If you need guidance on how to refresh your mindset for the new year, this JHud super fan has you set!

Jennifer Hudson gave the surprise of a lifetime to Joe Royal, a fitness and meditation instructor from San Francisco, after appearing on a Zoom chat with him on the show! 

Jennifer not only gifted Joe with every gift from Mama Hud’s Holiday Giveaways, but she also asked him to fly to Los Angeles to appear on the show. It took him less than one second to say yes!

“I felt like my whole self came out of my body,” Joe told JHud — now in person! — about the Zoom surprise. “It was a moment in time I will never forget!”

Subscribe to the “Jennifer Hudson Show” newsletter

Joe coaches people on how to be mindful in their day-to-day lives. “It wasn’t something I planned to do with my life,” he said.  “I moved to Los Angeles from a very small town in Washington state and was a musical theater kid — shout-out to musical theater kids everywhere!”

He continued, “In my pursuits, I started to realize how unaligned these creative things were for me as I was growing and learning about myself, discovering who ‘Joe’ is.”

A friend suggested they work out together, and though he did it begrudgingly at first, it started to transform his mood. “I noticed how it allowed me to really be in my body a little more and allowed me to be really clear as I was handling the hustle and bustle of life.”

Fitness made him feel good the more he did it. “It was like the universe was like, this is what’s supposed to happen, and so doors began to open.”

“It’s like you’re walking into your destiny. I totally understand,” Jennifer agreed.

Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok

“A layer to that Zoom moment was seeing someone like you,” he told JHud. “You’ve done such a beautiful job of showing what hard work looks like.”

He eventually discovered meditation and mindfulness, and would soon become a coach, helping others improve their well-being. “That was a huge way of healing a lot of loss for me,” he explained.

During his chat with JHud, Joe shared some tips on how to improve your mindset. Here are three!

“What works for your life? What doesn’t work for your life? Set goals that meet you where you are that are specific and doable and make sense,” said Joe.

Don’t take on a huge goal right at the beginning. “The smaller you start, the more you give yourself opportunity to accomplish. The more you accomplish, the more confident you’re going to feel and the more you’re going to expand what you’re capable of,” Joe advised.

If you don’t reach your goals, don’t throw in the towel — just review, revise, and restart. “You not necessarily hitting that exact goal is kind of like life showing you that maybe that goal needs to be a little tweaked, a little different — edited in some way.”

“You are so wise,” JHud told Joe.

For more wisdom, follow Joe on Instagram at @joyousjoeseph.