#204: Giving Your Way To Becoming The Unstoppable Version Of Yourself With Cynthia Kersey – REPLAY

Life happens, and not always the way we expect it to. Every single day we face change, stress, and uncertainty. What if you could learn to thrive no matter what life throws your way? Resilience expert Adam Markel and his inspiring guests explore breakthrough strategies to fully embrace change and build the resilience required to become change-proof.

Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, and Oprah Winfrey Oprah Winfrey all share one common thread as highly successful leaders: commitment. They chose to be committed to their passion and beliefs, and every person who chooses commitment can become part of the unstoppable mission at the Unstoppable Foundation. Its Chief Humanitarian Officer, Cynthia Kersey, inspires entrepreneurs to become more powerful versions of themselves by transforming into people of generosity and gratitude. Join Cynthia and myself as we discuss how we can solve seemingly impossible challenges around the world by using simple individual actions of generosity and gratitude. This replay of my podcast with Cynthia Kersey is truly a gem, and I hope you enjoy it and that you share it with others around you.

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 I am your host, Adam Markel, and I'm so happy in so many ways today, primarily just to be here. I think first and foremost, I cannot remind myself or be reminded enough that it is a blessing just to be alive and breathing. The news is tough to watch. It's tough to see what is going on in some ways, and yet I remain so undeterred in my optimism and My knowing that what is really going on in the world is powerfully beautiful, even the change, even the stuff that feels icky because it's disruptive, that there are amazingly good things that are happening. I also feel so blessed in this moment to take a deep breath and relax because I have this childlike excitement inside of me. I have a dear friend that is joining us on the podcast today who, speaking of powerful beings and forces of nature that are doing— creating amazingly good things in the world. This woman is a force of nature, and by no means does she do it alone. I'm gonna take the words out of her mouth because I know exactly what she's gonna say, but I'll say this: it takes a catalyst often, and we need leaders, powerful leaders, because it helps us all step up and be more powerful ourselves, leaders in our own lives and leaders for good in the world. And this woman is a A very clear example of what that looks like. So I am so profoundly enthusiastic and feel blessed and happy to welcome Cynthia Kersey to the show. I'm going to send— before I have her come on officially and welcome her and all that, I want to read some things about her. I want to really give this— you guys know I don't spend a whole lot of time on bios, but I want to read every word of this. I want you guys to really take all this in. And actually, I want Cynthia to take this in as well because we both get introduced You know, quite often and hear these things and sort of brush them off from time to time. But I really, Cynthia, want you to hear these words. Cynthia Kersey is the founder and CEO of the Unstoppable Foundation, whose focus is to ensure that every child on the planet has access to the lifelong gift of education. She is a respected leader in the transformational industry, a bestselling author of 2 books, Unstoppable and Unstoppable Women. And an international speaker, Cynthia knows firsthand that giving is not only good for business— I love this line— it's good for the soul. How true that is. Cynthia inspires people to give and provides business professionals with a practical action plan on how they can expand their businesses, create customer evangelists, and become completely invigorated about their life and business by integrating generosity as a fundamental part of their business model. Cynthia embodies her message and has integrated giving and contribution into her life and business for well over 2 decades. The The Unstoppable Foundation has provided daily education to over 30,000 children and provides access to life-saving services such as clean water, healthcare, and nutritious food through organic gardens to over 75,000 men, women, and children in Kenya alone. Wow, and I do mean wow. Welcome, Cynthia Kersey. Cynthia, welcome to the show.

Hi, Adam. So good to see you. I feel you. Just in the computer screen, truly.

Yeah, it's a wonderful technology. Now, I hope that you also can feel just how blessed it is to be able to share what I just read, to be able to share that, to share that with you and to share that with all the people that are watching and listening to this right now. And again, I know what a humble person you are, and yet I still want you to receive it and really let it land because what you're doing is making such a big difference in the world. So thank you.

You know, it was interesting when you were reading that because I was just thinking, wow, like, how amazing is it that my life's purpose is to ensure every child gets access to an education? How fabulous. How blessed am I to be able to do that? So that's really what I heard was, wow, that's— I don't know, it's just to hear it from you, it's an honor and it's a blessing.

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. I sometimes, when I hear either I'm reading someone else's bio or I hear my own, I get exhausted. I feel like, holy smokes, that's a lot.

I know

that's a lot. How on earth, right? And we know, and all I got to do is look in the mirror and look at the crow's feet and all the other things, the lines on my face, and I realized, okay, yeah, I get it. I get it. This is a lot. So with that said and read, what's not in that bio that you would love people to know about you?

Wow. I mean, that's such an interesting question. And I think, you know, when people, even with unstoppable people that I've interviewed, You know, people think that unstoppable or successful people are— there's something different about them. You know, they have super qualities. And what I know to be true is that, you know, unstoppable people are just like you and me, right? There's nothing different about us, just like there's really nothing different about Bill Gates or Oprah Winfrey or whomever you want to pick. It really is that commitment. I always say being unstoppable is creating one unstoppable moment after another. And there have been many times when I felt like quitting and it's just like, what's that next step? What's that next unstoppable moment? And you create enough of those, you've then created an unstoppable life. So I think the key thing is anybody can really do what their heartfelt desire calls them to do if they're willing just

Wow. I love the synergies that show up. I mean, so synergistically, so divinely. The part in Pivot that I think we get a lot of feedback on has to do with this idea that the pivot process is really about your willingness to just take that next step. Because if you're willing to take that next step, you will stay in momentum even in the hardest of times when you most need it.

For sure.

Right.

Absolutely. I don't know about you, but even I've experienced challenges with certain things. And what I know to be true is that our external world is a reflection of our internal world. So it's not like, oh gosh, what's happening out there? It's like, what's happening in here? And it's like, how can I shift my energy? And one way of shifting the energy is number one, to get into the spirit Of what we are doing. Blaine and I read that in Entering into the Spirit, which is pretty deep and profound. But getting into the spirit of things instead of feeling like it's a drudgery. You know, like I do a very big event and it's a very heavy lift. You know, we do a gala every year and it's not always fun for me. It wouldn't be something I would just do on my own. I don't know that people would know that about me, but it's like, I mean, I do kicking and screaming. Screaming almost every year. And, you know, so I have to get into the spirit of it, and then look at, okay, how do I shift the energy? And, it's like, you take one step, and then it builds momentum, and then, all of a sudden, you've got energy going. Right? You're shifting your vibration. So, I think getting into action is a really important way of entering into the spirit of something, and shifting your own energy, to be able to attract more of what you want.

That's way cool. I was recently introduced to a series of books by Og Mandino. I'm slow to this industry. I mean, seriously, I'm new to this industry, so that's my excuse, but I'm also slow. So I'm reading The Greatest Salesman in the World, which I absolutely adore this book. I read pieces of it every night. I review things of it every night for well over 3 months at this point. And there's one section in there that talks about being master, becoming master of your emotions. Today I will master my emotions is one of the scrolls. And then this other little piece of it says that it is strong— and I'm gonna change the pronouns just a little bit— but is weak is the person who allows his thoughts to control his actions, and strong is she who allows her actions— or not allows, but strong is she who forces— and I'm not thrilled with the word forces, but that's what he uses— forces her actions to control her thoughts. And not getting too dogmatic I'm not dogmatic about the word, but really the principle being that what you just said, that our actions— often people are trying to cultivate the right thinking because that's pretty much standard, you know, first page in the book of personal development, right? Control your thoughts, which will control your feelings and your actions and your results. I mean, we've all been taught that sort of process, but it's really interesting when you reverse engineer it with your action, which is what you're talking about, right?

That's exactly right. And yeah, to me, a lot of it has to do with action, going and working out. It's like, how can I raise my vibration, right? So what I'm eating, what I'm drinking, things that are healthy, moving my body, getting on the phone, you feel so much better. And then knowing the belief that it's all well. Mary Morrissey is a dear friend, and she always says, this is what it looks like when it's all coming together. And every time somebody would tell me, no, I almost felt like, you know, those things where you knock them down and they come back up, those plastic things. It's like, no, this is what it looks like truly. And I believe it when it's all coming together.

Well, you said it before, and I'm going to— I think I'm going to get your words exactly right. Your external world mirrors your internal world. I just don't remember if you said mirrors, but is that the concept?

It's a reflection, for sure. Absolutely.

It's a reflection.

Yeah. I mean, so, you know, we're, Blaine and I are both very big students of Neville, and I read with my team members The Power of Assumption every single day. And the first paragraph talks about, it is a mistake to think that, you know, our external world is happening anywhere outside of us. I don't know exactly how it says it, but it's like, when you own That what's happening around you is a reflection of inside. You actually have control, right? And if you think you're a victim to what's happening outside, what can you do?

Be a victim.

Be a victim, which is not very inspiring.

No. And what's really interesting too is that when you catch yourself and the things that come out of your mouth, or I catch myself when the things come out of my mouth, like if I look at something as chaotic, if I look at some aspect of the world as being in chaos, which Frankly, I don't, but partly is that it is a mirror or it is a reflection of what's going on on the inside. We, we're like projection machines, right?

So that's all we can do is project, really.

Right. So I mean, why can't we see harmony? There is a lot of, a lot of crap out there for sure. But why is it that we, if we're projecting something on a screen and you have the choice to project it, Why wouldn't you project harmony?

That's right.

Like, I mean, if I'm gonna project harmony in this moment, I would think about the work you're doing in Kenya. I would think about how my wife, Randi, who we both adore, but I think I adore her more. But I'm not so certain because man, oh man, people— oh God, people absolutely love that woman and with good, good reason. Like, seriously, she is a Good human. I'm gonna say I do deserve her because I'm not gonna say that because— No,

you do. You attracted her.

Yeah, I'm a really lucky, lucky man, and I thank my stars every day for that. And she got so caught. Oh my God, and her instincts are impeccable. And the way she— how she fell in love with your foundation, with you and what you're doing. And I really want you to share that. But before we get into that, I'll just say That had such an impact on me to see her so committed to that work. And when I— so if I think in this moment about what I would— how I would project harmony, I project harmony in thinking about the love that she has for what you do, the love that you have and put into what you do, and all these incredible— all these children that are the beneficiary of all that love and all that heavy lifting. It brings harmony inside of me. It feels like peace. It feels like love. Yeah. Yeah. So, and our Peace Feels Like Foundation is committed to that, peace through education. So it's the perfect partner, like it was a perfect alignment for us to be working with you on that. So Cynthia, if you would take us back. Now we can talk about any number of pivots. It could be relationship, it could be personal, outside relationships or health, and it can be business. And at some point, I would love to track back to the seeds, pivot seeds that were planted for Unstoppable, for the foundation. And then Maybe even if you wouldn't mind sharing sort of the darkest moment in that process because you don't get to, you know, it starts and then all of a sudden you show up at wherever it is, the Beverly Wilshire or something, and this gorgeous gala and everybody thinks, holy smokes, wow. You know, it's like that didn't happen overnight. It didn't happen without a lot of pain of giving birth, I suspect, or worse.

I don't know. Right. I've given birth. So yeah, it's worse. Yeah.

Longer pain, more protracted, right?

Okay.

Anyway, I want to turn that over and see where we go.

Thank you. Well, so when I think about the first kind of critical pivot in my life was when I left corporate America to write my first book, Unstoppable. So, I had no experience in the publishing industry, never wrote a book. Literally, the only thing I'd ever written was a college term paper my entire life, but I wasn't inspired by the work I was doing. I was selling telecommunications. I was a national account manager. Strong 6-figure income, but I'm not inspired. So I'd always loved these stories of unstoppable people. So back in 1996, I quit my job, cashed in my entire life savings, downsized our life, and I wrote the first book, right? And so, you know, that— so there's many opportunities to be unstoppable in that. You know, I was rejected by publishers, I'm rejected by agents, I'm rejected by people I'm trying to interview for the book. Right? So it's not easy when you're new at something, when you're an unpublished author, people don't really take you seriously. You have to take yourself seriously enough to keep asking, you know, to have the courage to really persevere. So the book gets written, 18 months after the book comes out. So I'm living my purpose, right? My purpose is to inspire people to believe in themselves more deeply, you know, and to achieve their heart's desire. That was my purpose. And 18 months after my book came out, my 20-year marriage ended, and I was devastated. So I'm thinking, you know, I mean, talk about dark moments. You know, it's like, I remember my husband was a police officer. He's a CHP officer. We had a gun in the house. Obviously, we don't have guns now, but he did, right? And I literally remember laying in bed, you know, I'm separated, my life is over. Like, just the deepest of despair. You know, I couldn't see, oh my gosh, what was possible. Like, look at my life now. But anyway, so just a lot of grief. And so I called my dear mentor, Millard Fuller, who was the founder of Habitat for Humanity. And I told him what had happened. And he said, when you have a great pain in your life, you need a greater purpose.

Will you repeat that one? Say that one again. That's beautiful.

If you have a great pain in your life, you need a greater purpose. So, and I was living my purpose, right? But that purpose was not bigger than my pain. And he said, well, why don't you build a house for a family in need? And he had just gotten back from Nepal. And while it's so beautiful, he told me it's one of the most impoverished nations in the world. And as I thought about it, I thought, how many houses would I need to build that would offset this payment? And understand, I'm a single mom living on a $14.95 book. I don't have a big community. I don't know people who are rich. I'd never raised money to build one house before, right? But as I thought about it, I thought, well, I don't know, 5? You know? And he's like, no. No. 10? No. And it wasn't, Adam, until I got to the number 100 houses. 100 houses, it was $2,000 a house. That inspired me. That was like, that will get me out of bed. Literally, because there were times I didn't feel like getting out of bed. And here I am, and I'm speaking, right? I just wrote a book about being unstoppable, and there were times when my eyes were so swollen from crying, I could barely even open them. And I thought about this, you know, my project, you know, I'm going to do these 100 houses. And so it was kind of a crazy goal. It really was. It's like, I, you know, who do I know? And so I said, I'm going to do it. I called Bob Proctor. He was one of my first mentors. I met him when my book was brand new, came out in 1998. And I told him what has happened. And I said, I need to raise $200,000. He says, oh, that's simple. You find 10 people. To contribute $20,000 and you're done. And I'm thinking, I don't know anybody who's got $20,000, you know. And I thought about it and I looked at him and I'm thinking, hmm, you know. And I said, I literally, it took so much courage. Do you have $20,000?

I love it.

And later he told me he took a big gulp. Because what was he going to say, right? He just told me what to do, and he had never contributed $20,000 to anything at that point. But what was he going to say? So he said, yes, I will be the first one. Wow. And I'm like, awesome! So then when I'm out there speaking, I really just invited people to donate money to this— I called it the Unstoppable Nepal Bid. And I was not attached to people saying yes. It was really an invitation. And that year, I ended up raising $200,000, and I took 18 people to Nepal that following, within 1 year, right? I took them to Nepal. We worked on the first 3 of the 100 homes that were built that next year, and that experience totally changed my life. And the key thing I got from that is, you know, when you're giving, you know, it feels like, oh gosh, you're just doing such— you're just being so great, right? So magnanimous. Just helping other people, you know, kind of feeling all great about that. And what I hadn't anticipated was how my life would change. I thought it was about them, and then I realized it was really more about me. And it just connected me with it at the deepest level. It gave me such purpose and such joy. And what was interesting is that year I made more money. Than I did earning a 6-figure income in Sprint Communications, selling as a brand new author, single mom, selling a $14.95 book. And that wasn't what my focus was.

Right.

And that's when I— the first time I really experienced the law of giving and receiving. I didn't call it that back then, but I know it's a law.

I was on with Ken Honda a couple of days ago and he was sharing I don't know if you know—

I do. I love him.

You know his story. No, I know you know Ken, but his— so he goes, he invested well. He was in the financial space, did well, retired. So he's a young man, late 20s, I think. And he and his wife have a baby, Hannah, right? We both know this gorgeous, gorgeous girl who's like 20 years old now or whatever. And so when she was 2 years old, he was retired. He was retired for 3 or 4 years. And at a certain point, he decides he wants to write a book. He's in the park and he comes up with this. It's actually pretty cool. He sees a woman that's dragging her kid off who's crying, wants to stay in the park, but she keeps telling her, no, I have to go to work. I have to go to work. Like that. And he's free at that point. He's financially free. He has a child. He could stay in the park. He's like, I got to write something about what it would take to be happy with money, to be free. And so he does. He starts to write. He writes like 29 pages or something and gives it out to his friends. People love it. And so he prints more and prints more and prints more. And eventually he goes to a printing place and says, I've got to print 3,000 copies. Or I think he started out with like 500 and the guy was a really good salesman. He said, well, if you print 500, it's almost the same to print 1,000. He says, okay, so go to 1,000. He says, well, 1,000 is very, very close in price to 2,000. But if you're going to be at 2,000, you should go 3,000. So his first print order is like 3,000 and he gives them all away. And then as soon as he gives them all away, more people want them. So he He goes, another 3,000. But ultimately, he gives away 100,000 copies of this book, which cost him, I think he told me in US dollars at a certain point with the postage to send them, it was a few million bucks.

Wow.

He was worried. I mean, this is pretty remarkable. I'm sabotaging the other podcast. You got to listen to that, hear it from Ken himself. But yeah, he thought maybe he'd go bankrupt to fulfill the orders and there was no chance he wasn't going to fulfill on everybody's request to have it. And of course, he didn't. And he was speaking very And it was very much about the same thing you just brought up, which was that this giving, this giving that is very much a receiving at the same time, right? I mean, I know people think, oh, I'm not that giving. I'm not that selfless. I'm actually pretty selfish, blah, blah, blah. Well, and I don't want to speak for you here, but there's definitely a benefit that you're not going in saying, oh, I'm looking to get, but the tangible benefit to your heart, to your soul.

I have a question. Everything.

Even to your finances, right?

Everything. So I'll give you some statistics about this. You know, spiritual teachers have been talking about, you know, give and it shall be given, and really the benefits of giving for what, centuries? Centuries and, you know, millennials. But, you know, Dr. Steven Post wrote a book about why good things happen to good people. And what he did was he studied, he did 50 university studies on giving and generosity. And what he found out was that giving Giving is the most potent force on the planet. On the planet. Like, there's nothing more powerful than giving. It impacts your health. It impacts your friends. It impacts your, you know, your mental state and even your pocketbook. So I've done lots of research around giving, and I continue to expand my own awareness around it as well. But what I've learned is that giving— Giving activates receiving. It's not the other way around. People feel like, you know, many people think I don't have enough, right? And they have this scarcity, illusion of scarcity. And so they don't give and they continue to not have enough. And I'm not just talking money. I could be talking time. I could be talking, you know, listening. I could, you know, there's so many ways. It could be a prayer, but giving, you know, activates the law of receiving. Blaine and I, I don't know if we talked to you about this, we read The Spirit of Opulence every

night. Yes.

And that's the whole thing. It's like, if you think, you know, if you're wanting to, it's like a prescription to create wealth. And it's all about giving, knowing that money's coming in, I'm not holding on to it, and I'm looking for ways to give. Let me give you an example. So we're doing a big remodel on our house. And we now have this thing, we actually got it from Mary. And our question is always, when we're making a decision, what would we love?

Yes.

What would we love? So, we have this home on Whidbey Island. Blaine and I got married. He had the existing home. It was with he and his former wife who had passed. So, you know, it was like, you know, I didn't feel that attached to that property. It's beautiful. But, we're looking at, what do we want to do? And, we're thinking, you know, maybe we'll do a little remodel. And then, we're like, well, what would we love? And, we started getting into the spirit of what we would love, and then, just doing this big room addition, and like this whole thing. So, we go talk to our— and, it's completely out of our paradigm, right? We go talk to our financial planner.

That's the right person to speak to.

She comes over for lunch and we're showing her the plans and we're telling her what the budget is. And she's like, oh, that's nice.

She's white-knuckling the coffee table going, I didn't do that great a job for you last year. Maybe, maybe you should review your statements.

No, are you not? Are you reading your own financial situation? Anyway, so she sends this whole email the next day. Gosh, I love how inspired you guys are about your dream home. Is there any way you might consider backing off and doing something? You know, it's like, I'm a little concerned. And then Blaine and I, we got it. We're like, maybe she's right, right? So it reflected that part of us that we were kind of concerned. So for like a week or two, I'm redoing it in my mind and, oh, maybe we don't need to go up another story. And I'm kind of redoing it. And I'm thinking, I'm not loving this. This is not what I would love. So we decided we are living what we're preaching, or really what we're practicing, right? You know, it's like the spirit of opulence is about distribution. So we're looking for a builder. And in the past, I would have always tried to negotiate the best deal And get the best price. And Bob Proctor told me, he said, I never negotiate. He said, but I don't negotiate on my fees as well. So he's not trying to get people down to the cheapest price. So we ended up finding a contractor that he was one of the more high-priced contractors, but he could get it done in time. And we felt good about it. Like, of course we want him to make money. We want this to be an equal exchange. And it's just been, and literally, you know, out of abundance comes more abundance. I've, you know, we've gotten this money that's come. in and I'm looking at, oh my gosh, how I can give more money away. It's the weirdest thing, Adam. Like, it wouldn't be what a financial planner would say. It's like, I'm making more money. Oh good, I can give this away and that away. And like, we're living exactly what I'm talking about. And I think that's the power of me building my foundation because I'm not just up there asking people to give. I live this.

Yes.

I live it. And, when you live it, I think you're more, you can speak with more authenticity.

For sure! And, your vibration, it's a congruent thing.

It's congruent.

People get that.

Right! And, I love it! And, I love giving. There's nothing that makes me happier, nothing! And, oh my gosh! Like, I mean, to kids, to our, everybody, to, you know, it's just like, you know, it's like our, we live in an apartment in Los Angeles, and, you know, just out of the blue, we have the guy who, the maintenance person, and just giving him $100. Thank you.

Yes,

little things like that mean a lot and they make me feel so good. And we just experience more and more abundance. The most fascinating thing.

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 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 resilience 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. Money's an energy.

That's right.

It is. How cool is it? So what I'm having now is one of these moments where I'm realizing how the dots connect in so many interesting ways. The podcast for a couple of weeks for me were all about relationships. So I had Arielle on and that was obvious because she's a relationship person, right? But then all of them. So then Alan Cohn and I mean, everything was tracking to relationships. Even when your husband, right, when Blaine was on, we got into this whole discussion about relationships. Like, where did that come from, right? Business consulting, but we got into relationships. It's so interesting that for the last week, it's been about the energy of money. And money is something that we can be grateful for, and we can be grateful for it as it comes in and as it leaves.

Right.

Right? It doesn't— we're grateful, everybody. You know, this whole idea of working on your receiving muscle. I forget who had said it to me. They said my receiver was broken, and I had not heard it put that way before. And I thought, well, that's really cool, right? My receiver was broken. So yes, becoming a better receiver of it, welcoming it, being grateful for it, all that kind of thing, celebrating it. But then in this last week, in conversation with Ken, I also realized too that how cool is it to be grateful for it when it leaves, thankful for it when it leaves. Thank you. Because if it's a relationship, so tying these 2 weeks of this work together, if we have a relationship with money, imagine that really that person shows up, you say thank you. Thank you for being here and I'm so happy to see you and I'm grateful you're here. And then when that person leaves, you're also saying the same thing, right? It's thank you and I'm so happy that you were here and I'm grateful for you as that person leaves. So the relationship comes, I'm grateful. The relationship goes, I'm grateful. The money comes, I'm grateful. The money goes. So even to the point where I'm thinking, and I said this to Randy the other day, go, when we pay our bills, we always have this little bit of resentment. So when we bought our house here in San Diego, we didn't, for whatever reason, didn't include the taxes. You know, didn't include the taxes. It's probably— it was probably one of those things where you go, I paid too much, man. I can't even deal with that, right? We'll pay it. We'll pay it, you know, twice a year, we'll pay it. Every time that tax bill comes around, we get like wiggy. It's a big number. I mean, taxes are insane here, right? So, but now I'm thinking more like, I want to be thankful. I want to be thankful for not just all the rationalization of it where I know the money's going into schools and it's going into places it ought to be. So the taxes, well, yeah, they don't manage the money great. A lot of it gets wasted or whatever. It's a good thing it goes to an important place. I want to just be grateful and thankful for the money going out.

Right. Well, it's all distribution. And one thing Bob Proctor says when he gives, he doesn't care if somebody would take it in the backyard and bury it. It doesn't matter. He gives to where he's inspired. So, like, even with our builder, I mean, even with the taxes, we got a big blame, you know, got a big tax bill. It's like, hey, spirit of opulence, the money's coming. It's in distribution. It's in flow, and more is to come. It's in flow. Thank you, God, that we have the opportunity to be able to give, to be able to, whatever, be in the economy. I don't know. But just, it's that energetic, that it's all about distribution. And if you see money as Which the Spirit of Opulence talks about, is it's all about to give 100%. And when you see your money that way, you know, it's like, if I ever moved into scarcity, I just get back out of it. Because, you know, I remember when I— so my mom had a stroke over Christmas. She's fine now. She's better.

Mm-hmm.

But literally, you know, my mom and dad, I was raised in scarcity, which most people are, right? You know, what are you spending that money on? It was just so the opposite. But I wasn't there, you know, 2 days of listening to them talk about, you know, no money, and can't spend it on this, and just that whole consciousness. And I went outside, and I called Mary. I'm like, oh my God, I'm starting to be concerned. Maybe I give away too much money. Like, I was— I'm like, oh my God, maybe there isn't, you know, maybe I'm giving too much of my money away. It was weird. Because, I give to my parents, I give to my brother. I'm so happy to be able to do that. It just makes me happy. Right? And, I'm like, no, no. So, I started reading Spirit of Opulence again. So, the pull of our programming, and the collective consciousness, is around scarcity. If I give to you, there's not enough for me. And, it's the opposite.

Yes! Emmet Fox. Do you dig Emmet Fox, Giver?

I do! Of course!

I'm such a huge, like, mad fan of this dude, and in another life I've either met him or I'll meet him soon. So I'm looking forward to it. He talks about the mental equivalent, and Abraham, who's, you know, I love Abraham as well, she talks about vibrational, vibrational alignment. He talks mental equivalent of what it is that you want. I think, and on some level what you're describing is providing that mental equivalent of what, of abundance. What does abundance look like? When you said, what would we love? Who wouldn't love to be so generous That their heart was overflowing all the time because of their generosity, right? Who wouldn't want to live in that state? Yeah.

It's awesome.

It's an awesome place.

No better way to live. And when people don't know how to give, it's sad. You know, it's sad. It's like, you know, and believe me, I've been there in my life, so I know. But it's like, once you understand, and the people I know, you know, Mary Morrissey, Bob Proctor, You know, Sandy Gallagher, they get that when they're giving, it's not even giving to me, although they're happy to support me, but they're generating more to be able to give. And that's another thing, Adam, that I've learned. When I invite people to give, I understand I'm giving people an opportunity to transform their life. It's not BS. It's not like a sales strategy. It's not a plea to get people to donate more money. It's the truth. When you can ask from that place, it's an invitation. Hey, if you don't want to give to me, give, because you're opening yourself up to more abundance.

Right. Find something, someone, some organization.

That's right. Find something, and do it every day. Make it a way of life. My daughter last night, she wants to get a new Pomeranian. I have a Pomeranian. You saw her. It's like $1,500. I said, I'll contribute $500 to the puppy thing.

Puppy fund, right?

Puppy fund. How fabulous to be able to do that. It's little, but it meant so much to her. I'm always looking for how can I give, always.

All right. So I want to do 2 things and I got to be careful with time. So one of them is I really would love for you to take us into a bit of the part that was icky or dark along the way. And then I really also want to have you share what's happening in these communities. And I know last year we felt so blessed that a school was being built, and I know the ribbon-cutting is coming up this June, in fact, on a school that we were able to support. So I want you to really paint that picture and share with us what that looks like and whose lives are being changed. And of course, in the show notes, we're going to have links where people can Contribute, can donate and give to the Unstoppable Foundation. And so they— I really want it to come from your mouth what it is that happens and where the money goes. But before we do that, so you took us to the beginning. This was a way, as was said to you by Millard Fuller, when you have a great pain in your life, you need an even greater purpose. And so you got purposeful as part of your own healing process. Mm-hmm. And you built those 100 houses. And you are on your way.

That's right. So I'm looking for that next project because I started to implement giving into all of my projects. And I got an invitation out of the blue to attend this conference in rural Kenya. And the only thing I knew about this conference was that women were coming to share their stories. And I felt like I should say yes. So I flew over there and for 5 days I heard Stories I'd never heard before, right? Of people, you know, their children dying of malaria, you know, and for the price of a cup of coffee, they could have been cured. You know, they're spending, you know, hours fetching water on their backs and it's contaminated water. And the number one thing they said is, how do we get our kids an education? Because without it, nothing will change for them. And so, as I said, there was this part of me where, you know, I'm hearing this And this voice says, you should do something about this. Right? And then this immediate, much louder voice said, are you kidding me? This problem's been going on too long. You're not nearly smart enough to deal with this. Come on. This is like millions of dollars, billions of dollars have gone into this and there's still an issue. So I kind of like, yeah, you're right. And so finished the conference, we were getting on the bus, we're saying goodbye to all these women and they started pleading with me. Please don't forget us.

Mm.

And I'm thinking, great. You know, like, what can I do? And they're looking to me. And so I said, okay, I'll do something. And so I got home and I was at Debbie Ford's house. She was a very good friend of mine. And she was talking to me about how Beau, for his birthday, his bar mitzvah, instead of getting gifts, he asked people to donate money to build a school in Uganda. And I literally sat up on the couch and I thought, that's what I want to do for my 50th birthday. This is 10 years ago. I am going to build a school in response to this commitment I made to these women. So I ended up for my 50th birthday, I had a big birthday party. I invited 100 people came and I charged them $100 of a contribution. And then I asked them to give more that night and we raised $80,000. Wow. which helped fund 2 schools. But what was interesting about it is people were coming up to me and thanking me for the opportunity to give. Like, people were like, oh my God, this is so great. We're in Los Angeles and we're all coming together for something really important. And that was another pivoting, you know, kind of a pivotal moment where I thought, wow, if I could do that in one night, what if I really put my heart and soul into it? So I started doing some research to really look at what could we do to move the needle, and what I got is it's not enough in a developing country to build a school. You know, many organizations are doing one thing, and it's not solving the problem. You know, there's schools that are sitting empty 3 to 5 years. Why are they empty? Because if you're not providing access to clean water, children are sick, girls are fetching water. They're not in school if you don't provide access to healthcare. Kids aren't sick. When they're sick, they're not in school. You're not providing nutritious food. They're malnourished. They can't concentrate. And if you're not providing an opportunity for parents to be able to earn an income, it can never be self-sustaining. So I got, okay, you can't just build a school. You gotta do the clean water, healthcare, nutritious food, and training for the parents, right? It's like all 5 of those things. So I started looking for a partner and I found a partner, WeCharity actually, who has been, was actually new to doing this 5 Pillar Model. So we started partnering about 9 years ago, and it's just been growing. So it's been growing. So we're now in 17 communities, and we've now educated, like you said, over 30-some thousand children, and we're impacting 75,000 community members. And we've just helped launch a college now where— So, because it's kind of like in this area of the world, only one half of one 0.5% of students ever get to go to college, which is a travesty, right?

0.5%?

0.5%. So we help fund the high schools, so they're going from nursery school through high school, but then what? So in partnership with our partners on the ground, we launched an Unstoppable Scholar Program where they launched WeCollege. We're funding all of the scholarships within a leadership and empowerment program. Nursing just launched in November. Tourism Management launched in June, Clinical Medicine launches next year, School of Agriculture launches next year, School of Business and the School of Education the year after. So that's kind of it in a nutshell.

Wow! Just a little thing. Simple. You kept it simple.

That isn't even everything.

And that's not even everything.

So that's like, so it started like with this little idea and now look, it's full Full circle, and it's transforming an entire region of the world. But one thing I wanted to say is I remember maybe 4 years into it, you know, when you're starting something new, you're doing almost everything. And there's so many things that I didn't really know. I didn't really know finances. I mean, oh my gosh, there were so many things when you're growing, and I'm running a business. And, you know, I remember I was talking to Lynne Twist and crying and just like feeling like quitting. Like, really, like, I cannot do this. I am not capable. I'm not smart enough. Surely there are people smarter than me that can figure this out.

And at that time, had she gotten started with the Pachamama Alliance? Yes. Okay, good. So she had— Oh

yeah. So she, she's like, you just spent the holidays, you just cry your heart out. Feel what you need to feel, which I did. I think I binge-watched Grey's Anatomy or something, you know, and just literally was totally depressed. And then I thought, okay, I came up with an idea. And I thought, I need to get a good chairman of the board. I need some help, right? And at that point, you know, all of the people on the board were friends. They were just helping me, right? So I thought, I need a real chairman of the board. So I go to TLC and, you know, Ronaldo Brudico?

Yes.

So we have lunch and I'm like, Ronaldo, Wait, you got

to say that again. Reynaldo. Come on.

I don't know how I— it may have been half begging, halfway— I don't know. But I'm like, I need you. And he had so many things on his plate, but he found the place in his heart and his wife, they're looking at me like, we want to help you. And he came in, he got like, you know, hired a CFO, you know, everything was integrous, you know, with the reports, but it wasn't like, you know, the chart of accounts. There's a whole thing in nonprofit where everything has to be a certain way.

Yes.

He came in, he got it all together, you know, I started attracting other board members, and it shifted, it shifted. And it was like, because I was— and this is interesting, because I actually used to feel shame About inviting other people to actually see what I was doing, because I thought they would think, oh, she doesn't know what she's doing. I had this thing, right? Like, that they would judge me, or they would see I don't really know what I'm doing. And what happened was, it was the exact opposite. So, it's just that fear, right? But, like, with Lynne Twist, she's like, oh my gosh, you're doing great! Look, you're doing this, you're doing that! And I'm thinking, really? You know, or Ronaldo's like, oh my gosh, Cynthia, this is awesome! And with that kind of support, I started believing in myself more. I started believing in myself more. And it started shifting. And the other thing that happened, which was another moment, was around, you know, being the CEO. I didn't want to be the CEO. I don't like managing people. You know, the whole thing around that. You know, I'm like, I'm a visionary. I love inspiring. And I remember talking to Mary Morrissey about it. And she's like, one day you'll hire a CEO. But not today. And you need to be that person. And if you don't step up and do it, you will lose everything you've built. And I'm thinking, she's right. And something shifted. And I thought— because at that point, you know, I had friends working for me. Mm-hmm. And when you have friends working for you, you know, there's that— they don't like you telling them what to do. You know what I'm saying? There's not— I just felt like I had to, like, enroll more, and I didn't want to be bossy. And

yeah, things— Yes, I know exactly what you're saying. Yeah, but you have to deal with yourself because just as you said, it's not about them, it's about us. When that's what's showing up externally for you, you said it earlier, it's just a reflection of, of what's going on inside.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think doing anything is a It is a spiritual practice. It is us constantly looking at where we think we fall short, whatever. You know, I mean, it's just constantly looking at where, where is my consciousness around and being willing to let people go that you love.

Mm-hmm.

That was not easy. You know, I mean, there's just been many, many things. So it's been, you know, on one hand, it's been a joy. It's been amazing. It's been painful. It's been frustrating. It's like, but when I think, what I know is that we attract everything, right? I remember when I was getting engaged to Blaine, Bob Proctor was like, Cynthia, don't you forget, you attracted that man. Like, you did that.

Yes.

You know, because somehow we kind of diffuse, or, but what I realize is I have attracted all of these incredible people, all of these amazing people who are supporting this work. I've attracted, you know, the opportunity To live a life of great service. People like to be a part of, like Randy, she loves being a part of what we're doing. Some people don't want to have to go to Kenya and do it, right? You partner. That's the power of a partnership. We attracted people like you. Yeah. So it's a blessing. And I think, I don't honestly, I've never felt special ever, but what I have done is I've been passionate. I've been willing. I've had the courage to say yes. I couldn't not say yes and humble enough and just, you know, continuing to move forward and invite people to be a part of it.

Yeah. So now, at the time that we're recording this podcast, you will have a gala and you have a yearly gala. And I know people will consume this content for years and years ahead. So it's not about the date or the year, but there's a gala that happens Happens typically in March, right? Every March. And we will have information again in the show notes about that gala and about the opportunities for people regardless of the time of year to support, to give, and to contribute in a way that is really meaningful because these schools are being built. I mean, Randi and I got a couple of cards in the mail last year. I know. I remember when we got these cards from the girls at this school with their thank-yous and their photo, you know, the photo of them And it sits upstairs, and we see it every day. And it's freaking amazing. It's so, so beautiful. I can't even put into words.

Exactly.

Oh wow!

Yeah.

So we've got a couple of minutes left. I would love it if you'd share if there's a ritual or a practice that you have that you use daily. I mean, you've already shared that you and and Blaine read the spirit of. And I think he had mentioned to me, you guys read that at night. You read it before you go to bed, right? Yeah. So that's, that's one of your rituals.

So I read The Spirit of Opulence at night with Blaine every night. And then I read The Power of Assumption every morning with a team member. And, you know, I have this— I made it a PowerPoint, right? So I have like my practice. So I have, you know, I'll read something. And actually, it's interesting. I got this from Bob Proctor as well. Like, he and Sandy will read the same thing. They'll read Entering into the Spirit, or they'll read, you know, other things. They've read it every single day for nearly 300 days. Every single day for nearly 300 days. Mm-hmm. Like, and it's kind of the way that you change behavior is through repetition, or the way you change your consciousness or your awareness is through repetition. So every time you read it, it'll land differently for you. So instead of trying to devour books like I used to, I really go back to the same thing and I'm reading it over and over and over again. And then I'll get inspired with something else. But that's really my practice.

Yes, I am. I've— see, I've always said to myself, you know, I don't remember things. I don't remember things well enough. I gotta reread them over and over again so it actually sinks into my thick skull. But I like the way you said that much better. And there's a book that I get an opportunity to say this again and again, but not recently. And that's Bob Burg's book, The Go-Giver.

Oh, right. I know. I love them. I love Bob. I've known Bob.

Lovely book.

I've known him almost 20 years.

Oh my goodness. Lovely

book.

Wow. All right, Cynthia, thank you so much for taking the time and being with our community today.

Thank you. It's a joy. You and Randy are an inspiration. And I so appreciate your heart and your authenticity and the work that you're bringing to the world. So thank you for letting me be a part and share about the Unstoppable Foundation and what we're doing. And if people feel inspired, they can just go to our site and call us and learn more about how they can connect. One thing I want to say is I know people are dying to make a difference and they want to know where their money's going, that it's actually really doing something important in the world. And so I feel honored to be able to be that vehicle for so many amazing people like you and me.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Will you please go ahead? We don't typically do this, but I really want you to say the URL, the website where people can go out loud.

It's unstoppablefoundation.org.

Wonderful.

Unstoppable Foundation, 2 Ps.

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 It'll 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. All right, everybody. I say end the podcast, but it's really never an ending. It's always just a continuous beginning, which is so beautiful. So we started with gratitude, and we will now transition with gratitude yet again. I am so grateful to be here and to be with all of you, to be a part of this community, which is a part of how we give, is that we created this beautiful community. And what shows up in it is remarkable and unpredictable and lovely, and it is such a blessing To be in service to that. And Cynthia Kersey, thank you for being with us. I feel so honored that you were able to share some of the stories you did and for you and I to just have so much fun today discussing really important things. So that was a blessing. And I love that with the microphone, I get the power to wave a magic wand, at least verbally. I'm gonna use my words as a magic wand. Yes. And that is to send out the prayer and the intention that Tomorrow we all get to wake up. Cynthia, you and I and our families and friends and everybody that's watching and listening and well beyond, well beyond that, that we all get to wake up again tomorrow. Because today it was a blessing that we got to wake up. And when we wake ourselves and we are awakened tomorrow in the morning, it's important that we realize that that's not guaranteed. And the opportunity to wake up metaphorically and physically that we get to To wake ourselves up, wake up our consciousness means that our lives are not only better if we're just a little more conscious tomorrow than we were today, our lives are better and everybody we impact is better for it and our world as a consequence is better for that. And in that moment that we take that first conscious breath of the day, no matter what the challenges may be that we face, that any of us and all of us have them, in that moment where we're breathing And we're aware of it. Realize that there are people who are taking their very last breath in that moment, and that makes that moment special. It makes it sacred. There are also babies that will be born, and they'll be taking their very first breath of the day in that moment. Just as we're taking a breath now, that same thing is happening, and it is sacred. So tomorrow, my prayer, my hope, my wish for all of us is that we wake up, that as we take that breath, that we are grateful for it. That we allow ourselves those few seconds laying in bed to be grateful and that thereafter in that moment when we feel that gratitude that we do something, that we get into action as Cynthia said earlier, that we act in that moment. And the action that I take, I'm going to recommend to you, it's just become my ritual and so maybe it'll become yours. It's to state out loud either lying in bed or when your feet hit the floor these words, I love my life. I love my life. I love my life. I love my life. I wish for you all of your heart's desires and that you are in fact a blessing to everyone that you think of tomorrow and everyone that you think of even in this moment and everyone that you see. And I wish again that our community continues to grow and that you're a part of that. So if you're enjoying these podcasts, please feel free to leave a review on iTunes or subscribe. You can do that at adamarkel.com. And the community on Facebook, Is really powerful. We'd love to have you join us if you haven't done that yet. You can get there by going to pivotfb.com. pivotfb.com takes you right to the Start My Pivot page on Facebook, and that's a special place for all of us to be together in community, to be vulnerable, to support each other, and to receive support as well. So Cynthia said, it's such a beautiful blend, giving and receiving, and they, they really are two sides of the same coin. So powerful to realize that that we're not saying that one is, is better than, than the other. In fact, those words, I love my life, are very much a receiving. It's an energy of receiving, because when we can receive love, we're even that much more able to give it. Very difficult to give that which we don't possess. And so let's possess more self-love so we can give more of it in the world. And again, thank you so much for your time today. We'll see you soon. Ciao for now, everyone. Bye-bye.

Thanks for listening. 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. Thanks for listening. We hope you now have even more tools and greater insights to build resilience and become change-proof. Remember to leave a review on Apple Podcasts, and you may be featured in an upcoming episode. For more resilience tips and strategies, including support for building change-proof teams, visit adammarkel.com. To get your own free resilience assessment, go to rankmyresilience.com.