#184: Developing The Bulletproof Mindset To Thrive And Succeed With Casanova Brooks

Welcome to The Conscious Pivot Podcast with international speaker, business mentor, bestselling author of Pivot, and your host, Adam Markel. The Conscious Pivot shares the stories and wisdom of people who have successfully reinvented some area of their business and personal life. You'll gain powerful insights into how you can fully embrace new opportunities, increase your performance, and master the art and science of innovation and resilience. So please join Adam as he guides you on your conscious pivot.

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Conscious Pivot Podcast. I'm your host, Adam Markel. I am feeling wonderful. I've got a smile on my face, just feel good all over. You know, some days you just feel good all over. Some days you wake up, you feel like total crap. It just happens that way. Today, I feel really blessed. I always feel blessed, but not always good all over. Today, I've got a great guest on the show. I can't wait to introduce him to you. about him, of course, and then we'll dive in a little deeper or a lot deeper. His name is Casanova Brooks. What a great name. Love that name. Casanova Brooks is an award-winning author, high-energy keynote speaker, real estate professional, and entrepreneur. Through his battles with adversity in many stages of his life, including stage 4 lymphoma cancer, to losing his mother, his job, and a home in just a matter of weeks, even with having very limited resources, Casanova learned to develop a bulletproof mindset. And talk about that today, how important that is. A bulletproof mindset to thrive and succeed in life and business. From producing 46 deals and $8 million in his first year of real estate to now owning multiple businesses, he has been an action taker in every sense of the word. Casanova now focuses on empowering others to focus on developing their mindset to become the best version of themselves to thrive in their own lives. I'm really happy to have you on the show today, Casanova. Thanks for being with us.

Yeah, thank you for having me. It's gonna be a fun one. I can already tell.

You got a killer name, man, for sure. Tell me or share with our folks, you know, something that's not written in that bio that you would love for people to know about you.

Yeah, that's a great one. That, that's something that people don't normally start off asking. I would say that's not written in that bio is how much of a father, how proud I am of the father that I've

Oh, that's beautiful. As a daddy myself of 4 kids that are not teeny tiny anymore, I don't know that there's anything that I feel better about in my life truly than how I feel about our kids and how I feel they feel about me. You got young kids? I'm just looking at your face and thinking maybe you got some young kids around.

Yes, I got my son who is 8 and my daughter just turned 2. But as most kids are, my daughter, she's 2, but I just said last night to my wife, she's really 4.

Yeah.

Right? And that's an understatement. She's more about 6 or 7. So that's been crazy. And they're just totally 2 different kids, like both very good kids. But my son was— he just always had a lot of energy, right? And he was always just go. But my daughter, she's more— she imposes her will on you whether you like it or not. And so to be that young, but to be that feisty and everything and how she just picks up on everything so much faster than what we feel like my son ever did. And my son is— I mean, he's top of his class. He's a very smart kid. But my My daughter's at a different speed. So it's a lot of fun. They're definitely keeping my wife and I on our toes. Yeah,

they'll keep you on your growth edge for some time now, buddy. That's for sure. And it's so crazy, right? Because they— you just look at your kids sometimes, and not everybody, you know, has kids. So you could just think about this in terms of maybe your nieces or nephews or other people's kids. But it's hard to believe they came from the same place, like came from the same place, came from the same parents even, because your kids can be so radically different. And I guess You know, just to dial it back to all of us, it's not that hard to figure out how different we are, meaning how unique we all are.

Right.

You know, regardless of if our relation is blood relation on the first, you know, like right there, or it's this— these relationships that, that go back thousands and thousands of years. We know we're all related anyway. Well, right, I think we know that. I hope we know that, but we're all so different. Come from different places, have different parents, different upbringings, different everything, man, but we're so incredibly different. And as much as I think we have a consciousness around that, you know, globally, we speak different languages, we have different, you know, our bodies look different, we have different accents, all that kind of thing. And yet, and yet there's sort of this common, you know, this thread that runs through all of us. And this— so let me ask you this. What's been the greatest driver of growth for you other than, other than being a dad? Because I know, I know what a ridiculous driver of growth it is to be a parent, for sure, because it's humbling, right?

Yeah. I would say the biggest driver of growth for me has been the excitement of the unknown. So, what does that mean? I think for me, I've always just been— yes, I've had a lot of success in sales and things like that, but whenever people ask me like where it all stems from, I always say that before anything else, I'm just a relationship builder. That's what I've always tried to be because for me, especially if you know my story, my background, things like that, you've kind of already read into it, but my dad was never in my life. I grew up with very limited resources. So what does that mean? I grew up on the South Side of Chicago for my early years, raised by a single mom. My grandma stepped in to help lead the way of being my dad since my dad was never in my life. And so I didn't have— I was the only child. I didn't have any brothers or sisters or anybody who could kind of teach me the way. On top of that, my parents, as my mom would always say, was robbing Peter to pay Paul. So the time— while I was never deprived of love and support, I just didn't have the resources. I lacked financial knowledge. Nobody in my family owned house, car, business, anything like that. So for me, I was always just excited by the unknown. Can I do that? Right? Like, my favorite show growing up that I can remember was VH1's The Fabulous Life Of. So it was like their version, VH1's version of MTV Cribs, which was popular at the time when I was just a young boy. So for me, I was like, wow, like when I would see guys like Richard Branson and he owns this Virgin Island, and when I would see guys with big mega yachts and all these other things, for me, I always just, I imagined, I dreamed, I was like, wow, one day I would love to have something like that, right? And so for me, just every day taking action and pushing forward on something, It's like I didn't allow my subconscious mind to speak those things into my conscious mind that allowed me to just really suffer from paralysis of analysis, right? So I think that that was where it was for me when it talks about what is that driver. It was always the excitement of like, okay, he got that, but if I go do this, what can come from it? Whether that means I get a job, whether that means I start a business, whether that means I get the girl. Whether that means I make $10,000, you just don't know. So you have to take action on something. And that's, you know, what I've always prided myself on.

Resilience. It's the unsung hero in every success story that you will ever hear about. And in times of massive change and disruption, the kind of rapid change that we're all experiencing as leaders, as business owners, as entrepreneurs, we have to learn how to not only increase our own resilience, but that of our teams. So right now we have a powerful opportunity for you to find out just how resilient you are. Some years ago, my team and I created the resilience assessment that more than 5,000 business leaders across the globe have taken. And all you have to do to get your own free resilience leader assessment is go to resiliencerank.com. It takes less than 3 minutes, and it's our gift to you for being the leader that you already are. Other free resources and tools will accompany your score instantly. So go to resiliencerank.com and find out just how resilient you are. So is that this idea of the bulletproof mindset about how you were able to get control of your subconscious mind? Give us an unpack that a little bit because I think a lot of people are driven by their default modes of being, you know, things that we do, we just don't even know why we do them. They're habitual, etc., including How quickly, you know, you get angry about something or what you make things mean. I mean, we're giant meaning-making machines and all that's happening on a level below our consciousness often. So yeah, say a little bit more about that.

Yeah, so I think where this came from for me was obviously being diagnosed with stage 4 lymphoma cancer and being—

How old were you, by the way, when that happened?

I was 15 years old.

Wow, that's just gotta— I mean, as hard as it is to be 15 on a good day, I can't even imagine what that day was like for you.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, it's very, very tough because I was never ever sick as a child. Chickenpox, measles, coronavirus, none of that did I have when I was 15 or even prior to that. I was always a pretty healthy kid. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, in between football season and basketball season, I decided, or I found myself being— it was very hard for me to breathe, right? And so decided I was gonna go home almost every day for about 3 to 4 days and I would just take naps. And my mom saw that that was unlike me. It was uncharacteristic of me. So she's like, hey, well, if this persists, we're gonna go to the emergency room. So of course it did. who winds up going to the hospital. And then they do future testing and they say, hey, you know what, we got some public transportation, we're gonna ship you to the other side of the state. My parents are like, what? What are you talking about? And they're like, well, we think it might be a little bit more serious. And they're like, well, what does that mean? And they're like, we think he might have cancer. And I just remember my grandma bursting out like, whoa! And at this time still though, I wasn't really familiar with what that meant. But once we got to the University of Iowa, primary physician was there, and we did all this testing and they said, yeah, it was all throughout my body, 2 weeks away from death. If I would have just, you know, not went into any hospital, I I could have just died. And so that was super crazy for me. And obviously I had to go through chemotherapy for 2 years and all types of treatments and dyes and everything else. But where this stemmed from on the Bulletproof mindset was just, I think over the— that was my second storm. My first storm that I went through in my life was I had 2 best friends when I was around, I was 7 or 8 years old. I had 2 best friends. This was when we were in Chicago and constantly we were always together. We were like the Three Amigos, the Three Musketeers. Well, We would go to the beach a lot together and you know just mess around stuff like that. Well, one Sunday morning they came in and like came to my house and was like, "Hey, we're gonna go to the beach." And I'm like, "You know what? For whatever reason, I just don't want to go." It was like, "Okay, cool. We'll catch you when we get back." So it's like, "Okay, cool." So then a couple hours later, their parents wound up coming, you know, to the house asking if you know my mom knew where we all were. And my mom's like, "No, Cass is in his room." Da da da. And then come to find out a couple hours later after that, they both drowned off the pier at the beach that we've been at. 20, 30, 40 times, right? Wow. So we're all the same age. So both of them obviously lost, you know, their kids. And so that was kind of the first time that it was like, wow, like I had to really like ask myself, like, why me? What did I do to be so lucky? But also, what did I do to be so cursed that now I just lost my 2 best friends? And then also obviously 15, the cancer, and then, you know, just 5 years ago, losing everything at that point. So the question always poses of like, how do you overcome these things? How do you not allow yourself to be a victim? And so what I always looked at and how I developed what I call the Bulletproof Mindset is just really always looking at that your future is brighter than ever, right? So what does that exactly mean? Well, when I looked at my scenarios, especially over these last 5 years where again, in a matter of weeks, losing my mom, my job, and my home, sleeping in, you know, my wife's second aunt's basement, this was like, I felt like at that time my wife was supporting me not only emotionally, but she was also supporting me financially. But now look at it, just 2 years later, look at all the things that I was able to overcome. Look at now, I've been able to build, you know, my own home, a half a million dollar home. Like, there's been a lot of things. So off of every stint of adversity, it's understanding that in your trying times and in your failures, that's where your character is really built, right? And your future is always brighter than ever because there's more things that comes out. Like, 10 years ago, people would have never been able to in 24 hours essentially start their own businesses, whether it's consulting, whether it's coaching groups, right? They would have never been able to become a specialized person in whatever field that you're looking for without going to college or going through 2 to 3 years of like a trade school or whatever. But nowadays, because of things like podcasts, like what we're listening on right now, right? Or YouTube or books, there's so many more people, or ebooks. It's allowed you to be able to move at a speed that has just been so fast. And one thing that we always say in my circle is, you know, success loves speed. You have to build momentum. Well, it's never been a better time to be able to build momentum than it is today, no matter what it is that you're trying to accomplish. So I think with developing a bulletproof mindset, it's first assessing what exactly puts you in this situation. Now you may say, okay, well, what about you? When you were 15, you were diagnosed with cancer, right? And so how exactly did you put yourself in that situation? Well, there's always going to be, in my opinion, I think one-off scenarios, right? There's some things that you cannot control. But what you have to do is you have to say, okay, what are the things that I can control? And what I always boil it down to is number one, you can control your attitude, and number two, you can control your effort, right? You can't control whether you're going into a game, whether you're gonna get a job, whatever it is, you can't control those things. At the end of the day, that score is gonna be what that score is. But how do you try to give yourself the slight edge, right? It's by your energy, it's by your effort, and it's by your attitude. Because life will happen. It happens to everyone. The one thing that you can do though is control those things, and I think that's the way that you give yourself the slight edge.

So your bulletproof attitude is about assessment to begin with. Are there— and the way I was listening to you share that, that assessment involves getting real about, you know, why things are happening the way they are happening or what's happened, and that involves responding, and your attitude and your effort and your energy have everything to do with how you might respond to a situation. Is that Yeah,

absolutely. And then the next step of this is you have to decide, you have to decide where it is that you're trying to go, right? So I think of this all the time just like a GPS. When you first get into your car and you have— you turn on the GPS, no matter— you can't just say, take me anywhere, Google. They're gonna say, where do I want to go? Now understand that you do not have to love the destination. You don't have to love the journey, or I'm sorry, you do not have to love the journey, but you do have to be married to the destination. Mm-hmm. So what does that mean? That means that over the course of you trying to get wherever it is in life, there's gonna be different roadblocks, there's gonna be different tolls, there's gonna be flat tires, there's going to be air conditioners that go out, all of these things that, again, remember, you cannot control. But what you can control is how you respond to those things. And as long as you stay the course and you stay persistent and you stay patient and you stay resilient, I think all of those things are going to help you get there. And then you'll notice That even along your path, let's use that again as being in— let's look at a map, right? Let's say you're starting from California, you're trying to make your way down to Florida. You're married to the destination of getting there. There's many different travel paths that you can go through. But let's say that after 2 days, you've now found yourself that you've only made it to Kansas. But look at how far that you've come. Look at how much adversity you've already overcome. And you have to be grateful about that. And you still have to stay, again, married to that destination.

Yeah. I think there's something really interesting about that. Very cool, actually, about the way you sort of flip that truism on its side, which is the truism being you have to enjoy the journey. And I think people want to enjoy the journey. And I think that is good wisdom, conventional for sure. But you're saying something a little bit different, which is that, look, it's less about loving the journey and it's more about being married to To the destination. And that's counterintuitive because there will be lots of things that come up along the way that could very easily distract you or take you off course. And so you could just ask the questions in the opposite, which is what would happen if you aren't married to the destination? Will you actually get there? And what would be the case if you didn't have to love the journey? Would you be willing to just deal with stuff the way we all have to deal with stuff sometimes to get something accomplished? So, there's something really very, very, very— that's something worth thinking about further. I'm going to think about that further. I invite people listening to this to do the same. So, we've got assess and decide. Is there any other part step in this process for you?

No. So, I think the last thing for me has always been after I decide, it's about focusing on the who, not the what, right? So, a lot of the times we're focusing on what do we need to do to make this work? And I think that that is a good thing, but I think what's even better is who do we know that can help us get there even faster, right? So prime example, let's use a gym for example. Remember I already said you don't have to love the process. Going to the gym, if you know, listen, my doctor has already told me I need to lose 100 pounds or my health is gonna be in serious jeopardy. You have to go to the gym, right? You have to work out, you have to eat better. You do not have to love that journey, right? I mean, the reality of it is, but you're committed because you know you need to be around longer for your kids, for your parents, For your brothers and sisters, for your team, whoever it is. Well, if you focus on, here's what's gonna happen if you decide, okay, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna suck it up and I'm gonna do it, right? Well, then all of a sudden you find yourself going through trial and error so much. You're like, should I eat this food? You're reading all the time. You just get so— as human beings, we will then become overwhelmed, become frustrated, and then shut down. But if you could find someone else who's one, either already done what you've done, or two, That's a professional expert like a trainer, right, that could say, hey, here's how I can help you get these same results, but get it faster, and then also offer you accountability and support. A lot of the times us as entrepreneurs— and I always like to think of everyone in a sense as an entrepreneur, regardless if you're working a 9 to 5, or if you have your own job, because I think of entrepreneurs as superheroes. Mm-hmm. Constantly we're putting on different capes, right? And we're trying to fly at the speed of lightning and trying to get things done in a world of instant gratification. And we're trying to solve multiple problems all the time, right? So when you think of yourself like that, you have to be thinking, what exactly do— or who exactly do I need to build relationships with that can help me get the result that I want even faster? So that's what I've always tried to focus on in the end.

Wow, the pace of change over the last couple of years has been rapid. And if you're a leader, a business owner, an entrepreneur, you know exactly what I'm talking about. Every day it's something different and something new. But the one thing that I've learned in performing at the height of all of those roles has been that we must be resilient. In fact, it's the unsung hero in every success story that you will ever hear about. And it's the reason why my team and I created the resilience assessment that more than 5,000 business leaders across the globe have taken And all you have to do to get your own free Resilient Leader Assessment is go to resiliencerank.com. It takes less than 3 minutes, and it's our gift to you for being the leader that you already are. Other free resources and tools will accompany your score instantly. So go to resiliencerank.com and find out just how resilient you are. That makes a lot of sense to me. Our company is the who, the answer to the who question for people that are wanting to get on stages, get paid to speak, get on TED stage, things like that. And often that conversation, Sorak, comes from what is it that we've learned that we do ourselves and we've learned that we can convey and teach. So it's an element of mentoring. And we all very much, I think, benefit from mentorship. In fact, it's a chapter in the book Pivot all about Who are the stakeholders in our lives that help us to be better and uplevel? I want to plus what you said as well, which is that who is all— in addition to who do we know or who can we be introduced to that can assist us, it's also who do we need to be? Meaning, who do we become in the process of dealing with what's required to be dealt with on that journey? Maybe not having to love every second of that journey, but ultimately getting to our destination because we're married to it. So I really love the way you unpack that. I appreciate it. And I know other people are going to really appreciate it as well. Casanova, talk about resilience because you lived— I think you are a model of resilience, but I want to get your sense of what is resilience? What is it? How do you define it? What are the elements of resilience in your experience? If you can give us your insight there, we appreciate it.

Yeah. So I would say resilience is being able to— it's a great question. Here's what I would say. I think resilience, when I think of the word, It's doing what you don't want to do when you don't want to do it, but doing at the level, at the highest level that you're capable of doing it.

Mm-hmm.

Right? So doing what you don't want to do when you don't want to do it, but doing it at the highest level that you're capable of doing it. And so what does that mean? I think that a lot of the times the reason why we don't get through these breakthrough sessions is again because it's what's in our head. And so when you're resilient, I think that you have to take out the emotion part of these things. And that's very tough to do because We're human. So what I would say is you have to think more on the logical side to say, okay, if I know that I need to lose 50 pounds again, for example, if I don't want to do it, what's going to happen at this time? What's going to happen is potentially your health gets worse, your husband or your spouse loses you, your kids don't then believe in you, all these other things. But if you could figure out a way to say, hey, I don't want to do it, and assess that, but say, here's why I am going to do it. And then you put in affirmations. I'm going to do it because I'm strong. I'm going to do it because I committed to myself. I'm going to do it because, you know, I know what it can do for me in the end. Affirmations are very, very powerful. And once you do that, you're going to have these small momentum breakthroughs. And I think the small momentum breakthroughs are even bigger than the big goals. And the reason why I say that is because at the end of the day, we're all looking for little inspirational wins in life. We all are. And so I think if you can create a small momentum breakthrough, That will then build into like a snowball. And then at the end, it's like riding a bike. When you're doing that first pedal, it's very tough to see that you're going to be down the street in about 45 seconds, right? If you're first out starting to ride a bike. But after you've pressed one pedal and then you press the second pedal and then you're on to the 5th, 6th, 7th, now all of a sudden you look back and you say, oh man, I did it. I did it. I'm riding. And so resilience for me is just never giving up. But at the same time doing what you don't want to do because at the end of the day, once you do it, I've never heard anybody else that said, hey, I'm so glad I did that, but I regret doing it.

It's about progress and you've got to make progress and sometimes progress is ugly. I mean, it can be, it can really be sloppy. It's painful. It's doing things and I couldn't agree with you more that you don't want to do at times when you know you ought to do them, but you You just don't want to do them, but you do them anyway. And that's the 5:00 AM wake-up call for some people to get to the gym or get outside and do their run, or it's to turn down the cookies or the can of Coke or other things that they've committed to give up, etc. And those are not easy moments. I mean, because we know exactly how to sort of self-soothe at times, and we'll tell ourselves a story why it's too tough or it's just too uncomfortable.

Yeah.

Or any number of other stories. So, give me a sense of what are some of the things that you do on a regular basis? I would describe you as somebody that has a great attitude. You just get that from you. You exude positivity and a good attitude. Has that always been the case for you? And what do you do to build that on a daily basis?

Yeah. So, I think, you know, here's a story that I learned, and this was from Warren Buffett, you know, the Oracle of Omaha. A lot of people think of him 3rd richest man in the world now. Obviously, they keep kind of fluctuating, but when you got that level—

You live in his state, right?

Right, in his state.

Or he lives in your state.

Right? Well, yeah, he lives about 15 minutes from me, so he's in the heart of Omaha. So, but here's something that someone asked Warren Buffett. They said, hey, how do you know when you've been successful in life? And Warren said, you know, you'll never know when you've truly been successful until you die. And so a lot of people know that Warren Buffett is a— what's been told is he's kind of more of like an atheist and And I don't know that necessarily he's all there, but he just doesn't talk about afterlife and God and things like that. He's more like, that's just his thing. So it was crazy when he brought that up because people are like, what? Warren talking about death? And like, what? And then he said, you'll never know when you've been successful until you die. But more importantly, you'll never know how truly successful you've been until you die and you see how many of those people cry at your funeral. Because those are the people that you've truly impacted their lives. So for me, I think I've always thought of myself as a dreamer. And I've always thought of myself as a relationship builder. At the end of the day, Maya Angelou has that quote, right, that says, people don't care what you said, but they definitely will remember how you made them feel. And so for me, I think I've always just tried to— how can I impact someone positively?

Mm-hmm.

And when you say like, what do I do on a daily basis? For me, I just try to make sure— here's what I do. I try I gotta focus on my energy and my efforts, right? So what that means is I never hesitate to hold open a door for anyone. Even if we're going in and out of a restaurant, I'm not with your party, I'll hold open that door. Why? Is because it gives me a sense of a feel-good. At the end of the day, there's so many things on religion and all that, and we're not gonna take that there. But for me, this is what I say. Whenever I meet my maker, my creator, at the end of my time, regardless of, you know, if I was in the church every week or if I wasn't, if I did all of these things that the Bible says you're supposed to do, Here's what I would say when I get there. I would say, listen, did I do everything in my power for all the people that you allowed me to touch on a daily basis to impact their lives in a more positive way? Did I bring them good energy, good spirits? If the case is yes, if they can't deny it, I feel like I made a good case to get in.

That's just—

that's my heart.

I feel like that's a winning argument.

That's what it's got to be. Right? It doesn't matter about the money. Did I do every time Adam talked, did I leave him with some type of inspiration? Did I put some type of smile on his face? Did I make him believe that, like, listen, your future is brighter than ever? That's what I try to focus on every single day.

I really hope you're enjoying this episode of the Change Proof Podcast. If you've not yet gone out and gotten your own copy It's not too late. You can get your copy right now by going to changeproof.com and not only getting the book and all the bonuses there, but getting access to our proprietary resilience assessment tool. It'll just take you 3 minutes to do, and it's something that will really help you to utilize the book even more effectively to create practices and rituals and habits that will help you to be more resilient. and habits that will increase your mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual resilience for the long term. Again, go to changeproof.com to get your copy today. You are a light for sure. I know that our community is eating this up. So, what's great in our show notes, we're going to have more about you. Folks can find out more about the work that you're up to. And you're primarily in real estate, but you're an entrepreneur. You've got other business interests as well. Yeah?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I got a couple different businesses, but yeah, primarily in real estate. I am a real estate agent and a real estate investor, and then I speak a lot as well.

That's wonderful. All right. So, more information will be there in our show notes. And of course, I want to remind everybody as well that what you do What you do at the beginning of the day, more than anything, impacts the way that day is going to go, in my opinion. It's like the first domino. So you set out a lot of great examples and I'm an analogy guy. So when you talk about momentum, I think about dominoes and how it's so interesting about dominoes. I thought that the world record for the number of dominoes set up and knocked down was about a million. And then I was at a speaking engagement a couple of weeks ago in Dallas and somebody said, no, it's like 4 million. Like 4— can you imagine 4 million dominoes get set up?

Right.

Just to knock them all down. And how long— I didn't actually ask this— is how long it took from that first domino to the last, 4 million dominoes later. Did it take 20 minutes? Was it an hour? Was it 6 days? I mean, to knock down 4 million dominoes. So, it's a great example visually of what momentum looks like, that one thing tips into another and the next. And what's really great about that is again that you can see that one progress leads to another. But what's less known is the fact that a domino, a single domino, not only has the capacity to knock down another domino of its own size, but can actually knock down a domino that's bigger than itself. That's what's really beautiful. And you made me think about that when you were giving your example about these little victories, little victories, the little progress every day, because they lead to bigger and bigger progress. In fact, I saw this demonstration once And you can see it on YouTube too, where a little domino about 3/8 of an inch, less than half an inch high, can knock over another domino that's about twice its size, 1.5 times its size. By the time you get to like the 5th domino, 5th or 6th domino, it's knocking over a domino that's 6 feet tall and weighs 100 pounds. And by the time you get to like the 28th domino, it's the size of the Empire State Building, just on the premise that the domino can knock over another one that's about 1.5 times its size. And that's not just about momentum. That's about the escalating level at which you can play in any arena, whether it's in the business arena or it's in your personal life, relationships, health, you name it. So, you've inspired that today, Casanova. So, your job, well done today, buddy.

Thank you.

You know, you got a couple hundred thousand more days to just do what you did today. Right. And you're gonna get in. You're gonna be good.

I'm gonna get in. That's what it is. That's my argument and I'm sticking to it.

I love it. I love it. So, everybody out there, what are you going to do today? What's going to be your start of day ritual to just tip that first domino, that little tiny domino? For me, I know I have the same little domino every morning when I wake up. I'm grateful for the fact that I've been given another day. I put my feet on the floor, I stand up, and I say these 4 words out loud, I love my life. Mm-hmm. That was the TED Talk I gave. It's the one I just can't get away from the power of that little 10-second practice. It's like a turnaround. And I do it. It's something that's even a— it's like a thing that recalibrates me or refreshes me in the middle of the day or something when I find my mind might go off into some problem and I get so mired in that problem that I feel my energy getting sucked in, getting lowered by that kind of thing. And we need a restorative. And I don't know what your restorative might be, Casanova, or the folks that are watching, listening to this. But mine is simply to just take that 10 seconds and how many times can I say it and feel it? So I'll say, I love my life. And they'll go, okay, I could feel that. I could feel I love my life at a level 3 right there. But then I say, I love my life. And I feel it at a level 6. I'll go put my hands on my heart and smile and feel the gratitude for the fact that still walking this beautiful earth. And I say—

Right.

I love my life. And I, you know, it's like I'm gonna ring that bell.

Gonna ring that bell. Gonna ring that bell. That's what we all look for, right? Is those small victories that can lead, you know, it's every day, you know, it's another day to be better, to feel better, and to be brighter. And so I always look at things, there's no such thing as failure. Everything is just a lesson. And so that's been very, very huge for me. So it's been a lot of fun.

Beautiful. I want to go out on those words, what you just said a moment ago, Casanova, which is be brighter. Be brighter. That's the words. That's— those are the words right now for me. I hope everybody out there just take those words into the rest of your day from where you are right now. Just be brighter. Be brighter. That's awesome, Casanova. Thank you for that.

Yes. Thank you.

Ciao.

Ciao. Thanks for listening, everyone. We hope you now have the tools and greater insights to navigate your own pivot. Help us inspire others by sharing this episode and leaving your comments over at adammarkel.com/podcast. For more tips, strategies, and support as you consciously pivot into a new business and lifestyle you love, join our Pivot Community on Facebook at pivotfb.com.