The emPOWERed Half Hour

Why Ordinary Isn’t Enough with Entrepreneur, Speaker, and Author Jake Lawson

• Becca Powers • Season 1 • Episode 83

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What if the extraordinary life isn’t something you find—it’s something you create?

In this powerful episode of The EmPOWERed Half Hour, Becca welcomes entrepreneur, speaker, and author Jake Lawson to unpack what it really means to "Make It Extraordinary." From his own story of leaving a secure job with nothing but a Home Depot card and a prayer to building a thriving business and personal brand, Jake shares how embracing discomfort and practicing daily self-gratitude changed his life.

Whether you’re chasing a big dream or just tired of feeling stuck in “ordinary,” this conversation will reignite your belief in what’s possible—starting with what’s already within you


Key Moments You Won't Want to Miss:

  • Jake shares the story behind his book Make It Extraordinary, written during a week of self-reflection around his 40th birthday. The idea came from realizing he had enough life lessons—not perfection—to teach from.
  • Becca opens up about her own emotional breakdown and how it was the catalyst for real change. Together, they reflect on how “having it all” on the outside doesn’t mean you’re thriving on the inside.
  • Jake talks about his life-altering decision to leave a lucrative offshore job to start his business—with just a Home Depot card and a prayer. He shares how purpose and passion outweighed comfort and security.
  • They discuss the power of practicing gratitude—including self-gratitude—and how it anchors both mindset and emotional resilience, especially for high achievers constantly chasing the next goal.


About Jake

Born and raised in Marrero, Louisiana, Jake Lawson learned the value of hard work early on—watching his father’s dedication and gaining life-shaping lessons from his grandfather about the power of consistent effort. Through his business, writing, and public speaking, he empowers others to rise above the ordinary and live with purpose.


Connect with Jake Lawson

Order Jake’s book: Make It Extraordinary!: 27 Life-Changing Lessons That Will Elevate You Beyond the Ordinary! on Amazon.

Follow Becca Powers:


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Note: We use AI transcription so there may be some inaccuracies

Becca Powers: Welcome to another episode of the Empowered Half Hour. I have a guest for you today that I think is gonna make this episode pretty extraordinary. Ha. There's a play on words right there, but I'd like to bring to you, Jacob Lawson, he is a entrepreneur, speaker, and author of Make It Extraordinary, but just, by getting to know him a little bit, I feel like this episode is going to be a high energy filled with lots of lessons.

So Jacob, I'd like to welcome you to the show. Welcome. 

Jake Lawson: Thank you so much. Becca. I'm feeling empowered already. Let's go. 

Hey, that's the way to do it. all right, so you have an extensive background of being a business owner, a speaker, and an author. And I love meeting fellow authors because I feel like there's a reason we write books for the most part.

 and it's like 27 lessons too, or something like that. But what, Inspired you to write, make it extraordinary. 

Jake Lawson: it was one of those aha moments. And, I'm not an overly religious guy, but I do believe in something above us, something higher powered Earth, God, whatever you wanna call him, whatever floats your boat.

 I believed that I was called to write something, and it was right around my 40th birthday. And, I was like, you need to write a book. you need to put it out. And I had some ideas of some things that I wanted to do for it.

 the extraordinary process came to mind. You know, my whole brand is, make it extraordinary. It's for my business, it's for my life, it's for everything. And. At the same time, I was like, well, Jake, you're still working on this extraordinary process yourself. You so you're trying to figure this out.

 maybe that's not the right title for the first one. I said, but what are you ready for? I said, you got a lot of life lessons already. You've learned a lot of things that have gotten me where I'm at and where I'm. In direction and headed, so what can you teach off of what you've already learned?

 and so that was the week of my 40th birthday, I wrote the rough draft of Make it Extraordinary 27 life changing lessons to help you elevate beyond the ordinary. And I took all of my lessons good, bad, and ugly and threw 'em in a book, you

Hey, that's awesome. I applaud that too. I'm like, when did I, you're like so specific about the 40th birthday.

I'm like, when did I sit down to write mine? But I think I was 41 when I sat down to write my first book. but I would love to life 

Jake Lawson: changing times, You start, reflecting back, you looking forward, it's definitely, better than what most people would call a midlife crisis.

You maybe a midlife awakening. Steps, whatever you wanna call it, right? But it's, it's like an 

awakening, especially, I love this whole theory of like, make it extraordinary. And, the reason I also say that is because I do believe life's extraordinary. I think that we get to choose the life that we wanna experience.

We don't always get to choose what happens to us, but we get to choose how we respond to it, we get to choose. our mental state, when we look in the mirror every day, like I've had my ass handed to me by life and I've lost both my parents, my brother, sole survivor of my family, and I could be justified staying in bed every day if I wanted to and crying, right?

But. I'm meant to live an extraordinary life. I know that. And so anyway, I'm gonna give it to you and just like, what do you have to say about that? Just like high level mindset on. 

Jake Lawson: you hit the nail in the head. matter of fact, I was, doing a, webinar yesterday and at the end of the webinar they had a guy come on just this crazy energy and I'm kind of working and listening at the same time and he's great energy.

And I'm like, man, this guy's got some really good energy. And I look over, I finally look at the screen. I wasn't paying attention. The guy's got. No legs is missing his arm right here. And he had like a one finger thing that he was born with, right? just had the most positive energy and the best outlook on life.

he is clearly a motivational speaker and his inspired millions. And it's like if this guy can have this attitude with the cards that he was dealt. Anybody has the ability to live an extraordinary life. So it's funny you said that, 'cause this is just yesterday. I'm watching this and like I said, it caught me off guard 'cause

I was listening, but I wasn't watching, I was doing some work, multitasking. Right. And all of a sudden I'm like, I paid attention. And then I was like, wow. and he shared his struggles and he shared the things that he's going through. Yeah. where he is now. And,honestly, one of the biggest parts of what I'm trying to get out there is, I think so many people think this word extraordinary is outta reach.

I think so many people think this word extraordinary is only for the rich and famous. and it's a perspective, what makes my life extraordinary is not what makes your life extraordinary. It's not what makes his life extraordinary. that is within, right? and you have that ability to take all of the good, bad, and ugly in your life and choose to focus it in the right direction and have an extraordinary life.

I love that so much. I got the goosebumps. I'm like, I knew just by reading your bio, we were gonna have a good conversation. I'm like, this is my zone. I get so happy to talk about this bump, because I think to your point, I this is why I created the Empowered half hour because I think so many people.

it's easy to judge people on the outside, is what I'm saying, when I went through one of my roughest points in life, on the outside I looked like I had it together. I had a really, as a senior sales leader in an organization, I had husband kids house, white, white picket fence, basically all the stuff.

But like inside, I just had all my formulas. messed up and how I was approaching life. it took me like having a nervous breakdown or emotional breakdown to re-look at life and start building new steps. But I think that, it's very easy to think that it's not accessible to the everyday person, the extraordinary life.

And I just love that you said that because it is, it's like building reps when you're working out, you gotta hit the reps in to have an extraordinary life. You gotta work your mindset, your emotions. You gotta bring your body into it. But 

What ways have you seen people, even in your own life or when you teach, like what are some suggestions to bring an extraordinary life up into someone's life? 

Jake Lawson: the simplest and easiest one is, is It's pretty, well used term these days, but, having gratitude for what you do have is definitely a key, right?

So, youI don't know, a single person in this world that doesn't have problems. Like everybody's got problems and some are worse than others, right? But. what should you have gratitude about, right? When you have that gratitude in your life, that flips that perspective, right?

You wake up with gratitude. You live your life with gratitude. is funny, I've got an alarm that goes off twice. I. a day, and at 12 o'clock and at six o'clock, and it just says gratitude and it's got a special ringtone for it. the funniest part is I've got three girls, uh, two young ones that live with me and an older one that's, no longer living with me.

And, my youngest, the 4-year-old, She could be anywhere in the house.  She was, came off yesterday and she was like, way down in the living room. I'm upstairs in the office and she hears the alarm. She's like, gratitude. And then she just, we have this thing and we just kind of look up in the sky with a smile and, it's so funny when she does it.

 it's funny 'cause I've, also got a friend that we hang out every couple weeks we'll go and, smoke cigar and talk business and, do some things. and we just started doing this a few months ago and all of a sudden it was me and his two buddies who've, came once before and then a couple weeks later they came back.

all three of our alarms go off at six o'clock. Oh, that's cool. All sets gratitude. And I'm like, all right, this is rubbing off this. I'm going to have to set 

my alarm for some gratitude too. I'll join you with the 6:00 PM 

Jake Lawson:  we both set it, at first you'll get it started and you'll pay attention to it, and then sometimes you may get into a mode where it's instant.

Let me take this off. Right? And then we both said, no, we caught ourselves doing that and unless we're in the middle of a meeting or something like that, you have to sit there and reflect on it and take that moment, whether it's 10 seconds or 30 seconds, but take that moment and really.

Express some gratitude for yourself and it can really be a, centering for any part of the day. And you could be going through some rough stuff or you could be very hectic. And then like if you do take that 10, 20, 30, 60 seconds and just this is about gratitude for the things that I should have gratitude for, it can really reset your mindset.

Right. And to me that's the easiest starting point For that  To feel extraordinary 

Becca Powers: something in your response that I really would like to, piggyback on, and that is, gratitude for yourself. Now, this was a really strange concept for me. I was working in a really high stressful job and I've got four kids, they're all like young adults now and stuff like that, but in the seasonal life that I was talking about as senior sales leader, four kids, like middle school age, like everything was insane.

And one of my coaches was like, maybe you should just. Give yourself some gratitude 'cause I was very good at having a gratitude practice for external things. My kids, my husband, and she's like, have you ever put gratitude towards yourself? And I'm like, I. never even thought to think of, giving myself an appreciation for, anything.

And, I've been doing gratitude practice probably for 20 years, but including myself for probably about eight or nine. And it has changed the game I have so much more grace for myself. Gatitude's probably not a foreign concept, but gratitude towards yourself might be a foreign concept for the listener.

So would you mind talking about that a second? 

Jake Lawson: hit a very particular thing I'll take that part for granted because most of the time I'm thinking of gratitude for the things that I have and, not necessarily possessions, right? Of I am gracious of the possessions I have, but more often my family and, friends and things of that nature 

 I do definitely have gratitude, uh, for myself. 'cause I feel I've truly been blessed in so many ways. but to point that out, I'm, more typically thinking of the external things, the things that we are blessed with instead of that. So I'm glad it's really pointed that thing out, but without a doubt, giving yourself some grace and, especially, you're Type A.

High, developing high energy, get stuff done, individual, right? So we take that for granted, that we're, always on the go and we're doing these things and yeah, we're gonna have gratitude for the possessions we have, but not for the things that we do for ourselves and others. You that's a big point there, right?

To sit there and reflect on that and, Especially if we're a type A person, we're always pretty hard on ourselves. Right?and that's why I wanted to talk about it. 'cause almost everybody who tunes into this is like, high achiever, high performer, right?

 going a million miles an hour. And the concept of self gratitude. When I thought about that, I was like, what? one of the things that. It has made me be, feel grateful for, a just being alive. Like when I think about self gratitude, it's more of like an appreciation.

I'm like, I'll say to myself, I appreciate all that I am I. All that I have and all that I do, because most of who I am, my character's gotten so much stronger over the last years, 10 years. And I, like who I am and who I show up to be. My actions are normally, from a place of love and contribution and service.

Not always, I'm a person, I'm trying my best every day, but I never stop to think about. Who I was and the impact I was looking to make and making an extraordinary life for myself. Just to use your word myself, my kids, my customers, the people I come in contact with.

And then you're like, holy shit. that's. Giving myself a thank you too, and we can come off this topic in a second, but I just think it's really important to, I love that you talked about gratitude. I don't get to talk enough about it on the show, you said somewhere in your line like, you gotta give gratitude towards yourself.

And I was like, yes. I have never talked about that on the show before. So, 

Jake Lawson: when you're a type A personality and you're always trying to do more and better and achieve and climb the next ladder and climb the next goal, I had a guy I look up to, a mentor, tell me one time, and it's like, Jake, if you're always moving the goalpost, you still have to take time and look back to see how far you've come.

 Yeah. And appreciate how far you've come. 'cause we're never gonna stop moving the the target. We're always pushing the target further. No matter how much we achieve, how well we improve, we're always pushing the goalpost, right? So you still have to look back and enjoy and celebrate the progress that you're making along the way.

Man. I love that. Thank you for giving me some space to talk about that. 'cause I haven't got to talk about that yet. And I was like, yay. it's 

Jake Lawson: your show. We'll talk about whatever you want. 

Well, let's go into another lesson. you got 27 of 'em, so let's unpack another one. What you got.

Jake Lawson: as far as life lessons, I put 'em in chronological order. So they started from as early as a kid, all the way to, as I got into later adult, into my business lessons and mentors, right? So, starts with setting the example. that was one of my first ones.

My father set the example of going to work every day and providing for the family and putting the roof over our heads and he just set that example so much so that my first sentence was going to work, you I would wake up with him real early and, he'd be getting ready to go to work before dark.

And I'd be putting on his hard hat and his boots. and one day I was walking towards the door and my mom's like, where you going, Jake? And I said, going to work. and so that was my first sentence from my mother's words. obviously I can't remember making a sentence, but she swears that was my first real three words sentence.

Right? So, he said that example early, A Home Depot car and a prayer comes to mind. And that was when I had worked offshore for a few years, working offshore and overseas. I was young, I was making great money, for being 20 years old. I was working. Nine months out the year, having three months off and, making great money and seeing different countries.

I was in Africa, I was in Switzerland, I was in Spain, so this was, oh, that's really cool. This, it was super cool for that time in my life. I was young in between 20 and 22 years old. And, very cool time. enjoyed what I did, but also knew that I didn't wanna raise my kids from an oil field. From an oil rig somewhere in some different countries, some different ocean.

my dad did that, so my dad raised us pretty much from, he worked offshore and overseas his whole life. Right. So, followed in his footsteps for a while I knew that if I didn't jump out and make a change, then I'd be stuck doing it, you know, I'd be making too much money to quit.

Right. It was one of those situations. Yeah. So I'd, started part-time work with a friend of mine. When I'd be off. I'd go work and start laying towel with them. I had saved up enough to buy my own house, buy a new truck, and I had a fiance and a kid on the way, and I, call it my Home Depot card in a prayer moment.

And, I basically quit, that career and started my own flooring business. having that mindset shift to be able to make a leap of faith and do that is something that not a lot of people would want to do. 'cause you get those, what a lot of people call maybe golden handcuffs, right?

You get in a good position, you got a good job. It's got your stable, it's got you secure. You probably shoot for the stars from it, but it'll keep you safe and secure. Right. Yeah. But sometimes, you gotta trust your heart and make that leap of faith. Yeah. And that was what I called my Home Depot card in a prayer moment.

'cause that's all I had. That's a Home Depot card and a prayer. And I started my business with it. 

Becca Powers: I love that. But there's also something really true in what you said. Sometimes stability doesn't allow you to live it. The extraordinary life. And what I mean by that is there's a life, I always talk about reaching your fullest potential and stuff like that.

But there's the stable life. There's the safe life, right? And I don't mean like there's different stages of life. Some people are still living paycheck to paycheck. they're looking for that stability, that what you're saying, right? Where you've got the stable job, bills are paid, everything.

And a lot of people just hang out there, but. I'm a believer, and I can tell you are too, especially with the work that you're putting out and the conversation so far that, if you reach up, there's a little bit more to grab.  you gotta come out of that safety of that like it is golden handcuffs, but it's also just safe, like.

Your bills are paid, you don't have to worry about too much, you just gotta do the nine to five and whatever that looks like. Or maybe nine months, three months, depending on what your job is, You might not ever get to write your book. build a multimillion dollar company. have really deep relationships because you're stressed out.

Just trying to hold that stability together, like the extraordinary life. I feel like I'm getting a chance to tap into it. I still got more to go, but I. Have depth in my relationships. I have a career that I love. I get to change lives, or help to inspire someone else to change their life is a better way to say it for a living.

I mean, it's really cool to see what we're really made of and I'd love for you to talk about that because you mentioned your Home Depot card and a prayer. A lot of people aren't willing to go there. So what would you say to the person that's daydreaming of Their next thing. 

Jake Lawson: it's a comfort zone, right?

It's, 

it's, yeah. That's really, that's a good summary for what I was saying. it's 

Jake Lawson: a comfort zone and, and everybody can get very comfortable in the mundane, everybody can get very comfortable in the ordinary life, whatever that is. It's nothing wrong with it. Do you feel extraordinary in that comfort zone?

Do you feel like you're tapping your full potential in there? No. Very rarely, even if the job satisfies what you want, there's typically something outside of that. That still is what would make you feel extraordinary. Like whether the job is high paying or just enough or all you need, that's fine.

But then there's probably still something else out there that you have that potential to be extraordinary in that you can be helping change some lives or inspire some people, or coach some people Whether it's helping the elderly or, whatever that may be. Or maybe it's just being that amazing super parent.

 there's extra inside of everybody. There is extra. that's one thing I'm a firm believer in. There's always extra inside of. Everybody and what that is. They, may not know what their calling is. Maybe they have inkling of it. Maybe they just have a hunch and they just have a yearning for it, And maybe they gotta figure it out. But a lot of people also do know. do they wanna pull themselves out of the comfort zone? Right? It's a little scary. It hurts. It's a little out of the normal. It's a little unusual. It's, unknown, right? So. Pulling yourself out of that comfort zone to get to the extraordinary is typically one of the biggest roadblocks.

 I'm comfortable here. That would be nice mentality, 

 that's typically what's gonna stop a lot of people from reaching that extraordinary feeling. And, tell people this, it's like, to be called extraordinary.

Take somebody else to give you that title, but to feel extraordinary comes from within, 

you know, Hey, air five did that. That's awesome. 

Jake Lawson: It, it comes from within and that comes from knowing your purpose, knowing what makes you feel your best, knowing that you are achieving whether it is, getting yourself in a better shape, whether it's.

Eating right, whether it's reading a little bit more, whether it's helping a little bit more, being a better parent, being a better coworker, being a better partner, that feeling comes from within. And when you put all of the pieces together, to me it's like health, wealth, finances, and purpose.

You when you put all four of those things together and you get 'em in your own perfect little mold. That's when you feel extraordinary. And to me, that's all that matters. Like, I don't need people to call me extraordinary. I need to feel extraordinary. 'cause when I do, I'm on top of the world. It doesn't matter if I'm in my own little bubble, it, I'm on top of the world.

I feel extraordinary today because I've hit I know I'm doing this. And when I'm not, I don't feel like it, And so, yeah, I, 

I love that you're. Taking the focus, and this is really good for the listeners too, so just to bring you in and zero, zero in on what you're saying is like if you take extraordinary and you're searching for outward validation, you're never really gonna get the fulfillment on the inside.

When you approach it from an inside job, you get. The benefit of feeling fulfillment, feeling joy, feeling your health, feeling your wealth. I mean like being able to see your family and your. Team and your stuff Thrive because you're thriving like I don't care what people say to me on the aisle.

Say, you call me whatever you want, but when I see this happening in my life, I'm I can't stop. You see that I am thinking of my own life as I'm saying this stuff. I can't stop smiling, you know, so I really appreciate what you said 'cause it's important. 

Jake Lawson: And it's infectious, 

Yes, it is infectious. You if you are the person that's gonna always be in a negative attitude and always be complaining about what you don't have or this or that and the other, or making excuses for why somebody else has got it better or worse than you. Then that's infectious. Nobody wants to be around that.

But on the flip side of it, if you're the positive one who is happy with themselves and happy with the decisions that they're making in their life and doing things that inspire and motivate the people around you. It is an infectious thing. It makes other people want to do it. So by changing your own life, you start changing the lives of people around you, and when you start knowing that you're changing the lives of people around you, that's a feeling in its own right there.

That, just, yeah. Once again, that feeling puts you on that next level, it's not about ego, it's not about any about that. it's just about. Doing good things for yourself that turns into doing good things for people around you that turns into them doing better things and making better choices.

And then, youthe cycle can continue from there, if I do it and you're inspired by it and then you do it and you inspire somebody else by it and they do it and they inspire somebody else, buy it. 

So much. Yes. Like that right there. It's such a good conversation and I'm like so bummed that we're at the bottom of that half hour, because I might even have to have you back on sometime because 

Jake Lawson: we can do it.

I, I'm like, we're just hitting the iceberg on the conversation. I already gotta wrap up. This sucks. I do have one more question for you, but first, if the audience wants to follow you, please share with them. Best ways to follow you and your website. 

Jake Lawson: make it extraordinary is the best way.

Make it extraordinary On Instagram, it's, make with an underscore after that, and then it extraordinary. That's on Instagram, that's on Facebook, that's on TikTok, that's on all of it. So make it extraordinary is the best way. Follow dm. I respond personally. I'm here. like extraordinary flooring is my business.

That's how I make my money, but make it extraordinary is my passion. I am going to inspire millions over my life to find that extraordinary value inside of themselves and bring it out and share with the world. That is my passion. That is my life legacy. That is what I'm going to be known for. 

Oh, man.

See, and now you just said legacy and I could go on for another 30 minutes without that. You're saying all the right words. All right. But let's, bring it back to the listeners. what is an empowering message that you would like to share with them before you sign off? 

Jake Lawson: You have something extraordinary inside of you.

You have it inside of you. It's up to you to bring it out. It's up to you to share it with the world. It's up to you to find out exactly what that is, what that means to you, what make it extraordinary means to you, what feeling extraordinary means to you. I. What would make your life feel extraordinary?

What are the things you need to do to feel that way? It's achievable, and it isn't all possessions. It's, not possessions. it's an inside thing. it's knowing that you're doing the best that you can do with whatever circumstances dealt with. You're doing the best that you can do and you're making a positive outlook on your life, the life of others around you, and you're having gratitude for the things that you do have, instead of worrying about the things that you don't.

Mic drop. Boom. Jacob, it was awesome having you on the show. It's such a pleasure to interview, and thank you for being our guest. 

Jake Lawson: Oh, thanks for having me, Becca. Look forward to it.