1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,320 Tell me about your vision. Well, my vision is comes around from my own issues that I was struggling 2 00:00:08,320 --> 00:00:14,320 with when I was a kid, mainly in teenage years and in my 20s. And I struggle a lot with depression 3 00:00:14,320 --> 00:00:24,240 and anxiety. And while I spent time trying to manage it, I guess, deal with it, it gets to a 4 00:00:24,240 --> 00:00:27,920 point where you just think, oh, this is the way it's supposed to be because this is how you feel. 5 00:00:27,920 --> 00:00:32,960 How would you know any different? Sort of like trying to explain the color blue to a blind person. 6 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:36,640 It's like, well, if you've never experienced color, how do you really experience it? If you've never 7 00:00:36,640 --> 00:00:42,800 really experienced anything but this kind of melancholy, why would you expect anything different? 8 00:00:43,600 --> 00:00:48,480 And it was really with the birth of my son in 2000 that I thought, okay, well, I don't want to 9 00:00:49,280 --> 00:00:53,840 pass this along to him. Or if he ends up having to deal with the same issues, 10 00:00:53,840 --> 00:00:59,840 what could be done about it? And so I really started researching and looking into what could 11 00:00:59,840 --> 00:01:08,880 be done to it. Can you actually change the way your brain works within the world around you? 12 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:17,200 And what I discovered over years of working on myself in various ways was there are tools, 13 00:01:17,200 --> 00:01:22,320 there are techniques and strategies, skills you can learn that you can literally change 14 00:01:22,320 --> 00:01:28,640 your brain chemistry. You can change the way you feel in your body. And this actually led me to 15 00:01:28,640 --> 00:01:34,880 becoming a hypnotherapist down the line because that was one of the things I was using for myself, 16 00:01:34,880 --> 00:01:40,640 using the power of my own subconscious mind to create healing and just feel better within myself. 17 00:01:40,640 --> 00:01:46,000 And I guess the vision I have is that I like to reach as many people as possible and let them 18 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:52,720 know you have the power within you to feel better, to create the life that you want. 19 00:01:52,720 --> 00:01:58,240 I don't mean in terms of riches and yachts and sports cars and things, but how you want to feel 20 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:03,360 within your body. I think we all have a desire to feel good, to feel whatever you want to call it, 21 00:02:03,360 --> 00:02:09,760 happiness or joy or bliss or whatever. And by learning certain skills and strategies and 22 00:02:09,760 --> 00:02:14,640 techniques, you can actually do that. It's sort of like though going to the gym. 23 00:02:14,640 --> 00:02:21,040 You don't get to go to the gym just twice and then you get to be ripped and look like a 24 00:02:21,040 --> 00:02:27,520 Marvel superhero. You have to keep going to the gym. I mean, the Dalai Lama still meditates every 25 00:02:27,520 --> 00:02:34,000 day. The man's 89 years old and he still practices loving kindness and compassion meditation every 26 00:02:34,000 --> 00:02:38,800 day. And you read his books, he talks about the anger and the sorrow and the despair of what's 27 00:02:38,800 --> 00:02:44,960 going on in Tibet. The Chinese government is still bulldozing down his monasteries. They're 28 00:02:44,960 --> 00:02:49,120 still arresting his monks, torturing his monks. So of course he's a human being. He's going to feel 29 00:02:49,120 --> 00:02:55,280 despair and sorrow. I mean, he was exiled out of Tibet in 1958 or 1957 and something like that. 30 00:02:56,400 --> 00:03:00,560 But every day he practices loving kindness and compassion. If anybody was to have it down by now, 31 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:05,280 you think it'd be that guy. I mean, the guy's not married, the guy has no kids. He has a staff of 32 00:03:05,280 --> 00:03:11,600 people to meet his every need and want. And every day he's practicing loving kindness and compassion. 33 00:03:11,600 --> 00:03:17,520 So if you look at anybody who has mastered anything, whether it's an instrument, athletics, 34 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:22,640 or something like the Dalai Lama in terms of spirituality, mastering something like loving 35 00:03:22,640 --> 00:03:27,360 kindness and compassion, you notice there's one common denominator and they keep working at it. 36 00:03:28,080 --> 00:03:33,600 And so my vision, and this is probably a super long answer to a short question, but 37 00:03:33,600 --> 00:03:40,400 the vision I have is to let people know that you can have what you want, but just take some effort. 38 00:03:41,440 --> 00:03:47,760 There's a certain amount of relentlessness to this. And just like the Dalai Lama, or look at 39 00:03:47,760 --> 00:03:52,320 anybody who has mastered anything like Yo-Yo Ma, considered the greatest cello player alive. 40 00:03:52,320 --> 00:03:56,080 And the guy still practices three to four hours every day. The guy's 67 years old. Again, if 41 00:03:56,080 --> 00:04:00,400 anybody was to kick back and put their feet up and just phone it in and play Carnegie Hall and 42 00:04:00,400 --> 00:04:04,880 play Mozart night after night, it'd be that guy. But again, he wants to master this music, wants 43 00:04:04,880 --> 00:04:11,120 to master this instrument. And so he practices every day. Dalai Lama practices every day. And so 44 00:04:11,120 --> 00:04:14,720 what do you want in your life? Do you want happiness? Do you want joy? Do you want confidence? 45 00:04:15,840 --> 00:04:20,080 Do you want to feel successful? Do you want to feel like you're worthy? You can have that, 46 00:04:20,080 --> 00:04:26,560 but it does take some effort on your part to practice that. Otherwise, what are you practicing? 47 00:04:26,560 --> 00:04:31,040 You're practicing anxiety, you're practicing depression. That's what I was doing. And I got 48 00:04:31,040 --> 00:04:36,880 really good at it. But when you realize you can practice something else, you realize that the 49 00:04:36,880 --> 00:04:41,760 world opens up to you. Again, it kind of a long answer to a short question, but it comes down to, 50 00:04:42,480 --> 00:04:46,640 you can be the person you want to be, but it does take some effort on your part to do it. 51 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:54,240 That's incredible. Yeah, I love that vision. And sharing it in parts, because I am starting up my 52 00:04:54,240 --> 00:04:58,560 own company and trying to get out there and trying to talk to people. I have anxiety when it comes to 53 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:03,840 walking in, knocking on doors, making phone calls to people, because I don't want to sell what I am 54 00:05:03,840 --> 00:05:10,960 or who I am or sell myself to other people. This feels weird. But it's a step in the process you 55 00:05:10,960 --> 00:05:14,800 have to push through. So you just, I've always said that I put on a mask and I keep pushing 56 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:18,720 through it. Yeah, eventually I'll get more comfortable with that kind of step in the 57 00:05:18,720 --> 00:05:24,080 process. But it's never an easy thing. You want to get good at something, you just keep pushing for 58 00:05:24,080 --> 00:05:29,200 it. Absolutely. But you just had a really great point. You mentioned you put on a mask and that's 59 00:05:29,200 --> 00:05:37,040 a great skill to learn. Just pretend you are that person. Even if you aren't that person yet. And 60 00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:43,040 it's that whole fake it till you make it. I know that's kind of cliched at this point. But if you 61 00:05:43,040 --> 00:05:48,560 could pretend to be that person, you'll actually start wiring that into your brain. And they've 62 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:54,320 done studies to show that. The piano player study they did back in the 1990s when they wanted to 63 00:05:54,320 --> 00:05:59,680 watch the brain learn something new. And they had the people practicing piano, they had a control 64 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:05,840 group who didn't do anything. They had a group who pretended to play the piano, not touch it at all. 65 00:06:06,560 --> 00:06:11,840 And what they found is, of course, the people practicing piano actually developed new ideas 66 00:06:11,840 --> 00:06:14,880 in the brain for music. Of course, because they're learning music, they're playing music. 67 00:06:14,880 --> 00:06:19,760 But what's interesting is that people who only pretended, with their imagination, 68 00:06:19,760 --> 00:06:23,360 pretended to play piano also developed the same neural network in the same part of the brain. 69 00:06:23,360 --> 00:06:29,360 They actually wired their brain so it looked like they were learning how to play piano. And so you 70 00:06:29,360 --> 00:06:34,240 can literally become the person. Like I was just saying a minute ago, you can become the person 71 00:06:34,240 --> 00:06:39,200 you want, literally wire that into your system. But it does take some effort. They did spend some 72 00:06:39,200 --> 00:06:44,080 time every day pretending, closing their, you know, sitting recliner on a couch, closing their eyes, 73 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:50,160 and pretending to play piano. But it literally wired that into their brain and changed who they 74 00:06:50,160 --> 00:06:55,440 were. So again, you can become who you are. And if you need to wear that mask in order to do it, 75 00:06:55,440 --> 00:07:01,360 why not? You know, and you look at any masterful person like Tony Robbins, 76 00:07:02,640 --> 00:07:07,200 he was probably god-awful back in 1980 when he was speaking in front of the, you know, 77 00:07:07,200 --> 00:07:11,920 three or four people. And, you know, but he practiced and he kept going and he pretended 78 00:07:11,920 --> 00:07:16,560 he was the person he wanted to become. And I think that works with pretty much anything. 79 00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:25,200 Absolutely, man. I love this conversation that we're having. I am currently following you on 80 00:07:25,200 --> 00:07:30,640 LinkedIn and Facebook because I found your acinetest.com and I'm like, absolutely, I'm 81 00:07:30,640 --> 00:07:35,760 going to follow this guy along his journey. This is incredible. So why do we need to be 82 00:07:35,760 --> 00:07:43,040 there? So why do leaders hide from funding their vision? I think it's fear. It's fear of failure, 83 00:07:43,040 --> 00:07:51,840 fear of being judged. That takes a lot of guts to get out there. Not only to put yourself out there 84 00:07:51,840 --> 00:07:57,520 and say, this is my idea. Here's how I want to change the world. But then, and will you give me 85 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:05,360 some money to do that? Because the answer could be no. And it could be a big laugh or it could be an 86 00:08:05,360 --> 00:08:11,280 eye roll. And that's hard to deal with. It's embarrassing. It's humiliating. And you don't 87 00:08:11,280 --> 00:08:17,440 want to do that. There's an actual self-preservation part of the brain that doesn't want you to do that, 88 00:08:17,440 --> 00:08:24,000 doesn't want pain, doesn't want hurt. And, you know, of course, as we grow up and school and bullies 89 00:08:24,000 --> 00:08:29,840 and we've been hurt before, we don't want to experience it again. And so there's actually a 90 00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:38,560 part of the brain, of the subconscious brain, that keeps you from moving into pain. And it's that 91 00:08:38,560 --> 00:08:43,520 thing that, and we want it. We don't want to walk down that dark alley at midnight because it's a 92 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:48,080 shortcut home. We want to take the lighted streets where there's people around. It's safer. We don't 93 00:08:48,080 --> 00:08:52,320 want to stand too close to the edge of the Grand Canyon. We don't want, or the edge of the Empire 94 00:08:52,320 --> 00:08:58,320 State Building. We don't want to pet the rattlesnake in the middle of the trail. We don't want to touch 95 00:08:58,320 --> 00:09:03,680 the hot pot on the stove. So there's a self-preservation that keeps us alive, obviously. 96 00:09:04,720 --> 00:09:10,560 But there's also, what about the emotional hurt and pain we've had in the past? And so 97 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:16,880 your subconscious mind wants to keep you from that too. And by putting yourself too far out there, 98 00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:26,000 one of the options is you may get hurt again. And so I think there's some fear of embarrassment, 99 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:33,120 of fear of failure, fear of being judged, certainly. And in terms of, of course you want to 100 00:09:33,120 --> 00:09:38,640 hide. I mean, when there's a threat, when there's a tornado coming at you, when there's a fight in 101 00:09:38,640 --> 00:09:43,040 the bar or in the street or wherever you want to hide, you want to make yourself smaller. And to 102 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:49,280 a certain extent, this is where procrastination comes from. Even though the benefit of doing the 103 00:09:49,280 --> 00:09:55,200 project or whatever is doing the report, doing the social media marketing is going to be beneficial 104 00:09:55,200 --> 00:10:00,720 to you, there's some pain to it. Sitting there for a couple of hours, coming up with Instagram 105 00:10:00,720 --> 00:10:06,960 reels or whatever it is. And so you end up with procrastination because it's funner to maybe read 106 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:11,360 a book or watch TV or go on a walk or something than doing it and sitting in front of the computer 107 00:10:11,360 --> 00:10:16,800 all day long. And so in terms of hiding, there's just a certain amount of self-preservation. 108 00:10:17,280 --> 00:10:21,840 And yes, it is to your benefit to go out there and give your message and even fund your message. 109 00:10:21,840 --> 00:10:25,680 But there's also some pain involved with that because there will be people who will say no. 110 00:10:25,680 --> 00:10:31,120 I mean, look at great example, some of your listeners would probably be familiar with is 111 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:37,040 the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books that were written by Jack Canfield and Mark Victor 112 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:42,960 Hanson. It's a big phenomenon in the 90s or early 2000s, whenever that was. And they were rejected 113 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:50,800 by 157 publishers. And that's got to be painful. Yeah. You know, that they kept going. And 114 00:10:50,800 --> 00:10:55,760 they didn't hide because they believed in what they were working on. It was finally some medical 115 00:10:55,760 --> 00:11:03,520 textbook publisher who was going bankrupt decided to take a shot at it. And they ended up selling 116 00:11:04,320 --> 00:11:10,000 millions upon millions of books. A best-selling book is 100,000 copies. That's a best-selling 117 00:11:10,000 --> 00:11:14,640 book. If you sell 100,000 copies, if you sell 20,000 copies, you'll probably get another book 118 00:11:14,640 --> 00:11:19,280 out of your publisher. You'll get to write another book, let alone 100,000 copies. So when you 119 00:11:19,280 --> 00:11:22,960 are a Stephen King or a J.K. Rowling or something, you're selling millions of books, let alone, 120 00:11:22,960 --> 00:11:29,520 you know, this probably without exaggeration, at least 50, if not 60 volumes of this Chicken 121 00:11:29,520 --> 00:11:35,760 Soup for the Soul series of books, you're selling tens of millions of copies over a decade. 122 00:11:36,640 --> 00:11:42,080 But look at all the failure they had to go through. And once it was, once the publishing 123 00:11:42,080 --> 00:11:46,800 deal was set up, it still took them a year before they started selling books. 124 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:52,960 With all the marketing they had to do, they had their specific five things every day. 125 00:11:53,440 --> 00:11:56,720 They did five things every day. And back then, they didn't have podcasts and things like that. 126 00:11:56,720 --> 00:12:01,760 They were writing articles and blog posts and interviews on radio shows and things like that. 127 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:07,920 But between the two of them, they did five things every day to promote the book. So that's 128 00:12:07,920 --> 00:12:13,360 10 things between the two of them. And it still took some 360 days before the book started 129 00:12:13,360 --> 00:12:19,360 selling. And so in terms of hiding, it's a lot of work. And it's a lot of putting yourself out 130 00:12:19,360 --> 00:12:24,960 there. And it's a lot of maybe a lot of notes and a lot of doors shut in your face. And that's got 131 00:12:25,760 --> 00:12:32,320 and you don't want that. So in terms of hiding, in terms of how to go about doing it anyway, 132 00:12:33,200 --> 00:12:38,720 again, I think it's doing the work every day to put yourself in state, 133 00:12:38,720 --> 00:12:44,880 every day to put yourself in state, just like an actor before they go out on stage or an athlete 134 00:12:44,880 --> 00:12:50,640 before they walk up to the starting line or up to home plate or whatever. You want to put yourself 135 00:12:50,640 --> 00:12:59,600 into the zone, so to speak. And if need be, pretend you are that person already. And if you need to 136 00:12:59,600 --> 00:13:04,320 armor yourself or put on the mask, then you need to do that if you need to make that cold call. 137 00:13:04,320 --> 00:13:09,760 But you can do that. You're allowed to do that. I think there's even still a certain authenticity 138 00:13:10,160 --> 00:13:15,200 to putting on a mask or an armor because it's a mask you develop. It's still part of you if you 139 00:13:15,200 --> 00:13:19,120 want to go through the whole Joseph Campbell archetypes and things like that, you're just 140 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:25,280 putting on the warrior mask, or you're putting on the success mask or the power empowerment mask or 141 00:13:25,280 --> 00:13:30,160 whatever, whatever mask you're putting on, it's still a part of you. It's just your version of 142 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:37,840 that. And so I think in terms of the word mask, maybe that's even a misnomer because mask implies 143 00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:43,200 you're hiding your identity. I think it's just another part of your identity, the warrior 144 00:13:43,200 --> 00:13:50,400 identity or the empowerment identity that you're now putting out there, which maybe is new or needs 145 00:13:50,400 --> 00:13:55,760 to be tested off. But I think it's that idea of if you need to become... 146 00:13:55,760 --> 00:14:11,040 If you need to become that warrior personality, take 10 minutes, 15 minutes before you make that 147 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:16,480 series of calls, phone calls or the presentation before the board of directors or the investors, 148 00:14:17,600 --> 00:14:20,640 whether that's sitting in your car or if there's a room you could go to before you do it or maybe 149 00:14:20,640 --> 00:14:26,160 you're doing it on a Zoom call or something, take 15 minutes and put yourself in state, put yourself 150 00:14:26,160 --> 00:14:29,680 in the shoes of the person who's going to be successful in making that presentation. 151 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:37,040 And the more you practice that, the better you get at it. And when do you stop practicing being 152 00:14:37,040 --> 00:14:41,680 that person? You never look at the Dalai Lama. Ask the Dalai Lama when you stop practicing this 153 00:14:41,680 --> 00:14:47,200 stuff. You just keep going. And you can become, like I say, you can become the person you want to 154 00:14:47,200 --> 00:14:52,000 be. Look at, again, Tony Robbins. When you hear his story at the very beginning, he doesn't sound 155 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:58,240 like a very confident person or somebody who's even very comfortable in his own shoes or even 156 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:05,760 in his own skin. And yet look at him even just several years later when he decided to turn his 157 00:15:05,760 --> 00:15:11,120 life around. But that required a lot of work on his part and a certain relentlessness. And even 158 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:17,120 if you look at his documentary that came out a few years ago, I'm Not Your Guru, that Tony Robbins 159 00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:21,920 documentary, basically just follows him through one of those week-long events in the arenas when 160 00:15:21,920 --> 00:15:27,520 he's talking to 10,000 people. But it shows him in his morning getting up out of bed, and he's doing 161 00:15:27,520 --> 00:15:31,440 the cold plunge and he's jumping on a little trampoline to wake up his adrenal glands. And then 162 00:15:31,440 --> 00:15:37,840 he's doing his meditation work. Then he goes to the event center and talks to his staff and what's 163 00:15:37,840 --> 00:15:44,000 going on and the accountants and the producers who are doing next year's events. And then he goes out 164 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:49,120 on stage and inspires 10,000 people. And even right before he goes on stage, he still puts himself in 165 00:15:49,120 --> 00:15:56,400 state. And this guy's been doing it for 40 years. The man started in 1980. And he still not only does 166 00:15:56,400 --> 00:16:02,480 his meditation work and his physical work in the mornings, he still puts himself in state before he 167 00:16:02,480 --> 00:16:08,880 walks out on stage. Just as I'm sure Yo-Yo Ma does, just as any athlete does or any actor or any 168 00:16:08,880 --> 00:16:14,960 musician, you're going to put yourself in state. So what about doing that before you walk into that 169 00:16:14,960 --> 00:16:22,640 investment meeting or the board of directors or the Zoom call? What if you spent 10 minutes, 170 00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:28,480 15 minutes doing some sort of meditation work or visualization work or whatever it is for you? And 171 00:16:28,480 --> 00:16:33,280 there's all sorts of different ways of doing it. But finding that way that where you put yourself 172 00:16:33,280 --> 00:16:39,760 into the zone and then walk out on stage or walk into the meeting or the investment group meeting 173 00:16:39,760 --> 00:16:46,640 and then see how well you do. But again, there's that certain relentlessness. Don't wait until it's 174 00:16:46,640 --> 00:16:50,160 five minutes before the meeting to decide you're going to do something about it. You want to 175 00:16:50,160 --> 00:16:54,800 practice just like any athlete's going to practice before they get to the actual event. You want to 176 00:16:54,800 --> 00:17:05,280 practice for the marathon or the 10K or whatever. So practicing leading up to any sort of event 177 00:17:05,280 --> 00:17:10,560 you're doing is going to put you in a more comfortable place, reduce that fear, reduce 178 00:17:10,560 --> 00:17:16,320 that anxiety because you feel more comfortable doing it. And so again, there's, like I said a 179 00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:19,520 couple of times already, there's a certain relentlessness to this work. You don't get to 180 00:17:19,520 --> 00:17:25,200 just decide one day that, yeah, I'm going to go in front of an investment group and ask for a million 181 00:17:25,200 --> 00:17:33,360 dollars for my great idea and hope that it goes well. You need to lead up to that and practice 182 00:17:33,360 --> 00:17:40,880 for that, maybe in front of a group of people. So I think it can be done. And if you need to put 183 00:17:40,880 --> 00:17:46,880 yourself in the warrior mode, put yourself in the archetype of your warrior and empower yourself in 184 00:17:46,880 --> 00:17:51,760 that way. Thank you for being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned into Vision Pros Live. 185 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:56,800 I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these episodes continue to move forward. This is 186 00:17:56,800 --> 00:18:00,960 going to get more and more fun. We'll have more and more engagement as well. We'll invite people 187 00:18:00,960 --> 00:18:05,680 to participate in the show and thank you for giving us your time and attention. Have an excellent 188 00:18:05,680 --> 00:18:17,440 time building out your vision and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.