Unconventional Life – Podcast, Blog, Live Events

Category: Business

  • Ep450: Building Freedom Through Education — How Justin Allan Montgomery Helps Professionals Escape the Time-for-Money Trap

    Ep450: Building Freedom Through Education — How Justin Allan Montgomery Helps Professionals Escape the Time-for-Money Trap

     

     

    For Justin Allan Montgomery, entrepreneurship wasn’t just about building a business — it was about reclaiming his life.

    Before founding ProCourseStart, Justin was like many driven professionals: highly skilled, well-compensated, and completely exhausted. He had followed the traditional path of education, hard work, and incremental career advancement — only to discover that success, as the world defined it, didn’t feel like freedom.

    “I was doing everything I was ‘supposed’ to do,” he recalls. “But I realized I was stuck in the same loop — trading time for money, no matter how high my rate got.”

    That realization sparked a pivot that would not only change his life but redefine success for thousands of other professionals around the world.

     

    The Birth of ProCourseStart: Turning Knowledge into Legacy

    Justin founded ProCourseStart with a clear mission: to help skilled professionals leverage their expertise through continuing education (CE) courses — building scalable, passive income without sacrificing integrity or impact.

    His system is simple yet powerful: identify your area of professional strength, design a CE-accredited course that serves your peers, and package it into a digital business that grows while you sleep.

    “Every professional has a skill set that someone else needs to learn,” Justin explains. “We just give them the framework to turn that into a business model — one that creates time freedom, recurring revenue, and long-term impact.”

    From healthcare providers and attorneys to consultants and therapists, his clients come from diverse industries. What unites them is a shared desire for autonomy — to step off the treadmill of hourly work and create something that lasts.

     

    Overcoming Fear: The Real Barrier to Freedom

    When Jules asked Justin what holds most people back, his answer was immediate: fear.

    “Fear of failure, fear of judgment, fear of leaving what’s comfortable,” he says. “But here’s the thing — fear never goes away. You just get better at moving through it.”

    He believes the antidote isn’t more planning, but more doing. “Perfection is just procrastination in disguise,” he laughs. “The only way to get clarity is to start.”

    That philosophy underpins the ProCourseStart framework, which focuses on momentum over mastery. Students learn to validate ideas quickly, build efficiently, and refine as they grow — creating real businesses in months, not years.

     

    The Continuing Education Goldmine No One Talks About

    In a world obsessed with startups and social media, few professionals realize that the real goldmine lies in continuing education. It’s a multi-billion-dollar industry — and one that’s quietly hungry for quality content.

    Every year, millions of licensed professionals must complete CE credits to maintain their certifications. Yet most of these courses are outdated, uninspired, or overly academic. Justin saw the gap — and the opportunity.

    “Imagine taking what you already know and turning it into an accredited course that serves your peers, helps the industry grow, and pays you residual income every time someone enrolls,” he says. “That’s the kind of impact that compounds.”

    Through ProCourseStart, Justin has helped professionals from all backgrounds enter this space — building lean, profitable businesses with purpose at their core.

     

    Lessons in Building an Unconventional Life

    As their conversation unfolds, one truth becomes clear: Justin’s philosophy goes beyond business strategy. It’s about redefining the meaning of success itself.

    “Freedom doesn’t mean doing nothing — it means doing something that energizes you, not drains you.”

    He urges professionals to think of their expertise as seeds — assets that, when nurtured, can multiply without constant effort. His story is proof that knowledge, when shared intentionally, can build both wealth and legacy.

    For Justin, entrepreneurship isn’t an escape from your profession; it’s an evolution of it. “You don’t have to abandon what you’re good at,” he says. “You just have to package it differently.”

     

    Giveaway: Start Your ProCourse Journey

    If you’re ready to stop exchanging time for money and start building scalable freedom, Justin is offering an exclusive access to his Free ProCourse Starter Kit — a guided workbook and video training to help you identify your profitable course idea and design your first CE-based business.

     

    Connect with Justin:

  • Ep449: Rewriting the Beliefs That Quietly Run Your Life with Belief Eliminator Extraordinaire Shelly Lefkoe

    Ep449: Rewriting the Beliefs That Quietly Run Your Life with Belief Eliminator Extraordinaire Shelly Lefkoe

    The Unseen Architecture of Our Lives

    Most of us never stop to question why we think the way we do.


    We just assume the fear of failure, the guilt after saying no, or the constant chase for validation are part of “who we are.”

    But Shelly Lefkoe knows better.

    For over three decades, the co-founder of The Lefkoe Institute has been quietly dismantling the invisible architecture that shapes human behavior—beliefs. To her, every fear, habit, and self-sabotaging pattern is a story we once told ourselves as children and never stopped believing.

    “Our beliefs determine our emotions, our reactions, and the choices we make,” Lefkoe says. “When you see that a belief isn’t true, it loses its power.”

    A Legacy of Liberation

    Shelly’s journey began alongside her late husband, Morty Lefkoe, a behavioral scientist who developed a method to permanently eliminate limiting beliefs. Together, they built The Lefkoe Institute into a global center for transformation—one backed by research from the University of Arizona and featured on The Today Show and Forbes.

    What started as an experiment in personal growth became a movement that has helped over 150,000 people around the world. Executives, parents, entrepreneurs, and everyday individuals have used the Lefkoe Method to dissolve beliefs like “I’m not good enough,” “Mistakes are bad,” and “What makes me worthy is what I achieve.”

    “Morty cared about one thing—helping people change their lives,” Shelly says softly. “That’s still what drives me today.”

    How We Inherit Our Limitations

    In the interview, Shelly pulls back the curtain on how beliefs are formed—and why they’re so hard to change.

    “Children are meaning-making machines,” she explains. “When a parent gets angry or distracted, the child doesn’t think, Mom’s stressed from work. They think, I did something wrong.”

    Those innocent conclusions—formed without context—become lifelong programming.
    “They grow up believing I’m not important or I’m not lovable, and those beliefs run every decision until they’re questioned.”

    From Meaning to Freedom

    The heart of Shelly’s work lies in a simple but profound truth: events have no inherent meaning—we give them meaning.

    “The moment you realize the meaning you gave something isn’t the truth, you’re free,” she says.

    Her five-step process guides people from awareness to transformation:

    1. Identify the recurring pattern.

    2. Name the belief underneath.

    3. Recall the childhood moments that created it.

    4. Separate facts from interpretation.

    5. Choose a new meaning that serves you now.

    That’s where the magic happens. “You don’t need years of therapy,” she adds. “You just need to see that what you believed was never true.”

    Stories of Transformation

    Shelly has worked with clients who’ve spent decades in fear—leaders paralyzed by self-doubt, parents repeating old patterns, artists trapped in perfectionism.
    And yet, she’s seen transformation happen in a single session.

    “When people dissolve a belief, their whole body changes,” she shares. “They laugh, they cry, they breathe differently. It’s like watching someone step out of a cage they didn’t know they were in.”

    Her mission isn’t just to teach personal freedom—it’s to change the way we raise the next generation. Shelly advocates for conscious parenting, helping parents avoid passing down the same limiting narratives they once inherited.

    The Philosophy of Possibility

    At its core, Shelly Lefkoe’s philosophy is disarmingly simple: You are not your beliefs.

    “What you think you are—shy, unworthy, anxious—isn’t who you are,” she says. “It’s who you became based on what you believed.”

    Her message is less about becoming someone new and more about remembering who you were before the conditioning set in. That’s the quiet revolution behind her work: not self-improvement, but self-liberation.

    The Invitation

    Shelly leaves listeners with one final challenge:

    “Look at the beliefs you’ve been living by—and ask yourself, what if this was never true?”

    That question alone, she insists, can begin the process of freedom. Because once you see the stories running your life, you finally get to choose how the next chapter unfolds.

    Giveaway

    Have the chance to experience Shelly’s work firsthand.
    She’s offering a complimentary Belief Elimination session to help one winner uncover and dissolve a core limiting belief.


    Winners will be announced on next week’s episode.

    Connect with Shelly

  • Ep448: Stop Playing Small With Money: How Janine Mix Turned $120K Debt Into a Mission to Empower Women of Faith

    Ep448: Stop Playing Small With Money: How Janine Mix Turned $120K Debt Into a Mission to Empower Women of Faith

    When Janine Mix found herself sleeping in her car, $120,000 in debt, and praying for a miracle, she didn’t realize the greatest shift she would ever make wasn’t about numbers — it was about belief.

    Today, she’s a Christian entrepreneur, investor, and bestselling author of Buy The Damn Coffee — a bold invitation for women of faith to stop letting guilt and scarcity run their lives. Through her podcast Permission to Prosper and her teachings, Janine helps women turn financial shame into spiritual strength — and reclaim the abundance that was always meant for them.

     

    When the “Cut Coffee, Save Money” Advice Fails

    “I followed every rule,” Janine told Unconventional Life host Jules Schroeder. “I budgeted, I cut expenses, I did everything right — and I was still broke.”

    That moment of realization — sitting in her car, exhausted from doing “everything right” — became the turning point. She saw how the traditional financial advice aimed at women often keeps them small.

    “You can’t shame yourself into prosperity,” Janine said.

    Instead of focusing on deprivation, she began asking: What if wealth wasn’t about restriction, but expansion?
    That single question led her to rebuild her mindset, her business, and eventually, her entire life.

     

    Faith as the Foundation, Not the Limitation

    Janine grew up believing that “good Christians” should be humble, frugal, and content with less. But as she began healing her relationship with money, her faith deepened — not weakened.

    “God doesn’t want us broke — He wants us equipped,” she explained.

    She reframed wealth as a form of stewardship: the more resources she had, the greater her capacity to serve. Jules resonated deeply with that message — that prosperity is not about greed, but about alignment and purpose.

    This faith-driven philosophy became the backbone of Janine’s work. Her mission: to empower women of faith to stop apologizing for wanting more and start building lives that reflect their full potential.

     

    The Hidden Money Influencers

    During the interview, Janine broke down what she calls The Three Money Influencers — the unseen forces that quietly dictate financial behavior:

    1. Family conditioning: What we learned about money growing up.

    2. Faith or cultural narratives: The stories that equate wealth with vanity.

    3. Personal identity: The internal story about what we deserve.

    “You can’t heal what you hide,” Janine told Jules. “If you don’t face your beliefs about money, they’ll keep running the show.”

    It’s not spreadsheets that keep people stuck — it’s the stories they believe about themselves.

     

    Why Budgets Don’t Work (and What Does)

    When Jules asked why so many people feel defeated by budgeting, Janine didn’t hold back:

    “A budget built on fear keeps you small. A spending plan built on purpose expands you.”

    She teaches women to stop obsessing over cutting costs and instead focus on growing income, investing in themselves, and aligning spending with their values.

    Her approach is less about “how much” and more about “why.”
    It’s a mindset shift — from restriction to responsibility, from fear to freedom.

     

    From Survival to Stewardship

    Once Janine paid off her debt and became financially free at age 33, she could’ve stopped there. But true to her nature, she turned her victory into a mission.

    “When women have money, they fund dreams,” she said. “Not just their own — their families, their communities, their churches.”

    Today, through her coaching and content, Janine helps women transition from surviving to leading — from quietly “making do” to confidently multiplying wealth for Kingdom impact.

    Her work is rooted in one conviction: more money in the hands of good women means a better world.

     

    Buy The Damn Coffee

    The title of her bestselling book started as a joke — a response to all the financial advice telling women to “cut out the lattes.” But it soon became a rallying cry.

    “Buy The Damn Coffee isn’t about being careless,” Janine said. “It’s about giving yourself permission to live.”

    In the book, she dismantles shame-based money habits and offers a faith-anchored roadmap to prosperity — one where joy, generosity, and abundance can coexist.

    For anyone who’s ever felt guilty for wanting more, Buy The Damn Coffee is both a wake-up call and a warm embrace.

     

    Give Yourself Permission

    As the episode drew to a close, Jules asked what she hoped listeners would take away from her story.

    Janine’s answer was simple — and powerful:

    “Permission. Permission to prosper before you have proof. Permission to believe you’re worthy of wealth. Permission to stop playing small.”

    Her voice softened as she added,

    “It’s not about chasing money. It’s about becoming the kind of woman who can handle more — more responsibility, more joy, more impact.”

     

    Giveaway

    Janine is giving Unconventional Life listeners an exclusive free chapter preview of her bestselling book, Buy The Damn Coffee — plus access to her Permission to Prosper audio series.

    Claim your copy at BuyTheDamnCoffee.com/bookoptin

     

    Connect with Janine

  • Ep447: The Future of Fitness Is Female: Julie Cartwright’s Mission To Redefine How Women Move

    Ep447: The Future of Fitness Is Female: Julie Cartwright’s Mission To Redefine How Women Move

     

    From VHS Tapes to Streaming Workouts

    Julie’s career in fitness began behind the curtain, helping to produce and distribute programs for some of the biggest names in the industry. She worked with icons like Jillian Michaels, Tracy Anderson, and Billy Blanks, creating content that landed on the shelves of retailers like Target and Walmart.

    “I’m going to date myself,” she laughed, recalling those early days. “We were making programming on VHS, then DVDs, and eventually digital.”

    While the medium kept evolving, one constant remained: Julie’s love for fitness.

    “Every boss I had told me at some point: drop the fitness side,” she said. “But I couldn’t. It was the part of my job I loved most.”

    That choice — to hold on to what energized her — became the seed for her next chapter.

     

    A New Kind of Fitness Brand

    In 2017, Julie partnered with co-founder Rachel Katzman to launch Pvolve, a science-backed method built on functional movement and resistance training.

    The vision was bold: create a system that delivered results without punishing the body. Instead of “go harder” or “push through,” Pvolve asked a different question: what if your workout actually supported your body across every stage of life?

    Today, Pvolve has grown into a global platform with:

    • 1,400+ on-demand workouts

    • 48 live classes per week

    • 4 patented training tools designed to maximize functional strength

    The results go beyond aesthetics. Yes, members see toned abs, strong arms, and lean muscle. But they also experience what Julie calls the “unexpected outcomes”: better balance, posture, and joint longevity.

    “Low impact doesn’t mean low results,” she explained. “It means building strength that’s sustainable for life.”

    Science Meets Soul

    At the heart of Pvolve is a commitment to science. The method was designed in collaboration with medical experts and physical therapists to ensure it supported women’s real needs — from hormone health to joint function.

    But for Julie, the science is only part of the story. Equally important is how members feel. Pvolve’s community emphasizes self-awareness and empowerment rather than competition.

    “It’s about listening to your body,” she told Jules. “Not forcing it. Not fighting it. But asking: what do I need today? That’s where longevity comes from.”

    Disrupting a Male-Dominated Industry

    Julie is quick to point out that Pvolve’s disruption isn’t just happening in the gym. It’s happening in boardrooms and franchise ownership as well.

    In an industry where most fitness franchises are owned and led by men, 90% of Pvolve franchise owners are women. These owners range from first-time entrepreneurs to seasoned professionals eager to align their work with their values.

    “We’re not just building stronger bodies,” Julie said. “We’re building stronger opportunities for women in business.”

    That dual mission — fitness and empowerment — has become part of what makes Pvolve stand out.

     

    Lessons From a Career of Evolution

    Julie’s path from VHS tapes to leading a global brand offers lessons for anyone pursuing an unconventional path.

    1. Don’t abandon what you love. Even when advised to “drop fitness,” Julie leaned in — and it became her differentiator.

    2. Adapt with the times. From VHS to streaming, she embraced change without losing sight of her core.

    3. Longevity is the real success metric. Whether in health or business, sustainable growth beats quick wins.

    4. Empowerment multiplies impact. By prioritizing women in ownership, Pvolve has created ripple effects beyond workouts.

    5. Trust your body — and your instincts. Julie’s leadership reflects the same philosophy as her workouts: awareness creates resilience.

     

    Why Longevity Matters Now

    For Julie, longevity isn’t just a buzzword. It’s a counterpoint to a culture obsessed with extremes — whether in fitness programs that leave people burned out, or business models that prioritize short-term gains.

    “Your body will carry you through life,” she reminded listeners. “When you take care of it in a way that’s sustainable, you’re investing in more than how you look. You’re investing in how you live.”

    That belief extends to her business philosophy as well. In Pvolve’s steady growth and female-led franchise model, longevity is the north star.

     

    A Movement, Not Just a Workout

    Julie doesn’t describe Pvolve as just another studio or app. To her, it’s a movement — one that challenges outdated definitions of strength, reimagines what success looks like, and opens doors for women in business.

    By anchoring the brand in both science and soul, Julie has positioned Pvolve as a fitness company built not just for this year, but for decades to come.

    And for the women who now own and operate Pvolve studios across the country, it’s proof that the future of fitness — and business — can look very different from the past.

    Giveaway

    This week, Julie is giving a free 1-month membership to the Pvolve platform, including full access to on-demand and live classes.

     

    Connect With Julie:

  • Ep446: From National Geographic to Global Art Educator – Kevin Murphy on Demystifying Talent and Teaching Art Like a Science

    Ep446: From National Geographic to Global Art Educator – Kevin Murphy on Demystifying Talent and Teaching Art Like a Science

    A Pivot From Portraits to Purpose

    In 2001, Kevin transitioned into portraiture. While the work was rewarding, he recognized a deeper need: people craved access to professional-level training without the gatekeeping of traditional art schools.

    So he founded the Art Academy and later Evolve Artist, an online painting program now studied in more than 70 countries. What sets his approach apart? A fundamentals-first method that treats painting not as mysterious “talent,” but as a science anyone can master.

    Why Talent Is a Lie

    Kevin is blunt about one of the biggest myths in art: talent.

    “Talent is a lie,” he shared. “What people call talent is really clarity, fundamentals, and practice.”

    By teaching art like a structured process rather than a guessing game, Kevin unlocks confidence in people who never thought they could paint. His students range from retirees picking up a brush for the first time to engineers and surgeons looking for a creative outlet.

    The results speak volumes: many outperform art school graduates—after just months of training.

     

    The Science of Realism: A Four-Step System

    Unlike the chaos of most art education, Kevin’s program is anchored in structure. Students begin in grayscale, mastering values and light before advancing into color.

    “When you know the rules, you have freedom,” Kevin explains. “Without them, you’re just guessing.”

    The clarity of this approach removes intimidation, giving even beginners measurable progress in weeks, not years.

    From Confusion to Clarity

    Kevin is critical of how art education often overwhelms students with “express yourself” before teaching them how. For him, it’s not about stifling creativity but building the foundation so creativity can actually flourish.

    “You can’t express yourself if you don’t yet have the tools,” he said. “Clarity builds confidence, and confidence unlocks creativity.”

    The Heart Behind the Method

    Kevin isn’t just teaching brushstrokes—he’s teaching self-belief. Many of his students have carried wounds from childhood, convinced they “weren’t creative.” His mission is to dismantle that narrative.

    “Art is for everyone,” he insists. “It’s not about who you were told you are. It’s about what you can learn and who you can become.”

    Why Evolve Students Outpace Traditional Grads

    The proof lies in the output. Evolve students routinely sell professional commissions, launch businesses, and develop mastery in a fraction of the time. The reason? Built-in feedback loops and a focus on fundamentals, rather than theory without application.

    It’s art training stripped down to what actually works.

     

    Living an Unconventional Life

    For Kevin, living unconventionally means rewriting the rules about who gets to be an artist. It means replacing intimidation with empowerment and proving that skill can be taught, measured, and mastered.

    His philosophy? Anyone can learn to paint. The only requirement is the willingness to start.

    Giveaway: Win Access to Evolve Artist Training

    As part of this episode, Kevin is offering listeners a chance to experience the Evolve Artist method for themselves. One lucky winner will gain exclusive access to his training resources, designed to help total beginners unlock the foundations of realistic painting.

     

    Connect with Kevin

window-close-line

UNCONVENTIONAL LIFE

Instagram