her we were together at the beach house and I was 41 at the time, 47 now. And I said to her, like, will you hold me like a baby? And my birth mom is half my size, okay? Half my size. I'm 41. I climb on her lap. She held me like a baby and we both just sobbed. And it was this moment for us. I felt like I let her see me without trying to be whatever I thought she would want me to be. And there's a lot of us that feel like, oh, I kind of wish my parent had done this or I wish my mom and my dad did this differently. And then maybe we ignore that knee because we don't want to, we feel like, oh, but I should just be grateful for whatever it might be. And so will you share about what you shared with your mom? It was kind of, you know, my mom is great as she was and she did everything for us. Packed my lunch every day, took me to school every day, every practice, traveled this, that everything. But there was a part of her that just she wasn't super, super affectionate. Yeah. And then she had hugs and kisses but she wasn't all my friends parents. They get out of the car to go to school. I would hear it as I'm walking across love you, love you to your mom. See you later. I'm like, hey, you know, and I knew my mom loved me, but I'm like, why aren't you saying, I love you? Why aren't you doing this? And so I remember saying this to her at one of our lunches and she, our birthday lunches and she said, you know, Nicole, I showed you my love through my actions. That's the way I love. Like I, you know, but of course it was like, well, I did this, didn't I do this? Well, didn't I do that for you? Didn't I do this? And I said, I know everything you did. I'm just saying, just like kind of you, I felt a little bit like, I know I'm this powerful woman in this and I just want to know why didn't you say this or why didn't you do this? And it's interesting because my mom's attitude was, I think all of you forget or all of us all humans. She said, you know, this is my first time doing this too. And I was a life woman off and I went, oh, right. She goes, that's the first time I went, I grew up and came mom. This is the first time I'm doing this. Doing the best I can here, you know, and I learned what I did for my mom and for my grandmother, but I'm doing the best that I can. And I just, I realized in that moment that I, I wasn't a lot. I was so focused on what I, what she didn't do or what I thought she didn't do or what I thought she didn't give me versus what she did, but also that we, just like you needed that hug, you needed, you needed to be held. We need things and I love that my mom was able to say, thank you for telling me this because I want to apologize because I did pinch your heart. I did hurt you with Taisu, never intentionally, but I, I know that I did and I'm happy that we're having this conversation now because without, again, it's on being human, it's being alive, it's having conversations, even if they're difficult, it's trying at least the intention of having a conversation to say, listen, you may not understand this. It may mean nothing to you and it's okay if it means nothing to you, but I'm saying this for me, just so I can, so I can validate it in my heart that I said it. You could say, I'm crazy, you could say, I disagree, but I'm saying it for myself. And it was so great because it was healing for both of us. I was able to express my feelings and she was able to say, I never thought about it that way. Yeah. And you're right. And she didn't even say you're right, just, I never thought about it that way and I did not mean this and thank you for sharing and I'm sorry. Hmm, how old were you when you told her? I, and how was she? I was, I was in my, why I just finished that book, I was so into Louise Hay and you could heal your life. Yes, yes. And I loved that book so much. So I read that at 24 and so my mom was in her 50s at the time, she's 28 years older or so, whatever that equals. And she said, you know, she's the one who gave me the book. She's the one who gave me the book. She felt that I turned on her. She gave me all these lessons through that book, but it was, it was such a good moment again, a validation, but it brought us closer together because she said, I didn't know this about you. You never really expressed it as a child. And then I was able to hear her say, you know, and I've thought about things. And I am now 80, you know, and then when we had the final conversation, she goes, I'm 81 now. And we've gone through COVID and believe me, everybody who sat home, she said, I just rewound my life and I had time to sit and think and I had time to reflect. And all of a sudden, I was like, ooh, maybe, you know, let me, let me have, let me, let me sit with Nicole and check in on her and see how she's doing. Yeah. You know? I love what you said so much, she said so much because I actually think when, right, when you said that, I'm like so many people are going to heal in this moment where you said that she said, this is my first time being a mom. It's my first time. It's my first time. And it's like when you think about your parents that way. We all think they've lived a thousand years. Right? They just shouldn't know everything. How do they not do that? Yeah, how do you know how to fulfill that need? How do you know? And, but I really thought she said, and when she said it, it was, right, you're not a dinosaur, right? You haven't been here forever. You just got here. Yeah. And this is what you're doing. And as she said, she said, listen, I didn't get everything from my mom. My mom was a great, a good, very good person. She was never home. She was working. She was doing this and she was, but she had me do this. She said, everyone's trying to be better. She said, my mom did better than her mom. She said, so as long as it's evolving, you're in a good place. If it's, you know, and it was a good lesson for me too of, oh, right, I've held you on this, I've put you on this throne that you are the know all and be all. And you can never make a mistake. And how dare you not understand something? And, granted, I know that everyone who's listening, there's different levels, you know, of things. So I understand that I'm not saying, you know, for example, like, you know, God forbid you have a mom that, you know, abuses you with physically emotion. I'm not talking about that. That's, that's a whole different beast. Right. But it still were all human. Yeah. We're all human. When your dad moved in with you and Ted, was it, am I remembering right? Ted's dad passed away like a week before your mom. Yes. Yes. I was literally planning my father and lost funeral in Arizona. Yeah. And I was doing the menu. I remember that day. Also, why my mom and I were texting instead of on the phone because she called me. I said, Mom, I've got to finish grandpa Ted's. I've got to finish the menu. All right. I don't know if we're serving lasagna or steak or this or that. I go, I'm getting flowers and she's okay. And I said, I'll text you later. And then that was our text exchange. But he had passed about 12 days before my mom. So we were already in grief. Yes. We were already in sadness. And I was very close to my father and I loved him so much. And just a beautiful Greek American just gorgeous kind, funny, solid man. And it was, I felt the whole of my heart when he passed away because it was sudden. It wasn't tragic. Thank God. He was in his 80s. Thank God he took a shower. He had a good dinner. He put on his pajamas. He went to sleep and he never woke up. And but it doesn't mean that it's not hard because of course, you know, we hadn't talked to him and it's still shocking. So I wasn't able to travel. My mom died on a Wednesday. We were burying the memorial for my father and law was that weekend. And I had just moved my father and I said, Ted, I can't even be with you. I can't. But I called our daughter Sarah and I said, Sarah, you're going to have to step it up for me. You're going to have to step it up. And she was so fantastic. She's like, what do you mean? I said, just be me. Just do whatever I do. Just get there and handle everything because I've got to be here with Clarence. And by the way, I was in an investigation. I mean, it was the police rep my house all the time. It was a whole thing. So I was in that mode. But again, you know, with life, you don't know. And you hope to be as sane and grounded as possible when these things do happen. Even if it's a death that is calm and peaceful and a transition that was coming anyway, it's still work. I always saw people. And then there is the business of death. Right? There's a whole planning this. It's a lot. And it takes a toll on you as you know. Yes. Yeah. You know, Ted writes in the forward, in the forward. I think you'll be happy that when you all start having dinner with your dad and write, you use that same word. He says it's like a masterclass every day. And can you tell us a little about him? And I want to hear about it about his dad's book title idea. Oh God. I'll say it about your channel. You sure can. Oh gosh. Well, my dad to say the least was a character. I mean, he was ... I mean ... I ... a man of faith that can drop an f-bomb every two seconds, which he did. But he was very determined and very purposeful. And Clarence Avant was born in 1931 in the back country woods of North Carolina. And at the worst time, one of the worst times in our history. So no rights and steeped very, very heavy segregation where he was. And Jim Crow laws and the Ku Klux Klan rampant at that time. And my dad would say to me, I said, you know, he was picking continent five tobacco by seven working 60 hours. We're just working as a child. You know, that's what they did. He's that's what you did. There was no choices about anything. And I said, why were you? How did you end up not being so angry? And he said, you know what? It doesn't mean I wasn't angry. I just don't focus on it. I just I I I knew I was alive. I didn't know how long I had. And I was going to make the best out of whatever I had. I was going to make the best out of it. Whatever it was, I was going to make the best out of it. So if I had only ended up, you know, because he was everything. He was a bus boy. He was this. He was a janitor because if I ended up a janitor, I was going to be the best amp janitor anybody had ever met in their lives. Period. And so he always had that attitude. And then he became very successful with one thing after another, always in the right place at the right time, became very successful in the music industry. And music is what brought us back together because music has actually saved my life many, many times. I mean, when I've been when I've been at my lowest, different points in my life for various reasons, music gets me out of a strange mood, a sad mood. Music makes me think. It makes me feel a different way. I I get very emotional while listening to certain types of music, which is good because it lets it all out. And with this conversation with Ambassador Avault is so powerful, we made it into more than one part. If you're ready to raise your vibration, ignite your courage, solidify your faith, and turn your dreams into your destiny. Just wait until you hear part two of this conversation. I have to say it's one of my all time favorite conversations I've ever had on the podcast. And it's coming up in the next episode of the Jamie Kern Lima show. Remember this episode is not just for you and me. Please share this with every single person that you know because it can change their life to you. And if you love today's episode, please click the follow or subscribe button for the show on the app and give it a five star review or rating. And again, just share it with everyone that you believe in. Share it with another person whose life it could benefit, post it, and share it with others online or in your community who just might need the words and tools and lessons in this episode today. You never know whose life you're meant to change today by sharing this episode. And thank you so much for joining me today before you go. I want to share some words with you that couldn't be more true. You right now, exactly as you are, are enough and fully worthy. You're worthy of your greatest hopes, your wildest dreams, and all the unconditional love in the world. And it is an honor to welcome you to each and every episode of the Jamie Kern Lima show. Here, I hope you'll come as you are. Heal where you need blossom, what you choose journey toward your calling and stay as long as you'd like, because you belong here. You are worthy. You are loved. You are love. And I love you. And I cannot wait to join you on the next episode of the Jamie Kern Lima show. In life, you don't sort the level of your hopes and dreams. You stay stuck at the level of your self-worth. When you build your self-worth, you change your entire life. And that's exactly why I wrote my new book, Worthy, how to believe you are enough and transform your life for you. If you have some self-doubt to destroy and a destiny to fulfill, Worthy is for you. In Worthy, you'll learn proven tools and simple steps that bring life-changing results, like how to get unstuck from the things holding you back. Build unshakable self-love. Unlearn the lies that lead to self-doubt and embrace the truths that wake up worthiness. Overcome limiting beliefs and imposter syndrome. Achieve your hopes and dreams by believing you are worthy of them and so much more. Are you ready to unleash your greatness and step into the person you are born to be? Imagine a life with zero self-doubt and unshakable self-worth. Get your copy of Worthy plus some amazing thank you bonus gifts for you at Worthybook.com or the link in the show notes below. Imagine what you do if you fully believed in you. It's time to find out with Worthy. Who you spend time around is so important as energy is contagious and so is self-belief. I love to hang out with you even more, especially if you could use an extra dose of inspiration, which is exactly why I've created my free weekly newsletter that's also a love letter to you delivered straight to your inbox from me. If you haven't signed up to make sure that you get it each week, just go to jameycurnleema.com to make sure you're on the list and you'll get your one-on-one with Jamie Weekly newsletter and get ready to believe in you. If you're tired of hearing the bad news every single day and need some inspiration, some tips, tools, joy, and love hitting your inbox, I'm your girl. Subscribe at jameycurnleema.com or in the link in the show notes. And please note, I'm not a licensed therapist and this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional.