Toni Lontis: Of shows with business owners that puts them in front of a global audience. And in behind those shows is a whole range of things from digital magazines, social media, to blog to email. To lead generation, just a whole range of things.
Hello everyone. And welcome back to the everyday business show. I'm your host, Tony Launders, and we have another phenomenal guest. To talk to you about there's so many things that we need to talk about today. I'm not sure we're going to get them all into one segment, but before we get on with the show, if you're listening to this broadcast live on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, or the everyday women's network, please [00:01:00] send us a message.
We love to know what you think about our interviews. We appreciate you listening. And I think it's a privilege that I get to talk to amazing humans across the planet. Most days of the week. Now, each and every week we do a special part that is uniquely Australian and it's called our Welcome to Country.
Today, I want to respectfully acknowledge the people of the Yugambah language region on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, the traditional owners of the land on which we meet and broadcast. And I want to pay my respects to the elders past and present and those that are emerging. And all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who might be watching or listening to this show today.
We value your input into Australia's cultural identity and we are thankful that you read it, that you were here first. Now. [00:02:00] Our wonderful guest today is a phenomenal individual called Joshua T. Berglin, and here's what you need to know about Josh. He calls himself the world's mayor, and for good reason.
Joshua T. Berglin is known as the world's mayor. He is a renowned media personality, producer, filmmaker, and show host, with a heart. With a voiceless and a passion for media, Joshua is committed to elevating the purpose and mission of all of those people that he serves. He's an expert in the future of media and just works with individuals from all walks of life, but he is particularly driven to help those that have experienced similar struggles to his own.
To this end, he merged his private business with his former nonprofit media organization, offering a buy one, give [00:03:00] one program on all of his services. This initiative enables him to provide media services, equipment and education to inner city youth and people in recovery, the mentally ill and those who lack financial means to access these vital resources.
Joshua is the host of multiple broadcasts which are distributed worldwide through his groundbreaking and exclusive media company In A Box. His broadcasts cover a broad range of topics including media, faith, new media, sexuality, HIV, mental health, addiction, the occult relationships, conspiracy, civil rights issues, and interviews with fascinating people.
Despite covering these diverse topics, Joshua's core message remains and is consistent. Truth, hope and inspiration. Joshua is also an accomplished author with his true story, The Devil Inside Me, becoming a number [00:04:00] one international bestseller. Joshua, welcome to the show. I'm so delighted to chat to you today.
Joshua T Berglan: I'm exhausted after listening to sh...
That was exhausting. Anyways, I am so honored to be here. Thank you so much.
Toni Lontis: I have been looking forward to this and as we chatted before the interview, Josh reminded me that it's probably been six months since we booked this, which is great because then I am rejuvenated and refreshed by the conversation that we're about to have today.
I wanted to start the show with one of your quotes and that is life happens for us. Not to us. Josh, this is really special to you. Can you tell us
Joshua T Berglan: why? And there's been a lot of really famous people say that statement. It's not my quote. I know. It is a quote [00:05:00] that lit me up when I heard it for the first time.
I had to, I got to interview Ed Milet, who was the first person I'd heard that from. Yeah. And when I heard it, it was right at the early stages of my recovery and a pretty crazy story.
Toni Lontis: But early on... I've got to say, Josh, I want to get into that a little bit if you're happy to share with the audience. Oh,
Joshua T Berglan: I'm an open book.
You can talk. We'll go any direction you want to go. But anyway, this quote for me at that stage... I've never had a victim mentality, but it's just, damn, this is hard. This is a struggle trying to stay on the right path. My goodness. But anyway, I heard life happens for us. And then it all of a sudden just goes, you mean all this hell.
It all happened for, like it really made it happen for a reason, like it I believed everything happened for a reason, but it's just [00:06:00] drove it in my spinal cord. It now is absorbed in my DNA and this is how I'm going to live from that day forward. That's why that quote matters is because it's a mantra, like no matter what freaking happens and life has thrown me some wild curve balls, my family, some wild curve balls, but I know.
Because one, I believe I serve a loving God. That anyone who's willing to risk it, to put their, to follow their heart, to do what they're led to do. Anyone who's crazy enough to do what they're led to do is that gets crazy. Anyone who's crazy enough. I believe that God blesses those people because they're in action.
They're in motion and they're trying like, yeah, you're going to screw up. Yeah. You're going to make a mistake. You are definitely not going to be perfect. I don't care what religion you follow. You're going to suck at it. You're gonna suck at that rule book. You're gonna suck at it. But you gotta keep moving forward.
And I believe that God blesses those people that don't give up. And I know I'm one of those people. And I, but that quote, is something that when [00:07:00] I'm starting to feel sorry for myself, I just re trigger my brain to go, life happens for me, baby, let's go.
Toni Lontis: Yeah. Joshua, can you share with the audience a little bit about that journey and that struggle?
Joshua T Berglan: Okay. I I'm going to give the quickest version because I don't resignate with this person at all anymore and it's really weird to talk about it because it was a lifetime ago. Because I'm recovered. I'm healed and I'm happy and I have an amazing marriage, and amazing kids, and and I'm living the life of my dreams.
So it's the devil inside me holy crap, that, I did all that? Really? Oh my god. Oh yeah, that's why it's been so hard to get to this place. When I was really young, I was seven years old, and everything started with my sisters disappearing. I literally thought it was something I did. I thought they didn't love me anymore, but they were gone, and I didn't know what happened.
And right after that, I was molested by two guys and then molested by a female babysitter. The [00:08:00] molestation, the physical abuse, I'm a product of all that, and I will say that It's what I would rather harp on is this when I was young and that stuff was happening to me Like even though I believe I attracted a little bit of that in my life I know that sounds crazy, but I believe that said I believe also that Like I that in that moment.
I was so like I was afraid to tell the truth I was afraid to talk about it. I was afraid to share this craziness inside of my head Because I was worried about what would happen to me. I had the fear of, we're going to beat your ass if you say anything. And then also I'm hearing in church if you're gay, you're going to hell.
And I'm, and I don't know where to go and I don't know who to talk to, and I'm seven years old, seven years old, and I don't know what to do. So I learned to lie. And slowly but surely, all of that just turned out to be a really ugly thing, where I'm living this lie, [00:09:00] I'm having all of these night terrors, I'm having these nightmares about what had happened to me, I'm confused with what's going on with me, with my own desires, not knowing if I'm, bisexual, I'm straight, I'm not knowing any of this.
And then, and I'm having nightmares about being raped. And yet at the same time, these daydreams of, wow, that was fun actually too. Mind it. Anyway, so I would get into these relationships and the more attracted I became to the women I was with, the more I wanted men. Can't explain this.
At all again night terrors crazy. Anyway, I get old enough to try cocaine for the first time It the nightmares immediately became fantasies. And so my drug use started full steam ahead Because I was doing all the drugs I could do all the drugs I could afford anything I could get in front of me I was doing and here's why because it made the sex That I wanted to have also [00:10:00] Not scary, and I wasn't afraid to I wasn't afraid to express myself.
And so the drugs became this safe shelter for me. So pretty early on, I think it's unfair to say I was a chem sex addict for 20 years, but essentially I was addicted mentally already from the very first time I did cocaine, because I literally got to have an orgy at that same time because the cocaine turned to ecstasy and ketamine.
So anyway, my life at that point was just. Sex and drugs, and now going from the abused to becoming some type of abuser myself, whether it was verbally. Which we
Toni Lontis: have to remind the audience is the most frequently taken path for children who are abused. So what Joshua is saying is not abnormal. In fact, most experts would tell you that this is expected and anticipated.
Behavior for [00:11:00] a traumatized child.
Joshua T Berglan: I became a legitimate monster because I'm still fearful of, I was so codependent for one, so don't leave me, don't leave me, but then I would be the first one to break up, I would be the one to cheat, I would be the one, no, don't leave me, and then I would do something abusive, whether it started verbal, and then it gets more aggressive, and then the bigger the lie, the more to cover up, the more strung out on drugs, the worse the violence.
I've been in jail six times. So anyway, I don't want to like, it, it's just, I don't want to glorify the stuff that I did because here's the real issue at hand. I learned a lot. Yeah. Because if I've had, if I ever felt safe to tell the truth, I mean my freaking guidance counselor in elementary school, when I said I was acting out.
Just uncontrollably because I was angry and confused and people were calling me a faggot and I didn't even know what it meant yet and what is awful, but my guidance counselor told [00:12:00] me it was normal for boys to experience what I had experienced. And I'm thinking so everyone gets pumped in the, like this.
I'm seven. So I'm performing oral sex, I have a double penetration the first time I have sex. And look, don't even know what's going on. So that's normal. Okay. So even more of a mind F because then I go into church and then I'm being told I'm going to hell. It's all screwed up. But again, here's the thing.
It all gets down to this. This is the only thing that really matters in this world. And yet we have the fewest supply of it. And that is absolute truth. True. Our truth is what's true to us, but that may change over time as we look we see different perspectives grow as we evolve. But you at least have to be true to yourself to walk out the very thing that may not even be your path, but at least you'll know it.[00:13:00]
So if I could have just been honest about being bisexual a long time ago, I would have saved myself of HIV. I would have saved myself from multiple divorces, broken homes, abuse, jail visits, loss of business, being a homeless, being a drug addict. If I could have just been freaking honest, but I was so afraid of the preacher, man, so afraid of God that God wasn't going to love me because I may like dudes too.
And maybe like transsexuals at the same time. It doesn't freaking matter. So stupid! And we get so judgy over crap, and yet, what, look at our own stuff! My God, I am so flawed as a human being. I am still so flawed. I have a heart for God that will never change. I would not be here without God's redemption power, I promise you.
But I gotta tell you something, you religious people suck. You suck. You're awful. You make the planet awful for everyone because you think that you are the rulebook holder. [00:14:00] No, you're not! And your rulebook has 20, 000 contradictions in it. 20, 000 proven contradictions. 20, 000, I can prove it. And I'm a former evangelist.
Listen, I love God. But we, I'm watching... Our
Toni Lontis: religion is
Joshua T Berglan: such an issue, John. I get so fired up about this because I see people killing themselves. , there's people killing themselves every day because they are hurting, because they are afraid to let people see who they are and what happens when you suppress who you really are?
It comes out really freaking ugly and a little crazy and a little wacky because they didn't feel safe to come out of the womb. And Hey, I'm not going to get attacked and murdered. Imagine a baby. Imagine you coming out of your mom's vagina. Okay. You're a brand new baby. You're locked in here and you're sitting there going, Oh my God.
If I come out, they're going to make fun of me. And they're going to say I have a big ass and I'm weird. And my eyes [00:15:00] close together and I got a unibrow. If you came out of the womb like that, how would you feel? Imagine yourself in junior high and high school and you're just a little bit awkward and a little bit dorky and maybe you want to be in the band but you're afraid you're going to get made fun of because you're going to be called a band dork.
Anyway, the point is that we don't make it safe for people to be themselves.
Toni Lontis: Yeah. And yeah,
Joshua T Berglan: you should be able to say I don't give an F what you think about me but guess what we really do care what people think because we want to be loved because we're human beings and God created us to love and be loved.
But you can't be loved if you can't be yourself. So freaking being nicer to people, put your religious bull crap aside, put your politics aside and be a fucking human being. Sorry. Pardon my language, but be a human being. Yes, please. Yes. Sorry. I'm worked up about this today and I apologize for unloading on you, but I'm.[00:16:00]
Actually
Toni Lontis: think that we need to hear from more men going the religious constraints the patriarchy that is in play due to religion. Has not served the well, the world at all in any shape, way or form. And we need to change that. And the change needs to happen now. Look where we are. Look at the world.
Look at the politics. Look at the leadership. Things need to change. Don't they, Josh?
Joshua T Berglan: They absolutely need to change. And that's, you know what? Here's the thing. Don't even listen to me. Listen to this. Yeah, if you got a bunch of crap and you're drunk and you're strung out on drugs, don't listen to this because you're not going to hear that.
You got some issues. If
Toni Lontis: they hear if someone is strung out on drugs or alcohol or has an addiction of any form that is masking a pain that you [00:17:00] haven't dealt with.
Joshua T Berglan: Yeah. Absolutely. I was an addict. Yes.
Toni Lontis: It's masking a pain that you're trying to deal with. And if you just have the courage to unmask it in a safe space, things will change.
But that awareness, that trigger that starts you on that path, that has to be something that gets your attention. Joshua, do you remember what that was for you?
Joshua T Berglan: I, my, and it's, I won't spoil the story and it's a long story, but yes, we don't want to all my other jail stories. I got out within a day. So I wasn't there long enough to feel any pain. Like I'd trade my peanut butter. So nothing bad happened to me. I made friends. I was able to survive just fine, but.
This would be unlocked in the psych ward was a whole different experience because it wasn't fun and I wasn't leaving and I was going to [00:18:00] be there for five years. Wow. I had a moment with God that changed everything for me. And it is a wild story that I will not because I can't tell part of it cause it won't even make sense.
So it's in the book. It's in the movie. You can watch it. It's actually probably better if you read or watch it than me telling it now because. Again, a lot's changed for me, but that, that was the most power. That was the most powerful moment in my life because here's all the times that I tried to change all the times I'm ODing or, like I'm, I've been really bad trouble again, or I'm really sick, the drugs or whatever it may be.
And I'm like, okay, God, I'll never do it again. And I'm politicking with God and I'm negotiating with God. I never kept one of those promises, but for some reason, when I screamed out, my life is no longer my own. I am done running. Take my life. It's yours. When I said that, everything literally in my life changed.
I swear to [00:19:00] you, this is the part why the book part matters, but it was hit me at the top of my head, knocked me on my butt and lifted me up, like into the sky. And I'm floating and I can't explain it. It was a supernatural experience. I guess I just explained it. It was wild, but that was enough to change everything for me.
And the only reason why I know that it was sincere is because now it's been seven years, but seven years of consistently living this life and trying to get better, not perfect at all, so far from it. But perfect because again, going back to my truth point, the truth has made me free. I'm fearless. I get to live my life exactly the way I want it because I'm willing to be honest about everything about my life and I have no secrets now, so no one could hold anything over me so I can go for all of my dreams, which do involve being in front of the camera, which do involve Being a little bit in the spotlight, but I want to do all that for the right reasons, [00:20:00] because I have a very personal mission for the people that I want to help all over the world.
Sydney, Australia is a place in my vision for this, by the way youth media literacy centers all over the world, because here's the thing about media. And I'm tying this to business now, because you are a business show in the future where we are going, actually, it's here now. Yes. But we will all be media organizations in the future.
You will have to be a media organization to survive the fourth industrial revolution. I know it. I've my very, I got my very first vision when I was seven. I was right after being molested. Go figure. I didn't understand what it was at the time. But I, that, this is my thing. The fourth industrial revolution is what I was created to live in, to thrive in, to soar in, and also to help other people in because I'm a teacher at heart and I'm very passionate about media because it helps people like me to have Thank you.
Dissociative identity disorder that God [00:21:00] and I mean with the help of God and doing the work I have healed from do I still switch. Yep, a little bit, maybe have switched a little bit earlier in this broadcast because I got a little excited that happens sometimes. But it that is this is just me. This is who I am.
And I'm okay being this. I'm okay. But it's all with truth and all of it set it free. But going back to the media helps people like me, the people that were mentally ill, the people that were cast aside that were taken for granted, their talent was looked over because mommy and daddy couldn't write the check.
The people that live in the inner cities of this of the world that help build those cities that come from families that help build those cities, but yet they have to live in poverty, those kids. I want to help those kids have another way out. And here's the thing, regardless of what you've done in your life, media is the vehicle to making all of your dreams come true because it gives you the ability to monetize your life, monetize your intellectual property, monetize your pain.
Monetize your suffering. Monetize your mistakes. [00:22:00] Monetize your creative outlets, even if it sucks. That's what media does for you.
Toni Lontis: I'm Joshua's talking because that is the vision that sits behind Everyday Women's Network is the idea that you don't need to be a celebrity or a big name to have media and that we should all and by doing that, we change the perspectives of the world.
And that's so important we have a traditional media perspective that permeates the globe at the moment. And the only way that's going to change is by people like Josh and myself that have media. Companies designed to uplift the voices of people that don't normally have a voice and change perspectives.
Perspectives change [00:23:00] leadership. Leadership changes the world. Yeah.
Joshua T Berglan: You're so right. And what you said about celebrities, here's the good news for some people. The days of mega celebrity are done. It's never coming back. It will never be this way. Celebrity is more irrelevant than ever. But what you're going to see in the fourth industrial revolution is a different type of celebrity.
It's going to be your teachers. It's going to be tribal leaders because even though we'll still be a global, like we'll be interacting globally. We will be very much tribal these. So there's a book called neo think highly recommend checking this out. It's a, it's the secrets of life book interwoven in a children's book.
It's this thick. It's two times bigger than the Bible. It's amazing. But in that book, I, and it's so wild for me to see this because I was like, I was meant to see it. I found the book at a swap meet. But it said in the future, this book's written in the seventies. Wow. In the future, the power that lies in the hands of a few will be dispersed into the hands of [00:24:00] millions.
And it was talking about the medium. Phenomenal. Phenomenal. That is what, I'm going to give you a practical reason why this is true though, and this is not to scare people, but I'm, I want to emphasize, I've been saying this, people have mocked me for years for saying this, but this is true. You're going to have two classes of people in this new world.
Yes, the, there's going to always be the rich out of it. Crazy, but you're going to have two classes of people and that's it. You're going to have the people that have decided to be a media organization, and you're going to have the people that just take universal income and are considered useless eaters.
Those are the two choices. That's the new world that we're going into. That is what Agenda 2030, I'm sorry, Agenda 2030 is really about. Moving people into smart cities, we are changed, like everything is about to
Toni Lontis: change. You can feel the change, you can feel the energy [00:25:00] changing. And from a women's perspective, that has never been greater than it is at the moment that changing and shift.
And it's about rebalancing the world as we know it, isn't it? It's
Joshua T Berglan: absolutely like this is the time for women, your voices. I believe I'm personally believe Lilith is the first woman. So you have fun with that story. If you want
Toni Lontis: a great conversation, that would be that. And for those that you don't know what Josh and I are talking about and what I'm getting excited about is there are alternative views and perspectives.
And one of those is that Lilith was the first woman versus Eve. And the reason we have the Eve story is because of the patriarchal influence that the men, and please don't take this as an attack on men. It is not.
Joshua T Berglan: It's really
Toni Lontis: not. Is [00:26:00] it Josh? It's not.
Joshua T Berglan: Look, you both, like both get to lead my Jessica and I like our relationship.
We both lead, we just lead. We're strong. Yeah, you're right about that. And then it's her that's usually right all the time. I'm usually do it, fall in early. The
Toni Lontis: balance of feminine
Joshua T Berglan: is, I want to say this though, women. Women have been held down for a long time and the system is rigged against women.
It's always been this way. I, a little, it really pissed somebody off. Let's just put it that way anyway, because since history, they've been, their power has been erased. And so that's a real issue, but women, this change with technology, women, I don't care if you've stayed home and nursed your entire child's life.
Like 19 years, you just nourished for 18 years. Guess what?[00:27:00] Really, I know it sounds crazy, but that. That could be a business, not milking other children's babies, but there's stories there, there's books, there's courses, there's, you're not going to have a hundred million people following you, but you
Toni Lontis: may have a thousand people
Joshua T Berglan: that really love you.
And they're part of your tribe. And your job is to lead that tribe. That's the world we're going into now. And your
Toni Lontis: impact on those thousand people could be globe changing. So that one person in your tribe who you lead or influence may have a solution to a phenomenal issue that we face. Absolutely.
Because my belief is that the answers for everything that we face are out there. We just need people to hear from those who might have different ideas. [00:28:00] Yeah.
Joshua T Berglan: We need to unlearn a lot of crap that we think is our faith system that we've just been told. Yeah. It's about anything too. And it's what comes out of your TV again, don't listen to me, listen, don't listen to me.
Because I God speaks pretty clearly when you shut up and listen. Yeah. That's the truth. That's the truth That will lead you to every truth that you want to have. I'm reading the Bible what was started to waken me big time and snap me out of this really damaging mindset. No offense to any of my, the former people that followed me because of my relationship with Jesus.
When I'm reading Genesis 6 and I'm hearing screaming between my ears, the brain is the Garden of Eden. Huh? The brain is the Garden of Eden. I'm like, I've heard that before, but come on. No, it's not. God, if this is real show [00:29:00] me. Then all of a sudden I get this, like, where to go look. Look, sure enough, start connecting the dots, start doing the research that led me to start looking into the history of the text a little bit more and learning about the alteration, changing words, removing sentences.
It's heartbreaking because now what's happening is people choose what they like out of it and weaponize it, or they'll use it to say, God's going to give you all the riches in the world. Let me just tell you, getting all the riches in the world when you haven't done anything to deserve it is the greatest curse, it's a curse on your head.
That is a curse on your head to get a million dollars and you don't know how to handle it. I know, because that's how I ended up homeless the first time. Yeah. I was an asshole with the money, and when you give a young punk a million dollars, And he already has a cocaine and meth habit. Not a good recipe.
Not a good recipe. This is why [00:30:00] I'm thankful that God made it so tough because the last time I, the first time I lost everything, I got it all back like quick. It took, I was so good at making money. Like it was no big deal. God I'm pretty confident that God put me in the desert for a long time.
And it, it's, this has sucked. I've learned my lessons too. And I, and now I'm, I'm seeing the fruit of the work, but it has been tough, but I'm sorry. I want to go back to this because I feel like I'm not getting to finish this part with the truth. Like it doesn't matter what it is but your truth matters.
It may not matter to the person next to you. But you because if it the truth if they say the truth will set you free and there's so many layers to that statement but you know who it really sets free it sets you because here's the thing I can say to you, and with a straight face, that I cheated on every partner I've ever had.
I was an abuser. I had HIV. I [00:31:00] overdosed six times. I was a deadbeat father. A piece of shit father. A really bad husband. A really bad boyfriend. A really bad, awful son. I'm I was late an hour late to my dad's funeral because I was high on cocaine because I was at a doing an orgy and cocaine all the night before, and I was awful was the worst.
But if I can say this comfortably without any fear of anyone taking anything from me, who's free and who's not. I'm not a victim. I'm free, and I'm a victory like my past sucks. Yeah, it does. But I'm not embarrassed by it. I'm not embarrassed by it anymore because of how I've gotten to use it now.
Toni Lontis: Part of that piece of what you're saying is largely around self love and self compassion.
You cannot have compassion and love for the world and people around you if you don't have love and compassion for yourself. You need to forgive yourself. You need to [00:32:00] be compassionate with yourself. And as a I understand those voices in your head that just relentlessly being hard on, on you. From my own perspective, those voices way outweigh anything that anyone could ever say to me.
However, I had. To learn self love and self compassion. And once I did that, and once it's an ongoing, it's an ongoing process, but it gives you the ability to see things differently. And it changes the way that you interact with the world, because before you were constantly worried about what people thought and said and did in relation to you, the change in perspective is now they can still say that, but it no longer impacts your equilibrium.
Joshua T Berglan: Not at all. Not at all. And it's fun now because again, when you get I, I was a bad liar. So getting [00:33:00] comfortable with the truth with it took some work. That's why I keep emphasizing this because I know a lot of people like especially guys that have been molested. Yes, like they have tendencies maybe to go recreate what happened or extremely homophobic whatever either one of those emotions are not necessarily healthy.
But being able to just talk about it and having I'm so grateful that I can talk to my wife about Everything desires and the things that come up for me and it's normal, right? Like it's not awkward. We're before It was so painful to have to talk about, like I had to do mental gymnastics just to try to bring it up because ultimately my heart and my soul wanted to talk to somebody.
I saw, I became best friends with hookers because that was the safest place for me to talk. Here, let me buy cocaine and sex from you. And also your ear, just so you'd be my therapist. So I can talk to you about penis. Like it's just hard [00:34:00] to like, But guys are afraid to talk about that because you're a faggot and whatever they're going to say, here's the thing you get to this place.
When people say it to you, just laugh and go, I've called myself way worse. I promise. And I actually thought God wanted to kill me because of that. But now that I know God doesn't want to kill me because I also am attracted to men. There's nothing you to me.
Toni Lontis: Yeah, exactly. Josh, what happened for you seven years ago that changed the trajectory and has brought you to this place now where we can talk about your amazing media in the box?
Just that was, there was a key point, wasn't it?
Joshua T Berglan: Yeah, Jill in the psych ward when I got out. So I spent facing five years and that supernatural experience, but here's the crazy thing, I still thought I had five years, but I was like, listen, even behind bars, I'll serve you. I'm committed to this because what I didn't tell you was this.
I always [00:35:00] prayed like, God, all I want to do is travel the world and serve and help you. I want to make enough money that I don't have to worry about money. I'm just going to go and help people. That's what I want to do. This is what I'm gonna show a meth addict a coke addict because that felt good to my heart and I Like that's the only thing that ever felt good to me The only reason I knew I was somewhat human is because I'd sincerely Love to help people Yeah, I am the world's mayor because it's about elevating everyone.
I work with. It's a mindset. It's not an ego thing, although I am going to run for mayor and I will be called the world's mayor by the United Nations. That's going to happen, but it's a mindset about elevating the people I'm around, elevating them to their gifts and to their purpose, because that's what we're here to do as humans is to elevate other people to love and to be there.
And I don't even know what we're talking about now. So now I'm sorry.
I
Toni Lontis: wanted to bring you back to one of your own. [00:36:00]
Joshua T Berglan: Oh, my chain story. Hold on. I got out of jail five days later. And I'm like, Oh, I'm on the streets of downtown LA and I'm going this promise was a lot easier to make when I was in jail because now I'm in LA. I'm by all the sex clubs. I know my dealer where he lives.
I know like I'm now back in the jungle. Yeah. But My commitment to God and changing my life was real, or I wouldn't still be on this path. So anyway, now your question.
Toni Lontis: Yeah. So from that point to now where you have the book and the films and the media packages did it all come to you as a progression?
So I wanted to talk about media in a box and what that does and what your vision behind that particular product.
Joshua T Berglan: Which question do you want to answer first media company because let me tell you, it took seven years to develop. Yeah. And here's the funny thing is when I want to, for those who get [00:37:00] downloads and visions and inspirations where they go out and pursue it.
I'm sure you can relate by now that you know that it doesn't happen the next day. But when you get the vision you think, Oh, I'm going to have this next week. Doesn't want it next week. Because you don't know what you don't know. And a lot of that is that you are not prepared to deal with a lot of the crap.
So it, no, so media company in a box came through getting kicked off of multiple platforms, including Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon fire. It came off of, I was vice president of a TV network and got kicked off that network. Because of the content that I was creating. Telling people very painful truth. Even talking about organ harvesting got me in trouble.
Anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Because, you're exposing a certain government.
Toni Lontis: Explain things if we don't, or change things rather, if we don't talk about [00:38:00] them.
Joshua T Berglan: You need a company in a box. That's why. Oh, you got to have free. That you have to have a free pla not a free platform. You have to have a platform that you can speak freely on.
Correct. But that said, so it started lit with a vision and, but this vision took place when I'm on the, I'm on set. I was with the Super Bowl commercial. I'm bald again. I forgot. I don't have hair anymore. So I look like this when I was acting in LA and I was Brian Erlacher is a hall of fame NFL football player.
I was his body double for the Super Bowl. And which is funny because when I met him, he actually had hair. Anyway, there was a funny reaction there, but I was on set and I was like, I was looking around and looking at craft services and all the different trucks that were around. And I said to myself, all of these trucks, these businesses are here to support this commercial.
So [00:39:00] this commercial is the center of the universe for all of these companies. What happens if I make myself the center of the universe? That question is what made me realize that everything that I had been doing when I'm scrapping to pursue my dreams, learning how to build websites, learning how to do content marketing, because I was, I taught myself, I was homeless.
It like, I just got done being homeless. The job I had wasn't paying enough. I had to find a way to build to make extra money. And by the way, I learned this scam that the multiple multi level marketing people use that the leaders get there. I learned the trick. Learning that trick is what made me go, I'm going to go learn how to build websites and learn how to do this the right way and how to build these platforms.
Yeah. So self taught. So I go, I learn all that. I, learning videos. I don't know how to do all this, but it started literally with learning how to build a build a [00:40:00] websites. But then I'm doing the Facebook lives. I'm getting to speak. Oh, on, on going on set. I realized I all these things that I learned how to do producing events.
My first event I produced how that happened. I kid you not that day I was going to kill myself. This is when I was homeless. I was going to kill myself. I had a little bit of cash. I was going to my dealer's house. I was going to buy this certain meth that he had, and I was going to shoot it, all of it.
And I was going to have sex and just die having sex. That's what was my plan. My phone rings. I'll never forget Annette for doing this. I can't wait to see her when I go back to LA because she saved my life. She, I don't know if she actually knows the story yet, even though I tell a lot, she calls and goes, Hey, can you get us some skin, like some products for the, these gift bags?
And I'm like, yeah, I can probably do that. What's it for? And she said, it's for the ESPYs. I'm [00:41:00] like the SV awards. She's yeah, I go. Yeah, let me make a phone call. So I make a phone call. I get 350 different skincare products that are all like over 200 bucks apiece. It's like really high grade stuff So I get there so I get to go To this gifting suite at the sv or for the sv awards.
I meet all these celebrities meet all the producers I'm there representing these products But I start to notice that some of the things were going wrong. And I, so I just instinctively jumped in and started fixing it. That gave me an opportunity to produce another event. We'll producing that event is what got me on my first movie set was just there to bring the energy.
This story is way cooler than I can. I have time to tell, but that I'm just there to bring the energy. And then when I had long hair at the time, when they make this invitation, show up on set and I'm bald. It goes, Hey, you look scary. Can you play this part? This is seven years [00:42:00] ago. I'm like, sure.
I'm playing this part. So I get, and I'm all I am is a bodyguard. I pat somebody down. I've I've watched professional wrestling. I knew how to, walk it up. So they liked it a lot. And then they go, Hey, can you give a suit? I'm like, yeah, I have a suit. You saw me in a suit when we first met. He goes, Oh yeah.
Can you wear that suit to play another scene? I'm like, yeah, sure. So different movie. This time I'm a bodyguard and I'm just escorting the guy. I don't have lines and I'm like this makes no sense. I'm this guy. I'm dressed up in a nice suit. I'm walking this guy through this mansion, introducing him to the mob boss.
Why would I call him Mr. Dorado? That's his name. That's what I call him is Mr. Dorado. So I gave myself lines. They kept it. So that led to more acting, more producing. Anyway, all of these things, but my dream is to be a talk show host. All I ever wanted to do was be the next Howard Stern, Opie and Anthony, Oprah, Don [00:43:00] Imus, like that's all I ever wanted to do.
And, oh, and to pitch products on QVC. That's all there was. Yeah. I started doing that because of technology. Facebook Live. At Facebook Live, I learned how to multi purpose. I learned how to turn it into a podcast. Yes. Then learned how to get on streaming TV networks. Yes. That led to being a producer for a TV network, which then led to me becoming vice president of a TV network.
I learned all of these things. I had my own network as a nonprofit where we just gave away everything. That's not a good business model, by the way. But then after getting kicked off all the networks, I realized something, but I can't tell you because it would probably be disrespectful on your plaque.
Fair enough. And I'm not going to say it out of respect. Because this is your business and I think what having a network is awesome. I just, for independence and individuals. I believe in a different way and that's what [00:44:00] media company in a box is Media company in a box will take any individual Even if you don't have a business and give you at least seven new revenue, obviously new revenue streams but new revenue streams you have an existing business I can walk in and Probably within 10 minutes, give you seven new revenue streams.
I would do that in the consulting call. You just won't know how to do it without me. But it's a part technology part service and what it is it literally makes you a one person media organization. I have two different websites that are two different examples of it, but it's evolving. I just became and I'm so honored because I told you about the movie seven years ago.
Yes. Years later, that same film company that was making their first film. That's why they let me get away with all that stuff. Yeah. Has now made 12 movies. They got five more being made. And I now the director of new media for this film organization and we are building it into. My it's called media box media company in a box team.
Yeah. So it's [00:45:00] what you, for the team version of media company in a box I'm doing for a film studio, and I'm so excited because I love making movies and here's the cool part. These movies are not about shoot em up, it's not about superheroes, it's about real people doing real things for real people. It's about real overcoming.
Every story is true. Every story is, it's geared toward benefiting and helping the youth. That is our niche, that's what we focus on. Because here's the thing us older people, I'm a little bit older than you. But us older people, we got to make, we got it. We have to be there for the youth because without the youth, this planet, we've got to, we've got to be better for them than we've been.
Because right now the youth is being neglected and rotted away. They're getting more immersed into technology and I'm a technology guy. I love technology, but the soul is being taken away with this for some of the kids that have just grown up with [00:46:00] this. Yeah. We want to be there. We want to speak to them and show them that they can make their dreams come true.
And by using media company in a box and the buy one, give one program, which allows anybody to come buy it. But guess what you get to do. You get to give it the same service that I'm doing for you. You can give someone else and I'm going to beg you to give it to a prisoner. I'm going to beg you to give it to a teenager.
I'm going to get, beg you to give it to an inner city kid, somebody in a third world country, someone else on the street. I don't care if they're willing to work. I'm willing to teach them because media is the way, and I don't care what you've been through in your life. I don't care what your education is.
I can teach you this. I can teach you media. I can teach you how to take all of your pain and suffering and put it, make something out of it. Jessica and I did not have money when we made our movie that's won 11 film festivals. We didn't have money when we became an international bestseller in four countries.
We didn't have money. So it can be [00:47:00] done. Your dreams get to come true. If you've got this thought and dream in your head, in your heart, that's not God asking you. That's God saying to you. This is what I have for you. Choose this path and you can't get on that path without the truth.
Toni Lontis: Absolutely. Josh, I've so enjoyed chatting to you today.
And I know all the things that I wanted to chat to you, but I just want to leave the audience with one thing. Connect. With Joshua, jump onto his website, you will see all of the amazing things that he does and he has an amazing capacity for help. So even if it just starts with a conversation, there will be something that Josh has in his wisdom bank that will help you.
Yeah, and I am completely in agreement [00:48:00] with Josh about the way of the future, which is why I have my own network because I want to do things differently. I want to show people. Things and ways to do things differently that is not reliant on what we thought we knew on traditional media. Traditional media will fall away.
It is corrupt. It is not good for the human soul. It is negative. We need the world to be filled. With independent media organizations, exactly as Josh is teaching and will teach you. So please audience, if you do one thing today, if something sparks in your heart, I encourage you to jump on a call with Josh and see how to do it.
Joshua T Berglan: Josh, I'm not always this high energy either really nevermind. I am everybody. You got me excited. The first question just lit me up. I'm sorry. I, you just spike my adrenaline and set me off to the races. [00:49:00] I'm sorry about that's
Toni Lontis: my job. I feel like, yeah, that's my job that's my job.
And so many of your life lessons and so many of the things that you've experienced Similar in, in my own life that it's just it's a wonderful conversation, Josh, a wonderful conversation. And we must get off this show now. Otherwise my team will be going. You've talked too much. So wonderful people, everyday business show.
You've been listening to the amazing Joshua T Bergman, wherever you're watching this interview. I encourage you to jump onto the show notes and you will see. How to connect with Josh. He is a wonderful human being who has been through an incredible amount of things and stuff, but that makes it all the better.
And that makes his heart all the more pure. So helping people across the globe. Thank you for listening. Every listening today to the everyday business show, Joshua, thank you so much for spending your time with us today. Thank you. We will see you all next week and bye for now.
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