<\/p>\n
Joey Hubbard has dedicated the last 25 years to facilitating motivational, life and work seminars, as well as strategic planning and productivity to thousands of people and firms all over the world. Raised on the inner city streets of Los Angeles, Joey rose above the pervasive challenges to attend both UCLA and UCSD, and then began his career as a motivational speaker and performance enhancement coach. In addition to serving as volunteer CEO of Insight, he also serves on the Board of Directors and facilitates Insight Seminars throughout the world.<\/p>\n
Joey Hubbard approaches this interview the way that he approaches his life, with humor, honesty, and integrity. Be inspired as Joey shares about meeting John-Roger at thirteen, a doomed ham sandwich, becoming an Insight Facilitator, and more.<\/p>\n
This interview was first published in the New Day Herald in September of 2016.<\/em><\/p>\n NDH<\/strong>: What is it like working with J-R?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> What\u2019s funny is that I never considered it work. It\u2019s interesting because there were times when you\u2019d go four or five days in a row with very little to no sleep, whether it was with NOW Productions or something going on at J-R\u2019s home. Whatever it was, I never once thought, \u201cOh, I\u2019m tired. Oh, I\u2019m working hard. Oh\u2026\u201d There was just this incredible energy with him. It was like he was this boat that was making its way through the waves and we were riding the slipstream behind him, following in his wake energetically. You didn\u2019t get tired. There\u2019s also the other element of doing something that you love. I experience that now with Insight. In the early days of Insight, when you were assisting you were there till as late as it took. People were having phenomenal experiences when the Spirit would come in, and it didn\u2019t matter. It wasn\u2019t work. So the way I would phrase it, instead of \u201cwork,\u201d would be, \u201cbeing lucky enough to be around J-R.\u201d That\u2019s the experience I would have. There are so many things that I\u2019ve learned from him about that sustainable energy. There were a couple of times when I was at his home in Mandeville with him and it was late and I said, \u201cHey, J-R, I\u2019m just going to crash here.\u201d One time he said, \u201cJust sleep in my bed.\u201d I said, \u201cI can\u2019t take your bed.\u201d He said, \u201cNo, I\u2019m not going to sleep tonight.\u201d \u201cWhat do you mean you\u2019re not going to sleep?\u201d He said, \u201cI\u2019m on duty. I\u2019m responsible for the universe tonight. I\u2019m on watch.\u201d<\/p>\n Obviously, at 19 years old I didn\u2019t fully comprehend what it meant. But I knew that I couldn\u2019t imagine myself, as tired as I was at that moment, saying I\u2019m going to go another 12 hours or more without sleep, to be on watch, on duty. I didn\u2019t understand that. I didn\u2019t have that kind of capacity. It would put me in awe. And it was both good news and bad news for me because at some point I was comparing myself with J-R, thinking, \u201cI\u2019m never going to be as good as J-R.\u201d But it was also aspirational. I wanted to be like this man. In my wildest dreams that was what I wanted.<\/p>\n NDH<\/strong>: What were some of the main things you learned from him?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> I think in terms of what had the greatest impact on me. When I was 19, we were doing an Insight 1, one of those big ones with 350 people or so. The training was over and we were all standing in a circle. I got this huge sharp pain in my stomach and it literally took me from standing to being on the floor. J-R came right over. He started checking it and he said I\u2019d created tumor there. I went to visit him soon after that for an aura balance and, to make a long story short, all that went away through some stuff that he did. I asked, \u201cHow did I create this?\u201d He said, \u201cYou\u2019ve been so self-judgmental because you\u2019ve been comparing yourself to me or to other guys on my staff that you thought you \u2018should be like.\u2019\u201d At 19 years old, I was a kid. But I still wanted that. And every time I didn\u2019t do something perfectly, I\u2019d beat myself up so much that my body said, \u201cOkay, if you feel that unworthy, we can leave.\u201d<\/p>\n At that moment I shifted dramatically and I\u2019ve been extremely accepting and easygoing with myself and others, knowing that it\u2019ll all be just fine. Everybody who spends time with me in my life knows that my attitude is, \u201cyou do what you do.\u201d You\u2019re not going to get judged by me. I have to watch, making sure I don\u2019t do that to myself. But I\u2019ve gone almost to the opposite end where I just go\u2026 \u201cokay, yeah, I screwed up, next.\u201d I probably could take more time to figure out how to not screw up again, but I move so fast off of it. That was really a gift from J-R\u2014the attitude that everybody is doing their best, there\u2019s no value in judgment, the power of forgiveness, acceptance (which is the first law of spirit). I\u2019d say that would be at the top of the list of what I\u2019ve learned. There are other things that I work towards like unconditional loving. J-R could hold in a way that communicated, \u201cno, that\u2019s not okay\u201d and you got his love. I think many of us have experienced him putting his foot up our butt and saying, \u201cYou\u2019re off course, dude,\u201d and still feeling that it was an extremely loving communication. That to me is also something I\u2019ve learned in terms of working with Insight: sharing with people my perception of the truth so I don\u2019t sugarcoat it. But they still get that I love them\u2014and I learned that from J-R.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> Did you see him change over the years?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> J-R would change every five minutes. [Laughter.] You could be sitting with J-R and he\u2019d be one way, and someone else would come over and he\u2019d completely flip because there was a different lesson for that person to learn. You\u2019d be in that scenario where somebody was really getting it, and you\u2019d quietly lean back in your chair and be glad you weren\u2019t in the crossfire. The thing I enjoyed was the many complexities of that consciousness. Sometimes it was J-R the guy and sometimes it was the Traveler that was showing up there. I loved all of it. It was a great reference point for me also because I think at some point in my life I saw that thing called the Traveler as if it\u2019s supposed to be perfect. It was supposed to do everything perfectly and accurately, to know everything. But J-R was just human. A human who was bringing that consciousness forward. It was also great for me to see when J-R made a mistake or didn\u2019t know something. It grounded me in the awareness that we\u2019re here on the planet and that\u2019s just how life is.<\/p>\n I think that over time as he aged, he obviously changed in terms of his outward appearance. I actually saw him not long before he passed. He was in a hotel room. I wanted to check something with him and Jsu (his personal assistant) said, \u201cCome on up.\u201d He was just in the room with a nurse and he was sitting back with his eyes closed. But when he would open his eyes he was right there and we\u2019d connect. I think in many respects I feel even closer to him now than I did over the last few years. I feel his presence very clearly directing Insight. Insight is growing and expanding. I see that happening mainly because I think his energy is back in it, and from where he is, it\u2019s probably easier to do that.<\/p>\n I\u2019m here at Insight because of J-R. When I did my Insight 2 it was on a payment plan and I missed a payment. I thought, \u201cI\u2019m going to get paid in two weeks. I\u2019ll do it then.\u201d I was at the Insight building and J-R came out of his office. He called me over and he said, \u201cYou missed your payment.\u201d I said, \u201cYes. I\u2019m going to do it in two weeks.\u201d He said, \u201cOkay. You\u2019re banned from the building and any of the trainings you were going to be in until you make that payment.\u201d Now, my whole life was going over to Insight. So I was going to miss a couple of trainings, and I couldn\u2019t even come over to the building.<\/p>\n We had made an agreement, but the way I approached it, if you couldn\u2019t keep it, you didn\u2019t renegotiate it, you just assumed it was going to be okay until the next thing came along. And here\u2019s J-R saying it\u2019s not okay. He was like my dad. There was nobody in my life who was doing that. That was a wonderful lesson. Obviously I was devastated, but I don\u2019t know if there could\u2019ve been any better scenario for me at the time. I remember asking my boss, \u201cHey, can I work more hours?\u201d It was like, no, everything was full. It was painful to not be around Insight. When I came in and made the payment and was getting ready to walk back down the stairs, he came back out of his office and he said, \u201cCome here.\u201d We went back up in his office and he said, \u201cYou have a responsibility to Insight. Every time you walk in this building, bring the Light. Every time you engage with the trainings, you bring the Light. You hold a certain consciousness here that is responsible for what you do in this building.\u201d<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t see what all that meant then, other than that at every training I was holding the light as best I could. But later I realized that was probably more about this time now, as a fulfillment of my ministry of keeping this work going as best I can. And not just keeping it alive, but moving from surviving to thriving, and then taking it into a really expansive state. There are very few things out there as powerful as the work of Insight, especially in the places in the world where they don\u2019t have anywhere near the access to all the stuff we have here. It\u2019s important that people really learn the true value of connecting to themselves, and what loving themselves means. That\u2019s what this work is all about.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> So J-R was kind of like a dad for you.<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> Yeah, for my brothers David, Michael, and me. David and I, we both were wanting to be on J-R\u2019s staff. David told me that J-R told him his karma wasn\u2019t to be on his personal staff, but mine was. And J-R told me that my karma wasn\u2019t to be on his personal staff. [Laughter] I think it was like we had other stuff to do. In many respects, my dad was a great guy, but he was gone from the time I was 5 until 22. We weren\u2019t bad kids or any of that. Mom did a very good job as a parent. We all woke up every day wanting to do good and do our best. But there\u2019s a certain level of a discipline, of what it means to be a man, in terms of maturity and responsibility, and just being able to have somebody who says, \u201cThat\u2019s off course. There\u2019s consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n My mom, when she would say, \u201cHey, that\u2019s off course,\u201d we\u2019d feel bad. But there was never the kind of consequence that seemed to hurt to the core, or something on that level. When you really want something, like you want to be around J-R or Insight and he\u2019d say you can\u2019t because you did this or that, it gives you a certain awareness, that this action causes this consequence. So being around J-R was a quick maturing process. It was constant. I mean it wasn\u2019t like you learned and then you stopped learning with J-R. Being on his staff or being around his staff was constant vigilance. You\u2019d have to keep your Light going, you\u2019d have to do your S.E.\u2019s, you\u2019d have to be responsible. If you started bullshitting a little bit, J-R picked it up. He sniffed it out very fast.<\/p>\n Often when people would leave staff, I would see it coming. I saw it a long time before it happened. You could just see it. I was a silent observer. But it was clear.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> You were really young when you started.<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> I met J-R at 13. What was funny about that is, my mom came home one night and said, \u201cHey, I met this guy,\u201d and when I was seven, we used to pick up the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi when he would fly into L.A., when Transcendental Meditation was hot in L.A. We had big afros, and we\u2019d have flowers in our hair, and we\u2019d give them to him. At seven years old, I was the youngest person he\u2019d ever initiated.<\/p>\n So I knew Mom would be looking for those kinds of guys. I wasn\u2019t skeptical, it was just, \u201cOkay, here\u2019s another guy.\u201d But then I immediately started dreaming at night of flying with a guy. I didn\u2019t know who it was at that time, but I\u2019d be flying around like superman, flying around next to him and he was showing me things. I had several dreams like that. I didn\u2019t make anything of it and then she said, \u201cI want to take you to this place called Prana and introduce you to J-R.\u201d<\/p>\n When we walked in to Prana, he came out of a room where he used to do his Light studies, and I looked at this guy and thought, \u201cThat\u2019s the guy I\u2019ve been flying around with.\u201d He comes right over to us and hugs us and looks in our eyes and he says, \u201cYeah, you guys are welcome.\u201d It was like he knew us, we knew him, and that\u2019s the start of the love affair where mom was taking us up to his house and all of that. From that point on, there was never a moment of hesitation.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> That would\u2019ve been what year?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> 1974.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> So you were around for a while before Insight.<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> Yeah. When Insight came, everybody was all excited that they were going to do this training. My brother David and I were going up to J-R\u2019s house a lot. David and I asked if we could go and he said, \u201cNo, not yet.\u201d I think he wanted to see what the training was going to be like. Then after the training, he asked again. J-R said, \u201cYou guys could take the next one.\u201d We were in the second one. It was great. After that training is when we said, \u201cWe want all of our friends to take it.\u201d When I talked to Russell Bishop (Insight\u2019s co-creator, along with J-R) about it, he said, \u201cWell, if you get 60 teens, we\u2019ll do a teen training.\u201d David and I went out and about a month later, we had 60. Russell was like, \u201cOh man, I didn\u2019t expect you guys to do it.\u201d [Laughter]<\/p>\n That was when J-R said, \u201cYou guys are going to have to learn how to do this because we\u2019re going to start doing this work with teenagers. We want younger people to facilitate.\u201d That kind of started Dave and I on that track of facilitation back then.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> You were facilitating Teen Insight and you were still a teenager?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> Yeah. Dave and I were, yeah.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> What was that like?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> It was interesting. I was facilitating but then I\u2019d get pulled into teenage stuff, like, \u201cWhat are the assistants doing or what are the participants doing\u2026they\u2019re all going out tonight\u2026okay, let\u2019s go out!\u201d And it was like, \u201cNo, no, you\u2019re the facilitator; you can\u2019t go out with the participants.\u201d That was kind of funny. But we had a group of us who got really involved. We were all teenagers.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> Kids of MSIA people?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> Yeah, we were all kids of MSIA people. For a long time, the way we connected before Insight was that J-R would let us use the downstairs at his house to do teen MSIA seminars, which were Pauli Sanderson and Rick Edelstein taking us through a discourse or a meditation, or conversations about life. We would do it there, or we\u2019d do it at Leigh Taylor-Young\u2019s house, or Rick\u2019s house. That\u2019s how we were all connected. It created this bond, a spiritual bond. Then when Insight came, it gave us a vehicle to take our group and create something.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> And you\u2019ve been facilitating ever since.<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> Yeah.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> You moved to adult trainings later on?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> Yes, I think I was maybe 21. They needed a trainer in Chicago for an adult Insight, and nobody else was available. They said, \u201cWould you go do it?\u201d I said, \u201cSure.\u201d I get there and I\u2019m 21 years old and people are at least twice my age in the training. It was awkward at the beginning. I was really nervous. But by the time we got into it, it became the same as any other. J-R said, \u201cGo for it. You can do it.\u201d<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> How do you stay tuned into Spirit when you\u2019re facilitating?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> Morning, noon and night, I ask for J-R and Spirit to be with me, and for me to get out of the way. One of the biggest things J-R had taught us around Insight over the years, was that ego is not doing it, the Spirit does. You can put a candle on the stage and people would have the same experience. So you don\u2019t get caught up in the illusion that you\u2019re doing it. That\u2019s been huge to me because there is stuff that I say or that happens in that room that I don\u2019t know mentally. I don\u2019t know how I knew that. It wasn\u2019t conscious. The more I do this work, the more I realize I just keep getting out of the way. I can feel it if I get in the way. It\u2019s almost like\u2026you\u2019re interrupting the flow here. Get out of the way; you\u2019re a boulder in the dam. The ego will do that every once in a while.<\/p>\n So I think it\u2019s just continually asking for Spirit, continuing to ask for J-R and the Light. I don\u2019t pretend that I know anything because I don\u2019t\u2026 especially what\u2019s true for anybody in the room. The other thing that I learned from J-R that is just part of my process is humor. When I do that work, I like to do it with humor. I don\u2019t enjoy things that don\u2019t have some lightness, some levity and joy in them.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> Do you experience a difference between the work of MSIA and the work of Insight?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> The work that MSIA does isn\u2019t about the \u201c10% level,\u201d which is how J-R describes the physical level and its order of importance in the whole scheme of things. Science has discovered the impact of meditating, and it definitely impacts your well-being on a physical level. So yeah, it does impact the 10%. But it\u2019s not about the same kinds of things Insight is about, which more like, \u201cThat behavior you have doesn\u2019t work. What are you going to do about shifting that behavior?\u201d You could come to the same realization through a spiritual focus very easily, but that\u2019s done more passively. In Insight we\u2019ll tell you. If you ask, \u201cWhy isn\u2019t this working?\u201d MSIA is going to say, \u201cWe love you. Here are some tools, figure it out for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> It seems like in those early trainings there were a lot more phenomena in them, and people having very intense spiritual experiences, not just 10%-level insights.<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> Yeah. Well, J-R was there. And it was a base of people that were very open to that. If you go to the lowest common denominator in that room, they were wide open, like, \u201cSpirit, take me.\u201d I think they gave the Spirit permission to come in and rock the house. In Insight these days, since you can\u2019t inflict on any consciousness there, it doesn\u2019t always happen like that. There are still moments when some pretty amazing stuff happens. It\u2019s because of the collective consciousness that\u2019s in the room. Some people don\u2019t believe in God or Spirit or any of that. They just want to experience heart stuff, and that\u2019s all fine. We have room for all of that. People were moving their consciousness in huge leaps in five days\u2014 and still do, by the way. There\u2019s no place on the planet where that happens. When you see people on day one of the Insight 2 and you look at where they are at day five, I doubt that you\u2019d find anywhere else where that happens. It\u2019s happening in Insight 2\u2019s and that\u2019s where a huge shift takes place. Miracles happen.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> Have things been different for you since J-R died?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> I don\u2019t think so other than I miss him. There was always a part of me that wondered what was J-R doing, or I want to catch up with J-R. I had moments that were on my calendar when I knew I would see him. What\u2019s different is that I don\u2019t have that part running. There wouldn\u2019t be a lot of conversation or anything, but it was just being in the space with him. I think in some respects I miss that. But it\u2019s like missing someone you love. On the other side, he is always forcing us to work on the inner relationship. I worked on it. So I feel like in some respects I\u2019ve got him in here in a really big way, and I feel that\u2019s even bigger since he\u2019s gone. There\u2019s more of him. The energy is bigger.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> I\u2019ve found that inside it\u2019s great, but being in the world there\u2019s more negativity. It\u2019s harder to stay clear sometimes.<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> I definitely wonder sometimes. You see this in what\u2019s occurring with world events. I remember when I was in Vegas, and J-R was visiting during one of the presidential elections. Some of us were talking about it with some upset, and J-R said, \u201cThe Spirit has this. This country was founded with Spirit. The Spirit is very active in what\u2019s happening here. Don\u2019t you guys worry about it.\u201d The attitude was something like, \u201cIt\u2019s bigger than us.\u201d I remember stepping back and thinking, \u201cYeah.\u201d Sometimes now when I see things that are going on in the world, I wonder if there\u2019s a reason for it. But I\u2019m going to trust that there is. Whatever that is, it\u2019s stirring things up and we have to be vigilant. The negativity is going to do what it wants to do. It doesn\u2019t care about anything else. But I\u2019m trusting that the Spirit has it.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> Have there been any changes in Insight since J-R\u2019s passing?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> Oh yeah. When J-R died we were right in that space of figuring out what we were going to do. He died in October of 2014 and in February, 2015 we did our first Founders Insight 1 which was in honor of J-R. We used video clips and we only charged $50. The whole purpose was to honor J-R. We had 350 people sign up for that training in about ten days. We had to do a second one because we had so many wanting to take it. I said, \u201cLet\u2019s just do another one,\u201d and we had another 250 for that one. It flooded our system so much that we had to add more Insight 2 and Insight 3 seminars. We ended up tripling the number of seminars that we did in L.A. compared to the year before. And that growth arc has continued.<\/p>\n J-R\u2019s energy came in, in a big way. And Insight has grown pretty significantly and will continue to grow. We\u2019re on the right trajectory. I even had a meeting yesterday with someone who asked, \u201cHow do I fund Insight?\u201d He said, \u201cI\u2019ve done everything, I\u2019ve been a professor, a doctor, I\u2019ve served on boards for 40 years. And this is the best work I\u2019ve seen. Why is it not everywhere?\u201d I said, \u201cHelp me figure that out.\u201d He said, \u201cI will.\u201d Those kinds of things are showing up now.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> What\u2019s on the horizon for Insight now? Any plans you can share with us?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> My goal with Insight is to do things like a subscription site. So everybody who takes a training will get access to some of the content of the training. I want to grow our ability to reach out. I\u2019m talking to some people about how to do a better job from the marketing perspective. The MSIA Presidency has been very, very supportive. From a profit perspective, we\u2019re making money and paying off debt. We only have one debt that\u2019s still there. It\u2019s not about if Insight is doing well or not doing well. We\u2019re running a very solid, successful organization. All our trainings run at a profit. We\u2019re going to stay small in terms of staff. Rachael Jayne does an amazing job of keeping Insight operations and the small staff on track. I don\u2019t see us taking on a heavy staff load. I like the volunteer energy, and I\u2019ll never take a salary for doing this job from Insight.<\/p>\n To me, if we do this right we could be in another ten U.S. cities in five years. We\u2019re looking at doing trainings in Switzerland and Romania. It will grow through Europe and we\u2019ll re-energize Australia, and we\u2019ll put some money into helping those countries in South America where they have challenges. They want to do the work. They had 100 trainings last year. But sometimes there are 25 people in the room. They\u2019re not making a lot of profit. It\u2019s tough with the economies of Venezuela and Brazil. But those will flip around. I just want to touch many, many more hearts.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> How do you market something like Insight? Is that possible?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> The question really hasn\u2019t been answered. Even when you look at similar workshops, they do heavy recruitment through word of mouth. It\u2019s about me getting you to feel obligated to go bring two or three of your friends. Insight is never going to take that approach. We\u2019ve got to find other ways. I had a funny idea in one of the Insight trainings, I said, \u201cLet\u2019s have insightonly.com, a dating service like farmersonly.com,\u201d where people of consciousness could find people like themselves. There are some sites like that. But we may need to create some businesses around it so that through business references people come to Insight. How we market Insight is something I\u2019m looking at very closely.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> Have you that found the types of people who are attracted to Insight changes over the years? Is there any way to predict who\u2019s going to like it, and who\u2019s not? Is there Insight \u201ctype\u201d that has changed over the years?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> What\u2019s funny is Insight is one of those things where very few people don\u2019t like it. Usually, there are two kinds of people who don\u2019t like it. One is they\u2019re not ready for it. They\u2019d prefer not to look at some of the stuff that shows up in the room. They were comfortable being uncomfortable in the other space and now we asked them to start looking at, for example, whether their relationship is working well. It\u2019s like, no, I don\u2019t want to do that. They\u2019ll leave. The second person is the person who thinks everything is perfect and that they\u2019ve done it all. Early on in a training they\u2019ll get a little niggle on that. Maybe it\u2019s not as perfect as they think, and they\u2019ll come up to me and say, \u201cI\u2019ve done all this before. I\u2019ve got a lot going on. I\u2019m going to leave. I don\u2019t see anything new for me here.\u201d That person is actually more challenged than the first one because they\u2019re avoiding it, but they think that they\u2019re not avoiding it.<\/p>\n But beyond that, we have a lot of people from USM recently, that love USM and had a great experience there, and they get something different from Insight. We also have a lot of Insight grads go on to USM or MSIA, and they get value from it all.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> Has the content of the Insight seminars changed over the years, or is it pretty much what J-R created?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> Pretty much what J-R created with Russell. I\u2019m not willing to take away the J-R stuff. People who did the training yesterday tell me that it\u2019s the best thing they\u2019ve ever seen. People who did it almost 40 years ago say it\u2019s the best thing they\u2019ve ever seen. Why mess with it? People say, \u201cHow do we tweak this or that?\u201d I\u2019m always open to little tweaks that are more functional. We\u2019ve progressed a little since the 1978 days in terms of some of the logistics. But as far as the content, it\u2019s the same work.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> Do you think people are coming in on a different level?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> Oh yeah. In 1978 when we talked about win-win (where both sides of an issue can win without a fight), people would say, \u201cWhat are you talking about? That\u2019s impossible. Now, everybody is thinking about win-win right away. They may not get it right away, in its totality, but it\u2019s so much more part of the conversations they\u2019re having.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> Do you have a favorite J-R story?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> There are lots of them. My favorite J-R story is hard to talk about. But it\u2019s when he initiated me\u2014because I didn\u2019t know anything about what the initiation was. I kind of screwed up because J-R said, \u201cRead your discourses.\u201d In 1976 I knew my sixteenth birthday was coming and I hadn\u2019t read them. I was taking the bus back and forth every day for work. I took a discourse every day, and read it going up and back. I read 24 discourses over the summer. I called J-R and I said, \u201cJ-R, I can get initiated.\u201d He said, \u201cYou read all your discourses in a couple of weeks.\u201d I said, \u201cYeah.\u201d He said, \u201cThe reason why I said to read them over the two years is because I\u2019ve been dealing with the karma of your reading the discourses every day for the last two weeks.\u201d I was like, \u201cWhat?\u201d I didn\u2019t know. That\u2019s when they put the rule out that you can only read one discourse a month.<\/p>\n I just wanted to get to my initiation. But then when he initiated me, he told me all this stuff about my lifetimes with him\u2026 that was a very cool and special moment in terms of just that time with him.<\/p>\n My funny J-R story is: I was working up at J-R\u2019s house in Mandeville. They had a flood up there and we were up all night cleaning the mud, and he asked me if I wanted to come and help. I brought my lunch and I put it in the refrigerator. Twenty minutes later, he says, \u201cWho\u2019s got pork at the house?\u201d I said, \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d He was walking around saying, \u201cDoes somebody have pork? There\u2019s pork here in the house somewhere.\u201d And he\u2019s tracking. \u201cIt\u2019s in the refrigerator. Who has pork in the refrigerator?\u201d I said, \u201cI just have a ham sandwich.\u201d He said, \u201cJoey, a ham sandwich is pork.\u201d I said, \u201cOh, is it? I didn\u2019t know.\u201d [Laughter] He throws it in the trash can and says, \u201cDon\u2019t ever bring ham\u2026\u201d He picked up on the energy of it back in his bedroom.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> What would you like Insight to be? What\u2019s your long-range vision for it?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:<\/strong> Global service organization that\u2019s providing the trainings in all the major countries. I think I\u2019d like to be a little more expansive. I\u2019d love for us to fund trainings. For instance, right now, in Venezuela, to take a training is a year\u2019s salary. I\u2019d love to give a free training, pay for the room, charge them $5 (which still gets their attention but everybody can do it) and put 300 people in the room. I love to do ten of those every year somewhere in the world where everybody wants to be there and we send those 300 people out and they go get another 600 people.<\/p>\n I think that\u2019s the way that really grows Insight, but we need the funding to do that. That\u2019s significant. We need the people who say I\u2019m going to put myself on the line to make it happen. We have a lot of those people already but we just need to keep identifying them. I\u2019d love Insight to be doing trainings in Africa or India\u2014places that just don\u2019t get access to resources like this. I would love to have the ability to pick a location, support somebody in making the training happen where money wasn\u2019t the issue, and then put in place a structure to make sure that it\u2019s foundational.<\/p>\n In Bulgaria it\u2019s like it was in the U.S. in 1980, when Insight was growing exponentially. You can\u2019t get enough of it. Seventy-five people taking the Insight 4. I see where there\u2019s still such a need and I see the value that it has. I think the biggest thing for me with Insight is to find ways to attract millennials, and people that have consciousness and see something of value in what we offer. I think we have to build an online presence that allows us to capture some of that, and we have to keep finding new places. The way Bulgaria is responding\u2026why not Estonia, why not Serbia?<\/p>\n I want to start looking at where there\u2019s a real calling and expand into some of those areas. I\u2019m training new people. I started facilitating almost 40 years ago and I was a baby at that time, and there are not very many people who have come in at a younger age than I was since then. We need to get a new young crew of facilitators. I think that will also bring a new younger energy into the room. We\u2019ve opened up the facilitator candidacy program, we\u2019re pulling from people of all ages. They don\u2019t have to be young. But we want new energy, new blood in the facilitator crew.<\/p>\n J-R did such a wonderful job of training us that I realize we\u2019d better pass this on. If we don\u2019t pass it on, it goes away. We developed this course called the Masters Class where we\u2019ve taken all of J-R\u2019s wisdom and teachings in the Insight world and put them into a class around achieving mastery. We\u2019ve now got a new high-end product that\u2019s attracting a lot of people who have been around for a long time and done a lot of work and they\u2019re finding it valuable.<\/p>\n NDH:<\/strong> Can you tell me more about the Masters Class and how it works?<\/em><\/p>\n Joey:\u00a0<\/strong>We do three trainings that are four days each\u2014 Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday\u2014for three consecutive months. So for three months you\u2019re in the course, and you look for either an internal or external goal that you want achieve. We go into some very deep work that I started with J-R years ago around what I call paradigms. What\u2019s the deep inner belief that is taking you away from being on course with your path, with your direction, with what you want for yourself? Everybody\u2019s got them. Sometimes they\u2019re strong enough to really divert us, and sometimes they aren\u2019t. They just pull us, but we\u2019re still steering our own ship. We go very deep into what that is, both the limiting version and the opposite, the positive version.<\/p>\n We start supporting people through creating what we call a field of loving in the room and then some \u201cmastermind groups\u201d to support you outside of the room. For the course of that training, you are working towards mastery in your life\u2014inner mastery, external mastery. And we bring in the latest science. There\u2019s so much science now that proves what J-R was saying years ago about the power of the heart and how our thoughts impact our brain.<\/p>\n Mary Ann Somerville worked hard on the design. As we would talk it through it became clear it was coming from spirit, and in my experience J-R. We do a lot of deep work with individuals. We keep the training small (40 is the maximum) helping them get to that place where they can create what they want from a place of mastery. It\u2019s based on that old principle of the master\u2019s class in the arts, where you\u2019re a great artist, but you would go to a class of other great artists and maybe learn one technique or one small thing that moves the dial for you. People taking this training have done quite a bit in their lives and are very successful. But there\u2019s one small thing, maybe it\u2019s an inner thing or external thing that they want\u2026 that pushes them over to that 110% thing. That\u2019s what the Master Class is about.<\/p>\n Then we\u2019re reaching out to younger spaces, foster care kids and underserved kids. We\u2019re branching out into new and different ways to touch into specific targeted groups.<\/p>\n I think we have to keep pushing through the old norms. I shared with our board recently that we need to get new people on the board and we need to start fundraising as a board. I\u2019m meeting a lot of people who are telling me we\u2019ve got to be in that game. If we really want to be a powerful organization these days, that\u2019s what everyone is doing.<\/p>\n I think the challenge also is expanding without a large budget. That\u2019s one of the reasons why fundraising is important to me. The thing that people will never have to worry about at Insight is that the money is going to a single person. The staff salary is minimal. I don\u2019t take a salary. Our facilitators don\u2019t get paid very much in comparison to what they should get paid. All our money goes directly into the program. I think it\u2019s important for us to get that message out in our fundraising.<\/p>\n We\u2019ve got Kalamazoo, Michigan and South Bend Indiana wanting to do trainings. We\u2019ve got Boston, we\u2019ve got L.A. People are starting to talk about it in Dallas and Austin. They\u2019re doing trainings in Miami. I\u2019d love to do Spanish trainings there. There\u2019s a huge need. We have one coming up in L.A., and New Jersey. If we could have ten cities with regular trainings, I think we would be on course to be building the organization in the U.S., and then continually grow in the right strategic places internationally.<\/p>\n
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