January 22, 2025 • 33 mins
Join us for an inspiring conversation with Jan John, a lead ambassador for the New Heart for Life Community, as she shares her incredible journey of cultural resilience and the art of blending different perspectives. Born in India, raised in the UAE, and now a University of Houston senior, Jan's tapestry of experiences has influenced her artistic vision and community leadership. Discover how her love for colors and design, combined with a deep appreciation for diverse cultures and religions, fuels her passion and strengthens her role in guiding the evolution of the New Heart for Life Community. Jan's story is a testament to the power of adaptability and the richness of embracing life's diverse experiences.
Our discussion also ventures into the transformative realm of human resource development, emphasizing the importance of soft skills and relationship-building beyond traditional HR duties. Uncover innovative strategies to foster meaningful connections and learn how childhood cartoons can ignite the imagination and drive persistence. We also introduce you to exciting offerings from the New Heart for Life website, including "21 Fitness Principles," a book designed to inspire healthier lifestyles. As we close, Jan and I leave you with a special message that encapsulates the spirit of living a fit and quality life, encouraging you to embrace a healthier, more connected journey.
Visit our Community @ http://NewHeartforLife.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Welcome to the New Heart for Life podcast for a
greater understanding of the NewHeart for Life community and
its ambassadors.
Their founder, dan Williams'passion is to inspire others
towards a fit and qualitylifestyle.
Dan's journey from near deathto achieving senior Olympic gold
, along with his 21 fitnessprinciples, serves as a guide
for all to lead a fit andquality lifestyle.
(00:27):
In each episode, dan exploresthe stories and experiences of
the New Heart for LifeAmbassador individuals making a
positive impact by championingthe New Heart for Life mission
within their personal and socialnetworks.
Every installment provides aplatform for ambassadors to
share their journeys, insightsand the meaningful changes
they're creating in theircommunities.
The interviews aim tofacilitate connections among
(00:49):
fellow ambassadors, enhancingawareness of their roles of
promoting positivetransformations.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I am honored to have Jan John with us for our
Spotlight Ambassador interview,and Jan's not only been with us.
Since the inception of the NewHeart for Life community, she
has been a huge contributor toour success and evolution.
So, jan, welcome to the showand let our audience know a
(01:25):
little bit about what Jan Johnis all about.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Hello Dan.
I'm so excited to be on thispodcast.
Thank you so much for thisopportunity and it has been an
incredible journey with the newheart for life and getting to
meet you.
So I am Jan.
As Dan introduced, jan and Danrhymes.
That's my fully name.
I don't have more letters.
My first name is just Jan.
I was born in Nintyel, but Igrew up in United Arab Emirates.
(01:54):
I lived there for about half mylife and I moved to the US
right before high school, soI've been in the US for a couple
years now.
Wow.
I've lived in a couple differentcultures, been around different
religions and I think thatgives me a unique third culture
perspective.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
And how has that international experience and, of
course, being in the UnitedStates as a University of
Houston senior student gettingready to graduate how has that
influenced your perspective onlife?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Much more than perspective.
It's definitely perspective.
It affects how I interact withdifferent people and how I
approach problems and how Iutilize my past experience
whenever confronting a differentproblem.
Because of this, how diverseall these cultures are, india
(02:52):
being predominantly a Hindureligion based, very religious.
All UAE and India are veryreligious, but two different
religions with very differentcore ideas and celebrations and
different focuses within things.
That gives me a different andunique perspective whenever I'm
approaching a problem.
(03:12):
An interesting thing isdesign-wise.
I love to graphic design, Ilove to use Canva, I'm an artist
, I like to draw and I see thesedifferent cultures influencing
my art in interesting ways.
Because I'm familiar with thehindu scriptures and their
stories.
I take inspiration from them.
I am, my family is christianand I'm from a christian family
(03:35):
and my that's the religion Igrew up in.
But since I grew up in ahindu-based country, a lot of
times I use red and gold, whichis focus colors for Hindus, and
that's prevalent in a lot of myart, like I did a whole art
series where it's just red andgold focused on women and
(03:55):
similar things for Muslims, andalso, yes, art and whenever I'm
approaching new people, I thinkit helps me connect better with
different people because I knowabout different cultures, and a
little bit more aware and alittle bit more open-minded
because of my background.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
So I would say thank you for that.
The word versatility comes tomind and being able to adapt.
Versatility comes to mind andbeing able to adapt, and you've
taken those different culturesand those different experiences
and incorporated them into you.
Know your passion for art, asyou mentioned.
I'd never, ever, thought thatgold would be something that
(04:37):
would represent your culture.
You know a culturalrepresentation, but that's very
deep and, yeah, I'm learning.
I'm learning as we go.
I know you've got a lot oftalents and I know you have a
lot of just you and I havingcatch up calls every other week.
(04:58):
You're our lead ambassador andI rely on you heavily in terms
of helping shape the evolutionof the New Heart for Life
community.
So we have gotten to know eachother.
You know, even in you know, itseems like more than a year, but
it's been a very meaningfulyear getting to know you, and
(05:20):
one of the traits that I see inyou is and I would be interested
for you sharing yourperspective on this trait but in
a word, resilience.
I see a tremendous amount ofresilience in the terms, in
addition to the versatility thatI mentioned.
So what's helped you over theyears, become so resilient over
(05:44):
the years?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
become so resilient?
That's a really good questionand versatility is a really good
word to describe my background.
And just more on colors.
I love colors.
They're the best thing andthat's one thing that attracted
me to New Heart for Life thecolorful logo with the rainbow,
and every religion does havedifferent colors.
(06:07):
That's main associated withthem and resilience.
I think that more than yes, Ilived in three different
countries, but the 10 years Ilived in uae I lived in about 10
or 12 different houses, slashapartments.
The longest I've stayed in thesame place would be three years.
I would constantly move betweenplaces and that would mean
(06:31):
adjusting to new scenarios andadapting to that different
housing, because sometimes wewould go from a two-bedroom
apartment to a one-bedroomapartment, then to a
three-bedroom apartment by thetime I was 16, I've lived in
over 16 apartments or houses andafter that I stopped counting
because I wasn't sure whether Iwould include dorms.
(06:52):
Does that count as a differenthousing or I'm just staying
there for five, six months?
So that really helped me.
And also, I spent 10 years inUAE and every summer and winter
vacations but mostly summervacations, those two to three
months I would go to India and Iwould stay with my grandparents
(07:14):
or other relatives.
My parents don't have a housein India because they live in
other places, so I would bestaying with different relatives
.
And that also requires a lot ofadapting and adjusting to the
situation, because I'm stayingthere only for two months, or
(07:35):
like two weeks, and the rest ofthe year I'm in a different
place and even there I'm notstaying there continuously at
the same span of time.
I would always be expecting tomove to the next place at the
end of the year when the leaseis up.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
And that's an asset.
Probably at the time of allthose moves I'm not sure how you
you know at what age you werebut at some level of those
changes, you were buildingresilience and you're building
grit and building assets thatallow you to deal with life
(08:13):
challenges that at the timeseemed like no, this is not
great.
You know all those moves andall those different locations,
but often in life, withprincipal alert lessons, right,
you know, there's lessons andblessings, and so some of the
(08:34):
lessons that you learn in termsof all those moves really has
become a blessing in your lifein terms of adaptability,
versatility and resilience.
So that's an incredible journeyso far.
It must be exciting to thinkabout what's next in terms of
(08:56):
your future.
What are those things thatyou're looking forward to Share
with us?
Your dreams?
What are Jan's dreams?
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I'm looking forward to moving again.
I haven't moved in two yearsnow and I actually miss moving
around.
A lot of people don't likemoving around, but I loved
moving around because differentscenarios, I love different
architectural house designs andhow each and every house was
(09:28):
unique, and also before movingwe would go around and visit
different houses and apartmentsand I loved seeing those.
So I'm excited to move,preferably maybe somewhere to a
city, because right now I'mliving in suburban Texas so it's
not very walkable.
(09:50):
So I miss walkable cities.
I grew up in a city.
Uae is very developed withcities and there's, like all our
apartments, they have buildingsat the bottom ground floor it's
stores.
So there are stores just inwalkable distances and
everything is much moreaccessible and public
transportation is just so muchbetter.
(10:10):
In every other country I'vebeen in except in Texas, so I
would move to some place.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Got to watch out for those rattlesnakes and horses
God knows what else critters areout there if you're taking your
walk in rural Texas.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
They don't even have footpaths in some areas Suburban
Texas, they're just so used tohaving cars.
All the roads are just builtfor cars, like people like to
walk.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Walk or ride a horse right Fascinating.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
There is a horse in the neighborhood.
None of the houses just have ahorse.
I've never seen it outside,though it's always unstable.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
One horsepower is what we say.
So I want to touch on andyou've shared with me that you
do tutor.
You're a learner, you're alifelong learner.
You've helped me with a numberof technology learning curves
and I appreciate that Technologylearning curves and I
(11:18):
appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
So tell us about some of your tutoring younger
children and how that motivatesand how that becomes a passion
of yours.
I love learning new things andI also love I like teaching new
things to other people becauseI'm learning in the process.
I'm developing skills, and it'sone thing to know how to do
something, but it's anotherthing being able to explain it
to somebody in a way that theycan also understand and use it.
(11:50):
That's a whole other skill andI'm always eager to develop that
.
So I do tutor for my universityfor English and math and mostly
entry level classes forfreshman and sophomore year.
But this year I had theopportunity to do a fellowship
where I am tutoring elementaryschool students.
(12:10):
So it's an initiative by Teamfor America to bridge the gap
between education inunderdeveloped areas within the
United States.
So the students I teach, theygroup them into classes of
students of three to five.
They didn't receive enoughattention in earlier years of
(12:31):
elementary school so they arefalling behind their peers and
this program wants to addressthat at least now.
So they are falling behindtheir peers and this program
wants to address that at leastnow, so they're caught up before
they get older and it becomesharder to stay in the same grade
level and eventually a lot ofthose students lose interest.
A lot of the students I'mworking with they don't like
(12:52):
learning but they actually don'tknow that learning is fun, so
they just have.
They just didn't have a goodexperience of learning and a lot
of these students have multiplesiblings so they're not getting
a lot of attention at homeeither.
So they have built kind of likeresentment to education and
learning and they don't want tobe at school.
(13:14):
So I like I'm mostly more thanbeing a tutor or teacher.
I'm mostly an older peer tovery friendly and most of my
classes I use games with likeKahoot like that's why I was
very initiative about yourKahoot initiative, because
that's one tool I use in mytutoring classes.
Like I don't agree withtraditional education where you
(13:38):
have to take notes Like thoseare helpful if it's helpful to
the student, but learning can befun.
It does Like, if you thinkabout it, ages ago Aristotle and
Plato and all those people werejust sitting under a tree and
thinking.
They weren't really watchingvideos or like listening to long
lectures, they were justthinking about things and
figuring it out, and that'ssomething we lost along the way.
(14:01):
People just don't have enoughtime to just sit and think and
just have fun while learning.
They're not able to experimentwith different things.
That's something I'm reallyeager and passionate to bring
back in my practices of tutoringand teaching students.
That's also why I chose HRdevelopment.
So in human resource, there isdifferent aspects and the one
(14:27):
I'm focusing is human resourcedevelopment.
So that's where I meet.
I'm able to improve talentwithin a company and provide
them with leadership classes.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
And just often think of, and one of my favorite
sayings of his is what you justmentioned, and that is the
things you learn to do.
You learn by doing, and isn'tthat true with teaching right?
In order to really learn a topicand know it well, sign up to
(14:57):
teach Person that benefits fromthat, in addition to the
students that are so fortunateto have you as their mentor,
slash teacher is yourself.
You grow because you learn notonly about the subject matter,
but you learn about people andhow to motivate people and how
to encourage people and how tomake learning, as you mentioned,
(15:19):
a fun and engaging exercise.
And we're so grateful to haveyou emceeing our cahoots and
helping me develop cahoots,because we often talk about if
you're going to want to wake upin the morning and do something,
you've got to love it, andlearning is something that, if
(15:42):
you want to learn to love it,you've got to have some fun with
it, and so we're honored andreally privileged to have all of
your talents with ourambassadors and helping us,
along with our cahoots and oureducational initiative.
You also mentioned HR and I'dlike to understand more about
(16:07):
the perspective of HR that youwant to pursue post-graduation
and the aspects of it that mightbe different from what our
audience traditionally thinksabout an HR representative, so
help us understand a little bitmore about your niche into that
HR world.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I am still in the process of figuring a lot of
those myself.
Hr is a very large umbrellathat has a lot of different
things, but typically when aperson thinks about HR, they
automatically think about theevil person doing terminations
or they think about therecruitment.
But HR is so much more and myparticular focus is HR
(16:46):
development, creating trainingmodules and helping people
improve themselves.
So, but recently I have beeninvolved in project management
and a little bit of productmanagement and I have been
considering pursuing that as acareer as well, because a lot of
the HR and a lot of skills thatI've gained through tutoring
(17:09):
and emceeing I love emceeingthose things is the soft skills
that I can apply for management.
And that's something I have beendeveloping over the years, so I
see opportunities in that fieldas well.
But I was just attracted tohuman resource development
(17:32):
because it stood out, becausewhenever I thought of human
resource prior to that, it justrecruitment or payroll
management.
That doesn't sound fun, that'sjust a lot of paperwork, you're
not doing any, you're notmeeting with people, but human
resource development you wereactually.
Your entire focus is ondeveloping people and there are
(17:53):
actually companies and that justfocus on creating resources to
develop specific roles withincompanies.
And that just stood out to melike, yes, students need a lot
of support and teaching issupportive, but this is a whole
another field where there is acorporate ladder and an area to
be ambitious, but teaching youbecome a teacher.
(18:16):
There's not a lot of likeladders to climb.
You're just within the sameclass or same student.
It's not.
You don't.
You can't set an aim to growbigger.
In that role within HR, I getto use my passion of teaching
other people and developing morethan teaching.
I enjoy developing learningmaterials for my students and
(18:38):
with this I get to do that at acorporate level and at the same
time, have opportunities toadvance career and manage more
people and more projects.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
You mentioned the word or the phrase soft skills.
I love that phrase.
It's another way of sayingbuilding relationships, and we
often think, especially in thisworld of technology and
academics, even that you have tolearn to craft, you have to
(19:12):
learn develop skills, you haveto learn develop skills.
But one of those skills softskills are building
relationships.
It's something that I believeis a life experience.
You know your previousexperiences in life have helped
you develop yourself and be moreversatile, as we spoke about
earlier.
But how do you approach withyour students and our
(19:36):
ambassadors and people that youjust come across?
What is your approach tobuilding meaningful
relationships?
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Most definitely connecting with them on
something not so professional,something more fun.
So I currently work as aproject manager for a company
and typically whenever we havenew people join, one of my first
questions to them what is yourfavorite childhood cartoon?
That's not a question anybody'sexpecting, but that's something
(20:09):
you can connect over.
Most likely, if you're in thesame age group, they have a
cartoon that you really enjoyedin your childhood.
Each group they have a cartoonthat you really enjoyed in your
childhood and that gives becausea lot of time it's hard to
break the ice and you don't knowwhat to talk about like.
My go-to question is what'syour favorite color?
The cartoon question has beenso much more content than color.
(20:29):
So having fun questions likethat is my even with my students
like, hey, who's your favoritesuperhero?
Oh, you like marvel.
Next day I'll have them likeMarvel themed puzzles and Marvel
themed word search, and theylove it because they get to
color Iron man at the end oftheir class and those are the
little things that makes a hugedifference for them.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
That's a great icebreaker and it actually had
me reflect when I was at mydaughters, of my four beautiful
daughters, at my daughters, myoldest daughter's high school
graduation.
The speaker guest speaker forthe commencement speech was Was
(21:13):
I don't know her name, I don'tremember much of what she said,
but here's what I remember,because my favorite cartoon
character was Mickey Mouse fromWalt Disney and Jan she had, you
know, can't describe it reallywell, but it was a musketeer or
musketeer hat, you know, withthe ears, or Mouseketeer hat,
(21:34):
you know, with the ears right,and she put that on her head and
everybody went like wow, I mean, like you know, it kind of got
our attention, took us off guard, and she talked about Walt
Disney and how Walt Disney'simagination and how his
persistence that Mickey Mousecharacter actually had to be was
(21:55):
originally a rat and somehow itgot transformed into a mouse
and I'll never forget the imageof her with that Mouseketeer hat
on.
So just I can see it right, asyou've just opened up, with how
you ask questions about yourfavorite cartoon character, how
(22:19):
it engaged me and had me reflectback on something, and not for
purposes of what I would talk toyou about in terms of an
interview or a job situation,but just kind of opened the
doors in terms of just helpingbuild our trust and confidence
and in and a beginning ofbuilding a relationship.
So that's awesome.
(22:40):
Mickey Mouse, the Mickey Mouseshow, those are for the boomers,
right, you can always Google it.
This is still going strong.
And Marvel, you know like Iwould think that and I'm not
totally up on Marvel characters,but isn't there a movie coming
(23:02):
up with a new Marvel show movie?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
There's always something new in Marvel, and no,
it's just not you.
With my second graders, I'm soout of touch with the cartoons
they're watching, whenever theysay a cartoon what's bluey?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Right, right, right, especially with all the you know
they're watching these on theirsmartphones, right, you know,
all the time you know and theiriPads.
So, yeah, the industry ofcartoons has grown wild since
the early pioneering days ofWalt Disney With the new Heart
(23:43):
for Life community and again Imentioned that you know you've
been just a tremendous asset inbuilding relationships, you know
, with our relationship andrelationships with the other
ambassadors.
So just pivot a little bit toyour experience with the new
Heart for Life community.
How do you see yourself takingthat on beyond your college
(24:07):
years and incorporating thatinto your personal life and our
values of living a fit andquality life and networking?
And just have you given anythought to post-graduation this
spring of 2025 at University ofHouston?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
how you want to contribute and be part of the
New Heart for Life community?
That's a very interestingquestion.
So when I joined, my interviewwas one year ago with you in
january my interview, a firstmmf you was january 18 2024 and
you asked a very similarquestion and my answer stays the
same.
For the most part, I yes,moving and being active and
(24:57):
working out is very important,but also, 80% of having a
healthy life is the food youconsume, and that's my focus.
And initially, when I startedwith New Heart for Life, I
collaborated with one of theother ambassadors to create mini
posters about different foodand their nutrition facts, and
(25:18):
that was a series that I didwith her for a while, and that's
something I'm still interestedin.
Being fit and a quality life isso much more than staying active
.
It's also about what you putinside your body.
That's what's going to give itback.
So, having a nutritious mealand it's also something that
concerns me just in general,because so much of our food
(25:41):
right now is I don't want to sayprocessed, because just about
everything is processed, butthey have additives and
ingredients that shouldn't bethere and that doesn't benefit
the body at all.
So that's something I wanted tolike put the new heart for life
and just personally, bring moreawareness about quality of food
(26:02):
and what you're eating, and Iam not sure exactly that I have
a lot of interest.
I'm always excited to learn moreand I like meeting people, I
like engaging with them, I likelearning new things from
different people.
Everybody comes with a uniqueperspective because they all
(26:23):
have different experiences andbackground and New Heart for
Life definitely helped me dothat.
Before I joined New Heart forLife, I had maybe 22 connections
on LinkedIn.
Now I have over 700.
That was gained in a year sinceI joined New Heart for Life, so
excited to keep growing myconnection and meet new people.
(26:44):
And now I have friends all overthe world.
I have a friend in Belarus.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Belarus, anastasia, and when you were talking about
working on nutrition, was thatwith our ambassador in South
Africa?
Was that Wandi?
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yes, that was Wandi.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Yeah, she's also a graduate and now she's in the
field of nutrition and helpingteenagers and youngsters develop
proper eating habits and herlocal community she does have a
podcast too, too, like she did apodcast last year, I believe
okay, all right.
Well, let's plug her podcast,wandi from south africa youtube
(27:27):
it.
I also did an interview withwandi in the early days podcast.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
That's what I meant, sorry oh, okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
So the new heart for life community podcast.
As you see Jan's podcast andother ambassadors, you'll see
Wandi and her emphasis and focuson nutrition.
But I'm learning somethingevery day.
I didn't know that you wereclosely collaborating with Wandi
on that common passion.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yes, she used to have a wellness Instagram page that
she used to regularly post onlast year.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Yeah, so well, in whatever fashion or in whatever
role.
You know how I feel about yourcontributions and your talents
and you'll always be a very,very, very important part of my
passion to create a communitysystem, a higher goal, and
(28:40):
that's the higher goal.
And then, specifically, we allhave different ways of doing
that and yours is through the,through the path of nutrition,
so that's very cool.
So I would hope that, whatevercapacity you can or are able to
fulfill what I I often say oncean ambassador, always an
(29:02):
ambassador, so in spirit, butalso to have you part of our
community and contribute.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I'm excited to have been part of so many different
projects and support them insmall ways that I could.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Small but very, very meaningful and consistent.
So thank you for that.
Journey is your word, and we'vementioned journey a number of
times in terms of the 21 fitnessprinciples and I'm going to
reflect on a couple moreprinciples that you have walked
the talk, if you will.
(29:42):
You have engaged, you havereally contributed selflessly of
yourself and I'm going to justtick off a couple of the 21.
I won't mention Journey becausewe've talked about that a
couple times, but here's what Iwill say about Jan John of the
21.
I won't mention Journey becausewe've talked about that a
couple times, but here's what Iwill say about Jan John and the
(30:05):
principles Accountability, oneof our principles.
You have been accountable.
You have made yourselfaccountable to not just your
contributions and helping melaunch and evolve and grow the
community, but to your fellowambassadors in terms of
onboarding them and helping themto better understand what the
(30:27):
expectations of our communityare.
Grit Say no more about grit.
That was our educationalinitiative topic recently and
you have shown grit in terms ofjust staying with it day in and
day out and understanding thatlife has its challenges.
(30:51):
But your attitude and your softskills and your ability to be
versatile has helped you be, ifI can say, more grittier.
I'd also mention act.
Action changes things and thereare people that, as I've done
sales training and coached andled sales teams.
(31:15):
I've said there's three typesof individuals that you may come
across there's people that makeit happen, there's people that
watch it happen and there'speople that say what happened.
And you are the type ofindividual that makes it happen.
(31:35):
You act and, as I say, actionchanges things.
So those are just a couple moreprinciples that I wanted to put
in context around yourcontributions and thank you so
much for all of the efforts andcontributions and passion that
(31:55):
you've, that you contributed andshared with us, and I'll leave
the last couple summary commentsto you before we close out your
spotlight interview as ourambassador that is in the
spotlight.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Thank you so much.
This was a wonderful journeyand I'm so excited to having
done this podcast.
Please do check out our websiteat wwwnewhartforlifecom and do
check out our merch store andyou can get your own t-shirt or
tumblr or even a mouse pad withthe new heart for life logo and
(32:37):
by that way, you will becontributing and always
spreading the message to live afit and quality life.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Thank you, jan.
And on that website, new Heartfor Life F-O-R.
Life, you'll also be able toget a copy of my book 21 Fitness
Principles.
I always close with four wordsthat Jan knows very, very well.
So here's how we're going toclose at this interview.
I'm going to start with thefirst two words and Jan's going
(33:08):
to leave us with the last twowords that really reflect the
spirit of the new Heart for Lifecommunity.
So, in closing, be fit and bewell.
Welcome to the New Heart for Life podcast for a
greater understanding of the NewHeart for Life community and
its ambassadors.
Their founder, dan Williams'passion is to inspire others
towards a fit and qualitylifestyle.
Dan's journey from near deathto achieving senior Olympic gold
, along with his 21 fitnessprinciples, serves as a guide
for all to lead a fit andquality lifestyle.
(00:27):
In each episode, dan exploresthe stories and experiences of
the New Heart for LifeAmbassador individuals making a
positive impact by championingthe New Heart for Life mission
within their personal and socialnetworks.
Every installment provides aplatform for ambassadors to
share their journeys, insightsand the meaningful changes
they're creating in theircommunities.
The interviews aim tofacilitate connections among
(00:49):
fellow ambassadors, enhancingawareness of their roles of
promoting positivetransformations.
Speaker 3 (01:02):
I am honored to have Jan John with us for our
Spotlight Ambassador interview,and Jan's not only been with us.
Since the inception of the NewHeart for Life community, she
has been a huge contributor toour success and evolution.
So, jan, welcome to the showand let our audience know a
(01:25):
little bit about what Jan Johnis all about.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
Hello Dan.
I'm so excited to be on thispodcast.
Thank you so much for thisopportunity and it has been an
incredible journey with the newheart for life and getting to
meet you.
So I am Jan.
As Dan introduced, jan and Danrhymes.
That's my fully name.
I don't have more letters.
My first name is just Jan.
I was born in Nintyel, but Igrew up in United Arab Emirates.
(01:54):
I lived there for about half mylife and I moved to the US
right before high school, soI've been in the US for a couple
years now.
Wow.
I've lived in a couple differentcultures, been around different
religions and I think thatgives me a unique third culture
perspective.
Speaker 3 (02:13):
And how has that international experience and, of
course, being in the UnitedStates as a University of
Houston senior student gettingready to graduate how has that
influenced your perspective onlife?
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Much more than perspective.
It's definitely perspective.
It affects how I interact withdifferent people and how I
approach problems and how Iutilize my past experience
whenever confronting a differentproblem.
Because of this, how diverseall these cultures are, india
(02:52):
being predominantly a Hindureligion based, very religious.
All UAE and India are veryreligious, but two different
religions with very differentcore ideas and celebrations and
different focuses within things.
That gives me a different andunique perspective whenever I'm
approaching a problem.
(03:12):
An interesting thing isdesign-wise.
I love to graphic design, Ilove to use Canva, I'm an artist
, I like to draw and I see thesedifferent cultures influencing
my art in interesting ways.
Because I'm familiar with thehindu scriptures and their
stories.
I take inspiration from them.
I am, my family is christianand I'm from a christian family
(03:35):
and my that's the religion Igrew up in.
But since I grew up in ahindu-based country, a lot of
times I use red and gold, whichis focus colors for Hindus, and
that's prevalent in a lot of myart, like I did a whole art
series where it's just red andgold focused on women and
(03:55):
similar things for Muslims, andalso, yes, art and whenever I'm
approaching new people, I thinkit helps me connect better with
different people because I knowabout different cultures, and a
little bit more aware and alittle bit more open-minded
because of my background.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
So I would say thank you for that.
The word versatility comes tomind and being able to adapt.
Versatility comes to mind andbeing able to adapt, and you've
taken those different culturesand those different experiences
and incorporated them into you.
Know your passion for art, asyou mentioned.
I'd never, ever, thought thatgold would be something that
(04:37):
would represent your culture.
You know a culturalrepresentation, but that's very
deep and, yeah, I'm learning.
I'm learning as we go.
I know you've got a lot oftalents and I know you have a
lot of just you and I havingcatch up calls every other week.
(04:58):
You're our lead ambassador andI rely on you heavily in terms
of helping shape the evolutionof the New Heart for Life
community.
So we have gotten to know eachother.
You know, even in you know, itseems like more than a year, but
it's been a very meaningfulyear getting to know you, and
(05:20):
one of the traits that I see inyou is and I would be interested
for you sharing yourperspective on this trait but in
a word, resilience.
I see a tremendous amount ofresilience in the terms, in
addition to the versatility thatI mentioned.
So what's helped you over theyears, become so resilient over
(05:44):
the years?
Speaker 2 (05:46):
become so resilient?
That's a really good questionand versatility is a really good
word to describe my background.
And just more on colors.
I love colors.
They're the best thing andthat's one thing that attracted
me to New Heart for Life thecolorful logo with the rainbow,
and every religion does havedifferent colors.
(06:07):
That's main associated withthem and resilience.
I think that more than yes, Ilived in three different
countries, but the 10 years Ilived in uae I lived in about 10
or 12 different houses, slashapartments.
The longest I've stayed in thesame place would be three years.
I would constantly move betweenplaces and that would mean
(06:31):
adjusting to new scenarios andadapting to that different
housing, because sometimes wewould go from a two-bedroom
apartment to a one-bedroomapartment, then to a
three-bedroom apartment by thetime I was 16, I've lived in
over 16 apartments or houses andafter that I stopped counting
because I wasn't sure whether Iwould include dorms.
(06:52):
Does that count as a differenthousing or I'm just staying
there for five, six months?
So that really helped me.
And also, I spent 10 years inUAE and every summer and winter
vacations but mostly summervacations, those two to three
months I would go to India and Iwould stay with my grandparents
(07:14):
or other relatives.
My parents don't have a housein India because they live in
other places, so I would bestaying with different relatives
.
And that also requires a lot ofadapting and adjusting to the
situation, because I'm stayingthere only for two months, or
(07:35):
like two weeks, and the rest ofthe year I'm in a different
place and even there I'm notstaying there continuously at
the same span of time.
I would always be expecting tomove to the next place at the
end of the year when the leaseis up.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
And that's an asset.
Probably at the time of allthose moves I'm not sure how you
you know at what age you werebut at some level of those
changes, you were buildingresilience and you're building
grit and building assets thatallow you to deal with life
(08:13):
challenges that at the timeseemed like no, this is not
great.
You know all those moves andall those different locations,
but often in life, withprincipal alert lessons, right,
you know, there's lessons andblessings, and so some of the
(08:34):
lessons that you learn in termsof all those moves really has
become a blessing in your lifein terms of adaptability,
versatility and resilience.
So that's an incredible journeyso far.
It must be exciting to thinkabout what's next in terms of
(08:56):
your future.
What are those things thatyou're looking forward to Share
with us?
Your dreams?
What are Jan's dreams?
Speaker 2 (09:08):
I'm looking forward to moving again.
I haven't moved in two yearsnow and I actually miss moving
around.
A lot of people don't likemoving around, but I loved
moving around because differentscenarios, I love different
architectural house designs andhow each and every house was
(09:28):
unique, and also before movingwe would go around and visit
different houses and apartmentsand I loved seeing those.
So I'm excited to move,preferably maybe somewhere to a
city, because right now I'mliving in suburban Texas so it's
not very walkable.
(09:50):
So I miss walkable cities.
I grew up in a city.
Uae is very developed withcities and there's, like all our
apartments, they have buildingsat the bottom ground floor it's
stores.
So there are stores just inwalkable distances and
everything is much moreaccessible and public
transportation is just so muchbetter.
(10:10):
In every other country I'vebeen in except in Texas, so I
would move to some place.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Got to watch out for those rattlesnakes and horses
God knows what else critters areout there if you're taking your
walk in rural Texas.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
They don't even have footpaths in some areas Suburban
Texas, they're just so used tohaving cars.
All the roads are just builtfor cars, like people like to
walk.
Speaker 3 (10:40):
Walk or ride a horse right Fascinating.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
There is a horse in the neighborhood.
None of the houses just have ahorse.
I've never seen it outside,though it's always unstable.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
One horsepower is what we say.
So I want to touch on andyou've shared with me that you
do tutor.
You're a learner, you're alifelong learner.
You've helped me with a numberof technology learning curves
and I appreciate that Technologylearning curves and I
(11:18):
appreciate that.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
So tell us about some of your tutoring younger
children and how that motivatesand how that becomes a passion
of yours.
I love learning new things andI also love I like teaching new
things to other people becauseI'm learning in the process.
I'm developing skills, and it'sone thing to know how to do
something, but it's anotherthing being able to explain it
to somebody in a way that theycan also understand and use it.
(11:50):
That's a whole other skill andI'm always eager to develop that
.
So I do tutor for my universityfor English and math and mostly
entry level classes forfreshman and sophomore year.
But this year I had theopportunity to do a fellowship
where I am tutoring elementaryschool students.
(12:10):
So it's an initiative by Teamfor America to bridge the gap
between education inunderdeveloped areas within the
United States.
So the students I teach, theygroup them into classes of
students of three to five.
They didn't receive enoughattention in earlier years of
(12:31):
elementary school so they arefalling behind their peers and
this program wants to addressthat at least now.
So they are falling behindtheir peers and this program
wants to address that at leastnow, so they're caught up before
they get older and it becomesharder to stay in the same grade
level and eventually a lot ofthose students lose interest.
A lot of the students I'mworking with they don't like
(12:52):
learning but they actually don'tknow that learning is fun, so
they just have.
They just didn't have a goodexperience of learning and a lot
of these students have multiplesiblings so they're not getting
a lot of attention at homeeither.
So they have built kind of likeresentment to education and
learning and they don't want tobe at school.
(13:14):
So I like I'm mostly more thanbeing a tutor or teacher.
I'm mostly an older peer tovery friendly and most of my
classes I use games with likeKahoot like that's why I was
very initiative about yourKahoot initiative, because
that's one tool I use in mytutoring classes.
Like I don't agree withtraditional education where you
(13:38):
have to take notes Like thoseare helpful if it's helpful to
the student, but learning can befun.
It does Like, if you thinkabout it, ages ago Aristotle and
Plato and all those people werejust sitting under a tree and
thinking.
They weren't really watchingvideos or like listening to long
lectures, they were justthinking about things and
figuring it out, and that'ssomething we lost along the way.
(14:01):
People just don't have enoughtime to just sit and think and
just have fun while learning.
They're not able to experimentwith different things.
That's something I'm reallyeager and passionate to bring
back in my practices of tutoringand teaching students.
That's also why I chose HRdevelopment.
So in human resource, there isdifferent aspects and the one
(14:27):
I'm focusing is human resourcedevelopment.
So that's where I meet.
I'm able to improve talentwithin a company and provide
them with leadership classes.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
And just often think of, and one of my favorite
sayings of his is what you justmentioned, and that is the
things you learn to do.
You learn by doing, and isn'tthat true with teaching right?
In order to really learn a topicand know it well, sign up to
(14:57):
teach Person that benefits fromthat, in addition to the
students that are so fortunateto have you as their mentor,
slash teacher is yourself.
You grow because you learn notonly about the subject matter,
but you learn about people andhow to motivate people and how
to encourage people and how tomake learning, as you mentioned,
(15:19):
a fun and engaging exercise.
And we're so grateful to haveyou emceeing our cahoots and
helping me develop cahoots,because we often talk about if
you're going to want to wake upin the morning and do something,
you've got to love it, andlearning is something that, if
(15:42):
you want to learn to love it,you've got to have some fun with
it, and so we're honored andreally privileged to have all of
your talents with ourambassadors and helping us,
along with our cahoots and oureducational initiative.
You also mentioned HR and I'dlike to understand more about
(16:07):
the perspective of HR that youwant to pursue post-graduation
and the aspects of it that mightbe different from what our
audience traditionally thinksabout an HR representative, so
help us understand a little bitmore about your niche into that
HR world.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
I am still in the process of figuring a lot of
those myself.
Hr is a very large umbrellathat has a lot of different
things, but typically when aperson thinks about HR, they
automatically think about theevil person doing terminations
or they think about therecruitment.
But HR is so much more and myparticular focus is HR
(16:46):
development, creating trainingmodules and helping people
improve themselves.
So, but recently I have beeninvolved in project management
and a little bit of productmanagement and I have been
considering pursuing that as acareer as well, because a lot of
the HR and a lot of skills thatI've gained through tutoring
(17:09):
and emceeing I love emceeingthose things is the soft skills
that I can apply for management.
And that's something I have beendeveloping over the years, so I
see opportunities in that fieldas well.
But I was just attracted tohuman resource development
(17:32):
because it stood out, becausewhenever I thought of human
resource prior to that, it justrecruitment or payroll
management.
That doesn't sound fun, that'sjust a lot of paperwork, you're
not doing any, you're notmeeting with people, but human
resource development you wereactually.
Your entire focus is ondeveloping people and there are
(17:53):
actually companies and that justfocus on creating resources to
develop specific roles withincompanies.
And that just stood out to melike, yes, students need a lot
of support and teaching issupportive, but this is a whole
another field where there is acorporate ladder and an area to
be ambitious, but teaching youbecome a teacher.
(18:16):
There's not a lot of likeladders to climb.
You're just within the sameclass or same student.
It's not.
You don't.
You can't set an aim to growbigger.
In that role within HR, I getto use my passion of teaching
other people and developing morethan teaching.
I enjoy developing learningmaterials for my students and
(18:38):
with this I get to do that at acorporate level and at the same
time, have opportunities toadvance career and manage more
people and more projects.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
You mentioned the word or the phrase soft skills.
I love that phrase.
It's another way of sayingbuilding relationships, and we
often think, especially in thisworld of technology and
academics, even that you have tolearn to craft, you have to
(19:12):
learn develop skills, you haveto learn develop skills.
But one of those skills softskills are building
relationships.
It's something that I believeis a life experience.
You know your previousexperiences in life have helped
you develop yourself and be moreversatile, as we spoke about
earlier.
But how do you approach withyour students and our
(19:36):
ambassadors and people that youjust come across?
What is your approach tobuilding meaningful
relationships?
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Most definitely connecting with them on
something not so professional,something more fun.
So I currently work as aproject manager for a company
and typically whenever we havenew people join, one of my first
questions to them what is yourfavorite childhood cartoon?
That's not a question anybody'sexpecting, but that's something
(20:09):
you can connect over.
Most likely, if you're in thesame age group, they have a
cartoon that you really enjoyedin your childhood.
Each group they have a cartoonthat you really enjoyed in your
childhood and that gives becausea lot of time it's hard to
break the ice and you don't knowwhat to talk about like.
My go-to question is what'syour favorite color?
The cartoon question has beenso much more content than color.
(20:29):
So having fun questions likethat is my even with my students
like, hey, who's your favoritesuperhero?
Oh, you like marvel.
Next day I'll have them likeMarvel themed puzzles and Marvel
themed word search, and theylove it because they get to
color Iron man at the end oftheir class and those are the
little things that makes a hugedifference for them.
Speaker 3 (20:50):
That's a great icebreaker and it actually had
me reflect when I was at mydaughters, of my four beautiful
daughters, at my daughters, myoldest daughter's high school
graduation.
The speaker guest speaker forthe commencement speech was Was
(21:13):
I don't know her name, I don'tremember much of what she said,
but here's what I remember,because my favorite cartoon
character was Mickey Mouse fromWalt Disney and Jan she had, you
know, can't describe it reallywell, but it was a musketeer or
musketeer hat, you know, withthe ears, or Mouseketeer hat,
(21:34):
you know, with the ears right,and she put that on her head and
everybody went like wow, I mean, like you know, it kind of got
our attention, took us off guard, and she talked about Walt
Disney and how Walt Disney'simagination and how his
persistence that Mickey Mousecharacter actually had to be was
(21:55):
originally a rat and somehow itgot transformed into a mouse
and I'll never forget the imageof her with that Mouseketeer hat
on.
So just I can see it right, asyou've just opened up, with how
you ask questions about yourfavorite cartoon character, how
(22:19):
it engaged me and had me reflectback on something, and not for
purposes of what I would talk toyou about in terms of an
interview or a job situation,but just kind of opened the
doors in terms of just helpingbuild our trust and confidence
and in and a beginning ofbuilding a relationship.
So that's awesome.
(22:40):
Mickey Mouse, the Mickey Mouseshow, those are for the boomers,
right, you can always Google it.
This is still going strong.
And Marvel, you know like Iwould think that and I'm not
totally up on Marvel characters,but isn't there a movie coming
(23:02):
up with a new Marvel show movie?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
There's always something new in Marvel, and no,
it's just not you.
With my second graders, I'm soout of touch with the cartoons
they're watching, whenever theysay a cartoon what's bluey?
Speaker 3 (23:21):
Right, right, right, especially with all the you know
they're watching these on theirsmartphones, right, you know,
all the time you know and theiriPads.
So, yeah, the industry ofcartoons has grown wild since
the early pioneering days ofWalt Disney With the new Heart
(23:43):
for Life community and again Imentioned that you know you've
been just a tremendous asset inbuilding relationships, you know
, with our relationship andrelationships with the other
ambassadors.
So just pivot a little bit toyour experience with the new
Heart for Life community.
How do you see yourself takingthat on beyond your college
(24:07):
years and incorporating thatinto your personal life and our
values of living a fit andquality life and networking?
And just have you given anythought to post-graduation this
spring of 2025 at University ofHouston?
Speaker 2 (24:32):
how you want to contribute and be part of the
New Heart for Life community?
That's a very interestingquestion.
So when I joined, my interviewwas one year ago with you in
january my interview, a firstmmf you was january 18 2024 and
you asked a very similarquestion and my answer stays the
same.
For the most part, I yes,moving and being active and
(24:57):
working out is very important,but also, 80% of having a
healthy life is the food youconsume, and that's my focus.
And initially, when I startedwith New Heart for Life, I
collaborated with one of theother ambassadors to create mini
posters about different foodand their nutrition facts, and
(25:18):
that was a series that I didwith her for a while, and that's
something I'm still interestedin.
Being fit and a quality life isso much more than staying active
.
It's also about what you putinside your body.
That's what's going to give itback.
So, having a nutritious mealand it's also something that
concerns me just in general,because so much of our food
(25:41):
right now is I don't want to sayprocessed, because just about
everything is processed, butthey have additives and
ingredients that shouldn't bethere and that doesn't benefit
the body at all.
So that's something I wanted tolike put the new heart for life
and just personally, bring moreawareness about quality of food
(26:02):
and what you're eating, and Iam not sure exactly that I have
a lot of interest.
I'm always excited to learn moreand I like meeting people, I
like engaging with them, I likelearning new things from
different people.
Everybody comes with a uniqueperspective because they all
(26:23):
have different experiences andbackground and New Heart for
Life definitely helped me dothat.
Before I joined New Heart forLife, I had maybe 22 connections
on LinkedIn.
Now I have over 700.
That was gained in a year sinceI joined New Heart for Life, so
excited to keep growing myconnection and meet new people.
(26:44):
And now I have friends all overthe world.
I have a friend in Belarus.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
Belarus, anastasia, and when you were talking about
working on nutrition, was thatwith our ambassador in South
Africa?
Was that Wandi?
Speaker 2 (27:02):
Yes, that was Wandi.
Speaker 3 (27:04):
Yeah, she's also a graduate and now she's in the
field of nutrition and helpingteenagers and youngsters develop
proper eating habits and herlocal community she does have a
podcast too, too, like she did apodcast last year, I believe
okay, all right.
Well, let's plug her podcast,wandi from south africa youtube
(27:27):
it.
I also did an interview withwandi in the early days podcast.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
That's what I meant, sorry oh, okay, okay.
Speaker 3 (27:35):
So the new heart for life community podcast.
As you see Jan's podcast andother ambassadors, you'll see
Wandi and her emphasis and focuson nutrition.
But I'm learning somethingevery day.
I didn't know that you wereclosely collaborating with Wandi
on that common passion.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Yes, she used to have a wellness Instagram page that
she used to regularly post onlast year.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Yeah, so well, in whatever fashion or in whatever
role.
You know how I feel about yourcontributions and your talents
and you'll always be a very,very, very important part of my
passion to create a communitysystem, a higher goal, and
(28:40):
that's the higher goal.
And then, specifically, we allhave different ways of doing
that and yours is through the,through the path of nutrition,
so that's very cool.
So I would hope that, whatevercapacity you can or are able to
fulfill what I I often say oncean ambassador, always an
(29:02):
ambassador, so in spirit, butalso to have you part of our
community and contribute.
Speaker 2 (29:12):
I'm excited to have been part of so many different
projects and support them insmall ways that I could.
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Small but very, very meaningful and consistent.
So thank you for that.
Journey is your word, and we'vementioned journey a number of
times in terms of the 21 fitnessprinciples and I'm going to
reflect on a couple moreprinciples that you have walked
the talk, if you will.
(29:42):
You have engaged, you havereally contributed selflessly of
yourself and I'm going to justtick off a couple of the 21.
I won't mention Journey becausewe've talked about that a
couple times, but here's what Iwill say about Jan John of the
21.
I won't mention Journey becausewe've talked about that a
couple times, but here's what Iwill say about Jan John and the
(30:05):
principles Accountability, oneof our principles.
You have been accountable.
You have made yourselfaccountable to not just your
contributions and helping melaunch and evolve and grow the
community, but to your fellowambassadors in terms of
onboarding them and helping themto better understand what the
(30:27):
expectations of our communityare.
Grit Say no more about grit.
That was our educationalinitiative topic recently and
you have shown grit in terms ofjust staying with it day in and
day out and understanding thatlife has its challenges.
(30:51):
But your attitude and your softskills and your ability to be
versatile has helped you be, ifI can say, more grittier.
I'd also mention act.
Action changes things and thereare people that, as I've done
sales training and coached andled sales teams.
(31:15):
I've said there's three typesof individuals that you may come
across there's people that makeit happen, there's people that
watch it happen and there'speople that say what happened.
And you are the type ofindividual that makes it happen.
(31:35):
You act and, as I say, actionchanges things.
So those are just a couple moreprinciples that I wanted to put
in context around yourcontributions and thank you so
much for all of the efforts andcontributions and passion that
(31:55):
you've, that you contributed andshared with us, and I'll leave
the last couple summary commentsto you before we close out your
spotlight interview as ourambassador that is in the
spotlight.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Thank you so much.
This was a wonderful journeyand I'm so excited to having
done this podcast.
Please do check out our websiteat wwwnewhartforlifecom and do
check out our merch store andyou can get your own t-shirt or
tumblr or even a mouse pad withthe new heart for life logo and
(32:37):
by that way, you will becontributing and always
spreading the message to live afit and quality life.
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Thank you, jan.
And on that website, new Heartfor Life F-O-R.
Life, you'll also be able toget a copy of my book 21 Fitness
Principles.
I always close with four wordsthat Jan knows very, very well.
So here's how we're going toclose at this interview.
I'm going to start with thefirst two words and Jan's going
(33:08):
to leave us with the last twowords that really reflect the
spirit of the new Heart for Lifecommunity.
So, in closing, be fit and bewell.
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