The 5 Disciplines of Abundance: How to drive your life forward

Do you ever feel out of balance and stuck, spending time doing things that don't bring you joy? You're probably watching this saying, but Marc, of course, that's the way I feel because that's why they call it work. One thing that we have to understand is that you have a zone of genius, the place where you shine the brightest. It's where you are aligned and your whole energy of mind, body, and soul come together and thrives. I know it sounds a little bit woo-woo, doesn't it? Well, that's what we're talking about today on Marc Haine Live. Welcome to this episode. This is where small business owners and entrepreneurs pick up core skill sets to help them create the show-stopping, jaw-dropping experience that their customers and their employees deserve. I am your host, Service Expert and Master of Experiences Marc Haine. Thank you so much for being here today. My guest is Business Architect and Mentor Mike Zeller. We will be discussing the 4 areas that give you the clues to your genius. And we will uncover the 5 disciplines of abundance and what you can do to leverage them so that you never have to work again in your life. So, stay with us. I can actually point to a calendar and show you the day that I woke up and started playing in my zone of genius. The day that I felt so excited to get out of bed in the morning because I felt like I had a purpose. For years, I had been in the routine of get up, go to work, go get home, go to bed, get up, go to work, get home, go to bed. The cycle was endless. And I have to say, That part of my existence was so routine, so based on really fulfilling expectations that other people had of me. So that brings us to our Question of the Day. How do you stay in alignment with your true life's purpose? Do you even know what your true life's purpose is? Feel free to put a response in the comments section. Wherever you're consuming this, just make sure that when you do make a comment and respond to this question, go ahead and hashtag it #ExperienceLeadership. I'd love for you to be part of this conversation. My guest today is the author of The Genius Within: Finding Your Business and Personal Zone of Genius for Maximum Success. Mike Zeller is a Business Architect and entrepreneur mentor who helps professionals find their zone of genius and helps them to rewire their subconscious to fuel momentum towards their life's purpose. He has mentored over 300 high-level entrepreneurs from all over the world, helping add tens of millions of dollars in revenue for his clients. An entrepreneur himself, Mike has founded or partnered in over 20 ventures across multiple industries including technology, real estate, digital marketing, and Mike, welcome to the show. It is absolutely a pleasure to have you here.

Marc, so excited to be here and cannot wait to dive in. This is one of my favorite subjects. And I already love the way you show up. You've got a great set and you do lights, camera, action. This is fun.

Can't wait.

Thanks so much. Hey Mike, before we get into today's topic, could you just dig a little bit deeper into how you serve your clients?

Yeah, so I do a couple things. I do some one-on-one high-level consulting with a leader, an entrepreneur, or the executive team and help them build out or architect their dream team, make sure their key players are playing in the right position and they're playing in their, let's say, $10,000 an hour activities, but also help them find the areas that bring them life and areas that also that bring them death to manage those, get those off their plate. And then, what happens is when you're more in your zone of genius, for example, if you're playing to your strengths versus your weaknesses, you're about twice as likely to step into flow state as long as you're protecting your focus and your energy. When you're in flow state, you're 500% more productive. So, I do a lot of that on the one-on-one side but also in group settings, mastermind retreats, courses, those type.

Okay. And so who is your typical client?

Clients on the high-level consulting side, they're typically in the 7-figure, 8-figure range. And then in the expert pathway, they're usually a 6-figure leader or sometimes an earlier-stage startup. They might be an employee at a company and building out their own venture for the first time, but they're like, hey, I got to I want to make sure I'm doing what really fulfills me because I've got a job or executive position or leadership position in another company. And it's not fun and it's not what I'm supposed to do. But I don't know how to get to where I'm supposed to be. So, I help people make that big leap.

Fantastic! I was just having this conversation on a walk recently. And we were going for the walk and my partner was telling me that he left his job because he joined the company because he felt he was on purpose. And he worked on purpose For quite a while. But then, it got to a point where he didn't feel like it was on purpose anymore. And he had set them up for success. He had done what he needed to do. But then, he felt, my purpose is done. I've achieved what I needed to do and it's time for me to move on. Why is today's topic so important? Because I imagine there's more people like him.

Yeah, you look at the era of the Great Resignation, at least in America. I don't know. Did you guys have a Great Resignation in Canada as well?

Oh, yes.

Okay. I didn't know if it was just an American thing. But in this era of the Great Resignation where, you know, in America, 12.9 million Americans quit their jobs between August and October last year, just 3 months. And what happened is, you know, people are looking for fulfillment. They're looking for purpose. They're looking for the next step. They're looking for something more than just a job. And I think that's, I think that's part of the awakening of our culture is we're lifting beyond the old industrial age paradigm.

Yes.

All right? Of like, you're a worker, you go to school to get a degree to become basically another cog in the wheel. And now, people want to have a little more self-actualization, a little more purpose, a little more fulfillment around that. So, that's a big piece of what I'm seeing in the world and the industry.

Yeah. But what's interesting about that is we realized it now because I think COVID has really changed the way that we looked at work. But really, this has been something that's been going on since the millennials started coming into the workforce. That they didn't want that cog-in-a-wheel mentality. They wanted to do something that lived up to a higher expectation. From what you're seeing, do you see that with COVID having pushed the change so quickly, do you think that it is been a benefit to the people who wanted to get into entrepreneurship and become that leader? Or are you seeing that people are still now kind of suffering through the cog in a wheel mentality?

Yeah, I think on the entrepreneurship side, we are seeing more people jump into the field of entrepreneurship. They've left this unfulfilling arena and almost been catapulted out of the nest, right? You get like a mother bird COVID, the pandemic kind of kicked a lot of us out of the nest. And when you're in this journey of creating your own path, this free agent nation, let's call it, when you're in that journey, what you have to do is you have to figure out, all right, hey, where am I really freaking amazing? And where does the marketplace, where does this talent or this ability and this skillset and this knowledge and these Relationships, where does it meet the real need that people have? So, that's a bigger leap in the entrepreneurship side is like, you got to meet your genius with what the marketplace cares about. And that's not an easy process to do, but when you go through the customer discovery process and you find that real need and you validate it, and then you just lock on with an irresistible offer that serves people at a high level and that is replicable and scalable, that's when you can really grow as a leader and entrepreneur and business owner. But it's, you know, I think a lot of people also find out that entrepreneurship is a lot harder than Elon Musk makes it look like.

Yeah, that's for sure. You know, and to your point, you know, in your book Zone of Genius, you talk about one of your clients and what she was going through. And it sounds very similar to what you just Could you tell us a little bit about her and about her story?

Yeah, one of my favorite clients, you're probably referencing Kristen Boss, I would imagine, the hairstylist. She was working, she was bought into the hustle and grind mentality and 60 hours a week working nonstop and just sacrificing family to build her business. And when she first applied to work with me, she was making $97,000 a year. And she wasn't quite ready yet, so she waited another 5 or 6 months. We reconnected. She signed up. It was a rough season in her life. She had borrowed money from her parents to pay for home repair bills. Her husband was in between jobs. She was the breadwinner. And it was just an uncertain season, but she knew she had to make a leap. She had— the time was now or never. And so, we jumped in. She jumped into one of my programs. I walked her through the 6 pillars of the Prosperous Expert Pathway, which is abundant mindset or a healthy relationship with money, which I know you love to talk about as well. Secondly, finding her zone of genius. We got her dialed in. We had her take the Wealth Dynamics test, for example, which is my favorite test. It's the only test that shows you your natural pathway for building wealth. And she took that test, found out she was a star on the Wealth Dynamics, which Stars love to promote. They're brilliant in front of the camera and stage. Oprah Winfrey is a star, for example. But then third thing, find your irresistible offer for your fourth thing, the 4% client. We all know the 80/20 rule, top 20% produces 80% of results. Well, what about the top 20% of the top 20%? That's 4%. Could they produce 80% of 80%, which would be 64% of your revenue over and over and over. And in essentially every single business I ever have a deep look at, there's a 4% client. It might be 5% that produces 50%, whatever, but it's somewhere in that ballpark. It's a small number that produces a much larger, a disproportionate percent of revenue. And then the 5th thing, helped her build an A-player team. 6. Build expert authority in her niche. And she did that. She crushed it. She honestly worked on every single stage. She did over $1 million her first year and then multiple million. I know how much she's done. She's done a total of $8 million in 2 years, which is insane. A little over 2 years since we worked together. And I just had another session with her this week actually on Monday and she's ready to Make another big leap. And so, it's going to be a ton of fun. But what happens is we all have a place where we can create a deep area of impact if we're aligned with our genius. But we got to get clarity. Socrates said, know thyself is the beginning of all wisdom. So, that's what I love to do.

Yeah. And it's such a great story because people will look at somebody like Elon Musk and go, oh, well, he has this, or they'll look at Bezos and say, oh, well, he had this. But yet, when we see people who are in the midst of their journey. We see their success. We don't necessarily know what it took to get there. So, when we come back, I'd like to uncover the 4 areas that you feel will give us the clues to getting ourselves in our zone of genius. And we'll do that right after this.

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Welcome back. I am speaking with the author of The Genius Within and creator of the Inner Circle Mastermind, which launches on June 1st. Mike Zeller. Mike, tell us a little bit about this Inner Circle Mastermind that you've created.

Yeah. Over the years, I've probably created hundreds of pages and exercises and worksheets and processes to shift entrepreneurs. I'm a creator on the wealth dynamic. So, I love creating things and I love problem solving. According to my Myers-Briggs, I'm one of the world's greatest problem solvers. And I'm an INTP. But basically, Inner Circle is for thought leaders, authors, speakers, coaches that are ready to grow to the next level and they're ready to figure out, hey, I know there's an irresistible offer in me. I know I'm not playing in my deepest lane of genius. I might be playing in my zone of excellence, but not my zone of genius. And I know there's some money mindset blocks where Or there's some leadership team. I haven't figured out the right team structure. So tackle a lot of that. We also pull out the 13 pillars of building an expert authority brand. Like, how do you pull out your genius and create the hallmarks of expert authority? Because, you know, as an expert, they get paid disproportionately more than a non-expert. And we all have expertise, but most of us are unaware of our expertise or unaware of how to hone, craft, package, productize our expertise. It's kind of like an iPhone. One of my metaphors, this iPhone is about $300 to $400 worth of hard cost of goods, right? But they sell it for $1,600 because it's productized, it's packaged, Apple doesn't send you a box of parts and say, hey, here's your iPhone, put it together. Right? You got to pull out and make it easy for people to understand where you're freaking amazing. Whether you're in a job, if people, your boss understands, hey, you're freaking amazing at this, then it's easier for you to get promoted into the lane that you want to be in.

Right.

Or if you're building a business and you want to go double your revenue but also double your freedom, I've loved doing that. That's one of my favorite things is like, how can I double your time off or freedom but also double your revenue?

Nice! I love that whole philosophy. And this whole idea of Zone of Genius is, well, it's genius. How does one know? Because I mean, I imagine that the first step is people have to benchmark themselves. How does one know where they're playing at right now in their lives?

Yeah. You know what? One of my favorite exercises to do is I'll have people tap into their body intelligence. And here's what I mean. When you get accosted by the FBI, let's say, or any special secret services type deal, and they're going to do a lie detector on you, they're not going to test your words. They're going to test your body. Because your body's intelligence and your body has to act in integrity unless you're like a Navy SEAL and you figured out how to bypass some neuropathways, let's call it. So, one of the things like in this room that we're recording this podcast and YouTube channel, I took a guy, David, one of my other clients. He is a very successful filmmaker and he produces top commercials for Goldman Sachs and Amazon and all that.

Wow.

His company just had a record year in 2021 and another record year in 2020. And guess what? When we started working together, he was dying. He said, Mike, I'm miserable. I cannot do this. I'm battling depression. And we sat down and we unpacked his life and his patterns. We looked at his schedule. We looked at everything in his calendar. And guess what? Nearly everything that he was doing was not bringing Juice to his soul, was not infusing his life with breath. It was instead taking away from joy. It was robbing him. So, that's why I do the life and death exercise. One sheet of paper, you write down everything that brings you life. And another side, you write down everything that brings you death. And you look at, oh, I love playing basketball. I love a massage. I love reading a good book, a hot tea, coffee, glass of good wine, whatever, date night. Those are the life things. Or, I love ideating, creating, mind mapping, conceptualizing the beginning of a project, but I hate managing a project. Well, because he's the CEO, he thought he had to do all the things that an operational CEO does, but he's a visionary CEO. As we unpacked it, we realized, hey, dude, no wonder you're depressed. And I asked him halfway through, I'm like, David, you're ready to He didn't say this, but I was like, David, you're ready to tear this business down, aren't you? You're looking for a way out. He's like, Mike, how'd you know that?

Hmm.

And I was like, because I can just look at your life pattern. And 2 weeks later, we had stripped out about 50% of the things that were bringing him death, brought so much more freedom, helped him step into his visionary inspirational side a lot more. And then another 2 months later, He's just humming. He's humming and in flow and cranking it and filled with joy and reinspired by his business fully again for the first time in years. And it just took repatterning a lot of that.

Right. And I get that. Obviously, he had you as a guide to help him through there. I know that you talk about the 4 keys to uncovering one's zone of genius. Can you review them for our audience today?

Yeah, be glad to.

Good question, Marc.

So, you know, you look at, um, look at anything in life, and one of the cool things about our era is we're in the great data age. Uh, you can get data on your health, you can get your whole, uh, DNA genome figured out in basically 24 hours for about $1,200. You can get gut health, all your gut health measured. You can track your brain waves, you can track your heart rhythms, your steps by your watch, whatever. There's so many different things. But the challenge that I saw is that there wasn't enough data about who the heck am I and what the heck am I meant to do and where the freak am I going to most naturally succeed and where am I most naturally going to fail. I want to avoid where I'm going to fail and I want to flourish. I want to flourish, not flop. And so, I started creating process. How do I gather the data? And I think the data shows up in 4 main areas. And if I get all the data, Yeah. in those 4 areas of my life, then the patterns will pop like popcorn. So, the data, the 4 areas, your unique talents. And I take people through 5 different personality tests. The Wealth Dynamics, I mentioned that earlier. And comment below if you want the link and we'll find the link for you. Wealth Dynamics shows you your natural pathway for building wealth. StrengthsFinder, of course, by Gallup. Myers-Briggs, DiSC profile, Kolbe Index, and then Enneagram if you want as a little bonus or any other test. But you gather as much data as you can on your talents and your weaknesses. Just as important to be aware of both because our weaknesses, if I manage my weaknesses and I focus on my weaknesses, at best I might go from really bad to average. That's not the goal. Should never be our goal to improve our weaknesses or focus primarily on our weaknesses. The goal is to be exceptional at a few things and manage the weaknesses.

Okay?

So, you want to double down on your strengths. High performers consistently put themselves in extraordinarily right positions. Second, after I've done unique talents, and I've got a whole 20-page workbook on this, then you gather your defining life experiences, those moments where your soul is whispering, hey, Mike, you're made for this. Hey, John, you're made for this. You're lighting up. This is bringing you inspiration, bringing you life. So, you unpack those moments also where your mess became your message. There's a reason, Lights! Camera! Action! You've got a theater background coupled with your interest and passion for business and your talents there, right? You're tackling— you're a unique combo. Okay? Define life experience. Then third, key relationships. Who brings you life versus death? I love talking with smart people like you. This is what brings me life, right? Accomplished creative entrepreneurs, they're pursuing their passion and their gifts. And then fourth, your values and passions. What do you stand for? What do you stand against? What are you endlessly curious about? Because your passions will often become— I like to say your curiosities become your passions, your passions become your purpose, your purpose becomes your path. But it all starts with the curiosity that leads to your passion. And the passion can be a little side hustle, can be a little curiosity on the side where that's not your main thing, but pay attention to it because it will often lead you into your next step. Like Elon Musk, 10 years old, he was fascinated by space. He didn't know he was going to build SpaceX at the time, but he did.

Yeah, it's interesting because out of these 4 keys, the one thing I see is that you can really go from the spectrum of being absolutely soul-sucking to thriving and really mastering that zone of genius. And I think all too often, unfortunately, and I know this was the case for myself, was I had been hovering around this idea where things were just soul-sucking. And again, whether it's comfort zone, whether it's Fear of doing anything else. Imposter syndrome, I think, was a really big one for me of who the heck do I think I am that I could do something like this? Do you have any comments about where people feel themselves on that spectrum?

Yeah, I think if you're in your comfort zone, I think there's 3 zones that most people live in: comfort zone, discomfort zone, or paralysis zone. Paralysis zone is where you start melting down and it's just too far. Your discomfort zone is where the magic happens. The interesting thing about your discomfort zone is it's typically only 10% beyond your comfort zone. The comfort zone is where you kind of become a couch potato. You're getting flabby emotionally, mentally, physically, uh, spiritually. You're, you're not driven by purpose much. It's, it's just like you're coasting. And people, once they accomplish a certain level of success, they can coast. Once they just— or they might give up. They might have learned helplessness and just kind of coast in a job or their business or their marriage. Well, that's not where you feel alive. And you want to make it a habit to live in that discomfort zone. And that's continually taking A different perspective on failure, different perspective on growth. One of my rules of thumb is high performers typically invest at least 10% of their income back into themselves, back into their own growth. Think of it as your own R&D, your own research and development. And the other thing with failure, one of my favorite, Sara Blakely, dynamic, amazing female entrepreneur, right?

Yeah.

Well, do you know what her dad used to ask her every day at dinner, her and her brother?

No.

What did you fail at today?

What did you fail at today? Ooh.

Yeah. And guess what? If they didn't fail on anything up until that point, before they went to sleep, they had to, had to get out and try something new and fail, which repatterned her association And her connection to failure. Failure is not bad. Failure is progress. It's growth. It's learning. And guess what? That's why she's one of the handful of women billionaires in the world today. And she has such a powerful, amazing success mindset. And she has fun doing it.

It's amazing that you fell into that because we've done on this podcast, we have done episodes on failing forward, fear of failure, and so on, and how important it is To get out of this mindset that, I don't know, as we become adults, we should be instantly good at everything that we try. It just doesn't happen, right? And we lost that try, try again mentality when we were trying to ride the bicycle at 6 years old of, come on, you can do it. Try again. Try again. To now in the workplace, people are expecting perfection. And then, we are being chastised or judged because we have failed. But along with that failure comes the learning. It's so fascinating. Mike, this is, you know, we're really onto something. I'm loving this conversation. How can people get in touch with you if this is resonating with them?

Yeah, I'm on YouTube at The Mike Zeller, Instagram, The Mike Zeller, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc., TikTok even at The Mike Zeller. You can also go to my website, mikezeller.com, or grab a free copy of my book, Genius Within And just cover the shipping and handling cost. And then, it's also on Amazon as well, of course. And would love to hear from you and find out how it's helping or inspiring you. And then, also have a free 6-step guide to finding your deepest area of genius. So, feel free to message me or we'll grab the link and post it somewhere as well.

Perfect. We have most of the links down in the show notes anyway. We'll just double-check it after we're done here today. Also, you have the new event coming in June 1st. Maybe you could send me the link for that and we'll post it in the show notes as well. People want to see what it looks like to be part of a mastermind. How much does how people view themselves and their role come into play when it comes down to this idea of Zone of Genius and adapting and adopting a mindset of abundance?

Huge impact. If you think of one of my favorite examples is Muhammad Ali. I'm going to unpack him in just a second. Your identity precedes your destiny. And you look throughout history, like, that's one of my favorite sayings I have in the book is your identity precedes your destiny. And you look, Jesus said, a good tree cannot produce bad fruit. A bad tree cannot produce good fruit. And your identity is what kind of limits you. We all know that story of like, how do the circus trainers train elephants, right? When they're little tiny babies, they tie them up with a stake and put this little stake in the ground. But then, when this giant elephant is an adult, it still is trapped by that little tiny stake in the ground until it just somehow gets startled and runs off. But what happens is its identity says, hey, I'm stuck in this. This is trapping me. This is stronger than me. This is bigger than me, whatever. So, how do you reprogram and repattern your identity? I actually Did a session with Kristen Boss this week where we're helping her shift into a much bigger market into the personal development space. So, while we were doing that session, we anchored her in as a much bigger brand, as Brené Brown speaking to this audience, handling haters and criticism and all this stuff. And we moved her identity. I call it identity stretching. I got to stretch my identity into where I want it to go.

Yeah.

Because our mind doesn't know the difference between what I'm seeing and feeling and believing versus what is actual reality. Because to the mind, your reality is whatever you're seeing, feeling, believing. That's why people can— us as human beings, we have a superpower that also can be a super destroyer. We can relive a trauma every day for the next 40 years.

And people do.

Or we can relive something before it happened. And bring the future forward because of my identity. So, good question.

Yeah, I love this. I'd like to— I know that you mentioned the Disciplines of Abundance just a little bit earlier when you were talking about your client. But I'd like to dig a little bit deeper into the Disciplines of Abundance. And we'll get to that right after this.

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Welcome back. I hope that you are getting huge value from my guest, Mike Zeller today. This is a passion thing for me too, this idea of abundance and working within zones of genius. I feel that we waste way too much of our time doing things that we're not programmed to do. And yet, when we do find that one, when we find that magic button that we can jump out of bed every day with excitement and with passion and with purpose, our lives just change. So, we have talked a lot about abundance. But can we dig a little bit deeper Into the different aspects of abundance, I noticed that one of them is identity. And you mentioned that your identity precedes your destiny, which I think is just a wonderful philosophy if people can internalize what that means to them. What else is in the Disciplines of Abundance?

Yeah, good question, Marc. So, let me unpack the identity preceding your destiny just a tad bit more.

Sure.

As well. And then, I want to go into others. One of the cool things about your identity is one of my favorite stories, Muhammad Ali. His name was Cassius Clay actually in 1964. And, you can go back and hear he creates this poem, this spoken word poem called I Am the Greatest. And, you can go back and listen to it on YouTube or other places. And, he declares to the world that I am the greatest before it ever happens, before he ever beats Sonny Liston who he was a 7-to-1 underdog. And, Sonny Liston is still considered one of the top 10 boxers of all time. And Cassius Clay, as he was named then, he had barely won his previous 2 bouts against mediocre opponents, but he saw it in his mind's eye. He saw what he could become. He believed it and he acted accordingly. He kept moving his destiny forward by acting in accordance with his higher-level identity. And he proclaimed it. One of the other most powerful phrases is, I am. I am has a magnetic Power. It's a declaration. Our words are our commands. So, when we declare to ourselves who we're becoming, how we're showing up, what we're creating, guess what? We're going to manifest it. If you watch the WeWork story and WeCrashed on Apple TV right now, Adam Neumann, freaking brilliant at manifesting. I mean, he crashed, of course, but he also did more than anyone thought he could have and he still became a billionaire. So, he still did all right. Um, I'd, I'd be fine with failing at the end if I'm still a multi-billionaire. So, but he, he, he spoke we work into existence. We create with our words, with our manifestations. Second thing, your tribe becomes your vibe. And vibe is short for vibration. Literally, our brain waves are flowing in certain waves, right, in certain ways. Isaac Newton's law of physics, an object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an outside source. Well, one of the things I ask a lot of my clients is like, hey, once they have a clear picture of what their success looks like, then I reverse engineer and ask, what does my environment need to look like for my success to be inevitable? Part of your environment is the people you associate with. This is the power of masterminds or the inner circle or these type things. If I'm associating with people that are moving in the similar direction, I'm most likely to ride. I can't fall because they're right beside me. It's like they're my gravity or they're my floor. And they're also going to help catapult me to my ceiling.

Yes.

And so, you got to really intentionally surround yourself with a high-level tribe. And because they're going to chart your future and that's going to chart what is normal for you. Remember, we're environmental creatures and we just unconsciously are receiving and associating with certain messages all the time. So, that's the second one. I can unpack a few more or I can pause for a second if you want.

Yeah. Well, what's really interesting because I came across and realized this philosophy a while back that especially when we try something new, The people who will be the soul suckers and tell you you can't do it are the people who have never done it. And so, to your point, by surrounding ourselves with people so that we are not the smartest person in the room, the people who have done it will be your biggest advocates. They're the ones who will be telling you, yes, you can. Yes, you can. You can do this. But we have to be so cautious, I think, of the people who are the soul suckers who will turn around and say, you know what? I know how lazy you can be. Or, I know how you don't have the knowledge. And they just suck it out of you. And to your point about the I am statement, how many people, and I'm talking specifically now to the audience, how many people wake up, they do something silly and they go, I am such an idiot. Because to your point, we manifest that. And then, that becomes our excuse. I can't do something because I'm an idiot. Or I can't do something because I'm not creative. Or I'm no good at math. Well, We manifest that. To your point, we manifest that because whatever you think, you're right.

Yeah, exactly. And your self-talk is so vital. You won't find a champion that has crappy self-talk.

Yeah.

It just doesn't happen.

Well, and to your point, you're talking— you're not only talking about the self-talk but you're talking about the visualization as well. Which is something. But then, you mentioned Newton's law, the whole idea of movement, which I know is also part of the abundance mentality. Can we talk a little bit about this whole idea of getting moving?

Yeah, you know, you don't just sit and do the law of attraction of like, I'm gonna manifest. It's just coming to me. You need to do that to get associated and receptive But you can't just like stay in inaction. There's the law of the right action, and so you take enough right actions. For example, if you take 300 and I'm sorry if you take three right actions towards your dreams every single day, by the end of the year you've taken over a thousand small steps towards your dreams. By the end of one year, over a thousand small steps. Guess where you can be? Three small steps. Every day, 3 reaches out or learning something, trying something, growing. Man, all of us can take 3 small actions. Some of those small actions might take 30 seconds. And so, you look at people that accomplish and do amazing things and that step in their genius, guess what? They're taking action. They're moving forward. And what happens is as we take action, we move forward in our body, we actually develop a greater sense of confidence.

Yeah.

Because I'm moving. The train has left the building. The train is moving. Jesus and Peter— Peter walked, got out of the boat and walked on water for a second. Then he sunk, but he walked on water. He moved, right? You look at, uh, uh, Andrew Carnegie, any— Henry Ford, he took action.

He didn't—

Henry Ford was bankrupt twice by the age of 43. He helped start Cadillac, then he's kicked out.

Yep. Walt Disney.

He starts forward. Yeah, Walt Disney. Exactly. He kept moving forward and he saw in the self-talk, you can't be a billionaire and be a pessimist, for example. You have to have enough optimism and enough resilience to get back up and double your failure rate and keep going and keep going. And so, action is It's absolutely essential because it accelerates confidence, accelerates certainty, accelerates commitment, and accelerates your courage. And it all starts with clarity. You start with clarity and then you go forward and you take courageous action, courageous commitment, courageous levels of certainty. And guess what? Your future unfolds. You create your future if you take courageous action.

Yeah. And this whole idea of movement, way back, I think when I was 17 years old, somebody told me the metaphor of the shark. Right? A shark has to keep moving or else it dies. That's how it processes. It processes oxygen by moving. And so, it was always, be a shark. Keep moving. And then, as I kind of grew older, I realized that to your point, you're taking these steps. You might have to take 5 steps to find those 3 steps that move you forward because you might have 2 that don't work. And so, it's important though that this idea that it doesn't matter the step you take. You just must take a step. You cannot be standing still to make this happen.

Right.

And then, you can always pivot if you find that you're coming off the Or if you're coming off task or whatever, you can always pivot and keep moving forward. This all sounds to me though, first and foremost, I think we need to figure out what's going on up here. How important is mindset?

It's huge. And I think mindset is also in your emotional set. This is another piece I'm going to add in that I don't hear people talk about enough. But like for example, when I work with some clients, what we'll actually do And, reprogramming the mindset will reprogram some of the emotional associations that are also trapped in their body. And so, that can be the voices. So, with Kristen this week, we went through all of her voices for the next level, the next leap. She had received some negative voices from family and clients and friends here and there stepping into this version of her. Of, hey, why are you doing this? When's enough enough? All those things. She had received that even though she's a Type 3 on the Enneagram, which is an achiever type. She's meant to achieve. If she stops achieving, she dies. And stops growing, she dies. And so, we started identifying those voices that would be like invisible handcuffs.

Yes.

Or dead weights. And so, we got those voices addressed. We did a process called parsing integration where we create a space for them to be heard, acknowledged, felt, appreciated for their good intent, which they want to keep her safe. They don't want her to fail. That's good.

Right.

But, we can't let those voices, negative voices drive her future. So, we put them in the back seat, had them hand over the keys, Put them in the future, in the backseat, and then identified that new, more powerful version of her. And it's alter ego identity. You know, you look at Beyoncé has Sasha Fierce. When she steps on stage, she's Sasha Fierce. Kobe Bryant, when he was playing basketball, he had a Black Mamba was his identity. He's got this killer instinct where he's just gonna— he's gonna win. He's gonna drive his team to win. Michael Jordan had that, right? But you put in that alter ego of this identity and this mindset, and that's the power of human beings. Heck, you know from your acting world, you can get in a very associative state into a new character. What do they call it in acting where you're—

Being in character. Being in character.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And you do, you do, you become that person.

Exactly. And so, it's an amazing thing about the human body. But are we— some of us are character acting in a negative way. We're character acting in a piss-poor version of ourselves and we're wondering why we aren't manifesting our future. Well, maybe what if you character act into your most successful version and just act it for 24 hours straight?

What would happen if you put a Superman cape on? What would happen to you if that was your lifestyle?

Exactly.

Hey, this is super, super interesting. For the people watching this who go, yes, I need to make a change. I need to make a change. Are there any cautionaries we should be aware of?

The only caution I would say is be ready for your life to change. And not everyone's going to like your life changing. Your friends, your peer group, sometimes your spouse, your family. They might like you being this limited version of you. And that can disrupt, that can create tension and frustration because they fear subconsciously being left behind. So, what we have to do is often address those people that are in our inner circle of like, hey, I'm not leaving you behind. You can also go with me. You can grow with me. But I love you and I'm with you. Come along for the ride.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, Mike, this has been fantastic.

This has been so fantastic. So, when it comes down to the pushback, I mean, obviously, it's one thing to get counseling and coaching for yourself. If you get that pushback, how do you create an environment that people will want to step in and go with you for the ride? Because that can be very, very scary when especially for people leaving the workforce, going into entrepreneurship. That creates a lot of uncertainty. And when it's not just when you don't have to just think about yourself. You have to think about everybody else who relies on you. How does one reconcile that?

Yeah, good question, Marc. I think one big piece is when you know you're going to get some pushback, when you think you might, express belief and gratitude to that person and remind them, connect emotionally, empathetically, heart-centered way, and invite them to be a part of the journey. And invite them that you also see more from them and for them than they see for themselves. And that it won't be scary. Well, it might be a little scary, but it'll be good. Yeah.

I could see that. Mike, do you have, as we wrap up, do you have any last thoughts about what we're talking about today?

I think at the end of the day, we are all capable of Far more. And, and I want to invite you guys to stretch, stretch into what if your dreams were your highest and truest self. In fact, one of the things I love to do is ask people is, you know, sometimes we get trapped by this imposter syndrome.

Yes.

Of like, oh, how can I be that person? How can I be that? How can I do that? How can I achieve, experience, whatever? Even though that's what we desire. Well, what if that imposter syndrome— what if that person that we feel like that's so far beyond who we are right now is actually the truest reality of ourselves, and the person that's showing up right now is the real imposter? What if the person right now is the real imposter? And I want to unpack the word desire for just a second. The word desire. We often wonder, hey, where? How did I get this desire? How did I get this longing? Why do you have the desires you have? Why do I have the desires I have? Well, I think they came more often than not from a divine source, from God, from source, the universe, whatever you want to call it. But they came from something beyond and bigger than ourselves. And if you unpack the word desire, desire, da and sire, da means of. And sire means the father. Hmm, maybe we were gifted something—a dream, a desire, a longing, a vision. Oprah didn't give up on her dreams. She she acknowledged and she believed that her desires might be real. Tony Robbins saw that his desires might be real. Mark Haney sees that his desires to write a book and create a book might be real. Mike Zeller sees, hey, my desire is to unpack a book for. helping people find their genius might be real. It was scary. I— when I first came out with my book, I don't know how you felt, but it was an identity shift. And I was a little scared the first couple weeks. I was like, is this really real? Am I really an author? Yeah, I guess I am. It took a couple months for it to really sink in.

It's amazing. And, and, and, you know, you don't, you don't go into publishing a book and think, okay, I'm going to publish a book and then tomorrow it's done. Writing a book is months and months and months and months of work and consistent vision of what you want to accomplish. And it's no different than if you wanted to build your house, right? It's you're taking pieces and you're moving in a direction to make it happen. This is just fascinating, Mike. Thank you so much for doing this. Could you remind everybody one more time how they can get a hold of you?

Yeah, thanks, Marc. It's been a pleasure connecting as well and love how you show up in the world. So, on all the social media platforms, @themikezeller, and that's Z-E-L-L-E-R, or you can find me at mikezeller.com, or my book is at geniuswithinbook.com. You can get it free there, just cover the shipping and handling, or at Amazon as well and many other sources. So, pleasure connecting with you guys. Would love to hear from you. Let me know. what resonated about the Genius Talk and abundance mindset that we've dove in, because that lights me up as well.

Love it. Michael, thank you so much for what you've done for us today and bringing your passion, your knowledge, and your expertise to the forefront for us has been brilliant.

Marc, thanks for hosting this great show. And thank you for stepping in your purpose to impact and help people step into their best version of themselves with Lights, Camera, and Action and so much more.

Love it! Take care. Why don't you let me know if this was of value to you? As always, my offer stands. If you would like 30 minutes of my time to help you brainstorm your business with you and your team, please feel free to book yourself on my online calendar. The link is in the show notes. It would be my absolute honor for me to be of service to you. That is my zone of genius and my passion. And if you haven't done so yet, why don't you go ahead and subscribe to this By doing so, it'll give you first dibs whenever I bring you fresh new content each and every week to help you work on your business, not just in your business. To help you create the show-stopping, jaw-dropping experiences that your customers and your employees deserve. That is my purpose to help you make that happen. My name is Marc Haine. I hope that you stay safe, stay healthy, and I hope that you can dare. To be the exception. Thanks for joining me today.