TRANSCRIPT
Casey J. Cornelius (00:03):
Hey everyone. And welcome back to the, for college for life podcast. My name is Casey Cornelius, and it is such a pleasure to be bringing you these series of interviews with the members of the, for college for life team are speakers are consultants. The people who really are the backbone of who we are and what we do today, I get the great privilege. Great opportunity to, to introduce you, to let you know more about to ask some really good questions of Jessica Lundy before we get started and bring her to the microphone. Let me tell you a little bit about Jessica. Jessica Lundy’s award-winning TV host turned transformational life, coach, speaker, and author. That has a proven record of unlocking student potential by increasing clarity and confidence, which results in better grades, higher graduation rates and improved behavior, all good stuff, right.
Casey J. Cornelius (01:06):
As a personal development coach for over a decade, she has taught students winning strategies to be successful in every area of their lives from winning her dream job. After competing with over 1200 people, to be a television host in a significant market to winning her honeymoon in the beautiful Cancun, Mexico, Jessica works to teach students how to gain more clarity, supportive relationships, achievements, overall happiness, and success, fun stuff. Once she’s not speaking or coaching, you can find Jessica traveling the world and watching the latest comedy special on Netflix with her husband. So let me go ahead and bring to the mic. None other than Jessica Lundy, Jessica, how I love
Jessica Lundy (01:47):
Everyone so excited to be here. So excited.
Casey J. Cornelius (01:51):
I love the energy that you always bring to these people ask me sometimes they’re like, Hey Jessica, is she the same person? Like off camera off stage that she is on? And I’m always like, yeah, she’s exactly the same person.
Jessica Lundy (02:05):
<laugh> yeah.
Casey J. Cornelius (02:06):
Do you get that a lot? Like, do you get that question? Like, is this real, like, is this who you really are? I,
Jessica Lundy (02:10):
I do actually. Um, I do get that question a lot. Um, my husband gets that question a lot when we’re at speak engagements, um, they’ll always ask like, is Jessica always this energetic? And it’s like, yeah, I actually wake up with so much energy. Um, I’m just really grateful. So live the life that I live and, you know, it’s really a choice, um, to be grateful, to be excited about life, um, just to be excited about opportunities. And so I never take a, a second for granted. And so, yeah, I’m, I’m always this hyped up. <laugh>
Casey J. Cornelius (02:42):
I love it. I love it. And I can attest that this, this is real, this is who Jessica really is. Um, Jessica, I, I wanna talk a little bit about your origin story, just a little bit to, to give people, you know, some better insights into who you are and where you come from. So I recognized in your intro, um, that you referenced landing your dream job as a television host, you wanna talk a little bit about that experience?
Jessica Lundy (03:09):
Yeah, it really was a long time coming. Um, I set a goal at about five years old in kindergarten when everyone said they wanted to be like a doctor or a policeman. And I was like, I wanna be a TV host.
Casey J. Cornelius (03:23):
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. You knew, you knew when you were five, like you knew that young.
Jessica Lundy (03:28):
Yeah, I did. Um, I had the gift of gab, so I kept hearing that as a child and I’m like, what is that? And they’re like, you’re always talking. You’re always excited. Like you should talk for, you should do something related to talking for a living. Wow. And so, um, my mom and I would watch Oprah every day after school. And so I didn’t really know what her job consisted of, but I knew she was always giving people free stuff and people would cry on her shoulder. And I was like, oh my God, I could totally do that. Um, I, I didn’t know it was gonna take me about 20 years, you know, to turn that dream into a reality, but I was very, um, consistent and focused at a very young age. Um, I was blessed to have a mom who was really involved into my life.
Jessica Lundy (04:18):
So we went to all of the practices, right. So we, I did beauty pageants at a young gave that really helped to groom and refine, um, the talent, uh, that I am today. Uh, we went to dance practices and vocal lessons and we did all of the things. Um, and so I, I was very focused and I even started my first, um, consulting firm when I was 16 years old. So I, I knew that there was something different about me. Um, when all my friends were kind of like wanting to hang out and kind of party, um, I was trying to figure out like conferences to go to people I could connect with. Um, I was even determined to meet Oprah, um, when I was 16 and I, I met her when I was 17. So it took me about a year to accomplish that goal. Um, but yeah, I was really focused at a young age and I knew I wanted to be on TV and to be able to start my career in Detroit. Um, and a top 13 market really was a dream come true.
Casey J. Cornelius (05:17):
I, I think, I think what you’re describing is, is sort of interesting, right? And that’s, you know, there’s a lot of people who believe in this myth of the overnight success, right? Like, you know, that, that someone just shows up one day and they’re, they’re ready to go. And I think what I’m hearing you say, and you can correct me if I’m wrong is it took a whole lot of time and a whole lot of effort and a whole lot of purposeful choices in order to become quote unquote, an, an overnight success and, and land this stream job.
Jessica Lundy (05:45):
Yeah. A hundred percent. And that’s really like the message that I want to get across to students. You know, that’s really why I became a, a youth and college speaker was because I didn’t have a me growing up. I didn’t have a Jessica Lundy to show me the ropes and let me know it was possible. And now we live in an Instagram, social media society where we see everyone’s highlight real, you know, we see the best of the best. And so it looks like, oh my God, like everyone’s a influencer, everyone’s on TV or everyone’s this. And it really is still just a, a small group of people that are really doing all those things. Um, but it’s the work, it’s the discipline, it’s the consistency. Um, those are the strategies that have gotten me to where I’m at today. And I just want to kind of show behind the curtains, um, for the next generation, like what it really takes to be successful and not just to be successful, but like to continue the success because the first, the first step is like making it. Um, the second step is like keeping that energy and that excitement. And that really is the true sign of success is longevity.
Casey J. Cornelius (06:57):
You know, it’s, it’s funny that you, you mentioned that because I, I think you and I operate on the same frequency in a lot of ways. Right. And we’ve, we’ve joked about that. Like once, once you figure out people are on your frequency, but it’s, it’s really loving the process more than the product. And it’s something I admire about you is again, what people see is, is one thing, of course, but the work that goes into it, and I’m gonna give a, a, a great example, right? So when our industry transitioned from face to face, you know, 99.9% of all programs face to face to 99.9% of programs were virtual, I don’t think anyone was more prepared than you. Not because you’d planned to do virtual programming be because you’d done so many reps related to, uh, a career preparing to, to be on television. Can you talk a little bit about like, even what that experience was like, like moving from, from television to speaking, but also speaking virtually
Jessica Lundy (07:56):
Yeah, yeah. Two totally different, interesting, uh, transitions in my life. So from television, um, I remember, uh, oh particular day once I got on TV. Um, and especially because I competed with so many people, um, we had a lot of organizations, um, schools reaching out and saying, Hey, can Jessica come speak to our students? Um, can Jessica come speak to our organization? Um, to the point where my manager was just like, whoa, we’re getting too minute request. And like, you’re gonna have to kind of make a decision on, um, if you wanna do this speaking thing, or if you wanna be on TV. And I remember I was asked to speak at an eighth grade commencement. Um, it really wasn’t the standing ovation that really got me. Uh, it was the conversations that I had with the teacher, the principal and the parents that were like, this message needs to be heard all around the world.
Jessica Lundy (08:48):
And at that point I remember getting in my car and calling my husband and, and crying. And it was just like, I don’t wanna go back to work. Um, I, I wanna do this. I wanna do purposeful work on a daily basis. I want, I wanna make a difference. And so when I made that transition, um, you can think like, oh man, my phone’s gonna be ringing off the hook, but I didn’t realize speaking is really like 10% of the job. Um, and I think that’s, I get a lot of inquiries from, you know, aspiring speakers that say like, oh, I wanna do exactly what you do. I’m like, but do you <laugh> do you really wanna do, like, you know what I mean? Like you see, you see these beautiful flyers, right. You know, uh, I’m Greg grateful, um, that I have a, a in-house creative director.
Jessica Lundy (09:33):
Right. But that comes with time and investment. Right. But I have a team now. And so that costs, right. So there’s so many things that people see and they’re like, oh, I wanna do that. And I’m like, no, but you didn’t see the 10,000 emails I sent out. You know, you don’t, you didn’t see the multiple meetings I had to have with my assistant to make this happen. You didn’t see the calls and the back and forth email between me and Casey to close this deal. Like you don’t, you don’t see all of that type of stuff. And so I like to just give people a good understanding, um, on what it takes to transition out of any career path, um, into speaking. Um, and what was the second question, Casey?
Casey J. Cornelius (10:13):
I, I think it’s also what I was curious about was your preparation, unintentional preparation to be successful in the virtual space as well, because even the preparation that you’re talking about to, to be a speaker is under normal circumstances. They hand me a microphone and walk on stage that kind of stuff. Right. But you were particularly prepared to hit the ground running when our industry went completely virtual in 2020.
Jessica Lundy (10:39):
Yeah. So I saw opportunity. Um, I I’m very much the type of person where, um, adversity comes and I’m like, bring it on, you know, bring on the challenge. And so when I saw that the industry was getting quiet, um, I realized, oh, this is my time to shine. So I went all in, um, I would say by end of March, early April, I had a demo reel <laugh> and, and people, people were like, how in the world do you already have a demo reel out? But I saw the opportunity and I ran with it. And so I, I invested in myself. Um, I went out, I had got five lights, um, a mic. Um, we built out a whole backdrop at our house. We re repositioned the whole room. Um, we actually have multiple sets and I just kind of went all in, um, because I believed in my message.
Jessica Lundy (11:35):
Um, I also started creating videos, um, and sending them out for free. I, I know that video is my superpower because I have a background in television and I’ve always been very confident in front of the camera. So it’s just like, all right, let me, let me do virtual. Well, and that’s been the response that I get over and over again, when I hop on a virtual people are like, oh, your virtual experience is different. Like, oh, this is top notch. You know, like, okay, you’re really doing this. And so I let people know, like my background is television, so there’s no way I’m going to, um, downgrade the quality I’m gonna upgrade the quality. I, I remember calling Xfinity, I need the most expensive wifi because I, I can never be in a situation where my connection comes out because that’s not fair to get people to show up to a virtual event.
Jessica Lundy (12:31):
And then something go wrong on my behalf. That’s not gonna happen. Right. So I put different systems and structures in place so that it can still be that rock and roll show. It can still be that full experience. We still got music and lights and, and it, and, and I think that’s what we have to do. Um, in any type of virtual setting, even from the down to my set, um, I had a lot of students say like, oh my God, I feel like I’m watching YouTube. That was the intentionality behind. It was, people are very comfortable watching YouTube for hours, right. To learn something, to be entertained, all of that. But yet when they hop on a zoom, they’re like zoom, fatigue. I, nobody ever said, I never get that feedback of like, oh man, that was boring. You know, it’s just like, I’m always trying to find the latest software or technology or different ways to engage my audience. And I think that should be the perspective of anybody that is in entertainment. Uh it’s to educate and to entertain, you know, that’s what we do with speakers. Um, and that’s something that’s very important to my personal brand as well.
Casey J. Cornelius (13:39):
So you, you know, this Jessica, but I, I, I want to share real quick when, when Jessica and I first connected and, um, I got to learn a little bit more about her, her story, her background, her her message, all that other kind of stuff. One of the things that I think I told you this right away, but if not, I, I guess I’ll share it now. I was already aware of Jessica. So I, I just so happened to live all, you know, a couple hours north of Detroit spend some time there, all that other kinda stuff. And I had seen Jessica on television before.
Jessica Lundy (14:07):
Oh, wow. I didn’t know that, Casey.
Casey J. Cornelius (14:10):
Yeah. Yeah. So, so like
Jessica Lundy (14:12):
That moment <laugh>
Casey J. Cornelius (14:13):
Right. So it was one of those when we first chatted, I was like, I feel like I’ve known Jessica forever. And she, first of all, she, she does that, like just full transparency. You’ll feel like, you know, her forever too, but I couldn’t quite connect the dots until she was like, yeah. And my background was on TV in Detroit. So I was like, oh, that’s where I know her from. So I, you know, I, I think that, um, one, I was, I was drawn to instantly, but two, it makes complete sense as to why you were able to be so successful in the virtual space, what other people were trying to figure out. Like he said, like I had five lights when some people were like, what’s a ring light. Like you were already in the mindset there. Um, speaking of mindset, sort of an awkward transition, but speaking of mindset, I know that you do a lot of work related to mindset related to self care related to, to mental wellbeing. And I know that this is a topic that, you know, over the last couple of years, it’s become really at the forefront of people’s, um, areas of concern, not only for themselves, but also in higher education for their students as well. Like what, what is it that drew you to this, this topic, this, um, this sort of, uh, sphere of, of conversation,
Jessica Lundy (15:24):
You know, honestly, it was my own experience. Um, I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety when I made the transition from high school to college. And, you know, I shared that story with students because, you know, as someone that was very successful and driven, like from the age of five <laugh>, and then all of a sudden you get diagnosed with depression senior year in high school, and now you gotta go to college and you’re like, wait a minute. What is going on here? And I remember during that period of time, people weren’t talking about mental health people, weren’t talking about what was actually what they were actually experiencing. It made me feel like at the time, like I was the only person going through it. And I felt, you know, once I was in a position, I wanted to be able to talk to people about it.
Jessica Lundy (16:24):
And, and from a place of it, it being normal, right? Like when you look at it from a statistical standpoint, you’re like, oh my God, one of five people have been diagnosed with some type of, you know, mental illness, like, oh my God, like this is normal. Right? And so it was kind of like my personal mission to educate people on mental health and mental wellness and not just mental health from an illness perspective, but just what we’re dealing with on a daily basis. And so I also wanted to specifically work with people in leadership because I see people leading from an empty place on a daily basis. And that’s where that keynote leading on empty came from was because, you know, the people that are called to lead the people that are called to serve the people that are called to be the encouragers are often the people that are essentially barely making it.
Jessica Lundy (17:18):
And so I worked on some systems, some structure, some processes that really helped me. And once I realized, oh man, this is working for me. Maybe I should share this information. And then it turned into like a life’s mission was just to educate people and help them restructure their lives so that they can put taking care of theirselves as their number one priority. And I think from a societal standpoint, we’ve come to a place where self care is looking like trips to Bali or staying at the Ritz, or like all this over the top luxury. Now, if you know me, you know, I love luxury.
Casey J. Cornelius (17:59):
I was gonna say, <laugh>,
Jessica Lundy (18:01):
I love luxury. I’m gonna be honest. I love some luxury, but that has nothing to do with self care. Right. Um, for me, self care is going for a walk and being present and enjoying the beauty of nature all around me. Um, it’s taking the time to journal. It’s taking the time to put on some relaxing music and quiet my mind, it’s being intentional on a daily basis. So I don’t get to the point of exhaustion and burnout. Um, I’ve been there before, um, and, and I want to prevent people from experiencing burnout or helping them kind of work their way out of a burnout season. And that’s been essentially one of the good things that has come out of the last couple of years is people have really been open and honest about mental health and self care. And, and the beauty has been me sharing my story, which thinking back to, you know, 10 years ago, it was almost shameful to talk about what you were actually going through.
Jessica Lundy (19:12):
And now being able to use my story, to inspire people, to be honest about how they’re feeling and seeing people in different communities share. So open and honest, um, that has been the beauty of kind of taking on the ranks of talking about mental health and mental wellness. And recently I got my, uh, mental health first aid certification. And that was just a beautiful thing because there’s things that were constantly learning and growing. And so something I personally ask myself is, is what additional resources can I find? You know, I always wanna give people current information, relevant information, um, that they can apply to their lives, even different apps and stuff. Um, that I reference within my sessions, just, I want people to leave with tangible things and not just feel motivated or feel better for the moment, but it’s like, no, after this session, I want you to have something that you can run with, um, and that can change your life forever.
Casey J. Cornelius (20:17):
You find that people are surprised when, when you are transparent, um, about the steps that you’ve taken for, for mental wellness for self care, like, do you get some degree of like, Jessica seems like she has it all together. She seems so confident. Do you get some questions related to that?
Jessica Lundy (20:37):
A hundred percent because I’m so bubbly, right? And it’s like, he’s the life of the party, no way she’s ever dealt with anything like this. And so that was one of the reasons, because the way my personality is I wanted to share with people there’s days where I, I don’t feel like getting outta the bed. Right. And I do have to give myself a pep talk. You know, that was one of the reasons I created the audio affirmations that I have was because I needed to hear that I was amazing. I needed to hear that I was gonna have a great day. I needed to hear that today was gonna be the best day of my life so that I could have that, that cheerleader say, we can do this because there are days where I don’t, I, I don’t feel my best. And I needed to hear that from an outside, you know, source, which is having to be, you know, on my voice.
Jessica Lundy (21:23):
But I needed to hear that on the days where I couldn’t encourage myself. And now thousands of people literally all over the globe, um, have used those affirmations as a part of their morning routine or a part of the days where they need that extra bit encouragement. But I’m, I’m hoping that I can just create that transparency so that people can know. It doesn’t matter if you are a celebrity, it doesn’t matter if you’re successful. Um, if we all wanna be honest, we’ve all had days that were a little bit more challenging and having those tools that we can have in our toolbox when those days come is something that’s gonna help everybody, no matter your demographic.
Casey J. Cornelius (22:06):
And I think that you talk about this, not only in the, your, your program winning every day, but also in your book like this, this everyday consistency mindset that, that you bring, um, to, to even just like how you start the day, you talked about audio affirmation. So all those other kind of things like, can, can you kind of give listeners, um, an, an intro to the way that you structure your message related to consistency?
Jessica Lundy (22:35):
Yeah. I think, you know, the, the interesting thing about consistency is I think we just have to get out of our minds that we wanna do the things that we have to be consistent in. Right? Like, you know, it’s like wanna feel motivated to do all the stuff that you have to do on your list, but sometimes you might not feel motivated. You just gotta do it. You know? I mean, and I think that’s the biggest thing about consistency. You might not wanna work out. You might not wanna journal. You might not want to work on your business. If you’re a business owner, you might not feel like studying. If you’re a student, like you just might not feel like doing the work, but the reality is if you want to be successful, you will be consistent. And so I stop waiting for the perfect moment to do things and just did it because it needed to get done.
Jessica Lundy (23:21):
And then I looked up and I was like, oh my God, consistency really works. And so I think that’s important. Um, I think structure, um, in our lives really allows us to be consistent. So the things that you can do on a daily basis, um, being intentional with your goals, um, most people put too many goals, uh, for the day. So like, if you’re looking at your to do list and you got 15 things on it, right, you’re kinda already setting yourself up for failure. You know what I mean? Like we have these unrealistic, like, oh, I can get all this stuff done. Let’s dial that back to maybe three to five things so that we can get in the mindset of feeling like a champion, feeling like a winner, feeling like a success, because like, oh my God, I got everything done on my list, as opposed to being like, feeling like a failure because we kind of set ourselves to have unrealistic expectations.
Jessica Lundy (24:12):
And so I think being honest with yourself and tracking data, right? Check how many things you’re realistically getting done on a daily basis so that you can kind of set your intentionality for the day and then always having some bit of motivation. You know, I, I started creating little short motivational video probably like five years ago, if, if not, if’s not longer. And I really did that just as a way for people to have a little burst of energy or a burst of you can do this, you know, you can go on YouTube and find different videos or podcasts, or, you know, there’s so many resources for inspiration nowadays, um, that we can all spend even five to 10 minutes, um, building ourselves up. And I think those are just important things that we can do on a daily basis. But I think something that’s often forgotten is the importance of an accountability partner, because we can try to keep ourselves accountable to the best of our ability, but being able to have that outside resource, whether that is a professional accountability partner.
Jessica Lundy (25:21):
Um, I do some of that, like on the coaching side of things, or if you’re utilizing the people within your organizations, right within your, uh, fraternities, your sororities, your clubs, your organizations, your coworkers, you know, using the people that are around you to keep you accountable. That can be helpful as well because everybody has something they need to be held accountable on. And having somebody that you can check in with, and you want it to be a mutually beneficial relationship because yes, the worst thing is, you know, you’re like, Hey, you can do my accountability partner, like awesome. And week two, they have forgotten about you, but if they have a specific goal that they wanna achieve as well, and you are gonna say, you know, I’m gonna keep you accountable on a specific goal too. Not everybody has something to gain and they’re more likely to be consistent.
Casey J. Cornelius (26:10):
It reminds me of a, a couple of things from, from my own experience. Um, the, the first ones I remember vividly, the first time someone said to me, you know, successful people and unsuccessful people dislike the same things, the differences successful people did them anyway. Love it. And, and that was like, like this epiphany moment, cuz it was like, yeah, you know, the, the waking up early, the, the, you know, checking your email every day, the, all the things that are just, they feel like such, you know, like drudgery, like you’re just, you know, slogging through it. Yeah. Yeah. Nobody enjoys those things. I mean, I don’t get me wrong. I’m sure some people do, but the people who do those every day, no matter what typically are the people that we look to like, oh, they’ve got it all figured out. The other thing that occurs to me is like, you talked about the, the concept of accountability.
Casey J. Cornelius (26:55):
If you ask someone to help you be accountable, they should also set some type of barometer for what your goals are as well. Like I, I know that. So, you know, for those, for those of you who know me, like I, I, I’m a jujitsu coach and a lot of times I’ll have students say to me, like, how am I doing? And typically the, the answer that I’ll give them is a, a question that is, are you trying to get good at self defense? Are you trying to be a world champion? Because my answer to you is going to vary based on what that goal looks like. If you’re aiming toward, I wanna get good at defending myself, you might be doing great. And if your goal is I wanna be the best of the world and what I’m doing well, then the, like the expectation level changes. And I think I’m hearing you say that as well is, is as long as you have someone who’s mutually invested in your success and you and theirs then truly great, extraordinary things can happen.
Jessica Lundy (27:47):
Absolutely. And, and that’s why coaching is so important. Coaching is so underrated. Um, I remember probably getting my first coach in high school. Um, and maybe even earlier than that, you know what I mean? I was very intentional. I knew, especially like with singing, like I had a professional, classically trained, um, singing coach, like one of the best singers, like in the country. Um, because I wanted to be an excellent singer. Um, we had a professional violin coach. Um, once I started doing beauty pageants, I hired coaches. And that’s why by the time I was 16, I started coaching because I had already saw what it took to train someone at a high level. And that’s why a lot of the clients that I coached did make it to the miss America stage did make it to the miss USA did make it to Mrs.
Jessica Lundy (28:41):
America stage because I was able to coach them at such a high level that they could achieve anything. I remember when, um, one of my students, um, got into Harvard and she attributed to all of the interview preparations that we did. Um, and so I, I think it’s important to understand that everybody needs someone who can keep them accountable, but who can also take them to the next level in their life. So whether that’s fitness related, that’s sports related, that’s educational related, that’s business related. Everybody needs someone who can push them a little bit further. And, you know, that’s something that I’ve been, you know, just grateful to have Casey in my life. You know, someone who can say, Hey, Jess, you might put yourself a little bit more or someone also who says, Hey, you, your plate is quite full right now. Yep. You might, you might wanna, you might.
Jessica Lundy (29:40):
That’s what he said. Might wanna pull back. I know everybody wants a little bit of Jessica, but you know, we gotta, we gotta make sure we’re taking care of ourselves. So we want people who have our best interest, um, in our lives and people that are able to share things that you might not want to hear, but it is for your growth. You know, I try not to have too many yes. People, um, in my circle because I wanna grow. And so if every time I talk to you, oh, that was amazing. That was perfect. That was perfection. We can all improve. So I think it’s important to have people that are truthful, um, a part of your circle, a part of your squad, a part of your dream team, um, to push you to greatness,
Casey J. Cornelius (30:27):
By the way, for those of you who don’t know this, I am not a yes person. I am a maybe person, so, right. You know, and I think, I think you’re reflecting something that I feel as well. And that is like, you talked about your, your student getting into Harvard. Like I find myself more fulfilled, more gased of however you wanna reference this for the successes of those that, that I pour into than even my own, like my own that that’s, that’s great. And all, but like when you do it, I’m, I’m even more thrilled for some reason. Like, do you, do you find that too?
Jessica Lundy (31:01):
Oh yeah. I, I think for me that was the confirmation that I was aligned with my purpose. So I realize what do I get the most fulfillment from? I get the most fulfillment from speaking, like speaking life into people. But I love those after speaking engagement, conversations, those, you know, at the, at the bottom of the stage chats with people that get really honest. Yep. Um, I love the private conversations and DMS that happen where people got to really sit and think about what I said. And they’re like, mm, I have a deeper question for you. You know, those are the things that excite me. Um, I love coaching. I mean, I’ve literally been coaching for half my life. I, I love coaching because I love transformation. Uh, I love to see people come in on one way and then they leave achieving something and feeling fulfill, seeing that light in people’s eyes when they get it. That’s something that pushes me on a daily basis, um, to help as many people as possible.
Casey J. Cornelius (32:05):
I love it. I love it. Listen, folks for those of you who are listening, uh, if, if you don’t yet know Jessica, uh, you probably have fallen in love already. Uh, she she’s got one of those personalities. She’s absolutely a magnet. Uh, if you wanna learn more about her for college, for life.com/jessica/lund, like not back slash, but like back slash Jessica slash Lund, um, you can find her, you can also find her on the main page of the, the site, learn more about her programs, her topics, uh, all, all the, all those. Um, she’s, she’s just incredible. As you’ve heard, Jessica, can we have a little fun and get you outta here on some, some fast questions?
Jessica Lundy (32:39):
Absolutely.
Casey J. Cornelius (32:41):
Okay. All right, here we go. So let’s pretend like <laugh> this first one. Let’s pretend, uh, you have an entire day to binge watch anything. What do you choose?
Jessica Lundy (32:51):
Okay, so this is interesting. This is something people don’t know about me, but I love period movies. Um, I love period shows. Um, really sometimes. Yeah. It’s like a guilty pleasure of mine. I have watched, um, all of them. I love Bridger 10. Ah, ah,
Casey J. Cornelius (33:08):
I love, yeah.
Jessica Lundy (33:09):
Yeah. I love downtown Abby. I love all of those. Like in my mind, I am in some queen in one of these Royal gowns. <laugh> um, I love the dance scenes. I love all of the extra over the top hair and makeup. Like I just, I love those, um, types of TV shows in movies. So yeah, I would definitely be watching some type of period piece.
Casey J. Cornelius (33:31):
You know, someone just recently turned me onto the soundtracks from, uh, Bridger as well. Like the instrumental versions of, of all these like, um, top 40 songs and stuff like that. Fantastic. If you’ve not yet heard those, please, please check. So here’s interest, actually. This is one that I’m curious about too. So, Jessica, what is the most used app on your phone?
Jessica Lundy (33:52):
Instagram? A hundred percent Instagram. I’m always on Instagram. Um, I, I love the app for so many reasons. Um, as a content creator, um, I love creating motivational videos. Um, I love fashion, so I love doing fashion shoots and posting that content. Um, but I like zooming the content as well. There’s so many amazing, talented creators, um, that I, I love to be inspired by other people that are doing amazing things. Um, and then I also respond to all my DMS. So I get a lot of direct messages, um, from students, from educators, um, from, uh, corporate professionals as well. People just asking me questions. So I love that platform as a way to connect with people.
Casey J. Cornelius (34:38):
I think that that’s, by the way, an important thing to point out, I’m not going to name any names, no one that we work with, but not everybody that you’re DMing on social media folks are actually answering their own messages. Jessica’s one of those people who answers every single one of her own messages. This is really important to, to know. All right, here we go. Who would you most want to have dinner with?
Jessica Lundy (35:01):
So I would say Oprah. Um, I have been waiting on this dinner with Oprah. I hope she listens to this interview.
Casey J. Cornelius (35:08):
Let’s tag her. We’ll tag her in this.
Jessica Lundy (35:10):
Yeah, we’ll tag her in this cause I’m like auntie. Oh, like I talk about you, you know, meeting you in all my presentations, it’s time to have that dinner. So, um, I think it would be nice to have like at a vineyard, you know, um, yes, beautiful view. Maybe, maybe even at her house. Right. Um, in Santa Barbara, that would be perfect. Um, but I’m not picky. Right. Even if she wants to go to McDonald’s, I’ll make it work. Right. <laugh> um, but, but I definitely would wanna ha have dinner with Oprah for sure.
Casey J. Cornelius (35:39):
I love it. I love it. We’re gonna tag Oprah in this. We’ll make sure to do it. And, and if this happens, Yes. You know, may, maybe you can invite me I’ll I could serve, I can do something right. There
Jessica Lundy (35:47):
You go. Yeah, absolutely.
Casey J. Cornelius (35:49):
All right, here we go. So Jessica, this is, this is again, sort of odd to even ask you as someone who’s as busy as you are, but, but what do you do to wind down? Like, do you have any rituals? Do you have any signals that like, okay, now’s my time to, to decompress for the day? What do you do to just say I’m done, I’m winding down.
Jessica Lundy (36:08):
You know what I really do like to go to the spa? Um, it’s not something that I get to do as often as I like, but because I’m really big on self-care. If I feel like, you know what I need, I need a day at the spa. I need to pamper myself. Um, I do it guilt free. And the reason I said, I do it guilt free is sometimes when you’re doing luxury services, you know, maybe a massage or a facial or something like that. You can feel guilty, um, about spending the extra money. But I realize every time I take a moment to pamper myself, I’m able to serve and pamper others at a higher level. And so that’s kind of like my guilty pleasure, being able to go to spa. Um, I love to travel. I love to travel. The best advice a mentor ever gave me was to take quarterly non-negotiable sabbaticals And mm. And every quarter I take about two to three days to do nothing. And that allows my mind to relax in a way that I need it to, to think creatively. And you put
Casey J. Cornelius (37:22):
Those on your schedule too, like, do you,
Jessica Lundy (37:23):
Yeah. Yeah. I’m very intentional about it. Those will be times where I’ll take off. Um, I’ll be doing that in may cause it’s my birthday month. So, um, that’s something that I look forward to those special times and then I always have something to look forward to and I think that’s the most important thing.
Casey J. Cornelius (37:41):
That’s fantastic. That’s great. All right. Final question. We’re gonna get out, get you outta here on, on this one. How can listeners best connect with you?
Jessica Lundy (37:49):
So I try to keep it so simple. Um, at Jessica Lund TV, all social platforms. So I’m active on everything. Um, mostly Instagram and LinkedIn are my platforms of choice, but I do check my messages personally, um, on all of them. So I look forward to connecting with you.
Casey J. Cornelius (38:10):
I love it, Jessica. Thank you so much. This is one of those interviews, candidly folks that could go on and on and on. Even beforehand like Jessica, I had to agree. Listen, normally our phone calls can last for hours. Let’s let this one be a little tighter, but I I’ve even learned some stuff about Jessica today that I never knew. So this was a lot of fun, Jessica, thank you for, for joining everyone else. Thank you for, you know, giving some of your time today. Uh, learn more about Jessica, learn more about what we do, sort of the behind the curtain, uh, view of the stuff that’s going on for college, for life. We certainly appreciate you if you’d be willing to like and subscribe and share and all that stuff that we’re supposed to do on social media and also tune into the future podcast episodes as well. And, uh, just really honored to have some of your time. And, uh, and for you joining us today. So Jessica, thank you so much, everyone else, we will talk to you soon and we look forward to the next time.
