556: Start your biz with scaling in mind with David Neagle

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I thought because I grew up seeing people complain and bitch and moan about their lives that they actually wanted to change it. When I started to discover how to change, I ran to them like, guys, I found it. You know, I found that. I found the pot of gold. And they're like, get the hell away from me, you nut. They didn't want to change. And then they were trying to put me down because of it.

Welcome to the Earn your happy podcast. I'm Lori Harder, founder of the Bliss Project. Three time fitness world champion, fitness expert and cover model, turned self love junkie, lifestyle entrepreneur and author. Each week, I'll bring you a guest or a thought that will help you bust through your fears, connect to your soul, and get focused and clear so you can elevate your life, business and relationships. We don't wait until we're ready for someone to Tell us we're good enough, we take what we want and we anoint ourselves. Get ready to earn, own and unapologetically rock your happiness every single day. Are you with me?

Here we go.

Foreign.

So my guest today is David Nagle and he's the founder of the multi million dollar global coaching company, Life is Now Inc. He's helping thousands of entrepreneurs, experts and self employed professionals gain the confidence and find the right mindset to increase their revenue, turning their endeavors into seven and eight figure ventures. You guys, this is all about scaling. Being in the coaching and mentorship industry for over 20 years, he's worked a alongside other well known people you may have heard of like Bob Proctor and Tony Robbins. His clients include many well known people, including number one New York Times bestseller, Jen Sincero who has been on this podcast and she seriously, really is a badass. Because of the results his clients have achieved, along with his dedication, his coaching has expanded to more than 30 countries and he's been featured on Forbes, CBS, NBC, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Fox, and he's also a bestselling author of the Millions Within. So you guys, I loved this podcast because as you know, I am building a company, I'm building light pink right now, which I really need to learn all about scaling and business as I can. So this was the perfect person to actually use as my own coach for an hour. So tune in, I know it's gonna help you. Okay, here we go.

David, I'm so excited to have you on the podcast. Thank you so much coming on the show.

I'm thrilled to be here. Lori, thank you so much.

Oh man, we're going to talk about some good stuff today. And first of all, I do have to say I had the absolute honor of going on your podcast, the Successful Mind podcast. And I had so much fun. You are such an amazing host and that's actually how I found you is through listening to a podcast. Well, it was through mutual friend Jen Gottlieb. But then I was like, okay, I gotta know all about this guy. And I went and listened to a podcast that you were talking about the seven levels of awareness and that was it for me. I was like, I need, I need to know more. I need to learn from this human. He's amazing. So I'm so excited to have you here.

Well, thank you very much. It's a real honor to be here and thanks for mentioning the podcast. That's fantastic. Yeah, the seven levels is amazing. It changed my life when I learned it, I'll tell you that.

You Know, it's so cool because I had mentioned it briefly on my podcast and I loved it because it was like, you can kind of learn what level you're at and understand that there's so many areas of growth and the higher the levels you go, the more ease you're going to have in life. I mean, the harder it's probably going to get to those levels. But it's like doing hard things makes your life easier. And I just, it's. If people can recognize where they're at and what they're doing to make their life more difficult. It's like, I think that's was happening, you know, so much in my life is that understanding that, oh, it's actually me making my life more difficult. And when I can understand these kind of like universal fundamental truths, you can actually move through anything by kind of applying these new levels of awareness 100%.

And the other thing is your ability to manifest or create your life or your business the way that you want. It is much easier, I think, because it gets you out of survival and mass consciousness, which are the bottom two levels. So.

Oh my God, yes. So that's why this is going to be so awesome for this audience is because they are all such goal oriented people. And you know, the other thing that was huge for me, and I know we'll also touch on this throughout as we touch on every level, is it really helped me understand and have compassion for other people. I could kind of like, you know, understand which level they were at and it let me let go and move through and understand like, oh, that's not actually worth my energy because they just don't have this understanding yet. And it was really powerful for me. Whether it was, you know, business or people you were working with that you're having challenges with, it kind of helps you decide where you're going to spend your time.

Yeah, yeah. I mean, that is such a good point. If we have awareness around others, we can meet them where they are or lift them to where they need to be. And you're definitely right. It allows you to understand people at a totally different level.

All right, David, so I read your bio before this and it's amazing, but I just kind of want people to know what your day to day looks like because you have been this incredible coach, you've worked with amazing people, you started this podcast, you've pretty much done everything in this realm of helping people with awareness and business, bringing people to seven and eight figure businesses. So can you just touch on what your day to day is and what you do right now?

Well, the day to day has shifted a little bit since the COVID situation, but really it's with my CEO running the two companies that I have, Niggle Media and Life is now, which is the coaching company. But what I'm doing is a lot of creation. So I think I've gotten to the business to the point where I can step back and create a lot and be out of the day to day running of the business. As much as I've got somebody who's been with me for 12 years, she knows the business and the industry inside and out and she does an amazing job. So she gives me the space to be able to create and expand the companies in the direction that I want to go. So a lot of my time is spent with higher level clients working on the podcast. It's work, you know, I do well. I was doing a lot of speaking. I speak a lot in normal times traveling, but I enjoy it. I mean, I like if I had my druthers, it would be speaking and doing the podcast and building the companies. Like that's what I would do the most, most of my time.

Yeah, it's very different now. You're doing it well. You can do a lot of speaking on your podcast now.

Tremendous. Well, everything's been speaking. It's either the podcast or Zoom. Right. So I mean, it's speaking everywhere on Zoom currently.

I know. What are we going to do when we get back on a stage? Like, it's going to feel a little rusty.

It is gonna feel a little rusty. But I'm actually looking forward to it because I like doing the stage work. I really, I love live audiences. It's.

Oh my gosh, it's like, it is personal development for yourself, I think, when you are up there speaking. Because you really have to tune in and trust and like know your audience and be willing to shift and let go and all of the things.

Yeah, 100%. But you know, I think that there's an energy thing that gets, that gets, that gets communicated in those dynamics that I think people can pick up on. I do think like with Zoom and stuff, people get it. But when you're in the same room as somebody, there's something completely different that transforms between individuals.

Million percent. That's why whenever people are talking about transformation, I'm like, you need to go to an event whenever you can because it's like total immersion and you pick up on that energy and it's palpable. It's, it's incredible. It's what really can transform you quickly. So I couldn't agree more. Okay, well, I could. I could talk to you all day about just about everything. But since we are talking about the seven levels of awareness, I guess we can jump into that now. So do you want to start with kind of what, you know, got you excited about learning this or about diving in and then just go into level one?

Yes. So here's the thing. I mean, the idea of awareness is such an abstract idea. If you just throw it into the middle of the room, it's like, well, what does that look like? How do I do it? How do I know if I'm there? Where do I start? You say, well, you start where you are. Well, where am I? Right. People have a difficult time understanding it. And then when I came across this boy, it's got to be like 27, 28 years ago now, I was like, oh, okay. So I can really kind of gauge by these levels where I am overall in general, and then where I am in different areas of my life, whether it's personal or relationships or business or health or whatever. And I could begin to understand what the operating mechanism is subconsciously for me at those levels and begin to change it so that I can then see a marked difference in the level. Otherwise, it's very difficult to tell. I mean, really, the only measuring stick for awareness is results. You know, we used to tell people back in the day, results are the key. If you look at your results, it'll tell you where you are, and that's great. I mean, that's fine. And, well, the results do tell a person where they are. But if they want something, another way to be able to measure it or guide them through the process of continuing to raise their awareness, I think the seven levels of awareness does that very well. I mean, the best that I've seen so far, what's out there, I didn't create it. I don't know who created it. My mentor introduced it to me. So it's just been a tool that I've used for years to help people learn and move forward.

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I love that. So what is level one? What does that mean?

Level one is animal. And so basically it's survival. That's what it is. It's an animal consciousness. It's fight or flight. It is do in the moment what we need to survive. It is primarily our primordial instinct. That's the reptilian brain. There's not much consciousness there at all. And the idea is just day to day survival. And the thing about level one is so many people really live at this level for tremendous parts of their life, but they don't know that they're doing it. Most people are between a level of like animal and mass consciousness. But if you look at, if you were to sit down, Laurie, and break the decision making process down for most individuals and then dig underneath those decisions and say, why are you making that decision? And they give you an answer and say, okay, how did you come up with that idea? Or, or what is the value or the belief behind it? What you get to is that it's all based in survival and that's animal mindset. There's no growth there. It's all safety, survival, certainty. So when a person recognizes that, they can look at, okay, so what do I need to change from a foundational perspective to be able to move out of it? But that's what, that's what the first level animal is, survive.

Okay, and level two was mass consciousness.

Yeah, mass consciousness. So mass consciousness is when we move a little bit out of survival. But so we're not being 100% directed by the idea of being safe and certain in and of itself. We're being directed by what other people think we need to do to be safe and certain. So we follow the masses. We're listening to the mass consciousness of other people's ideas, other people's prejudices, other people's ideas of right and wrong, what should be done, what shouldn't be done. We're not thinking for ourselves, but because everybody else says so, it must be right. And that's what we follow. It's the herd mentality. I'm trying to think of the name. There's a great book, it's called True Believer by Eric Hoffer. If you ever get a chance, I don't know if you've read it, but if you haven't read it, if you ever get a chance to read it, check it out. It's really great because it's a beautiful study in mass conscious belief systems and how it affects people all through history and at various different levels. But that's what it is. It's following the herd.

Oh, man. Okay, so tell me about how you think with social media, how that's either. Is it growing it? Is it keeping us stuck there? Is it, how is that affecting that level?

It's Almost worse than that, in a way. It's growing mass consciousness. It's keeping us stuck there, but it's driving us back down into fight or flight because people are. I mean, we've seen something happen on social media that we haven't seen since the Salem witch trials, which is you're guilty before you're judged. You're guilty before you have had a chance to have a trial, to, you know, fair representation. And it's not just the masses are judging you, the people are reacting to the mass judgment. So you get fired, you lose your job, you become a pariah. You can't be part of whatever you were part of before. And the idea behind it is it's all fear. It's fear mongering to the nth degree. So I don't know where that goes. Like, if you were to ask me, where do you think it's going? I have no idea. It's insanity on fire as far as I'm concerned. Because there's no. I think it's not that there's nobody out there that has a voice of reason. They can't be heard because it's drowned out by the masses. I was telling somebody, they asked me the other day, I said the biggest problem right now is that not just that the ignorant have a voice, but the voice means something. And I think it's a problem.

Yeah, it is. It's. It's crazy because even as people try to speak up, like you said, it's kind of either drown out or those people just get. You know, it's really challenging to be able to show up and protect your, your mental health and make sure that you're okay with whatever it is that you're talking about or whatever's happening, you know, throughout social media. I've definitely experienced different things through the years where you really have to decide to pick your battles of what you're going to continue to show up for. And you know, it is true, you can really start to. You kind of want to avoid it. If you realize that you are not part of that mass consciousness, you tend to need to avoid it. Or it can be exhausting.

It can be. And you know, on one end it's really great because all the information is available basically to everybody now, which I think is a fantastic thing. On the other hand, we were supposed to be a society that had freedom of speech and to have civil discourse. And that's. In most cases, that's not what it's turning into. It's bullying into believe it my way or Your oblique. Whatever it is that they, that they want to name you. And I just think that that sends society back in a. In a bad direction. Like we've done that in history, you know? Well, I mean, look at what the Germans did to the Nazi or what the Germans did to the Jews. That was mass consciousness gone the wrong way.

Mm.

Okay.

So I don't care who you are. Communication is one of the most important.

Things that we do.

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So level three. So we know what the next thing is. So breaking away from mass consciousness. So a lot of people, like you said, kind of live in the animal and the mass consciousness, which I can honestly tell you I kind of grew up in the More survival mode way of thinking. Like, I did not make decisions of. From thinking far into my future, really weighing all of the different outcomes and how different people's lives and opinions, you know, could have played into that.

So.

So we're at level. We did level one, level two, and now level three. What's the next step? Or level three?

Level three is aspiration. Level three is when a person starts to begin to think for themselves, and they go, wait a second. Either I'm wanting something different or this isn't working for me, or I don't agree with what's going, and I really want to see what's different. Something is stirring inside of these individuals. They're aspiring for some kind of a change, and that is, like, the real first indication that they're starting to think for themselves. So the key in aspiration is acknowledgement, to really acknowledge it. Now, very often when I talk to people about this, I'll say, you know, here's another thing. When you start to aspire for any kind of change in your life, only share it with people that can respect it. Yes, because you're a tender bud when you're first aspiring, you know, and people always want to throw their opinions in there, and they don't necessarily, or they shouldn't necessarily have the space to do that with everything. So we have to be very careful who we share our aspirations and our dreams with. But that's the first step. Like, okay, I'm coming out of my shell. I have individuality here, and I need to start to recognize it. So it's a really great spot for a person to start to bloom into what they're going to become.

Can you remember your first moment of that? And when you shared it, did you share it with someone? Or is it something that was kind of cut down? Because I can remember mine, and it was. I shared it with the wrong people at first.

Yes, I shared it with the wrong people at first, too. I had no. I just don't know. I was so excited about what I was discovering. I was, like, vomiting it all over everybody. And I was shocked because here was the thing for me, Laurie, and I think I may have told you this before. My whole childhood was about answering a question. And the question was, is it like, do we. Do we come from, like, a sadistic God or as human beings getting something wrong that we just don't understand? I thought because I grew up seeing people complain and bitch and moan about their lives, that they actually wanted to change it. When I started to discover how to change I ran to them like, guys, I found it. You know, I found the, I found the pot of gold. And they're like, get the hell away from me, you nut. They didn't want to change and then they were trying to put me down because of it. So I learned very quickly. It was, it was heart wrenching at first. It really hurt. It was painful. It was emotionally painful to have that experience because these were people that I love and. But it was a part where you have to become emotionally mature. So.

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So I'm glad you shared that. Just so people do know that that is what comes with sometimes it's typically the first thing that comes and you usually do share it with the wrong people because you don't have the right people in your life yet usually at this point. So do you hold it in like if there's somebody listening who's like, oh my God, I'm having this moment of I think I, you know, want to be something that no one in my family has ever been. What would you recommend for someone at that level to start doing well.

If they don't have anybody to talk to, they should start journaling. Because one of the things you don't want to do is to repress it. You don't want to go back to stuffing it down inside and not acknowledging it or feeling shame around it, or guilt or embarrassment. You need to give it some expression because it needs to grow, it needs some air to breathe. You need to get it out there and see what it is and play with it and test it. You need to start to get intimate with this aspiration. But then you need to start really looking for individuals that also aspire to something. And the idea is that you can then share with them, you can have community with those people and support each other in that growth. But whatever it is, wherever you go to look for your peeps, so to speak, don't stop expressing yourself. Because the last thing you want to do is to repress it. Because if you repress it, sometimes it becomes very difficult to bring it back out because you're like, I brought it out, but that really hurt. So I don't know that I want to bring it out again. I mean, I've seen a lot of people over the years who had a dream, they started to express it, they were, they were ridiculed or teased or bullied for whatever reason and they put it away and they didn't bring it back out again. And I see this a lot with women in non supportive marriages where they started to bring it out. They had a husband that was not supportive or threatened by their idea, they shoved it away and then they're miserable, trying to tell themselves that they're happy and they're not. So the key is to keep it out there and acknowledge it. It's a very powerful part of an individual.

Oh man. It's an interesting place because you feel like you're coming alive more than ever. And at the same it can be the. I think it's probably one of the most challenging places to be because you're breaking away usually from all of the things and people that you've known and loved sometimes. And sometimes you have to get away and sometimes you will get to keep them in your life, but sometimes it doesn't work that way. So it is a place where I think it's a really do or die.

Type of place, 100%. The do part though, will allow you to move up to level four, which is the individual. That's when a person starts to recognize their individuality. You know, when you start to go through the Aspiration, I think it causes people. And most people do this silently, by the way. They just kind of sit back and they go into observation. They're really watching everybody around them, and they're noticing that other people aren't really thinking. They're following the masses. They're in fear. They don't know what they want. They don't have a dream. When I started to go through this phase, it's when I also recognized how obvious it became that people were lying to themselves. They were saying that they were happy in jobs or relationships or whatever they were doing, but they were not. And it started to become apparent. Like, you could almost see your own reflection in the pain of other individuals. So I think that there's. At this point, this is where the separation starts to mature a little bit, and you realize you have. You've broken free of this hypnosis of the masses, and you're really starting to think for your own. And it starts to pick up speed at this place. So the momentum starts to go. Like you said a minute ago, you're excited, you're enthusiastic. You're looking for some kind of a direction, and it's a great place to be. You know, it's. It's kind of like, you know, when you just, you know, in a way, it's kind of like falling in love with yourself. It's like you're discovering this new person on the inside, and it's a great person to start to get to know.

Mm. I remember some of those moments where I was like, whoa, this life thing, like, has some layers to it, and this is kind of fun.

Yeah. Mm.

So with number four, being individual, what are some of the, like, the bonuses that open up here? Like, does your mind get more creative? Are you starting to, like, what were some of the things that you noticed here when you were here?

So I went. So this is where I went through kind of a back and forth thing. Okay. The creativity did start to come, but I was flooded with ideas. I had so many damn ideas, Lori. It was incredible. And the issue was I didn't know what was a good idea and what wasn't a good idea.

Right.

I just wanted to do everything. Like, it's all coming. Like, let's try this, let's do this. Let's do whatever comes down the pike. I did not realize at the time that I needed to apply something to get it focused and harnessed and moving in a great direction. But I had all these ideas, and then it became difficult for me. If I talked to somebody and they were like, well, that's a stupid idea. I didn't have the self esteem at that time to not take it personally. That came a little bit later. It definitely came, but it did come a little bit later. So I went through a little bit of a struggle of not like, you know, getting to this place where I was like, I wasn't going to share. I kept putting it out there even though it hurt. But I will say that there was a bit of a challenge. But I really noticed that at first I wondered, does everybody have this? Is this in every single person and for whatever reason we're just not getting to it? I honestly didn't know the answer to that question. And then I found out that it was true. And people were literally denying this side of themselves. So I went through an entire process of. And I had people guide me through this. I didn't do this all on my own of really acknowledging what is my authentic self, who am I? So it was really saying what in the individual space, what do I like? What do I want? What do I not like? What do I not want? Because here was something that was really bizarre when I was going through this. I had this moment happen with another individual where I honestly did not know if I was making decisions because I wanted to do something or because it made them happy. And I remember, I remember exactly where I was sitting when I realized it. And I was frightened for a brief period of time. It scared the hell out of me because it felt like a loss of sense of self in a way. And I thought, I honestly don't know why I'm making these decisions. So then it was like, okay, I need to really rein this in and I need to find out who I am. So I went through a whole process of. I would write down every day the things that I liked, why I liked them, because I had to get to know me again as an individual. But it was exciting, it was scary. It made me a little nervous at times. And then there was acknowledgement of some things that you're not necessarily proud of, but they're part of you, you know. So I had to acknowledge those things. I had to acknowledge things that I did that may have hurt people. I had to acknowledge things that hurt from my past that I had not acknowledged before. I had to acknowledge my, like, my secret desires and wishes and ideas. So it was a, it was a. You know, it's tender in there a little bit when you first start exploring around. But I got to know who I was. I really started to get to Know me. And as I began to get to know me, that individuality began to solidify in my life. So I felt like I was. I really was. I wasn't 100% there, but really on the crux of being independent from other. What other people thought I could. I could. If we were in a conversation together and you gave me your opinion about something, I felt very comfortable saying I agree or I dis. I don't agree without being argumentative, but just stating what my place was. And I could not do that before that in my lifetime.

Oh, man. That it. Honestly, that's such a good exercise for any point that you're at, because even though that might have been the place where that kind of cracked open for you as far as, like, what do I actually. Like, what do I enjoy? I think that sometimes we can go to these next levels and you can still settle in there and you can kind of start going back to doing things just because this is what you've always done. And you forget to ask, like, do I want to do something new? Is there something that I now need to reassess that's no longer working or serving me? So is that something that you do more often than not now? Or how do you keep tabs on that?

Well, I'm very careful on who I let into my head. I like to. When I. Number one, I love to learn. So whether it's from a person or a book or wherever I'm getting it from, the arts, music. But what I'll do is if I notice that I'm judging, I will work on putting that aside and I'll say, what is the truth here? What is the truth? But then I'll also step back and go, why am I internally judging this? Why do I feel uncomfortable? Or why does this make me feel anxious? Or why am I being defensive or resisting in the moment? Because I believe those are like, that's pointing a light on something that we need to kind of unpack for ourselves to bring to the surface so that we can heal it or change our opinion about it or understand what the programming was that we've got as a kid. But I'm always going through that process because I want to be the best person that I can be in this lifetime. That was my promise to myself when I got sucked through the dam when I was younger, and that was my promise to God. So I'm always working on it from. From that level of like, okay, this might. This might not be pretty. You might not like the answer to this, but what's most important, the higher value that I hold is what's the truth? What's the truth about this?

So I love that question. And I have a question around that to help people kind of dig into their moments of observation when they're judging. I know sometimes I've had moments where I'm like, why am I judging this person? And I'm like, well, because they're annoying. And then I'm like, come on, Lori, dig deeper. Why am I judging this person? Then you come up with some other answers like that. But what are some questions to get to the actual reason why? Because sometimes I don't know about you, David, but I've gotten, you know, when it is someone, particularly who's doing something to you or who is really, you know, you're having a serious challenge with, and you feel like you have whipped out all of your tricks to, you know, work through the issue. How can we understand what's going on? Do you have any questions to kind of pull back some of the layers?

So I love Marcus Aurelius's teaching on this. He said, what is this in and of itself apart from anything else? Right. Because you have. Everything has. So there's a. There's a. You have a root cause, but then you have things that are both a cause and effect. It's not. It's not the cause of something, but it's the effect of something else. And if we could get down to what is the base or the root, the root cause or belief or whatever that is that that is going on with us, we can then see the truth. And it doesn't take as long to figure it out. So I always ask, what is this in and of itself? Whether it's behavior or it's a problem that I'm seeing, or if I'm like, especially when I'm coaching people what I. You know, I'm sure you've experienced this where a person is just constantly describing their perspective of something from their story. And I will. I want. Once they kind of de. Emotionalize a little bit there, bring it down a little bit. I'll ask them, you know, questions regarding what is this about? So instead of. Instead of constantly just trying to take them back backwards, going to the root of what it is. So I'll say, what was the emotion that you experienced during that? Or why did you say that? Or what does this topic really mean for you? So. So I'm going for what is the. What is the actual cause of what? Of what's going on? What is this in and of itself, regardless of anything else. Somebody brings a problem with their spouse, and you're handling it from the perspective of what's going on between the two spouses. I'm going on what's going on from the individual. What is this really about? What is this problem really about? It's not that he left the mayonnaise on the counter or she left her slippers in the living room. It's not about that. What is actually going on for you? And that's where you start to go backwards into the remnants of, like, the animal or the mass consciousness. Because one thing I didn't mention about the mass consciousness is that a tremendous amount of it can be passed down to us through our parents and the way that we were raised. So the remnants of that could be lingering around in our mind, and then they pop up in relationship, or they pop up with money, or they pop up with business and sales or creativity or lack thereof. So that's what I do. What is this in and of itself? Marcus Aurelius.

Mm.

That's super fun work to do.

Yeah.

Yes. Okay, so number five, what is that?

Discipline. Discipline. So discipline is when you realize that you got to harness this beast. It's out of the cage. You've got to harness it, and you've got to give it some direction so that you can really. You can really take your individuality, your creativity, your aspiration, all of this that's going on inside of you and give it some life so that it's really. So that it's really productive. Discipline. Basically, you know, a lot of people have negative associations with the word, but it comes from the word disciple, right? And disciple comes from the meaning to be a student of. So if a person thinks of discipline, one of the fun ways that I like to look at that word is to be. I'm going to be a student of whatever it is I'm disciplining myself around. So it becomes a discipline. My life becomes a discipline. I'm a student of my own life, or I'm a student of my business, or I'm a student of guitar or whatever it is that you're working with discipline so that you don't have a negative connotation in your mind around the word, which can be a block for some individuals. But the part that I like about the idea of being a student is that that puts me back into one of my superpowers again, which is learning. So if I'm a student, I get to learn, and I want to do a deep dive around everything. That I can within a given topic so that I'm very well versed in that topic. I know as much about it as I want or I need or what's required for me to go to the next level. And the great thing about a person's life is that you can never learn enough to have completely mastered it. You can get to a mastery level where you're not really going to be sucked down into mass consciousness or animal again. But as long as you're growing, it's constantly evolving. There's new and deeper layers of love and learning and intelligence and creativity. I mean, that can go on. Doesn't matter how old we live to. So I think discipline is the real key to start moving it into a productive channel and creating the life that you want.

Oh, I literally have a. Like, I have a absolute crush on discipline because it changed my life. Probably because I so resonate with you in the individual part of when you get ideas. And it was like they were just. Ideas were almost overwhelming because they were exciting. But also you can feel like you're drowning in all these ideas. Like you don't know what to do. And it's. A lot of times it would stop me because I would do everything and exhaust myself or not know what I was doing or wasn't becoming a master of any of them. So having that awareness around discipline of like, okay, let's get clear first. Like, let's see what direction we can go in. How can we create a routine around this?

Because I.

Life actually got pretty. It can get. If you could speak to this, because I. This is where a lot of people who I think listen to this podcast are. Is they're getting the ideas or they're thinking they need to do everything, or they're not sure which idea is the right idea. And it's around creating those disciplines around that. So do you. Did you have the moment of trying to figure out which one to start with and what type of discipline you could really bring into your life to help you move forward?

I did. So this is an interesting story. While I was learning, I was working for a petroleum company and I was climbing the ladder really successfully in that company. But I knew that it wasn't forever. I really wanted to start my own business. However, I didn't have a formal education. I did not see how I do now. But back then, I did not see how the skill sets that I had developed in this petroleum company would transfer over to anything other than maybe a middle manager somewhere. But other than that, it would be in A petroleum company somewhere, which I did, is not what I wanted to do. So here's my thinking. I'm thinking, what business could I start that would have a short ramp up time, where I would have enough time because I didn't have any capital, so we had to bootstrap the business where I would actually have a chance of making it. And I'm thinking, well, like I could open up a hot dog stand, I could start a pizzeria. Like, I'm thinking really, really small. And I remember I was, I was literally getting. I was seriously thinking about moving toward the idea of a small restaurant in Chicago, literally like a hot dog stand or a pizzeria. And I had been thinking about this, I had making plans, I had been calling vendors, really, really figuring out what it would take to do this. And I was driving home and I started to get really emotional. I was driving home from work and I pulled over on the side of the road and I just started to cry. And I didn't know why I was crying, but all that was in my head was, it's not an effing hot dog stand. It's not an effing hot dog stand. And I thought to myself, okay, I don't know what it is. I need to just admit that right now I don't know what it is. And it's okay that I don't know what it is. Like I'm even feeling emotional just telling you the story. I haven't told that story in a long time. It's okay that I don't know what it is. Whatever I need will come. And then over a short period of time, I started to realize that there was more that I needed to learn and discipline myself to do, to allow the bigger vision to come in. Because what I had done was great. But it wasn't enough to actually see the bigger vision of where it was that I wanted to go. So I really doubled down on. And you know, the other part of the story was this. I was watching a minister on tv, I forgot this part. And it was Joyce Meyer. And she was talking about her story and she was saying something about being stuck or not hearing God and not being able to move forward. And I was not, nor am I now, religious. I'm spiritual. But I loved her teachings at the time. And she said that she had been taught that when God goes silent, it's because you, you're on the right track. You're supposed to continue doing what you're doing. And that that morning when I saw that, it really spoke to me and I was like, that's it. I just need to stay on the track of what I'm doing, stay disciplined in this direction and continue to expand. And that's what I did. And it was a short period of time after that that I started to have the revelation that I was going to do what I actually doing now.

Oh, my gosh. That is the greatest story. I love that. I'm so glad you shared it. And there's a part of me that wishes you would have opened a pizzeria and stayed on track. No, that's great. And I. And I love that it was just such a. I. I so resonate with that because that was a lot of my first things that I did was just. I was. You think of the things that you can do right away, and you don't. Sometimes you don't allow those ideas to marinate because it can come from that place of kind of feeling desperate because you do need to do something.

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Okay, number six, experience.

Number six is experience. This is where the process, everything starts to ramp up in speed, I feel because when you start disciplining yourself now you're in the doing of yourself and what we need is feedback. So as I begin to work out whatever it is that I'm doing with my life, I'm starting to get results and the results are telling me something. So if I stay non emotional about it and I see it just as a result, with the idea that I'm working towards mastery, I'm working at really getting better, unfolding my life, my business, whatever I'm going after, I can begin to get the experience that I need that will allow me to stay conscious in my decision making process. So that comes all the way back around to number three and it continues to feed your aspiration. So this is so important because if a person is judging their results, if they're judging the experiences that they're having, instead of watching how they unfold and they keep leading them to the next thing, they end up going backwards. So the idea is, let me see the result and use it to really propel me further by feeding my aspiration. You know, in your mind, in your subconscious mind, your subconscious mind cannot tell the difference between a big win or a little win or a big loss and a little loss. It only knows win or loss. If we're counting or stacking our losses and disregarding our wins, which is what most people actually do, they don't measure their success, Then all we have is this tremendous reference of everything that we screwed up in life. And it doesn't need to be a lot like, I dropped the milk this morning, I let the dog ran away, I forgot to pay the light bill. It just keeps going up and up and up and before you know it, we don't like ourselves anymore. We come down on ourselves so hard by guilting ourselves and shaming ourselves and should have on ourselves all over the place. I should have done this, I should have done that. We start to build a reference point of not actually liking ourselves. So the experience part is very important in what am I going to do with these experiences and make sure that I'm stacking them up as wins and not failures, even if it's not the result that I want. The fact that I went out and did something and I'm getting the experience and having it is a win if I make it a win in my mind.

Oh, this is good. You're making me think about. Because even right now, in this company that I'm starting, there's some moments where I'm like, I feel like I'm in a stall point or a stuck point. And instead of saying, when have I felt stuck before? I'm like, when have I felt this before? But in times where I've still won, and that's been huge for me because I'm like, oh, this has been a part of every single big dream I've accomplished is this place where you feel like nothing is happening. And that's a great. You know, instead of even just something little like that, being able to reference it back instead of saying, I feel stuck, it's like, when have I felt this way but still been able to move through it? So, yeah, drawing on experience for every, you know, thing that I've achieved has been huge. So I love this one because I'm definitely doing that right now. Is there one for you that you kind of could go even negative, but you've turned it into good experiences that were pivotal moments in your life?

So when you say negative, what are you thinking?

Like, when you've been in an experience that you are not liking, but you were able to draw from another maybe positive experience in your life to turn it around?

Yeah. Well, I'll tell you what the first one was. Speaking publicly. The first time that I spoke, I was asked to introduce a doctor friend of mine at an event that had 300 people in it. And I thought it was going to be no big deal. I mean, I had. I don't know that I ever really spoke on stage before, but I acted when I was a kid in front of a live audience. Didn't have a problem there. So I get on stage to introduce this guy, and I literally forget how to exhale. I couldn't exhale. You should have seen me. I was impressed. I just kept inhaling, inhaling, inhaling. I spit out his name. I ran off the stage, sat down on the first room row, broke out in a cold sweat, was completely soaked, and I'm like, oh, my God, that experience. I was like, well, that's never going to happen again. But my very next experience was speaking for three days at my own seminar. So that's kind of weird. I think the difficult ones were intimacy. Intimacy in communication. I'm not referring to physical, but in communication. My mother was a person who owned the anger in the house. Nobody could be more angry than her. So it didn't matter what you did. You really didn't have permission to say how you felt unless you were telling her that she was a great mother or something like that. But you didn't have a way to express this. So I think that negative experience for me caused me to clam up and be afraid to share how I was feeling. So I, you know, turning that experience into something completely different after some heartbreaking relationships that ended because I didn't know how to say what I wanted or say what wasn't. Okay. So those are some things that I've had to. I had to deal with, especially in the early days, to turn it into, you know, how do I communicate? How do I communicate what's actually going on with me? How do I say where I am, what I need, ask for what I want, you know, and also honestly validate other people instead of just being a head nodder, you know, really be able to listen, be compassionate, and validate what somebody else is saying.

So from. From that moment of you saying, you know, wow, I'm not able to share or be able to connect with these people because I'm not sharing, you know, intimately with this person because of fear of, you know, from your past. What was the moment that made you break through that? And what was the moment from, you know, from your speaking that made you break through that old experience into creating a new one? What were you telling yourself the moment was?

I was. I was working with my mentor, and he gave me permission to scream at my mother. So it was. It was. It was permission to take my power back. See, I didn't realize what she did was not okay. I didn't know that, you know, when you're in that, you don't know. So I learned over a period of time. And this person that I was working with said to me, you have a voice. Use it. It's okay for you to be angry, and it's okay for you to draw a boundary with what she's doing and what she's saying. And I did not know that I could do those things that changed everything for me. I was like. I did not realize that as a grown man, I was a young man, but still grown man, that my mother had more authority in my mind and in my voice than I did. So in that moment, I took my authority back. And, yeah, I mean, everything changed once I did that.

That's so powerful. What is number seven? So we've done. Let's see. Yes, we just left experience. Now we're going to seven.

Through the repetition of experience, you move into mastery. So, you know, you go from discipline to experience. You're getting the results. You're seeing them, you're evaluating them. You're determining if they're the results that you want. You're stacking up your wins. So the great thing here, a big part of mastery, is confidence. And I get the question all the time, how do I get the confidence to do this or that or the other? And I'm like, you're putting the cart before the horse. That's not how we get confidence. If you look at a little child, a child does not have the confidence to do something before they do it. The confidence comes as they go through this process where they start to master whatever the skill set is, whatever they're doing. And as they do that, they then have that confidence. Faith is the first skill or tool that we use. We have desire, the desire to do something, but then it's faith, faith. We have faith that if we do this and we do it repetitively in a correct way, we will begin to master whatever it is. So once we do that, we develop the confidence. We deepen our belief system. We broaden our vision. So now we're a vessel that can take in even more of a vision. We can download much more. We become more capable of moving forward in bigger and greater vision, greater ways by doing it. But then I also think that while it's never 100% true that old patterns are completely gone, they've lost so much power at this point that they're not really that much of a concern. Although I think that we always need to practice mindfulness. We're in the mastery of the skill sets at this point where we no longer have to really think about it every single day. But it's.

It's.

We're literally changing the way that we're thinking, behaving. So it's now habitual. It's. There is an autopilot aspect to mastery. And this is where ease. Ease of effort actually comes in. The grace comes in, and we really get to experience those things that people talk about so much. But when we're stumbling through, you know, back down in mass consciousness and aspiration and being an individual, there is no Grace there. Well, there's not, you know, we're not really experiencing grace as people talk about it. But when you move into mastery, that's when you have flow, you have grace, you have confidence, there's ease of mind, worries. There's also an awareness that I think shifts here because as you begin to master, you see that a lot of the fears that you had when you first started to grow are false. They're not actually real. They lose their power. You're demonstrating by result that you can be proficient in a new skill set or set of tasks. Like I tell people all the time when earning money, once you learn how to do it and you've done it over and over again, you won't worry for money anymore. You know, the cause and effect of it. You're like, okay, if I'm out of money, this is what I have to do to create money. If I lose my business, I know how to sell. I know I could go be proficient at this anywhere that I go. And you don't worry about money. And it's like, do you have any idea how much free time you have in your life when you don't have to worry about money anymore? You know, it affects everything from a totally different perspective. And I really think that mastery brings in that grace and ease into your life.

Yes. So it's not that things don't happen to you. It's that you are not getting either attached or you're not sitting in judgment, or you're not sitting in the worry, or you just have a massive toolbox. Like, you just have everything to be able to get through whatever it is that comes your way.

Yep, Absolutely. Absolutely.

So for people who are, you know, still getting there, there may be inexperience, and they really want to move into mastery because they can see where they're still getting, you know, maybe stuck, but they don't know how to get through it. Are there certain things that you've done in your life where you're like, oh, this is really. This is a tough thing for me. Like, maybe I'm getting stuck on thinking that I can't go to the next level. Like, I don't have the skill set maybe to start that big business or do that thing? Even though I've had these past experiences, what do you focus on when there's something really big in front of you that you're starting to have doubts around?

So somewhere between discipline and mastery, a person will, if they're really looking at what they're doing, they will uncover that they have a stopping or a self sabotage strategy. And if they don't, if they're with a good coach, a good coach will point this out to them. Everybody has one. We all have a self sabotage strategy. And what's interesting about it is that if you really map it out for yourself, you'll find that it works the same way. Every single time this thing happens and it screws up my thinking and then I go into this emotion and then I start blowing, blaming people, and then I justify why I'm not doing this anymore. And it's some variation of that for every person. Because when we stop doing something or we quit or we fail, there is a process that takes place between our conscious mind and our unconscious mind where we agree with the reality that's being presented to us. And generally it is that some piece of our reality is presenting some level of urgency that we've never seen before. And we justify it, we rationalize that. So we say, you know what, I just can't deal with this. Like, I've been sick, I'm not sleeping, I've gained weight, I'm arguing with my husband. Like, we come up with some reason and we say, it's just not worth it. That's usually what you hear, it's just not worth it, or I just can't deal with it anymore. If you take a step back and you really look at what is the process that caused you to go into this place where you're now ready to quit, or you don't think you can do it, or you're not accessing a bigger vision, what is the process that got you there? You'll find out that there was something that triggered some insecurity inside of yourself, where now you went into more of a self preservation strategy than you did about, than you did for expansion. And I think, what?

Pardon me, I felt that one. Yep.

Yeah, once I think if a person unravels that, realizes that they have it, that anytime that they get triggered into it, it can become recognizable really quick. And you can be like, okay, hang on, I am now in a self preservation strategy or a sabotage strategy. I need to unpack this and find out what's going on so that I can move through this. Otherwise, I will totally rationalize anything that comes down the pike. And before you know it, I will quit. Whatever it is, the diet, the relationship, you know, whatever the commitment is, I'll, I'll back my, I'll back out of it.

Yeah, I just unpacked my sabotage strategy. I definitely know when I'm in it. But, like, I can see exactly the pivotal points, but you just gave me a huge tool and I hope that everyone caught that. So I'm going to say it again. It was the place of, like, when you start to feel that frustration or that overwhelm or that, you know, lack of self confidence in something, whatever it looks like, or the, you know, maybe I'm not the person who's going to be able to do this. It's that moment of doubt for me or lack of confidence that says I'm now moving into going into the sabotage. And how can I expand? What are the things that make me feel expanded? Who can help me expand? What can I do to even just get that feeling of expansion and learning back? So that was really powerful for me.

Cool. That's great.

Yeah. Well. Okay, David, so we've gone through the seven levels. Is there anything about these that we've missed?

No, not really. I think the idea is that if we're going to move, if you're going to. Once the aspiration comes, comes to begin to go down this road, you do need to have a reason. There needs to be some kind of a why. And I think the why needs to deepen and become more solid and more conscious as you continue to move. Because all the way through it, there's going to be challenges. There's no growth without being uncomfortable. There's no growth without challenges. There's no growth without opposition. The other thing is, as you go toward mastery, you're going to find that you're rising above mediocrity in some area of your life. A guy by the name of Hinckley wrote a great book called Standing for Something or Stand for Something. People should get it. It's really great. But here's the idea. Whenever we take a stand for something in our life, we raise ourselves above mediocrity. And we're seen. We're seen both by the people that love us and want us to keep going and by the people that are thriving, threatened by us. We need to know that so that we understand from emotional maturity standpoint and the idea of how important our vision is for ourselves, how we're going to deal with it, because everybody's going to have detractors along the way at some point. So the idea is that if I stand for something in my life because it means a lot to me, I want to be a better person, I want to do something for someone else, I'm going to polarize people on both sides to some degree. And the taller I stand for something, the more I'm going to polarize people. So there is a whole part of going through the seven levels just for that part of maturity in your life, being able to be solid in who you are and really stand for what you believe is right in the world, regardless of what everybody else is saying or what they're doing.

So good. David, I'm so grateful for you. Thank you so much for sharing this. And you guys, I definitely. You have to go check his podcast out. I know that you learned amazing things today. So go and subscribe to the successful mind podcast on itunes. Let him know how much you loved this podcast. David, is there any last words that you want to say?

Find something worthwhile and make it your life.

So good. And you guys, something that we love to do on this podcast is to tag David on Instagram. David, what is your Instagram handle?

It's David P. As in paulnagel.

Okay, so go find David. And they will because they always find ones. Even when they even have their tough to find, they will go and find you and tag David. Tag myself. Let him know what your biggest takeaway was from this podcast. I'm telling you, it's such a nice gift to give to our guests because they add so much value to our lives. So make sure you tag him. Tag myself. Let him know what your biggest takeaway was from this podcast. And you guys, you know that I love to share everything that you put out there because that's how the podcast gets out into the world. David, so grateful for you. I really, really hope they go subscribe to your podcast and listen to yours just as much as mine, if not more because you have such great, great info and you have really made an impact on my life. So you guys make sure you share and until next time, earn your happy.

Bye everyone.

Thank you guys so much for spending this time with me on the earn your happy podcast. I am so glad that you stopped by. If you could take one second to share this episode with someone you think would love it, that would be absolutely amazing and we would be forever grateful. Also, please leave us a review if you feel so moved by going to itunes and leaving us an honest thought, an honest comment. Tell us what you think, tell us what you want to hear more of. It would really help us out on our journey to helping thousands and thousands of people. Until then, don't forget to earn your happy. Thanks again guys.

Bye bye.