What if the parts of yourself you've spent your entire life trying to suppress are actually your greatest gifts? Jesse Israel went from being an expressive, rebellious kid who learned to make himself smaller, to experiencing debilitating anxiety and panic attacks, to eventually standing in arenas leading tens of thousands of people in meditation alongside Oprah. Jesse joins Alexis Artin for a deeply personal conversation about anxiety, self-doubt, meditation, authenticity, purpose and overcoming fear, revealing how founding a record label that helped launch MGMT ultimately led him toward an entirely different calling with The Big Quiet. Together, Jesse and Alexis explore why we shrink ourselves to feel safe, how comparison distorts our definition of success, why silence can become a competitive advantage in an increasingly noisy world, and what happens when you finally stop running from the thing that scares you. Jesse's realization is powerful: sometimes the other side of fear isn't simply courage—it's your power.
"There's something so powerful about creating quiet in the face of all that noise. I felt like I was the eye of the storm." — Jesse Israel
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00:00 — Welcome to Look At Me Now
00:30 — Jesse Israel's Origin Story
01:48 — The Childhood "Mutiny" That Changed Jesse
03:12 — Learning to Make Himself Smaller
04:57 — Leadership, Rebellion & Growing Up With Rules
06:14 — How Parents Pass Their Own Fears Down
11:11 — Why We Shrink Ourselves to Fit In
12:36 — Suppressing His Gifts Led to Anxiety
13:50 — Jesse's First Panic Attack
15:36 — Finding a "Safe" Way to Be Creative
16:00 — Discovering MGMT & Starting a Record Label
18:10 — From College Shows to 100,000-Person Festivals
21:04 — Hiding Behind Other People's Success
22:30 — Jesse's Vision of Being on Stage
23:31 — Discovering Meditation in the Music Industry
24:17 — Meditating in the Middle of Coachella
25:34 — How Silence Became Jesse's Competitive Edge
27:10 — The Vision That Became The Big Quiet
28:43 — Getting Out of the Way of Your Purpose
31:31 — Why Silence Can Be Incredibly Loud
33:15 — What 20,000 People Meditating Feels Like
36:39 — Giving Thousands of People Permission to Feel
38:23 — Leading Mass Meditation With Oprah
38:57 — Redefining Success, Purpose & Authenticity
39:55 — Walking Away From the Music Industry
41:02 — "What I'm Doing Isn't Enough"
42:04 — Comparison, Self-Worth & Cultural Definitions of Success
44:32 — Ego, Service & the Soul-Body Paradox
47:28 — What's Next for Jesse Israel?
48:27 — Quieting the Noise to Hear Who You Really Are
49:43 — Returning to the Stage That Once Terrified Him
51:25 — The Cave You Fear to Enter
51:47 — Why Fear Gets Louder When You're Growing
52:15 — "The Other Side of Fear Is My Power"
53:33 — Jesse's Look At Me Now Moment
54:50 — Learning to Be Proud of Who He Is
56:13 — Where to Find Jesse Israel
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Follow Jesse @jesseisrael
Follow Alexis @alexis_artin
Learn more at AlexisArtin.com
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This is an Operation Podcast production
