SSP 030: Creating A New Identity & Overcoming Fear With Brian Saund

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Helping you discover your true potential through connecting the mind, body and soul. What's going on, guys? It's Jordan Kanlish. Welcome back to the State Shifters Podcast. And in this episode, I've got some exciting, exciting content for you because I got to sit down with a good friend of mine, Brian Saund, who we connected a few weeks back in a car ride up to an event here in Toronto. And Brian had such an inspiring story that really captivated me as he shared some of the lessons he learned while being incarcerated back in the UK when he was 17 years old, and the lessons and breakthroughs and the transformations he had during this time. He's really taken that with him as he's moved forward in the rest of his life and built a successful career in sales. And now he's uncovering a deeper purpose and a mission. And his story is something where you guys can take a lot out of it around how to deal with fear, how to deal with doubt, how to face some of the challenging times in your life and push through to the next phase of your evolution. So I'm super excited to share this one with you guys, and I know you're going to enjoy the conversation with Brian, and if there's anything in the episode that really jumps out at you and resonates, I'd encourage you to reach out, leave a comment, share the episode with a friend. We can keep this wisdom going around, so enjoy the episode. Okay. I'm here with Brian Saund. State Shifters Podcast. Brian, thank you for joining me, mate. It's an absolute pleasure to have you here. This has been something I've put in the. Put my intentions out to the world that I wanted to create with you. So it's absolutely amazing to be able to have this opportunity to sit down and have a good conversation with you because we connected. A few weeks back, we were attending an event together here in Toronto and we got to share a car ride up together. And I really resonated so much with your story and the way you choose to live your life. And I wanted to bring you onto my podcast to share you with my community, to share you with all the people out into the world, into the stratosphere here, because your story was so empowering, so inspiring. So I'd like to welcome you onto the show and before we get started, maybe you can give a bit of background about yourself.

Thank you. I'm grateful to be here. This is a quite an interesting and new experience for me, not ever having been on a podcast so I'm grateful that you are even interested in my experiences and the stories that I've shared. If it's, if it's going to empower you and empower other people, then, then great, I'm ready to get it out.

I've got no doubt, mate. And I'm all about pulling people out of their comfort zone. So I've pulled you out of your comfort zone here.

You have.

So it's gonna be fun, man. And, you know, really, you know, my intention with the podcast is I just want to share these amazing conversations with the people that I'm connecting with here in Toronto. As I've, you know, had my journey, I've left my corporate job and begun this path of discovering more purpose, passion, fulfillment, and ultimately more meaning in my life. Because I realized at the end, at the end of the day, everyone is searching for that. Everyone is searching for more meaning. Everyone was searching for the answers, really. And when we share empowering conversations and when we share stories, it really gives a space for other people to really step into whatever their story or whatever their gifts are. And when I listen to you and I hear your story and some of the things you've been through that's resulted in you becoming the person you are now, it inspired me. And that's why I really value connecting with you in our conversations. So maybe you can tell people around what you do now and what's coming, kind of what experiences so far have led up to you doing the work that you do now and sort of the perspective you have on the world. I know that's a very broad question, but in a brief synopsis.

Yeah, I guess. Well, it is a very broad question, but I'll start off by saying that as an example, you know, you're inspired by me, and when I look at you like you're a lot younger than me. I'm 39, and I think you said you were 20.

25.

25. Okay. So for me, it's inspiring to see you at this age going through these types of transitions and understanding how power it is to look at self and look at yourself internally and really find what you're passionate about. You know, if. If I could speak to my 25 year old self back then and give him these types of lessons or experiences, I'd be in a completely different space right now. You know, so for me, I mean, the question you asked me, what does life represent? I don't think I can just answer that in one question, but going through this journey of looking at yourself internally, reflecting on yourself and having the types of conversations that everybody has, but with yourself and understanding the power of it. That's really the essence of. Of life. And it's. It's what allows you to really experience moments of being present and growing and finding fulfillment and satisfaction and joy, you know?

Yeah. And the fact that, like, you know, we're different age groups, different generations, essentially like you are, you know, progressed down your career in sales right now, yet when I get in the car with you, we were able to connect on a deeper level because I feel like we're sharing a very similar journey.

Yeah.

Which is what I like about putting this message out to the world where it's on LinkedIn or Instagram or Facebook, whatever. People from all different kinds of angel groups, male, female, they connect at a deeper level because they get the journey, the inward journey that we're on. So you've progressed down a certain path in your career where you're at a point where you're doing very well in sales, but now you're starting to begin a different journey and starting to pull you in a different direction.

Absolutely.

Tell me more about that.

So, you know, I've always been driven by success. And for me, success was mainly based around financial success, you know, making your name self and being able to make really good money. I've always understood the importance of. Well, not always, but for the past, I would say, five to 10 years, I've understood that it's very important to do something that you enjoy doing. And for me, I enjoyed sales. And I've become very, very successful in a sales career, various different companies. It's allowed me to travel all over the world, develop the kind of lifestyle I want. But now, through all the spiritual work and all the personal, professional, personal development work I've been doing, I've realized that my priorities are shifting. You know, it's not always all now about financial success because I'm employed by a company and it represents restrictions. So now my priorities are shifting to having more freedom and quality of life as opposed to working for somebody constantly to earn financial success, you know, so these are the transitions that I'm going through right now. Sales has been a game changer for me for 20 years. And it's through internal reflection that I've realized that the skills I have and the skills that I've developed are actually my tool to now externalize and give back to other people. And that's going to be my. My journey going forward, you know?

Yeah. Was. Tell me about. Was there a specific moment when this Journey shifted in a way, because for a lot of people now I say the word awakening. And to me, awakening means you awaken to the fact that there may be a higher purpose for you on the planet Earth. Although you awaken to the fact that you are the conscious creator of your own reality. You don't have to buy into the programming or the belief system that, you know, you need to go to work, you need to do this. This is how you live your life. It was your awakening, a very sudden thing where all of a sudden you one day you realize, ah, wait, I'm being pulled in another direction. Or has this been a gradual journey that you could pinpoint down to a specific experience or event or moment in your life?

I guess it's been progressive. There's not just one ultimate defining moment that has given me that realization. There's been a few. My most recent one, for example, was going through separation. So I've been in a relationship for 16 years and being separated from my partner and my children has taught me a lesson. And the lesson was, I now need more freedom of time so I can see my kids more. Right. That's a really, really powerful lesson. If I was not very conscious and very reactive, my family would have moved back to the UK and I would have jumped on the bandwagon and moved with them. I wouldn't have learned any lessons. The lesson of being by myself has taught me that my life needs to now shift into this direction, you know, but there's been many, many events throughout my journey that have taught me that you are the creator of your, your reality and, you know, it's what you want and what you, what you desire all starts from within your mind and internally. Many experiences. My spiritual journey started off through conspiracy theories, for example. So that's, that's where I started that path.

But what pulled you into that path?

I used to work as a sales manager in a bank in the UK many years ago, and I had a guy on my team who I managed to and coached and developed from Africa. And he just handed me a set of CDs. I know people don't really use CDs these days, but in fact they were DVDs, a set of seven DVDs. And it was all about symbology and conspiracy theories and freemasonry and, you know, the, the groups of Illuminati, the Brotherhood. And that is what started my journey into spirituality.

Asking questions, looking for answers, digging deeper.

Yeah, absolutely. You know, and, and obviously, and me and you had this conversation in, in the car. That day, the. The system that we're in and. And what it teaches us is so obscured, you know, so the tv, for example, that was one of my major realizations many years ago, is that box that everybody has in the corner of their room is such a powerful conditioning tool. You know, it really restricts us and feeds us information that gets deep into our psyche from when we're kids. We don't even know it's there.

It's programming.

Yeah, that's why they call them programs. The TV program. This is. It is programming. So understanding that at a young age is a really, really powerful thing. It's really powerful to the point where even I realize now when you walk into people's houses, the focal point is a tv. They set up their living space around a tv. You have a couch, it's facing the TV most of the time. And yeah, it's a really. It's a really, really powerful tool.

Yeah, I remember us speaking about this in the car because I grew up with the TV in my house. I grew up with the programming happening without my awareness. Subconsciously, it was. It was happening. And this is where the awakening is happening. I awoken to the fact that I was being programmed. I was. Found myself in a corporate job working as an accountant. Realizing that this was not. This isn't. Doesn't align with what I want to do with my life at all. This isn't actually my life.

Yeah.

This was a program that had been built into me based around the fact that I was told money was the. Was the source of success, money was. Is the source of happiness. And when I got it, I was like, this isn't. Nah, nah, nah, this ain't me.

Absolutely. You know, we. Everything that we're taught from when we're young is all about our external environment. Most of the things, you know, materialistic things, jobs, money, success, you know, physical goods, everything is always outside of ourselves, outside of our awareness. And that's how. That's how we're conditioned. And, you know, you've. You've gone going through this. This type of transitions now. It's powerful. It's really, really powerful because it's only when you start to reflect internally are you able to strip away the identity that has been built and conditioned into us from being brought up in that type of environment that society inflicts on us almost. You can't. You can't even control. It comes from your parents, and it's not even their fault because they've been conditioned in their own lives, you know.

So how about you. Tell people who are listening to this around what type of identity you're now trying to shape for yourself. Because you've built up an identity now where you're very successful, down a certain path in your career, financially, you're comfortable, you have a very comfortable life, yet all of a sudden you're realizing you want to build another identity that's going to now allow you to move into another direction, that's going to allow you to pursue these. This calling that you have. Tell people around what type of identity you're trying to build now.

I don't even. I don't even know if I know what type of identity I'm trying to build. I am just simply going within myself and allowing myself to express what it is that's inside me. The things that I've been hiding for a long time that the universe has been putting signs in front of me to say, you need to get these out. You need to get these things out. So everything that's creating this identity is coming from within. And I don't even think it's fully. It's fully defined yet. What I do understand is that the different identities that I had are starting to dissipate. They're starting to disappear. One, for example, is religion. You know, I was born into a Sikh family, so an Indian family. My dad's from Punjab, my mom's from Kenya, and I don't even identify myself with religion anymore. Whereas for most of my life as a young man, I was brought up saying, oh, you know, what are you? Oh, I'm a Sikh. You know, like, people would say, oh, I'm a Hindu, or I'm a Christian. Well, what the does that even mean? What are you? I am me. I'm a human. So that's one aspect of my identity that I've. I've stripped. I don't identify myself with any religion anymore. I'm just a person. Right. So, yeah, I don't think there's any. I can't even say this is the identity I'm trying to create. I am just stepping into the power of being able to express everything that I've experienced, everything that I know, because I know it's going to add value.

Matt, you know something there, because I feel like for a lot of people who are perhaps tuning into this, listening to this type of content, don't know either what type of identity they're trying to create.

Yeah.

Or perhaps they're in a job that they know is not for them yet. They don't know what it is they don't know what it is they want to create and know there's something within there that needs to be expressed, and yet they don't quite know what it is yet. And I recognize that that's an important part in the journey, the acknowledgement that you don't have to know, just the acknowledgement that you know that there's something that's coming out of you and you just nurturing that.

Absolutely.

I feel like that's what you're doing right now.

Absolutely. You know, I understand the power of being in a flow state of mind, and that plays a big part in this, is just accepting and acknowledging that whatever is to come is to come. You know, whether it's good or whether it's bad is irrelevant. You choose which side you decide to step out onto. But it is very much being in that flow state of mind and allowing your natural creation that comes from source to just come out and. And accept it and express it.

So, yeah, and one of the things that we connected on when we met in. In the car ride up to this event that we're going to here in Toronto was I was. It was leading up to my first speaking event here in Toronto, and that was one of the new identities that I was trying to create for myself, which was I wanted to do more speaking. I wanted to share my message in front of crowds so I could really capture that story and that emotion that I wanted to share with people. Yet it was very scary for me to step onto a stage and want to speak and share. And we connected with that as well, because we were actually both going through a very similar journey where you were moving more into the speaking as well. And. And now I've since done my speech and shared my story. And I would say it's like a level up in my life right. Where I face that fear. And I've now moved on to creating a life that's based around that vision that I'm trying to create, being a speaker, and so are you. And the power of storytelling, like I mentioned at the start of this podcast, was something that I wanted to develop more of. The ability to tell a powerful story and capture the emotion and the transformation that we all go through, because we all have a story. We all have gone through dark times. We've all gone through challenging times. And we come out the other end of those times with a new lesson, a new perspective, a new insight on life that serves us in a very powerful way. And when you told me your story, for one, it was a story that I never heard before.

Mm.

And it was a perspective that I'd never been able to absorb. I'm someone who, like, I. I'm very fascinated by people, and I, like, I absorb less because everyone has a lesson.

Everybody has a lesson.

Yeah. And your. And your lesson, man. Yeah. I was really impacted by it. And I know why you're moving into the direction of being a speaker, and I'm excited to see this. This flourish for you. But I would love if you could share the story you shared with me and how you've developed this perspective, this mindset that you now have in your life through some of your upbringing.

Yeah. And, you know, we can start off with the fear, you know, and it's very, very easy to. To allow fear to control you. You know, I guess in some aspects, it acts as a security blanket. It protects us from danger. Right. But the thing is, the way we're conditioned and the way we brought up that fear represents itself in so many different ways and so many aspects and little things that shouldn't really affect us. You know, if we're being chased by a lion, then it's good for us to be scared because it induces the right chemicals for us to be able to escape. Right. But unfortunately, with our lives and our conditioning, we release the same chemicals that fear represents through silly things. You know, we get angry very easily. We're very reactive. You know, emails, cell phones, life experiences, etc. So what you said about fear and really stepping into it and facing it, more. More people need to do that. We need to understand that fear is a lot of the time just fake. You know, it is just an emotion that you're experiencing that you can just get rid of. And I now understand that fear, for me, is an emotion that I want to be more attracted to as such, when it represents itself. I know, oh, I need to go down that road because that's where I'm going to grow. You know, that's the place of the unknown that I need to step into because I've never experienced it before. Right. Our fear comes from not knowing what's going to happen or the unknown. The unknown is a scary place, but for me, that is a place of creation. You know, we spoke about some of my life experiences, and one of them were was when I was very young, I was incarcerated into a young offenders institution because I thought I wanted to be a gangster, you know, and unfortunately, having being in that type of environment, being around the wrong people, led me to end up in incarceration for a year. And now when I look back at my life at my 17 year old self, it was the first time that I was able to reflect internally within myself because I was in an environment on my own for an entire year. Yeah, there were people, but when you're in a cell for 22 hours a day, it puts you in a really, really powerful space.

I just want to backtrack a sec. This was in the UK.

This is in the UK when I.

Was 17 years old and you just got surrounded, you surrounded with the wrong crowd.

Wrong crowd, you know, became. I was very angry. I was a young, young male looking for acceptance, looking for love, looking for respect. And I thought I'd find that externally by trying to prove myself to be somebody that I wasn't, you know. So, yeah, hanging around with the wrong crowd, doing things that you're not supposed to do. Just became a violent teenager. Used to fight a lot in the streets and it resulted in me ending up in, in a young offender's institution, so jail for youngsters basically.

And do you remember what it felt like the day that you found out that you were going to be incarce dragon for a year?

Yeah, that's when my, my real self actually showed up, you know, because it was pure source, it was love, it was emotional, I was upset, I was scared, I was crying. Whereas if you look at the demeanor and the character that I used to put out, I was very, oh, I'm macho, you know, I'm hard, I'm tough, you can't break me. I don't cry. So that's, that's how I felt when I found out this is going to happen. And I looked across at my parents in the courtroom and just saw the devastation like it was, it was deep, it was real deep, you know.

And then was there a. What was that period like? I'm assuming there would have been just a roller coaster of emotions that you went through when you first being pulled from living a life of freedom to being confined to, you know, a certain set of this is how what I can, this is the only thing I can do during my day. A lot of time spent thinking with yourself, with your thoughts, with your emotions. And you said that's where you got to spend a lot of time in solitude to. Yeah, reflect.

It shaped me, you know, I've hided, I've hidden for a long time that experience based on again, fear of what other people might say or how they might perceive you as an individual. But I've been able to still create a life of success both Professionally, personally, even from having that experience. Right. So it really shaped me, it shaped me as an individual. Being able to reflect internally at such a deep level from such a young age taught me the power of accepting change. For example, you have to just adapt to your environment and make the best of it because if you don't, you'll get swallowed up. And it's in that stage where you're getting swallowed up is when all the negative things and experiences just keep on appearing in your life, whether it be health, you know, your, your environment, circumstances, people, they'll keep showing up. So that's one tool that it allowed me to really understand is the power of change and accepting what is, but always being positive about it. That makes sense.

Yeah, 100%. And again, I'm really curious to know, throughout that one year period that you were there, was there any specific experiences or moments that really stuck with you that resulted in really something impactful or really challenging time or something that really left you. You're really facing your fear face on?

Yeah, that was. So there was one incident actually when I normally when you, when you get incarcerated, you don't always go to your final destination, depending on where you are in the country. And this is based on UK rules. So you're sent first of all to what's called a dispersal jail. So I was in a dispersal jail for a few weeks and then I got shipped out to the destination where I'm really spending the whole year at. And it was a place called only in Rugby in England, young offense institution. And I was the only brown skinned person on my wing. And there was probably about 15 wings and my wing had about 60 inmates on it. And I was, there was a few African American descent guys, but I was the only brown person. And it was experience. It was interesting because at that time I was experiencing a lot of racism even outside of jail. But then to experience it in jail, it was really intimidating. And I remember walking into my cell on the first day that I was moved there, people used to communicate from the windows, they'd be shouting out into the open space and a lot of racist abuse. Because once somebody saw me through the, through the landing, walking into my cell, the word just spread. There's a brown guy on a wing. And I was put in my cell and they gave me, I had the clothes that I was wearing, which were prison clothes. A plastic bowl, a plastic cup and a plastic knife, fork and spoon. That's it. There was a bed, the table and the chair. So it was a really profound moment of Realization where, like, right now in my life, this is all I have. You know, these utensils, this. All these people outside that want to possibly cause harm to me and these four walls. And, you know, I broke down. I broke down. That was a really, really powerful moment.

And like, for a lot of people, right, the. The jail cell that you're in. Yeah, for a lot of people that could appear in their lives in a different way, the jail cell could be their work, could be a relationship, it could be a certain living environment where they just feel like, this is prison for me. Yeah, I'm stuck here. This is it. And you mentioned something around acceptance, which is, to me, it's the first step to liberation. You have to accept that this is how it is. And like, Eckhart Tolle was one of my greatest spiritual teachers when I first read his book. It's like, until you can accept the circumstances of your life, you can't. You're cutting yourself off from new ways of perceiving, from new ways of getting insights, because you're resisting the present moment.

Absolutely.

And tell, like, how long does it take to accept that, man?

Because I. It's. We live in a difficult world. You know, we have this conversation before where we're. We're just so conditioned and driven to look externally. You know, everything that we want of acceptance is all taught to us to be outside of our bodies, outside of our own awareness. And you've got to seek all these external experiences, whether that be, you know, finances or your job or your career or relationships, you know, or finding a lover or a mate. And those. Some of those things are great. But until you can accept everything internally, you just can't progress. You can't move forward. You become stagnant. You become the victim of. Of fear.

How would you. What advice would you give to someone who wants to break free from the. From the victimhood of fear? Like, you've. You've faced fear in a way that other people will probably never face in their entire life. And at least we hope so. We hope people don't end up in prison.

It's very simple. You just can't sweat the little things. You know, you need to be able to. Aware. You need to be. Be able to step out of your own mind and observe the experience and the feelings you're having. So most people have this internal chatter and they'll think that's a representation of themselves. But what you need to do is you need to almost jump out of your own body and your mind and look down at the Thoughts that you're having. So when fear shows up, you need to be able to analyze it. What is it that I'm scared of really? You know, how, how significant is it, how important is it? And most of the time, people, you'll realize that it's just, you're just making up stories in your head. You know, it's a. Fear is very, very interesting. If you're walking along the side of the mountain, you're scared of falling off. Fair enough. That's, that's understandable.

Yeah. But when we need that fear, yeah.

Absolutely, that's there to protect you. But when it's just little things, day to day things, making connections, speaking to people, trying something new, doing something different, you can't let that control you. You've got to use that to push you because otherwise you become stagnant. You become the victim of habit. You keep doing the same things over and over again because fear just controls you.

Keeps you trapped in that comfort zone.

Keeps you trapped in a comfort zone. There's no progression there. You don't, you don't learn anything new. Dr. Joe Dispenza says that by the time we're age of 35, we're just a walking bag of habits because we're just basing our lives and our experiences on all the experiences we've had historically or previously or that behind us there. How can you ascend?

Your future then becomes predictable.

It does. You're living, you're living from the past. And that is because you're scared of stepping into the unknown. And that's what fear does to everybody, just cripples people, right? You can. One question I asked somebody the other day, which is really interesting was, you know, tell me one of your dreams, right? And they told me their dream. And I said to them, are you, are you, are you experiencing any of that now? And they were like, no. And I'm like, why? And they said, because this is my real reality now. This is, this is what I'm doing. You, you can't get to where you want to be without going to a place that you've never been, right? These people are stuck in places that they're in now and where they've come from. And what you need to understand is that you need to go to places that you've never been to get to where you want. Because, because you're not there now. It doesn't exist. For it to exist, you have to go into the unknown.

Which is scary.

Yeah, it is.

It's like a, it's a Fact of life. Yeah. Like if you want to evolve into another person, if you want to develop that new identity that's going to allow you to create the life that you want. The fact is, you're going to have to get out of your comfort zone, which is going to be scary. You may have to leave a job, you may have to relieve a relationship. I mean, I have to speak on stage in front of people. Like, these are all the things that people neglect to acknowledge in the, in the, in the part where you're trying to create a life that resonates with your soul, that it's going to be freaking scary.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

I did a workshop recently with a guy called Peter Oppelman, who's a German engineer turned meditation coach. And it's called the Future Self Method. And it was just aligned. You know, I'd read Dr. Joe Dispenza's book called Becoming Supernatural, which is extremely powerful. And the next stage for me was to maybe practice some of the work that he teaches. And along came. Peter Opponent is just another example of the universe putting people and experiences into your space that allow you to evolve and grow and recognizing them. So he came and I've done this workshop, and he very much teaches you in, through the workshop as well, about identifying what you. You think is your personality and stripping yourself of it. You know, because your personality is not you. It's, it's, it's. It's a set of rules and a version of yourself that has been conditioned to become an a personality. And, and stripping away, stripping that away is really, really powerful. Yeah, really powerful.

It's powerful because it gives you all the power back to create whatever personality.

Exactly. Exactly.

When you recognize, like, you just have to look back at how much you've changed. Right. You look in the mirror when you're 18, you're not going to be the same person as when you're 21 or when you're 25, when you're 30. So our personality, we're changing every single day.

Yeah.

So acknowledgment of that is it basically gives you the power that you can either decide who you want to change into or let the programming let society.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

It's definitely taught me one really big word that. And I don't mean big as in it's a long word, but it's big in. In respect to. It's a very powerful word that I. I can constantly practice now, which is compassion. You know, when you understand this, you. You have to practice compassion towards not just Yourself, but to everybody else. Because a lot of people are not aware of how conditioning works or what level of conditioning they are. So they will be reactive to this type of transformation and people will think, oh, you're being a bit. What's the word? Like, you know, woo, we or spiritual, etc. So you have to be able to practice compassion because if you, if you don't, you can very easily become trapped into that same type of egotistical personality of judgment. And, you know, it's interesting, compassion is a big thing because I found that more. The more you do this type of work, the more you change, the more you strip yourself of your ego. It affects your environment and it affects people that are in your life, that are being in your life for a long time. Because if they're stagnant, they're not changing, evolving, or growing, then they can become very judgmental and resistant towards you as a person because they don't understand the journey. So compassion, compassion towards them.

Yeah. And it's the term spiritual ego, you've heard of that. And it's. It's sort of like where, you know, you're on this. You begin this journey and the people around you perhaps are not quite out of. At a stage in their journey where they're ready to adopt some of the new principles or practices or perspectives. And what can often happen is I noticed it. What started happening in me when I was at my corporate job was I would start judging other people. I would come to work, be like, look what you're eating. Like, yeah, look at the habits you have. I don't want to be around that. And that judgment, actually, it does the exact same thing as someone who isn't on a spiritual path, who has an ego. The exact same thing. Yeah. Other way around.

Yeah.

And that was a very big lesson for me in my journey around my parents. Being around my parents, I would. I've developed a lot of resentment around them because I saw that all the programming in them, I started seeing it because it was. It was the stuff that I was waking, awakening to in myself, and I started to see it in other people. And I became very resistant to that. And it's like what you're saying now with compassion. So when we have compassion for other people, no matter where they're at on their journey, you can see them beneath the surface of what they are.

Yeah.

And you can connect with that place, even though they may just be. Have the. What, like, just annoy the shit out of you. They're at work and they just, you can't stand being around them. Compassion for me, it means seeing someone beneath the surface and connecting with a deeper place.

Yeah, absolutely. Somebody taught me a very powerful rule, rule a long time ago and he called it the 8020 rule. And there's different versions of 8020 rules that you can read about in books and, you know, various different courses, etc. Everybody has their own perspective. But what he taught me was that you've got people in your life and there's people in your life that are always going to be in your life. But what you should try and do is spend 80 of your time with people that lift you and help you to grow and make you feel good. And the people that, that don't have that type of effect on you, only limit your time to 20 with them. And that could even be your parents. You know, people can be very critical and judgmental about that. Like I love my mom and dad, but I know for me I can't spend too much time with my mum because of her psyche, her conditioning, her mindset, which would have maybe a negative impact on me. So I've got to limit that time with them.

Yes. The power of relationships, man. And that's what it comes down to. When you begin this path, do you recognize exactly that the relationships, the people you surround yourself with elevate you or bring you down. The power of proximity, the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And it brings me back to the idea that I'm curious to explore with you is for a lot of people, their prison may be work and we don't get to choose. If you're stuck in a job you don't want to be at, you don't get to choose who you hang out with. When you're in prison, you don't get to choose who you hang out with, that's for sure. Yeah, no, you don't, because you're actually forced to live in an environment, in an environment where you're fucking face to face with someone who may not. You don't even know who they are. To starters, tell me about. I know you went through an experience where you had to come face to face with someone.

Yeah. And this really showed me the power of human connection. You know, I was, I was in a space where I was in a. A man's jail and I was in a cell, very small cell, six foot by eight foot, Victorian building. Like it was built in 1825, early 19th century, and it was designed to have one person per cell. But unfortunately, because of the system, it Was overcrowded. So in my cell there was two beds. There's only a foot, foot space between them. And the cell was about 6 foot by 8 foot. Toilet and a sink and two beds. And one day I heard someone approaching and I looked through the viewing glass on the door and all I could see was somebody's chest. Like this guy was huge, like he stepped back. He was 6 foot 7, probably about 300 pounds, dreadlocks, carrying two big bags, prison bags. And I know when you, when you see somebody who has that many personal belongings, they've done some serious time, like they've been around. And I didn't want him to share my space. You know, I was scared. I retreated into fear. I was like, what, what's going to happen?

So he comes into your.

Yeah, so he, he came there because he was going to be using the other bed and sharing that space. And I was, I was scared. I didn't know how to be around this person. I didn't sleep for days.

Yeah, because you don't know, man, this could be a. Well, he probably was a murderer to be.

I mean he, he, he was in, he was in prison, I eventually learned, for a robbery. He committed. An armed robbery.

Yeah.

He was just through his own journey, going through his own life journey. He was sucked into his environment of poverty, crime, hanging around the wrong people. And he committed a crime. Okay. And he got caught for it and he was serving time.

The story's going around in your head though.

Yeah. When he first comes, I remember one morning waking up and the, the sink on the, the taps on the sink were the ones where you, you press the button and the water comes out. Right. So I've got up one morning to brush my teeth. I hadn't spoken to this guy for two, three days. So this is day three. I've got up, I brushed my. I press the tap, water starts coming out. And he was asleep at this point and he woke up and he looked at me and he said, don't ever brush your teeth before I've woken up. And I just myself, you know, I just looked at him and nodded and agreed. Yeah, you know, I retreated. Right. One morning I wake up and I was still coming out of my sleep and I looked up at the small window that was covered with bars and there was a book there and it was like a big, thick, wide book, had a black leather cover I could make up. There were some words on it called make them out. But I was coming out of my sleep, so I was pure. I wasn't Being controlled by any thoughts or emotions. And straight from my heart, I just asked the guy, what's that book? And that one simple question opened us up to an incredible conversation. Wow. We connected, like, on a soul level, you know, as brothers. We shared stories, life experiences, we shared food, you know, by the end of it all, he didn't want me to leave. I was being shipped out in the jail and he then told me to. He was scared and he was fearful about who's going to be stepping into this space, you know, and. And it just goes to show that we, We're. We're very easily scared by what we see. And we make up this perception and this judgment and it's where that phrase comes from. Don't book a judge by its cover. Don't judge a book by its cover. That's what I was doing with this individual. But at the core essence of what we were or what we are, it was just pure love and source. And it came out of me naturally and he felt it and we just connected. And we were just two guys on our life journey connecting in that space and we just resonated with each other, you know?

That's powerful. Yeah, that's powerful. And if people listening to this can take something away from that, like if you. If you can connect someone on a soul level, in prison, in a. In a cell, you can connect someone at work.

Yeah.

By the drip, by the drink cooler in the kitchen, just fucking say hello to someone. Because people are going through the same. Like. Like you said, even on the surface, if someone looks like there doesn't look like a friendly person beneath the surface, they're going through the same journey as you. They're going through the same fears, the same anxieties, the same worries, the same unworthiness. And when you ask a simple. I. I love questions, man. Questions are up to me. It breaks down all the barriers. Like that one question you asked to him. Like, you know, what. What are you reading? Or like, how's your day going?

Yeah. And the book. The book was actually a bible that his mum gave him. Wow. She died while he was in jail, so he inherited it from her. So it represented something that was very close to him. Right. So the fact that I woke up and I was in this just open state of mind and I asked him about the book, I can only imagine what that meant to him when he thinks about that book, you know, so it opened him up at the same time. And that's why we connected at the end of the day, you know, we're born as pure source. We're born as pure love. And it's only through conditioning that we develop these barriers and, you know, these restrictions that we put on us, put on ourselves. And unfortunately, the system doesn't help. Technology is great. You know, we've got this wonderful technology right now allowing us to communicate with people. But at the same time, I'm very aware when I'm, for example, on public transport or in a public environment, and you just have to sit there and look at everybody. Nobody's connecting. Everybody's just connecting to a device, trying to connect with the rest of the world, but we're not connecting to each other.

Connected, but disconnected at the same time. And coming out of that experience in the prison and now, obviously, as you've developed as a person and built a really successful career, like, what were the lessons that you took away from your time in prison and then now you've taken with you throughout your. The rest of your life that you continue to. You continue to share with other people.

You've got to do things to make yourself feel good. It's as simple as that. You know, you. You cannot create and you cannot manifest or bring forth what it is that you desire in your life if you're not feeling good. And being present is an example of that. Being present is being happy in your space as it is right now. So whatever it takes, whatever you do, you've just got to continue to do things that make you feel good. You know, lots of things are going to show up in our lives which will keep us trapped on the side of negativity or feeling sorry for yourself or being scared or being fearful. But I have a simple rule that I follow now, and it's. It's almost like I call it the operating line. There's a positive side and there's a negative side. Things will show up in your life that will make you experience both sides, both the positive and the negative. But ultimately, you choose where you spend where you spend most of your life. And for me, life is short. You know, I want to spend most of, if not all of my life on the positive side. That doesn't mean negative things are not going to happen. You've got to acknowledge them, you're going to experience them, but it's acknowledgement. You have to just acknowledge them and say, okay, I'm experiencing this now. Deal with it and move on. And then decide where do you want to stay? Do you want to feel good or you want to feel bad? And what's life if you're not feeling good.

That's it, right? Where do you want to stay? I like that.

Yeah. Which side you choose? You wake up every single morning and you can choose to be affected by what happened yesterday, you can choose to be affected by what you think is going to happen today, or you can just be present and accept what's happening now. And that's where you feel good. You know, that's where you learn to. I want to be on the good side. I want to make myself feel good all the time. It's the only place of creation. It's the only place that you can create big time.

Big time. How about you tell people about some of the practices that you have in your day that help you stay on that positive side?

Well, we've spoke a lot about meditation. You know, it's a huge emerging concept and thing that's in our environment right now, and it's being commercialized and it's being bought into people's awareness. So meditation is a big thing. Internal reflection is almost a state of meditation. You're looking inside yourself. You're not talking physically, externally, you. You're having a conversation with the voice inside yourself, and you're becoming aware of it. So I try to practice meditation as often as I can. I'd love to say that I do it every single day, but, you know, I'm still going through these transitions, and I practice it as much as I can. That's a really, really powerful tool because it really allows you to really decide what type of conversation you're going to have with yourself, allow. Allow you to deal with your thoughts, breathe them out. And when you really understand the science of it, you. You get to understand the benefits. But that's what I needed. I need to understand the science of meditation. That's. So that really helps. Regular meditation, meditative practices, and then exercise, you know, all the common things that you know about that people stop themselves from doing because they're addicted to the chemicals of fear or negativity is, you know, exercise, eating clean food, Water. Water is life. Like, drink water more than you drink anything else on this planet. Drink water. So these are the type of practices. Journaling is a really powerful thing. An interesting story. When I was 17 and in jail, my aunt sent me a diary. And I wrote in that diary every single day for a year. And I still have it to this day. But from that point up until the. Maybe two or three years ago, I never. I forgot the practice of writing. It's such a profound and powerful way for you to get the thoughts out of your head and deal with them easier when you write them down or when you want to create. So journaling is a really good practice. You know, putting your thoughts onto paper, putting your dreams and your desires and writing them down.

Yeah, thanks for sharing that, man. I totally resonate with all those practices you mentioned. And they all had a profound shift in my life when I started implementing them. And for people who are listening is like, I, I sometimes acknowledge that it can be a lot sometimes to be say to someone, hey, meditate, exercise, journal, do this, do that. It can be a lot at once. And for a lot of people, I've noticed because I go out to organizations now and I speak about a lot of these things around how you can develop better habits so you can perform better at work and at life and cultivate feelings of passion and purpose. And for a lot of people, the excuse I get is like, I don't have the time. They just don't have the motivation, they don't have the commitment to do it. They might try meditation for one day and it's, ah, now they, they don't have that, that level of discipline. Like, what do you say to these people, man, because you, you are working in a corporate environment, you, you're, you know, your head of sales, like you're performing at a very high level. What do you say to these other high performers who perhaps are starting to feel that their sense of fulfillment waver or they're starting to notice the passion is not there anymore?

You've got to look at your life and look at how you're spending your time. People will very, very easily say, I don't have time to meditate, I don't have time to go to the gym. I don't have time to, to look after myself. But when they really reflect on their life and they look at how much time they spend doing things that don't serve them, that don't add to their growth, that don't add to their personal development, that's when they, you start to realize, well, actually, you know, I, I can make time. You know, I listened to some audio tapes called your wish is your command by a guy called Kevin Trudeau. And, and he talks about something called the teachability index and the learning balance scale. And you, you, you, you got to understand the power of change. You know, if you really want to do something, you've got to change the way you're doing things now. So people that say they haven't got time, I, I always say to them, well, what are you Doing with your time, how much time are you spending watching your favorite TV show or you know, doing something that really doesn't add to your development and maybe you can reduce that and create time and then you'll start to realize that when you actually do create that little bit time for yourself, in a way you actually create more time for you to do other things because you can become more productive and more efficient as an operator, as a human being, as a soul, because you're looking after yourself. Right. You've got time to service your car, your car's not going to work. Right. You've got to put the time into service yourself to make yourself more efficient. It's the same thing, 100%.

Yeah. And it goes back to priorities, right?

Yeah.

So for a lot of people, I've noticed that out of alignment, their priorities out of alignment, you know, they're prioritizing, getting that promotion, getting the money, making someone else happy.

Yeah.

And to me there's, there's three main priorities that should never be put below anything else. For me it's your physical health, it's your mental health and your emotional health. And like you've just mentioned with your practices, physical health for me is eating the right foods, exercising, ensuring I get enough sleep. These are just like baseline priorities. Like this doesn't, this is unquestionable standards. And then secondly, mental health, are you engaging in thought provoking conversations? Are you around the right people who are allowing you to think in ways that are nourishing you, bringing the best out of you? And then thirdly, your emotional health, are you holding on to anger, resentment, fear, doubt, unworthiness, what are your emotions telling you and doing the necessary work to clear out any of these blockages in there, whether it's, it's go to a yoga class or spend some time alone or read a good book, just getting in touch with our emotions. These three priorities for me, once you put that ahead of everything else, then you can start to create a life of meaning.

And it's just another example of unfortunately we're taught to look outside, you know, we're taught to look outside. You can't progress, you can't get the things you want. You can't. Until you start looking at yourself and prioritizing yourself. Like you said, you've got the bind, the mind, the body, you know, and, and in essence the spirit or the soul. It just comes down to you as an individual, as yourself. You know, if you, if you're not concentrating on what you're inputting to yourself, your Output's not going to be good. So it just comes back down to yourself. You've got it. You've got to just constantly be nourishing yourself. You know, if you look at it from a spiritual point of view, you're not looking after your body physically. Why does your soul want to stay in there? It doesn't. It doesn't appreciate what you're doing to the body. And I'll use the car example as you know, if you're not looking after your car, you're not going to spend time in your car because you're not working efficiently.

Yeah.

So you need, you need to nourish all those different aspects because it keeps you optimum.

Yeah. And what happens, the outcome of what results is when you do that is the soul become. You become more in touch with your soul, you become more in touch with your spirit, your essence.

Yeah.

And then that starts to guide you.

Yeah, absolutely.

The mind.

Yeah, absolutely.

Connecting with your intuition.

Yeah.

And this is the sort of stuff that happens, right. You connect with people like this and we have these conversations. I get to learn about the direction your take. Your life is now starting to change direction because the soul is becoming more of a. The primary navigator and the decisions you're starting to make.

Absolutely.

And I sense that it's starting to happen for a lot of people. And for me, I've acknowledged the next phase in that journey is just making sure decisions come from that place. Removing the blocks that are preventing us from feeling this guidance. Because it's in there, it's in the body, man.

When you're in that space and at that level of consciousness where you can be guided by your soul and what you define as maybe your purpose or what's coming from your heart. And you combine that with feeling good and doing things to make yourself feel good. Those two things, when you're in that space, you will attract things at such an incredible rate, it will be astounding. Like you will be able to sit back and look like fuck. Well, it's just coming at me at lightning speed. And that's what happens. That's what happens. The right people, the right circumstances, the right opportunities, your environment starts to change. It comes at you at lightning speed because you've been guided by true source and at the same time you're making yourself feel good and it's making you feel good and it just marries together perfectly.

You live in harmony.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Which is. Which is essentially that our. It's our birthright to live in harmony because we come into this World with balance, with peace. And we lose that, we lose that connection, man. And it's about rediscovering that. So thank you for, for re. Reconfirming that. People listening. Before we wrap things up, man, I want to know, like, if people want to connect with you online, where can they reach out?

Yes. Social media is an interesting thing for me. You know, I try and spend as less possible time as I can on devices. So I'm on Instagram, recently changed my name to Future Creator, which is aligned with some of the work that I've been doing. Sweet. I am on LinkedIn as well as Brian Saund. I use that for my professional career. I'm stepping into a space now while people are saying you need to increase your social media presence.

Agreed. It's time, brother.

I will. I am stepping into that. That's that interesting space and, and we'll be developing it more as time goes on. I'm doing a lot of work with people that are helping me develop branding, etc, so I will be stepping more into that space, especially with the speaking career and finding more opportunities to speak. But that's where I am at the moment. Yeah.

Beautiful, brother. And what's one thing you want people to take action on? After listening to this interview, this podcast, what's one thing you want people to take action on? That that's probably perhaps something that's had the most impact on your life, I.

Would say, at the moment. Right now, what's coming to me is do something different. You know, do something that you've never done before. Do something that's new, whether it's on your list of things to do or not. Just do something different because that's where you break habits. That's where you into. You step into a space of the unknown and that's the space that you need to be in to create whatever you want and, and make sure it makes you feel. It feels good. If it doesn't, don't do it again. But do things that make you feel good. You know, that is. That is where you want to be. Everybody wants to be happy and feel good. So do something different and do things that make you feel good.

Yeah, dude. I love that because there's a lot of people acting like other people out there, right?

Yeah.

Particularly on social media.

Oh, absolutely.

Yeah.

People. It's natural. Humans are. We're designed to follow other humans, you know, so it's natural to do that. But I'm not sheep and I don't want anyone else to be. We've really got to step into our own characters and be able to express ourselves from pure source. You know, that's a beautiful thing about us individuals. So, yeah, do things differently, mate.

Thank you so much, man. This is beautiful. It's been an absolute honor to be able to have a very great conversation.

First time I've ever done a podcast.

And, well, the first of many. I get that sense with you, man, that your story is gonna be out there to the world. And, yeah, I'm grateful we can. We can be friends and share this journey together. I want to acknowledge Marco as well behind the scenes here has been able to facilitate this and make this happen.

Thank you, Marco.

Thank you. Thanks, brother. So thanks again, man. Until next time, thank you very much.

Cheers, guys.

Guys, thanks for joining me on this episode of the Stay Shifters podcast. As always, like, and share this with a friend. If you feel someone can get value from this, and if you're interested in learning more about how to discover more passion, purpose and fulfillment and cover your life's calling, shoot me a message because I got some cool content to send your way and I love connecting with people who are on this journey as well. So until next time, take care, be well.