#190: Breaking Through Walls By Tapping Into Listening and A Higher Energy

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, 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, and I'm just sitting here with a cheesy grin on my face, partly because it's a brand new day and I feel very lucky just to be here. I was lying in bed this morning and I found my mind was wandering. Into sort of cobwebby places of the past and just thinking about things, people even, that I no longer am connected with and heads or tails of that, a little sense of it. And ultimately, as I was lying in bed, I really came to the conclusion that the most important thing I can do right now in this moment is just to be here, to be in the moment, which really filled me with a lot of gratitude. I didn't have to sort of go, oh yeah, move to gratitude, right, dude? That's the secret elixir. That's always the thing. You can just go right to gratitude. Which is true. It is, by the way, a tremendous shortcut to everything I'm looking for, I can find in gratitude. But I didn't even have to sort of push that little button that I know is always kind of there in an emergency. It was just sitting in the present and realizing that that was where I had actual freedom. I don't want to go too far afield with this. I wrote some notes and then kind of tease this out for myself a little bit more today. But Our freedom of choice is really the— our great— it's our one true freedom. We choose what we think. We choose where we put our focus. I choose where I put my attention. Nobody can do that for me. President can't do it for me. Other friends, family can't do it for me. I'm the only one. I get that. I have that responsibility, but I have the freedom to choose that. And in that moment, I made that choice to just be there, lying in bed without having to fix anything or Rehearse or redo or any of that stuff that just the mind can go there. I don't know if that's the same for all of you, but I know that's— I find that happens. And getting myself right back into that moment and experiencing that moment was just joyful. I felt joy. I felt freedom, real true, true freedom of choice. So I started in that way, and then it's just the day has just gotten better and better. And now I am sitting here with a new friend, and I say friend, I use that word— I don't use that word loosely. Or lightly. I think anybody who's been around long enough and maybe has enough experience knows that true friends or friends at all are hard to come by, I find. And you think maybe you have friends. Sometimes you think you got a friend and then maybe you can't help them the way you used to be able to help them. Or something changes in your life or you got an illness or you're not at your best or you get divorced or your business goes bust. And then all of a sudden, some of those people you thought were friends, Like the cliché goes, they find the exit. So this gentleman, I think, is somebody that I'm just going to enjoy his company for many years to come. I hope he feels the same way that he enjoys my company. I'm going to say a little bit about him, read a bit of his bio, and then just dig in because every time I'm with this guy, the conversation is just rich, fun. I giggle a lot. I like to giggle. I like to laugh. And it's just one of those guys where maybe in some past iteration of existence, we were just like schoolyard buddies. I don't know. His name is Ken Walls. Before we turn on the thing, I think he said to me that he had to ask his wife, his business partner, to send over a bit of words about him because he doesn't know how to describe himself. And I thought that's so rich because he's like this very, very well-regarded business mind and influencer. And I think the prevailing thought was maybe his wife would say over, Ken's a stud. He's my husband. That's his whole bio. But his lovely wife did send something over, so I'll just read this. Ken is a number one bestselling author and CEO of a web development company and social media firm and the creator of Grow Live Academy, a comprehensive course on how to successfully livestream to build your personal or business brand and generate revenue. Ken's passion is helping people succeed. Ken has a podcast called Breakthrough Walls. Absolutely love the name of that. Where he interviews celebrities and successful entrepreneurs who share their stories to help people to get past the influences that may be keeping them stuck. 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. Ken, it is a pleasure, brother. Welcome to The Pivot Show.

I am so honored to be here, man. I really am. Like, I get interviewed a lot. This is gonna be fun.

Tell me or share with our folks one thing, just one thing that's not a part of your bio there, the bio that we got just a little bit ago. that you'd love for people to know about you? And I already took up the stud, my husband's a stud thing. Yeah.

Wow. I guess the number one most important thing to me in my life is the fact that I meditate every single morning of my life. I've meditated every day for more than 17 years, and I will not miss a day. I will be late for a meeting before I miss meditation. So I don't know if that's an important fact about me, but it's the most important fact about me to me. So that's how I roll.

I'm really curious about that actually, Ken, because meditation is— it's not negotiable for you. So why is that the case?

I blame it on Dr. Wayne Dyer more than anyone. He's one of my favorite authors. Look, I'm very transparent about myself. I'm a recovered alcoholic with over 18 years of sobriety now. 19 years ago, I was not a good person. I mean, I was. I mean, deep down in, I think my moral compass always pointed north. Doesn't mean I followed it, but it was pointed in the right direction internally. But life was not fun for me back then when I was drinking. And although I masked it well, I drove 2 Mercedes, the big house I had from the outside, what appeared to be had my crap together. But on the inside, I was, man, I was hurting. I was a wreck. And so I got into recovery August 10th, 2002, and lost everything. 60 days sober. I called the police on myself actually, because I hear my car start up in the middle of the night and it's really, really cold. There's snow on the ground, in fact. So I hear it pulling away on the snow and I'm like, somebody's stealing my Mercedes. It was parked outside. And come to find out that No, they were in fact not happy that I hadn't made all the payments or something. And so they took it. But I learned about a year into sobriety, I learned about meditation. I had never— I think I'd probably heard of it, but I'd never done it and didn't know how to do it. And so I started reading books by Dr. Wayne Dyer. And then I was watching videos. There's this woman, she's a Buddhist monk. Her name's Pema Chödrön. And, and I start just looking into this going, what is this? And Most incredibly successful and happy people that I know meditate, if not daily, they do it a lot. And there's a variety of forms of it, I guess. But man, I wanted peace. I wanted peace in my life. In the program of Alcoholics Anonymous, there's a saying and it goes like this: we're all here because we're not all there. And it's just like, you know, I'm like, That makes sense. And I know, dude, there are some major, major, major rock star celebrities that are in recovery. And I've actually been in meetings with some of them. And it's like, wow, like that dude, I didn't know. And so for the longest time, Adam, I did not feel like I fit in anywhere. And I could be in a room of 100 people and feel like Everybody in that room hated me or didn't want me there. And so, man, I started digging into this meditation and it just gave me peace. If you ask a group of 100 people, hey, everybody close your eyes and point to yourself, 99 of them are going to go like this. They're going to point right to the center of their chest. They're not going to point to their head. They're going to point to their chest. Well, what's that tell us? That tells us that there's something there in the middle of your chest. That's some form of energy that you're drawn to. And so if you're drawn to that energy with your eyes closed upon questioning, what is that? What is that energy? And so that's what I'm curious about is what is that energy? So I literally close my eyes, I meditate, I go into an attempt to quiet my thoughts. I don't know that I ever have, but Dr. Wayne Dyer says that the beauty in music is the silence between the notes. And so And he talks about the magic of life is in the gap. It's that space between our thoughts. And so I'm looking for that. I'm looking for it. I haven't found it. I mean, I have moments where I'm like, wow, that was freaking cool, but I still haven't. I'm still looking.

So Ken, is it right thinking that we're after or is it just not thinking that we're after?

Wow. That's a good question. I think it's scientifically proven that we have 60,000 to 80,000 thoughts a day. So I'm not sure that it's possible to not And again, Pema Chödrön— I can't say her name— Chödrön talks about watching the tiger run. And she says, if you're meditating and in your mind shit is hitting the fan in your life, like all this crap's happening, that's the tiger. The tiger's gonna run. Like, if you ever try to close your eyes and just, okay, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna think, I'm not gonna think, I'm not gonna— you're thinking. Like, just saying that, you're thinking, right? So it's, it's literally, for me, I just stop and I focus everything I have of this beingness on the breath entering and leaving my nostrils. And I mean, I focus everything I have on that point of my body thinking, okay, just breathe and let it go. So I don't know if it's right thinking. I know this, I know that there is incredible magic. The woo-woo foo-foo stuff is, oh, you can manifest, and you actually can. Like, there is this power. I mean, if we get all religious. I mean, Jesus said, you'll do even greater things than me once you tap into this power. I really think he was talking about learn how to shut your mind off. Like learn how to chill. You don't need marijuana and all that stuff. Just like, I mean, no judgment. If you do it, you do it. But like, it's not a necessity in life. Like you can just, you can go inside and find these gifts. And again, like I said, I'm still looking. I found some magic, but I think there's so much more, man, that we're just not even aware of.

For me, I just can only come from what I know of myself, and that is that I can't really stop my thoughts. I can quiet my mind, and I think quieting the mind is a really wonderful thing. I'm very into peace. Peace in my mind, peace in my body, peace in my heart, my soul. And peace is not a thing that— tranquility, like stillness, serenity. It's abundant. It's everywhere, all at once, accessible in any second. And yet it is so far. It is so far from us at times. It is so distant. You might

There's a story that I wrote about it in my book, and the chapter in my book, I think it's chapter 6, it's called Look Inside. There's this story, it's an old Hindu story about the gods all got together one day and they were, you know, ticked off that they had given the humans this free gift forever. And it was the gift that they had given them was the ability to know the answer to Any question they could ever have instantly. And they saw that the humans were abusing the gift and not using it and all of these other things. So they decided that, you know, the best thing to do would be to take it away from the humans and hide it. So they have to do some work to find it. So one god said, hey, let's put it on the highest mountain on the planet. And they all thought, nah, they'll learn how to climb, they'll find it, that's too easy. Another one says, let's bury it in the deepest part of the ocean. And nah, they'll learn how to swim, they'll find it too, it's too easy. The wise wisest god of all of them said, why don't we hide it deep within the humans themselves? They'll never think to look there. And so it continues. So the answers to everything that troubles us, everything that we have answers or questions about rather, it's there. We are this man. This is going out there, but we are God and God is us. We are the cells that make up the body of God. That energy of the Or whatever is— whatever you call it. I choose to call it God, but you can call it whatever. It doesn't matter. But that energy is part of all of us, and we deny it. I think that we live entire lifetimes denying it until the moment we're taking our last breath and we go, it's beautiful. You hear so many people say in their last breath, he said or she said, wow, it's beautiful. That's there, man. You don't have to die to experience that. You can— you need to die to maybe some of the beliefs you have. But you don't have to physically die to experience that. So that's what I'm looking for, man.

This great friend I'm gonna introduce you to, you're gonna love. His name is Martin Root, and he has a book out about experiencing heaven on earth. And I think that's what you're really explaining, giving expression to that concept of how it is that you can experience heaven right here. Tell us about your book. So I love the story. You told that story so great, man. And I've heard it before, but it doesn't matter how many times I've heard something like that. That punchline, it's so poignant. It just goes right to the heart because how often it is that what we're really looking for, the answers we're really seeking, are within us all along. The miracle— often people say some people believe in miracles. I'm a God guy, as I don't mind saying that out. I used to temper that some way, you know, have to explain, yeah, I was not religious, but I'm spiritual. I wasn't spiritual till a long time later. And, you know, like making excuses for the fact that I believe in God. And now I'm not making those excuses anymore. And that wasn't about anybody else. That was totally about me. But in this moment, the idea that The answers are within, that miracles are within, and things that you would love to see different in your life. You just create the— I will say that the right environment for yourself to thrive the same way as if you were planting a rose bush, you probably wouldn't throw those seeds on concrete. You'd create a different environment for that thing to grow and nurture it and look after it. And that's why to me what we're talking about, it's not a discovery. It's not like finding America or finding gold in your— or discovering that Airbnb can save your life. Right. Your financial life or whatever, or cryptocurrency or something. It's more the daily work. And you've been sober for how many years now?

18. I just celebrated 18 in August.

Yeah. And that I can only say because I haven't had that experience, have my own shit to deal with, that that's— it's daily work, right?

Not anymore. I mean, it— yes, it is. I mean, I have to maintain a strong spiritual program. I haven't been to a meeting in years and years, but in the beginning you have to peel away the layers of the onion and get rid of and go through these steps that they have, the 12 steps. Go through those steps and really dig into what's going on with you and why, because a normal person doesn't go out and drink an entire bottle of Crown Royal plus a 12-pack of Bud Light in one day.

That would be ridiculous. I think it's ridiculous to combine— seriously, to combine Crown Royal and Bud Light. Those 2 things just don't seem to match up, man.

I mean, if you say that— You only do it when you run out of one.

So— If you only run out of one.

Yeah. I'm not in a blackout yet. I'm gonna need some more. But see, a normal person doesn't do that.

So this is really interesting because you're— on the one hand, you're kind of messing with my theory, which thank you for that. My theory is that— it's not even a theory. It's more of— it is a practice. I must practice things that are most important to me. I must give my attention and my focus to and create a form of practice to be better at it. And so I meditate a little bit. I'm not that great at meditating, but I practice it and I practice it in different forms without even calling it meditation so that I can get to a kind of a still place. Right. So are you saying that at a certain point into the practice of And it's not a practice of not drinking, right? It's a practice of replacing a habit or leaning towards something for solace and support and whatever else we get out of that and replacing it with something else. And so at a certain point, did it get replaced and then the tipping point happened and then you don't have to be so focused and sort of mindful of it? Or is your practice a little bit different than maybe the way I framed the question?

I mean, my practice is I sit in a somewhat darkish room and I put in AirPods and they have the noise cancellation, the new AirPods do. And I play really, really soft music, really soft, just like massage parlor music, like just nature sounds, whatever. And I quiet my mind and does not mean that I stop the thoughts. It means I have moments. You know, you said something a little bit ago that you can't quiet your mind. And my challenge for anybody that thinks they can't quiet their mind, because I trust— and this isn't a judgment, I've been there. But my challenge would be, imagine if I took you on a rocket into deep space and said, okay dude, here's your oxygen, get out and just float around out there for a little bit. I'll be back in an hour. Yes, you're going to have thoughts, but you're going to find a level of magic That you didn't even know existed in your minds and in your beingness. So when I meditate, I'm trying to reach that. I'm trying to reach like that place where I feel like I'm just floating in existence and that's it. And here's the thing, people, man, when shit's hitting the fan, we're all famous for like calling on God. God, yo dude, listen, man, if you could help me get out of this situation, I promise to never do it again. I just need your— right? Come on, man.

We've all heard those stories.

Yeah. Hey, your word says you got my 6. So, what's up, man? I'm feeling way uncomfortable right now. And so, we're really, really good at talking to God, right? Very few of us actually listen to God. So, prayer is talking to God. Meditation is listening to God. And so, So, as you already know, if you're the one doing all the talking, it's impossible to find the answers. You have to shut up and listen, right? So, maybe God's trying to give you the answers and you're so busy with your mind running, your mouth running, and everything else. And not you, but anyone, but including me. We're so busy trying to manipulate the situation. We're trying to figure out the solution to the I'm a chess champion, damn it. I know this stuff. And like, you know what I mean? Like, I know how to solve problems. You ever— I can beat anybody in 4 moves on a chess. But like, dude, okay, that's awesome. But have you ever just shut up and listened to God?

It's such a great question you're asking. And for me, I find it with practice, my mind will still. What helps me the most is actually asking questions. And I think this dovetails to what you're saying because even the listening, so whether you're listening to God or you're listening to whatever you would call it in this instance. It doesn't have to be anything that is spiritual or religious, but if you're listening for guidance, like we have our own internal guidance system, or there's a guidance system all around us. It comes from nature. When the wind blows at 100 miles an hour, you might want to get out of your house and go somewhere else, right?

Right.

There's a guidance system that's all around us. When fires are burning uncontrollably and millions of acres are burning in California, it means something.

Yeah.

Right? We're not gonna get into politics here about that, but there's something to take like notice of.

Yeah.

And we gotta ask questions to be able to get answers. And so, I think a lot of times what I find for myself and for other people that I have had the privilege to spend time around and work with is that we don't ask a lot of questions. I think from the time we're little, man, you tell me what you think about this. When we're kids, when we're in like grade school, starting in kindergarten and stuff like that, you ask questions, people would like make fun of you or I get made fun of if I ask the silly question, stupid question. Asking questions was annoying. People didn't have patience for you. You kind of get that whole vibe that you shouldn't be doing that. And when, you know, like you're in a job and you're new in your job, you ask questions, it makes it seem like you shouldn't be there. You don't deserve to be there. Like they shouldn't have hired you. You're a pain in the ass. So, we stop, kind of programmed to stop asking questions. And what you're saying, I think, is that when you ask, again, that's coming from the Bible, right? You ask, it's given. It's always given. Yeah. Question and answer is cause and effect. You can't ask a question in my estimation without at some point receiving an answer. So if you want to hear the voice of God or you want to hear the voice of your soul or of the guidance system that's around you, you might want to stop and just ask. Am I tracking what you're saying?

Ask and then shut up for whatever period of time that's required. Like, you know, I can remember in the beginning I would begin— I was meditating and I had all these questions and I had all these desires. I was single. I lived in a— it was a luxury apartment complex, but it was an apartment complex and it was a 1-bedroom apartment on the 3rd floor. The people on the 1st floor were from India and they cooked a lot with curry and it would come up through the chimney and into my apartment through the fireplace. I love Indian food, but you don't want your whole little tiny apartment smelling like curry all the time. And so I was asking like, where's my mansion? I mean, my God, God, I'm, you know, 36 at the time, I think, and 35. And I'm like, I had a Mercedes, little C coupe, and I drive a Mercedes. I'm somebody important. And you know that, God. So why am I living in this little one-bedroom curry-smelling apartment? Right now. Like, why am I not in a mansion? Why am I not in a 10,000-square-foot home by myself? Which is odd, but, you know, like, who needs 10,000 square feet by themselves? But anyway, so we're all looking for these answers. And sometimes, and I've learned this and I'm sure you have, sometimes we want these things that are not necessarily good for us in that moment. So, So, the answer sometimes is yes, sometimes the answer is no, and sometimes, more times probably than anything, is not yet. Not yet.

Ken, are we a patient society, do you think?

Oh my God, we're a microwave society, dude. Ever since they came out with the microwave, everybody's like, oh my gosh, you mean I can have it now? Cool! And it's like, no. Again, this isn't a judgment. I'm just as guilty as anyone else. Very, very guilty. guilty of it. I want what I want and I want it now, and I will throw a tantrum if I don't get it.

Oh my God, we're gonna see that right now.

We're gonna— no,

let's see, let's see Ken.

Yeah, no,

have a tantrum.

I think that God— I picture God sitting back with his arms crossed just going,

knucklehead,

laughing.

Not ready, not ready.

Yeah, you're not like— it's the same thing with One of my favorite quotes is, the predecessor of all wisdom is pain. And so at 35 years old, one year sober, had God said, okay dude, here's your $125 million, you just won the lottery, congratulations, Adam, I would be dead right now because there is absolutely no way I was wise enough, strong enough, or anything else enough to handle That kind of a windfall of cash. There's no way. I would have been like, holy mother of God, I'm David Lee Roth now and it's time to party. And dude, I'd have spent $50 million of it on a jet and I would have just done stupid things and I'd be broke and dead. So God knows what God is doing and I don't need to play God. I just need to listen to God and ask for that guidance. I don't know how we turn this into a whole big spiritual thing, man, but I love it.

Well, I mean, it's listening, and listening is one of those skills that most people, if they're being honest, and I think people actually are honest about this, you say, are you a good listener? I think a lot of people say, no, I'm not. But if you ask them, like, is your boss a good listener? Definitely not. I mean, we've seen statistics that sort of 98% of people that are in a work environment where somebody is, you know, where they have a supervisor of some kind, you ask them, Did that person listen to you? They're like, no. So listening is a tough thing and that's its own sort of separate topic. But I think the metaphor is really important.

Yeah.

And the idea that we're listening. So again, whether you're listening to something you call God or you're listening to something that's outside your door, it's a sense. It's one of our senses. And to be able to actively listen for answers and then to be able to hear those answers. And I think that also has a lot to do with why meditation is important, where the world that it is noisy, crowded, and there's so many things that are vying for our attention all the time. But literally, just pick up your phone and there's, you know, 1,000 things that are vying for your attention right this very second. Is it possible, even if I am listening, even if I am asking questions, is it possible that I won't hear the answer that I'm looking for? I think so.

I mean, if not you, but anyone, me included, if we're constantly running our mouths— I had Dr. Bernie Siegel is now a friend of mine. He's a legend. I mean, the guy is a legend. He's written 19 books and he's an MD. He was a surgeon for— a pediatric surgeon for years. And I interviewed him and he talked about the importance of listening, right? And I think I'm a fairly good interviewer because I do ask questions and then I just let people run, man. They run too. I forget how old he is, 89 maybe, or he's an older dude. And he says, I had this talk with this woman One day, he said, and and I said, so tell me where you're from. That's how the conversation started. Something like this, and he said she goes on for the next thirty minutes. I didn't say another word in the entire conversation, and at the end I said, well, time is up. I have to go. And she said, Dr. Bernie, this has been the most fantastic conversation I have ever had with anyone in my life. I thought I didn't say a goddamn word to her. That's literally what he said. I didn't say it. Blank blank word to her. Not a word. She loved the sound of her own voice. And that's how all of us are. And people are like, oh no, I'm not like that. Yes, you are. And denial's not a river in Egypt. It's okay. We're

all the same.

Right? Like, it's okay.

I just wanna applaud for the way you stuck the landing on that. That's really great.

Stuck the landing. I love your little one-liners. I love that, dude.

Oh man. 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 of Change Proof, 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 increase your mental, emotional, physical, and even spiritual resilience for the long term. Again, go to changeproof.com to get your copy today. I want you to talk about your book a little bit. Tell— give us the title. Let's start there.

Well, actually yesterday I'm co-authored in another book with Dr. Bernie Siegel and James Redfield that wrote The Celestine Prophecy.

Yeah, I love that dude. Oh yeah, what a great book.

So I'm in a book, I'm co-authoring this book with them and it's called Crappy to Happy. The thing hit number 1 on Amazon yesterday and hasn't even been released yet. Man, doesn't release until October 6th. So that— talk about an honor, man. Oh my gosh.

Okay. October 6th is the release date.

Yeah. And it's called Crappy to Happy.

Love it. So go ahead, please.

But my book that I released in 2017 is called Walls of Wisdom: Turning Pain into Profit. And it's just— and honestly, it's a 73-page book. Some people make fun of it and call it a pamphlet, But that's because they haven't written their books yet. When I wrote the book, there was this voice inside of me, and I know that sounds crazy, but there was this voice saying, get your book out now. I was like, okay. I wrote it in 7 days. There's spelling errors in it. I think there's even grammatical errors. My wife was editing and she's a professional editor, but I was like, you've got to get this done today. She's like, It's today. Like, I gotta get it done today. It's gotta go. I gotta get it.

I heard, I heard this voice.

And she was like, oh, she— so, and we had just moved across the country back to Ohio from Las Vegas. So she's trying to unpack the house. I'm trying to work and I'm, you know, and she's like, ah, so a couple of things slipped by, but that's all right. It's a number one bestselling book on Amazon. It's not a number one best spelling book. It's a number one bestselling book. So.

Have you ever said that before where you just

I've— Grant, I got that from Grant Cardone, man.

I love that, dude. I mean, that's— yeah. Well, there's a habit that I think a lot of people have that they just don't do things they want to do or they say they want to do because they think they have to do them perfectly.

Yeah.

I love that you're sharing that because, hey, it'd be great if there weren't spelling mistakes or the thing was somehow perfect. But most of those books don't exist. I find I catch errors in major books all the time, little errors. You go, it's life, man. I mean, it's— isn't there a Japanese term for that? It's— and I wish I was playing off like I don't know, like I really know this but don't know. I can't remember it. It's— gosh, if somebody's listening to this and going, dude, it's that.

I know, I know what you're talking about.

Oh, I got it. Do you have it?

Go ahead.

Isn't that what it is?

I don't know. What is that?

So it's this where you— the imperfections in things are actually what makes them perfect. That's what—

Right.

That's the essence of the whole thing, is that to look to find— like, if you examine a leaf or you examine a rose, you know, it's gorgeous the way it is. When you look at it, there's all these little imperfections or things you could find that would be wrong with it.

General Patton had a saying, and I'm gonna screw it up, I'm sure, but it was, a violently executed plan today is much better than a perfect plan executed next week or something to that. It goes something like that. Like, so many people, including me, we don't take action. And we have these thoughts, we have these ideas. Dude, I talk to people every— I help some people. I've helped people write their books. I've helped people, you know, and they don't do it. Like, they don't take action. I'm a coach. I'm a business coach. I coach people. And the biggest challenge for me as a coach is getting people to take action. I hold them accountable. I say, you know, you've got to do A, B, and C tomorrow, and I want you to take a picture of it. I want you to take a video of it, something, and send it to me so I know that you're actually doing it. Sometimes I'm talking with 50, 60-year-old business people that talking to like I do one of my kids, you know, but that level of accountability for us to take action, it's very, very necessary. For some events in life for people, right? Writing a book is a big deal. And we know some authors, and you're one, I'm one, it is life-changing. If you write your book and you get it out, it will change your life.

And there's so many options to get something that you have on inside that you is seeking an expression. There's so many ways to get it out.

Amen.

And so we won't, we won't digress there. I'd love to know a little bit more about, first of all, in the show notes, everybody that may be new to the show, those of you that already know this, thanks for listening. The show notes have lots of information about Ken, about Ken Walls, about the company that he runs, the work that he does to help people, the books that he's written, links to get it, including Crappy to Happy that's going to be out October 6th. So Ken, there's 2 things I want to track before we conclude today. Yeah. One is I want to talk about resilience. And the other is I want to talk about the show that you had me on as a guest. You have a number of different shows. You're doing some really wonderful work in the world, fun and interesting work in the world. I'd love for people to know a little bit about that. And I don't typically, because in those show notes we have got a lot of information about that, but I think it's really germane to who you are and how you influence people that we just touch on that, on the platform you've created and what you do there. So take a couple of minutes if you could share a bit about that.

Well, let me summarize it by saying I started a show called Breakthrough Walls 2 and a half years ago. And it was literally, I felt like I needed to go out and knock on doors for my business, for my brand, and start spreading the word. You know, hey, hey Adam, I just want to tell you about me and who I am and yada, yada, yada. And that's the old school approach. Or I could have picked up the phone. But what I decided instead is, you know what, I'm just going to start interviewing people on a show and have them come on and tell their life story about who they are, where they came from. And, and I'm going to learn how to do this and do it right and listen. And, and it's So I did that and I have had some— you, I mean, you're a massive, massive player. Mark Victor Hansen and his wife. I mean, I've had massive, massive people. Grant Cardone that I've interviewed and had on my show and that's free to do. I mean, I created a course teaching people how to do it, but it's free to do if you want to just do it and fumble your way through it. It's free to do that and people don't do it.

And you didn't wait till you were a celebrity. You didn't wait to do it perfectly. Right? You just got out and sloppy as it might've been, but you were successful, right? Because you're—

And it's evolved. I now have an intro video I play that's really, really cool. I've met people like Glenn Morshower, the actor from— you know who Glenn is. He's been an actor for 45 years and him and I now have a couple of different shows we do. And—

Was he CSI? Just as an— was that his show? I'm trying to remember. Oh, it was 24.

That's 24 with Kiefer Sutherland.

Forever on there for 7 years, right? He was a general or something like that, right?

He was a general in all the Transformer movies. He was in Black Hawk Down. He was in Air Force One. He's been in 250 movies and TV shows.

Yeah, a true pro. Yep.

Oh, he is. He's amazing. My best friend in the world. In fact, we did a show last night, The Ken and Glenn Show. So, and he'll call me and go, I go, brother, we gotta go live. Okay, okay. Nothing like having to move these movie stars and their wants and needs.

Like, I know, right?

Drop everything and go live with Glenn.

You think you're living in your green room or something?

I know. I love it.

Cut strawberries, please. Do I have to wait forever?

Right. Did somebody not get my rider list? Like, but anyway, so Where's

my rider?

I love Glenn. He's amazing. The guy is probably one of the most infinitely wise people that I know. I mean, he is brilliant. So, all of this has happened. My point of talking about Glenn and Mark, Mark Victor and Grant Cardone and all these people that I'm friends with and I know very, very well now.

Which is actually how you and I got introduced. Just, I wanna put that in. Yeah, through Mark and his beautiful wife. And they're incredibly— they're just lovely, generous, sweet people. Really? And really, like, thoughtful, thoughtful. Like, we, we were each making, you know, some introductions to each other, and it was so personal and was so thoughtful. And, you know, Mark and I've known each other sort of in a— I don't want to say a superficial way, because we had some business stuff that we did, stage work and things, but 10 years ago or whatever. And he's just one of those guys, not everybody who who is sort of a big name or a star, whatever you want to say, is all that in person, right? They're not all that they're cracked up to be when you meet them in person, right? They're just human beings and they're just, some are interesting, some aren't. Some are super generous and fun to be around.

Some are assholes.

And some aren't. I mean, I know that's shocking for everybody to hear. Yeah.

Well, so Mark is like, Mark's one of those people. I mean, the guy holds the world record for the number of books sold, 600 million books, right? And it's like,

yeah,

yeah, him and Jack. And it's like, dude, the only thing that's outsold them is the freaking Bible. That's it. Like nothing else is even close to that.

Right.

And so it's like, and Mark emailed me yesterday and we talk all the time. I have him and Crystal on Amazon Live again at the end of this month. And so anyway, and you think somebody, to your point, somebody on his level, like dude, he hangs out with Richard Branson. Like he's the dude, right? Is emailing me going, hey, I told this guy you'd be on his podcast, email him. I'm like, really? Mark's referring me? Me? Me to be on that? Okay. All right, cool. Let's do it. But like, you know what I mean? This is incredible. He's such a giving dude. And that's what I found about people up here. The old saying, you're the sum of the 5 people you hang out with the most, right?

Yeah.

I never believed that, man. I mean, I kind of like, yeah, that makes sense. I mean, how do I go hang out with Trump or whoever, right? Like, that's on a high level that I want to get to. How do I hang out with a guy like Adam Markel or Mark Victor Hansen? Or— you give to them first. You give them something that they can't get on their own. And that's what I've learned. Like, you give and give and give. And that's what I do. I give and I give and I give. And I try to figure out how can I make Adam's life better? How can I make Adam Markel more successful? How can I get more people to know who Adam is? How can I get more people to buy Mark's book, him and Chrystal's new book? How can I help Grant Cardone get to the levels that he wants to get to? I mean, he's only worth $500 million. How would I help him out? Well, getting more attention. That's what people want, right? So when you learn how to do that, like, you could be the wealthiest man on the planet. You still, if you're alive, there's a reason, and you know there's a reason deep inside. So what can we do, we can help others become more whatever. So—

At the risk of the kumbaya moment, we need each other. I mean, that's sort of in black letters or etched in stone. We need each other. And anybody thinks that they are better off or can be better off on their own, there's work to be done there. And we all have work to do, of course. But that's just— that's not right thinking, to kind of come back to that concept again. I'd love to conclude with a sort of a 2-part question, compound question here. I'd love to get your depth What's your definition of resilience? And then I want to also have you share with folks what it is that you do. I mean, I think you've kind of already answered that when it comes to the meditation piece. So if there's something in addition to meditation that you consciously do as a ritual to create that greater resilience for yourself, share that. But otherwise, let's just go at how do you define it to start with?

Resilience to me, man, I'm going to sound like a big old cliché, man, but it's literally not giving up no matter what. No matter what, giving up and running from my problems or hiding or whatever, that was the old me, man. And the new me is like, no, no matter what. I've been down to negative money in my bank account. Negative. I didn't go to college, man. In fact, in my senior year of high school, they said, hey, you didn't get a biology credit in 10th grade. And I said, yeah, that was a bullshit class. I hated it. They're like, well, you need it to graduate. And I'm like, well, there's some more bullshit for you. Like, that's crazy. Why do I need bio? I'm never dissecting a frog again. What do I need biology for? I hated that class. It's stupid. They're like, but you need that credit to graduate. You're going to have to come back next year. I said, you have a better chance of winning the lottery than me coming back to this school next year. And they said, well, you have to if you want. I'm like, all right, I'm out. And I walked out and this was 3 months before graduation. I walked out and I never looked I made the decision that day that, you know what, thoughts originate somewhere. I knew it. Thoughts are like the dude that wrote that history book in 1952 that I've been learning out of for the last 4 years. Where did he learn that stuff? And who taught that person? And so I'm like, you know, the answers are in books. They're in books. I'm just gonna start reading like a freaking maniac. And I haven't stopped yet. So resilience to me is God dang it, don't give up, man. Do whatever it takes to freaking make it and be ethical about it.

Yeah. Thank you for that. Literally, thank you for that. The way you encapsulated it, how it's just so simple, and I think it's sometimes the simplest things we overlook, like that riddle earlier about where the answers reside. So, I so appreciate the simplicity and the depth of that answer. Kent, what's the one thing that you count If it's meditation, great. If there's something else that you do to build your resilience so that you, even when things are tough, you're that guy who's so tenacious, you're not gonna give up, that's just not gonna happen on your watch, what's that that you do on a ritual basis?

This is gonna sound crazy. I love this though, man. I love this because I love being the freaking crazy one. It's the crazy ones, like Steve Jobs was considered one of the craziest freaking people alive, right? The guy, Ben Franklin, Franklin, nut job, complete nut job. Einstein was insane. I write out I am affirmations almost daily. I am strong. I am capable. I am a genius. I am a multimillionaire. I am changing the world. I am impacting millions of lives in a positive way. I am happy. I am grateful. I am all of these things. I write them out and then I literally, like, sometimes I'll make up a song about I am whatever in the shower. Or when I'm getting ready and I'll look in the mirror and I go and I'll say, I am powerful. I am strong. I am capable. And I do that every single freaking day of my life. And people that don't do it, God, you don't even know what you're missing out on.

So, now I'm gonna do something that I absolutely, I never do. But you've inspired me to do this, brother, is that I gotta, I'm gonna share a screen. And so, obviously, for people that are not watching this on YouTube, this is a drag for you, but I'm gonna explain it as soon as it's done anyway.

So this is a drag. You should have been watching on YouTube.

I apologize. But if you check out the screen, so, so we speak to organizations. I mean, part of what I do for a living is I'm a keynote speaker. We present, and in the middle of a corporate training about resilience, I talk about how important it is as part of resilience, we've got to be able to reframe Whole conversation about that. We've got to be able to reset and we've got to be able to regenerate. That's what resilient people do. So, the 10-second reset, I give them this thing where we can come up with a 10-second reset and my 10-second reset is what you just said, brother. Wow. I have them just sit there and write down their I am statements because in the middle of the shitstorm, the wind is blowing, you just got an email that where clients said they don't want to work with you anymore, they're going to end their engagement. Or God knows so many worse things that can happen in the middle of a day.

Yeah.

What do you do in that moment? What do you say to yourself? What's your go-to? And you just shared your go-to, that ritual. And brother, I couldn't agree with you more. You and I are so freaking simpatico. So now for the people that weren't seeing

it— You're a lot smarter than I am, dude.

Oh, please stop that.

You are.

That's nonsense.

I love the way you think though, man.

We always just have a lot of fun together. And I'm—

We do.

We are new buddies and that everybody gets to hear us say it. So, this is what— I think the word you call this is like a bromance. That's what my wife would say. You got a bromance happening. I'm like, oh, that's so cool. All right.

I love that, man. All

right. So, appreciate your time today. Thanks for giving it up for all of our people.

Thank you, man. I'm honored. Seriously. Thank you.

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, 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 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. Everybody out there, if what was said today is something that might help somebody, please share this episode. Subscribe if you haven't done that. Share with friends. The community has grown so much, and mostly just because— not because we're paying to play or using a whole lot of marketing dollars for it. It's because you guys are spreading the word about it to other people. So, I so appreciate that. And of course, we'd love to get your feedback and your comments. You can go to adammarkel.com/podcast, leave a comment. Which I will personally respond to. And it's always a joy to do that. And lastly, as we always end every one of these shows, my waking ritual is the one go-to I've got for my own personal resilience. Every day that I get to wake up, that is the first step. Wake up, wake up, wake up, right? We all want to wake up again tomorrow. And I haven't met anybody yet that has a guarantee of that. I haven't met anybody that's got it in writing, a contract that says they're going to wake up tomorrow. And I know I don't have it. So So when you wake up, not if, but when you wake up tomorrow, just for a second right there, 10 seconds, we're talking about a 10-second reset a moment ago, 10 seconds to feel what that feels like to be given another day. Doesn't mean you were given another easy day. I know a lot of days today for a lot of people are very tough and I have my tough days and so does Ken. So does everybody, by the way. But you're given a day. What does it feel like? What does that mean to you? How do you want to experience yourself being? today? That's the question. And for me, I start out with my statement out loud, which is not an I am statement, but it's born out of that. The 4 words I say when I wake up, I love my life. I love my life because I want to love my life. I want to be in love with life. I want to love myself. And that's the low-hanging fruit for me when I start the day. I hope you all wake up tomorrow that you will feel gratitude for something and that you will say something out loud or to yourself. that feels true, feels right, and puts you, as my grandmother would say, on the right foot. This is wonderful. And I can't wait to see you all again soon. 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/podcasts. 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.