What does it truly mean to be successful? How can we find fulfillment in our lives, both financially and spiritually? Join us for an eye-opening conversation with self-made business leader, author, and inspirational figure Nathan Landcree as we explore the answers to these critical questions.
Throughout our chat, Nathan shares his unconventional philosophy on success and dives into his approach to self-discovery, bridging the gap between understanding and action. Together, we uncover the importance of emotional endurance, understanding our true calling, and being aware of what we are feeding our emotions. Nathan also reveals the challenges he faced in his own journey to becoming the president and CEO of one of the largest auto groups in northern Ohio and how he overcame them.
In this captivating conversation, we also discuss the importance of leading by example, creating a vision beyond a paycheck, and finding a balance between external and internal motivations. Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights from Nathan Lancry on your journey towards success, happiness, and personal fulfillment.
What does it truly mean to be successful? How can we find fulfillment in our lives, both financially and spiritually? Join us for an eye-opening conversation with self-made business leader, author, and inspirational figure Nathan Landcree as we explore the answers to these critical questions.
Throughout our chat, Nathan shares his unconventional philosophy on success and dives into his approach to self-discovery, bridging the gap between understanding and action. Together, we uncover the importance of emotional endurance, understanding our true calling, and being aware of what we are feeding our emotions. Nathan also reveals the challenges he faced in his own journey to becoming the president and CEO of one of the largest auto groups in northern Ohio and how he overcame them.
In this captivating conversation, we also discuss the importance of leading by example, creating a vision beyond a paycheck, and finding a balance between external and internal motivations. Don't miss this opportunity to gain valuable insights from Nathan Lancry on your journey towards success, happiness, and personal fulfillment.
Today's guest is Nathan Landcree, a self-made business leader, author and inspirational figure who's built a really impressive career out of hard work, determination and, what I found, a truly original perspective on life and leadership. Nathan's journey is far from conventional. He dropped out of high school, was working manual labor jobs since he was nine years old, but he proved time and time again that success isn't about where you start. It's how you chart your own course and how you get there. He is not just an accomplished entrepreneur. He's also the author of two insightful books that speak to his unique worldview. The first, the mercury mind how harnessing attraction beyond your control is the key to better relationships, fulfilling careers and your most powerful self. And the second, foresight is 2020. Unlock your past to create a better future. Both books serve as a testament to his original thinking and his drive to help others succeed.
Speaker 1:Today's conversation is an interesting one, possibly one of the more interesting ones I've had. It's a exploration of Nathan's very unique philosophy on life journey and his mission to help others achieve their own versions of success, both financially, but maybe even more importantly, spiritually. So sit back, buckle up and prepare to see the world through the unique lens of Nathan Lankley. All right, nathan, before we hit the record button, you started to take to say one of my favorite quotes in the entire world, one I use all the time. It's the iconic Mike Tyson quote Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Everyone knows that right Punched in the mouth, right Sure, and you were going into a little bit of your philosophy. So I wanted to hit the record button so we could get some of the songs. So why don't I let you continue?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So just to reiterate what you were saying in regard to how people have this plan They have all these ideas that are scripted out well and they've done their due diligence, they've done their homework. However, you want to create the illusion in your mind that you really have things figured out And out of nowhere you have this rogue moment that comes out of left field.
Speaker 2:Metaphorically, you could use Mike Tyson's analogy of a punch in the mouth your car breaks down, or just life happens, And when these things happen, they take us off course, because we charted out this course in our mind of how things ought to be. And when there's a disparity between how things ought to be and where they actually are, and the widening in that gap and that space between what we thought we should be versus where we actually ended up creates even more anxiety and more tension within us, And my goal would be to help people understand the importance of not allowing that to affect them. Now it's easy to say, well, don't let that affect you and it won't affect you. It's not really possible, because in our minds, if it was that easy, we would just write out a sentence don't sweat it.
Speaker 1:Sure.
Speaker 2:You've seen that many times. Well, the reason why we sweat it is because it's beyond our control. Now, if there comes a space or a place where we have an awareness of which, triggering that right. So, for example, you know someone, you can call someone one name, right, they're not even affected by it. You can call someone else the same exact name and they're totally affected by it. But, vice versa, the one guy that's affected by the name, i can call him a different name, he's unaffected by it. So why are we affected by these certain components, right, or these certain dynamics that are presented to us? And the reason is we don't know. So the idea is what it is that we don't know.
Speaker 2:That's where our greatest opportunity is, and a lot of times you'll hear in these motivational seminars or again, these gurus, these men and women. They want to go out and you'll begin to tell you how to become a self made person. They leave a very, very important ingredient, which I think is the most important ingredient, is how to build the emotional endurance and emotional stantema to be able to trudge through these difficult times. How do you do it? Well, the problem is people don't want to do the work on it. It's kind of like the person says well, i want to lose weight because I have a wedding, or I want to lose weight because I'm going on vacation. I want to lose weight because of X, y and Z. Once they go on their vacation, once they have the wedding, they're right back to where they were, because they don't work on.
Speaker 2:What is it that they're really feeding? See, what they're feeding is their emotions. They're not feeding their body for nutrition, they're feeding on their emotions. When you see people that feed their emotions, well, that's because they're not willing to take a step back and say what is it inside of me that's being called for? What's their true calling? What is it? What's in my deep desire? What's in my heart and soul? What's the one thing that's going to keep me moving forward? no matter?
Speaker 1:what I agree with you. I think there's a lot of stuff there, a lot to unpack. I think there's a lot of really profound statements there. You just look at athletics and you look at professional golfers and you look at golfers who essentially fold under the pressure and will admit to it that the pressure got to me. I started to think too much about the next shot, i started to grip it too tight, i started to hold on and things start to fall apart.
Speaker 2:It's not that these people That's a little bit different, though. I want to keep this thing in a context, okay, because what you're describing there is outside influence. We can talk about that in a minute, when you are on the golf course. So you're in the stand, you're a quarterback, you're going to launch that ball. You feel the pressure of what will others think if I fail? What will that other person think if I don't get that shot, if my pass is intercepted or whatever it is that you're out to do, what will others think? That's a totally different pressure.
Speaker 1:Well, my point wasn't necessarily the internal pressure versus the external pressure. It was more of the fact that we have a hard time controlling our thoughts in a lot of cases, even though inside we know what we need to do. That person who has a hard time and I do want to let you finish your point that person who maybe is eating based on stress or emotion knows that they're eating based on stress and emotion, but just the knowledge of it doesn't always allow you to fix it. I agree, i think that those are two different points, but I'm just trying to I guess my point, more than anything, was that we, in many cases, we know that our mind controls our actions, but just knowing it doesn't necessarily give us a path to fix it. There's deeper roots to how we have to address our mind.
Speaker 2:Let me be clear. As I described earlier, an awareness is not knowing. We can know something right. I can say to you I'm feeling this anxiety, i'm feeling this certain way. That's knowing An awareness of why it's happening is one phase, and then there's another phase of awakening. When we can awaken this inner soul and this inner dimension within us, then at that point we become aware of it. Whether we know it or not, it's not going to even make any difference. Just because we know something doesn't mean it's awakening within us or it has a woken.
Speaker 2:We're never going to get to that place if we don't do the work. The work, a lot of times in our unconscious mind, could be 5, 10, 15, 20 layers deep. We're in a hurry to get somewhere. The problem is the faster we go, the harder it is to get there. The slower we go, the more efficiently we'll get there. And the answer is I don't know how much time it's going to take And it would be impossible for me to tell someone how long it's going to take.
Speaker 2:But what I can say is, with great certainty, if you spend the time, if you're patient with yourself, give yourself the space you need, forgive yourself along the way for the mistakes in some of the decisions that maybe drove you to do things that maybe you wouldn't do in a different state of mind, and letting all these things bypass, stay where they belong in that moment of time in the past. That then allows you to move forward. Not forward as it never happened before, but forward in a way that doesn't put you in a position that holds you hostage and shackled to your past. When we do things that we regret and we hold ourselves hostage or allow the past to shackle us from moving forward, that is to me a red flag, a caution flag, a red flag of you're not ready to let go because you're not ready to truly move forward.
Speaker 2:So you take relationships and a lot of relationships can come in a variety of ways, and the number one relationship is just a personal belief is what we ingest.
Speaker 2:That's our number one relationship in our life The food we consume, the liquids we consume, the information we allow enter our ears, the information we allow to be viewed through our eyes, in addition to any of the other senses touch, smell, taste, any of the five senses that we have, our ways of communicating within our inner being, what it is exactly that we're doing So, when we take in these senses and we take in these flavors, we take in these sentiments. We have to ask yourself, when this is happening, what piece of it are we rejecting? What piece of it are we accepting? Now, just because we accept something doesn't mean that it's good for us or healthy. Sometimes we accept things that are unhealthy for us but yet they're comfortable, and because they're comfortable, we have a tendency to think that they're okay. But a lot of times, what's good for us we're very uncomfortable with, and because we're uncomfortable with it, our brains say it's not good for us. So part of this awakening is how do we separate what's healthy for us versus what's comfortable for us?
Speaker 1:So if we could be some I'm following what you're saying here, but I'm having a hard time pinpointing this to. Are there specific actions? I mean, these are very generalized concepts. What are some examples that we can point this to? that help ground this and maybe something that someone out there would be listening to would be like oh okay, i got it. This makes a little bit more sense to me.
Speaker 2:Well, that's just the idea. You see, the general context itself. That's the piece that's hard for people, because they want to tag it on to something. See, because if we could tag it onto a frame of reference, it gives us a false sense of confidence that we're actually on the right track Because, oh, i can attach it to something, i can label it to something. What I'm saying is a complete opposite. You can't label it, you can't attach it to anything. You have to have an understanding within yourself, moving forward into the future, that there's an awakening in a self-discovery process that has to take shape in a new dimension that is not familiar to you. So what you're asking for is some dynamic that's familiar. You're looking for something that's familiar that you can attach it to Say, okay, that makes sense. What I'm saying is this should not make sense to you on the onset. It will eventually make sense to you as you move forward if you can hang in there.
Speaker 1:A lot of people can't hang in there When you're communicating this to people. We live in a short attention span generation. I've done a little bit of research. You and I can see you're definitely an outside of the box thinker, a very deep thinker. Your two books The Mercury Mind, forsythe is 2020, you clearly expound on these ideas and take this rather profound approach to it. But in a world where people do seek to understand things quickly and want to at least understand I understand what he's saying. I'm willing to go down this path with him. I'm willing to go down the rabbit hole with Nathan here and expound on these philosophies. How do you get that point across quickly? I would assume that's something that, in your role, that you need to get people to come on the journey with you. I'm sure that the journey itself is spectacular, but you got to bridge that gap.
Speaker 2:It depends on their appetite. It's not a one size fits all approach. Number one, number two not everyone is going to have the emotional capacity to do this. I would love to be able to say look, if you practice long and hard, you could be a star quarterback for any national football team in the NFL. It's not true. Or you could be the next LeBron James if you practice baseball or basketball I'm sorry long enough. Or you could be Babe Ruth if you play baseball long enough. Or Tiger Woods if you play golf long enough. That would be a false statement. Would you agree with that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course.
Speaker 2:Okay, this isn't for everyone. This isn't for everyone, it's for a lot of us.
Speaker 1:Who is it for? Is it for, you know, with like Babe Ruth, lebron James, tiger Woods there's a certain amount of physical talent that's involved there in an innate ability that I think you would find in all of those great athletes. So, you know, you can clearly find someone who's a 5 foot, 425 pounds. They're probably not going to play in the NBA, it's just they don't have that ability. When you think about this approach that we're talking about with you, is anybody potentially able to do this, and it's more of if their mind can go down this path? Are there certain qualities?
Speaker 2:I've worked with plenty of people that were able to get to this place over the last 30 years of my life. You know, working with people in different varieties Now does the end result? it's on an assembly line where you're going to see an end result that looks the same every single time. This is a customized plan of action that's tailor made to the individual, that they make for themselves relative to the people that they surround themselves with, that are in their corner, that can help guide them in becoming a shining light to help illuminate the world that they're in in a way that they can't see. It's healthy for them.
Speaker 2:Now it's complicated because and again to your point in a world we'll call it the instant gratification world. But nonetheless, the reason why the instant gratification world has caught fire and it's what everybody's grabbing onto is because the biology of our brains See what I'm suggesting is the total opposite of human nature. See, human nature looks for the quick fix how I can lose 50 pounds a month without changing anything in my life, right, how I can become very, very big with muscles and take some steroids to do it. I mean, if you think, go back to the beginning of time. Shortcuts, relatively speaking, have been around as long as mankind's been around. I mean, nothing's new here. Technology's helped accelerate that and it's given us larger training wheels, if you will.
Speaker 2:But in the end, the hard core avoidance of hard work, dedication and doing the right thing even when no one's looking it's just not in nature, it's just not in human nature. So you have to fight that urge against yourself. In a sense, you have to guard against yourself. We become our own worst enemy and we've heard that saying since we were little kids. We've become our own worst enemy. But there's a lot of truth in that fact that we do become our own worst enemy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, and I agree with that on the, especially on the. Everybody wants a shortcut, right? If you open up social media, almost every ad that's served to you is some get rich quick, get in shape quick. Shortcut this, shortcut that And I'm a big proponent of myself, as do the work. There is no shortcut Like if you want to be successful, do the work. If you want to be in shape, do the work. Right It's. There is no secret, right? The secret to being in shape is eating well and exercising right, the secret to being successful in business.
Speaker 2:I would even back that up a second. It's not just eating well and exercising. The secret to good health is how do you feel about you? That's the secret to good health.
Speaker 1:Sure, i'll give you an example. You're back pedaling out of that, because if you feel well about yourself, then you take the steps. But at the end of the day you have to be disciplined enough that you have to put the right nutrition in your body and you have to have some form of exercise, the mental mind frame that gets you there. I agree That's an important precursor, right.
Speaker 2:You're still in it. I disagree, no, that's the opposite. So I'll give you an example.
Speaker 1:You can't think yourself to health right, Like I can't eat cheeseburgers all day and think positively about myself and be in shape. No, no, no.
Speaker 2:I didn't say think. I didn't say think. I said how you feel It was a very big difference. Let me define it. This is a really important distinction. Okay, so I'm going to throw something out there that's way over the top and then I'm going to bring it back in. We both agree that there's people out there and I won't carve out any details that do some really bad things to themselves. Sure, do we agree with that?
Speaker 1:Yeah, of course.
Speaker 2:You can probably come up with a list of 50. Without even thinking twice, would you do some of those really bad things yourself?
Speaker 1:Oh, i've done some of those really bad things myself. But we've all done dumb things in our life and maybe the secret of life is a little bit of moderation. But yeah, i mean, are you drinking too much? Yeah, i can't tell you that drinking too much is a good thing. Have I ever drank too much?
Speaker 2:Of course, Are you drunk right now?
Speaker 1:Of course not.
Speaker 2:Why not?
Speaker 1:Because, like I said, doing things at times, yes, i've done them, but I mean I have the wherewithal to know that I want to be a functioning human being in life.
Speaker 2:Functioning in. Let's even look at this dynamic. Here are your host's podcasts, wonderful podcasts that you host. You come on the scene and you've had eight vakers. Would that be a good idea? A bad idea.
Speaker 1:It depends on who my guest is, i don't know. It can make for a fun episode, but I'll play along here. Yeah, it'd be a bad idea.
Speaker 2:So did you even have to talk yourself out of it before coming on the show today?
Speaker 1:No, of course not.
Speaker 2:No, you were even a second thought, right, yeah, so the idea that it's not even a second thought is because there's this threshold that you live by, whatever that threshold is. But the idea of even entering into this podcast under the influence of eight vodka drinks is something that wouldn't even cross your mind, not even a consideration. The idea is that when we do the work and we become aware and we have this awakening within us, the things that quote unquote are not so healthy for us don't even become a second thought. The desire to want to do those things is a mere image of how we feel at an unconscious level. That's the idea. That's where the work's got to come in. It's not through sheer will and discipline, except for one place, and I hang in there to really become aware and allow myself the key to open up that door for that awakening.
Speaker 2:That's the hard part, because there's a space between having the thought and then the guilt and the shame and the negative panel of feelings that we can list out begin to take shape, because our mind knows I mean, look, i can go up to any single person that's doing something they shouldn't be doing And I ask them should you be doing this or not? And they're going to tell you no, i shouldn't be doing this, this isn't good for me, it's not healthy for me. They certainly don't need me to remind them that it's not a good idea. But why do they have the desire to do it? Because what they think they should be doing and how they really feel about who they are, that's the disparity. And the question is how do we get people to feel about who they are internally in alignment with what they think they should be doing?
Speaker 1:So how do we do it?
Speaker 2:A lot of questions, a lot of patience, you know. So, when we do these things, we do them, we play them out. What do we get out of it? Is it fun? Sure it's fun. Is it exciting? Yeah, it's exciting, but is it going to take you where you want to go? And the difference is and I talk about this in the book The Mercury Mind people think they know what they want, but the truth is they don't.
Speaker 2:I've interviewed thousands of people and people will say I said what I want to do, i'm sure of it. This is what I want to do, i'm sure of it. Talk to them a year later What are you doing these days? I try that thing. It's not what I want to do. You know, a year ago you would have bet your life on it. Well, i thought that's what I wanted.
Speaker 2:There's a difference between thinking and truly knowing. You know, when someone really wants to do something, they really know what they want to do. They just do it. They don't talk about it, they don't begin to brag about it. They just do it because this is what they're designed to do. They just do what they do.
Speaker 2:And there's a distinct difference between people that just do what they do, versus people that are doing something to cover up what they're afraid to actually do, and that's what I'm going to go into next. Is this fear factor? People are really afraid it's not a failure. You know this whole model I'm afraid of failure. People are afraid. They're not afraid of failure, they're afraid of success, because there's a tremendous amount of responsibility that comes with success. You see, if you fail, failure you try again. Right, no problem. And if you fail and there's a see with failure, there's an end. With success, there is no end, and it can be very exhausting for people. Sometimes they'll self-sabotage themselves because they can't sustain the success, because it requires them to keep moving forward, and if they don't feel good about who they are, then they're going to back off, and they're going to back off because they can't handle the success.
Speaker 2:We'll go back to sports athletes, and we're going to use your idea, though, that there's a physical talent associated to it. There's no question. No question about it, but I do believe that if people can find this awakening spirit within them and become aware of what it is that they're doing, not just because they know it, but they feel that this is where they belong. They feel this is where they need to go. They can be the Mike Tyson, the Braun James in their own world. And yeah, maybe the guy that's five foot four, that's 125 pounds, may not play basketball like LeBron James, but he might be the best accountant in the world that LeBron James can never be, or he may be the best you know real estate salesperson that LeBron James maybe couldn't be. But everybody has their quote, unquote LeBron James arena Question is are you going to find it?
Speaker 2:Most people can't, because they have a hard time confronting the fact that success is a maintenance and it's a lifelong journey Where, when you do a project or you focus on a project and you succeed, okay, it's over. Success is not a project, success is a lifestyle And it requires it's ubiquitous. It's everything and everywhere that you go. You either are wanting to be a successful person in life or you're not, and that doesn't necessarily quantify into dollars and cents. You may say you know what. I'm going to be a teacher and money's not important to me, but it's successful to me to see children rise to the occasion, bring the best out of them so they could be what they want to be, and I'm going to spend the rest of my life doing continuing education, not because the state that I choose to work in makes me want to do it Or it's a requirement to have my teaching certificate, but because I really want to become the best teacher, and I'm going to take my time voluntarily and become even a better teacher, you see.
Speaker 2:so it really has to do with what it is that you want to become the best at. And do you really want to become the best at it because of outside influences, which most people do, or because you got this burning desire here in your heart That lines up with your gut and your head? And when those three line up, you just know you're going to get there one day, because you're just going to be patient and you're going to learn. And every day you're just going to add a little bit, a little bit more and a little bit more. Before you know it, the picture is going to start to take shape. Every day you add a new color, a little pixel here, a little pixel here. Before you know it, you're going to paint the picture you want, like the ones behind you. But you see, that doesn't happen until we take the first step And discovering first what is inside of us that we're running from, and your habits tell you the story.
Speaker 1:Is everybody running? I mean listen, i agree with you 100%. I mean I think there's a lot of Everyone.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, no. Not everyone, not everyone. No, majority majority yeah, majority for sure.
Speaker 1:I think purpose, or your why I mean Simon Sinek and kind of like, what's your why? I mean you think about Stephen Covey's famous the seven habits of highly successful people. I think the second habit is start with your end in mind, right, So it's this concept and idea of really understand what you want in life, who you want to be, What's your deep internal driving force, your north star, your purpose, And then your life kind of unfolds.
Speaker 2:As long as you keep that in mind, Okay so hold that thought right there, because this is a great point. So you begin with this end in mind, theory, right, and you have this person that says, well, i don't know what I want, because that's the majority of the population. They don't know what they want. And all you have to ask them is this here how's your day today? It's Tuesday, it's after the holiday. I had to go back to work. Oh, i had such a great weekend And now I'm back in the grind.
Speaker 2:You go up to 10 people four people, if not more, are going to say that to you. Okay, i might be five or six, but I'm going to say, conservatively for sure, for Now, let's take those four people. Now, what happens? You have something that says I hate where I am And I said, well, how was your day yesterday? Oh, it was great. Well, it was good. And I started thinking. I got to show up the next day at work. So you took part of your night on Monday and you thought about coming to work on Tuesday. Yeah, so part of your time that you were having a good time. You were thinking about coming to work the following day and you dreaded coming there. Going there, yeah, that's true, and I can't tell you and people I haven't even heard the same story. I mean, it's like you could set a tape recorder to it and almost verbatim get the same response.
Speaker 1:So let's talk a little bit about you, because I think one of the things we haven't talked about in this conversation is you're not just a. You know you're not a. I know you're an author and you know you're your recent book, the Mercury Mind. You talk a lot about this type of stuff, but like you've walked the walk right, like you were in a situation where you were working manual labor jobs, i'm sure that Monday morning came up and you weren't like super excited to go do what you were going to do. I mean, i don't have any assumptions here, but my assumption is at that point in life.
Speaker 2:They are assumptions, they're assumptions.
Speaker 1:But now you know you're the CEO and president of one of the largest auto groups in northern Ohio and by all you know I guess in many people's minds you know have been very successful. That, you know, depends on how you want to consider success, but you're a multi-time author. You manage a huge team of people. You know all these different things that you have in life that I think a lot of people strive for. You've gotten to a position where you've outperformed them and you're at this point. Is this philosophy? did this philosophy come from your own personal experiences? I mean, how did you apply this in your own life to go from high school dropout to now the president and CEO of one of the largest companies in northern Ohio?
Speaker 2:Well, I could think back to when I was eight years old and where I am today, i'm grateful, i'm humbled, blessed with meeting an incredible amount of wonderful people that have been a resource and, i would say, nutrition to my life. I mean, without certain people that I have met along the way, just in just wonderful relationships with friends, etc. I mean I could spend weeks and weeks upon the wonderful people that I've interacted with and I'm entirely grateful for. At the same time, when I was eight years old, i recognized that that small voice inside, that a lot of us experience the biggest differences. I didn't ignore it, where a lot of people do. And I'll give you an example. If I went to a fifth grade not a fifth, five-year-old, six-year-old, seven-year-old classroom and I were to say to the kids tell me and I've told this story to a lot of people, so this isn't anything new that I'm saying is that you know, come up with a story about a circus in an astronaut and what would a circus in an astronaut do? And they put it together and come up with a story. I mean you go to kindergarten, i mean you'd be a crazy story filled with creativity, right, i go to a senior, same school, same town, and that same day go to a senior classroom and ask the same question. We have two different answers. It's gonna be stripped out to some technicals, technicalities, etc. Right, where does it go? It's taken away from us. See, the creativity is taken away from us Because we're really killed.
Speaker 2:You can't do this. No, you can't do that. No, no, you're not supposed to do that. No, that's not how we think. This is how you think. You see the education system, at least when I was growing up, was designed for an industrial age, the factory worker And just got to look at it like this you start early in the morning, a couple hours in a school. You got a little bit of a break. You know, use a batting that, erase your hands. When you're done you're gonna go to lunch And then you're done by three, four o'clock. You take the bus and you go home and everybody aligns up and see, i learn a line, remember single file lines.
Speaker 1:Of course.
Speaker 2:And how's any different punching o'clock in the factory? Yeah, i hear you. So the idea is that the model was to strip away creativity. The model was a strip away Personal desire to become what we want to be. See, and in fact I remember when I Be in a kindergarten they go around the room and ask what you want to be. I, very, i don't think I ever remember anyone say I'm gonna be a lawyer or I'm gonna be a doctor. On you, it's not gonna be a fireman or be a policeman, i'll be an astronaut.
Speaker 2:Right, you get these creative, you know Things that the kids want to do and all of a sudden it changes. Where does it change? It changes through Society and the outside influences pushing people in a direction That maybe they didn't want to do to begin with, or where they wanted to be to begin with. The difference for me was I didn't, i don't let those outside influences Dictator changed my direction and to this day I won't let that happen because In my heart and my soul, like which my gut right, my head they have an old. There has to be an alignment there And if there is an alignment there, i don't, i don't make a move. I'll be patient. I'll wait Until that next formation Naturally comes to an awakening, and then it makes a wheelchair, heart, mind and soul pointed towards.
Speaker 1:And then, how have the things that you've been able to accomplish in your life aligned with that?
Speaker 2:If you could ask a question differently. So I don't think I quite understand it.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, we talk a lot about this alignment of The heart, mind and soul, right, this, this concept and idea, this can grew and see that it's not just in your mind, it's, it is part of your heart, it's, it's inside you, it's. It's something that you have to Believe beyond just a conscious level. It becomes a subconscious belief. But there's still this alignment that occurs. And my question is you know, because you've, you've obviously taken tactical steps along the way right that have led you to you know, manage, you run and own the company that you own and to be the author of the books that you, you've, you've written, to Do, i'm sure, the coaching and speaking that you do. And I'm just asking You know what? what is that, that subconscious Vision that you had for yourself, that you were able to come up with?
Speaker 2:and then, how has that, you know, manifested itself into the Steps you've taken to get to where you've gotten to, to You know, through throughout my life, i received a lot of criticism because of the way that I think outside the box, as you alluded to at the beginning of the podcast, and it When I was younger, you know it could weigh heavy on you until you build the resistance resistance to it through, through resiliency, and Once, once you're able to do that, you see, then then the stage is yours. See, the only reason why it affects people is because they let it, and I'm not saying on the onset, it shouldn't because it can. It's the idea of Stomaching it, enough to get you through it. And then, once you do get through it, then you're on your way, you see. So what I would suggest is is for people to go back to when they were, because everyone had the thought but I mean Anyone I've ever talked if I took them back to their memories of six, seven, eight, nine years old, somewhere in that range, they could think back to an idea, what they wanted to be here, what was exciting to them. Now, tell you, go visit that person. You know, if you're a man, go visit that young man. If you're a woman, go visit that young, that young woman, and and and pick up where you left off, because that's where you left off and Society has reshaped that thinking. You see.
Speaker 2:So a lot of times I'll speak with folks. I'll say tell me about your first memory. Second, your third. We all have them to go back in time and the exercise is you have to enter with caution because sometimes we can think that we're Recapturing the memory, but what it is is. You know, maybe our parents were kind enough to share a couple stories with us At a young age and we think that's our first memory, but it really isn't our first memory.
Speaker 2:It's what we're recalling, someone else telling us we did. So you have to really dig deep in decipher It wasn't a memory or was it what someone told me I did and actually go back to what it is that you remember And the reason why that first and second and third memory are so important. You hang on to it because those are actually the memories that shape your identity Of who you really are, and that's why I mean picture a whole. You know, four or five, six years goes by and you remember that one event. That one event stuck with you like a piece of Velcro because it was meaningful. And those are, those are the hidden nuggets that I look for.
Speaker 1:So what are some of the You know and I get that concept and that makes a lot of sense. I mean, you know, in some ways it's getting back to that, that inner child of you know, what do you really want in life, what? who do you want to be before the world kind of beats it out of you, right, i think that's a lot of your point here is the world beats this stuff out of you, what? what are some of the techniques, beyond just having conversations with you, that people can do in their own life to try to get back into that?
Speaker 2:Ask a lot of questions and resist looking for the answer. So take one question and turn into another question, right? So a lot of times you'll hear kids talk well, hey, why is that that way? you answer. And then, okay, well, why does it do that? Okay, and and they'll keep asking right to fire these questions, one after another, one after another, one after another, one after another, right? and? And they're not satisfied with the answer.
Speaker 2:I would say do the same with yourself, because the idea is, the more information you gather, it's only gonna help you. So take all the information that you can receive and Store it. Don't don't make a decision. See, we're so quick to make a decision, whether or not we agree or disagree, or we accept it, or we don't accept it. And then we see, once we make a decision in our mind, it's tough to reverse that decision. So leave it in the abstract, leave it in a state of indecision, because you don't need to make a decision. What's up with here? think about any of the philosophies we you and I just shared with each other today, whether we agree with them or not, resisting the urge to agree or disagree and leaving those questions alive, or these concepts or philosophies that are introduced to us alive. They generate questions, is there any downside? and leaving it open-ended, No, i don't.
Speaker 1:I don't think there's anything. There's any downside to leaving things open-minded. I are open-ended, i. I suspect that the hardest thing to do is to get people to Detach from the thought, the linear progression of thought. Right, a lot of people have this linear progression of I Have a thought and now this is gonna lead to an action or a tactic, like what do I, how do I take this thought and then put in an action? and and you're, you're, you're a little bit more of a spatial Thinker, right, and you're, you're seeing things Not directly connected, but understanding all the different parts and allowing people to sit on those parts and let those connections What happened organically, i don't understand that I'm on a quest to understand them.
Speaker 2:There's a difference, sure, sure, see. So it's finding, it's finding Enjoyment to be in that quest. If you don't enjoy the quest, you'll never get there. Oh, i couldn't do more. Yeah, here's, here's, here's the alternative, though, when you look in the mirror I'm not saying you specifically, but more for the listeners Are they really truly happy with who they are?
Speaker 2:and A lot of times are not, and that's why they're. They listen to, you know, helpful Podcasts like like this one here, and you ask a lot of great questions And and I really appreciate how you dig in and you try to understand and you look for clarity In this concept. That's somewhat new, right on some level, right? So, and I think that you do a really nice job with with, with asking the right questions. So the idea then is, you know, as you just indicated, that it's hard for people to leave that space open because it is against human nature. We love beginnings and we love endings. We have people that the binary process of the mind they love beginnings and they love endings, and when those two form, then there's a completed circuit. So it's against human nature to keep that open. Yeah, so by yeah, I think it's against human nature.
Speaker 2:That's kind of what. That's how we started the show with the idea that it's against human nature, see. So what I would say is Back to that original point is work on that endurance. So if someone wants to run a marathon, you're gonna start off with a mile and a mile and a quarter mile right and then within it, within eight months, to probably Run out marathon. Most healthy people could do it, forgetting time, forgetting speed. We're just talking Completing the 26.2 miles. Okay, correct, so It's a marathon and it takes time and takes conditioning. So we're so quick to say, okay, i got the answer, i think I figured it out. I The idea that you think you have the answer, the fact that you figured it out, tells me you didn't figure it out, because you don't have to say you figured it out.
Speaker 2:You see, when you figure it out, it's figured out. There's nothing to figure out. Just because you figured out for you doesn't mean that it can be grafted onto someone else, because it can't. So you've asked me several times throughout this interview how I can give some tips or ideas on how to do it. There's no way to do it because every single person is different. There's no one size fits all. That's the beauty of this idea, this whole philosophy that there isn't a quote, unquote, right or wrong. It's not a mathematical equation, with the exception of consistency and challenging yourself. That's the only thing where you can bring velocity into the mix, right.
Speaker 1:I mean, even if you look at Eastern philosophies Buddhism or whatever it may be in which it's much more mindfulness and having much more of a Zen philosophy in life, there's still practices, there's ways that, whether it's meditation or whatever it might be, that help you be able to reach into these different parts because you're right, it is not human nature, especially Western human nature. Any TV show any book, any movie they all have. Kind, of like you said, there's a beginning there's an end, there's a journey.
Speaker 1:That's the way we're conditioned to live life, and it does seem like you have a much more spiritual approach to it, which is interesting and unique. I think it's fascinating. I think there's a lot of people that would really want to better understand how they could apply these principles in life. My assumption is your book, the Mercury Mind, has some specific practices that help people at least understand how to internalize and to go down this path that you're saying for.
Speaker 2:There's a tremendous amount of examples and information and history in The Mercury Mind that can certainly help in aiding people in that direction. But the biggest thing I have to say is where a person can build within themselves the endurance to live in the space of the unknown. We have to make decisions and we have to be decisive, because time is going to go by. Let yourself off the hook if you change your mind and you want to make a new decision. People are looking for past fail to pass or fail, pass or fail, pass or fail. It doesn't have to be pass or fail, It's. I made this decision. Now here's my results. If those results are satisfactory, then okay, I don't need to make another decision. If the desired results are not met, you know what? I have to make another decision and I have to take further action, not same action. Further action, not different action, further action. Why I say further is because it needs more energy, It needs more, So you have to take it further, because it didn't get you. Where you are today isn't where you want to be. Fine, now take it further. So what we say to ourself is also super important The words that we use, the choice of words that we use. A lot of times, when I listen to people speak, they speak in terms of absolute Oh, this is how it's going to be. Oh, yeah, this is how it is. That's how it watches the way it is.
Speaker 2:Can you believe what happened? You believe what they did? What are you looking for? See, when you hear someone say, do you believe what that person just did? It's an indication that they had a model. The model was it's back to the Mike Tyson boom. They had a perfect plan And that person they pulled out a central casting didn't play the part that they had in their play, in their script and life. They didn't perform the way they should have, And all of it becomes their fault because it ruined their whole plot. Now, can you believe what that person did? Look what they did.
Speaker 2:You hear the marriages and divorces. Can you believe? I was married for 20-some years and my spouse cheated on me and ran off with who knows who. I wasn't expected 20 years ago when you said I do, But it happened. Why? Well, my guess it probably started about 10 years prior, maybe 12 years prior, maybe 15 years prior. You see, it didn't just happen because all of a sudden you had a happy, well-lucky, perfectly satisfied marriage and everything's great. And then all of a sudden it happens overnight. There's so many things here.
Speaker 1:You're running a business you're running a business 100 plus employees, maybe a couple hundred, i'm not sure how big your company is, but it's not small. How do you expose, expouse this from a leadership perspective, like how does this? because this is a very especially the way you explain it, but without it out. This is a very unique approach to life and the way you approach different types of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, i've never seen anything like it before, and I'm sure you haven't either.
Speaker 1:And I have it. And what I'm wondering is, from a day to day level of hiring people, managing people, promoting people, those types of things how do you allow this to trickle down into general management practice?
Speaker 2:Great question. So the first thing I start is I make sure that a higher personalities that can work together without a click. So you know, when you hear these boy club or girl club, they got this click of people. That just okay. So I'm very careful in our process of making sure that we don't hire people where there's a click, because if there's a click it becomes a bureaucracy. Sure, okay, so this is not a practice in our company. The other thing I look to do is we lead by questions And, god, i can tell you, i've been running a company out for going on.
Speaker 2:It's my 13th year going on, my 14 years, and I can think of maybe one or two times where I had intense conversations with someone that currently works with us for something that happened that and I would say it's probably more earlier on in my tenure than now We don't get upset with people And that in itself makes it very difficult sometimes for people to work in the company, because they're looking for that boundary, they're looking for that space, they're looking for that beginning and that end, and I don't give them an end. The beginning is already started because we began working together. My mission is to have a group of people that work with me until the end of time, and what does that look like? I don't know, maybe 20 years, 30 years, who knows how long? I'm not looking. You know a lot of corporate structures have these performance reviews. You know they'll sit down every quarter, every half year, every year, and they'll say now see, here's what you did and here's your report cards. It's back to that school day again. Here's your end of the year report card. You either graduated that grade, you go on an X, so you didn't.
Speaker 2:I don't believe in this. I don't believe in it because I think that that really holds people back And then it only inspires them to reach just to that level. Well, if I create the curriculum now, i'm creating robots, and I don't want robots. People are independent thinkers, if you allow them to be, and they have their own creativity in ways I couldn't imagine some of the things they can come up with. So why would I A want to affect this person in a negative way by stripping out their creativity, and why would I do that for them as an individual? and then why would I do that for myself as an organization? I want people to be creative, why A they feel better.
Speaker 2:In our company model it's called a vision beyond a paycheck. That's a driving mission in our organization, but the vision of an absence of a paycheck, because a paycheck is important And it's not one to dance around or feel ashamed to talk about because some people think it's greedy, et cetera. Whatever it might be, there's no greed Now. People earn what they earn because they've earned it. See, they've paid their dues. We've taken on the time to gather the experience, gather the education that's needed so they can bring forth an experience that money can't buy. And that's also part of our company. I experience value that money just can't buy. You're here to my commercials Because we want to drive that mission by creating experience that money can't buy.
Speaker 2:Why? Because we have a vision beyond a paycheck. So if that vision rides above the money and the experience rides above the money, the money is a byproduct. Sure, it's like if you look at the human body right, without blood you're dead. Without money you're dead in a business. That's the blood in the business. But if you sit in a room all day and you do nothing, you don't have any life. There's no life there. So you have a zest for that, you have desires, you have. Whatever it is you want to do, you want to go out and explore the world. That's your desire, and the dream on its own is toedii 17.
Speaker 2:See, in our organization it's how do we bring those experiences to the workplace? How do we bring them to the outside world where people can feel that connectivity? That's our company model, that's what we do in our organization, and there's no end to it. It's a continuum. It just keeps going. You know we're in a different time in the world. You know I remember when COVID first hit, we had a meeting, you know, and I remember sharing with all the employees and say look, when we come out of this, we're going to be in a different world. It's impossible to know what that world's gonna look like. There's too many players at the table, 196 countries in the world. There's no way we can know how this is gonna play out and how it affects the whole world by the time COVID and the restrictions have been lifted. But I can promise you it's going to change the world, and it did The world's a very different place.
Speaker 2:You know, and a lot of us are still hanging onto, and here's the we'll say the Canary in the coal mine. You'll hear the reference, well, back in 2019, do you remember? back in 19? or you'll read a headline Back in 2019, here's when it took place. And we keep comparing where we are today to 2019. Because what people are trying to do is bridge a gap. There's a gap, there's a huge gap, and the gap keeps getting wider and wider And people becoming more afraid and more afraid because they can't connect back to 2019. And they want to at an unconscious level. The truth is, there's no connection. There's gonna be a gap there And the gap is going to remain and it's never going to be solved. Because you can't solve that gap? Why? Because there was a huge pause in the world. We paused the world, but yet time keeps moving. So we try to stop time, but you can't stop time, so we try to do the impossible And all that has happened is certain things have blown by us And certain things have just been, are you?
Speaker 1:optimistic, like when you think about where we are today. You talk to some people and super pessimistic the world was better, we're going down the wrong direction. Ai is gonna change everything. Were you an optimistic person? Where does optimism sit within your personal philosophy? So the word I use?
Speaker 2:is realistic, and I don't look at it in positive or negative, because positive and negative to imply that I accept or reject, see, and I don't accept or reject either one of them. What I do is I look at and I do an analysis of what's really going on that I can see. Yeah, there's a lot that I don't see. So I have to make decisions based upon the amount of information I have And I'm gonna make a choice. I'm gonna make that choice, i'm gonna take action on that choice And then I'm gonna look at my results And then I'm gonna compile the data and then I'm gonna go back to the drawing board and make another choice, and I'm gonna keep making choices as we're clearing out a new path. Do I think? in the end? what I think you're asking me is do I think that we're in for doomsday or do I think that we're in for a brighter future? is what it sounds like you're asking.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know, i think it's more. Maybe it's coming back a little bit to the sort of the heart, body, mind type of approach of you know. There's certain people that just have a natural optimistic way of looking at the world and they think that the days ahead are going to be brighter than the days in the past, and there's some people that look at it a little bit differently. I'm just curious on if you approach life one or two ways. I think either way it's the third way?
Speaker 2:I don't. Yeah, i think either one of those ways is very dangerous. Yeah, because you're leaving out pieces and parts that can create a landmine for yourself. So that's how I look at it, realistically, relative to the information that I have at hand.
Speaker 1:Well, i will tell you this I've talked to a lot of people on the show, but I've talked to a lot of people in general and you are definitely one of the most unique thinkers I've spoken to. I mean, i think a lot of people look at the world a certain way. I think there's a lot of consistency with how people look at the world and it's clear that you look at things a little bit different, and I think that the few people out there that can look at the world differently see opportunities and see things that others don't. Right, because the masses are all going after the same thing and the people that are able to sort of see things from a different angle that others can't, they're usually the ones that are able to capture opportunity that the others don't.
Speaker 2:Define opportunity.
Speaker 1:I just just in life I don't know just whether it's business, personal, professional you know, i think that in general I mean outside of innate happiness, and happiness can come from a lot of different ways. You don't have to have money necessarily be happy. You don't necessarily have to have possessions. You don't necessarily have to have a career that anybody thinks that highly of. You could be happy with your family and your friends and just whoever you are in life.
Speaker 1:But you know, a lot of people want to succeed in life or they want to be able to accomplish things in life, whether it's to be able to write interesting books, or whether to be someone that maybe is viewed as an interesting thinker or a thought leader, or someone who's considered a successful leader, right, somebody that people want to follow. People are willing to get behind because they think that this person has a unique approach, they're likable. There's all these different things that I think that most people would deem as a successful quality or things that people strive for. And you know, i think in a world where there's a lot of sameness and a lot of mono thinking, it gets very competitive and congested and the people they can see things a little bit differently, are able to take an approach that others wouldn't have seen, and then they can go capture what they find important or what they're looking to achieve.
Speaker 2:Well, I wish people the best on that journey because, see, when you describe happiness relative to accomplishment, whatever the accomplishment may be, it's called. I call it excitement, not happiness. And excitement is a drug that has a shelf life and enough time passes by, the shelf life expires. So I avoid what I can well, in any way I can, to avoid getting caught in that, let's say, boardercy of excitement. You know, if you look at a lot of your sports teams that win championships, at the end of that game they celebrate. And once they celebrate next year they're not the champion because they got what they wanted. You see, when you take a football team like the Patriots they've won many Super Bowls, right You'll see, in the end there's not really a huge celebration because they know the next season's around the corner and they're going to have to get back to work.
Speaker 1:I think there's different. I mean, listen, there is no universal truth to anything. So I would never say a statement and say that this is universal. But I can look at myself and I know that I personally have, i attain a certain amount of joy out of the pursuit of something. So you know and I've used this analogy before with my family Joy is very different, though Joy is very different.
Speaker 2:We're talking about excitement and happiness, joy, joy is a totally different dynamic.
Speaker 1:Joy. I want to be clear, though, so we don't cross lines in different words and different meanings.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, there's semantics here.
Speaker 1:I guess if we had a glossary and we were, you know we defined different words, maybe we would find that, you know, my use of one word is has a different definition or connotation than yours. I do think that it is the journey, and you said something about that earlier. It's not the destination, it's the journey, and you know. The analogy I was going to give is you know, i sit down with my family and we play Monopoly on Saturday night. You all want to win, but it doesn't matter if you win. There's no actual reward from winning right, it's the plane of the game that is interesting and fun And I think for you know myself personally.
Speaker 2:That's the win. You're sitting there at the table with the people you love. That's the win.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, Absolutely. I mean going to the park and playing, pick up basketball. it's it's. there's no trophy, there's no monetary value to that. It's it's. it's the competition, right? I think a lot of people in life enjoy, like, like, finishing a marathon. You know, I'm assuming that you've ran a marathon or you trained for a marathon, just just from hearing you talk about it. may not be true, but most people don't try to complete a marathon because the end result is this drastic change in their life of they're going to have more money or wealth or esteem or whatever these superficial things are that people chase for. It's the journey, It's the personal challenge, It's the ability to set a goal for yourself and follow through And in a lot of cases, it's like a culmination of those types of events. I think that make people feel fulfilled and feel happy in life.
Speaker 2:I agree with that. I agree with that for sure.
Speaker 1:All right, Well, hey listen I got you to agree with one thing I said today.
Speaker 2:I agree with that. I agree with that.
Speaker 1:I think I have to wrap up the show on you agreeing with me. I want to be respectful of your time.
Speaker 2:This was a fascinating conversation man. Yeah, yeah, i'm glad that you enjoyed it and I appreciate your time as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're an interesting dude, for sure.