When you’re going through dark times, it’s hard to see how any good could come from your situation. But Jennifer Kauffman is inspiring impossible transformation with her story. Jennifer is the CEO of Rise and Thrive Productions. She is also the Director and Producer of the film, “There’s Got to Be More To Life,” based on her journey of rising up from terrorism and childhood traumas where she went from barely surviving to thriving. Join as she opens up about how she overcame her trauma with host Chris Swartz.

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Jennifer Kauffman – Inspiring Impossible Transformation

I am here with our guest, Jennifer Kauffman. How are you?

I’m great, Chris. How are you?

I’m doing well. Jennifer has an amazing and inspiring story. She is the CEO of the Rise & Thrive Productions.

It’s a film production company that I created in 2021 during the pandemic. We create transformational films that inspire, encourage and empower people to rise up from any adversity in life, including the experience of what people are dealing with, like the pandemic and COVID, and to get themselves to a place where they are thriving and living their best life. That’s what we do. We have launched our first film, There’s Got To Be More To Life, and we are going to be starting the second film, which is a sequel called There Is More To Life.

We show people the process and how you can rise up from any adversity in life and truly go on to live your best life. We talked about how these adversities and traumas that happen in our life are designed to help us cultivate our best versions of ourselves. It took me many years to understand this. They’re not intended to crush us, although I used to believe that. They are truly designed to help us rise and thrive. I used an analogy here. It’s like when you’re planting a seed. What do you plant a seed in? It’s dirt and manure. Those two things are what make it grow. What if the adversity is in our lives, challenges and traumas in our life were designed to help pivot us to growth?

That’s exactly what we want to unpack. As we talk pre-show, FUEL is an acronym for Foundations Under Extraordinary Lives. Sometimes those foundations have a few cracks. They are not always super solid. Life is not perfect and sometimes the foundation’s a little shaky. We have all had events, trauma and things that happened. Now in this world, more than ever, we are on this pandemic and starting to see, personally myself, firsthand, we have been very blessed. I’m in a business where we have been thriving. My business has tripled in the pandemic and my family has been healthy, but we have been impacted.

These adversities and traumas that happen in our life, are designed to help us cultivate our best versions of ourselves. They’re not intended to crush us.

The kids aren’t doing the things that they normally get to do. They are not having those experiences that we got to have as children. It was rolling. Now, you are talking with certain people about the mental health of their children and it’s like, “This shit is real.” We were very blessed. Sometimes I feel guilty sharing that. People are starting to get out and hopefully, get back to normal life or whatever that looks like in this world and having conversations with more people about the impact on their marriage, family and children’s health.

We are at a time where what you are doing with Rise & Thrive is needed more than ever. I’m grateful to have you on the show. I was only able to watch the teaser. I didn’t have my code and get to watch the whole clip, but the teaser and the trailer were super powerful. I look forward to watching the rest of the video that you had out there. You didn’t get to where you are, by chance. Definitely, there’s something very traumatic happening in your life and journey.

I wanted to talk a little bit about your journey and experiences that led you to become the CEO of Rise & Thrive. We don’t want to downplay all the things you have done. You’re a bestselling author, motivational coach and all of these things that you are doing. What inspired you and how did you get to where you are now?

What inspired me was I was in search of more. Let me give you a little bit of backstory so you understand how I got to where I am. I had childhood trauma that I didn’t know how to deal with, obviously. Most children don’t know how to deal with it. I grew up in the ‘70s. It’s something that you put aside. You didn’t deal with it. Fast forward, what I did was I used, my academics in college and work to run away from the things that I had shame, confusion and a lot of upset about. I drowned myself in my studies and work.

As a result, I had successes in that, but every time I would reach success or a goal that I had set out, I would have a momentary lapse of happiness. I never felt fulfilled. I have been in search of more like, “There’s Got To Be More To Life,” which is the name of the first film that we released in December 2021. Seriously, there has to be more to life and this was a constant question I asked. Fast forward, I had a traumatic brain injury in my mid-twenties. My dad had passed away very unexpectedly when I turned 30. He and I had been estranged from one another for ten years. We had just reconciled.

Fast forward, at the age of 42, I’m standing 15 feet from the first of two explosions at the Boston Marathon bombings. I’m like, “WTF, I don’t understand.” I viewed myself as a good person, a law-abiding citizen, always striving to do good, to be my best and to help people. That’s always been my nature. I want to share something with you because the most pivotal moment for me was learning how to heal from the bombings that took place back in 2013. That broke me open.

That experience shattered my world. I want to share that just before that happened, in 2012, I had come off my best year in business. All of my clients had record-breaking years. I had taken a couple of months’ sabbatical to celebrate and have some fun. I signed my first publishing deal and then that happened. I didn’t understand it. A lot of people are also in a similar spot. It’s coming up in two years. We were told it would take fifteen days to slow the spread.

My point is this and I literally was talking to a friend of mine who said it’s been challenging because children in this life are contemplating suicide because they’re overwhelmed by the mental health stuff that’s going on. What I’m about to share next, I believe, is a pivotal point. It takes some time to digest and embrace it, but it’s what I have learned for myself. Before the bombings took place and when I reflected back on some of the traumas that I had, I was coming from the perspective that these things were happening to me. In other words, they were against me and I was a victim. Even though I didn’t view myself as a victim, the truth is I had a victim mentality.

What happened about six months after the bombings took place, one of my meditation teachers, who I’d been studying under for a couple of years had said to me, “Someday, you are going to see this as the greatest gift of your life.” I remember being upset. I’m like, “Do you not have a clue?” I had physical injuries, mental and emotional, you name it. I was affected on every level. I went home that night and even though I was upset by the words that she spoke, I knew she didn’t have a malice bone in her body.

She planted a seed, even though I didn’t understand it at the time and I was frankly resisting it. That seed over time got me to a place where I was curious. That curiosity led to a series of questions. “What if this were happening for me rather than to me?” That shifted everything for me because when I shifted from, “It’s happening for me,” I had a sense of empowerment. It led me down to, “What good is coming from this?”

In the beginning, I couldn’t see any good. All I could see was bad and it took time to contemplate what good came from it. Over time, I was able to see, “Complete strangers came to my aid. Complete strangers sent notes of prayers, love and support. I got gifts.” There were all amazing things that did come from that. The perspective here is if we can teach young people and adults alike. I’m not saying it’s not a scary time for people because I know that it is.

That’s hard at the moment to be able to say, “Where’s the good in this?” because you are overwhelmed. I imagine that was one of the hardest things to do with such a traumatic experience. You read some of the stuff. You couldn’t sleep and get out of bed. Your whole body was out of sync. To be able to make that mindset shift to, “This is happening for me,” That’s a hard thing for many people to do. I have said this to my wife because there are times when we are like, “These poor kids.” Me and my wife are like, “We had a crazy two years of this nonsense. It sucked, but it’s two years.”

When you’re feeling sad, give yourself permission to be sad. When you’re feeling upset, give yourself permission to be upset. The key here is to give yourself permission to allow those emotions to come up.

It’s not my college graduation. It’s not my high school prom or all of this major life. I’m going through the days of, “We can’t go on vacation,” and I can work from home. To me, it’s not as traumatic. We feel for the kids. I have said to my wife, I’m trying to do exactly what you said, “How resilient are these kids going to be from going through this? Once the dust settles, these kids are going to be able to handle anything. They have gone through two years of such trauma.” It’s a little light bulb with what you are saying went off and it’s like, “What if this is happening for them?”

I love that you shared that because one of the cool things about the show and my FUEL is to get these little nuggets from my guests that selfishly I’m using in my life. I’m like, “Cool.” For people reading, I think that as we have gone through the last years of this pandemic in whatever way it’s touched you, to stop, as Jennifer said and think, “What if this is happening for me?” What can you do with that?

I will share a quick story with you that I think will illustrate this. This happened in my own personal life. A woman that I used to work with, a friend of mine, many years ago, we worked in the banking industry back when I was in my early twenties. We reconnected through a mutual friend’s mother’s birthday. It was great to see her and reconnect.

She turned 50 in 2021 and she dropped dead suddenly in September, a couple of days after her 26th wedding anniversary and with no warning, no indication. For all we knew, she was healthy and well, but she had been dealing with a lot of stress because her husband had been diagnosed with a brain tumor that was inoperable and incurable. He was given months to live.

They have two kids. They’re in the midst of a pandemic. Imagine all of that they are going through. She literally dropped dead of an aneurysm, which completely shocked everyone. Her two sons became the caregiver to their dad. Their dad passed away. I can’t even begin to imagine what life is like for them at this time, to lose two parents in a matter of months and they are like 18, 19 and early 20s. What I had to remind myself and remind some of our close friends is that these things happen. They’re out of our control and it’s sad.

It doesn’t take away from the sadness and grief. What I witnessed was how many people came out from the community to help these two young men, whatever they need. Even in the midst of our darkest days and our most traumatic times and it’s not to take away the pain. That’s not what this is about, but there is good even in bad situations and when we can start to train our brain. In my own experience, I liken it to going to the gym. It didn’t happen like that. I had to train my brain every single day, sometimes multiple times a day to go, “What good came from this?”

When I would pause and say, “What good came from this?” This usually happens when I would have an upset like I would start to experience rage in my healing or profound sadness. My life was shattered because I knew it was over. By the way, a lot of people are feeling the very same way. They didn’t have a literal bomb go off. They had a different “bomb.” They might have lost their job, a loved one or whatever.

The key is when we can pivot and get our minds to think we create new neuropathways. I’m not going to say it’s easy, but over time, it’s easier for me to go, “What’s good coming from this?” It might be strengthening my resiliency or giving me the courage to step out in a way that I might not otherwise do. I never used Zoom other than for a few minor meetings before the pandemic happened. I was a face-to-face person. I had to pivot. I’m grateful because now I’m able to meet people like you and from all other parts of the world that I otherwise wouldn’t have met as easily.

It’s definitely powerful when you look. One of the things I’ll ask because you seem to have a good grasp on this. It’s easy for you and I to talk about this. When something is traumatic happens as what you described with your friend and those two boys are dealing with that trauma, it’s a lot different to flip a switch and say, “What good came? You literally lost both of your parents.” How do you snap out of it? How do you shake yourself internally when you are not able to flip the switch and say, “I know I should be thinking what good came from this but I lost both my parents. There’s no good in this.” You get that mindset. How do you shape that?

I see it in stages. First of all, you can’t negate feelings and emotions. That has to come up and be expressed. You can’t pretend like it didn’t happen. You can’t just put it aside. That’s not what I’m saying. It’s allowing those emotions to come up, but don’t dwell on them. Don’t hang on them. I liken it like this and it’s going to sound a little crass here, but it’s a beautiful metaphor. When you feel ill, you don’t swallow your own vomit. You let it out.

When you’re feeling sad, give yourself permission to be sad. When you are feeling upset, give yourself permission to be upset. I interviewed Christy Whitman in my film, There’s Got To Be More To Life. She talks about that it takes, on average, 90 seconds to have an emotion shift up and out of our body. It’s a wave of energy. What people often do, like myself candidly, is we resist it because it doesn’t feel good. We don’t want to feel those not-so-good feelings. What do we tend to do? We numb it or suppress it.

The key here is to give yourself permission to allow those emotions to come up. It’s a trick. It’s like a mind hat. It is to be a witness to it rather than to feel like you are stuck in it or in a victim mode. The only other way I can use this as an analogy and this is one of the tricks I did early on. I don’t have children of my own, but I have two nieces that are like my kids. When I would have difficulty shifting it for myself, what I would do is think of my nieces. If they were feeling the way I was feeling, what would I want to do to them? How would I want to console and nurture them?

It takes 90 seconds to have an emotion shift up and out of our body. It’s just a wave of energy.

Whatever my answer was, I would do to myself. I’d give them a hug. I tell them that, “This will pass over time and it’s okay.” It’s not to negate the real emotions and feelings, but once you allow that to pass through you, then you can go, “What good did come from this.” In the beginning, I didn’t get anything, but the bad things. Over time, I kept asking myself that question. It went from the bad things would come to the surface, then I would get nothing. It’s dead space. Over time, I’d be like, “I forgot. So-and-so reached out and gifted me an opportunity to have this experience that helped with my healing. So-and-so introduced me to so-and-so. All of a sudden, I became more aware.” It’s a process. It is not a flip of the switch.

The other thing that is powerful is being grateful. One of the hardest lessons I’ve learned and I’m still learning to this day. I haven’t mastered it, is being grateful for the challenging times. It’s easy to be grateful when things are going great, but to be grateful for, “I’m grateful for the struggle I have right now because that struggle is teaching me to go deeper within myself.”

The truth is we have all of the resources within ourselves, but we tend to live in a society that’s outwardly focused. This has taken me a number of years to whenever I feel out of balance rather than look outside of myself for the answers to take a pause and a step back. Maybe it’s doing more meditation, but more inner reflection because the truth is we have the resources within us. We just have to tap into them.

That’s exactly what FUEL is about. It’s tapping into the foundation that your life is built on. Those things are there. Without those experiences, would it be fair to say, you wouldn’t be the CEO of Rise & Thrive Productions?

It wasn’t anywhere on my radar. Doing filming was not in my business plan. My background is in investments and finance then I started my own business coaching and business consulting business back in 2007. Yet through my journey and experience, I realized one of the fastest ways to get an inspiring and transformational message out into the world is through film. Books, talks and podcasts are another great way because you can get the message out in short sound bites to people. Those that are meant to hear it, hear it. They can do whatever they want with it.

Everybody is on their own journey, but I’m grateful for shows like you because I still have struggles in my life. Without contrast, we don’t know what it’s like to grow and expand. It’s uncomfortable, but what we get pushed outside of our comfort zone, we grow. When we grow and get to that other side, we have such appreciation. I’m in awe of what I have been able to accomplish in the last couple of years and it all came out of rising up from my experience from terrorism.

At that moment, life was totally shattered. This was your video. Now, you are thriving. Looking at all this stuff and we have only just met. A mutual friend introduced us. Doing my pre-show homework and reading the different things that you have gone through and the accomplishments that you have had, it’s exciting to see people taking their experiences. It’s not always trauma. Some people have positive experiences that also build, but to see how people use whatever those experiences are to just rise and thrive, it’s exciting.

I’m grateful that Ginger, our mutual, friend introduced us and I look forward to truly consuming some of your content through the books and watching the video. It’s fun to connect with people and hopefully, inspire some other people because part of what I do is I am in the mortgage space. I own a mortgage company, which is my day-to-day. What’s more exciting is this journey on FUEL, meeting people, knowing their stories and seeing where this takes me. I’m going to guess that your finance job and previous “life” were not as exciting as what you’re doing now.

I feel I literally am living the dream. Pinch me every day. I get to connect with people like you. I get to meet amazing people that are doing extraordinary things. Anybody can do this. Sometimes, we put people on a pedestal and I know I used to do this. The truth is it’s a choice. We can choose to create the life that we want. It takes courage to do that. It takes a small group of people that can be your biggest cheerleaders. You have got to become your biggest cheerleader too, because it’s not easy. I feel the most alive I have ever felt. I have the most peace I have ever felt and I feel fulfilled and on purpose.

It doesn’t mean I don’t have challenges because we all have challenges, whereas we are growing and evolving, that is always going to be part of the equation. I get to meet amazing people like you and get to hear about the amazing things that you are doing and how you’re thriving in the mortgage industry. People think, “How is anyone thriving in the pandemic?” It’s possible.

You and I are connected to show that it’s even more possible. You’re in Boston. I’m in Philadelphia. We are having an amazing conversation. I’m in my home office. It’s more possible than ever with technology and the resources that we have at our fingertips nowadays.

It’s affordable and economical. You need a computer, Zoom and the internet. You could literally start a business for hundreds of dollars. When I started my business in 2007, I seeded it with $150,000. You don’t have to do that nowadays.

It’s like $10,000 to build a website and high-tech phone system that was a couple of grand. All that stuff is pennies now. You can go onto any of these platforms, build your website in one hour, upload some images, add a shopping cart and your eCommerce site is done. The opportunities and as much as different challenges now than there were in the past, there are also opportunities to thrive and to live your dream that didn’t exist even many years ago. Things are evolving fast that it’s giving us so many opportunities.

It’s a choice. We can choose to create the life that we want. It takes courage to do that.

It’s grateful to see and know these stories. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. I want to make sure that we get everybody the opportunity to find all this good stuff that you have out there. Jennifer, if somebody wants to watch one of the videos, I know you have some content out there, how do they connect with you and where we find some of the videos? Talk about your book as well.

There are two places they can go. One is my personal site, JenniferKauffman.com and you’ll get access to the movie trailer. You can get a link from there to go watch the film if you want. For those that want to watch the film, we are giving away some really exciting bonuses, receiving meditation, which will help you open up to receive more in life. We are giving an eBook on thriving, but more importantly, for every purchase of the film, we are gifting $2 of each movie ticket purchase to save a veteran’s life for the month of February and March 2022.

If anyone wants to be inspired by the film, but more importantly give back, go ahead. You can either go to my website or TheresGotToBeMoreToLife.com to watch the film. You can also have access to my books. I’ve been featured in a book with Jack Canfield. I’ve written a couple of my own books, Shattered and #BeCourageous. All of that information is available on my website. You can learn more and there are free resources there too.

Thank you so much for sharing everything with us. If you are reading, go out there, grab some of this stuff. There’s a ton of content there for you, even some free nuggets. If you can grab some of the other stuff and support the veterans, that’s awesome as well. Kudos to you for that. I love it. As we wrap up the show, we are going to do our three simple rapid-fire questions.

These are fun. We have talked about a lot of heavy stuff, in the end, we like to break it up. Here’s the setting. Somehow, you have ended up on an island. You are trapped. You are going to be there for a while. We are going to ask you three questions. The first one is we’re going to throw the disclaimer out there that we know you’d take friends, family loved ones, celebrity living in the past or current. It doesn’t matter. Who would you take if you could take one person on this island and why?

I would take my mom because she taught me resilience and how to rely on my own inner strength and to rise up at times that I didn’t think I could. She has been my biggest cheerleader and fan. In a crunch or challenging situation, I’d want her by my side.

The second one is what’s a book that you would have to have with you that’s had an impact on your life? We know you have your book out there and that’s coming.

There are several books. The first one that comes to mind, which is something I’m in the midst of studying again, is The Science of Getting Rich by Wattles and Napoleon Hill’s book as well. I do believe that without having wealth in our lives, we can’t do the things that we’re meant to do and give back the way that we are meant to give back. That has been a pivotal book for me over the years. When I have gone into some financial challenges and situations is to be reminded and to go back to some of those principles. The key is the thought and gratitude, be in action and always give value that is going to increase that of another person.

I have to check that one out. I haven’t read that one. I love all of Napoleon Hill’s stuff as well. Last but not least, what’s your favorite food, guilty pleasure or fun food that you have to have on this island?
Lobster.

We had Valentine’s day here and my wife spoiled me. There’s this site, Goldbelly. You definitely have to have Goldbelly if you want this stuff, but you can get anything from anywhere. Literally, they fly it overnight with all the dry ice and everything. My wife knows that I’m huge lobster rolls, not the ones that you get at some of these places, but the real deal. She surprised me with the lobster rolls from Maine, with the whole little kit. These things flew on an airplane.

They’d left the shop in the morning and they were here the next day. Goldbelly is crazy. You can get food from anywhere. You can get a cheesesteak from Philadelphia right to you in Boston. You can get Chicago-style pizza. There’s anything crazy. Lobster is definitely up there for me. It’s a treat. Jennifer, thank you so much. For everybody reading, if you got something out of this episode, please share it with your friends, family or anyone out there. Share it on social. Give us a five-star rating on iTunes. On that note, we’re out.

Important Links:

• Rise & Thrive Productions
• JenniferKauffman.com
• TheresGotToBeMoreToLife.com
• Shattered
• #BeCourageous
• The Science of Getting Rich
• iTunes – FUEL with Chris Swartz

About Jennifer Kauffman

Jennifer Kauffman – Inspiring Impossible Transformation
Jennifer is the Director and Producer of the transformational movie, theresgottobemoretolife.com, based on a true story of Jen’s journey of rising up from terrorism and childhood traumas where she went from barely surviving to thriving. She’s an Executive Producer of 2 Emmy and Telly award winning films,  A New Leash on Life: The K9’s for Warriors Story and Freedom Isn’t Free: The Folds of Honor Story. She’s an inspirational speaker, best-selling author, award-winning results coach and founder of The Rise & Thrive Movement.Through Transformational Movies, Jen is on a mission to inspire, encourage and empower people to rise despite seemingly impossible situations, transforming their trauma, enabling them to rise and thrive to live their best life. You can also learn more about Jennifer at Jennifer Kauffman