inside OUT: Navigating the Mental, Emotional & Spiritual with Jojo

Recalculating: Purpose, Passion, & the Paths We Choose

Jojo Cottle Episode 34

In this solo episode, Jojo gets raw and real about direction, purpose, and what it means to live in alignment with who you're becoming—not just who you used to be. From childhood dreams of acting to unexpected pivots into podcasting and aviation, Jojo shares the deeply personal story of how her path has unfolded, the identity shifts along the way, and the wake-up moments that forced her to ask: Is this still what I want?

This episode is an invitation to pause and reflect. Are you living a life that's truly yours—or just moving through the motions? Whether you're feeling stuck, uncertain, or on the edge of a new beginning, this conversation will help you reconnect with your younger self, borrow energy from your higher self, and chart a course that feels aligned, intentional, and fully you.

Let’s get messy—mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.

Thank you for listening! Don't forget to follow along on social media @_insideout.podcast, rate and review. And Join the MESy Mailing List for exclusive content, insights on what is coming up and more!


Welcome to the Inside Out Podcast. I'm your host JoJo and this is where we'll navigate the mess together. That is mental, emotional and spiritual. Let's get messy.

Jojo (00:29.219)
Hey everyone, thanks for tuning in. Happy Wednesday. This week I wanted to talk about our direction and our purpose and kind of how that all unfolds. Lately I found myself in conversations with friends, with family, just people randomly about why it is you chose a certain career path or how you got in that certain career path or really the unfoldment of where it is that you are in your life. And it really started to make me

kind of check in and be like, hold on a second, how did I get here? Because there were certain things that I wanted, like when I was six years old, for instance, like I wanted to be an actor. So basically having these conversations with people about how they got to where they are now and what that has really looked like and the unfoldment of that. And it's made me really look back on my sort of navigation and my story.

and really see what my enfoldment is. And also to check in, is this what I want to be doing? Am I where I want to be? Because I don't think we check in enough with ourselves. And I don't think, I think we are so much like outside in and everything around us is just happening and not so much like on autopilot, but just kind of like the complacency of, okay, I do this and then I go here and then I do that and I wake up and I go to this job and you kind of wake up one day and you're like, where's my life? And I've talked about this in previous episodes before, but

It is very much of, we consciously choosing the path that we are on? Is the career or the work or the job or the relationship or the home or the city or you can get micro or macro with this, but are those things actually aligned with what you truly, truly desire? Maybe it's not that six-year-old desire of like when I was a kid, I wanted to be an actress or I wanted to live.

I don't know, you name it. Is it actually conducive to what you want now and who you are becoming, where you are going, the people you surround yourself with? Because we don't want to wake up one day and be like, well, I could have done X, Y, and Z. And that's why I've made some major career shifts recently that I've also spoken about because I didn't want to get to that place where I was like,

Jojo (02:53.903)
I've always wanted to do this and I just never did. And I had some crazy realizations. I've been talking to friends a lot lately about direction and choices and how they ended up in certain places and what decisions they made and why they chose a certain path. Or maybe it was just a natural unfoldment of that path, but it really made me look back and be like, when was the sign really there that this was something that I wanted to do? So.

I'm going to flip this onto me. So you guys have a little bit more insight of really who I am and why I am the way that I am. And also what really made me choose a starting a podcast and then B going into aviation because I went to an acting school. I auditioned for schools around the world and I ended up in New York at an acting conservatory in 2015 after high school, after doing a year at business school, not important.

But knowing since I was a child, that acting was really important to me. And I always said it was because I wanted to share stories, empathize with an audience and let people see a side of life that they wouldn't necessarily be able to have access to or perspective of. Post-graduation, I did shows, I did voiceover, I did commercials, I did TV and film and all the things, but I never really had control of the narrative. Not that I needed to have control of the narrative.

But I really was reliant on the casting directors, the producers, the writers, the other actors to really see if this was something that I fit into or a world that I could fit into, but because it was their world that I was slotting into rather than creating my own world. Hence, inside out, empathizing with an audience, sharing stories, having a different perspective, and ultimately transforming and changing the way that we live our lives so that they're more fulfilling.

Now, when I was six years old, I didn't think I want to be a podcast host. Definitely not. Even in 2019, when I wanted to start a podcast, I wasn't thinking of it from a perspective and now awareness of how those two things of acting and podcasting really do kind of go hand in hand. And this past year, I've had a little bit of an identity crisis for

Jojo (05:22.821)
lack of a better word about where I'm going and what it is that I truly want. And also a major one is, I giving up on that six year old's dream? Or, which I had to reframe this into, am I adjusting for 29 year old Jojo's reality and also honoring the 29 year old's dream? Cause the truth is I don't really

want to be chasing the actor's lifestyle like I did for, I don't even know, like a decade, I guess, longer because I was acting since I was like literally a kid. But now it's adjusting and seeing how I can really share stories, empathize with an audience and have a reach that is still true to the reason I love acting in the first place, but more specific.

And also more tailored to, to me, because I don't have to morph. I can just be now. You're probably wondering, okay, well, how does this apply to my life? I want you to check in for a second and go back to that child. Go back to, I don't know, was it high school or even maybe even further back middle school? What were the things that you loved to do?

And are there any places in your life now that you're still integrating those and living those out? Maybe it was that you liked to paint. Are you just not painting now? Or is it once a week that you may be doing like a paint and sip or getting out your doodles and drawing? Like what is it that you can start to tap back into?

Cause I think also the further we get into the jobs and the responsibilities and the monotony of life, which it also shouldn't be monotonous. should have just blessings all the time and be able to manifest and create and be in a perfect kind of world that we want. We're not meant to just be robots in this lifetime. I think my audience, the mess makers are very much of the

Jojo (07:39.16)
I can have it all and I will have it all and I'm not going to compromise my life or settle, word there, for less than I truly desire. So where is it? Was it sports that you used to play that you just aren't even active anymore? Could you join an intramural kickball team? Where is it that you can really get specific? Another avenue of my life.

that I'm noticing is totally out of alignment. And I've talked about this before is New York. I've been here for a decade and it is time to move on. Now moving on is terrifying. Starting over or starting fresh in a new city is completely scary, but I'm someone who thrives and is practically fueled by sunshine. And I'm in a city where the buildings loom over your head. It's only light certain amount.

of time in the day because the shadows of the buildings and I mean, I can go on it's New York. Like there are amazing aspects of New York. And then there's also, okay, this doesn't align with me anymore. Yes, it got me to really open myself up and develop skills and become the Jojo that I am, but it's not aligned with what I want in my life. I want sky, I want sun, I want water, I want space, I want plants, want...

Natural life, like living in a box doesn't work for me. And then there's the other part of my life where I love interacting with people. I did hospitality throughout high school, throughout college until about 2020 when COVID hit. I was working in fine dining restaurants. I was working for catering companies. I was working with private chefs. I was working for families on the Upper East Side. I was bartending certain party. I kind of did it all from front of the house, the back of the house to

You could throw me anywhere in a restaurant or hospitality environment and I could figure it out. But creating experiences or being part of someone's journey, whether that was a wedding or an anniversary dinner or a party, a special event, I loved being able to create that with and for people. I'm also someone who needs constant movement, motion, travel.

Jojo (10:00.635)
new places, new faces, new environments, not that I'm unhappy just with one situation, but that I crave adventure. I crave learning. I crave seeking cultural differences. just, want to, I want to soak it all up and staying in one place is another way that I feel very boxed in. Back to my New York apartment type of living. Now, Q aviation, Q becoming a flight attendant.

In 2019, this was something that I was thinking about. I did my first ever solo trip at beginning of 2019 and I went to Barcelona, an absolute blast. And I remember it was either on my plane back from Barcelona or to Barcelona. Can't remember which one, but I had stayed in Europe. So I went from Nice to Barcelona and then from Barcelona to

Paris, but it was one of those short legs. I met a flight attendant and she wasn't working that trip, but she was sitting next to me and we started talking and she's like, this is the best job ever. She was working commercially and you know, I work with people all the time. So I was like, this blends so many parts of my life, so many things I love together and like, why not? Then COVID happened and anyway, we all know how that went. So now this year,

becoming a flight attendant in private aviation, I'm finally going back to the thing and back to the part of me that I had not necessarily been missing, but been craving in a more foundational way. And even my conversation, if you go back and listen to the episode with Chelsea McCluskey, she talks about how there were certain things in her life that she was doing.

And I don't want to tell her story. want you guys to go listen to it if you haven't had a chance. But she talks about how the path that she was on, yeah, well, it was great. And that's what she thought she wanted. She realized it was very limiting and just working in hospitality can be very limiting for me. So now I'm in a place that I'm able

Jojo (12:18.752)
to travel, I mean, potentially really leave New York because I'm not gonna be tied to a location necessarily for a job that takes place in the clouds. Becoming a flight attendant really marries the aspects of my life for creating experiences for passengers. Being part of that journey, whether that's going on an insane vacation or a honeymoon or even a business trip or whatever it is, maybe it's a world tour for a rock star.

The point is now I'm taking these parts of me that are so ingrained in my being of wanting to curate that, that I'm really able to ground what it is that I want. Now, did I think that when I was a kid, yeah, I'm gonna be a flight attendant? Definitely not. These were not plans that I had. I didn't wake up and like go watch airplanes take off.

and be like, dad, I want to fly in that one day. No, that did not happen. Now there were little weird tidbits of my life that kind of maybe were pointing me in this direction. One of them is I went to high school in Sedona, Arizona, and one of the places that I call my spot and that I would always go to if I needed to process something or I needed space or if I basically always went up to airport.

And there would be nights, now this is totally illegal, so do not do this, where it was a private airport and it would close at a certain time. So the runway was not active when I did this. Don't freak out. But the gate wasn't like fully flush closed. There was like a space in it. And I would crawl through the gate and I would go and lay on the runway and I would watch the stars. And this would be typically summer nights, but being under the sky connecting

in that way for me was so important. And anyway, I'm kind of getting off track, but the point is I didn't think, oh, I'm going to be a flight attendant. Oh, I'm going to work in aviation. No, no, no. And there's other weird little things that happened and people that came in and out of my life and people that set the tone for certain things. Even a pilot that I met super randomly in 2020, right? When I had thought about becoming a flight attendant the year before and he was, has been, and is a major catalyst for

Jojo (14:45.013)
this path. I mean, of course I can look back and put all the pieces together and be like, I went to acting school and this is the arc of a story and empathizing with an audience and how to really deliver a message or get a point across or whatever it is. And I can look back on my hospitality and be like, of course my travel. And I mean, I moved around so much. There's so many aspects of my life that are just like being thrown together right now. And I'm like, wow, duh. Like this is of course where I'm meant to be. And also six years ago,

things that I really, really wanted, but didn't have the tools or the ability to really push that forward then. So back to my question that I posed in the beginning, where is it or what is it that doesn't feel aligned? Doesn't feel like this is really what I want to be doing. This is my purpose. Or maybe you are on your purpose and you're looking back and you're like, wow, these are the reasons all of this makes sense.

or these are the little pieces that all fit together. I want to challenge you to go back and retroactively write your story and think about all the little twists and turns and how it perfectly lined up to put you to where you are. Now, maybe you hate where you are and that is very unfortunate, but the life that we are meant to have is on the other side of us realizing that we don't like where we are.

You have to acknowledge that first because if you don't, then you're not going to be able to really wake yourself up and make that change. So direction and also what you devote your time to is massively important. And if you're unhappy in that career or if you want to make a change or if you're like, it's, it's more just check in. you good? feel like I kind of went all over the place with this, but the point that I want to drive home is

It's not linear. We might think we get from point A to point B, right? We start at point A, we need to get to point B. It's not just gonna be a straight across line of, and we're done. It's gonna be back, forwards, up, down, left, right, circles and circles and circles and loops and you're gonna go all over the map. But that's the beauty of figuring it out and deciding what it is you want. If you don't go in a certain direction, you're not gonna know. If you don't choose, you're never gonna.

Jojo (17:13.089)
Commit to anything. So mentally, emotionally, and spiritually, let's get messy. Mentally, I sort of already asked the question, but it really is, what is my direction? What is my purpose? Emotionally, do you feel an alignment where you are now? Are you having anxiety attacks? Are you having Sunday scaries? Are you going into all of these like doom spirals? Cause I'll be honest with you, I was just away.

And the thought of coming back to New York was setting me into panic mode. was having anxiety attacks. I was freaking out. I feel like everyone in my vicinity are the people that were dealing with me at that time in the past couple of weeks. If you're one of those people, I'm so sorry. Like I was losing it because I just did not feel and I do not feel like New York is where I want to be. Other aspects of my life are falling into place, but living in New York, it's like,

We need to close this chapter. need to move on. So emotionally, I'm a mess. I didn't even mean for the pun there. Are you, are you emotionally just like all screwed up inside and feeling like so out of whack and so chaotic? Or do you feel at peace? Do you feel calm? Or are you just numb and complacent? So check in with that, with yourself and figure out what it is. And then spiritually, I want to bring it back to the child. You.

your younger self. And then I want to shoot so far in the future, which is your perfected self. And somewhere in between is now. Now our child self wanted certain things in our life. We are naive. We're innocent. We saw the world a certain way. We saw everything with robes colored spectacles. And our perfected self is our higher self, our future self, whatever you want to call it.

that has all the answers, everything has worked out and they are in a total state of calm. Now I've been doing this thing lately where I've been borrowing energy from my higher self, my future self, my perfected self. This is nothing that I've made up. I did not come up with this. So I can't take responsibility for it, but borrowing from our future self, knowing that everything is perfected and meant to be exactly the way it is or that it already is.

Jojo (19:39.553)
Perfect. Where I live is figured out. I am with that person. My career is going really well. Inside out is doing what the point of inside out was meant to be, which is helping people look at their lives and realign and stop living for people pleasing and just making everything okay on the outside and not dealing with how we truly feel on the inside. So spiritually,

going to that future self. Does this make sense? Going to your future self where everything is already figured out, everything's perfect and like taking some of that energy and holding onto it now so that there's more ease. And so the anxiety can sort of quell and you can sort of like sit back and be like, okay, we're good. Now that's just something that I've been spiritually playing with. It's not going to be like that for everyone. So direction, this was all over the place.

This was not in a very clear direction, but it was about direction, which is kind of ironic. Think about it and let me know in the comments or DM me. A lot of you like to DM me. I love it. Or just text me. Love that too. If you have my number, otherwise please don't. Anyway, you guys know where to find me at underscore inside out dot podcast.

I'm going to maybe potentially look into doing more video. What do you guys think about that? I know that my guests are requesting it. I've sort of had an aversion to going the video route because of my whole life has already been on video and it's about how I've looked and I don't care. know, entertainment modeling, acting.

And I wanted this to really not be about the outside. want it to be truly about like what's in here. So that's why I never went into the video world, but maybe, maybe we do. Maybe we have some here and there. We transition a little bit. I'm open to doing what is best for everyone. Some people like watching podcasts. Hey, if that's you, amazing. And if you like inside out, maybe I need a video podcast. I don't know.

Jojo (22:01.886)
Just spitballing here. All right, guys. I hope you have an amazing week. Again, direction, direction, direction. See you next week. Bye.


People on this episode

Podcasts we love

Check out these other fine podcasts recommended by us, not an algorithm.

Spiritually Hungry Artwork

Spiritually Hungry

Monica Berg and Michael Berg
Move With Heart Artwork

Move With Heart

with Melissa Wood-Tepperberg