Give A Shift with Megan Smith Gill at Joe Polish's Genius Network - Genius Network Episode #102

I started to get really inquisitive about what happiness meant and what abundance really meant. And why did people seem. Some people seem to have it so easy. Why were they connected to something much bigger when I felt so alone and not connected to anything bigger than my flesh and my blood?

Megan's father asked her a question when she was 14 years old that changed her life for forever. Remember to subscribe to Genius Network so you don't miss a Future episode. Visit genusnetwork.com subscribe for more.

Okay. Super happy. This is a great way to I think bring a close to the two day meeting. Have you guys had a good couple days? Okay, awesome. So yesterday in one of our discussions, it came up that Megan Smith Gill had written a book with such a great title which is called Give a shift. Okay. 10 simple steps to an Abundant Life. Now let me say that again. There's an F in that word. Okay. It's shift, not give a sh.

Any.

Megan's book online course and free webinar training are launching as we speak. In fact, it was this interview that we're going to do right now. We're going to do a short interview that gave her team the deadline to be sure that her funnels were live. So there's nothing that'll put something into gear like hey, there's a reason. So. So we also talked at the meeting about the importance of a deadline and this is more proof obviously of that. So the focus of her book, course and webinar is how to create a life bigger and better than you ever dreamed possible. Many of you know Megan is the owner of a marketing agency. However, with Give a shift and Megan's 10 step process, she's been able to transform her reality from sacrifice to affluence, creating a life more abundant than she ever thought possible. So give it up for my dear friend Megan. Absolutely. So grab a seat and I'll ask you a couple questions and then. We'll let the group here.

Yeah, sure.

Yeah.

Thank you.

So how long did it take you to write this book?

The writing of it was probably four months, but it was the post production that took a while. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's been under a year though since all of this has come full circle.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Why'd you write it?

Well, let me. I wanted to ask the group a question.

Yeah, go ahead.

How many of you have written a book? Okay, so roughly half. Let me ask you another question. How many of you have written a book about a traumatic experience? Only one.

A little bit.

One and a Half, yeah.

But not a full book yet. It's not out yet.

So I chose to write this book to reveal a story that was once a source of deep shame for me. And I am choosing to be transparent about something that was once something I hid from, something that I never talked about, and something that I pretended never existed. How many of you have been bullied? About 25%. When I was 14 years old, my father asked me a question that would change my life forever. He after about two years of enduring horrific bullying and feeling a sense of humiliation every single day, I sunk into such a deep depression that I wouldn't get out of bed in the morning. My father was at his wit's end and he put me in his car and he drove me to a lake that my family and I used to frequent in the northwestern hills of Connecticut. And after a beautiful day of fishing and boating, it's the first time I had fun in two years. He turned to me and he said, megan, are you going to let this experience define the rest of your life? It was right then and there that I decided I was going to put a stake in the ground and I was going to reclaim my life. But I did so in such a way that I invented a mirage of myself. I decided that I was going to show the bullies that they were wrong, that I wasn't the loser that they said I was, that I was going to become something of myself. And so for the next two and a half decades, I lived a facade of my true, authentic self. And I chased material success. And every time I succeeded, that happiness that I experienced was somehow fleeting, because we all know that success gained on the competitive plane of existence isn't real. And what I've come to discover is that I lived my life according to five major myths, major belief systems that I call life's five biggest bullshifts.

Which is awesome.

And what I've come to understand is that so many people are living their lives according to these same mirages. First of all, that we believe so many people believe that life is a series of good or bad luck events, right? You believe somebody else got the lucky hand in life and you just got the unlucky hand in life, and there's nothing you can do about it. We believe that to get anything in life, we have to compete for it, and we have to compete fiercely for it. We believe that this world is conspiring against us and not for us. And it's one of sacrifice and not abundance. We believe that our thoughts really don't impact our reality that we can sort of. As long as we act proper on the outside, we have feelings of envy and jealousy and competition poisoning us on the inside. But we are blurred by the fact that those thoughts actually shape our reality. And then this one is my favorite. I created this world, this fictitious world that I like to call the jinx world. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, I didn't feel worthy of achieving happiness or achieving the life I wanted. And so I automatically talked myself out of anything, telling myself why what I wanted wouldn't exist. And you know what? It didn't. And so what I've come to realize, though, is that even if you weren't bullied in the traditional sense, because only about quarter of you raised your hands when I asked that question, the term bullying is so misleading. You talk. I've heard you talk more than once. And you spoke about it yesterday, about your little league coach tormenting you, about the way you held your bat. That's a form of bullying. I see parents bully children. I see employers bully employees, spouses bullying each other. Because what that means is someone trying to cause someone else shame or stripping away their confidence or their self worth and trying to sort of push them to do what they want them to do. And now if I ask that question, how many of you have ever been made to feel that way? A lot more hands go up. Exactly. And so when we look at those painful, traumatic experiences through that lens, you may not believe all five of the myths that I believed, but you may believe one or two or three of them. And it really wasn't until I was able to bust through those bullshifts, as I like to say, that I was able to finally focus on re engineering abundance. And then that's really what the book is about. It sort of helps people break through those barriers and lift the fog. And then takes readers through a 10 step process that I developed. Am I ranting here? You want to jump in?

No, I like this. How many of you enjoy this?

I'll keep going. So I started to get really inquisitive about. About what happiness meant and what abundance really meant. And why did people seem. Some people seem to have it so easy. Why were they connected to something much bigger when I felt so alone and not connected to anything bigger than my flesh and my blood? And so I started reading like a maniac every book. Old, old books as well as contemporary ones. I started studying people I knew in groups like this, asking questions, having conversations about what it really means. To be a human being and to be abundant and to be abundantly blissful and joyful and yes, have an abundance of wealth that comes with it. And so what I did, very privately, my husband didn't even know that I was doing this. I started to take little bits from here and little bits from there and little bits from here. And I tried what worked. And what I realized over time was that I developed a 10 step process that I followed every single day. And then those around me started to notice the change. My family, my friends, my employees, the people I worked with. And they started asking what it was that I was doing. And I thought, my gosh, is it that apparent? And so I started sharing this process with those closest to me and literally watched them transform right before my eyes. And so it was with that in mind that someone said that I owed it to the rest of the world to package it and to share that process. And that's the birth of this book. And even if it helps one person, it'll be worth it. We talked about that yesterday. A story not shared is selfish. Right? And so. And we also talk about what's the biggest regret of those dying, that you didn't take your message to the world. And so Give a Shift is my ten step process. Each letter stands for a step, and that's what the book is about.

Awesome. Love it. That answered my question.

Such a good interview.

Yeah, I know, I know. When you're being asked such powerful, leading questions, how could you not just sound awesome? Right? Does anyone have any questions for Megan?

Oh, awesome. Thank you. So everything is launching today. If you go to giveashift live there, that's where you have access to the book, the webinar, the online course, everything is@giveashift.com Can I. Would it be okay? I'm sorry, yeah. Give a Shift live. Thank you. Can I just say what the 10 steps are?

Yeah. Yes, that would be.

Oh, I'm sorry. No, that's good. Ten steps. Oh. Oh, great. I'm so glad you asked.

Give us eight and then make us go.

Yeah. Oh, that's spoken like a true marketer. I love it. I love it. So G is. And by the way, what I loved about Sean yesterday is he said common sense is only common if you practice it right Regularly. So none of this is rocket science, you guys. You're gonna all go, yeah, of course we should do that. But I want you to really ask yourself how deliberately you do these things every single day. So G stands for Give gratitude. And I like to say that People are conveniently grateful in life when something worthy comes along that deserves their gratitude. During big milestones, during Thanksgiving, when they get a new job, a baby is born. But how many people prime their brains every single morning to be grateful for everything? Like in the shower, the fact that I can turn the handle, and I, number one, have access to clean water, and just by a simple turn, I have warm water coming out. That is something I'm deliberately grateful for. And when you prime your brain in the morning to be deliberately grateful for all of the small miracles around you, every day you walk through life and your lens changes. You look through life through a lens of love and not fear. And you watch gratitude coming around from every corner, and it completely changes your day. So that's G. I is incorporate meditation. Learned a lot about meditation from our dear friend Joe. I was one of those people who pooh poohed meditation. I'm too busy, I'm too important. I'm too sophisticated. I can't quiet my brain down. And it is become my best friend. In fact, I borrowed your room to meditate into.

Yes, I did. Yeah. And I was in there yesterday, meditating. I put that chair in there specifically to meditate.

Beautiful, beautiful chair. Thank you. And what I love about meditation, just for two seconds. So I practice TM Transcendental Meditation. And through this learning process, we are all one collective consciousness. We are not separate. Everything in the universe is made up of energy and information. And meditation is not just good for you, it's good for society. Has anyone ever heard of something called the Maharishi Effect? Couple people, yeah. So Maharishi Mahesh Yogi is the founder of Transcendental Meditation. And there's something called the Maharishi Effect. And essentially what it says is that when enough people in an environment, in a community practice tm, enough positive energy is emitted, that it can actually counteract criminal behavior in that society. So there was a study in Washington, D.C. in the 1990s that quantum physicist John Hallgren.

Haglin.

Haglin, yeah. Tongue twister. He produced this study. And after a period of time when enough people were practicing TM, crime rates reduced in D.C. by an astonishing 23%. Okay, so meditation is not only good for us, it's good for communities. V stands for visualization. I'm sure we all know that as someone who felt so worthless, I never allowed myself to visualize myself as something more. As an author sitting next to Joe Polish. You know, I mean, this is because I allowed myself to be open to the flow of Abundance in my life. E is affirmations. Engage in daily affirmations. And so of course, another thing that I poo pooed, but I also didn't feel worthy of saying. I am an author. Right. A is so that's give. Then A is articulate positive intentions for others. Right. So a lot of these are focused on ourselves. But when you start thinking about how you can articulate intentions for others, for those you love, and get very specific with what those are, no, you can't manifest those, but you can certainly put the put the flows of the universe into play and have those opportunities come around for those people, and they just have to act on it. So that's give a S is stopping the negativity. I mean, the amount of negativity that surrounds us each and every day is astonishing news. Whether it's media negativity or how about take stock in how often you judge someone, you criticize someone, how much you complain. We are so negativity permeates us and it is poison. And when you learn to assess it, you can learn to remove it and replace it. H is help and serve others. In fact, I mentioned Joe volunteer in the book.

Thank you.

So awesome organization, but help and serve. Kevin and I were talking once and he said something that resonated, and that's also in the book. He said, service is like miracle, grow for your life. And it's so true. And so now I look at service in a completely different way. Helping and serving others in a completely different way. I is invest in intentional thought. You know, we have between 50 and 70,000 thoughts in our minds every single day. But thoughts are the one thing humans don't think about, as odd as that is. And so when you can learn to control your thoughts, you can learn to manifest a lot more joy and bliss in your life. And then t is transmit thoughts of love. I used to guard my love. I used to think that I could only share love with those that deserved my love, right? And now I see us all as expressions of love. We all come from love. Therefore, I mean, we were just, you know what Chris just said? How do we help the addicts? We give love at them. We push love to them. And so I literally transmit thoughts and feelings of love to people all day long, every day. And I created those steps and I practice them faithfully every single day. And I will tell you, if you do a few of them, you will watch your level of joy and happiness and bliss increase exponentially. What was that? What was that? Oh, oh, did I skip one oh, foster continuous learning. Sorry, Yeah, I have to give a shit. I did that intentionally so that you would write that. No, I'm kidding. F is foster continuous learning. And so, you know, all day long, if I'm not reading a book, I have a podcast or a book in my ear. And really just listening and learning from people you aspire to be like, both spiritually, intellectually, just brings your level of vibration up to such an incredible level that, you know, the flow of abundance really just starts flowing to you. And yeah, I love it.

So there's people watching that are part of the membership group, if I imagine since right now you have the new book, you want to do podcasts, you want to do that. So if people want to. I mean, how many of you think she would make for like a fantastic interview to your list? Yeah, she's great.

Oh, thank you.

So how do people reach out to you to set that stuff up?

So MeganSmithGill.com is my website and my email and my contact information is there. All of the products are again at giveashift Live. Yeah. And I'd love to talk to as many people as possible and certainly would love to be on any interviews. Yes.

What's the effect of all this been on your marriage?

That's a great question. So one of the byproducts of all of this has been the effect on my personal life, not just my marriage, but I'm a better wife, I'm a better mother, I'm a better sister, I'm a better daughter, I'm a better friend, I'm a better business owner, and I'm a better employer. It is. So Kevin and I were talking last night at dinner. It is so profound when you can walk through life with such a sense of joy that I never knew. And you know, in the step of love, the very first thing you have to do, I say, is you have to love yourself. And I didn't. For so long I lived in this make believe world to prove something to these people. But. But when I understood who we are, where we come from, our connection to the universe, our collective connection to one another, when I was finally forced to open my wounds and look and try to love myself, I was terrified. But I realized it was really easy at that point, which was so amazing. So it's had a profound impact on my relationships. And I want to say that I had a great relationship with my husband and my children, but not abundant bliss.

You think he sees you as an improved version of the person he married or as a new person, an Improved version.

So one of the things I say that these steps do is they help you become the very best version of yourself you can be. It is not to change you. It is to help you become the very best version of yourself you can be who I was meant to be. Exactly. Now, now I know that I'm again meant to serve with this message. And I had no idea that that was my dharma. But the universe obviously had other plans for me. Yes.

How are you? You know, this kind of came out as very personal passion project that you see has value for a lot of the people. How are you? How is this relating with your whole work category? And is it relating at all? How is that kind of integrating?

So it is a brand new business on its own, which is why I created all the other products. So that's why I'm giving away the book for free, because the book is the first step. But then I go deeper into a two hour webinar, a two hour free webinar. And then I do online training. My monthly membership program will be launching as well as live coaching. So all of that will be wrapped up in depending on how deep people want to get with me. But I will be doing two day workshops and things like that. So it is its own business. It is a passion project. It's my dharma. But it's more than just a causal thing that I stand behind. It's also my new business. Yes.

So for you, it seems like, Megan, this was something where you were dealing with some past trauma.

Yeah.

This was a healing mechanism for you. So I'm curious. I'm sure there's some people that are dealing with existing trauma, whether it's a horrible abusive relationship or maybe something lighter like a job that sucks or some trauma in their life. Where is was your intent that this could be a process to get out of an existing trauma that might disrupt your life for a period of time to get to a better place? Or is this really a healing methodology?

No, it's both. It is absolutely to help heal someone going through the existing trauma. Because don't forget, I was still going through the trauma. Even even though the experience happened two and a half decades earlier, the hurt was still there and I was still suffering from all of the effects of that experience. And so people ask me, I've had some women ask me if they should wait to start doing these things until I had one woman who was going through a divorce. Should I wait to go through your process? And I said, no, My gosh, this is when you need to. This is when you need to ground yourself and find out who you are and find some more connection. And these steps, it is impossible for you to follow these steps and have a worse day. It's just impossible. And the other thing is they don't take a lot of time. And so one of the chapters in the book, I outline exactly how I sort of say a day in the life of Megan, which might be a little too much information, but it doesn't take a lot of time. But it does take commitment. I break it down into the first 30 days because that's the time when we're trying to rewire our brain and create new memory structure to get into these new habits. And then I offer sort of a daily maintenance life maintenance plan from days 31 through the rest of your life so that these steps are things that you don't just do once or twice. You learn to do them and make them a part of your day as much as brushing your teeth.

Awesome.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you all.

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