Christine Hassler | Sex, Sensuality and Sacred Union

Christine Hassler is the best-selling author of three books, most recently Expectation Hangover: Free Yourself from Your Past, Change Your Present and Get What You Really Want. She left her successful job as a Hollywood agent to pursue a life she could be passionate about. For over a decade she has been a keynote speaker, retreat facilitator, spiritual psychologist and life coach and the host of the top rated podcast Over it and On with it. Christine believes that once we get out of our own way, we can show up to make the most meaningful impact that we're truly here to make. Today, Christine leads seminars and workshops to audiences around the country and the world. She's spoken to over 100,000 people at colleges, personal growth events, conferences and corporations. In this episode, Christine talks about some of the mindset tools and techniques that have transformed her life.

          1. Defining Masculinity and Femininity

Christine believes that it is time for masculinity and femininity to be defined in a new way. She found that as a successful and ambitious woman, she was told so much that what she was doing was too masculine and that was why she didn’t have any man. Many women get this advice despite the fact that they love their careers and those particular aspect of themselves. Part of getting in your femininity is getting in our bodies, getting in our pleasure and getting in our sensuality. So a lot of women think, in order to be femininity, I need to not lead. Christine advises women to stop thinking about what they need to stop doing and to start thinking about what they need to start doing or what you desire to start doing. 

Christine started to get more into her pleasure and her desire. She had to not be result driven which was a very masculine approach to self-pleasure. She took herself on a date where she would light candles for herself and put on music and take a bath and put on a night gown that felt really good or lingerie. She took this time to find all the ways that she found pleasure. Not just sexually but in eating a piece of chocolate. She just slowed down and she enjoyed her body more in all aspects. All this really helped Christine lean more into her feminine energy. The inner conflict of, do I need to work less, do I need to not make decisions, do I need to be less driven, went away and her business started to become successful not because she was not trying to be masculine but because she was really more embodied as a woman.

          2. Girl’s Night

Another way Christine would tap into her femininity was being more physical with her girlfriends when they would go for girl's night. She could be more physical with them by giving them hugs or sitting closer together or even stroking their arms, just like little girls would do when they are playing. So many women try to feminine by deflating their masculine. Stop trying to be man and just be more of a woman. Christine loves her masculine side but she has noticed that initially, she didn’t trust her feminine side as much as she does now. She didn’t trust that she could really surrender and let go.

          3. Feminine is Discerning

The masculine makes decisions and the feminine is in the flow. A lot of women will therefore wonder how they will get stuff done if they're just flowing through life. Christine disagrees with this view that masculine makes decisions and feminism flows. She believes flow state is feminine but this is not the polarity of making decisions. The feminine expression of decisiveness is discernment. It just comes from a different place. The masculine energy makes decisions from an external orientation. It evaluates the options and it makes irrational choices. Feminine is just as decisive but it's from a place of intuition and discernment. So if women can orient themselves to how powerful the feminine really is and how strong the feminine is, it's not just this flowy, creative thing, it's also incredibly powerful and discerning and we can really trust it.

          4. Surrender More

Christine got kicked out of the home she was living in, her dream home. So physically she was not strong and she was just being kicked out of her little cocoon for all the troubles she was going through. Intuitively she heard the universe tell her to surrender more. Surrender for her looked like not signing a lease. She therefore decided to go with the flow and see where she was led. For Christine, this was a massive process of letting go off control. Initially she wanted a conscious man and a masculine man. However, Christine had a limiting belief that she could either have a conscious man who was maybe a little feminine or maybe he could have a super alfa man but who wasn’t as conscious. Christine actually wanted both. So she had to learn to let go off control and practice what it feels like to be led in a really healthy way by being led by the universe. 

          5. Developing a Healthy Sexuality

There are several steps people can follow to develop a healthy sexuality. First you need to look at what makes you uncomfortable. Be honest with yourself about where sexuality, your body makes you uncomfortable. Where's the shame? The truth is most people have some body or sexual shaming. Backtrack and look at the development of your sexuality. What was puberty like for you? What was your first sexual experience for you? What do you believe about your body? We all have a story about our own sexuality that's truly just a story. So just look at your story and know it's a story and have so much compassion. 

The second step in developing a healthy sexuality is stop blaming. Don’t blame your husband or your partner because all that's going to do is just create more resistance and this will prevent intimacy. Instead of blaming anyone else, start to reconnect to yourself. Then go back to pleasure. Christine believes that the reason so many women feel sexually unfulfilled is because they put themselves last and they're not in their bodies, they're in their heads.

Then look for something as it relates to your sexuality that's a little bit of a stretch but not too scary. Maybe start with a massage from someone that's the opposite sex or doing pole dancing or belly dancing. Just anything that's getting you back in your body. Also learn to slow down by doing breath work and yoga. All these will help you come back into yourself and looking for anything out there to change it for you.

          6. Are you ready?

Christine knew that she was ready for her man when she felt this longing with no suffering. She felt surrendered to the universe and she was open to whoever was for her highest good. She tore up her lists and her vision boards and she completely surrendered this. She chose to stand in her values and what's true for her and her desires and she was going to let it show up. She would stop swiping and reading dating advice and she was going to allow it to happen. Christine understood that she wanted to feel seen and to feel safe. She started to really see herself fully.

          7. Rituals and Routines

Christine starts her day with her own morning meditation practice. She also has her own time with her friends and her coaches and her healers. She knows it is important to have external support and not to rely on her partner as her sole source of pleasure. Christine continues to enjoy her body on her own. She does the same things she has always done. It's just that some of them she shares with her partner. For example, she connects to her body by touching her own body. Just doing things that bring her pleasure like taking a shower or wearing things that feel good to her.

          8. Fulfillment

Fulfillment for Christine is living in total freedom to express and be who you truly are. The main reason that we don’t feel fulfilled is because we're wearing masks. We're not taking the risks and having the courage to live into our full potential so we feel like something's missing because we aren’t living into our fullest expression. We know that there's more to this body and this life and this mind and the emotions. We know as human beings how optimized we can be and how much pleasure and joy and impact we can create. So fulfillment is just the total acceptance of that and giving yourself the freedom to really go for it.

Resources

Expectation Hangover: Free Yourself from Your Past, Change Your Present and Get What You Really Want - Christine Hassler

Sextraordinary Living Course

Connect with Christine

Personal Website

On and Over It Podcast

jill@christinehassler.com- Email

Kisma Orbovich I The Power Of The Paradise Pivot

Kisma Orbovich is an expert at helping industry professionals fuse spirituality and energy for peak performance and self mastery. She is co-host of the award winning Illumination Podcast as well as CEO of Illumination Academy for spiritual and human development. Kisma’s clients have their secret weapons in order to have less stress and more financial abundance. She travels to India regularly to study and is a certified trainer in energy mastery as well as a certified master life coach. Kisma also spent a great part of her life as a classical flutist performing on stage as all over the world. This unusual combination gives her a unique insight into mindset, intuition, and perseverance as it relates to the human experience.

1. Intuition

Kisma sees intuition as an essence. There is an essence within us. The path you go down, especially when you follow your intuition, is leading you down a road. It may be a windy road, but it is a road and it leads to the core essence of your soul. If you are resisting an opportunity to change, you are resisting growth, opportunity, and maybe even enlightenment. Therefore Kisma believes that wherever intuition tells us to go, that’s where you go. 

2. Above Mindset and Below Mindset

Kisma was a flutist/musician at a very early age. At 15 years old, Kisma already had the mindset thing figured out. From a need of wanting people to applaud her, she knew that if she didn’t have her mindset straight, she’d go onstage, wouldn’t play well, and nobody would clap. She figured this out early when she was performing. However, as she grew in her career of being a professional musician, she wasn’t really happy. There were elements missing. She noticed that there is an urge to seek something else. That led her to yoga and transformational experiences. After all of those years, what came to her was that you can pivot your mindset. However, if you want it to be sustainable, like a really true shift or pivot, you’ve got to go underneath.

Mindset is the tip of the iceberg. Underneath is our energy center, our field, and our beliefs. Above it is our intuition, our universal connection. The entire presence, the complete essence of who you are really have does to do with how you solve and resolve, energetic congestion, and limiting beliefs. And then, how you tap into universe, God, spirit, whatever anybody’s word is for that.

3. Paradise Pivot--Notice, Let Go, and Replace.

Kisma has processes she uses—energy and clearing blocks. Kisma calls it the Paradise Pivot. Sometimes, it’s as simple as pausing and asking yourself, do I want feel this way? Then you look at what is underneath the feelings. Kisma guarantees that when you’re feeling off, when you look at the thought flow, it’s related to how you feel. When you can tap into that feeling, you have to inquire why it’s there. You have to determine if you want it there or if you are willing to let go of it or replace it with something higher. For Kisma, this is the key, that’s kind of 1 to 2 punch of clearing something. Notice, Let Go, and Replace.

4. Let Go and Let God

Kisma believes that what is inside of us is manifesting externally. If you can see trauma and stress, something in you has trauma and stress. If you get too stuck in that human feeling and thought process, you miss out on the help from the universal plane. That’s where intuition comes in, like it’s not just our energy, it’s the universal energy. It’s God energy. It’s source. You have access to all of that. You trust so many things that you don’t see. Example, it’s Tuesday. You cannot see Friday, but you know that it’s Friday. So, how many things that you just don’t see through this conditioned human personality that exists for our benefit to help us and to support us. Just let go and let God.

How is such a heavy word. Just say, what’s the next step? What’s the next move? Then the brain acts. The mindset gets excited and wants to move into solution. And the universe is always in solution. We, as humans, love to deny that solution sometimes, or make it a little bit trickier which is used to thinking things have to be hard or difficult. And they don’t always have to be. Kisma believes that you’re going to get back what you put out.

5. Energy, Mindset, Intuition

Kisma works with top industry professionals. She is really good with big containers, big problems, and big challenges, like a God-given gift to her. So, when someone is seeking to really master their highest that’s when Kisma shows up in their world. It is kind of magical. Someone needs you, you show up, or they find you. 

Kisma gives her clients a 10-minute assessment and then she gets a grid. She reads the grid and allows them to understand  their traits and features, who’s suppose to drive their life, how do they connect, how do they download and retain information, this is all based on the law of the physical. Then she moves into the law of metaphysical; what is their sense of spirituality, what does that mean to them, what’s their energy body telling me? Is their wealth container congested? Is their heart congested? 

Energy, Mindset, Intuition–it is taking what you have access to right now, and solving, resolving and then elevating.

6. How to Measure Client’s Meditation

It is measured by the result in our life. Are the manifestations that you desire showing up? You can bring in what you desire. Results include contentment, lack of stress, more love in the relationships, maybe, an increased revenue in their business.

Success means that your life is calm. It’s focus, and it’s strong in making an impact. It is not without service, and without having a strong point of view. If Kisma is not feeling a certain way, tapped in, connected, calm, and centered. Then, what’s the point of life because life is a roller coaster. It is going to go up and down and all around. It is our ability to navigate that rollercoaster in the way, in the car that is most smooth in where you’re laughing and having fun unlike really freaked out.

7. Big Dante’s Philosophy

Kisma spent many years studying in India. The biggest teachings that helped Kisma have a sense of presence and focus developing is from the foundation of the Big Dante’s philosophy. If you’re driving a car and you’re on a very fast road of life, who’s the driver?  You have the opportunity of creating a masterpiece of life or be a newbie of driving a beautiful vehicle or something that’s 30 years old and breaks down. You get to choose, and it doesn’t always happen overnight, but the more you’re willing to choose and see and face forward, the faster that really does come to us.

8. Gratitude

Gratitude is a soothing emotion. What you we do is go back to what is actually free in our life – this is you often taken for granted. Other external stuff should be down the list. When you’re grateful, you are in the present moment.

9. Find a Way to Start Laughing

Laughter. Joy. Without joy, our energetic field is very small. Find a way to bring in joy.

Get clear on what it is that you desire.

Write it. Feel it. Create this movie. What is my next action? What needs to happen next? It’s the difference between a staying in a problem and moving towards the solution. If you find yourself unwilling to move towards the solution, inquire, why. Why am I unwilling to consider anything beyond this? If you are finding yourselves unwilling to move, chances are there’s a sense of security. There’s a little sense of safety in that familiar aspect, even if you don’t like where you are. Kisma wants to inspire people, take a breath, and just know that you’re going to have help. Invoke and ask for help, and it will be there. Those journeys and those challenges build resiliency. And that resiliency in our being is what allows us then to be in the world without upset, without so much stress. Have a sense of purpose and excitement.

10. Call on the divine and you will be given the help that you need.

When Kisma asks for help, She just invites her higher self. Imagine your higher self. This is you at a higher dimension. And the moment you see her or him, there’s like a sense of peace, and that’s when you can move forward. Let me know what’s next. Guide me, what’s the next thing to do? What do I work on? What is it that I need to get out of the situation? Or to correct the situation. You’re connected to the universal intelligence space, nothing starts here. And that simple invoking of our higher self or full potential or our best self, it means that you have called upon that very essence to support us.

11. Mindful Meditation

Prayer is like us telephoning God, and intuition is God telephoning us. Who doesn’t want to take a phone call from God or from the universe? The thing is so often you’re going too fast or you’re not receptive or you’re closing the door of opportunity, and you miss the phone call. You’ve got to just be ready. Trust your gut. Trust that sign. Don’t be afraid to ask for intuition. You got to ask for help.

12. The Vibe Attracts Your Tribe

Your vibe attracts your vibe. Do not forget to have so much fun along the way. When you are joyful, you really truly give others permission to feel that same joy and unleash theirs. Kisma believes that this planet is absent of joy in many places, and when you bring joy back in, it’s like everything elevates..

13. Comparison

It is so easy to compare. With the comparison, usually follows a judgment. And when you’re judging, there is an absence of joy. When you see someone doing great, let that give you faith, and excitement, and inspiration. All you have to do is just get out of our own way, and get after it, stop talking about it, but feeling close down and shut down with comparison that you don’t even try. It is not that crowded of a space when you actually just try. If the opportunity is there, move with it, flow with it.

14. Daily Mindset Ritual and Routines

When Kisma wakes up, she doesn’t give her day away because she finds that once she looks at her emails and social media, her day is hi-jacked by everyone else’s agenda. An hour of drinking chlorophyll water, move her body a bit, meditate for about 20 minutes. She writes something or reads something. She loves to put just study materials into her brain. Her suggestion is find something where you are acknowledging how precious your own mind, body and spirit is. Her routine started at night time, when she goes to bed, she will program her subconscious, ok okay, this is what I want manifesting. This is what I am working on. She just calls it into her being because when you sleep; our subconscious mind is doing all of this creation. How you go to bed is really important for how you wake up, and then reset those intentions and manifestations. You want to give it direction. 

15. Fulfillment

Kisma thinks it’s different for everybody. And the question is what makes your soul sing? What makes you just kind of greedy? It could be so simple. Kisma says that today, I’m not a diva, I’m just going to be a cool person. She thinks you have to get to an essence of what is really meaningful. For Kisma, it is to seek and understand everything she can about God realization, self realization. To understand what can help people. For some, I might show up for my family today. The important question is always, what is it today? And what can I do to move that forward?

Resources:

The Paradise Pivot

Contact Kisma

Illumination Podcast with Nick and Kisma

Meditation Pod

Mastin Kipp I Transforming Emotional Trauma

Mastin Kipp is a number one best-selling author, speaker and creator of Functional Life Coaching for people who are seeking rapid transformation in their life. He's  featured on the Emmy award-winning show Super Soul Sunday and recognized as a thought leader for the next generation by Oprah Winfrey. Mastin has built a highly successful international personal development company that has helped people create rapid change, connect to who they really are and how to live their lives with passion and purpose. Through his writing, online courses, in-person seminars and international retreats, Mastin has worked with over 2,000,000 people in over 100 countries around the world. Oprah recently also named Mastin one of 100 awaken leaders who are using their voices and talent to elevate humanity. In this episode, Mastin talks about some of the mindset tools and techniques that he's been applying in his life.

1. Moonshot

A moonshot is an idea that is so big it seems audaciously impossible. It’s when you think as big as you can then 10x that and then 10x that. After a lot of research and differentiation processes, Mastin found out what he's really good at and he's passionate about emotional trauma work. It seems like this is the problem we're having in the world today. Mastin believes that if we end this problem then pretty much all the other problems will get solved. And so Mastin's moonshot idea is to end emotional trauma in his lifetime. Even if he does not achieve this goal, Mastin hopes to get far enough along so that whoever comes after him can finish the job.

          2. Functional Life Coaching (TM)

This model builds on the human potential movement of Tony Robbins’ tradition, but the trauma piece is added in. This is important because you can't reframe a limiting belief and it goes away. Movement and changing your state is the name of the game, however, if you only focus on state change without understanding the core trauma that essentially makes it impossible to maintain that state long-term.  This is due to the body perceiving any state change as a threat. All of a sudden it's just like you're pumping something up or you're just having a short-term thing. 

What's interesting is when people revisit an issue and understand what their core issue is and they realize the way they responded to it wasn’t bad. It was adaptive and defensive and they see how that played out as a good thing, then when it happens again, you can work with it instead of negating it or just thinking that changing your state will be enough. This is contrary to a lot of personal development thinking because a lot of personal development people will say, well, you don’t need to revisit that stuff, you just got to move forward. Mastin has therefore focused on how to regress someone very quickly and then change the neuro expectancies so that they can pop out of it faster, go back there, pop out of it faster again and then use that data and information as a way to build on something moving forward.

          3. Thinking His Own Thoughts

There was a very marked difference in Mastin's life before and after his first Date with Destiny. He has tried to attend a couple of them in the past few years. Mastin has not attended one in a while because he has been very intentional about thinking his own thoughts. When he gets into other teachers' environments it kind of gets absorbed in there.

          4. Polyvagal Theory

Dr. Stephen Porges first proposed the Polyvagal Theory in 1994. In this theory, the human nervous system has three states. There's green, yellow and red. Green is social engagement. It's safety, it's feeling good. It's the beautiful state. Yellow is the anxiety and hyper-vigilance where you're always on the defense. Red is immobilization. What's interesting is as mammals, we have an automatic immobilization response. So what happens is that the vegas nerve regulates shutting down the body. So when we're in the presence of something that our body perceives as life endangering threat, we don’t go to fight or flight, we go straight to shut down. What's so ironic is that mammals have a morbid fear of being immobilized because if you think about it, if we're not moving we're dead. 

So the goal from a polyvagal perspective is to experience immobilization with safety and mobilization with safety. So anything that you want, for the most part, in your life, requires you to have immobilization with safety. You know, an intimate moment with your partner, sitting down and writing something, meditation and even being on a treadmill where you're moving but you're not moving. Mastin has realized through his work that he can be immobile and safe. 

          5. Daily Routines

Every day after waking up, Mastin recites an incantation to himself. He just says, "You can be right here, you can be still and safe. You're still and safe. You're still and safe. You're still and safe." He knows that in the past it was scary for him to slow down. Mastin admits that his fear of slowing down was because it would mean that he would go back to being immobile forever. All the stuff that was unresolved in his life all of a sudden became no problem because he was present.

After his incantation, Mastin will start his day either with Bulletproof coffee and some essential amino acids. He sometimes also does a celery juice with arugula and some avocado. He always takes something that's has a little fat and protein. He'll do steady state cardio for about an hour and then some chatting and meditation.  Afterwards, he heads to his home gym where he he trains.

          6. Vagal Breathing

Mastin's steady state cardio in the morning is not high intensity stuff. It's just steady state for an hour. At this same time, he's also doing a vagal breath. A vagal breath is where at least 80% of your breath is an exhale. So if you have a 15 second breath, you're spending 80% of the time exhaling. What happens is when you exhale, the vagal nerve activates what's called the vagal break and it starts to regulate heart rate variability and other things. Mastin spends an hour exhaling 80% of the time and he has found this to better than a whole bottle of wine for relaxation. All he does is exhale.

          7. Fulfillment

Fulfillment for Mastin is figuring out what your unique thing is, what you love to do, and then how to line that up with serving other people and creating abundance as a by-product of service. Mastin feels that his fulfillment is in ending emotional trauma. He has realized that he can't end trauma from a depressive or anxious state. So for Mastin, it's about cultivating fulfillment and maintaining that regularly and not just because he wants to feel good all the time, but also because it's an emotional state required to get the job done.

Resources

A Tribe Called Bliss: Break Through Superficial Friendships, Create Real Connections, Reach Your Highest Potential - Lori Harder

Claim Your Power: A 40-Day Journey to Dissolve the Hidden Blocks That Keep You Stuck and Finally Thrive in Your Life's Unique Purpose – Mastin Kipp and Dave Asprey

Daily Love: Growing into Grace - Mastin Kipp

Connect with Mastin

Business Website

Jocelyn Kuhn Mast | Thriving Through Transitions

Jocelyn Kuhn is a professional coach, speaker and author with a wealth of experience helping people thrive through life's most challenging moments. Having been through some pretty significant transitions herself, death, divorce, career transitions, blending a family and more, she feels passionate about helping others through, what can be, very scary times. As a coach she helps clients to clearly define new and exciting goals and dreams, reframe their story so that it empowers them, and create actionable steps towards achieving goals and overcoming obstacles. She studied effective transitions at length and is excited to share her five-step process to thrive through any transition a person may be facing. 

          1.Grieve

The first step to thriving through a transition is the grieving process. The foundation is starting with moving through the grieving process. Grief is just the natural response you may have to losing someone or something important. A couple of emotions that you may experience is  sadness or loneliness.

          2.Reframing the Loss

This is making sure that you go through the experience of turning a negative into a positive. You need to see the positive aspects of your story and begin, even if it's just a seed, just beginning to reframe that story so that it empowers you. One of the thoughts Jocelyn had about her dad's death was that she would never heal from it and that it was the worst thing that ever happened to her. Moving through the process of reframing, she started to look at how she had more strength because she was able to empathize with other people who are going through this difficult time in their life. Because of this strength, Jocelyn was able to be there for her husband when his mom passed away. Jocelyn has been able to develop herself much more spiritually because of her dad’s passing. So Jocelyn was able to look for small positive aspects from her loss. When someone gets divorced, it can be terrible, scary, and hard. It can make some  hate men for the rest of their life or they can go, "Well, this relationship really taught me a lot about who I want to attract into my life the next time around." It’s all about turning negatives into positives.

          3.Getting Centered in the Present

In her book, Jocelyn talks about different tools and techniques that people can used to get centered in the present when going through transitions. She talks a lot of breathing exercises. There's different breathing exercises that you can do when you're feeling anxious, when you need energy, or when you want to just calm down and go to sleep. There's various breathing patterns that you can do. Jocelyn also believes that getting out and exploring nature is another way to get more centered in the present. Getting centered in the present is such a critical tool to our success and overall well-being in life. So it's not just about transitions.  All we have is the present moment.  We like to fantasize about the future and memories of the past. we try to remember the things that we want to remember about in the past, but the only moment that's truly here is the present moment. Therefore, Jocelyn talks about meditation and exercise as tools on how to get more present.

          4. Creating a New and Exciting Vision for Your Life

Jocelyn realized that she gave up a lot when she was grieving. She gave up a lot of free time, she gave up drinking, going out , and partying with friends. After you have grieved, you will need to replace the habits you have given up with other healthier habits or just using your time somewhere that makes you feel alive and excited. Jocelyn believes that this is such a huge part of any transition. You need that thing that you're going to say, "Yes, I'm so excited about this that I don’t care that I'm losing sleep, I don’t care that I didn’t eat, I don’t care that I don’t get to go out with my friends, I want to find this." Until you find this, it can be really hard to make this transition. 

So many people also don’t define what that looks like for them. It's easy to feel unmotivated and  not pulled toward anything because you don’t know what that is, you're just existing. One of the biggest gifts we can give our self is to really clearly define what we want out of life. So the big question is, how to create new and exciting version of our life especially when going through transitions we don’t want. 

          5. Take Intentional Action

Jocelyn was initially terrified when she was about to soft launch her book. From this experience she realized that when you create something, you're putting a piece of yourself out into the world and it's vulnerable and it feels very scary. There's always going to be people who are going to say horrible things about you for no reason other than wanting to break you down. Jocelyn got through her fear by taking action. She believes that the difference between people who are successful and those who aren’t is taking action. We all experience fear in what we do. It's just some people still do it and other people will sit there and wait.

Jocelyn knows that in her quest to take intentional action she has had to redefine her goals. Jocelyn's original life goal was that she wanted to be married for 55 years. Divorce was not a part of this equation. So sometimes we have to adjust our game plan. So many times people get stuck on this idea that, "Well, that didn’t work out so now, I'm not going to try anymore." Life is going to be messy, life is going to be hard and complicated and things are not always going to go the way that we plan them, but that's okay. We can still keep redefining what that best life that we can live from this day forward looks like.

          6. Have a Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is so important when you're going through a significant transition. Unfortunately, most people operate from a fixed mindset. A fixed mindset is constantly blaming others and constantly thinking that it's not your fault. It's thinking that life is happening to you. A fixed mindset is really rooted in the belief that you have no control over anything and it's everyone else that's done something to you or it's the world's fault for giving you a bad hand. On the other hand, a growth mindset is really focused on how you can do better or how you can change things or how you can do things differently next time. It is about how the world is happening for you. A growth mindset sees everything as an opportunity and as a way to take responsibility, or celebrate the fact that they've had success or make changes and know that the changes that they're making are impacting their life from that moment forward. Therefore, the least painful way to get through transitions in life is by adopting a growth mindset.

          7. Daily Routines and Rituals

Jocelyn starts her day with meditating. She looks at her vision board and she really tries to put herself in the space of being able to have that question in the back of her mind of how she can be truly helpful in that day. She always tries to stay present and open to receiving whatever God wants to give her that day. She just starts her day with the right intention that can make the biggest difference in the world.

Resources

Thriving Through Transitions: A Practical Guide for Turning Life's Challenges Into Opportunities to Thrive - Jocelyn Kuhn

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - Carol Dweck

On Death and Dying - Elisabeth Kübler-Ross

The Hero's Journey - Joseph Campbell

Connect with Jocelyn

Personal Website

Facebook 

Instagram

LinkedIn

Alison Armstrong | How to Get and Keep Love

Alison Armstrong is a best-selling author, sought after speaker and a master thought leader. She's the founder of PAX Programs, a mission driven company passionate about transforming the way men and women relate to themselves and each other and the ultimate source for understanding men and women. Alison distinguishes human instincts that compel both men and women to behave in ways that contradict and undermine our own purposes, goals, values, needs and relationships. She offers partnership-based alternatives for more fulfilling lives, loving relationships, stronger families and productive organizations. Alison's philosophy and approach is frequently referenced and taught by other authors, speakers, business consultants and therapists. Alison is best known for the Understanding Men online course, The Queen's Code top selling book and In Sync with the Opposite Sex audio program. In this episode, Alison offers advice to people considering dating or marriage. She will also share some of the mindset tools and techniques that she has been applying in her life.

1. How Not to Be A Frog Farmer

Many women have wondered why men are wonderful in the beginning, but after a few weeks or months, they turn into sports-watching, pizza-eating, beer-belching couch slugs. Alison had the opinion of  men as con artists and if she poked them just the right way, if she could antagonize them just the right way,  and she would reveal the con before she was suckered again. In February of 1991, Alison realized that she was a frog farmer. Since then she has learned a lot about men and is still fascinated by them.

Women need to avoid viewing men as insensitive, inconsiderate, dishonorable and unaccountable. Men are not any of these things, they just express who they are and what they are in such a different way. Women should avoid interpreting what men do through what that would mean if a woman did it.

          2. Dispelling the Myth of Single Statistics

Men and women have found each other and bound each other literally to survive. There's an instinctive drive in women that can also exist in the domain that we call human spirit. However, the question is, I am I better off with them or am I better off without them? This is a fundamental and legitimate question. Men and women need each other. In the past, men needed women for their sex drive and to be nurtured and nourished. On the other hand, women needed men for physical protection, for economic security. This is what drove marriages for a really long time and had people stay in unfulfilling marriages. Nowadays, most people are unmarried. This is  a sign of women's economic ability and economic independence. Therefore, most women believe that they are better off without men, which is not a bad thing as the statistics may suggest. 

          3. How to Identify an Ideal Candidate

First and foremost, before you think of dating, you should get clear with yourself on what the qualities a man or woman should have that would make you be better off with that person than without them. What is it they would want to give, they would want to contribute or they would want to provide? What are their gifts that they're just dying for somebody to value and receive? Alison has realized that the longer we live, we keep distinguishing and refining what matters.

         4. Why Identifying Your Special Gifts is Key

When you fly the flag of the truth for yourself, then the people for whom you're not a fit are going to stay away. They won't ask you out or keep trying to spend time with you. They're not going to take your time. People usually think that if they don’t tell the people they're dating what really matters until they think they like them, then they will eventually go along with it. The whole time we're not saying what really matters. There is an inauthenticity. Authenticity is the third most attractive quality in a women. So you're actually making yourself less lovable by not telling the truth about yourself. 

          5. How to "Get" Him

After you figure out what qualities you need, you should then go out with a set of black and white questions. You may want a person who is dependable, honest, considerate or responsible. Alison recommends talking with a potential date for a long period of time before the actual date. In fact, if they're unwilling to do that, don’t go out with them because if they really were charmed and enchanted by you, they would be willing to do that. If they're unwilling to talk to you, they just want to be in your physical presence as quickly as possible. It doesn’t necessarily mean they're a bad person. It just means that the way they're attraction to you is insufficient for the kind of relationship you want to achieve.

When you're interacting with them, whether it's reading their profile or talking to them, you need to ask yourself, does this man have my desired qualities or not. Is he generous or not? Is he honest or not? Is he kind or not? Is he considerate or not? Then you need to mash it up a bit with “How"? If the question is, is this man generous, then you should ask, how is this man generous? Your mind will look at how he was kind to the waiter or how he keeps noticing that you didn’t finish what you were saying. Your mind will look at how he's speaking to his employees. When you're listening to someone this way, really curious about them and stretching to see them, not just looking to judge them, the effect on the person is profound. They'll be like, "Oh my gosh, you really see me. Oh my gosh, you're really here."

          6. Stating Deal Breakers Up Front

Alison feels that this is why it's important for people to figure out what their deal breakers are. Deal breakers by what you can't live with and what you can't live without. Your deal breakers should be in your online profile but you also have to assume that they were not read and they were not abided by. If you have a real representation of yourself up there, then the chances that they're picking you for you goes up. Then in the first conversation, before you even get together with them, just ask them some questions from your profile.

          7. Quick Fix to Tap into Femininity

Being committed to a specific result or intention or a destination puts us in hunting mode. This energy is good for getting stuff done but it's not good for dating. Instead, women need to be open. To be open to options, possibilities and alternatives. This is what is known as the gathering mode. If a woman is in hunting mode, she is going to behave in particular ways and have a particular energy about her that mostly will attract men who want to be taken care of. On a date, it's important to shift to gathering mode which makes you open to who the person is. So you have to let go off any goals you have for that date. The point of each date is to practice being yourself. If you practice being yourself, then every date will have served you no matter how it turns out with that person.

          8. Wait for the Well

Waiting for the well is counter instinctual to what women normally do, however it is very simple. When you ask a question, just wait for the answer and literally count to 30 in your head. Don’t be tapping your foot or being impatient. Let him go and hunt down the answer for you because he feels committed do so.When he comes back and gives you an answer, wait another 30 seconds and literally keep doing that until he says, "That's all I have to say about that," and most women have never heard those words. So if you want to create more intimacy, to be more informed, to feel more included, to connect with this person, waiting for the well is one of the most important things you can do. 

          9. The Sedona Method

One important technique Alison does is the Sedona Method. This method is about releasing. An interesting fact about dolphins is the basis of this method. Dolphins shed their skin 12 times in 24 hours. So if they get cut or marked, you can't tell within a few days. Alison wanted to be like a dolphin, in that she couldn’t be recognized by her scars or her wounds or her limiting beliefs. She was going to shed all this off. Alison therefore uses the Sedona method for this.

Resources

The Queen's Code - Alison Armstrong

In Sync with the Opposite Sex: Understand the Conflicts. End the Confusion. Make the Right Choices - Alison Armstrong

Making Sense of Men - Alison Armstrong

The Sedona Method - Hale Dwoskin

Connect with Alison

Understanding Men Website

The Queen's Code Website

Jairek Robbins | A Real Talk on Love and Legacy

Jairek Robbins is a number one bestselling author. He's also a performance coach and lifestyle entrepreneur. He has dedicated his life to helping people achieve success by living with purpose in life and business. At 23 years old, Jairek was awarded the gold medal congressional award from United States Congress. He's conducted trainings for a variety of companies and organizations including Harvard University, The United States Marines, The United States Airforce, Special Forces, BMW, RE/MAX, UBS, Major League Baseball teams and members of the U.S. Olympic team. He's a trusted advisor and board member to a variety of different companies and today at 34 years old with over a decade of performance coaching experience, he continues to unlock secrets for maximizing performance and organizational success. In this episode, Jairek will delve deep into some of the mindset tools and techniques that have enabled him to get to where he is today.     

    1. Start with a Vision

Jairek has learned that it’s always good start with a vision. His has a 20-year vision. If you're one of those people that do things because they're just supposed to, you won't go far. You need to work backwards. Think of the result you actually want long-term in your life, in your health, emotions, family, finances and business. Think of where you want to be in all these parts of your life and think of what half-way there will look like 10 years from now. Go on and look at what the quarter mark looks like, then what five years look like from now. What are the tangible results you'd have and how you'd feel and what would go on and what would your bank account look like and what would your health and diet look like? Get specific. 

Then go ahead and work all the way back down. What does this year have to look like to be on track for 20 years? If you're going to add it up, you have to know where you're going to be 12 months from now. What about 6 months from now? Do this all the way back to what do you have to do today? Now, if you decide to do something today, you know that the reason you're doing that specific thing every day is for the next 20 years you’ll know exactly where you will end up. 

Jairek aims that at 50 years old, he will be healthier and stronger than the majority of 20-year-olds in the world. Emotionally, he wants to be passionate about his life, living on mission and enjoying every moment life has to offer. He hopes that he will be passionately in love with his wife and every day their love will be growing deeper. Business-wise, he aims to have 10 + companies that are making over $100 million a year in profit.

          2. Building Relationships

Jairek shares how he managed to find his wife, Amanda. He was lucky that he found a partner who is as committed to doing the work every day to build their relationship. Earlier in their relationship, they had agreed that they were going to learn and read and practice on their relationship. They realized that building their relationship would be a process and some days they might have meltdowns and not know which way is up but they would be willing to stick with each other long enough to figure it out.

Jairek learned not to approach relationships thinking, "Here's what I want. I want someone who's this tall, who looks like this, who act like this, who loves these things and who does these things." He initially was looking for what he could get out of a relationship instead of what he was showing up to try and give to the relationship. This realization was a game changer to his friendships and business relationships. What was he there to give? He sat down and got really clear on what his gifts were. What are the things that he could bring to the table that are unique to him alone? The things he could give 24/7 because it's just part of his DNA and it's just who he is. And then he had to share with another human being, are these the type of gifts you value in any way, shape or form in your life? 

          3. Learn from Successful People

To be successful, Jairek has learned that it is important to find people who have experienced what he wants and ask what they have done—find out their habits and routines. There might be people who may think they are creative, artistic and not a carbon copy of anyone else. They may not want to copy other people and they may want to create their own way. This is absolutely wrong. Use the life experiences of other people to save yourself years of headache. Use the results that are there and once you get good at using what's there then customize it,  adjust it, and tweak it to be your own unique twist or style or flavor. At that point you will know not only what works, but what works for you. 

Once you figure out what works for you, the next stage is how do you automate it? How do you make it unconscious competence that you do it every day without having to think about it? In order to do this, you need three things. First, you need a trigger, something that sets it off. You need a routine, how you go about it and you need a reward to reward your nervous system with pleasure to say, "Good job, do it again." You have to build in these habits consciously on purpose. Build one each time and keep doing it until its part of who you are.

          4. Morning Routine

A research from Harvard says if you were to write down three things you're grateful for each day for 30 days in a journal,  at the end of 30 days, your overall happiness and satisfaction of life will improve. You will be happier in your life just by doing this simple task. Realize that you are already blessed because most people live under $2 under a day. 

For 20 years now, Jairek has gotten up in the morning and done a gratitude morning routine. When he was in high school, he would do it at 5:30 a.m. before football practice. He would just run around the neighborhood and in his mind tried to figure out what he was grateful for. After the three minutes of gratitude, he would do three minutes of future and vision planning. He would try to figure out what his future would look like. Though his vision has adjusted over the years, he would always be thinking about what he was excited about in the future. The things, the moments and the special opportunities that he was very excited about for the future. Thirdly, he would visualize who he was going to be today. How was he going to choose to show up in this world today? He would then mentally rehearse it.

Jairek's morning routine starts with meditation. He then spends time with his wife reviewing their future vision. They just empty out their minds and then they just flood it with the things they want to be focused on consciously and subconsciously. After this, they go work out. When they were in San Diego, Jairek and his wife would have a gratitude walk. They'd go on a three mile walk together and share everything they're grateful for about each other out loud with each other. Then they'd talk about everything they're excited about and the future they're going to do together and share together. They'd then hit the gym afterwards. Now because they are in Miami Beach, they don’t have the walk. Jairek goes straight down to the gym after reading his future vision and after he's done working out, then he comes back and then they share with each other. 

          5. Purpose

Everything in life has a purpose. The moment you no longer serve a purpose in the ecosystem, you will be eliminated. This is how the ecosystem works. So realize, if you're still breathing and alive, there's a reason. Discovering what the reason is, we might spend too much time on this. So we should therefore step back and figure out, if you're looking for a purpose as far as what your purpose can be in your profession or an opportunity, you should look at what you love to do. 

The second piece is, what are you actually talented at? If you can mix this together, you can start to see things that you'd be passionate about. These are the types of things that when you're done doing, you have more energy than when you started. So after you look at what you love and what you are good at and you mix these together, you start to see things that generally you would succeed in.

Before you use your passions to start a business around, go back to list the things you love. Take a highlighter, highlight the ones that are absolute sacred and just for you because these you should never turn into a business because they're your sacred things. Do not let these turn into a business where you try to monetize that to anybody else just because you love it, they're yours. The rest of the stuff that you love and the stuff that also qualifies as something you're talented at, go to a third list. Look at what people want, not what they need. 

The third thing is what are they willing to pay for? When you overlap all four of these, what you love to do, minus out the sacred stuff, what you're actually talented at, what people want, not what they need and what they're willing to pay for. Out of these four lists combined you should get about three to five options that would qualify as something you could do that you'd be very passionate about and could turn it into an opportune business for yourself.

          6. Fulfillment

Fulfillment for Jairek is that moment when you are 100% content and fulfilled with every breath in your body not needing to do a single thing more to feel completely full and to know that you as a living, breathing being are more than enough and you're really done it. The moment when you can confirm in your mind that you've lived fully, you loved deeply and you did something that mattered with your life. You'll be able to sit there and feel fulfilled in that moment knowing, if you were to die at that moment, you would just high five yourself for a life well lived. Every day you can design your life in a way that you wake up and you give your all and at the end of the day, you can look at whether you did something that mattered or something that will long outlive your physical presence on the planet?

Resources

Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success – Adam Grant

The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business – Charles Duhigg

LIVE IT!: Achieve Success By Living With Purpose – Jairek Robbins

In Sync with the Opposite Sex- Alison Armstrong

Connect with Jairek

Personal Website

Instagram

Karlie Matson | Embracing Uncertainty

Kalie Matson has an amazing family and they have been her foundation all her life. Over the past few years, she noticed that she was burning out and she felt unfulfilled. She tried to find things that she was missing. She got into a different career and even started traveling. Unfortunately, she noticed that these weren’t doing it for her. Karlie had a life-changing intervention with Tony Robbins at Unleash the Power in San Jose in March this year. In this episode, Karlie will look at the mindset tools and techniques that have transformed her life.

1. Embracing Uncertainty 

Before UPW, Karlie had been attracted to a life of certainty. Her entire focus would just be on one subject of just staying in a certain point. When she went into this certain mode, she was focused on others in the family and keeping the peace. Her whole mission became, you know, "How is everybody doing? How is their health? How is their happiness?" It was just like a repetitive cycle. Karlie now understands that it was important for her to feel like this because of her sister's health challenges. However, once her sister got well, Karlie never shifted her focus. She hadn’t checked in on herself in a long time. She was afraid of letting go of the certainty she had held onto because she didn’t want to lose the wheel she had going of just like everyone's doing okay. Her major mindset shift came once she understood why she was drawn to certainty. Karlie was then open to possibilities and she could now take more risks.

          2. Daily Routine

Every night, Karlie sets aside her phone about half an hour before she gets to bed. She now gets up an hour earlier than she used to. This just allows her the opportunity to start her day without feeling rushed. She then turns off any noise, for example from the TV, and primes and clears her mind in readiness for the day ahead.  This is followed by coffee while reading a book. She is currently focusing on the reading list from the UPW conference. 

When she's getting ready for the day, she listens to some of the music lists from UPW. On her way to work now, she listens to a mix of podcasts and music. Nowadays, Karlie also has a little alarm that goes off every two hours that enables her to stay properly dehydrated. Karlie has also incorporated cleansing routines into her day-to-day life. Since the UPW conference, she has done two 10-day cleansing routines.

          3. Setting goals

Karlie is an extremely goal-oriented person. Every year she does a goal board. She measures all the different kinds of successes whether it be in her business or her relationships or her finances. After UPW San Jose, Karlie revamped her yearly board. She put in new visions knowing that she would need more because she was going to be adding an uncertainty piece. At UPW, Karlie realized she wanted to do more house remodeling because this is what ignited her passion. She sold one of her rental properties in Oregon because she didn’t want to keep the certainty of having a residual income coming in. She also signed on to be a brand influencer for a network marketing company that's new. 

          4. Measuring Goals

Measuring goals is a really important thing for Karlie. By doing this, she can tell if she is growing and moving closer to her goals. Some goals may be measurable on paper while some can only be felt. Karlie likes to check how she is growing and improving through her goal boards. On her goal boards, she puts her goals, whether it relates to weight loss, finances, relationships and her career. Through the Masterminds she is in, Karlie can also check in on her long-term goals every week. Her great support from her family also helps her to remain accountable.

          5. Growth Mindset

Tony Robbins has a quote, "If you're not growing, you're dying." Karlie has always wanted to grow in terms of her relationships, finances and fulfillment in life. However, her certainty was the main stumbling block for her growth mindset. She finds the saying, "Life is found in the dance between your deepest desire and your greatest fear," to be so true. After she went to UPW San Jose she learnt how to swap certainty for uncertainty and now her growth mindset is shifting her life. 

          6. Fulfillment and Focus

At the UPW San Jose, Karlie got to understand what fulfillment meant to her and what she was lacking. She realized that the fulfillment she was missing was balance. It was the emotion that she had when she was firing on all cylinders. She was burning out because she was having a lot of achievement and not fulfillment. She realized that she was doing extremely well in some parts of her life and very poorly on other parts. She understood that her focus on the areas where she was not achieving was negative. She may have initially thought she was putting effort into those areas but it was negative effort. She then made the decision to pick the positivity. One of the biggest parts of the breakthrough for Karlie was just understanding what fulfillment meant to her and then what she was missing on her focus.

Resources

Awaken The Giant Within - Tony Robbins

Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - Carol Dweck

The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time - Arianna Huffington

Tony Robbins explains the 6 Human Needs

Connect with Karlie

@karliematson – Instagram

Karlie Matson - Facebook

Jeremy Jensen I Start Before You're Ready

Jeremy Jensen is an entrepreneur, community builder, speaker and mountain athlete who's passionate about helping people lead authentic and intentional lives rich with experiences that make them thrive and not just survive. He holds an MBA from the American University and a BA in Spanish from the University of Utah. Jeremy is the creator of the Adventurepreneur Playbook podcast. Jeremy is also the founder of the Outwild Collective, a new retreat series that brings together outdoor and adventure minded individuals to share ideas, optimize their lifestyles, create businesses, build meaningful connections and play hard outside. His main priorities are to always be growing, helping other people, building and maintain meaningful relationships, experiencing new things and looking for that next adrenaline rush.

Time Stamped Notes
[6:34] Jeremy had his "Aha!" moment when he was skiing in Utah. He had just finished business school and was working for a consulting firm. During that time his rationale was that he would work hard, make a bunch of money and then go and do what he really wanted later. He realized that he wanted to build businesses that facilitate cool lifestyles with the outdoor adventure travel space. This was the birth of the Adventurepreneur.

[13:38] One of the big things that Jeremy did right off the bat was, he applied Simon Sinek's "Start with Why" model. Jeremy started with "Why", and then answered the, "What" and then the "How". He did this for his new business and began looking for the revenue models and how he could fill the gaps he found. He had to look at where he had to be in 5 or 10 years financially and from a fulfillment standpoint. Jeremy also had to appreciate the fact that it takes time to make money in podcasting.

[18:36] Jeremy credits his grit and resilience as the main mindset tools that have made him preserve in his podcast business. He believes that these mindset tools are really important because when you get your mind straight, everything else falls into place. Jeremy lives by two nuggets of truth. The first thing is that it is important to "Start before you are ready". We are all imperfect and we just need to do it and we'll figure it out along the way. You may make mistakes but that's part of the fun. The second thing is "Consistent action over time eats everything for breakfast".

[20:22] Carol Dweck's book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success made Jeremy realize that he had a fixed mindset and that he was scared of the little things. What are people going to think? Where do I start? What if I fail? Because of his fears, he wouldn't even post on social media. He learnt that he needed to adopt a growth mindset. 

[26:11] Jeremy talks about his morning routine. For the last five years, he's been getting up at about 5:00 a.m. He always knew that he could set himself up for a very productive day if he started the day a certain way. He ensures that he reads for at least 25 minutes every morning. Jeremy admits that when he is in his optimal state and making decisions about his life and commits to them, that's when the magic happens. 

[28:55] One of Jeremy's best quotes is, "I don't negotiate motherfucker". He realizes that the day is filled with these opportunities to be defeated, to have a fearful limiting belief mindset. If we let them sip in, it gets worse and worse and it compounds. It becomes exponential and by the end of the day, he will be defeated and depressed. Therefore, when he says "I don't negotiate motherfucker" then he can put himself in this really winning attitude and he can look for ways to turn the situation around.

[32:52] Jeremy advises people that if they just can't get their day going how they want, they need to let themselves off the hook. He has come to learn that he is usually so hard on himself and his expectations on himself are usually really high. If it's not in the cards, that day probably is a wash. Now, when Jeremy gets to bed at 2:00 a.m. half drunk, he won't get up at 5:00 a.m. because he knows that that won't be the best use of his time. When he's feeling down, Jeremy will focus on the mental stimulation. He will read something inspiring from one of his favorite authors and then he lets this Segway into a workout or something that would get his heart rate up and put him in a good state. He also goes to the gym or hops onto his stationary bike or watches TED talks to elicit higher states.

[38:18] One best practice that Jeremy sees so many companies not taking advantage of is to focus on their employees' strengths. It's ludicrous that people don't start here, from the recruiting standpoint but once they're in the door. Why are we not taking advantage of people's natural strengths and are instead trying to shove them into these roles that might not make the most sense? Even furthermore, most people have no idea what their strengths are and what resonates with their soul. So Jeremy was naturally drawn to this idea. He is confident that if you can combine what captivates you with your strengths, then you have the magic formula for success. 

[41:01] Jeremy's top three strengths are activator, ideation and positivity. An activator is someone who can make things happen and turn thoughts into action. They're impatient. If he is not making something happen, he's really antsy. Ideation is the Jeremy's second strength because he loves creating ideas. His third strength is positivity because 98% of the time he's pretty positive.

[48:46] Jeremy believes that fulfillment is just doing what's true to your heart. Speaking and living your truths and being authentic. Jeremy usually says, if someone's life trajectory leads them down some corporate path where they're making a bunch of money and waiting for retirement, more power to you. Jeremy doesn't particularly agree with this path, but he realizes that this doesn't work for other people. He just doesn't want this for himself. 

Jeremy is therefore creating his company, Revive, to create alternative work experiences for people stuck on the rut race that just aren't happy. There's a big world out there to see and speaking of new experiences is what it's all about for Jeremy. He thinks that there are also other people that don't want to be stuck in an office, that don't want to stuck with a shitty manager or the cubicle life. Jeremy believes that there's a lot of other things out there that are a whole lot more interesting. You have a closed, fixed mindset if you think that you're stuck in a shitty job and you don't have a way out.

[55:08] Jeremy believes that family should be first and foremost. If you're not loving your dream because you've decided to prioritize your family, you need to be okay with that. There is nothing completely wrong with that. If you're going to make your decisions, then live them full out, but no excuses. You're in it and you're in it. If you want more then get after that as well. If you want to balance a beautiful family life and having them be priority, but you've got these deep passions and you have adrenaline rushes than need to get experienced, go do that too.

Resources
The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles - Steven Pressfield
Strengthsfinder 2.0 - Tom Rath
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success - Carol Dweck
Gary Vaynerchuk blog
Tony Robbins Priming Exercise

Connect with Jeremy
https://www.jeremyjensen.com - Personal website
https://www.workrevived.com - Revive website
https://www.outwild.co - Outwild website

My Mini Mashup I REAL THOUGHTS on Gratitude

I wanted to hop on and give you my fundamental mindset philosophy: Gratitude. It is so simple and it's so sublime and it will change the trajectory of your life if you practice it. And I'm talking bow down to your knees gratitude. For the simplest, tiniest things, every single day. I want to share about my practice and how it works, how I use it every single day and what that's brought me in life even as recent as this past weekend. When I focus on what I have versus what I don't have, I unlock even more. It's just amazing and it seems like magic and it's so simple and it's the easiest thing in the world once you just start to put that into practice. And it's the teeniest things. Not for "I'll be grateful when I get that one day." Be grateful for what you have now.

Time Stamped Notes
[1:43] Michelle usually puts her phone in her dresser across the room so that her phone is not the first thing she sees the moment that she opens her eyes. When she wakes up, she floods herself with gratitude for as many things as she can come up with. She just primes her heart and she lines her mind with this gratitude for the simplest things. 

[4:19] After flooding her system with gratitude, Michelle then does incantations. These are strong statements of declarations of who she knows she is, with emotion and meaning attached to them. Usually, Michelle has about three to five incantations. Then she will do a Tony Robbins priming exercise. This is through an audio program which is about 10 minutes long. Michelle just primes her mind and she lines her heart to just completely be grateful, to understand the blessings in her life and also to get very clear on what she envisions will happen next. So Michelle does the gratitude every single morning and the priming exercise on some mornings.

[5:40] Michelle will then look at her phone as she's feeding the animals. She will check out the wonderful things happening on social media, but she tries to avoid the path of diving into social media for too long because she doesn't want to come up with the comparison game that can keep her small or make her feel limited. She just responds to certain messages and DMs and then she starts her day with whatever was on her to-do list that she had done the previous night. 

[8:37] Michelle has learnt that when she focusses on what she has versus what she doesn't have, she can unlock even more. It's the tiniest things. Don't be like, "I'll be grateful when I get that one day," be grateful for what you have now. There's so much to be grateful. 

[9:00] Michelle just arrived from the Unleash the Power Within, Chicago event by Tony Robbins. There she was able to show up and step up by saying "Yes" to any single new level. In the event, she did things she normally would have been scared to do and things she had felt vulnerable to do or things she had earlier avoided to do because she was worried about what other people would think of her. She may have experienced her old limiting beliefs, however, she realized that this is the very thing that stops so many of us from ever doing the things that we feel called to do. So she had to burst through, catch it, pivot, and course correct. Michelle shared this experience through her social media platform and people were able to share the similar experiences they had gone through.

[11:51] Michelle approached Dawn Cooper at a Tony Robbins event. Michelle shared with Dawn her vision for training of large groups of people. They eventually became really good friends. Dawn then organized for Michelle to be a Chairman's Invited Seat at a Tony Robbins event. From this experience, Michelle has learnt that, we all have to step up. She didn't get to know Dawn because she got seen or someone noticed her. She made the move to go to her and it took courage for her to have the audacity to say some of the things she said.

[17:00] Michelle extended a platinum ticket for the Unleash the Power Within Seminar event in San Jose to a lady from her mastermind group. After the seminar, Michelle asked the lady what major goal she wanted to achieve in 90 days. The lady wanted to complete a manuscript for a book she had started a few years back. Michelle challenged her to think of a bigger goal like publishing the book after 90 days. The lady agreed and by the end of 90 days, she had her book for sale on Amazon.

[20:09] Michelle believes that her upward spiral of abundance has been because of her gratefulness. She is so deeply grateful for all that she has and all the blessings. The smallest, tiniest, treasures in her life is what attracts more. Then she gets out and she gives back tenfold. What happens is that it comes back tenfold. She then continues to give more and get more in return.

Resources
Tony Robbins Priming Exercise
Unleash the Power Within
Thriving Through Transitions: A practical guide for turning life's greatest challenges into opportunities to thrive - Jocelyn Kuhn

Connect with Michelle
www.themindsetmashup.com- Business website

Brad Johnson | The Power of Purpose and Passion

Brad Johnson is a sales and business strategist who helps wellness companies to develop enthusiastic clients. He's known as a connector and a community builder. He has invested the last 15 years of his professional life in identifying the things people get passionate about and then creating an environment where they thrive. His passion for cars also led him develop the country's first private vintage and exotic car show club. Today, at 44 years old, his mission is building communities of those who chose to live healthy, wealthy and generous lives without making sacrifices. In this episode, Brad will delve deep into some of the mindset tools and techniques that have enabled him to get to where he is today.

1. The Dickens Process
In November of 2016 Brad went to UPW, Unleash the Power Within, a Tony Robbins event. It was here that he underwent the Dickens process. Brad visualized how his life was going to turn out if he lived with purpose. Brad realized the necessity to commit to a better life ahead of him because if he didn't plot his course he was not going to end up at his desired destination. Brad then decided to apply everything he had learned to help companies that are in the world of health and wellness and those who are experts in the world of human behavior and health. He aimed to leverage his talents and skills to help the companies connect with an audience so that they could do more of what they're great at and build their business.

2. Daily Routine
One of Brad's daily routines is getting primed. So getting his body moving so that he can get into a state of flow and to feel active and empowered. Therefore, he will not be sitting around in his head worrying about things. He tries to visualize three goals as it relates to what he's going to accomplish that day so he can pay attention to what enters his world, enters his view, whether it be when he's out and about or something he's just randomly exposed to. He then visualizes a near term goal. Something that's within reach, maybe it's that week or month. Something he chooses to create. Finally, he visualizes a longer term goal. This is Brad's daily magic.

3. Meditation
Brad uses meditation to help him stay on course for his goals. Brad began with TM, transcendental meditation. Now he is more into the Vedic Meditation where he is going a little deeper, a little faster and he is leveraging some tools. Brad points out that there is really no right way to do meditation. For people who want to start meditation, start with one or two minutes of closing your eyes, practicing your breathing and sitting in silence. This will allow you to go further and deeper in your medication. Isochronic tones and binaural beats can greatly help with this.

4. Box Breathing
Brad also practices box breathing where he essentially breathes in for a count of four, holds his breath for a count of four, exhales at the count of four and then holds his breath at the bottom of the breath on the count of four. This intentional deep breathing calms and regulates the autonomic nervous system, it lowers blood pressure and provides an almost immediate sense of calm. Brad has a daily incantation. This incantation reminds him of who he is. After all, the words that follow "I am", follow you. He reminds himself the power that he has by reminding himself of who he is through his incantation. Brad's whole morning ritual takes 20 minutes.

5. Detox Lifestyle
The lifestyle of whiskey, wine, cigars, great food and travel at Wingtip started to age Brad. He wanted to develop a lifestyle of health, wellness and chiropractic care. His chiropractor and coach, Jack Ricci, advised him to get into a place where he could detoxify his body so he could show up the way he wanted to. So Brad did his first 30-day detox. After the Detox, Brad was buzzing with energy and he decided to fully adopt this lifestyle. He now feels that though he is 44 years old, he has more vitality than most men half his age. His goal is now to be a fitness model by 45.

6. Fulfillment
Brad's definition of fulfillment is establishing strong boundaries so he can say "Yes" to the things that can serve him and the people in his life and cultivating gratitude and happiness daily. Brad is grateful for his mobility, his vision, his health and the people in his life. Also fulfillment for him is moving toward a vision of travel and cultural exploration that he loves. Another fulfilling thing for Brad is knowing that he chose to not get married young so that he could mature enough to be the best possible partner for the woman that he loves.

Resources
Planet on Purpose- Brandon Peele
Connect with Brad
Brad Johnson – Facebook
BA2- Bay Area Bad Asses
 

My Mini Mashup I REAL THOUGHTS on My Podcast Launch

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Michelle Sorro is the host of the podcast, The Mindset Mashup. She is also a TV host on Extra, an author and lifestyle strategist. Through her lively, unfiltered and heart-centered podcast, she aims to bring people closer to their best life with tangible, effective mindset takeaways. In this episode, Michelle shares her thoughts as she planned to release the first four episodes of her podcast on June 11th 2018.

On the day she released her podcast, Michelle experienced a tailspin of old thoughts and negative beliefs. She struggled with the fear of "What if it's not good enough?" She also struggled with the thought of her podcast not being where it was “supposed to” be. She put an unbelievable expectation and pressure on herself to be a version of herself that she would be 6, 12 or 18 months down the road. She somehow expected herself to be there right out of the gate. Very quickly, however, she was able to turn it around with a simple process she calls, “Catch It. Pivot. Course Correct.” Here are the mindset tools and techniques that Michelle utilized to enable her break through a momentary self doubt.

1. Stepping Outside of our Comfort Zone
Each one of us will experience this itch, this longing or this lure to reach out further into the direction of that which we're being called. It may be a dream, a quest or a goal. Often times, if that's outside of our comfort zone, we get plagued by the very same thoughts of self-doubt that Michelle was plagued by. We should realize that what we have in our lives was once not in our comfort zone. For example the career that you have, the body that you have, the hobbies that you have, the things that you've become really good at, being a mother, being a spouse or being a friend. There's so many elements of our lives that we can look at right now and have great gratitude for because of what we had to do to get there.

2. Embracing a Beginner's Mindset
A beginner's mindset is all about being real and recognizing with appreciation that you are outside of your comfort zone and you're trying something brand new. This takes courage and guts to embrace. By embracing a beginner's mindset, you will be willing to try anything. Michelle's rule for 2018 is to do all the things that she has ever said she does not do. She does not want to live under her old confined rules and old limiting beliefs. Michelle has learnt that in order for her to live a fuller, bigger and more fulfilling life, she's got to be willing to try on a beginner's mind. Michelle did a podcast the day she launched her podcast. She was able to share in real-time what was happening and how she allowed herself to dip into her old thoughts of "It's not good enough." As Michelle continued sharing, she realized that everything she now does, at one point wasn’t good enough. It wasn’t even good.

3. Stop Being Concerned about what Others are Thinking
Start by stepping out of your comfort zone and then don’t be concerned about what others are thinking. What others think of you is none of your business. In fact, when Michelle was going to launch the Mindset Mashup podcast, it was called the Blind Spot Breakthrough because she wanted to tackle the one blind spot which gets us all, which is obsessing about what others think about us. Most people usually think, "I could never do that because what would so and so think." 
Imagine the freedom, imagine what you could go after if you didn’t give a fuck about what others thought about you. Being obsessed about what others think about you, doesn’t serve you whatsoever. The funny thing is, the people you think are thinking about you are more concerned about what you are thinking about them. Lead by example and decide to let your light shine and be who you are meant to be, you will literally give them permission to do the same. If they don’t watch or they don’t care or they snicker or criticize, who cares.
So if you're wanting to step out of your comfort zone, be humble enough to take on the beginner's mindset and don’t give an F*** about what anyone thinks. Whether that be write a book, lead a class, go on an adventure, get a particular passport stamped, get divorced, get married or even have a baby on your own. Whatever it is, go for it.

4. Being willing to process in real-time
Lori Harder has been an inspiration for Michelle. She is doing so many things that Michelle knows is in her near future. Michelle was able to do one of Lori's 90-day program. One of the things that blew Michelle away is, during the program, Lori processed in real-time. Someone in the group had a speech they were supposed to deliver in Hawaii and they asked Lori how they should prepare to go on stage. Lori was honest enough to admit that when she was about step on to the stage for the 10X conference, she wanted to vomit because she was so outside her comfort zone. . 
Lori was able to catch this, pivot and course correct. She remembered that her speech was not about her. The message was for others. It's about the service she was capable of providing and the value that she could offer. She was then able to get out of her head and truly be a vessel to deliver the goods. Lori was able to publicly process all this in real-time. Typically, people process months or even decades later when there's not so much on the line or there's less at stake. 
Michelle was able to learn from Lori to be willing to process in real-time. This is what she did when she jumped on her Facebook Live. She knew that if she could just share for a couple of minutes where she was and how her old thought patterns were holding her back, she would be able to catch it, pivot and course correct and come on and share that and be vulnerable. This particular live ended up being shared by thousands of people and Michelle got many comments, phone calls, text messages and DMs. People thanked her for sharing what she had. Most were surprised that she also felt that way.

Connect with Michelle
www.themindsetmashup.com - Personal website
Resources
What You Think of Me is None of My Business - Terri Cole-Whittaker
www.loriharder.com - Lori Harder
www.fortheloveofmoney.com - Chris Harder
www.oprah.com – Oprah Winfrey
www.tonyrobbins.com – Tony Robbins
Michelle’s Facebook Live The Day Of The Podcast Launch
 

Jolynn Swafford is on a Mission. Change Your Story. Change Your Life!

I'm really excited to share my next conversation with you. This is a REAL TALK and I've got to give you a disclaimer here. This is between myself and Jolynn Swafford - a dear friend of mine, but this is two adults having a very adult conversation, which is best listened to away from younger ears. We cover some really intense material. It's super important to share and I know that it will be very healing and liberating for SO many. Please meet my dear friend - Jolynn Swafford. 
Jolynn Swafford is an award-winning global Sales Jedi turned success coach, speaker and the leader of rockstar masterminds. She's a mom, a wife and a natural born encourager.

Time Stamped Notes
[4:04] Jolynn is moving to the west side of Los Angeles from Texas. Her ideal path is to work with influencers and celebrities to not just make her mark but help them make their mark as well. She has travelled all over and has felt this energetic pull telling her that she was at home. That this was where she was at her best and where she was happy to be. 

[5:39] Jolynn believes that mindset is kind of a journey. Someone can decide that they are going to grow and they can have this kindergarten mindset which is very elementary and simple and to the point. As you grow more and get more mature and closer to enlightenment, then the mindset is a little bit more obscure and complex. Jolynn's shift started on the mantra of "I have complete control over my mind and body." She got this mantra from her first Tony Robbins event, Unleash the Power Within. 

While she was there she had a moment where she decided she was no longer going to have anxiety, depression and that she was no longer going to have to eat Ben & Jerry's as it has become an addiction after she quit drinking alcohol. As a result of her mindset change, Jolynn was able to lose 25 pounds and she quit taking Paxil, an anxiety medication.

[9:28] Jolynn has been sober for over four years. She used to drink 750 milliliters of Cîroc vodka at night. She then found that Ben & Jerry's was always available and it was awesome. She eventually replaced her alcohol addiction with sugar. Jolynn has always had anxiety from the time she was a little girl. She admits that her anxiety could be as a result of her desire to constantly please. Jolynn underwent a trauma when she was 14 years old and this caused her to start drinking excessively. Her parents always had a stocked bar and she could always sneak in and have a beer. 

[13:40] When Jolynn quit taking alcohol, she had to learn a new social lifestyle. Initially, she would just keep to herself. She stayed in her safe place. She started to do different things like go camping and spend more time in nature and now could spend more time with their children. She is now in a community of people who don’t drink and she is loving it. Before, she felt like an outcast but now she feels normal.

[19:11] When Jolynn was 14 years old, she joined a new school. One night she snuck out of the house to attend a party. At this party, boys from a different high school gang-raped her. She completely blocked this horrific incident out of her mind until she was 28 years old. Every physical aspect of what had happened just came flooding back to her. She went to therapists who told her that the only way she could have suppressed it for that long was if she had been drugged. This explained a lot of things in her life like why she struggled with intimacy with her husband. 

[24:53] Jolynn blames, in a great way, her trauma for her achievements. All of her achieving was because in her mind she thought, "If I'm just a few steps ahead, then I can't get hurt" or "If I'm better than those guys who did that to me, then I'm safe from them and they can't come get me again." Jolynn was always in pain while she was drinking. During her journey of being sober and falling in love with herself, she started to become more aware of her divine power. All those years she had felt that those boys had had control over her. Something one day just clicked and she realized that she's had power over them this whole time.

Jolynn thought that the boys who had raped her had control over her because they could expose her at any time. She eventually realized that they've probably been worried that she was going to surface on them all these years. At one point she recognized that she didn’t want anyone to be afraid of her because that's not just who she was. She's love, she's joy and she's gratitude. She then found the guys who had raped her and emailed them at their workplaces and forgave them. Jolynn felt like they all needed to be released from it. It wasn’t serving her any good holding onto it. 

[32:19] Jolynn was invited to Date with Destiny, an event organized by Tony Robbins, and she had to share a breakthrough. While there, she was working on questions like, what is your relationship now? What have you not been doing? What can you do better? She thought she had this thing figured out because she thought she had a great marriage. As Tony kept pushing them, at one point she just let go of her ego and she just started writing fast. She wrote about God's glory and love for her. 

Her breakthrough was that she had forgiven all these people but she hadn’t forgiven herself. She realized that when she became intimate with her husband, she would replay that story of her rape because she wasn’t completely healed. She wasn’t fully present and she just couldn’t enjoy herself. She thought to herself that she is married to this amazing man who loves her so much and she was giving him that. She saw like God looking at her husband and saying that He put her on this planet to love him and there she was letting those jerks destroy the beauty that He had put her here for. God kept telling her that she was here for her husband and he needs to feel the love that she has inside of her every minute.

[37:51] This is when Jolynn decided that she had to completely delete this story. She was able to finally be free. The worst part was it wasn’t the guys holding her captive, she was holding herself captive. Jolynn also learnt in the seminar that her traumatic story always made her feel unique and special. 

She was always certain that if she replayed that movie in her head, she could get to a place of pain. This was like her emotion check to see if she had pain and if she could feel pain. Jolynn realized that her mind had held onto her traumatic experience as an excuse for failure. She would think that the event caused her to be an alcoholic and have anxiety and so she couldn’t operate at the higher level that everyone else could.

[42:05] Jolynn's mindset shift started when she deleted the story. There was crying in Jolynn's heart because she didn’t want to let go of her traumatic story because it was part of her life. Jolynn's next mindset is just truth. To always stand in her truth and to always be honest with herself. She realizes that having complete honesty to herself has enabled her to be where she is right now. She continues to encourage other people because she has done it. 

[46:14] Everyday Jolynn always makes sure that she connects to God, her Creator. This is where she gets all of her energy. She believes that we are all created in the image of God and when we connect to God or our creator, then we get a better view into our heart and to who we are and why we're here. The feelings of shame and guilt and rejection and fear don’t come up when you're connected to God. 

[49:20] Jolynn's breakthrough brought her closer to her husband. Her husband is now even more present. Another part of Jolynn's wish was that she wanted to have a better relationship with her children. Her kids, from two divorced families, are like they don’t want to get married until they're like 30 or 40 and that they don’t want to have kids till late in life. Jolynn just thinks they haven’t been very inspiring. Now she feels like they can do that because they are whole now.

[54:54] Jolynn is a big fan of content. She thinks that people out there are looking for people that they can relate to. One of the keys to Jolynn's success is that people feel that they already know her before they even get on the phone because she is her true and authentic self. People aspiring to start coaching careers should be themselves, create videos and should just add value where they can.

[56:40] Jolynn has her own unique definition of billionaire status. She defines a billionaire as someone that has impacted a billion lives. Success for Jolynn is to be a billionaire in this way. To just be able to transform the lives of a billion people.

Connect with Jolynn Swafford
www.jolynnswafford.com – Personal website
@jolynnswafford – Instagram

Resources
The Untethered Soul - Michael Singer
The 4 Hour Work Week - Tim Ferris
The School of Greatness Podcast - Lewis Howes
Super Soul Sessions Podcast - Oprah
The Bible
www.tonyrobbins.com

Dr. Seku Gathers interviews Michelle in this REAL TALK from his podcast, The Truth Prescription

I'm turning the tables in this episode. This is a conversation between myself and Dr. Seku Gathers, who hosts a podcast called, The Truth Prescription. He's a physician, filmmaker, musician and all around awesome man out of New Jersey. We had this interview two weeks ago and it was released on the same day my podcast launched. After hearing it back and him letting me know it was one of his favorite conversations of all time and that it was the fastest download of his podcast, it really inspired me to listen to it all the way through, and I thought, wow, this is a really solid conversation. Why not release it on my podcast since you guys are just getting to know me and to give you a better sense of who I am. He asks me in our interview about two fundamental truth prescriptions - a personal and a professional. And what I found is that they parallel so beautifully with all that I'm up to in my mission with this podcast here. You can get to know these other parts of me which I didn't think to share, but I did because he asked. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as we did. 

Time Stamped Notes
[4:00] Michelle believes that everything is working out for her highest and best good. Sometimes this has been really hard to see or experience in the moment, but when she looks back, she now realizes that that had to happen in order for her to do the next thing. The trick as an adult is to be able to be present to that prescription in the moment when it feels really hard or scary or unknown. 

Michelle really struggled with addiction to cigarettes. She started when she was very young because she wanted to be cool. She always danced in between the shadows and the light. She battled this addiction very shamefully for almost 30 years. She would smoke anywhere from 2 to 10 cigarettes in a day. 
During the month of December, Michelle went to an incredible personal development, week-long, immersive program. The program was called "Date with Destiny". While she was there, she discovered that she had the power all along. She then realized that she could drop the habit and never look back. Michelle's truth prescription that she has identified is, "100% responsibility equals 100% power." Therefore, she is never looking to blame anyone. Not the cigarettes, not the life-long habit, not her parents, not her peers and not the classmates who encouraged her to smoke. She takes 100% responsibility and she's able to own her power as a result of that.
Finally, when Michelle was able to claim this truth at "Date with Destiny" this is what empowered her to let go of the habit. She realized that that was no longer representative of what she was allowing to hold her back, to numb out, to hide, to isolate and to be ashamed. She realized that if she really wanted to go boldly into the direction of her potential and to the woman she dreamed to be, she would have to let go of the bullshit that was holding her back, that she was embarrassed to talk about and that she wasn't willing to let anyone see. That's not who she was. She was transparent and open and beautiful.

Michelle has always known, through that still, small voice, that everything she wants is on the other side of letting go of cigarettes. She knew how deeply that was holding her back. Right before she went to "Date with Destiny", she actually captured herself smoking a cigarette in a video because she wanted to remember and be able to see it forever.

[18:40] Michelle shares the news about the Kate Spade suicide incident. This incident really highlights her professional prescription. Michelle believes that success without fulfilment is the ultimate failure. If you can't be appreciative of the tiniest things in everyday life, you're never going to be appreciative of the bigger things. The whole purpose of Michelle's podcast, The Mindset Mashup, is to get underneath the people that seem to have it all. To find the true reason for being on the planet. It's not necessarily about making money or crushing it business-wise all the time. Like, are these people really matching up to their Instagram posts?

[20:44] Michelle has learnt to take responsibility for every given moment, in her personal relationships, in her love relationships, and in her professional relationships. She usually takes it a step further and she always tries to figure out how she can give to somebody and contribute to them. As soon as she gives, she gets out of her own head.

[23:04] Another absolute truth for Michelle is that, "Life is always happening for us, not to us." This is usually hard for a lot of people. Someone will say, "Wait a second, I didn't want to get fired, I didn't want to break my leg." Its then like, where's the gift inside what you do have, because when we argue with what we don't have, that's how we create insanity. Understanding this absolute truth can be a game changer.

[25:07] Michelle started out by building a pretty big real estate career and having tremendous success where she would make at least $50 million sales annually. However, she was not fulfilled by making money and travelling and buying property. Real estate just didn't have her heart and it certainly wasn't fulfilling for her.  During the global recession in 2008, Michelle saw this as her opportunity to reset. This is where she looked back at broadcasting/sales and she got the job at HSN. 

This is where it really started to get refined in terms of lifestyle. The types of categories she represented were very prestigious beauty and fashion brands. Then she started to realize what she was sharing with her shoppers 5 days a week for 3 full years was a lifestyle. She was basically talking about lifestyle and wanting to feel empowered and wanting to feel seen and relevant. At the end of the day, the emotional core benefit of a beauty product is really what's on the line, it's not the beauty product. When she started to understand this, she started to break all kinds of records at the network.

Despite being paid really well at HSN, Michelle decided to leave and move back to Santa Monica. She knew that she could consult for many different brands and she knew that she could continue to work in TV and really crush the super finite angle of her industry. Michelle is really proud of this but this was all a very clear vision for her and by being able to take 100% responsibility, she was able to achieve her goals.

[29:52] Michelle is referred as a brand and lifestyle strategist. She will work with clients to really distil their marketing pitch. Initially, when Michelle was offered to work at HSN, she had judgments about it. But then she was going back and forth interviewing with executives who had incredible backgrounds and so much passion to truly transform the buying process, she found the process to be so sophisticated and she learnt to have such incredible respect for the dollars per minute quota. Also, she happens to thrive in big time pressure. Once she was relaxed, then she started to hit those goals and then exceed them. For her, this was definitely empowering and it was a confidence booster. 

As a lifestyle strategist, Michelle can help clients who have been on air but have stagnant sales to optimize their presentation by building assets with them, on-air graphics and working with their spokespeople. Michelle feels that her on-air work on Extra is her front facing gig. It provides her with the leverage and credibility to attract some of these high-end, very important clients that she is so grateful for.

[32:46] When the real estate market crashed, Michelle made $17,000 in a year. Michelle saw this as an opportunity to reset. She asked herself, "What do I really want?" This is when she looked at her certificate of Broadcast Journalism from UCLA and her decade of sales of experience. She then decided to mish mash both of them and see what she could do at either QVC or HSN.

[35:42] Michelle remembers a time when she told one of her close friends, Mellissa Alt that one day she was going to be on Extra. At that point she had no idea how she would get there. 10 years later, Michelle signed the contract to be a permanent co-host on Extra. Though she doesn't do what she thought she would do, she is happy that she does what she loves. Michelle loves knowing that she is helping brands' dreams come true and to give customers fulfillment.

[38:28] Michelle is always looking for things to appreciate. One day, way back, Michelle was watching an episode on the Oprah Winfrey Show. Oprah had Sarah Ban Breathnac, author of the book Simple Abundance, as a guest. During the show, Oprah shared that this book had changed her life. Michelle bought the book and read it and it was incredible. She started thinking about the gratitude that she had for the friendships in her life that really helped her be herself. To be seen, to be loved, to be part of a community and to matter. Michelle's book, Voice of Gratitude, then started as a journal. She would just journal gratitude on a daily basis.

A favorite quote from Tony Robbins that Michelle loves is, "When you trade expectations for appreciation, your whole life changes instantly." We all have crazy expectations on our spouse, on our children, on our colleagues, on our clients, on the job, on our bodies, on our health and on the moment. When we can let go of that that's when we're truly appreciative and that allows for abundance to just be like tenfold and just magnetize so much more good. If you can't be appreciative and grateful for the little tiny things, how are you going to get more?

[43:24] After Michelle had done all her gratitude journaling, she wanted to get the book out into the world and so she started her very own Mastermind. Michelle called her first Mastermind Author Power. She collected five people just like her. None of them had any contacts or any experience but they all wanted to be published authors. They met every Wednesday morning in a private residence at 7 A.M. They would then share their aspirations and their accomplishments and then look at where they each needed support. 18 months later, four out of the five members were published. One went on to become a New York Times bestselling author. The other got the attention of Neil Donald Walsh who wrote the international series called Conversations with God. 

Michelle tried publishing her book with Hall Mark Gold Crown Store in North America, but she was turned down each and every time. Her mentor Mark Victor Hansen told her, "Until you are rejected eight times, no just means, not now, come back later." Michelle just kept trying and on the eighth time, Joyce agreed to publish her book.

[47:21] Michelle tries to live her life in this analogy where she imagines herself flowing downstream and just being able to relax. She's just going downstream into the direction of her dreams. But if she starts to resist the current and starts to paddle upstream, then she's resisting what's natural. First and foremost, Michelle looks for what is flowing within the stream. If it's not naturally showing her signs or flowing to some degree, then she starts to look at other things.

Flowing does not necessarily mean that things are easy. Obstacles sometimes will be there. For example, Michelle has let self-sabotaging thoughts come up around her podcast, she has let impostor syndrome get a hold of her. She even worried that no one was going to listen to her podcast except maybe her mother and sister. Many things have tried to hold her back. She realized that if she let this be about a message that she hopes to land and help at least one person, then she could move forward and get out of her own way. If you really want something and it's in your heart, just look for how you can blast through those obstacles.

[54:21] Michelle describes her podcast as one that talks about radical self-love, health mastery, the tribe, impact and success. She uses the word "radical" because she wants to be more intense about honesty. She realizes that people are no longer honest because they're numbing themselves out with all kinds of things, food, alcohol and addictions. The radical self-love for Michelle is can she love herself when she's really hurt someone, when she's been a jerk and when she's self-sabotaged. Shine love on radical self-love when you're feeling fragmented, fractured, tense, and not your true beautiful, perfect self.

[57:29] Michelle had been hosting Extra for over a year, but at some point she realized that she was nervous on-air. She didn't think that anyone saw it and therefore she ignored it. One day in March, as she was packing up the display, she dropped something and couldn't put it back together very gracefully. She then dropped it again and one of her crew members was like, "Nervous Michelle is in the house." This stopped her in her tracks. Her mind made this comment to be about her unworthiness and her inability to succeed in anything ever in life.

She went home that day and she called a couple of people and asked them what she was supposed to do. Then Michelle checked her routines and habits before the morning of the show. Funnily enough, the nerves were all as a result of excess coffee and not eating before the show. The next week it was a completely different experience to the point where everybody was like, "You're like totally different. You're calm and grounded and yet you're still bringing that wonderful vitality."

[60:36] Michelle believes that getting people to buy things is easy, provided you know how to do it. However, you can't count on it. There's no crystal ball. But it's like buying anything. At the end of the day, if people feel something is authentic, it's much easier. There may be people that could feign authenticity, but truth has a weight and substance to it that can't be feigned. 

[64:11] Michelle found out in December of 2015 that her body couldn't process alcohol. After any drinking session, she would have severe, debilitating multi-day hangovers. It's now been two and a half years since she stopped taking alcohol. When she let go off alcohol, she started to notice that same, familiar joy that she had felt when she was five that was so unhindered and it was natural.

[67:53] Michelle thrives in live TV. If she knows she's got one shot, she will bring her A-game. If she knows she can edit something, she will always try to make it perfect and she will never be able to get anything done.

[69:12] Michelle hopes that society is evolving into caring more on internal beauty than light within. Internal beauty is so much more attractive. Light, joy, radiance, happiness and fulfillment. It's just so attractive. Someone who's comfortable in their own skin, someone who owns their experience, or even someone who's just radiating joy like Goldie Hawn.
 
Connect with Michelle
www.michelle-sorro.com - Personal website
The Mindset Mashup - Podcast
@michellesorro - Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn

Resources
Simple Abundance - Sarah Ban Breathnac
The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment - Eckhart Tolle
Think and Grow Rich - Napoleon Hill
Voice of Gratitude: Celebrating the Gift of Friendship - Michelle Marie Sorro

Behind the Scenes with Iconery Founder and CEO Ivka Adam and the Mantra that Saved her Life

Ivka Adam received her B.A. in Economics from UCLA and her MBA from the Marshall School of Business at USC. She went on to become the founder and CEO of Iconery. Ivka is also a widely celebrated speaker on some of the most iconic stages and platforms including Women's Wear Daily Digital Forum Los Angeles, eTail West Palm Springs, Girlboss Rally, Women in Retail Conference and Create & Cultivate in Advertising Week in New York. She is a world-class hiker who has ascended to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, Mount Whitney four times, the West Face of Mount Shasta. She has also hiked the John Muir trail and the Trans Catalina trail. 

Time Stamped Notes

[6:36] Ivka describes a 90 day personal development game which helped her put the accountability tools in place and helped her understand that communication is critical for accountability. In these games, she had a partner, she had daily check-ins and she had goals she was supposed to accomplish. These games provided her with great training at the beginning of her adult life.

[9:29] Ivka started her internship in 2001 at Ernst & Young. At that time, she was a 3rd year at UCLA. She ended up getting a fulltime role at Ernst & Young. Her experience has taught her to ignore thoughts of, "If only". She now chuckles at thoughts like, "If only I could be half as lucky as X person," or, "If only I could sell my company to this company," or, "If only I could get these investors that are as good as those." She knows she is good enough and she can set her mind, single focus on attaining something that she wants and she can make it a reality.

[10:59] Two things are necessary to make a goal into a reality. One, knowing how to tap into your intuition. Ivka learnt the second lesson when she was in Business School which is being single focused on the thing that you want to go after. While there she discovered that eBay had MBA internships, but they had never recruited from anyone who was outside of the top 4 Business Schools in the country and no one had ever had a product management internship. Ivka set her mind on getting the MBA internship at eBay and she put in the time and effort.

[14:09] Ivka was born into a family of meditators. Her parents became transcendental meditation (TM) teachers in the 70s with Maharishi. They then initiated her when she was 4. Maharishi introduced TM from India in the 50s. Transcendental meditation is a mantra-based meditation. It means that you are repeating in your mind a meaningless word that's given to you by a TM teacher. The basic practice is 20 minutes, twice a day. There has been a lot of science around supporting what the technique does for brain wave coherence, for rest of the body, and longevity. The initiation process in TM is very easy. All you have to do is an intro lecture that's about an hour and then three or four hour long checkups.

[20:43] As much as Ivka would like to say that she does TM every day religiously twice a day, she doesn't. Rather than berate herself for not keeping a super regular practice, she applauds herself when she does it, she recognizes the benefits. Ivka instead chooses to do things like go for a week every year to really dive deep. Her regular practice is one where she makes sure, on a regular basis, she is going deep for days at a time. She has found that this really helps when she comes back to "reality" to jumpstart that regularity again. 

Ivka also takes about 10 days to get completely off the grid by going back-packing in the mountains. One of the best things about taking the time to go away for a week is she gets to see how her employees work without her being constantly accessible. She gets to see who steps up, who drops the ball. It's a really efficient way to see how her team works, how her company runs when she's not there. After the trip, she comes back happier, and as a happier leader, her employees are happier. Everyone should learn to balance their rest and activity. Don't brag about being on 24/7. It's not cool and it's not healthy. It's not good for you or any of the people around you.

[23:27] Ivka talks about the book, Why We Sleep, that she recently finished reading. Sleep is the magic cure for everything. It is so important to get that full 8 hours so you get all the deep NREM sleep, as well as the REM sleep which really takes care of the brain. One of the big takeaways for Ivka was the effect of alcohol on your sleep. Alcohol really hampers your REM sleep which is so important for memory and bringing health. In fact, there's an argument in a lot of research studies that anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder can be aggravated and even sometimes caused by a lack of sleep.

[26:16] Ivka talks about an intriguing study on the effects various drugs have on spider web building. Some NASA researchers in the 80s gave drugs to spiders and then watched them build webs. The spiders were each given caffeine, LSD, speed and marijuana. The spider on caffeine had the most disorganized, random spider web. 

In this study, Ivka was able to learn lots of things about sleep and how she could improve her own sleeping patterns. She also knows now that there is no such thing as an actual sleeping pill. There are only sedation pills. They don't mimic sleep the way your brain waves are functioning on sleeping pills. So far, there has not be one sleeping pill that will actually cause you to have your brain go into proper sleep patterns. What it's doing is its basically mimicking anesthesia. You aren't really getting into really beneficial REM sleep that you need for memory retention.

Resources
All You Need is Love- Nancy Cooke de Harra
Why We Sleep- Matthew Walker
The Sleep Revolution- Arianna Huffington
 

Hollywood’s Top Makeup Artist Spencer Barnes Redefines Beauty

Spencer Barnes is an iconic celebrity makeup artist and entrepreneur. His red carpet clients include the duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle, Julianne Hough, Amy Adams, Brooke Burke, Mila Kunis, Jessica Chastain, Olivia Wilde and Angie Harman. Spencer's talent has graced the covers of virtually every single important magazine including Vanity Fair, Women's Health, Redbook, People Magazine and the New York Times magazine. He has also been on every epic entertainment show including Entertainment Tonight and The Today Show. He recently launched his first beauty product for his beauty brand which is called Spencer Barnes LA. It's an instant sculpting wand addressing the neck, chin and jaw line area.

Time Stamped Notes

5:59
Spencer always tries to remember that we're all human and we're here trying to have a human experience and while his experience might be different from another person's, it's just as complex and interesting. He looks at people as being in the process where no one is complete or perfect. This can level the playing field and can allows us as human beings to look at each other with respect and interest and to join the human experience.

7:41
The first thing that Spencer would say to anyone in their process is to first of all define what they want. What are they here to do? Why are they here? Why did they come here? What is it that they desire, wish to experience, wish to learn, wish to explore. Fine tune that question of, what is it that I'm curious about? If you don’t know, what draws your energy? Spencer found that releasing any fears or any resistance allows it to come forth at a more natural, organic pace.

The first thing Spencer learnt to do years into his life and that is now really starting to make a huge difference, was meditation. The reason this has been important is that human brains and minds can get so conditioned into thinking that this brain and body is what constitutes you. The truth is human brains and minds is actually a tool. It's a vehicle. When you learn to work with your mind by quieting it and clearing vibration that may result from any chatter, you condition, create and set a specific mindset. You then allow and set a new frequency of what it is you intend to create.

Meditation takes some practice to train the mind to quiet down. As you learn how the different parts of the mind have frequencies. There are many states that the brain waves can be entrained into. It's learning how to flip into those and allowing those different frequency patterns to come into play, that allows us to co-create with our minds and condition a certain energetic field or space that allows certain things to happen and manifest more rapidly.

If you're new to meditation, learn how to quiet the mind. Learn to get clear and zen and centered. Spencer highly recommends breathing when meditating. Spencer even plays an album called Binaural Beats and lights a candle and stares into the flame. This prevents his mind from wandering during meditation. Then he lets all his thoughts and associations go. He separates himself from his thoughts, and idea that those thoughts are him. This way he moves into a clear, pure energy state.

13:19
Spencer has no regular morning routine because his job is not a traditional nine to five job. He wakes up as early as 3:00 a.m. on some days for an international press conferences via satellite. He has learnt to structure his day rather than be on a locked-in time schedule for certain activities.

Spencer acknowledges that he suffers if his total health and wellbeing are not in a high level of balance. He therefore plans his meals and his health. He tries to cook several meals a week. Spencer also believes that total health and vitality comes from exercise. He is all for anything that helps him to feel and have a more active and healthy life. He therefore trains at the gym and does outdoor activities.

17:06
If you are hazy in your desires or if you just look at things people are experiencing that they seem to be enjoying around you and think, "I want that but I don’t have that. I must not be deserving of it," you're setting a frequency that sets you up for failure.

18:22
Spencer found as a child that he would spend a lot of time in the imagination space. He created this idea that if he could somehow make life and things and the people around him more beautiful that life would be more beautiful. His philosophy for beauty is, learn to see and cultivate beauty in all its forms. There's so much natural harmony that mother nature offers us if we just take a look and notice. It's all there. When thing are in harmony, there's order. When there's fear and chaos, there's a destructive, disintegrating energy that creates a lot of chaos. Whenever things aren’t going right, Spencer usually takes a step back and looks for something to focus on, that brings a sense of balance or greater harmony into his life. What can he be grateful for at that moment?

Spencer's view on beauty is summed up perfectly in this poem. "I see beauty in the playfulness of a child. I see beauty in the face of a mother doing it all on her own. I see beauty in the world all around me and sometimes I even see beauty in myself." When you learn to perceive and focus on anything, whether it's good or bad, positive or negative that is precisely what you should be creating a lot of momentum around. If you don’t like what you see in your life, switch your focus up. Cultivate a new kind of focus.

23:49
When Spencer has something that he wants to do, but he finds himself having some fear about expressing it, or voicing it or doing it, he usually takes a step back, gets into a place till he feels really good about it and then he goes after it. This is also an indicator that there is something deeper behind this. Where is this fear coming from? What's really behind this fear? What's behind this person or this situation that's presenting?

26:27 One thing that's helped Spencer when he gets stressed is realizing that he can ask for help. He doesn’t have to do everything alone. Finding trusted friends and super minds that have either done it before or that he knows have an altruistic interest in his wellbeing. Spencer surrounds himself with these kinds of people. So, one mindset is setting the intentions, realizing the things that can’t be controlled, staying in the now, asking for help and then letting the universe do its job.

Spencer shares how he celebrates and does things that uplift his spirit. Music is his life-force. Spencer uses music to shift his states. However, a lot of people use fitness or the outdoors or hobbies. Learn to celebrate even the little things.

32:25
Spencer grew up in a family where there was a lot of creativity. Everyone played instruments, there was dancing, there was sports. Spencer was extremely interested in music and drawing and painting. At age 6 he saw his first play and he knew he had to do something in that magical world. He then started performing when he was 8 until he was 23. At that time, makeup never occurred to Spencer. It was always a part of the show. It was part of the character and he had no interest in beauty makeup.

When Spencer started doing photography at age 17, a lot of his friends, who were models and actors, wanted to have pictures. Spencer noticed that their hair and makeup were usually the thing that made them look really basic. This is when he started finessing things particularly for the women. It just came naturally to him. While doing studying film producing and directing and music composition in college, he took a makeup course and a teacher advised him to consider a career in the beauty industry. This experience taught Spencer that sometimes our passions, what we see as something that's just part of our essence, we can do it effortlessly, sometimes that's an indicator that that is a great place for us to be because it's effortless, we shine in it.

40:18
Once Spencer had decided he would try, half-heartedly albeit, a career in the makeup industry, he took a job at Lancome during the winter. He just wanted to spend two months during the Christmas holiday playing with products, doing makeup on customers and where he could actually learn what products were out there. Quickly, the counter manager started having him do artistry events. He was then moved to bigger areas with more people to do bigger events. Eventually, he became a national artist for Lancome in under 2 years. He travelled over the western U.S. doing makeup for Lancome.

After Lancome, Spencer moved to LA. This is where he got the chance to work with Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Brittney Spears, Miley Cyrus, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift. What Spencer found out was that part of his craft was to make people feel really comfortable and ready to take on their day. He learnt to take extra care to pay attention to their energy states, to listen to them, to talk to them in ways that made them feel safe and able to open up. Spencer realized that people had to enjoy working with him as much as they love his artistry, otherwise they would call in another artist who had equal talent.

46:06
Spencer credits his family for his great attitude at work. His parents taught him that, when we can be of service to others as we do our part, everything is easier for us all. When someone is really there to serve, not just to perform a service but to be of service, there's a cheerfulness. This is one thing Spencer strives to bring when he is with his clients. If they've taken the time to find a great artist and hire him, he wanted to make sure that he can do whatever he can to make sure that they have a great day.

49:43
Spencer received a call one day. He signed an NDA, and was directed to a palatial, private residence in Bel-Air. He was surprised to find one of the princesses of Saudi Arabia who was preparing for her wedding. Two months later, he flew to Saudi Arabia for the wedding. That experience opened up Spencer's eyes to the culture, the tradition and the bonds of the people of the Middle East.

55:28
Being an artist of any kind or creative means that there's not necessarily a prescribed path. Spencer, however, recommends learning and spending time with other masters and artists. There are a couple of types of makeup artists out there. First would be, if you want to work in the big industry in either fashion, film, TV, celebrity or music. You will therefore need to be in a city where these kinds of activities are happening. New York, LA are some big choices and there's some secondary cities like Vancouver, Toronto, Miami, Atlanta and Dallas. Outside North America, we, of course, have Paris, London and Milan. Begin honing your craft and studying as much as you can about all kinds of makeup. Study art, learn how to model and shadow and manipulate light.

There's three different kinds of paths to take. You could work in film and television industry where you're applying makeup on actors that are playing characters. So you're studying the character and creating with the creative, the director, the production designer what that character looks like and how they live and breathe on that actor throughout the film. Then there's the beauty world where you work with celebrities. In smaller markets there is also the bridal industry and saloon world.

1:00:37
The very first thing that Spencer looks at when he looks at a face is the actual architecture, the symmetry, the balance that exists. Spencer starts with the brows and the eyes which are the most expressive parts of the face. Shape and symmetry of eyebrows is far more important than thickness. So, always get the shape right. Secondly, learn how to take care of your skin. Learn routines and products that will give your skin incredible skin health. Spencer's five guidelines for skin are cleanse, exfoliate, treat if there's any problem areas, nourish with targeted serums and other skin health products, hydrate and then protect the skin.

1:07:29
Spencer talks about his new product, the Spencer Barnes LA neck, jawline and chin sculpting wand. This product instantly delivers results within 5 to 10 minutes. The whole neck and jawline area is lifted, smoother and tighter. This product greatly differs from most products used for the face that instantly tighten. These products are more an effect that is short-lived. Spencer's revolutionary product is like any cream or moisturizer or serum that you can lay your other products on top off, you can put makeup over it and it really, really works.

1:03:03
For Spencer, fulfillment can happen in an instance or it can be a process. He hopes to one day become a father, but now he is experiencing a lot of joy with his career goals. Mostly, he's having fun through the process and having fun with the people that he's so privileged to work with. He's also having fun helping others on their journey as well.

Connect with Spencer
www.spencerbarnesla.com - Business website
www.spencerbarnes.com - Personal website
@spencerbarnesla- Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Resources
Ask and It Is Given- Esther Hicks and Jerry Hicks

My Mini Mashup on Yoga and How it Teaches Me to Return to Love

The Mindset MashUp - the new podcast from Michelle Sorro; TV host on Extra, an author and a lifestyle strategist. Through her lively, unfiltered and heart-centered podcast, she aims to bring people closer to their best life.

This episode discusses the power of Yoga and how it proved to be a gateway for Michelle to connect with the truth and essence of who she is.

Time Stamped Notes

1:16
Michelle first got a taste of yoga six years ago. Yoga helped her to reconnect to her soul, her purpose, her body and enabled her to love and appreciate her body and grounded her to the earth. Her life was completely transformed by yoga. She encourages people who may feel intimidated by poses and fancy stuff with girls and guys in bikinis, to try yoga, because there are numerous benefits they could get by going to yoga.

Michelle thought it would be incredible to give back through what had brought her so much value into her life. She entered into a 500 hour yoga teacher training program through a world-class company. Her first job was in a wonderful gym in Korea town where she taught two classes a week. However, after about a year of teaching there, she had burnt out. She wasn’t even taking yoga anymore. Realizing that she was never going to make a career out of it, Michelle decided to give up her classes.

4:33
However, even after giving up her classes, Michelle still felt that her soul was calling for yoga. Now, came the hard task of finding a yoga teacher. Michelle needed to find the right space where she felt safe, comfortable and honest. Michelle found her way back to a yoga studio, she had attended a few years back, called Hot 8 where they did all styles of yoga in a heated room.

7:01
Michelle started doing yoga again and she realized that she had fallen back into the beginner's mind. She couldn’t do what she did a year and a half ago. Her body just hadn't warmed up enough. It hadn’t been moved enough. She had to accept that she may never get back to where she once was. In fact, she had to realize that she should not be trying to go back to where she was. She had to honor where she was.

7:45
She hopes everyone will learn from how she responded to not being able to move into shapes that she could so easily do in the past. Michelle learnt that it is important to be patient with your body and with your mind. She didn’t beat herself up and she didn’t allow herself to shut down just because something was hard or just because she couldn’t do it. This gave her so much compassion for new yogis.

9:17
Michelle's evolution as a yogi has enabled her to stop comparing herself to others. She has learnt to honor where she is. If there's something that's hard or challenging, how we respond to it is everything. That big mindset shift has taught Michelle to truly be patient with the postures and has become an analogy for anything that she hopes to get in life, achieve in life, manifest in life. Her big mindset shift has been how she responds to the confrontation of the challenge of anything that's not quite where she wants it to be. Going back to the beginner mind has made her so grateful for the opportunity to try and she is now more appreciative of being able to move and flow at all.

12:00
It is very important to always be thankful. People should strive to be compassionate, patient and should honor their present moment. These simple principles should be applied to every area of life you may want to succeed in.

12:51
For people looking for yoga teachers it is important to find a teacher that resonates with what you're looking for. Excellent yoga teachers are those who are honest, real and walk their talk. You can find out a lot about teachers on Instagram, but ultimately just go with your instinct. Once you get in that class, don’t compare yourself to others, don’t look at your body if there are mirrors and judge it. Just honor the breath, honor the movement and you will reap the benefits of yoga.

Connect with Michelle
www.themindsetmashup.com- Personal website

Sinead Norenius-Raniere - Thriving Through Transparency as a Leading Female Entrepreneur

Sinead Norenius Raniere is a South-African born entrepreneur based in San Francisco with two successful exits. She is a highly respected leader in the beauty industry. She's the founder and partner at the Pienza Collective which assists clients in navigating the ever-changing landscape of digital marketing with an eye towards influencer and social media strategy and execution. Sinead currently serves as an advisor to the Private Equity Groups and is also chairman of the board for the Bay Area Beauty Association, an advisory board to Formula XO. She also sits on the West Committee for ICMAD and is a long time CEW member. In her spare time, she blogs at The Beauty Seeker.

Time Stamped Notes

8:21
Sinead shares the mindset tool that has seen her succeed in her career. Her journey has been just about taking smaller steps. Many times, people get caught up with the big picture. She realized that sometimes this big picture can be absolutely terrifying and can immobilize us by putting a lot of fear in us. In all her businesses, Sinead always just takes the first steps in. It's not about a big business plan or all these different things that people say you should have in place first. It's really just about testing the momentum. Testing and seeing if people would be interested in your idea or your business.

10:42
Sinead talks about how she started her business by just testing. Sinead formed iFabbo just as an organization for influencers to talk to each other. From there, iFabbo started doing education by bringing in Google and Facebook to teach influencers how to grow social networks. Eventually, iFabbo decided to build a back-end technology platform that could do influencer seeding. By identifying a need, testing it and taking small steps, iFabbo grew to about 3000 influencers.

Sinead also saw the need for resources in terms of people and events in the beauty industry in the San Francisco Bay Area. She therefore sent out an email to her contacts in the Bay Area asking them if they were interested to get together. This simple step led to the formation of the Bay Area Beauty Association. Often times, a company can grow from you just testing out certain things.

17:18
Sinead's time at HSN was probably one of the darkest times of her life. She was living apart from her husband because she was working in Florida. To compound to the situation, HSN also had financial and investment problems.

HSN allowed Sinead to tell her story and tell the product's story. In this way, she was able to impact and change people's lives. Her experience at HSN taught her a lot about being really sure about what the story was. One of the most important question she asked herself was "Why?" Why should people care? Why do they need this? Why should this be a part of their life?

23:02
Sinead talks about dealing with pressure of trying to hit quotas in the intense environment at HSN. She deals with all this by doing a lot of praying. It is also significant to try and maintain some sort of normalcy by making friends. A walk in the morning and in the evening, watching birds feed and seeing dolphins are some of the things Sinead did to relax.

People always have to have a sense of faith that things will be okay and there are higher powers at work. Sinead learnt the importance of always believing this from her mom, who despite going through a hideous divorce, still maintained the mindset that everything was going to be okay. This belief is what helped Sinead late last year when she was dealing with some health issues.

28:59
Sinead moved to the States with her mother and brother when she was 15 years old. Making friends at first was a little tough because of misconceptions about apartheid. However. Sinead's open, honest and welcoming personality made it a little easier. Always pick up friends you are aligned with. You don’t have to like the same things, but morally you have to see eye to eye. The friendships that stand the test of time are those where you don’t have these crazy expectations around.

32:47
In her circle of friends, Sinead, is in the middle. One of her friends is incredibly intelligent, smart and very successful. She has done incredibly well and has worked at Google and Facebook. This relationship, though sometimes uncomfortable, pushes Sinead to step up her game. It's crucial to have at least one uncomfortable relationship that pushes you out of your comfort zone, whether it's spiritually, emotionally, career-wise and business-wise.

42:17
Now, Sinead is now back into kind of an education mode. During the day she consults and works with clients on their digital, social and influencer strategies. Her clients are in different parts of the world like New Zealand, Israel, Detroit and San Francisco. It's just working as a partner with different brands. Sinead really just acts as an advisor and basically as a steer for clients.

44:16
Sinead describes the most effective influencer strategies right now. The central strategy is consistency. People use influencers as like this turn on, turn off, and that is not how they should be used. It needs to be constant because, as a seller, you want that constant conversation about your brand. It is imperative to keep in mind that influencers are at the top of the funnel and so it's difficult to get a result on a direct response level. It doesn’t make sense.

Now, can influencers move the needle? Absolutely. 100%. But it definitely is more top of the funnel marketing until you start bubbling it down and seeing really who moves, who doesn’t. Influencer marketing is an important tactic in any marketing plan. It's all about relationship building.

[46:55]
If you're starting out in the influencer space, there is nothing wrong with some hard work. You can follow certain influencers within your category whether it's B2B or automotive or lifestyle or beauty. Have one-on-one conversations with these influencers. However, there are so many platforms out there to reach potential customers like Activate and Statusphere.

47:51
Sinead describes an influencer as a very impassioned consumer or someone who has a larger following or influence over a group of people on a platform like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube or Twitter. Some consumers can be really influential as they talk to all their friends and get their friends to buy. However, Sinead looks for actual content to be created and storytelling and this is generally where these content curators are the influencers.

Most of the time, Sinead deals with micro-influencers or small influencers. These influencers have more engagement rates. They have sometimes three to six times more engagement rates than influencers who have massive following. Followers from micro and small influencers are also kind of rabid followers. Very few times, she will work with influencers that start to move into the celebrity status. These are usually those with over a million followers. These are however large budgets and it needs to make sense for the brand.

The type of content that will lead to a fanatical following is one which is authentic and transparent. People love to see the inside look, the behind the scenes. Also one can leverage platforms and technologies that analyze content. These can enable you to look at content and know what will resonate with your audience and what will not.

54:00
While at Beautisol, Sinead relinquished a lot of the financial control to a partner who had more financial experience than her. This partner went on to compromise the company financially and the company almost went into insolvency. That was the biggest, crushing blow in Sinead's career. This failure defined Sinead and pushed her. It made her realize that she had to take better ownership for her company. If she were taken back to that time, she would ask more financial questions. Business owners should always trust their gut, especially when they suspect that something is off. You should learn to question even in areas where you're not an expert in. It's just about feeling comfortable with being uncomfortable.

58:01
Sinead is a beginner in so many aspects of her life like kite surfing. If you start thinking you're an expert, you stop learning. Always try to push yourself as much as you can. Her best quote is from Richard Branson where he says, "If someone gives you a new opportunity but you're not sure that you can do it, say yes anyways and learn it later." Be willing to be in the unknown, face the fear and do it anyway.

1:11:00
Sinead shares a study that compares the difference between men and women when applying for jobs. Men will see a job interview or a job posting and if they reach 60% of the requirements, they'll most likely apply. However, women generally will not apply if they don’t feel like they've met 100% of the requirements. What Sinead has learnt from this study is she needs to reprogram her mind out of any expectations that society may have of her. Sinead's shift to a transparent mindset has come as a result of age, experience and a couple of hard knocks. She also surrounds herself with people that think she is amazing and who want her to succeed.

1:09:39
For her morning routine, Sinead uses an app called Shine to send her a quote or sentence to think about at 6:30 A.M. She also gets Universe's emails. Every year, Sinead will set up a theme for each year. She builds out what her life will look at that year, goals she wants to achieve and the keywords for that year. Also she has set a calendar alert that gets sent to her as an email every day. This year the message is, "I am strong, I am powerful, I am successful, I am a force of good. Nothing can stop me. I am humble. I am grateful and I'm plentiful." She reads this message every morning. She finally goes to Instagram. This year, transformation is Sinead's theme. Sinead is doing physical and mental transformation after a dark period last year. She is committed to reading more.

1:17:49
Sinead's idea of fulfillment is having the true feeling or sense of purpose. That, for her, would be incredibly fulfilling. She gets glimpses that she is living a fulfilled life when she gets to effect change in either people, situations or communities.

Connect with Sinead
www.thepienzacollective.com -Business Website
@sineadnorenius- Facebook, Twitter, Instagram

Resources
Start with Why- Simon Sinek
The Power of Habit- Charles Duhigg
The Magnetic Leader- Roberta Chinsky Matuson
The Culture Code- Daniel Coyle
Born a Crime- Trevor Noah

The First Mindset Mashup and Why I’m ALL IN

The Mindset MashUp, the new podcast by Michelle Sorro -  TV host on Extra, an author and a lifestyle strategist. Through her lively, unfiltered and heart-centered podcast, she aims to bring people closer to their best life. In her podcast she invites inspirational guests who provide tips that can elevate your life, business and relationships.

Time Stamped Notes

1:41

Michelle was born on a navy base in Whidbey Island in Oak Harbor, Washington. They then moved to the central coast when she was five years old. That's where Michelle went to grade school, junior high and high school. She made her move to LA in search of a career in acting. Her favorite job to this day was as a singing waitress at Café Bellisimo in Woodland Hills, California. Another one of her favorite jobs, which she did more than 20 years later, was when she was a host on HSN. Michelle can trace her acting, performing, singing and dancing, all the way through her grade school years. She always felt that she wanted to make an impact with performing.

5:45

Michelle found her spiritual home at Agape spiritual center. There she studied transformational studies and was drawn to the study of major organized religions around the world. She wanted to dig deeper into being a practitioner of that work. She then enrolled in a practitioner program. At that point she thought that she wanted to be a reverend of trans-denominational faith and principles. There she started facilitating personal growth by leading groups in her home.

7:31

Michelle was always immersed in personal growth. That's how she saw raised. Some of her favorite mentors when she was growing up included Tony Robbins, Michael Wickett, and Terry Cole-Whittaker, Wayne Dyer, Marianne Williamson, Maya Angelou, and Steven Cuby. Michelle then continued taking courses at Agape, doing volunteer work where she led ministries, helped to raise funds and awareness and took trips around the world.

11:07

At 28 years old, Michelle realized she wasn’t going to be a reverend and that she wanted to make money. This realization led her to the real estate world. For over 10 years, she became very successful in real estate. In the first couple of years in the real estate industry, she assisted Melissa Alt, a top producer. Melissa became Michelle's mentor, then her partner and they ended up building a team.

14:21

In 2008, Michelle went back to UCLA and studied broadcast journalism through a certificate degree with the aim of optimizing the potential for manifesting her dream. Michelle's dream at that point was to become a TV host. Michelle one day shared with Melissa her dream of working on the entertainment primetime show called Extra.

16:59

The financial crisis of 2008 forced Michelle to assess her financial situation. Realizing that real estate shows were the hottest things on the market, Michelle decided to put her journalism skills to use. Michelle admits that a mistake that she made at that time was that she had some limiting patterns and beliefs that held her back from what she really wanted. After many unsuccessful screen tests for about a year and a half, Michelle remembered a quote by Tony Robbins which says, "Life is always happening for us, not to us." Michelle now knows that no matter what, it doesn’t really serve to dwell on the pain and suffering or to indulge in it.

24:23

Michelle finally realized that she wanted to host and she wanted to use her over 10 year experience in sales. She was then fortunate enough to get hired at QVC. 3 years later, Michelle had to have 2 radical surgeries which altered the course of her life. She decided to take what she had learnt at HSN, where she was working, and go back home. She made up her mind to start a consulting business. The first company she consulted for was a skincare beauty brand called Trish McEvoy.

29:06

There's something about when you set intention and you get super clear and you have that vision. You got to get out of your own way, which is the fear and sabotage and the old stories and limiting beliefs, and just move forward. It takes, in some instances, a lot of bravery and a lot of courage, but also just a lot of faith and belief that if you've got the vision then it must be able to be divinely supported. A lot of people may be grappling with an idea or a dream or a goal or something that they'd like to launch or really grow or pursue and some of these little things can be holding them back.

10 years after Michelle declared that she wanted to work on Extra, she finally got the job. Michelle still works with tons of brands and shopping networks like QVC, HSN, Evine, The Shopping Channel in Toronto and QVC UK. She also does speaking events and works with product-based startups.

34:29

Michelle then stepped into a holistic lifestyle strategist role after going to a life-changing event in December of 2017 called "Date with Destiny". She knew that she had to start talking about personal development and inform people about her favorite books, podcasts, documentaries, mentors and the mindset tools, tips and techniques that she had applied that had made incredible and measured differences in her life.

38:57

This is where the idea of her podcast, The Mindset MashUp, came from. The mission of the Mindset MashUp is to provide listeners with tips, habits, tools, resources that have activated Michelle's full potential. Michelle will invite many of her mentors who have guided her in her four decade career. Some of the mentors are Michelle's family members, her friends, very well recognized spiritual luminaries, personal development experts, celebrities and even Fortune 500 CEOs. Michelle wants to invite to her podcast people who are really working toward and experiencing more fulfilled lives. It's all about taking baby steps and making progress. It's like just the tiniest nuances of shift can really be a mindset revolution.

41:38

The main pillars in life that are going to be tackled are radical self-love, emotional mastery, tribe and impact. Radical self-love is not just when things are great and everything's going our way. It's the hard times, when you say or do something you regret or when you didn’t treat your body or your mind kindly. If you can’t get there naturally, Michelle will give you the tools and the resources to help you get there quicker than you would have with time elapsing and indulging and dwelling in conversations that would just hold you back.

Emotional mastery is another big pillar. A lot of time will spent talking about how to reset our minds and align with our heart through emotional mastery. Another pillar is tribe. Jim Rohn correctly states that, "We are the average of the five people that we spend the most time with." It's really looking at that tribe and understanding where we are in that circle. Are we at the top and everyone's under us as they're always looking up to us? Are we right in the middle where it's this wonderful blend of people that you're really helping and inspiring?

Impact is another crucial pillar. Tony Robbins says that, "Success without fulfillment is the ultimate failure." Being able to make an impact means, can we also make a difference or give back in a way that is also fulfilling? Then finally success. Success is not about dollars in the bank or passport stamps or a house in a particular ZIP code. Success should be, being able to do what you want, when you want, where you want, how you want and with whom you want.

Connect with Michelle

www.themindsetmashup.com- Personal website

Resources

The Voice of Gratitude: Celebrating the Gift of Friendship- Michelle Sorro

The Mindset Mashup - Launching June 11

THE MINDSET MASHUP PODCAST

"Life is always happening for us; not to us" - Tony Robbins

The Mindset Mashup is a compilation of REAL TALKS designed to help you optimize what matters most: Self-Love. Impact. Success. Tune in for inspirational guests who reveal the mindset required to bust through the BS that holds you back, and how to apply those tools to elevate your life, business and relationships. Think Super Soul Sunday meets Soul Cycle.

Join Michelle Sorro, TV Host, Author and Lifestyle Strategist, as she digs deep to bring you closer to your best life in this lively, unfiltered and heart centered podcast.