S01:E001 - The Art of Focus: William Whitecloud's Guide to Creating the Life You Want

Welcome to Exit the Matrix Stories of Success with your host Jane Slack-Smith, where we celebrate the incredible journeys of individuals who've transcended their limitations and achieved extraordinary success.

Oh my goodness, today I am so excited. This is the inaugural podcast of Exit the Matrix Stories of Success. And I have to say, I have an incredible, amazing guest that I, I had to chase down to make sure he was my number one person. I'm going to give you a bit of context, uh, first, and then I'm going to introduce you to my amazing guest today. But 2016, so many, many years ago, I created a podcast, and I was a bit of a fangirl of that first person who was on that podcast because I could see the amazing things that she had created in her life within the property investing space. And she was someone I just looked up to and completely admired. And really, reading her books had set me on trajectory of the next 20 years of my life. And this guest today is my very first guest on this podcast, has a very, very similar path for me. In 2020, when I was assisting some of my mentoring clients and they were wavering about, you know, what they were trying to create. And I really didn't feel I had the skills and resources to, uh, bring to the table to assist them. My very dear friend said to me, you should check out this free course, Create Your Destiny. And not being someone that, uh, recommends things I haven't done myself, most of my mentoring clients and myself went on that first course. And I have to say, I saw the changes in their lives. I picked up, uh, the book The Magician's Way and I now just have stacks of them that I give to people because I just, it's just such a fundamental story. So I started with Rich Dad Poor Dad, I've ended with The Magician's Way, and I have the author and I'd like to say my good friend William Whitecloud with me today. Hi William.

Hi Jane Slack-Smith. Thanks for having me here. Very good friend and what a good book to start with. Start with and finish with, uh, Rich Dad Poor Dad. I mean, you know how often I quote that book, right?

It's one of those things that, uh, about you, William, is you, you quote from the Bible, you quote from Hermetic principles, you quote from, you know, the most incredible sources of information, quantum physics, I think we were talking about this morning. So you bring it all together.

Well, it's, uh, you know, you know, I'm, I'm not very well read. I'm, I'm not largely read. But I see deeply into, you know, everything I kind of apprehend, that I take in. And, you know, I really appreciate strongly what I take in, and I can convey that very well. And it helped me explain, you know, what I need to explain. And so, I mean, that's the reason. And also I had a serious learning problem, an intellectual challenge and a learning problem. So I don't easily read things and all that. So something really has to grab me. And I think that's what it is. I have this filter so that when something kind of passes my filter, gets through my filter and allows me to take it in. Um, it's got to be something really impactful. And so while I don't have a very wide resource, you know, to, to, to draw on, so that's me. Absolutely.

Well, I think it's one of those, you know, if I look at the principles that were discussed in that book and then the subsequent learning in, um, the, the next book, Secrets of Natural Success, and then, you know, you're the author also of The Last Shaman, you know, the books that you put together are extraordinary, the courses and the changes you're making in people's lives. And, you know, I guess one of the things that really attracted me to your work was the fact that, you know, people aren't fundamentally broken and need fixing, which is such a relief for us mere mortals, right? But I want to take us back, you know, to a time where, you know, you weren't this person who was absorbing these tiny pieces of information and putting it all together. And Share with me a little bit about your journey before you had this, you know, understanding of how the world is and how it operates.

My sense of myself, and I think my— anyone's sense of me, you know, I was a really broken individual and highly, you know, dysfunctional, and a lot of things wrong with me. Yeah, as I said, I had, uh, learning challenges, learning difficulties, intellectual challenges and learning difficulties. I never finished school. And, you know, my life choices were very bad. Substance abuse, a lot of, a lot of substance abuse. I was a heroin addict for 10 years. Now, I suffered in, in many ways. I struggled to make a living. I struggled to stay alive. And, you know, I had a, I had a, I had a lot of problems. It culminated with me getting really ill. I had a 10-year illness that, um, Let's say I had a 10-year illness that lasted 10 years.

So you can do maths too.

Yeah, I can do— I'm good, eh? So anyway, I had this, which wasn't funny, by the way. It was really alarming, but it wasn't funny. It was tragic. I really suffered from it very badly, and it got progressively worse and worse until I was on my deathbed, you know, and It was undiagnosed. Nobody could diagnose it. I did anything. I traveled the world. I saw every kind of specialist. I did every kind of, you know, regime and diet and, you know, spiritual practice and health practice and, you know, just whatever, right? Nothing could help it. And in fact, that accounted a large degree for my substance abuse because I wasn't really an addict. I was just self-medicating from the psychological, physical pain that I was experiencing. I mean, really, that was what it was. Because once that went away, I just lost all interest in substances. But anyway, long story short, what happened was, at the darkest hour, in fact, honestly, this is honestly true, I just received a deathbed counseling that I'd just been, I'd just had a little old lady telling me to get out of the way, move on to the next world, that, you know, I was just causing suffering for myself and everybody else by hanging on, and it was time for me to go, you know. And she gave it to me straight, you know.

Follow the light, William, follow the light.

Yes, yeah, yeah, you know, really well. And it was just after that that I met a young guy, puzzle stranger in the park, very athletic person. I was feeling terrible. I was really sick. And this person engaged me in a conversation which I didn't want to have. And I really resent, I was really angry with him, but I didn't even have the energy to get rid of him. I just had to suffer him. And anyway, he interrogated me and came to understand what my problem was, or that I had a problem. And he enraged me even further. By saying that he knew my problem, understood my problem, and that he'd had the same problem exactly. And I was just like, no, you don't. I've been to professors and universities. I've been all over. You don't know my problem. But then he told me his story and I knew that he'd had exactly what I had. He described it to me perfectly, how it started, how it continued. How it ended up and he had it. I was just like, I mean, just that was unbelievable because no one had ever understood me at all. That was amazing. But that he had a solution, that he had found a solution, told me he had found a solution and he had cured himself and that he could give me the solution. And of course I was interested. And then I was very confronted by what he said the solution was because he said, you know, what you got to do is you've got to start eating meat, well, animal protein, but particularly red meat. And you know, you've got to have wine when you eat your meals, you should have some white wine with it. And also what's very good is you should have a few coffees in the day and a few cigarettes. So you should have coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, and meat.

Right.

I mean, that was everything. I'd long ago got rid of that. I was living on boiled cabbage and distilled water and vitamin infusions. He said, no, that's what's killing you. Get rid of it. And I was really confronted. That was terrifying, confronting. But I could see, you know, he was a fit, healthy person. I believed him that he had had it. I believed him that he had cured himself. And I just went, you know what? What the hell? What have I got to lose? I'm going to die. I'm just being told to get rid of myself, get out of the way, leave the world. I might as well go, you know, with a cigarette and a glass of wine and a steak and, you know, last meal kind of thing. And I did. And I did what he said. And I got better immediately. Like, I mean, it had taken me 10 years to get to the grave, virtually, you know, one foot in the grave. And it took me days to get better. I mean, it took me months to put the weight back on, sores on my body to heal, that kind of thing. But my mental acuity, my thoughts and memory, just everything came back. My energy. It was just absolutely astounding. It was so astounding that the woman who had supported me for the last 2 years of my condition immediately left me. I was out with her. She actually kicked me out. She was just so freaked out by my sudden recovery. She's like, she felt cheated or something. It was just shocking to me and everyone else. And so here's the thing about that, is that what I took away from that, there's no part of me that ever, for some reason, I just never believed that the substances had any efficacy, that nicotine really is good for you, that the alcohol is, you know, I've never done any personal development. Nothing like that, nothing. I used to drink and do cocaine and whatever, right? And so I was completely unfamiliar.

It's a step too far, personal development. Cocaine, coffee, it's okay.

That was my personal development, you know, that's how I dealt with my problems and feelings and whatever, right? And that was my solution. I had no concept of personal power, creativity, anything like that, right? And but, but it— something in me just dawned on me that this had nothing to do with the substances, that it had something to do with my focus. Because of how I— for 10 years, I'd absolutely been at first focused on not being sick, uh, then focused on not being able to work and wanting you know, not being sick so that I could work. I couldn't not work. And then it's like, well, I'm going to die now and I mustn't die. And just everything, you know, my focus was what I now call a negative vision. It was to avoid what I didn't want, right? And that intensely being my experience. And now I just, I've given up that occupation. I've given up that practice. What the hell? And my realities changed, and completely overnight. And of all people, I was talking to my accountant one day— sorry, accountant— but, you know, the strangest person that would help me with this was my accountant. So talking to my accountant about what had happened and that, and I was trying to explain it to him. I didn't really have the word, but he knew what I was talking about. And he said, so what you're trying to tell me is that you believe that your focus creates your reality. I went, that's it. That's it. That's exactly it. I said, thank you. He said, how did you know? I said, I've done courses on that. And I said, what, there are courses? Yeah. He told me about Robert Fritz and a few other people and introduced me. To the whole scene, which I then, you know, because I was very determined, I knew that there's some way in which your focus creates your reality and that it's seriously profound, right? It has seriously profound implications from my experience. So I was really, you know, I was really determined to understand how it all works. And so when I found out that there was instruction in this very subject, I dived in. Amazing.

Yeah, but interesting though, isn't it, in that, you know, for 10 years that focus, from what I'm understanding you're saying, was get better, don't die. You know, the focus was there. And then when it wasn't the fact that you were taking a couple cigarettes or drinks or red meat or coffee, it was, well, I'm going to live, you know, I'm going to enjoy life. And so the new focus was on enjoying life, and they were just ways to indicate that that's how you can enjoy life. Go and have a steak, you've been on cabbage soup for the last 10 years, and enjoy it. And so that reorientation and that kind of, I guess, observation that there's a bigger picture out there, that turning point for you, what then became of that? Did you go and once again chase the world and find things, or did you find one thing and go, Okay, this is it. I'm going to go deep on this.

It became, it became, listen, you've got to understand what an impactful experience that was to be so sick for that long a time, be suffering so much, and including every kind of emotional, psychological pain going through that on its own would have been just terrible enough, right? But it was accompanied by so many accompanying problems, massive problems. And, you know, the biggest problem of all is that you die, right? And to come through that and then for something to happen which just turned it around instantly, like, I mean, I'm talking about overnight, it's just hard to conceive. And as I said, My girlfriend at the time was so shocked that she just kicked me out. I don't know, she just couldn't, couldn't, couldn't process it. She couldn't handle it, right? And I mean, it was the payoff. She had been, you know, nurturing and helping me, hoping I'd get better and that she'd have a relationship with a whole healed human being. And there I was, that overnight.

She felt hoodwinked.

Hoodwinked, something like that. Yeah, seriously, it was, but it was so impactful. It was so impactful that, that turnaround and, and the realization of the determinant of that turnaround, of, of that transformation, and, and I believe the determinant of generally of human transformation of change and of structural change from our sort of mortal victim, powerless orientation in life to creative, empowered orientation in life is a determinant. And it impacted me so deeply that that became my life study. It was the only thing I was interested in. And most essentially the only thing I've ever been interested in since. I mean, you know me and you know me to be a person of many interests and my love of the wilds and nature. And I am a kind of a diverse person, but I mean, my principal interest became that. And you see, even the people that taught me, and I was lucky to have the best teachers in the world, I believe. But even then, for me, they didn't have the whole picture. They didn't have the whole answer. So, you know, I, I spent, I spent a long time searching and, and perfecting my understanding of, you know, what this is all about. And, and, you know, really essentially, you know, what it's about and, and how it works and, and in, and in its entirety. Um, and, and that's been, you know, that as a result, that's, that's been my life's work really.

Now a quick word from our sponsor, Your Success Club. Your Success Club is a group of vibrant abundance seekers. If you subscribe to exitthematrix.io, we are going to drop you into the club room, which has lots of goodies, resources, and a free gift just for subscribing. Now back to the podcast. And I guess, William, you know, if you can let's say conquer death, you know, you've got the biggest challenge, the biggest fear. I think, uh, what do you say, Robert Kiyosaki says, everyone wants to go to heaven, no one wants to die. Like, you know, there's, there's a threshold there. If you can conquer that, and it's the focus creates the reality, then you're going to say, well, what else do I want to focus on? What else do I want to create? And, you know, having personally worked with you and, you know, done your courses and having the joy of being an accredited coach with Natural Success and now having just gone on a soul safari with you to Eswatini and South Africa and Kruger and your background in growing up there in the wilds and the gifts that that brought on that trip. And just, I guess you can't be in the Rift Valley in the cradle of humanity and not let all of your beliefs and all of the shields that you have about the world and the impressions and the limitations, but go away. And you're there as just another human existing and watching animals. And what I've really loved about that journey with you on that time is that you always bring it back to focus creates reality. And there's a structure that we hold. And, you know, I would love you just to talk to, you know, where you are now in presenting your work with the Natural Success Academy and, and really those, those fundamentals of what you are doing, because I know you're affecting the lives of thousands, you know, every year. And, uh, and what's that look like for you?

And it's, it's something, it's something that I've come to realize, uh, and it's very important that this work has to be carried forward. There's been people every generation for thousands of generations, but in every generation, this knowledge and understanding, they— it's like they call it this philosopher's secret fire. It's the torch that's passed, the golden chain of, you know, of knowledge that's passed on generation to generation by people because it's so important for that to happen. Because we, we're born into our dysfunctional egoic framework and nature and, uh, orientation by, by default. You don't, you don't have to, uh, you, you know, you don't have to study anything to create from your, your, your wounded self, basically, right? Um, and, and your, your, your, your limited separate self. You do, you do that automatically. You, you have to, you have to learn how to paint and, and, and create from your, um, you know, empowered self, really. And, and, and so that, so, so, you know, while I've studied, then I recognized also that responsibility of not just learning it and practicing it, but then also the responsibility of passing it on. And what are we passing it on? You know, I mean, it's, as you well know, it's quite a sophisticated study, really. But it is simple. And, you know, in its essence, it's just this, is that your focus does create your reality. I mean, let me put it this way. Your subconscious creates your reality. There's a subconscious part of you that creates your reality. It actually literally creates perception and makes you see things in a certain way. And it also somehow involves you in circumstances and experiences that fulfill your— you know, that are in line with your focus. Essentially, there's two fundamental focuses that you're going to be involved in in life. You're going to be involved in, in, in, in one, one focus is you're going to be involved in end result, what it, what it is that outcomes that you want. And, and you're going to be focused on, on your outcomes. The other fundamental focus available to you is, is the process. Which is how rather than focusing on what you want and the outcomes you want, you're going to be focused on, on, on, on the process, how you get there. Right. And I mean, you can say what you like, but you're always in one or the other, right? You know, there, there, there people that, there, there will be people that go, oh, you know, I, I just go with the flow. I'm not in end results and whatever. That's just a way of actually thinking that's how you get what you want, right? It's actually a process orientation, see? So you get focused on end results, you focus on the process, the how. And end results engage your creative nature, your natural creative ability. And I would say genius, because there's a real genius to that side of you, which everyone has. In spite of what you think. And I'm actually proof of that because I was really considered an idiot and dumb, and I was really shamed and put down and treated, you know, very badly and treated like an idiot. And it was assumed that I was an idiot, and I assumed I was an idiot, and I had the inexperience of an idiot. However, when I came to this work, and I applied the principles that apply in this work, then I tapped into something. I won't call myself a genius. That's for others to call me a genius. But now, jokes aside, I've written bestsellers and I've created a creative development modality that is being taught in over 60 countries around the world, etc., etc. Right. And, and, and so that is our potential. We, we, how high we can climb from where we are creatively is, is the potential in every, every human being. It's phenomenal.

And, and just, just talking to that, that, um, I guess connection, that end result connection. We're not talking about the secret. If you want it, you're gonna— is this gonna turn up for you somehow? Are we, we're talking, there's a lot deeper understanding and awareness to what you're creating.

Yeah, yeah, that— no, there is, and it's going to involve self-participation. The secret was like, well, there's no self-participation, you just imagine you want something and you're going to get it. It's going to involve nothing from you. But that's not true. Life doesn't work that way. It does involve you. But when you focus in the right way, your self-involvement is functional, it is positive, it is inspired, you know, all of that. On the other hand, when you're in the process and the what, when you're focused on that, you don't even know it. But how you orientate is you refer to your belief systems, you know, your unconscious belief systems, which are all ideas of separation and limitation. And they're very basic. There's not a lot of them. You know, it's just very— there's very few basically fundamental choices like you're not safe, you're not powerful, you don't belong, you're not worthy, you're not perfect, you don't have the capacity, you don't— you don't, uh, not enough, you're not enough, you're not good enough, you don't have the capability. And, and you refer to those, you see, as, as a way of understanding how you're going to get what you want. You don't just look at the relevance of it and go Well, save up some money, put a deposit down, and, you know, the practical ways of, of going about something. It, it starts coming up for you, the barriers and the obstacles and, and, and your limitations and your lack, uh, of, of whatever. And, and, and so, you know, that, that, that orientation creates a perception and a reality of separation, uh, you see, uh, limit— limitation and separation that, that you become involved in and, and preoccupied with, um, and, and, and start struggling with. And, and it's a, it's an illusory, you know, it's an illusory perception.

We call that the Matrix here, those prison limitations.

It is, it is, it— that is the Matrix. You've seen the movie The Matrix. What's the Matrix? Well, It's, you know, it's an algorithm of infinite possibilities of these, you know, realities of separation and limitation. And the more involved you become in it, and the more you try and resolve it, the more— your focus creates reality— the more it intensifies and the more real it becomes. And that's what has happened to me over that 10-year period.

Yeah, but it's familiar, right? So you talk about the separation, you know, we have that, as you explain, you know, in that childhood period, there's, you want belonging, you want love, you want acceptance, you work out a way to get those because you feel separate and you then try to get it. And I think one of the things you'd explained to me that made me feel better as a parent was that there's no perfect parenting. And even if you are a perfect parent and you give your child you know, all the wisdom and, and love in the world and, you know, opportunities, they're gonna turn around and go, you know, I wasn't allowed to be independent.

Or, or if you ever were a powerful, uh, sorry, a perfect parent, if you ever were a perfect parent, your, your child would, would be wounded in relation to that because they go, my, my parent, my parent was so perfect. They didn't, they didn't take into account my own capability and power and, and all of that. On it, you know, that they protected me perfectly, that it's like I didn't need that protection to that degree, or whatever. You can't win as a parent, you just do your best, you know.

Well, and this is the thing, right, is that so we all have beliefs whether we want to see them or not, but they're familiar and they're comfortable and they're addictive, and it's easy to go back into it because if you look back over your life your beliefs can— you can prove your beliefs because you can't— well, there, it happened to me. Someone else took advantage of me. And, you know, it's— you have to be able to see it. There's an awareness where you have to exit that matrix to see it, right?

Well, that's right. Your beliefs create reality because there's an unconscious focus on them. The track you start off in life, the wrong track you start off in life, that, that, you know, is, is such that the meaning of your life is, you know, compensating for what you believe, right? The limitations and separations that you perceive, you're compensating for that. And so the focus is on that, the power in that. So that gets created as the reality. And then because that is consistent with your experience, you like— my original mentor Scott always used to say, anyone can prove their beliefs because that's been the experience. And it's true. Yeah. And that's why you're at a dinner party, you'll— people will be talking, they go, no, no, that's not— no, that's not true. In my experience. And then the other person is, ah, it's rubbish. In my experience. Everyone's proving what they believe because they've had that experience. But what they don't know is their beliefs created that experience. That's why they had that experience. So, so, so, you know, you are in that matrix and it is your reality and it's very real. But you can, you can change it like that. Like, like I did it, it's, it's absolutely, it's absolutely instant. I've got a client, he, he had a few difficulties in a few areas. He was sort of stuck in not just one area, but a few different areas. In, in one instant, he was dealing with somebody else and they kind of determined the kind of wrong focus, the dysfunctional focus he had in that area. The next day, something that he'd been stuck in for a long time was resolved when he was working with me with financial business. And we were looking at the focus and how, you know, it's his wrong focus in that area of his life. And he called me up the next day, said, you're not going to believe it, true, true, true deal. And through, I got two emails today with, with, with two deals, like this is just businesses just opened up. And it, I'm telling you, it, it, it, it turns around instantly. And I know that because, because of that turnaround originally in my life, but I've experienced that so many times.

Absolutely. And you know that that first engagement I had with you in that Create Your Destiny course, and we're going to put the information in the show notes so people can go to that course and find you. But, you know, I was just staggered by the changes in my mentoring clients. I was just like, everything changed. And we weren't just talking about their, you know, relationship to their investing. It was personal life. It was, you know, their travel and, you know, their homes and their careers. I was like, wow, this is really worth learning. And, you know, what, what has kept me back from seeing this in the past? And as you say, you know, there's, um, and you might want to talk to this, the beliefs and the filters that we see it to, what we can actually take in compared to what's actually being bombarded to us is, is filtered by, I guess, our beliefs.

If, if your focus is in, in the process and, and how, how you're going to get things. You're going to dredge up all of your beliefs, all of your unconscious definitions and meanings and all that, and you'll see everything through the filter of that. Because that's how it starts. It starts with how you see things. And when you see things a certain way, you react according to how you see them. You, you are in reaction, you're in response to how you see them. That, that behavior starts confirming what you believe, then your reality actually starts reflecting the belief, right? And turning into the belief, which makes you dig in deeper. And so you entrench yourself. The skill is the ability, is awareness, which is the ability to check yourself, see what's going on, and see where your attention is and see where it's true to have it. And there's never been a truer saying ever. It sounds like a cliché, but it's the truest thing that ever existed. It's the truth shall set you free. It's a skill though. The truth is a skill. Mostly people are not in the truth. They are in defense of their perceptions. And you know, you've got to have a new skill, which is to stop defending yourself and start being honest with yourself and seeing what's going on. Most people don't want to see what's going on because they'll immediately think or believe that it means something negative about them and negative about their potential and all that. But actually it's just information. You just want to see what's going on because it's not personal. It's just, you know, it's just structural. It's not personal. You want to see what's going on so that you can take your attention off where it doesn't serve you to have your attention and put it where it serves you to have your attention. And that ability to focus, or actually rather refocus, is human mastery, is the definition really of human mastery.

Well, truth bomb. I guess we can leave it there. We've gone from the real, gosh, real life example of how your focus of creating reality and now your life focus in helping others see the reality that they can create when they focus on what they truly love. So, William, you know, personally, I know that you've changed my life, and, and, you know, so many of my friends' community have been on this journey and seen the extraordinary changes. So I really appreciate you sharing your story and inspiring others and keeping on doing that.

Thank you, and, and thank you. Um, I don't know if you all know, Jane Slack-Smith is an accredited coach of the Network success work and also does an incredible job. We're talking about that golden chain of people carrying the torch, you know, and you're definitely one of them and doing it in a big way, maybe a bigger way than I do, you know. And so thank you for carrying the torch as well.

I appreciate you sharing the torch with others. And just before we go, something we're going to ask all our guests, something unusual, a bit fun that people don't know about you? You have exposed a lot of details about your personal life, but is there something that people don't know?

Yes, that I'm very vain. That I'm very vain. People don't know that. They think, you know, they think I'm a real ordinary, straight-up guy, and I'm very vain. And wearing these headphones makes— I believe makes me look very silly. And I, you know, I'm sitting here very distracted by how silly I look. But I'll tell you another thing, that, that, that, that, uh, fun fact about me. But one of the, one of the thing that I'm most proud of is I produced and funded a, a really good movie called Together. Um, it's, it's a, it's a really brilliant movie, and, uh, you can stream it and see it. And, um, it's, it's, it's on the subject of the discrimination against old people on on the subject of ageism and just how badly old people are treated in the system. But it's actually a really good, it's a really good drama and an amazing story, brilliant acting, some of the best English actors in our time. So it's an incredible story.

Well, thank you very much, William. I really appreciate you, uh, joining the first episode of Exit the Matrix Stories of Success. It's, uh, it's absolute joy having you here. And for those of you who've enjoyed this episode, please click that 5-star review. We want to tell people about this so that we inspire them to exit the matrix as well. And go to the website exitthematrix.io and subscribe subscribe so you can get more information on all the other amazing people who will share their stories of success. And as always, here's to your success. Bye for now.

Ciao! Thank you for listening to Exit the Matrix Stories of Success. Make sure you subscribe to future episodes at www.exitthematrix.io. Until next time, here's to your success.