INTRODUCTION

The Truth is that I’m always changing. Always evolving. I’m not who I was yesterday. I’m not who I will be tomorrow. I’m sometimes in the light and I sometimes feel a temptation to be something less than I am. I am spirit. I am guided. I am love. I am awareness. I am discernment. I am discipline. I am choice.

You are here to discover who I am and you will only get an impression of me. You will never fully know me. Indeed, perhaps I will never fully know myself.

So what you read about me and the words written on this page are only an attempt to articulate what lies beyond this flesh. What this network of neurons is capable of producing. And what spirit behind these faculties is actually made of. What nobility? What purity? What clarity? These things come out through this vessel. And as I grow and evolve, so to does my capacity. Does my Full Potential.

I am aware now of things I wasn’t aware of in the past. And depending on my degree of clarity in my vessel (through eating less, more meditation, better nutrition) I can see what’s going on here with greater clarity.

I started writing my life story when someone from my past made a negative review about me online that shot up to #1 anytime you did a search for me. At first I was shocked, it was a completely loaded (emotionally charged) rant about what a bad person I was. Then I began to inspect myself wondering, is it possible I AM this ‘horrible person’ they described and I’m just not seeing it? Then I tried to deny that having that kind of perception out in the world would bother me or effect my life, since I couldn’t do anything about it I might as well accept it. Then I had friends or family members asking if they had seen what showed up at the TOP of the Google search when searching my name. I said I had and that anyone that REALLY knew me would know not to believe and it would still love me. So I saw it as a kind of filter on who really loves me or accepts me,  still a denial of some kind.

After having a few potential clients or potential business partners just disappear from negotiations I realized maybe they were searching my name and backing out of a business deal or something because of what they read online. Makes sense, especially if you barely know someone, every piece of information to support a decision to move towards or away from something is at our disposal. Especially online! Especially in a Google search!

So when someone contacted me about helping to remove it, and I only had to pay $500 when they succeeded, I agreed. 3 Weeks later they had successfully removed the post and I paid. 6 months later another site went up claiming that I had done something illegal about the post removal and that I was now guilty of perjury etc. and it framed my face in a very negative way, using a black and white photo, and a headline that made it sound like I was guilty of committing some heinous crime. Well that’s what it felt like to me anyway.

Then I started getting more emails from other ‘reputation’ agencies offering to help me clear everything for $3,000 , $4,000 and even $5,000 .. and I thought this is insane. The more I looked into it the more I realize there is a whole business around character assassination and rehashing information to make a person look bad, so they can offer their services from another direction. The classic: problem / solution dynamic.

So I decided to take matters into my own hands, I wouldn’t pay anyone else to repair my reputation, I would simply tell me truth.. On my website , so at least when you searched for my name you found another perspective. And from that I would let people come to their own conclusions when they read other nonsense on the internet.

This simple idea evolved into a kind of fun activity where I not only responded to the negative review about me online but I decided to dive deeper into my past, my present and even my plans for the future. I realized I was unpacking my entire life story, at least some of the most memorable parts and writing the script as I had seen it unfold from my own point of view.

It’s been an interesting process! One that I hope you get some enjoyment out of as you read it. Whether you’re here to research my background, find reasons to work with me or not, invest in me or my projects or not, or just reflect on what kind of person I was (if I’m dead now)..  At least my point of view lives and breathes here online and it can serve as a counter balance to any other point of view for you to have a more balanced perception.

WHY I CARE?

Why should I care what you or anyone else thinks about me anyway? I have weighed this question a lot. Am I seeking some kid of validation or approval? People will always judge, and it’s hard to please everybody, which means you’re bound to make some enemies along the way no matter how good you are. Look at Jesus! The most loving man in the world still had enemies.

I decided I care because a ‘reputation’ or the impression you make on others, is a valuable thing to have: it helps across all areas of life: in business, relationships when working on solutions to help change the world. And where’s the number one place people go to figure out what kind of reputation you have? Aside from Social media or credit scores, they do the ol’ Google search (or whatever method of searching you found to get here).

I care because I want you to know MY TRUTH. And if I didn’t care, there’s a good chance you’d be reading someone else’ truth and not get the full picture. I care because I believe a full and balanced perspective on any subject is important to arrive at the highest level of truth. And I say highest truth because perhaps there is no absolute truth but there is the highest level at any given time based on all the available facts and perspectives about it.

If you came here searching for me and any negative reviews, I’ll save you some time and respond to the top negative posts I have had about me from the past starting now.

TOP NEGATIVE REVIEWS ABOUT ME (James Rick Stinson)

The one that seemed to ripple out everywhere across the internet involved a couple of former team members of mine. I had the brilliant idea to host marketing interns in Costa Rica, not just anywhere but at a beach condo in Jaco. They had their own private condo, food and other basic living expenses paid for in exchange for launching Full Potential .. which was meant to be an online club at the time and also invite in retreat leaders from all over to come and host retreats at Coravida the retreat center I started in Manuel Antonio.

Long story short, things were going great in the beginning. Even though we didn’t have any money coming in, I was hopeful with our progress and ideas that we would see some kind of return on investment. Then finally we had a world renown retreat leader committed to doing a retreat at Coravida! This was big! He had a following of millions of people and I have never seen so many people sign up to be part of a retreat so fast.

At that point, this is about 7 months into the working relationship with the two ladies I’m working with (and the one girls partner), and I’ve probably invested $20 k into the relationship with them, excited to finally start seeing a return on investment. When the deposits start rolling in for the retreat I ask where the money is going because I’m not seeing it reflect in my paypal account. One of the girls handling the retreat says that she is receiving the deposits into her personal account. I don’t feel comfortable with this and I remind her of the fact that this is not what we agreed. It’s clear she and I both share some trust issues. She says its her reputation on the line and she wants to make sure the retreat is done properly and that we have funds for it. I remind her that I’m still paying for their place to stay, food etc. and that I should be the one to hold the funds and that any retreat held at Coravida would have to pay a deposit anyway. The more we dug into our positions the more fear and lack of trust was present. She was holding onto money and was in fear of her reputation being hurt if she didn’t have total control. I was already feeling the pressure of investing over $20 k into our relationship and the possibility of being stolen from (it wouldn’t be the first time).. So my own fear (and hurt around betrayal) caused me to make an immediate decision: I was terminating their contracts and I was not going to pay for their rent or food anymore. The decision landed hard because there was no notice period. They were being forced to either pay their own rent or immediately move out and they were in a foreign country (Costa Rica) with no other source of income (unless they had been doing other projects I wasn’t aware of)

I could have handled it better, but what followed was perhaps Karma working itself out. One of the girls immediately went online and wrote a scathing review about me. It rippled across several reputation sites and started the whole mess I wrote about earlier.

Beyond that though, the retreat was cancelled and we all looked bad in the eyes of this major influencer, I’m talking he’s probably in the top 10 of influencers. So it was a huge opportunity missed. And I lost out financially as well because all the investment yielded nothing.

On the positive side though, this whole fiasco caused me to question who I was in that situation, how I could have been better, what kind of reputation / legacy do I really want to leave behind? And how easy it is for people to write anything they want even if it’s completely charged and biased – so that I could be better prepared in the future to tell MY VERSION of the truth from a platform with visibility. So in the end I’m thankful as it was so impactful, it inspired me to create this site, do this writing, write about my life story and share for anyone that wants to read it. It also inspires me to write an epic life story as I live it!

MY RESPONSE TO A FEW OTHER NEGATIVE REVIEWS

THE GIRL THAT EXPECTED A LAPTOP

A few other negative reviews got posted online that I would like to respond to.

A couple of them involves other people who had come to Coravida seeking a live-in work for room & food arrangements. At one point I was supporting 18 people and spent tens of thousands of dollars pursuing an experiment in something that probably looks like a lot like communism, except I was the stupid capitalist supporting the communist experiment on a small scale.

With lots of pressure on my shoulders I made some bad choices (many bad choices) but one of them involved over-committing to people or not being clear on what the commitments were. In one instance a girl flew all the way from Europe to join the tribe, expecting long term work AND a laptop.. I’m not sure where that idea came from, but she insisted on getting a laptop because she couldn’t do any work without it. I could already see we were starting off on the wrong foot and let her know that we probably shouldn’t work together. She was livid and said all kinds of things, but namely that I was a bad person and broke my promises. She later did a big post about this but ironically I can’t find it anywhere online now.

THE MESSY CONDO

I had rented a condo in Mar Arena for my mom and family. My mom and her husband Ken had to leave Costa Rica early so I took over the condo for a few days before I too had to fly back to the US. I assumed because cleaning fees were being paid that I could get my money’s worth and leave it really messy, as I had to leave last minute to catch the flight.

The condo owner was so upset she left me a negative review about my cleanliness (guilty as charged) and couldn’t believe I was helping people realize their Full Potential when I’m so messy (a fair judgement). I really don’t have much to say in defense other than I would just like to apologize for the assumption that it’s ever okay to leave something so messy and that I did feel like a naughty boy who left in a hurry without being more responsible. I am grateful for the Ego slap as its made me more conscious of my messes when I leave places.

THE WILD MANAGER

I was testing out a manager for my retreat center, Coravida. The first order of business was getting lots of new plants for the landscaping (spending money). He needed to go to San Jose to complete the purchase and I entrusted him with a couple thousand dollars. He also went with a volunteer who was also helping at that time. Something didn’t seem right but I was willing to let my own concerns slide.

He went to San Jose, brought back some plants, went back again and it definitely didn’t seem like $2,000 worth of supplies were bought. I looked into it more and it seemed like the breakdown on the receipt was not right. I would later find out that he (the manager) stole about $500 for a trip to Jaco involving some hookers. This is what the volunteer who went with him said who was also invited to enjoy and be quiet about it.

Once I found out what had happened with the money I immediately let him go. He adamantly denied that anything happened and even though it was his first month he had already had some attachments to the job. So when he was let go he wrote some negative and in my opinion untrue reviews online (under a different name) but I could tell by the way he wrote that it was him.

USERS OF THE OUTBOUNDERS.COM PLATFORM

In 2010 with the help of the development team I created an online platform that bridged employers with outbound call center staff. Over the many versions of the platform and the formation of a management team, while many have had great experiences, some have not and have left negative reviews online about the service, the team and / or the CEO (me). This is normal especially with a platform that has had over 100,000 users sign up on it. I just thought it worth mentioning as its part of the story.

We have had far more success stories come through the platform and through our management team but it always seems that any negative experience gets written about more than the positive ones.

Youtube TED Talk

Hello! 

If you were searching for James Rick Stinson, you found him! At least that’s what my parents named me. I now go by James Sundance.

At first I created this site because someone left me a bad review (that was ranking forever at #1 on Google) and so I decided to share my version of the truth. It has now expanded into something of an autobiography.

WHAT’S IN AN IDENTITY?

Though we are born from dust and we return to dust, during our life on this Earth we accumulate alot more than dust .. we develop a self image, an Ego, a persona.. an identity.

This identity becomes very important for how we relate with ourselves and other people. It determines how we feel about ourselves and how we behave. Ultimately our identity / self perception determines what we believe, what we attempt, what we do and ultimately what we become.

IDENTITY THROUGH THE EYES OF OTHERS’ LENS

It’s quite normal to see ourselves through the lens of others, especially those we respect or admire. This perception we have of ourselves THROUGH the lens of others also gets added to our sense of self. So it can be tricky NOT to get stuck in how you see yourself. Stuck seeing yourself through the eyes of your mother, father or anyone that may not actually ever know the full YOU.  Getting stuck behind someone else’s lens can have a serious consequence on how you view yourself, constantly trying to prove yourself worthy or overcome judgements from a much earlier age.

The truth is.. You are not your past and you are not someone else’s story of you. You are uniquely you. And the more you can liberate your self-image from the past or from other people’s lens, the more free you are, to be your weird, unique and authentic self! In other words, your BEST more liberated self. And the more free you are to be who you choose to be and do what you most value, the more you will love yourself. The more you will see yourself through the lens of self love!  Because self-love begins with being a character that is loveable. If you can love your own character, you win!

THE INTERNET DOES NOT ALWAYS REFLECT OUR EVOLUTION

In the past you might be judged by society and had a chance to reform and be viewed in a different light as you evolved.. Especially if you moved and were around new people who never knew you for your past deeds.

In today’s digital age however people can dig up dirt from a long history and make new judgements on your current self, even if you are a completely different person. We see this happening all the time especially where there is a motive to find dirt, for example in politics.

Not that we shouldn’t evaluate a person on their past deeds, but that we should also recognize the evolving nature of a human being as they learn and grow and give them credit for their present deeds if they are indeed a better person. If you or I were judged for who we were in our teens, or 20s, or even last year, it’s not an accurate representation of who we are now.

THE NAME JAMES SUNDANCE

A few years ago I decided to let go of my legal surname Stinson and go with Sundance. The reason for this shift was due in large part with a huge shift in my consciousness, away from capitalism and the traditional way of seeing the world to music and seeing things through the lens of an artist. I began drumming and chanting more regularly and the name Sundance came through the music I was doing. It felt right as it better reflected my intention to move towards a spiritual path and worship the brightest light. The sun is the primary source of all life .. and I’m always seeking the source. And I love to dance with it. I know there are native american rituals involving a sundance and I do not mean to confuse  with the fact that I simply dance with the sun in a different way than the one in which their rituals prescribe. I had a person mention it to me one time and I simply feel that no culture or group has a monopoly on the sun or how they want to dance with it.

OFFICIAL BIO

James Rick Stinson (James Sundance) is a lifestyle, business and global solutions strategist.

As well as a musician and performer. He travels the world (when there’s not a pandemic), employing 400 globally.. his projects span everything from outsourcing in the Philippines to a health & wellness retreat center in Costa Rica.

Author of 7 books on personal growth, he’s interviewed over 250 authors and experts on how to live a level 10 life. He’s passionate about community, tribe, innovation, sustainability, scalable solutions and fun.

He’s been awarded Entrepreneur of the Year by Chamber of Commerce at age 17, appeared on Oprah in conjunction with the Big Give and won Best Actor in his district during High School.

James helps people and organizations create level 10 lives, relationships and world.

His motto is:

“Every day is an opportunity to love life closer to your ideal of a level 10.

Optimize your daily habits and you change your life and the world.”

BOOKS:

• Garden of Life (Written at age 23)
• Secrets of the Soul Mind (Written at age 24)
• Full Potential Time (Written at age 25)
• Unleash Your Full Potential (Written at age 26)
• Full Potential Knowledge (Written at age 26)
• Zoom: The Power of Focus Management (Written at age 28)
• Everyone Needs a GPS (Written at age 28)
• Full Potential Manifesto (Written at age 29)
• Heart Clearing (Written at Age 30)

SOCIAL MEDIA

• Facebook
• Instagram
• Youtube
• Twitter

KEY PROJECTS & MILESTONES

• Born in Ocala Florida (Age 0)
• Sold Hand Paintings  (Age 3)
• Started Lemonade stand with mom and brother (Age 4)
• Had a mystical experience of being ‘chosen’ for something (Age 4)
• Founded Lemonade Stand (Age 4)
• Traveled cross country with family (Age 8)
• Moved to Utah, Diamond Valley (Age 9)
• Winner of the Spelling Bee, 4th Grade (Age 9)
• Sold Baseball Cards at School (Age 10)
• Lost my first dog Bear (Age 12)
• Moved to St. George, Utah (Age 13)
• Learned how to meditate (Age 13)
• Learned how to astral project & lucid dream (Age 14)
• Lost virginity (Age 15)
• Founded Candy Machines Venture (Age 16)
• Invested in Speakers Venture (Age 16)
• Founded: Success Connection Newsletter for 1 Issue (Past: Age 13)
• Worked as Waiter at Village Inn (Age 16)
• Won ‘Best Actor’ of the entire School District (Age 16)
• Worked at Harmons: Fruit Section & Bagging Groceries (Age 16)
• Founded: Up After Dark Web Design & Computer Service (Age 17)
• Awarded Entrepreneur of the Year at (Age 17)
•  Worked as Call Center Sales Rep for 3 weeks (Age 18)
• $30 k in personal debt by (Age 19)
• Being out of debt and first $50 k in the bank (Age 20)
• Moved to Encinitas, California (Age 20)
• Lived 3 Months in Noida, India, expanded web design business (Age 21)
• Moved to Manila, Philippines (Age 21)
• Founded: Global Sky Inc, Call Center in the Philippines (Age 21)
• Attended Tony Robbins Seminar, Date With Destiny (Age 22)
• Founded: Full Potential (Show / Coaching & Retreats) (Age 23)
• Moved to Costa Rica First time 3 months (Age 24)
• Traveled Around Europe by Train for 3 months (Age 25)
• Founded: Outbounders.com, Call Center Platform (Age 26)
• Lived in New York for 3 weeks (Age 27)
• Top 20 finalist for Oprah’s Big Give Reality Show (Age 28)
• Major break up inspired Heart Clearing Method (Age 30)
• Moved to Costa Rica 2nd Time (Age 30)
• Founded Coravida, Costa Rica Retreat Center (Age 30)
• Lived in Ubud, Bali (Age 31)
• First Burning Man (Age 32)
• Lost dog ‘Miracle’ to electrocution (Age 33)
• TEDx Talk on: How to Heal the Heart of the World (Age 34)
• The birth of son, Zen James on Sept 8th, 2020 (Age 34)
• Founded: Cora Nation, a heart based micro-nation (Age 35 to Present) Founded: Full Potential Magazine and created 13 issues (Age 36)
• Founded: Cora Media, heart based media. (Age 36 to Present)

 

LIFE CREDITS

• Mom
  • for always believing in me and loving me no matter what. For providing nurturing and care and helping to give me confidence to do big things.
• Dad
  • for loving us and taking education seriously. Helping us to think freely and for introducing personal development to me early in life.
• Brother (Anthony)
  • for protecting me as well as strengthening me. For being courageous to always share his truth even if it’s not what you want to hear. For caring deep down.
• Zen
  • For being a stable source of love in the world and an effortless unifier of energy fields.
• Zenith
  • For being the best mother for baby Zen. A wonderful goddess and loving being. A saint in my book.
• Rebekah Joy
  • For being an amazing life partner. Helping me to grow spiritually and refine my energy in the best of ways. I am so grateful to her.
• Grandpa & Grandpa
  • For being a loving support when I was growing up and caring about our well being.
• Alice Ledesma
  • For being the best business partner anyone could ask for. Trustworthy, transparent, loyal, loving, family.

The Story of James Rick Stinson

click on the link to view full story

The Truth About James Rick Stinson: Rip Off Report

Basically there is a post on Rip Off Report that says Mr. Full Potential is full of himself..

While the headline itself is somewhat true (I was more full of myself at the time that article was written .. there’s a fine line of believing in yourself because you truly are great.. And believing in yourself because you are arrogant about your abilities) .. I am humbled probably more by the length of time it’s taken me to get these ideas off the ground and see massive progress. I thought I was going to do it all in my 20s.

So anyway the article goes on to mention things like I don’t have the balls to… etc.

I could go through it point by point but I suggest you read it as its quite entertaining. What is most important is context: WHY the post was written about me..

Here’s the back story:

During my time while living in Jaco I had the brilliant idea of offering a condo and food to people to live in and work in exchange for their services. I posted on craigslist for people to come down with the skillsets of marketing and administration / assistant work. I got three people to take me up on the offer, knowing full well what our agreement was up front: They were going to work to live in Costa Rican paradise (in a gorgeous beach front condo) and have their food and living expenses covered, while also working towards generating sales for retreats that they could earn commissions. The goal eventually became to reach out to existing retreat leaders and invite them to come to host a retreat in Costa Rica.

When we finally figured out HOW we were going to make money while working together, things started to flow finally. I had been supporting them for 6 months and we got a major influencer to start making plans with us to host a retreat.

Two problems arose:

1 – I found out that the reason why it took us so long to gain traction is that the two people I had brought down to work for me, had been moonlighting, not just in their spare time but almost full time, while working for me like it was a hobby. So they had their food and rent covered AND they were earning an additional income from other work.. I did not see that coming.

2 – When we finally got a retreat booked with deposits coming in from the paying guests.. One of the girls I had working for me was keeping those deposits in her own Paypal account. When I asked her why she said that she thought we might be having financial difficulty as a company and her name was on the line and she wanted to make sure that the retreat was going to happen. I explained the best I could that we had financial stability as a company and that it was inappropriate for her to receive deposits in her personal paypal account. It became a tense conversation and I explained that if she didn’t return the deposits to Full Potential so we could block the space off for a retreat (just like any person booking a retreat would need to do) I would immediately stop paying for their rent and food. I added that I knew they were also moonlighting, or day lighting I should say.. While also working for me.. Which was not part of the original agreement. The call ended emotionally for both sides angry.. And because they did not return the deposits to Full Potential, I did not pay for their rent and food which was due that month. And because they had to pay it themselves.. And were effectively terminated.. They (I shoulds say one of the girls I suspect) wrote a scathing post right away on Rip Off Report as a kind of revenge.

I would later find out that she did the same thing with her previous employers as well.. She had history of doing this!

Unfortunately with Rip Off Report anyone can say anything about anyone and it stays up. Worse.. It gets ranked well on Google so it looks legitimate.  This is the start of something that has consumed way more time and energy and money than it deserves, so hopefully I’ll be telling this story for the last time here.

—

Because the link was showing up highly on google and hurting my reputation, I decided to hire a firm that can suppress the negative links. I did a post on Upwork and asked for someone who knows SEO to make sure my good content ranks higher than this bogus link. They said they could get the link removed and I only need to pay $500 once it’s confirmed. I said that sounds fantastic! So I agreed.

They removed the link, I paid $500 and I thought that was the end of it.

Fast forward about a year later.. Not only does the Rip Off report link resurface .. but now a second negative post about me surfaces on WEB ACTIVISM .. and it ranks even higher than the original Rip Off Report link.. In fact.. Web Activism’s negative post on me currently ranks #1 if you do a search for my name. This has no doubt hurt my credibility with those who do not know me or do not dig deeper into what’s actually being said.

Here’s the gist of the Web Activism article:

Because I hired an SEO firm to remove the Rip Off Report link and they apparently used a court order to get the link removed, a court order that I did not know existed.. And was apparently forged by this overseas SEO company — I was now being framed as someone under investigation for Perjury, Fraud and Impersonation.. All of which is completely untrue, which you will see in the accompanying documentation that I will provide here.

They also used a black and white photo of me next to this headline and went on to talk about other characters and sites I have no association with .. but just by bringing them up in the same article it looks like I am affiliated with them.

—

I have reached out to both Rip off Report and Web Activism to get the erroneous statements from their sites removed. Rip Off Report only promises to arbitrate the matter if you pay a $2,000 VIP service or something like that.  Web Activism after several emails back and forth said they will publish an official statement with the truth.. Then I never heard from them for a month or so.. Then when I did hear from them they said that they wouldn’t change the post. Ironically I get contacted by a reputation management service that promises to work directly with Web Activism for a GUARANTEED removal of the link forever, for just $3,000 .. which they graciously lowered to $1,500. I was contacted by yet another reputation management company and offered a similar deal.

I soon realized how big the business of exploiting people’s reputations and digitally extorting them for money is and decided I would no longer pay another dime into this game for reasons of principle.. I had done my best to get the true story told .. and I even had Web Activism telling me they were going to remove the post but because I had reached out to other 3rd party sites about what they are doing (getting paid to remove posts) .. they were going to have to keep it up.

I noticed that ANY PERSON that tried to get their link removed from Rip Off Report had a similar article written about them in Web Activism.

I realized as I went down the rabbit hole even just a little bit this is a HUGE business: tarnishing people’s reputation and then offering them a solution. And then probably after a few months, reposting the same information on other sites or making it sound worse, to begin a never ending process of PAIN / SOLUTION to people they already know have paid in the past to get rid of this junk about them.

After going through this whole journey and really discovering how they work.. I decided I am no longer going to entertain paying them even one penny to remove a link.  Instead I will simply share my side of the story which was the starting motivation for this site and what you’re reading today!

IN CONCLUSION:

In hindsight even though the people I had working for me were working for other companies, I could have given them more notice to figure out their situation, pay one more month’s rent and I would have never had them post a negative review.

I don’t know what I could have done to make sure that the SEO firm didn’t use a false court order to Google), it was completely out of my hands.. They did it on their own and I had no idea that’s how they were ‘cleaning up’ the link. They just created a bigger mess.

Now that I’ve seen the underbelly of how reputation management works online and how big of a business it is.. I think the best strategy is to simply post as much positive, high value content as I possibly can and get my TRUE STORY ranked as highly as I can so people can at the very least, see both sides of the story AND USE THEIR OWN DISCERNMENT