The University of Life
The University of Life podcast has become my personal collection of fascinating learnings from the people I meet and experiences I have as I explore life and journey deeper in to the space of business mentoring & life coaching.
The University of Life
The University of Life & Jake Paul White
What if embracing your imperfections could lead to stronger connections and a more fulfilling life?
In this episode, I sit down with the incredibly talented Jake Paul White, who takes us on a journey through art, authenticity, and identity. From his early days as an aspiring fine artist to finding his voice as a yoga teacher, Jake shares how vulnerability and rawness have shaped his creative path. We explore how balancing professionalism with showing your true self can foster deeper human connections and build trust with your audience.
By sharing personal anecdotes, Jake emphasizes the therapeutic benefits of embracing imperfections and rediscovering childlike wonder. This approach not only enriches artistic processes but also adds layers of joy and authenticity to everyday life.
Join us as we uncover how letting go of societal pressures for perfection can lead to more meaningful and joyous experiences.
Throughout our discussion, Jake reflects on the transitions and challenges of pursuing a creative career, from the structured world of academic art education to the dynamic landscape of social media. We tackle the complex dance between passion and profit, and how living with intention and spontaneity can lead to profound insights.
Jake’s experiences reveal the power of partnerships and connections in both personal and professional realms, demonstrating the immense value of surrounding oneself with supportive and complementary individuals.
Note: Please accept my apologies for the audio and interruptions at points throughout the piece. Jake wanted this way and explains with over the first five minutes of the recording.
If ever you'd like to connect, please don't hesitate to connect via my website www.jamiewhite.com.
I am always open to feedback, reflections, guest / subject recommendations and anything else that might come up.
Thank you for listening, Jamie x
I think, authenticity or not. I don't know what really authenticity means. Maybe it means different things to different people, but a rawness, a realness, you know. I think we're continuously obsessed with refinement and I think sometimes it's good to know that it was created by a human, and I think we can remove the touch of the human very easily these days with technology. Um, so I think, as a quality that reminds us of humanity, you know, like, even through the person themselves, like a quote-unquote mistake, you know, is always a nice, uh, demonstration of vulnerability and we always connect to that because we've all been in that, that kind of position, and it's so easy to cut that, remove it, add that.
Speaker 1:So I think, um, yeah, a rawness of sound quality, a rawness of capturing, you know, just using phone, uh, spur of the moment, rather than being so curated. I think all these things are desirable and, you know, taking that back to my work is kind of a combination. Of course there's a, of course there's a curation that in essence has to be when you're creating art and you create an exhibition and a show and you're presenting yourself to the, to the world. But there's many components of the work that is, um, out of my control, you know know, it's playful. I'm using processing that I need to allow the paint or allow the medium to do as it wishes, and then there's a humanity to that, I think, which I think is really beautiful.
Speaker 2:So interesting, so you reminded me of I did this. I used to train people in public speaking and so I dove into all the different lessons around that space. I did this. I used to train people in public speaking and so I dove into all the different lessons around that space. And one thing is that when people stood up on stage and they presented perfectly, flawlessly it actually brought up feelings of distrust.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly, that's exactly it.
Speaker 2:Whereas when someone would stutter, when someone would actually show that they were a little bit overwhelmed, people would lean in all the more. People would connect with them all the more. And so we connect with those subtle disconnects, those subtle issues. And yeah, I get that, I really get that there's a sweet spot, right there's.
Speaker 1:If you go too far and, let's say, become unprofessional, then it becomes distrusting as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So there's always the same with everything in life right, this middle way, this sense of balance between two sides. It's the same here. We need to demonstrate humanity but, at the same time, present professionalism, knowledge, expertise, whatever it may be that you know that we're talking about this conversation, so I think that's also important. But yeah, I think there's an obsession with being completely polished, removing flaws. You know, if that's visually from a person or through their voice, through their communication.
Speaker 2:I think there's a really nice thing that you honor somebody with your flaws. It shows trust, it shows vulnerability, and that's very counterintuitive to the way we are societally, where when you think about things, you think about formalities, a certain type of language, a certain type of dress code and everything, but in actual fact what you're doing is you're putting up a big shield and you're blocking somebody from really seeing you, really getting to know you. So, yeah, I like the idea of you honor someone with your flaws. So, okay, nice introduction.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a little intro.
Speaker 2:Jake, how on earth do you describe yourself?
Speaker 1:Interesting question. I think we a lot of the times initially communicate what we do is who we are and in some ways that's important because that's partially how society works. We need to present ourselves through some sort of profession to increase, uh, stature, wealth and so forth, which is, you know, partially important to have a security in life of blah blah blah. And so I would have gone through a lot of different identities. I've done a lot of different skills in my time and as I've moved more into the realms of paint, the kind of overarching tag of being an artist seems very fitting because obviously artistry can be across really anything. You know, it's a very broad term. Of course, when we think artists we do think the kind of standard fine art medium sculpture, painting and so forth, photography maybe, but really artistry or creativity can go through all medium. But I would definitely identify and present myself as an artist if I was going to create an overarching singular identity of myself.
Speaker 2:I've wanted to interview you for ages. My first moment of meeting you was hilarious. It was at my partner's birthday, where her cake came out. Everybody's singing happy birthday and she's just about to blow her cake out. You about like everybody's singing happy birthday, she's just about to blow her cake out and you jump in and blow out the candle. I was like this is a very interesting person. I've never even met someone that would think of doing that, and every time I've kind of come in contact with you since it's, there's been such, let's say, different engagements, different reflections that you'd share, different things that you'd express. And I'm sitting here in your home and I'm looking at it and it's so uniquely you. There's so much thought, there's so much depth, there's so much character everywhere, everywhere, and I, when I said this to you earlier, but I felt it was really confronting, because in seeing the amount of depth and the amount of character in your space, I suddenly see, recognize the lack of it in certain areas of mine, and I, I'm so curious, just like you know what you, what we kind of talked about there in terms of like you, really, when you share yourself with somebody, when you take down the they'd say the bullshit facade of, let's say, perhaps for a man wearing the suit, or doing his
Speaker 2:hair a certain way, or expressing yourself in the kind of the the set okay ways socially and you actually just show up as you are flaws and all. There's a huge trust, there's a huge honor that you're sharing and it my kind of my gut instinct is that that doesn't come that naturally, although it's you very naturally. There's probably a huge amount of work learning to let yourself be free and and truly express yourself hmm, yeah, that's nice, I think.
Speaker 1:I think it might have been Picasso that spoke to the idea that, as a mature adult artist, the pursuit is to rediscover a childishness, expectation or a sense of reward or outcome which, in all honesty, is impossible. You know, once we kind of go beyond the age of eight, the way that the the brain develops doesn't really allow us to do that, and it's kind of a safety mechanism right, it's a survival mechanism, but of it's something that we can train and tap into and explore, and I would argue that I'm someone that is naturally a perfectionist. Through my upbringing, maybe parents and but also society in general, I think, coming from the UK, maybe that has a partial influence as well and as someone who is now older, the pursuit of being more playful and kind of letting go and creating systems to allow me to embrace unknown, make time for the unknown, enjoy imperfection and so forth, and so in my art specifically but I do do this in a variety of different ways, but I feel like art is just such a obvious representation of of this. I select certain processes that forces me to not be in control, for example, pouring or splashing or throwing or soaking, as much as you have a general idea. Let's say, I pour down the canvas, I know it's going to go down, but how you know? What kind of route is it going to go? And you could argue that somewhat like life, like we could choose maybe a career path, but we don't know exactly how that path is going to navigate and actually we might even choose another path in the future, of course.
Speaker 1:Um, but yeah, I'm continuously challenging myself, uh, with that matter, because I have seen the benefits, because it does spill into other areas of my life. I always like that phrase of the way you do anything is the way you do everything, and I think it's somewhat true. I mean, there's kind of a gray area between different areas of your life and so forth, but they do spill over 100%. So the work is a very nice, the artwork's a very nice medium and process that can be very confronting and very rewarding. You know, therapeutic and, yeah, that's that.
Speaker 2:I kind of as you were speaking there. It's funny how kind of perspective sometimes just comes. So I'm actually remembering my last birthday that I spent at home about to blow out my candles.
Speaker 1:By the way, on the candles thing no, but you made me sound like a dick. No, you weren't actually. Do you know the context of it?
Speaker 2:I'm recognizing the genius in it. My eight-year-old niece pushed me out of the way and blew out my candles and I'm like, do you know what it's funny when she did it. It's so playful and so sweet and so fun and I was like, yeah, it's, it's weird we're all obsessed with taking things so bloody seriously and we're all obsessed with presenting ourselves so perfectly when in actual fact, that's just not true and and actually expressing our messiness is again, it's just refreshing itself.
Speaker 2:To me, it's actually the nicest thing you can do with someone and then the playfulness and the turning worlds upside down and and taking the taking, the um, the boringness out of life. In terms of this, like I think for some reason there's this instinctive want for so many of us to kind of have such order and such a linear, like approach to life, safety and we wonder why we're bored we wonder why we're depressed and it's like come on, enjoy a little bit of spice so an actual fact. I'm starting to appreciate that moment more and more.
Speaker 1:But give me the context behind the scene I don't know the context, I can't even remember, but I would love there must been. I would say I'm someone that likes to play with humor. Yeah, I think it's a very interesting way to communicate. I would argue that sometimes it gets me into trouble, you know, dependent on company and timing. But I think if it's something that you're interested in, you do have to take risks and a lot of time with comedy. Speed is is one of your, one of the main components. Like it has to be delivered quite instantaneously and I'm sure there was some sort of setup or I don't. I've never, that I can remember, ever just blown someone's candles out.
Speaker 2:I actually I love what you said there because the amount of times like I've, let's say, let my guard down, felt really free, felt like such fun running through me and been having so much fun with the group. And then, of course, I go a step too far, yeah, and I upset the apple cart and, and, unfortunately, as a result you know, I didn't, I didn't just learn to be like, ah, you know, sometimes shit happens I'm sorry and get it and just continue on be me.
Speaker 2:In those moments I locked up parts of me and so much of my personal journey has been learning to open those parts back up and perhaps learn how to express myself in the moment or deal with the situations that unfold in this, in it and harm this way, so that I can be more me.
Speaker 1:But it feels like this is my projection here, but it's like society has just locked itself up so much that it's very sterilized and it's very boring and in actual fact, there's a real need for disruptors and rebels and playmakers and messers, to shake things up a little bit so that we don't get too uniformed and too boring and too depressed yeah, yeah, I agree, I think, um, I wouldn't put myself in the uh, I would say I'm somewhere in the middle, regarding the kind of two archetypes, and I quite like that intelligent ways to break rules that can be very um, what's the words? What's the word I want? Kind of caring to other people, you know, um, respectful to your surroundings. I think a lot of rule breakers unfortunately not unfortunately, maybe even maybe necessarily uh, have to upset and, um, you know, to carve a new way. But I don't think that's necessarily my place and I think you can still walk your own path while you know caring and supporting and being mindful of other people's paths and kind of being empathetic of the people around you, and that's definitely something that I've had to develop over time empathy and understanding and loving the people around me, and I think that's become I think that's become very important and like, coming back to humor, you know we have this, this kind of phrase of like I'm just being myself, but yourself is just a curation from your upbringing and and so forth.
Speaker 1:Yourself is the, you know, the ego that you present. This, this just yourself that you believe you are, is not truly you. It's being created in the way that you can create, you can. You can develop any sense of uh way that you can create. You can develop any sense of persona that you would like, and so being less attached to this, like this is me, is something that I try to work on. And, you know, if you love certain people around you, I think you can somewhat let go of that Because, of course, there's an enjoyment with the identity that you create. Hopefully, you know, hopefully you're enjoying what you're doing. Um, you know the, you know the things that you offer to your community, if that be humor or intelligence or whatever component.
Speaker 2:Uh, love, care when you're sharing that. What's coming up for me is obviously that line humor is the highest form of intellect and we we can be our lazy selves or we can be our highest selves. And I think, when I kind of look back on my journey, what was a big part of learning was, like jay, you can be yourself, but you have to learn how to, how to deal with consequences how to do how to be yourself respectfully, like.
Speaker 2:I really like what you shared there, like learning to be yourself whilst being respectful and empathetic to those that you're around, and learn to like and to play fine lines and edges and it it somewhat magically seems to reflect itself in your heart. Actually, yeah, you were sharing of, like when you're pouring or when you're soaking, you're kind of letting creativity flow. Yeah, you're letting things flow, but there is an art to making it something beautiful rather than just an obvious, big mess.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's nice, that's exactly it. Yeah. Yeah, there's an intention behind it that when you view the work, there's an understanding that it has been somewhat curated and it's beautifully put together.
Speaker 1:I like this idea of idealism, idealism within nature, that we have the components of nature. Let's imagine you're looking at a landscape. In an idealistic world. It would be the idea that I could then move them around, like, ah, them four trees would actually look better here, and if we just change the angle of that mountain a little bit, it'd be more balanced. And in some ways, you know, my art represents landscapes. I think they could represent other things, but I think there's a connection to landscape and I think that's partly it. I'm kind of through dreams, through memories and my surroundings, nature itself. I think what I'm doing is pulling components together, if that be shapes, colors and so forth, to create something that is, from my point of view, beautiful, you know, like something that it feels. Feels, you know, there's a an emotional connection to it. Um, so yeah, no, it's, it's.
Speaker 2:I I'm really curious.
Speaker 2:It's like a real cliche coaching question okay I like you in doing what you do now and, like observing your life as it is now, do you want me asking, when you look back on your journey to where you are, what you think was, like, the biggest catalyst that like pushed you into this space of creative creativity and art? You know, we, like we're really, you know some. I'm sitting here in your home and I can see so much of it is thought out. You're obviously like, when it came to recording this, you're like, look, I want to do this live. I want to have the air conditioning on and back, I want to have, like, I want it to be a proper insight in, like, these are all very creative, thought out decision, decisions. It's reflected in everything you do. So what's, yeah, what you think pushed you on your way to where you are now?
Speaker 1:I think, like a lot of people, there's multiple components right as you as you move through your, through your life and you look back, and then there's these kind of key decisions or moments in time that then have created the person that you are. I got an art degree in fine art and paint and print and I remember that time. Reflecting now, I was very much, you know, a young boy that didn't have the sense of direction or confidence to pursue that. I think any young talent or any young person that's out there that is willing to share their work is unbelievable. I definitely wasn't able to do, I couldn't. I couldn't imagine putting myself out there like that. I think also, financially, I had zero security, so the the need to need to have money instantaneously was there. So I moved to graphics and you know I worked on that for a very long time and you know that's kind of 13, 14 years now until today.
Speaker 1:I, through that journey, also found yoga. I became a yoga teacher and the yoga teacher allowed me to find my voice. There's kind of there's many things that yoga gave me. It's not something that I necessarily practice now, things that yoga gave me. It's not something that I necessarily practice now, but it allowed me to travel the world and it definitely gave me the confidence to speak freely and to, you know, to large groups and so forth, and that was definitely a skill that I did not have and I think I think that's a huge, huge component. You know, kind of seven years of my life, it was full time for me and time.
Speaker 1:So now, you know, just kind of thinking about M-Components, I have the design agency still, so that's kind of a sense of security there, and you know, I have multiple other businesses as well.
Speaker 1:But because of that, because of age and because of, I think, the development of character through teaching, has allowed me to come back to paint.
Speaker 1:So now I've been painting for around two years, I would say somewhat consistently, and trying to remember who I was at, say, early 20s to now coming up to mid 30s, is a drastic, drastic shift that allows me to feel very content and very confident to produce this work, with not necessarily needing an outcome.
Speaker 1:Of course, I would love to share it to people, to purchase it, to present it to the world, maybe to live beyond me and to continuously be a catalyst for me to develop my own personality and inject creativity into my life, which obviously is amazing because, again, if I add creativity here, I'm going to add creativity there, you know. I mean that's the beautiful thing about doing multiple ventures they all inspire each other. You know, I'll learn something over in graphics that can come over to paint. I learn something to paint that allows me to maybe move over to movement, you know, or my you know, a build or whatever it may be. Um so, obviously a very simple compressed uh version, but I would say they're kind of a couple of key components that allowed me to get to where I am.
Speaker 2:Okay, so what's coming up for me is so. What I heard, first and foremost is actually you really wanted to be an artist, originally speaking, right?
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, so we go back a little bit earlier. I sucked at school. Actually it's still. There's a deep-rooted pain when it comes to education and, specifically, language. It was a very weak skill set of mine and it's always what I believe, held me back. You know a belief of mine. But if you look in a different way, what it forced me to do is basically choose art. I had no choice.
Speaker 1:I know so many people that were like they didn't know where to go. They were kind of okay at everything or even good at everything, and I had no choice. I was like I was good at art, I was well good, maybe is even pushing it, but I was really shit at everything else. So in comparison, I was definitely good. So I went to school for art and then I had parents that somewhat were traditional and would have loved me to continue schooling and never forced. But in all honesty, I always felt very young and behind other people, so I wasn't ready to really go out into the real world. So I went to college, did art, loved it. I really kind of found my passion in college because if you've been through art schooling, the transition from you know 13 to 16 in secondary school it's all about. You most likely get a good grade, especially in. I've talked to my school, but I think it's quite common.
Speaker 1:If you can copy well, then when you move into college, it's kind of starting to promote that. It doesn't matter about duplicating, it's all about expressing. So that was a very difficult transition. And then I went to university and continued to do so, but I couldn't see the end of the tunnel being if I keep making this work, I can make money. Social media was just coming in. I think Maybe, yeah, just I think, like maybe Instagram just popped up, but I didn't have it. So the idea of like, using a social media platform to promote your work was Just not done.
Speaker 1:That would have been insanely rare, I imagine. Yeah, so graphics seem to make sense because what I can do is find a client, the client tells me what to do, I create, they give me the money, and still somewhat creative. But it's a creative pursuit to solve business problems right, which I still love. I think it's amazing and I think the two can work and build a very rounded, nearly even a rounded person, but definitely a rounded offering.
Speaker 2:So yeah, when I think about your art, where you you said look, I create my art like I've kind of covered my boxes with my other kind of ventures and I'm creating my art really just as my own creative expression. I'm not really creating them to sell. There's something for me that kind of thinks that really art should never be created to sell. Yeah, that we should that when it comes to creating art, it should. It should actually be that like and sorry, this is me, my influence but like I love the idea that something isn't created to sell, to be sold, it's just an expression from the heart and I kind of think that there is a lot of art online that is shared and sorry that is created solely with the intention of being sold and I kind of think like, yeah, it ticks a box and that's grand and everything like that.
Speaker 2:But there's something I just love about art being created just for the sake of it, not with a financial intention in mind.
Speaker 1:Yes, of course there's a beauty there. I think one would argue there's maybe a sweet spot again where and this will now speak to building a team and finding the right people in your life If you can find someone to support you, where the artist can create for the sake of creating, in essence, and very much be in their creative flow and produce and go through that journey of exploration and creativity and expression, storytelling, whatever it may be, and then you have someone else that, in essence, tells you, maybe, potentially, when it's finished, or when it is finished, they take it and they distribute it Because, of course, if you're creating something so beautiful and so raw, it would be crazy for someone not to enjoy that you know to, to not live a long life, to not be savored and, um, protected and looked after and uh. So, if you can get someone to support you, to share your message or sell your work, um, then there will be this separation, then that allows the artist to be the artist and the salesman, in essence, to be the salesman. And I think that, for me, in if you want to be an artist, that it becomes your profession, um, because there's a beauty in it becoming your profession, there's a magic. Of course, there's also a magic in doing it for the sake of doing it, um, but there's something also very beautiful, uh, with the purpose of, of, of sharing it with the world, you know, with creating, with the idea that you are an artist, it is your profession, it is your identity.
Speaker 1:I think there's a, a greater potential, uh, purpose and depth to what you're offering out into the world. But, unfortunately, a lot of time you'll get saturated with the need to sell. You have, like, a lack of funds, a lack of security. So I think, if you're a, for me that seems like a sweet spot. Of course it could be a person selling. Also, you could work with galleries. There's a few other variables, of course, but I think, if you can find that, which isn't easy, um, it could take a long time, but I think, I think that's where a lot of magic is there yeah, I I actually recognize it kind of entered into a subject that's, I can imagine, so full of opinion.
Speaker 2:Um, I actually love to bring it. You back to what you just shared originally about that. You know, almost like forces of school and stuff encouraging you towards art, like for me, when I heard that, I remembered I really wanted to be a coach when I was like 16, 17. But in actual fact when I expressed it it was kind of met with a bit of shame of, oh God, you don't want to do that and I went off on a whole journey, only to come back to this.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I'm so happy about the journey because obviously it puts depth and puts perspective in and everything, but I think it's I love that you kind of admired that for those that can express themselves artistically from a young age like, wow, credit to them, because it's highly vulnerable. I think, yeah, I think, and even if we go back to the very start of our conversation with regards to actually just being your raw, authentic self, learning to be respectful of that and empathetic, but not putting up this guard, yeah, lots is kind of coming up for me in that regard. I'm curious if you got to again a very cliche coaching question, you ready If you got to talk to your 18, 19?
Speaker 2:year old self in college, now with the head on your shoulders that you have any tips, any bits that you'd share, any pearls of wisdom.
Speaker 1:There's different perspectives on this. One of if it's as in the setup. One is I wouldn't change anything because I'm exactly who I am at the exact right time and I'm exactly where I'm supposed to be. And I think that's an idea that I've ingrained in myself over time, because we get to choose right. We get to choose how we perceive the world and how we move through it and how we feel we can kind of control that.
Speaker 1:To a certain extent, I feel lucky with the life that I've been offered. There's a privilege there as well I have to, uh, be thankful for. But so that would be one angle. The other angle, let's just say it was another 18 year old that was in the same position as me. What would I offer them? Because then there's like a slight separation. Nice, um, oh, it's a good question, because I think it's so. You've got to tap into the uniqueness of the person. You got to feel into them. You know, like are they unsure? But you can see they have a passion and a talent and I want to like, encourage, inspire that and maybe present them with encouragement or inspiration from other things that I've I've been inspired by in my own life, or maybe I noticed that they're not ready and actually a break or a separation or time to let go of this identity that they maybe felt pressure with such a long time and they're able to come back to it.
Speaker 1:So I think it's really case by case, and maybe through my yoga teaching past, that's something that I've enjoyed really kind of feeling into the nuances of. It's not what you say, it's how you say, and I think that would be part of that as well, but I think that's a very you know, you as a coach is kind of basically what you're doing, right, in essence, it's your job, and I experienced that a little bit through yoga. You know, as a yoga teacher, there is opportunities of coaching in essence, you know, potentially depending on what kind of teacher you want to be and so forth, but that that shows up as well. But I was, if I was gonna be like a little bit more overarching and vague, and something that I think is very powerful is make time for the unknown, and I think that I just love that idea and it's always served me so well retrospectively, the time where you can book in time for nothing.
Speaker 1:You know, maybe travel is a great example of that. Less so now when I travel I didn't have a phone so we can kind of be connected. In essence working, but yeah, opportunities to experience something new, to get new information, to have space to learn, to develop, to new experiences to come up, for me that's powerful and I still do it now. And you know, maybe in the past it might have been a whole year off but now it potentially could be just a day or a weekend up in the mountains. You know it can be shorter periods of time that can still be very impactful.
Speaker 2:um, yeah, so yeah, I remember when I was like oh so when should we do this podcast? And you're like whenever you want. I was like what you're like? Yeah, whenever you want.
Speaker 2:I have nothing in my schedule and again, pretty confronting for me who I have like a fairly chock-a-block schedule and I recognize that oftentimes that schedule interferes with spontaneity, and it's in those moments where I do get a bit of time and freedom that actually I find great solutions to problems. And there's the kind of the the thought are we? Are we scheduling ourselves um away from the idea that we've been searching for?
Speaker 2:are the perspective that would change everything, and so I love that. Like you know, if I was going to share a little bit of advice with somebody, look, this is the one I'm taking from. What you shared is like make time to just actually live and open up and see what unfolds, and I always say when I'm working with clients we're going to move you from a way uh sorry, from living reactively to be more proactive and um and the kind of the insight into the reactive living is somebody that gets up and is essentially chasing their day and apologizing to everybody on the way for being a little bit late which so many of us find ourselves in that state so
Speaker 2:often, and in the proactive I'm generally like, oh you know, get scheduling and all that. But I think the step beyond that is actually where, no, you've you've made really good decisions that allow for things to flow without the constant need to be engaging with you and you've given yourself not created for yourself greater freedom and through that freedom.
Speaker 2:That's where you can start to make real impact. I love that You're the first person that's ever, when I've asked that question, created the divide. Some have said, oh, I wouldn't want to change anything because I'm happy where I'm at, which I always feel is quite a cliche, safe answer, and it's the one that is professed, that you should be so happy with where you're at, um. But there is real, valid truth in it. But the night, I like the way you detached it so you could punch in and kind of give, give, give advice without um, let's say, interrupting the very flow of life that you've had. Thank you, yeah it's very cool.
Speaker 2:It um. One thing I I loved, like I loved about this podcast was it gave me the opportunity to, let's say, almost deep dive into people's life, people's life philosophy, and because we can get very stuck on our own and and naturally, of course, we're living our lives, so we think the way we're living is best, and it is so fascinating for me to get insights into other people's lives, to see how they're living, what they're doing differently, and I kind of feel, yeah, everybody has these kind of foundational pillars in terms of how they live their life. What I'm getting from you is create space and time for what might come, spontaneity and to really live, um, to take your time and and and really intentionally live like you are not living in someone else's curated, interiorly designed space. You have created your home and it is an expression of your life, like it is an artist's studio. It's fantastic, fantastic.
Speaker 2:I'm. I'm curious. Does anything else come up that you're like jamie, how have you missed this about me and this is my philosophy for life? Does anything else kind of pop up?
Speaker 1:well, maybe let's just start with that kind of. Obviously we learn a lot about the day. We want to live the week, we want to live the month, we want to live the year we want to live, and we create these different components. You're definitely right that I create a life that allows for opportunity for for um variables to come in. So my morning somewhat in the morning could be arguably four to five hours will be me waking up and moving into creating in some form.
Speaker 1:So I stay in the home, I stay in the home and I'll do something. I'll paint, I'll design. There'll be some sort of maybe I look after the home, you know if that be gardening or cleaning or you know various things you know I like to. There's kind of this sense of I'm very productive in the morning but I have no set thing that I necessarily have to do. Most of the time it's want, you know, like a whatever kind of I'm excited to do, like, let's say, I painted in the evening, I might wake up and want to keep going. I'm like I need to get this, this done. Um, and with design work, you know, there's somewhat of a time schedule that is open but that might motivate me as well. Um so a time to create yeah section, let's call it section one.
Speaker 1:Then a time to um, connect, community insanely important, I might say the most. Um. I've moved around my whole life dad was in the army and this is actually the longest I've ever lived anywhere in my whole life and the compound effect of staying in one location. It's not something that I've learnt before, so it's something that's become more apparent recently in my adult life. And now I see I have some business partners that are very close friends of mine and we see each other every single day. So we own a restaurant. And now I see that I have some business partners that are very close friends of mine and we see each other every single day. So we own a restaurant and because of that we see each other every day and we see friends and we see community that we see every day. So I eat and talk and connect and reflect, blah, blah, blah, blah, and that's just such a. So that's lunchtime, one whatever, and it's such an amazing time to it anchors my day. It's there, it's boom, and then I move. So I move a bit.
Speaker 1:Later in the day three, I actually move with someone. So another anchor. I have to show up for them and I want to show up for me, of course, but it's always easier to show up for someone else than yourself. I personally think I think a lot of people would probably also agree. Um, of course it's amazing to be able to show up for yourself, but I would argue that it's more effort. Um, and then I move into the evening, and then the evening is open again. Could be continue to paint, create, design, but also there's a lot of social elements in the evening as well, so that's also open. For that. I can always say yes, if I want to, I will.
Speaker 2:If I get invited to something, I probably will go if I want to so, as you're sharing this like what's coming coming up for me and I, I love that like critiquing voice, it's like, oh, you know that that's all well, good for you. You don't have the nine to five or the best of that and the next, and there's been obviously some really strong decisions for you. Yes, in terms of not, uh, not, let's say, getting trapped. Yes, and making sure that you can live the life you want to live. How have you created that freedom?
Speaker 1:I left university.
Speaker 1:We mentioned it yeah didn't want to be an artist, scared. Yeah, wanted to be a designer. Yeah, I created a design portfolio very quickly, I think within days, built a website and create, in essence, fake projects. They weren't for clients, but I presented them in a to demonstrate my skills. Yeah, and I had these skills because I was actually using photoshop to paint. Yeah, and so what I would do is paint on canvas and then take a photograph. I would Photoshop it and then I would copy the Photoshop version back into paint and I would go back and forth and that's how I developed the ideas. It was really beautiful and at the time, photoshop was quite somewhat new. It was in its infancy, I think. Within the first five years, I think oh sorry, I just lost track, so what was it again?
Speaker 2:No, you were talking about your expertise in terms of how it kicked you off into the design side, yeah.
Speaker 1:So then I got a design job very quickly I think actually like two days, it was amazing Moved to London and then I was full-time nine to five graphic designer for a company where you're doing somewhat basic graphic design work adverts, updates, little marketing stuff. Very quickly I realized this is not going to work for me. I did a multi. This is good. It's probably quite relevant, maybe to your audience as well. I actually don't even know who your audience is. I think you'll find it funny. I think a lot of people have read the Tim Ferriss book the Four-Hour Workweek. That's why I said it might be relevant. One of the things on there he says that he only answers emails twice a day and he has an auto-reply on the email saying I reply at this time only. So I did the same thing, but I was in a company, he was running his company, so the way that people communicated within the company was about 30 of us. We would email each other. Oh, jake, can you do this? And then they get this auto reply saying oh, by the way, I only answer my emails at 9 and 4 pm. And then obviously someone complained, went to the manager. The manager came to me and he was like actually, I like you just did this without asking. It's cool, we can see if it works, but if it slows down progress of the whole team, we're gonna have to stop it. Of course, we did have to stop it, but I, I I'm like that he, he knew the answer, yeah, but I like that he allowed me to figure it out and I think that was a big eye-opener for me. To be quite honest, I was like I can't do the thing I want to do, these things that are being told. You know, I'm learning, I want to integrate them and so I think that might be one of the key aspects. So, within about six months, I was kind of done and I left in eight and I went traveling like a lot of people do you know, a lot of people do after University. The reason I actually didn't do after university and I remember this, this idea is I trained to be an artist and I quote unquote failed and I wanted to prove to myself that I could be this designer. I don't want to just like, fail at artistry and then just go travel and I don't even know if I had enough capital. To be quite honest, that might have been partially also it. So I think I did enough to prove to myself and also made a bit of capital and also realized I can't be doing this office thing. I went traveling. I found yoga. I did a yoga teacher training. About two weeks later, the yoga teacher training was my first yoga class. Did a yoga teacher training about two weeks later. The yoga teacher training was my first yoga class. So I went straight into an ashtanga teacher training, which was obviously somewhat intense but amazingly eye-opening. And then I was on a journey for seven years of yoga. But at the start of this this is a really beautiful integration that will kind of show you how I partially got to where I am.
Speaker 1:I met this really wonderful girl that I still have distant connection with. You know. We might say hey, now and again I remember her saying I was this, was it? I was drawing in class. Again, I'm not very good at paying attention in the anything outside of the physical or creative elements, so when we were talking about history of yoga and anatomy of yoga, I turned off and what I ended up doing was drawing. Predominantly at the time I was drawing geometric shapes. I loved it and she also was very much an artist in spirit, let's say very much a creative still is. And she said you should take photographs of these and put them on Instagram. And I think I kind of replied I don't really know what Instagram is, I don't really have one. She showed me hers. It was super cool, not like polished, but just like her being her, taking a few pictures here and there, and that was it. I was then taking pictures of drawings and pictures of me making yoga shapes. Now we've got to think again. This is like 10, nearly 15 years ago.
Speaker 1:The whole yoga thing on Instagram had great demand and great traction and I ended up becoming a yoga teacher and a graphic designer, becoming a yoga teacher and a graphic design graphic designer. So what? What was the niche? And it just happened for me, in essence is other yoga teachers or yoga industry would message me because they believed that I had the skill to develop logos and various other branding elements to support their yoga business. Because there's this interconnectivity and connection. And I remember posting the first logo on instagram, you know whatever. 100 followers, 500 followers.
Speaker 1:I don't know what I had by this time. Um, I had another job in a week, then I had another job in a week and then I then I kind of like, oh, maybe I should like figure out pricing and maybe have a pdf and like make an email template. You know how it is like I was kind of developing out that business. At the same time I was getting another yoga class oh, can you teach here? And that eventually turned into a workshop. And then I was designing maybe the advertisements for workshops for other studios and I was taking the photography for them studios and I was building their website and then I was teaching for them. So there was this big whirlwind of the yoga supported the design, the design supported the yoga and that was basically give or take seven years of growth with the two things became one. That was my job.
Speaker 2:I was a yoga designer sorry, I, I I'm remembering back to when instagram first started it was so artistic and cool ah, yeah, full of loads of photographers, full of loads of artists.
Speaker 2:Very, you know, it's actually amazing how fast trends move now, um, but how and how fast platforms develop and everything like that, but at the very original time, instagram was such a creative outlet for predominantly artists. Um, I love just hearing about your journey, how I always think life is teaching us all the time, obviously, um, but most of us are resisting the lessons, and if you can only listen, um, and refine accordingly, you start to progress through things really fast, and so I love, like you're reading tim ferris and he's talking, talking about scheduling your time for responding to messages yeah recognize that the environment doesn't really allow for that.
Speaker 2:So you change environments, you find yourself in yoga space. It's funny. I always felt yoga was a big um like vehicle, almost to connect more with myself and to build more confidence in myself, and I pull the elements of what you shared, you talked about, like yoga allowed me to kind of build your, build your confidence build your creativity, build your communication skills.
Speaker 2:Um, it's funny how that I find that question of like when you just reflect back. It's very cliche on steve jobs kind of saying connect the dots looking back but you really can see how little events shaped and pushed you on to where you are right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, really, what you've just been doing is you've consciously been showing up most days and seeing what's working for you, doing more of that, and what's not, and working to do less of that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And just through process of following that journey, you find yourself waking up in an environment that is your own, doing work that's your own. You're also a massive believer in partnerships yes, big, big, big, big yeah so you recognize your own weaknesses, your own areas that perhaps need strength, and you partner up to give yourself space yes yeah 100% and I would say that's the the main catalyst for that.
Speaker 1:I've known it for longer but really been able to like see it and feel it was coming together and building the restaurant with two of my partners there and we're a beautiful harmony. It's crazy the how the three components of us came together. If you're interested in kind of archetype systems from human designs to star signs to 16 personalities you know all these different things. Um, we all dabble in these things when none of us are kind of attached to them or kind of heavily educated in them. But if you look at them at a surface level, we have an amazing harmony between all of these different systems. It's very, very cool and that's something we looked at afterwards. It wasn't like, oh, let's check that we're going to work together. It was more like, wow, this is amazing. And actually it might have been like a friend comes in like oh, what are you guys, do you know? And they were like they see that we're doing so well, and then they're interested. So actually that's how it's happened. It wasn't even it was none of us that brought it up. It was another third party that would come in, you know, and maybe a friend of a friend and so forth, but that's amazing. When that happens and I don't know if this is something that just came to me or maybe was told or overheard Even if this business doesn't work or we fold it in the future or whatever it may be, the business is not the important thing and it's not the hard thing.
Speaker 1:The hard thing is having the right partners. If you have the right partners, even if a business fails, you'll be able to create another business and do something else together. You know there's this, like a lot of people will relate to. We've all gone through a variety of romantic partners. We've been through a variety of friends. Most likely, and obviously we change and develop as humans and unfortunately, sometimes that doesn't align with how other people grow and we we go different directions and so forth. Um, so to be able to find that unison and that strength within a friendship partnership, I think is is very magical and I'm very, I feel feel very fortunate for that, because it's also it's very much a, there's a warmth of something that feels like a family. You know, beyond just a surface level business relationship, it's something that is a lot more warm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm thinking about this kind of societal norm that's out there at the moment, which is that we should be very independent beings.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And I think that is so unhelpful because unfortunately, we are actually very limited beings when we really look at ourselves properly in the mirror. We can be great at some things and we can be awful at others, and I think a lot of people torture themselves trying to be great at everything and it's a sure fast way, I think, to get you nowhere, whereas if you can recognize your limitations and you can actually start to see the brilliance in others. Take, for example, the restaurant that you went into. It's hilarious. In Bali there are so many restaurants.
Speaker 2:You go into your place Sundays and you can see that there's such an enormous level of detail and there's a lot of detail in other places, but there's very obviously a lot of care and attention to detail in terms of like the mug, the saucer the tray, the table, the chair, the menu. There's real, obvious depth and love, which is exactly what's shared in your home, where in Bali there's a lot of cookie cutter homes because there's so many builders just throwing out, throwing out places, whereas here there's there's so much bloody attention to detail.
Speaker 2:here and it's, um, it's very stimulating and I can see that, yeah, when it comes to the restaurant, no doubt they partner with somebody like you and you bring a heart and soul to the place, you bring a warmth to it and I, um, I feel that there's there's such a value in, in partnerships.
Speaker 2:I I find that when I'm stressed, when I'm out of sorts, I isolate and I, I, I really feel alone in those, in those moments, and it's so silly because those are the very moments I should be leaning into others around me and I think we as, let's say, people. My projection, my belief is that we are all isolating at the moment and wondering why we're feeling so lonely, so depressed, so out of sorts. In actual fact, if we could just learn to lean into others that little bit more and, yes, it is hard to relate, we all learn those lessons through friendships and through partnerships but if we can overcome the blocks and learn to connect that little bit more, I think there's such strength in it, there's such growth, there's so much of it.
Speaker 1:I agree.
Speaker 2:I could waffle the ears off people with you for quite some time, but, jake, thank you for having a chat together. If somebody wanted to follow you or connect with you, what's the best way?
Speaker 1:the best way is definitely instagram, so my handle is jake underscore paul underscore white.
Speaker 2:It's great last name, thank you pleasure.