WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.299 Please introduce yourself. Gladly. Thank you, 00:00:05.299 --> 00:00:07.660 Sue. It's lovely to be here. I'm Carrie West. 00:00:07.900 --> 00:00:12.220 I have written a book, Life Rewritten. It became 00:00:12.220 --> 00:00:15.119 an international bestseller. Thank you very much. 00:00:16.239 --> 00:00:19.260 It's a pleasure to be here and talk about that. 00:00:20.579 --> 00:00:24.320 I'm also a narrative coach. and a speaker so 00:00:24.320 --> 00:00:26.640 people have asked me what's a narrative coach 00:00:26.640 --> 00:00:29.300 and there's a there's a branch of psychology 00:00:29.300 --> 00:00:33.060 called narrative therapy i'm not a psychologist 00:00:33.060 --> 00:00:36.560 but what i what i am is a storyteller and so 00:00:36.560 --> 00:00:40.179 i use my background in storytelling to help people 00:00:40.179 --> 00:00:43.020 sort through any number of issues that they might 00:00:43.020 --> 00:00:46.100 be dealing with So good. Oh, my goodness. And 00:00:46.100 --> 00:00:47.840 it's all about the stories we tell ourselves, 00:00:48.060 --> 00:00:52.119 right? It sure is. It sure is. Life is this huge 00:00:52.119 --> 00:00:57.600 story. It is. An epic, dramatic, crazy -ass story. 00:00:57.859 --> 00:01:02.280 For sure. What is your vision, Carrie? Okay. 00:01:03.539 --> 00:01:07.439 The story saved my life. And I mean that literally. 00:01:07.879 --> 00:01:12.840 I had a really difficult beginning to life. I 00:01:12.840 --> 00:01:16.349 was rejected. day one parents didn't want me 00:01:16.349 --> 00:01:19.629 did the very very minimal and sometimes even 00:01:19.629 --> 00:01:23.930 less than the minimal to keep going stories kept 00:01:23.930 --> 00:01:28.010 me alive so at night i remember my first memories 00:01:28.010 --> 00:01:32.790 are lying in bed not able to sleep and telling 00:01:32.790 --> 00:01:36.250 myself a story so i could sleep and my stories 00:01:36.250 --> 00:01:39.379 were about my real family that was looking for 00:01:39.379 --> 00:01:42.019 me and they were larger than life and they were 00:01:42.019 --> 00:01:44.959 great and they took me they bought me clothes 00:01:44.959 --> 00:01:48.359 they gave me great food they did all these wonderful 00:01:48.359 --> 00:01:51.459 things for me so it was the only way i could 00:01:51.459 --> 00:01:54.840 fall asleep it was it was my form of comforting 00:01:54.840 --> 00:01:57.879 self -comforting so i could i could make it through 00:01:57.879 --> 00:02:02.000 another day and as i i grew up and sorted out 00:02:02.000 --> 00:02:07.230 that view of this of this life I ended up going 00:02:07.230 --> 00:02:09.409 to film school. I went to the American Film Institute. 00:02:09.969 --> 00:02:13.310 And always, before that, I always kept journals. 00:02:13.449 --> 00:02:16.370 I always told stories in my journals. They, again, 00:02:16.509 --> 00:02:19.610 kept me alive. It kept me, my vivid imagination. 00:02:21.250 --> 00:02:23.789 Didn't know it at the time, but I was visioning 00:02:23.789 --> 00:02:26.729 a new world. I was visioning a different life 00:02:26.729 --> 00:02:29.689 for myself. Didn't know it at the time, but that's 00:02:29.689 --> 00:02:32.180 what I was doing. So then when I went to film 00:02:32.180 --> 00:02:34.620 school, we were prepping one of our many film 00:02:34.620 --> 00:02:36.800 projects, and we were sitting there talking about 00:02:36.800 --> 00:02:39.259 characters and themes and plots and how everything 00:02:39.259 --> 00:02:42.340 fell together. And I had this aha moment of, 00:02:42.439 --> 00:02:49.219 holy crap, it's a story. My life is a story. 00:02:49.819 --> 00:02:53.520 And if that's the case, I can change it. I can 00:02:53.520 --> 00:02:56.360 write a different ending. I can write a different 00:02:56.360 --> 00:03:01.409 plot. I can pick up new characters. Oh, my gosh. 00:03:01.469 --> 00:03:04.810 And that started me on this journey of looking 00:03:04.810 --> 00:03:09.110 at life as a story and working with it from that 00:03:09.110 --> 00:03:12.169 perspective. But I want to be clear. A lot of 00:03:12.169 --> 00:03:14.530 people say, so you reframe what people are doing. 00:03:14.569 --> 00:03:18.810 It's like, I create understanding. I help you 00:03:18.810 --> 00:03:21.009 to understand it. When you talk about an origin 00:03:21.009 --> 00:03:25.469 story, when I look at my origin story. When we're 00:03:25.469 --> 00:03:29.770 born. we walk into a play that's in the second 00:03:29.770 --> 00:03:34.009 act right our parents have this whole history 00:03:34.009 --> 00:03:35.969 and they have their own origin story that they've 00:03:35.969 --> 00:03:38.490 been living if you have siblings they're they're 00:03:38.490 --> 00:03:41.050 a part of this story at whatever phase act one 00:03:41.050 --> 00:03:43.810 or act two depending on their age but you walk 00:03:43.810 --> 00:03:47.110 in dead center it's like you're walking on stage 00:03:47.110 --> 00:03:50.030 that's on a play that's been going on and you 00:03:50.030 --> 00:03:52.490 have no idea what it's about you haven't talked 00:03:52.490 --> 00:03:55.169 to a director you haven't seen a script so you're 00:03:55.169 --> 00:04:05.009 like Line. Line. Exactly. Line. And so how do 00:04:05.009 --> 00:04:08.310 you create your story? What is that foundation 00:04:08.310 --> 00:04:12.250 of your story? So I get into the belonging. You 00:04:12.250 --> 00:04:14.409 know, you need to belong. It's a survival thing. 00:04:14.490 --> 00:04:17.269 But belonging is one of our first needs. So I 00:04:17.269 --> 00:04:20.670 realized that if we could look at that and understand 00:04:20.670 --> 00:04:25.639 it. understand who these people were and the 00:04:25.639 --> 00:04:28.160 story that they were living before we jumped 00:04:28.160 --> 00:04:33.459 in honestly i could forgive them i could forgive 00:04:33.459 --> 00:04:36.959 all of it and live my life and build my story 00:04:36.959 --> 00:04:40.300 and then i realized that everything they did 00:04:40.300 --> 00:04:46.540 made me who i am so here i am a little over 30 00:04:46.540 --> 00:04:52.230 at this point I can turn this all around. I went 00:04:52.230 --> 00:04:55.930 from this horrible beginning to this amazing 00:04:55.930 --> 00:05:00.009 life that I have now in Santa Barbara, California. 00:05:00.389 --> 00:05:03.129 The only downside is I have this dog who thinks 00:05:03.129 --> 00:05:07.069 he's in charge of our life, and he's kind of 00:05:07.069 --> 00:05:09.290 a bully. He's always demanding things, so we 00:05:09.290 --> 00:05:15.389 have to deal with him. But I can now, using this 00:05:15.389 --> 00:05:19.980 concept and this view, I don't reframe it. I 00:05:19.980 --> 00:05:22.519 change your perspective. I change your understanding 00:05:22.519 --> 00:05:27.199 of the situation. And working with people individually, 00:05:27.540 --> 00:05:31.959 working with businesses, of all the businesses 00:05:31.959 --> 00:05:34.060 you could have started, why did you pick that 00:05:34.060 --> 00:05:37.500 one? What is your origin story for your business? 00:05:37.839 --> 00:05:40.259 Then you can take that apart. When you understand 00:05:40.259 --> 00:05:43.939 it, it's like, oh. I've had more people have 00:05:43.939 --> 00:05:47.399 aha moments just getting them to understand their 00:05:47.399 --> 00:05:50.980 origin story, where they came from. So if I could 00:05:50.980 --> 00:05:53.639 change, if I could talk to everybody about their 00:05:53.639 --> 00:05:56.439 original story, their backstory, or how they 00:05:56.439 --> 00:06:00.899 became who they are today, it changes almost 00:06:00.899 --> 00:06:03.399 instantly. It doesn't even feel like you have 00:06:03.399 --> 00:06:05.480 to go through this big whole process of change. 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:08.300 You just have this understanding and awareness 00:06:08.300 --> 00:06:13.589 that... A lot of these stories weren't ours. 00:06:13.870 --> 00:06:16.230 You know, half of the stories that I was living 00:06:16.230 --> 00:06:19.889 about life is hard or you have to work hard and 00:06:19.889 --> 00:06:22.970 work 90 hours a week just to get by. That's my 00:06:22.970 --> 00:06:25.870 parents' story. My parents were immigrants that 00:06:25.870 --> 00:06:28.870 had rough lives coming in. That was their story. 00:06:28.949 --> 00:06:32.649 Why do I have to take that on? Can't I believe 00:06:32.649 --> 00:06:37.980 that life is beautiful? You can create wonderful, 00:06:38.120 --> 00:06:41.420 magical things really easily. Does it have to 00:06:41.420 --> 00:06:43.699 be you have to work 90 hours a week to barely 00:06:43.699 --> 00:06:49.920 get by? Does hardship and struggle? No. I don't 00:06:49.920 --> 00:06:52.480 think life was intended to be hard and difficult. 00:06:52.699 --> 00:06:56.120 I think we were given this beautiful playground, 00:06:56.160 --> 00:07:02.399 and we've turned it into this dramatic. fight 00:07:02.399 --> 00:07:05.600 sequence almost from some big epic battleground. 00:07:06.360 --> 00:07:10.319 So that's my vision. I think if we challenge 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:14.279 these original stories we've been given, we become 00:07:14.279 --> 00:07:17.959 a lot happier. I can see that. That's incredible. 00:07:18.459 --> 00:07:21.480 Tell me more about how it looks like when you're 00:07:21.480 --> 00:07:24.879 working with a business owner. I can see how 00:07:24.879 --> 00:07:27.620 this would be almost therapeutic. maybe even 00:07:27.620 --> 00:07:30.139 more than therapeutic for like a personal side 00:07:30.139 --> 00:07:33.079 for sure. Where does this work for a business 00:07:33.079 --> 00:07:35.339 as far as figuring out their business origin 00:07:35.339 --> 00:07:38.939 story? What happens next? Well, it's so funny. 00:07:39.019 --> 00:07:44.339 I'll answer that with an example. My partner 00:07:44.339 --> 00:07:47.339 is a musician. He plays classical bassoon. And 00:07:47.339 --> 00:07:50.660 he has this really fascinating conductor that 00:07:50.660 --> 00:07:53.730 he works with on a regular basis. And I said 00:07:53.730 --> 00:07:56.889 to him one time, Maestro, can I talk to you about 00:07:56.889 --> 00:08:00.230 your origin story? He says, yeah, sure. And turns 00:08:00.230 --> 00:08:03.069 out he's Italian, but he was raised in Switzerland. 00:08:03.149 --> 00:08:06.829 And even as an eight or nine year old, you know, 00:08:06.850 --> 00:08:10.009 playing music. happened almost immediately a 00:08:10.009 --> 00:08:12.290 lot of these musicians even my partner he picked 00:08:12.290 --> 00:08:14.910 up instruments when he was three years old he 00:08:14.910 --> 00:08:18.069 was always fascinated with it so i said maestro 00:08:18.069 --> 00:08:20.649 how did it start and he said well me and my cousins 00:08:20.649 --> 00:08:22.709 when we were eight or nine years old we'd grab 00:08:22.709 --> 00:08:25.509 our instruments and we'd go into you know some 00:08:25.509 --> 00:08:28.350 area and we'd play and i i always found i had 00:08:28.350 --> 00:08:30.250 to tell them where they needed to sit and how 00:08:30.250 --> 00:08:32.789 they needed to perform and i said ah do you see 00:08:32.789 --> 00:08:36.379 how that affected you becoming a maestro? And 00:08:36.379 --> 00:08:39.799 he said, no, I don't think it is. Okay, maestro. 00:08:39.919 --> 00:08:42.440 So here you are, a nine -year -old, and you're 00:08:42.440 --> 00:08:44.799 already organizing all these other musicians 00:08:44.799 --> 00:08:47.559 and telling them what parts to play and how it's 00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:51.000 going to sort out. Can you get that? And he went, 00:08:51.220 --> 00:08:59.820 oh, you're right. I had no idea. Wow. I said, 00:08:59.820 --> 00:09:05.120 so. how does that fit for you now, now that you 00:09:05.120 --> 00:09:08.980 have that awareness? And he said, that brings 00:09:08.980 --> 00:09:13.240 me great joy. And then he thanked me. He said, 00:09:13.320 --> 00:09:15.139 you know, I was starting to feel like I was getting 00:09:15.139 --> 00:09:18.519 stale in the work I was doing. Because even if 00:09:18.519 --> 00:09:23.000 it's creative, if it gets repetitious, it's not 00:09:23.000 --> 00:09:25.539 as enjoyable. But when he started remembering 00:09:25.539 --> 00:09:28.679 the joy he had with his cousins and his friends, 00:09:28.700 --> 00:09:33.120 his kids, You know, as kids, we haven't learned 00:09:33.120 --> 00:09:35.639 yet about how you're supposed to do things or 00:09:35.639 --> 00:09:38.039 what you should be doing. So he remembered that 00:09:38.039 --> 00:09:41.519 and that he's been saying that his work since 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:44.700 that conversation has just been exponentially 00:09:44.700 --> 00:09:49.759 more fulfilling. He brought some of that forth, 00:09:49.879 --> 00:09:54.159 that remembering of how much fun he had when 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:59.789 he was just playing with his cousins. So in some 00:09:59.789 --> 00:10:01.850 other cases, you know, I've worked with a lot 00:10:01.850 --> 00:10:03.769 of entrepreneurs and it's like, well, why did 00:10:03.769 --> 00:10:06.429 you pick that business? And by the way, even 00:10:06.429 --> 00:10:08.370 if it's because this is something you felt you 00:10:08.370 --> 00:10:10.909 could make money at, great. But there's still 00:10:10.909 --> 00:10:15.090 a reason why you chose to become a chef rather 00:10:15.090 --> 00:10:18.830 than an accountant. You know, when I talk to 00:10:18.830 --> 00:10:22.470 accountants, it's inevitably my parents always 00:10:22.470 --> 00:10:27.919 liked, always enjoyed. their budgeting and that 00:10:27.919 --> 00:10:30.440 and I always felt like I connected there's there's 00:10:30.440 --> 00:10:33.220 typically some connection with the family when 00:10:33.220 --> 00:10:35.360 you're a chef and you want to start your own 00:10:35.360 --> 00:10:37.940 restaurant there's some connection in your childhood 00:10:37.940 --> 00:10:41.080 that around cooking you know my mom was a great 00:10:41.080 --> 00:10:43.519 cook for all of her shortcomings she really could 00:10:43.519 --> 00:10:46.840 bake and she was a great cook so there's one 00:10:46.840 --> 00:10:49.799 of my sisters is a chef and she knew all mom's 00:10:49.799 --> 00:10:53.299 recipes and she had all that stuff it's so fascinating 00:10:53.299 --> 00:10:56.840 so the other part of it too is sometimes these 00:10:56.840 --> 00:10:59.980 accountants take on I worked with a different 00:10:59.980 --> 00:11:02.779 accountant who who took this on because his parents 00:11:02.779 --> 00:11:06.039 pushed him to say accounting will always mean 00:11:06.039 --> 00:11:09.159 you always have a job and and he hated numbers 00:11:09.789 --> 00:11:12.690 He was probably like me. I can barely handle 00:11:12.690 --> 00:11:16.470 an Excel spreadsheet. But his parents thought, 00:11:17.029 --> 00:11:19.269 if you take a job as an accountant, you'll always 00:11:19.269 --> 00:11:21.330 have work. You'll never be out of work, which 00:11:21.330 --> 00:11:24.350 is a common thing for people when they start 00:11:24.350 --> 00:11:27.950 a business or they're picking a career. It's, 00:11:27.950 --> 00:11:32.870 what were we told we should do? And when I hear 00:11:32.870 --> 00:11:36.830 should, I think, tell me that story. What story? 00:11:37.740 --> 00:11:40.019 Who told you you should do this? What's that 00:11:40.019 --> 00:11:44.220 story? And it's inevitably, well, the school 00:11:44.220 --> 00:11:49.059 said I did well in sciences, so I should be a 00:11:49.059 --> 00:11:53.179 doctor. Or I passed some interest test that said 00:11:53.179 --> 00:11:56.820 I should do this, so I take that career. And 00:11:56.820 --> 00:11:59.960 starting a business is the same thing. You are 00:11:59.960 --> 00:12:02.980 running a bunch of stories about why you'll start 00:12:02.980 --> 00:12:05.259 this business. Now, there's a difference between 00:12:05.259 --> 00:12:07.980 the type of business they start. and why they 00:12:07.980 --> 00:12:10.620 decided to go on their own versus working for 00:12:10.620 --> 00:12:12.919 somebody else. So that's a whole different set 00:12:12.919 --> 00:12:18.980 of stories. If you have started a business, back 00:12:18.980 --> 00:12:22.980 to the accountant, you started a financial consulting 00:12:22.980 --> 00:12:25.360 business, you do a lot of financial consulting. 00:12:26.250 --> 00:12:29.970 I had another client who just loved helping people 00:12:29.970 --> 00:12:32.830 with their wealth portfolios, felt that it was 00:12:32.830 --> 00:12:35.710 like playing clue or strategy. It was one of 00:12:35.710 --> 00:12:38.870 these or chess. You know, chess is a very complex 00:12:38.870 --> 00:12:42.529 game. So they excelled at that type of an environment. 00:12:42.710 --> 00:12:45.830 So financial planning to them was different than 00:12:45.830 --> 00:12:49.779 being an accountant. So it's fascinating to me 00:12:49.779 --> 00:12:52.779 how they put this together, and you can always 00:12:52.779 --> 00:12:55.720 trace it back to something in their origin story. 00:12:56.539 --> 00:13:02.000 I was talking with a guy who wanted tenure, had 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:04.879 been trying forever to get tenure, and would 00:13:04.879 --> 00:13:08.299 shift to universities hoping to get tenure. And 00:13:08.299 --> 00:13:10.460 he was getting ready to do it again, and he called 00:13:10.460 --> 00:13:12.779 me and he said, look, I need to get tenure. And 00:13:12.779 --> 00:13:17.090 I said, why? Why do you need it? oh you know 00:13:17.090 --> 00:13:19.850 job security and okay where did that come from 00:13:19.850 --> 00:13:24.070 well you know my parents and it's inevitably 00:13:24.070 --> 00:13:27.070 it inevitably comes back and it's like so how 00:13:27.070 --> 00:13:28.809 what was your parents relationship with their 00:13:28.809 --> 00:13:32.190 parents oh my grandparents were awesome but how 00:13:32.190 --> 00:13:34.470 did your parents get along with them oh my god 00:13:34.470 --> 00:13:36.909 my mom hated his her mother because her mother 00:13:36.909 --> 00:13:40.460 kept pushing her to do stuff blah blah I said, 00:13:40.480 --> 00:13:42.460 do you see how that rolls down the generational 00:13:42.460 --> 00:13:45.840 story? And your mom was pushing you because, 00:13:45.879 --> 00:13:51.080 and he was like, oh, huh. After five sessions, 00:13:51.120 --> 00:13:55.360 he had tenure. Wow. And it was when he said, 00:13:55.600 --> 00:13:58.100 you know, you're right. I'm going to quit trying 00:13:58.100 --> 00:14:01.039 so hard. It'll happen or it won't happen. I know 00:14:01.039 --> 00:14:03.539 I'm a great professor, teacher. I'll always have 00:14:03.539 --> 00:14:07.539 work. I'm not going to worry about it. Son of 00:14:07.539 --> 00:14:10.899 a gun if a tenure position didn't open and they 00:14:10.899 --> 00:14:14.039 called him. He didn't have to apply for it. He 00:14:14.039 --> 00:14:18.039 didn't have to do anything. Even better. Yeah. 00:14:18.100 --> 00:14:24.440 So I promise you, if it's a CEO of a corporation, 00:14:24.720 --> 00:14:28.840 if it's a chief executive, if it's a middle management, 00:14:29.120 --> 00:14:32.940 there's an origin story to that. Teachers are 00:14:32.940 --> 00:14:34.940 another great one. A lot of women are teachers 00:14:34.940 --> 00:14:40.100 because they were told as young women, the teaching 00:14:40.100 --> 00:14:43.120 profession is a great profession for you. Now, 00:14:43.220 --> 00:14:46.000 not always true. Some people do it because that's 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:47.860 their way they want to help kids. They like working 00:14:47.860 --> 00:14:49.740 with kids. They want to help them. But it's so 00:14:49.740 --> 00:14:53.399 important to understand that origin story. And 00:14:53.399 --> 00:14:57.340 more often than not, it brings together. this 00:14:57.340 --> 00:15:00.019 sense of fulfillment of why you've picked this 00:15:00.019 --> 00:15:03.259 business that you want to go into or this career 00:15:03.259 --> 00:15:06.519 path that you want to do. Tell me more. So fulfillment, 00:15:06.639 --> 00:15:09.440 I could see that being like kind of closing the 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:11.559 loop, like understanding why you're in this. 00:15:11.679 --> 00:15:15.039 What other, what else does it do for them? Well, 00:15:15.159 --> 00:15:19.379 sometimes it sets them free. I had another client 00:15:19.379 --> 00:15:22.929 who became a lawyer. because dad was a lawyer 00:15:22.929 --> 00:15:25.129 and his dad was a lawyer and you know that's 00:15:25.129 --> 00:15:27.629 what we did we were a family of lawyers he was 00:15:27.629 --> 00:15:31.409 miserable absolutely miserable wasn't very good 00:15:31.409 --> 00:15:33.809 at it had been doing it for 15 years and was 00:15:33.809 --> 00:15:36.549 still an associate still hadn't even gotten anything 00:15:36.549 --> 00:15:42.250 like a partner track and he he actually I said 00:15:42.250 --> 00:15:44.629 to him well what if you had a perfect world because 00:15:44.629 --> 00:15:46.690 he kept saying well I'm 40 years old now I can't 00:15:46.690 --> 00:15:52.490 change careers now I'm stuck Dude, when I started 00:15:52.490 --> 00:15:54.230 this career, you don't want to know how old I 00:15:54.230 --> 00:15:56.370 was when I started this career. You just don't. 00:15:57.029 --> 00:16:01.450 And he said, well, what could I do? And I said, 00:16:01.490 --> 00:16:05.289 well, you make a plan. It turned out he wanted 00:16:05.289 --> 00:16:11.470 to become a graphic artist. And he I said. Do 00:16:11.470 --> 00:16:13.529 you want to take a class? Take a class and see 00:16:13.529 --> 00:16:15.169 if that's what you really want to do. There's 00:16:15.169 --> 00:16:16.870 a lot of night classes. There's a lot of things 00:16:16.870 --> 00:16:19.850 you can do online right now just to see before 00:16:19.850 --> 00:16:24.629 you blow up an income. See if you can do this. 00:16:24.730 --> 00:16:27.610 Well, it turns out he took one course. He loved 00:16:27.610 --> 00:16:29.750 it. Then he did a weekend adult learning program. 00:16:29.870 --> 00:16:33.350 Love that. And actually built a portfolio for 00:16:33.350 --> 00:16:38.009 himself and actually did become a designer. Wow. 00:16:38.559 --> 00:16:41.000 found his path it took him a little bit of time 00:16:41.000 --> 00:16:44.159 it didn't happen overnight but he built his confidence 00:16:44.159 --> 00:16:48.039 level with his skill set and and then he needed 00:16:48.039 --> 00:16:50.659 to get strong because of course his parents who 00:16:50.659 --> 00:16:53.580 were both retired at that point were thought 00:16:53.580 --> 00:16:56.259 he was nuts for doing it so there was also that 00:16:56.259 --> 00:17:00.019 kind of coaching to help him deal with that that 00:17:00.019 --> 00:17:03.059 kind of a shift but he was he was happier than 00:17:03.059 --> 00:17:08.029 he'd ever been that's so cool yeah How does your 00:17:08.029 --> 00:17:11.990 book fit into this? My book, Life Rewritten, 00:17:12.009 --> 00:17:17.710 is the foundational beginnings of why I picked 00:17:17.710 --> 00:17:20.750 this path. And it talks about the elements of 00:17:20.750 --> 00:17:23.950 storytelling and how I applied those to my life. 00:17:24.170 --> 00:17:27.829 And then I provide a how -to section in each 00:17:27.829 --> 00:17:29.670 book. So you don't have to go and buy a workbook 00:17:29.670 --> 00:17:32.490 after you buy the book. It's pretty straightforward. 00:17:32.509 --> 00:17:35.549 I start off with a story from my life and the 00:17:35.549 --> 00:17:38.119 story element. that goes along with that and 00:17:38.119 --> 00:17:41.319 then how to apply that to your life. My next 00:17:41.319 --> 00:17:44.839 book, which will be out hopefully by the fall, 00:17:44.960 --> 00:17:48.839 is Business Rewritten. And it's, again, how you 00:17:48.839 --> 00:17:51.240 can apply these same principles to business. 00:17:51.359 --> 00:17:53.900 So I figure life is first, then business rewritten. 00:17:54.200 --> 00:17:57.240 And then I have another book, Money Rewritten. 00:17:57.799 --> 00:18:00.380 which talks about the money messages we've been 00:18:00.380 --> 00:18:03.539 given and how to deal with the money stories 00:18:03.539 --> 00:18:07.880 that we carry so that you can live. I have what 00:18:07.880 --> 00:18:10.279 I call the wealth, prosperity, and abundance 00:18:10.279 --> 00:18:16.000 quotient, or IQ, the WPA IQ. Most people think 00:18:16.000 --> 00:18:18.539 of money. They don't think about prosperity or 00:18:18.539 --> 00:18:22.640 abundance and what that means. And so I take 00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:25.789 apart the money stories we've been given. so 00:18:25.789 --> 00:18:28.670 that you can apply that because the money stories 00:18:28.670 --> 00:18:31.490 we've been given affect our careers, affect our 00:18:31.490 --> 00:18:36.410 choices with businesses we start. It's an underlying 00:18:36.410 --> 00:18:39.450 theme that affects everybody's life is their 00:18:39.450 --> 00:18:42.329 money. But again, I call it the wealth, prosperity, 00:18:42.509 --> 00:18:45.380 and abundance index because... That's really 00:18:45.380 --> 00:18:48.500 what we're talking about. Money is an intangible 00:18:48.500 --> 00:18:51.859 concept. It's really not something called hard 00:18:51.859 --> 00:18:56.259 fact. So Life Rewritten was the start where I 00:18:56.259 --> 00:18:59.299 introduced these ideas of looking at the actual 00:18:59.299 --> 00:19:01.599 story elements. I look at characters, themes, 00:19:01.880 --> 00:19:06.819 plots, inciting incidents. The inciting incident, 00:19:06.980 --> 00:19:09.680 you know what that is as a writer. Why did you 00:19:09.680 --> 00:19:12.880 take this journey right now? What event? What 00:19:12.880 --> 00:19:16.079 happened? For me, it was when my father died. 00:19:16.180 --> 00:19:18.319 I hit rock bottom, and that was it. That told 00:19:18.319 --> 00:19:20.539 me I needed to really take a look at my life 00:19:20.539 --> 00:19:22.980 and deal with it, and that sent me on this journey. 00:19:23.500 --> 00:19:25.920 There's an inciting incident. Why did you start 00:19:25.920 --> 00:19:29.700 this business at this time? Are you solving a 00:19:29.700 --> 00:19:32.819 problem, or are you addressing something, or 00:19:32.819 --> 00:19:35.160 are you taking over a business, or is this just 00:19:35.160 --> 00:19:38.460 where your skills lie? Understanding that inciting 00:19:38.460 --> 00:19:43.259 incident, why? why is such a foundational thing 00:19:43.259 --> 00:19:46.470 to know. That's all covered in Life Rewritten. 00:19:46.589 --> 00:19:48.710 And then from there, I take it into these other 00:19:48.710 --> 00:19:51.130 ideas. Thank you for being here today. I'm really 00:19:51.130 --> 00:19:53.089 happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. 00:19:53.289 --> 00:19:55.710 I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions 00:19:55.710 --> 00:19:58.349 as these episodes continue to move forward. This 00:19:58.349 --> 00:20:00.250 is going to get more and more fun. We'll have 00:20:00.250 --> 00:20:02.049 more and more engagement as well. We'll invite 00:20:02.049 --> 00:20:04.450 people to participate in the show. And thank 00:20:04.450 --> 00:20:06.430 you for giving us your time and attention. Have 00:20:06.430 --> 00:20:09.069 an excellent time building out your vision and 00:20:09.069 --> 00:20:10.210 becoming a vision pro yourself.