162. Craig Siegel | The Reinvention Formula

Hello, Book Thinkers family, and welcome to our personal development podcast, Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books. During each episode, we interview one of the world's top authors, and as a listener, you can expect to discover new books, new mentors, and new resources that you can use to achieve more and live better. In today's episode, we have the pleasure to interview Craig Siegel, author of The Reinvention Formula: How to Unlock a Bulletproof Mindset to Upgrade Your Life. Craig is an entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, Wall Street Journal bestselling author, top podcast host of The CLS Experience, where he talks to some of the biggest names in entrepreneurship, business, and in the self-development world. He is also a marathon runner and transformational coach. Craig wasn't always aligned with fulfillment and purpose, and he spent years on Wall Street chasing money and eventually realized That this wasn't the right path for him. After a lot of introspection and listening to his intuition, he went on a run that would change his life. He is now running CLS, which stands for Cultivate a Lasting Symphony, and is on a mission to empower you to achieve your greatest potential. In this episode, you'll learn about the importance of self-development, why finding your own way to meditate could change your life, the power of optimism, how to realize your true potential, what reinventing yourself actually looks like on a practical level, How to create a bulletproof mindset, and why it all comes down to this one simple question: why not you? Just one more thing. Craig has some awesome free value to give you, and if you text BOOKTHINKERS to 917-634-3796, you'll get daily texts that will help you achieve your 2024 goals. Now get ready to learn and enjoy this incredible conversation with Craig Siegel. Craig, welcome to the Book Thinkers Life-Changing Books Podcast. We are so excited to get to know about you and your book, The Reinvention Formula. You're a Wall Street Journal bestselling author, TEDx speaker, world record podcaster, business owner, mindset coach, entrepreneur, marathon runner, and so much more. You're such an incredible person. We're so excited to talk to you. With all that being said, I'd love to start off with a story about one of the early pieces of content you were about to post. It was serious. You had a great motivational message to share, but there was something unexpected in the background that had to do with a shark and that old Craig would have let his perfectionism stand in the way. And I want to start here because people often see the success and not the human. So can you tell us that story and then we can dive deeper into you and your book?

First of all, what an unbelievable introduction. There's no place in the world I'd rather be than with you guys right now. So thank you for having me. Let's get nuts. You're referring to a specific story that I haven't thought about probably in 3 years. I believe I was filming a piece of content and I had one of my old school Shark slippers in the background. And I think it made me laugh when I realized it and I just let it rock because one thing that I promised to myself when I reinvented myself, because I'm a bit of a recovering people pleaser and for 35 years I wasn't myself, guys. And when I look to reinvent myself and leave Wall Street and basically create a whole new identity and make a contribution to the world, I said, there's no guarantee this is going to work. I had no following, no connections, no nothing. But I said, for the first time ever, I'm going to show up as the real, raw, strange, authentic cat that I am. And I absolutely know that it won't be for everybody, and that's okay. In fact, that's preferred. But if God forbid I failed, which I knew I wouldn't, at least I failed being myself. And so I stuck to that. And so if I was filming a piece of content and there was a shark slipper in the background, Then it's par for the course and we let it rock.

I absolutely love that story because so many people let the perfectionism, especially in today's day and age with the way people do content and everything, you look at all these professionals and you're like, oh, I can't post anything. And they let that perfectionism get in the way. So thank you for sharing that story as we start out here. Like I said, I'm so excited to get to know you a little bit more and about your book. So let's get into your story a little bit more. Let's dive a little bit deeper. What, it's been 3 years since you started CLS and you went from Wall Street for 13 years and onto this whole crazy new adventure. So I want to back up to the start of this adventure. What was going through your head at that time when you were at Wall Street and you were like, okay, I'm quitting my job and I'm going to start a new adventure? Like, what was, where was your headspace at?

Yeah, so I think everybody gets to a point where they realize that they're here for something much more than they're currently settling for. It depends who you are and what season of life that typically happens. For me, I started to feel that prior to the pandemic. I was in a really dark season. I had my own business and I was making money on Wall Street. But as it turns out, as I figured out, there's a lot more to success than just making money. And so I was a gladiator in the wrong arena. Now, just to be clear, I wouldn't have changed one thing on my journey because it brought us exactly where we're supposed to be in divine timing. And I think because I went through all that, I had such a profound impact in what most people consider a relatively short amount of time. So right before the pandemic, I was in a really dark season. A few things happened at once. It felt like it was like this dark cloud over me. Just got out of a toxic relationship, which is never fun. My best friend, my pops, my dad had just gotten diagnosed with cancer. He's still battling. And even though I would wake up every day and I had my own business and employees, which I was super grateful for, I just wasn't in alignment with my career path. It didn't, it didn't do anything for me. I wasn't making a difference really. And so during that small season, I started drinking a little bit more than I like to admit. I think I was just trying to escape my present. In fact, I was anywhere really but the present. I was depressed about the past. I was anxious about the future. I was just miserable. But then in divine timing, somehow I stumbled upon running. And the jury's still out if I found running or running found me. But I started running all these marathons pretty quickly. Ran 4 the first year I discovered running. Now, just to be clear, I knew what running was, but You couldn't pay me to run a couple of years ago. Now I'm literally paying to run marathons. I just ran New York City 2 days ago and paid to run that. Well, it raised money for a charity. But that season was so pivotal, guys, because it should— first of all, it gave me purpose at a time when I desperately needed something aside from just my business. And maybe most importantly, it showed me that I could be successful at something that I didn't necessarily have experience in. And I really want to hammer that home for your listeners today. So fast forward the pandemic. I mean, talk about a global awakening. For me, I had this moment of clarity where I just looked at this as an historic opportunity to just reassess. As you can imagine, owning your own business, specifically being in New York, if you're not going 400 miles an hour, you're getting run over. So that's on me. I never created the time and space to get quiet and to really connect. And, and in my opinion, mindfulness is a portal to expansion, but I never took the time. And so for your listeners today, Be proactive, create time and space to connect and get clarity. And so because the pandemic was that forced pivot, I started to put myself in that higher frequency. What do I really want to do? What do I love? Just like that. For me, I'm obsessed with personal development. I've been studying it for 15 years, documenting it, taking classes. I can't get enough of it. And I'm like, all right, I think this is more than a passion. I believe this is my assignment. What am I good at? And I started to make a list. I'm like, well, I can communicate pretty effectively. Everybody's good at some stuff. And so I married those 2, my obsession with personal development, my ability to communicate, and I created this whole vision. And I think there's a big difference between a dream and a vision. I think everybody has a dream, but most people don't really have a path. And as a result, they never really attack their dreams. I was super intentional. My vision looked like a 10-lane highway with each lane representing a different way to make an impact and do business. Speaking, coaching, book deal, TED Talk, podcast, community coaching, all the things. And then I reverse engineered it. I'm like, well, what's step 1? Forget about Z. How do we go from A to B? And I said, let's build a personal brand. And, and I had nothing going on at the time, but I knew it doesn't matter how passionate or good I might be able to get at this stuff if there's nobody there to consume. And I got nothing. And then right before I leaned in, I said, can I really do this? Do I just want to go back and play it safe on Wall Street? And then I realized I would actually rather die than choose to go back and be miserable. And so quickly, the fear of stepping into the unknown began to transform into enthusiasm. I leaned in, guys, and for the first time in my life, I was in alignment. And over the last 3 years, the brand has absolutely exploded. Sold the business on Wall Street. Wasn't just a career reinvention. Engaged, a puppy, the whole nine. That was a bit of a long-winded answer. But I wanted to give your listeners some context to, to kind of see how dark it was for me not so long ago and how bright it is now and how if I could do it, everybody else can do it and even faster.

There probably are a number of people in the audience today thinking, wow, I need to create some space for a reinvention. You mentioned you were going 400 miles an hour. You never stopped to slow down and get clarity. So for anybody that's in that position today, moving fast, They just can't find a place to slow down. Do you have any recommendations, exercises, things that they could do to sort of get that perspective shift?

Yeah, you have to be proactive, right? You have to actually book it, like take time in your calendar and say, I'm taking a 3-day weekend, or I'm gonna wake up super early on Sunday morning. I'm, I'm gonna go into nature. I'm gonna find some time to really connect and block out all the BS that could be distracting. And so if you don't do that, life will happen to you, right? And you won't really design your own life. And even me, like, just to be clear, guys, I'm human. Like, we're growing so fast right now and rapidly and we're scaling and we're hiring. I even caught myself last week. I'm like, I'm doing so much right now and we have so many things going on. I wanna take advantage of all the opportunities. But I realized that because I'm so much in my masculine energy right now, I haven't taken the time to tap into my feminine energy, which for me means to kind of be and allow and receive and manifest. And so I created time this week because I was aware of it. So anyone listening right now, just be intentional. Create literally time in your schedule to get quiet and really connect.

There are so many people listening that, that probably love the idea of what you're talking about, but they don't work out of a calendar on a day-to-day basis. I mean, I do. I live out of my Google Calendar. So the idea of just blocking some space for reflection makes a lot of sense to me. Are there any other kind of mindfulness practices that you participate in on a regular basis? Do you meditate? What's your morning routine look like? I'd love to hear some of those things.

Yeah, in regards to meditating, you're not gonna find me like sitting Indian style, like, like really just being quiet in my own place. It's just not my thing, at least right now. I found it pretty challenging to really quiet my thoughts in that sense. However, what I discovered is that for me, running is my moving meditation. When I'm running, that's when I do my best connecting, which means I'm in a higher frequency and I'm able to draw upon divine inspiration. Basically, I get the downloads that change everything, which are more important than strategy and tactics. So that's how I put myself in that position. Now, for some listening, they might not be a runner. That's okay. What is your thing? How can you get quiet? Where can you go? What time do you do that? Do you meditate? Find your thing. Find what works for you. Clarity follows action. Try some new things. In regards to the morning routine, Look, I'm, I'm really structured and, and I'm really systematic. That's what works for me. In fact, my fiancée said to me last night, she's like, 'cause I'm on a meal prep, I don't have to think. I just, you know, I work all day long and I'm working very hard and then at dinner I'll eat something else. But she's like, aren't you sick of the same meals like every day? I'm like, no, because it's not supposed to be pleasure for me. It's like business. It's like I'm a machine and, and I'm just fueling it with, with energy, so to speak. So That's how I look at it. So in regards to the morning routine, I'm, I'm very organized, very structured. I wake up super early for a couple reasons. Number one, because we have so much going on right now and we're growing so rapidly, I don't have much time. So I have to create the time. And so I wake up a little bit earlier where I can really have some Craig time and connect and do all that stuff. And then also when I do wake up super early, I feel like I have an edge over the rest of the world because I've already accomplished so much before they've even woken up. And you, you know, agree or not, for me, that gives me a little bit of a psychological advantage. And some of the things that I'll do when I wake up is non-negotiable. I'll pray/connect. I'll set the intentions for the day. I'll, I'll go over my to conquer list. I like to cross stuff off. I'm old school. I'll literally write it down over the course of the day. I'll be consuming some sort of personal development, whether it's a podcast or YouTube or an Audible book at some point. then I get my workout in, bang, and then I, then I begin to attack the day, so to speak. And that routine right there, unless I'm traveling for speaking and there's just no way I can get to it, it is non-negotiable for me.

I'm so curious about— you're a very spiritual person from the stuff I've consumed that you've put out there. And I'm curious, is that something that you grew up with? Did your parents cultivate that in you, or is that something that came later in your life?

Much later. So I grew up Jewish. I'm not super religious, but I've really tripled down on my spirituality as of late. And what's most important to me personally is my connection with God. That's my thing. And I just, I'm, I believe that we are all a soul and a spirit having a human experience. So like 3 pieces of energy right now are having a conversation. Obviously, your vessels are much more handsome than mine. But ultimately, that's what's inside. That's what we can connect and tap into. And that's actually limitless. So this 3D reality that we're looking at right now, that's 1%. Then there's the 99%, which is everything else, the unlimited potential that you can tap into. And this is a vibrational universe. So depending upon which frequency you're on, you're going to get back. And so what you want to do is to figure out how to tap into all that other potential and so forth. And so Since I really started going deep on this stuff is when I started to make quantum leaps in my life, both running crazy times, but even manifesting business and so forth, and being able to bring things to fruition without having to work so hard to just get them. So long-winded answer again, but I wanna give you guys some context. I really tripled down on my spirituality over the last few years. I was definitely not raised with that stuff.

Yeah, no, I, I, I love the, I love the context. It's contexting long answers. It's great. You know, I'm thinking about the marathons and you, you said that you didn't even like to, you didn't like to run and then all of a sudden you, was it, was it just one day you just snapped and like, I'm gonna run a marathon? Like what was the decision behind that? What was the thoughts and the mindset behind going to do that thing?

Yeah, so it was, this was during my dark season, my rock bottom, I'd say. And for whatever reason, I just felt called. to go outside and to attempt to run 2 miles. Now, I, I had always worked out, was a bit of a meathead back in the day, just liked to lift weights. I didn't really know anything about nutrition. So for me, running and cardio was uncomfortable. And so I attacked that 2-mile run and I was so humbled with the fact that I found it really challenging and a struggle to complete 2 miles without stopping. And so I did it and I came home and I remember asking myself like, am I just not that physically fit or am I not as mentally fit as I thought I was? And I just started going down the rabbit hole. I started Googling everything about running. I became obsessed. The next day I went out and I ran 3 miles. Then I signed up for an official 5K, completed that. Like, all right, good. What's next? Then I did a 10K like a month later, which is 6.2 miles done. And then from there, if you guys know me or anyone in the audience read the book, you know what's next. And so I signed up for the New York City Marathon and I put it out there to the world because to be honest with you, that's a cheat code because you assume massive accountability when you set a really big audacious goal and you put it out there. Like you can let yourself down behind closed doors, but if you tell people about it, all of a sudden it has life, it has energy. And so I didn't have much time to train. This was probably all in like 6 or 7 months. And I conquered it. And then I became obsessed after that. I wasn't just enough to run a marathon. I wanted to do it well, break 4 hours and break 3:30 and all that stuff. So it started with one simple run that I, I can't explain to you why I felt called to do it. And then went down the rabbit hole and running. I'm so romantic and emotional about because I found it at that season of life, kind of got me out of the darkness and into the light. That I just love it so much. And it's not really the running. Running for me is a metaphor for life.

And you just ran a 3:27 a couple of days ago. Before we press record, you were telling us that I think it was at mile 9, you hit the wall, but you didn't want to hit the wall until 18 to 20. So how did you persevere and push through for such a long period of time?

Yeah. And Nick, just to be clear, brother, you don't want to ever hit the wall. But the marathoners will tell you, even the professionals that I've had on my podcast and so forth, you typically hit a wall around mile 18 or 20, just where everything starts hurting, the negativity starts seeping in. But when you're at mile 20, you know, it's not so tough to push yourself 6 miles. For me, it happened at mile 9 on Sunday. I don't really know why. I've been dealing with like a groin thing and I'm anemic, so I get really cold and it just makes me uncomfortable. It started to happen at mile 9. So it wasn't even cold if I'm being honest, like 60 degrees. I pulled over for a second to sort myself out, overcame that. And then from there it was just like everything was aching. I was cramping. The negative self-talk was so demonic, you guys would die laughing. The opponent in my head was like, why'd you tell everyone you were running this thing? And 'cause everybody was watching and tracking it and so forth. But I just, I heard it and then I punched back and I knew it was gonna be a long day when it happened at mile 9. And there's so many moments where you just feel like quitting. But because of that opportunity, like I don't believe it was a coincidence that I had to deal with that at mile 9 because there was so much growth and expansion that occurred during that beautiful 26.2-mile run that I, I'm just a whole new person now because of it. So it was a long day, but I punched back and we ended up running a personal best, which was a 3:27, which comes out to about a 7:55 pace.

I love that you brought up your negative voice because I think that's another misconception that we have about people that are successful. We think that, oh, they've overcome this negative voice completely and they don't have it anymore. So, I know one of your favorite books, at least you've talked about in some podcasts, is The Power of Positive Thinking. Is that because you've struggled with a negative mindset in your life and you've let it overcome you at times?

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I love the book because I love the book. Uh, it probably, it probably hits home with me. Yeah, what you were tested through because Look, negativity plagues us all, right? And I've interviewed some of the world's greatest on the podcast, from celebrities, Hollywood actors, professional athletes, entrepreneurs. And one thing that they all say that they have in common, which I think is pretty cool and interesting, is that they're not always motivated and they always have the doubt negativity seep in. It's just that the greats have systems in place to overcome them while other people that don't, They cripple to the negativity and so forth. And so whether it's limiting beliefs or a negative voice in your head or doubt or unworthiness, yeah, it's definitely something that I've struggled with my whole life at times. Even like now, you know, people look at us and they can't believe what we've done in a relatively short amount of time. They think it's overnight success. But even me, like at certain times, I— the marathon, for example, I've ran 6 prior to Sundays, but I still have the voice in my head at mile 10, 11, you sure you want to stick this out? You don't want to just quit? But I've done it before. But now I have systems in place and sometimes I actually just laugh at them because I realize it's not real. If you could just step back and be a witness to your thoughts, you'll see that they're going with or without you. So you get to choose where you want to allocate the energy to. And so you just got to have systems in place. That book always— when I listen to that book, I typically listen to Audibles because I have so much going on. It's easy to multitask. It just puts me in a higher frequency. I love it and it just makes me feel good. And the power of positivity is no joke. And I would consider myself delusionally optimistic. What's the alternative? Be realistic? I personally think that's negative.

I saw that you just interviewed Matt Higgins. So did we. I think we put out our episode with him today, and we're actually going to New Jersey to work with him next week. Something that we talked with Matt about on the podcast that you alluded to earlier was this idea of almost downloading like an external idea, like it has its own consciousness and you become a vessel for that idea to work through. Could you expand on that a little bit more? Because I think that as people start to make space and ideas come to them, having a little bit more language around what's actually happening is useful.

It's one idea, one thought that changes everything, right? Like it's Steve Jobs or Walt Disney having that one thought that changes the entire world. Now, everybody is privy to these thoughts. For example, no one on this Zoom right now has more potential than the other. The greats, they know how to unlock a higher percentage of their own potential, right? So our light, if you will— when I say light, I mean like abundance and all the good stuff out there— it's never diminished, even if we've been beat up over life. Or anyone that's listening to this right now, maybe they're 60 or whatever the case may be, and they just feel like they've had some bad luck or abundance just isn't in the cards for them. Your light is not diminished. However, it has been concealed. Maybe there's been a curtain or 5 or 10 that have been put over your light. And as a result, it's, it's not as bright, it's a little bit more dim. But we have the ability to remove those curtains and shine a little brighter and be more available for the creative divine downloads that change everything. And so using yourself as a vessel, you have to put yourself in a higher frequency, whether it's meditating or running or listening to positive stuff or removing the limitations and be available to be able to receive those downloads, apply them, and then change everything. And I think there's a misconception. People just think other people are luckier or smarter. No, you just have to be so conscious about your energy and your vibration. And that's why if there's certain people or things that tend to lower your state, you have a decision to make. Do you want to keep being around those vibes? Or do you want to maybe allocate your energy to something a little bit more elevating. Because when you're in that frequency, you're more likely to receive those downloads.

Take it over to Luke. But I just want to highlight something that you said and replay it back. None of us has more potential than another. I think that's a beautiful— that's a beautiful truth. And I just wanted to highlight it one more time so I could say it out loud and get used to that.

Yeah, 100%. And once someone listens right now, has that aha moment, Now they can begin to be intentional on how can they unlock a bigger percentage of their own potential.

Kind of taking a left turn here. I, I saw this post on LinkedIn and it was of your dad picking out your book in Barnes& Noble. And actually, like, it made me tear up a little bit because, oh, that's just so— makes me emotional just thinking about it. Um, your dad, you know, he's, he's still battling cancer, correct?

Correct.

Yeah. So how your dad, you've talked about him being your best friend and he had a pretty positive influence on you. How did that make you feel when he, when he first held that, your book in his hands?

I believe goals and purpose will keep someone alive when nothing else will. And so my dad's no spring chicken. They had me a little bit later. My dad's 88 years young. My mom, I believe, is 75. They're actually celebrating their 50th November 18th, God willing. My brother and I are throwing him a huge surprise party. And so, you know, my dad's one of those cats. He's always been super healthy and he always loved to swim and everyone always thought he was like 25 years younger than he actually was. He used to lie about his age to us. Not lie, just like keep it a secret. Obviously my brother and I, you know, we figured it out. But when he got diagnosed with cancer, he had a stroke and then they found cancer, which was a shock. But like I said, he's not a spring chicken. You know, based upon what I've seen, and I wanna be responsible with how I word this, I've seen people get diagnosed with cancer that kind of feel defeated and emotionally give up. And then I see the, their demise is very quickly. I know other people such as my dad that have a great attitude and a lot to live for and very excited, and I see them fight. And it's my responsibility to keep my dad's spirit super high and positive. And one of the ways that I've been able to do that is with all the stuff that we're doing now with CLS. Like I'm interviewing some of his favorite athletes. I was just at an event, I was sharing a stage with some of the New York Rangers Stanley Cup champions and so forth. He loves this stuff. He's so proud and obviously the book and so forth. And so I was just so pumped. that my parents have the opportunity to see all the stuff that I'm doing now and it brings them so much joy. And yeah, you, you just made, you got me in my feels right now, brother. It's a really, really good feeling. It's definitely a perk and a bonus to the big impact that we're making for sure.

Yeah. Well, thanks for sharing.

Yeah.

Sorry, Nick.

I was going to highlight there's a great book out there actually called Cancer by Dr. Paul Anderson. I reviewed it years and years ago and it talks about that moment of diagnosis, and there's sort of 2 different pathways that people go down. There's, hey, I'm gonna get a handle on this, versus like, oh, woe is me, victim mentality. And if you can get a handle on this and you can focus on the positive, there are a lot of amazing statistics around what people can do. So yeah, really interesting that we brought this up today.

Yeah, that's really beautiful, and I believe it.

So out of all, you know, you talked about your dad gets— he's getting excited about the interviews that you're doing. So out of all the, the interviews that you have done, what— which one has been your Favorite and why?

Yeah, I get asked this all the time. I will not reveal. Now, all kidding aside, you guys know because you have a show. Well, maybe you don't agree. But for me, I'm so passionate about everything that we're doing for that specific lane in my 10-lane highway, which is the podcast. I love it. And I feel like every guest is essentially one of my kids. Like, I don't feel right choosing an interview over the other because they're all great in their own right. And I take such pride in being able to really dive deep and disarm them, especially some of these big celebrities. Like, you know, to be able to, to build rapport and create a connection is a challenge. That's a skill set that could be developed. You guys are doing a great job of it today, especially bringing up stuff from the past. You obviously did your homework. That's awesome. So I love all the podcasts for different reasons. What has been super cool is a lot of the people that I really looked up to over the years, especially when I was getting out of my dark season, that really played a role. People like Joe Desenya, who's the the founder of Spartan. Ironically, I was just on his podcast yesterday. Bethany Hamilton. They made the movie Soul Surfer about her. The shark bit off her arm. Just so many people that I really looked up to that are now my friends and we're collaborating with. I think those are pretty cool surreal moments because of how much they impacted my life, which helped me get to a place where now I'm impacting so many. So it's kind of like a ripple effect. So. Those kind of come to mind. Then obviously it's cool to get the really big— I call them jugs, juggernauts— on the show that don't typically do interviews, like Suzanne Somers, who just passed away. She doesn't really do many. We had her on, Alicia Silverstone, and so forth. Those are always fun too. You know, the podcast is a great vehicle. I, I love it so much. It's hard to choose just one guest. I—

and I do totally agree with you. It's like I usually get on these too, just very excited just to get to know the person and try to remain as present as possible with whoever we are talking to. And usually by the time I get off, I'm like, oh, that was my favorite interview. It's just the last one that we did. So I know that feeling. This one today is my favorite interview for sure.

Thank you. Thank you, brother. Yeah, I know that feeling.

So the book, was this something that you were setting out to do? Did you want to write a book? Was it, was it in your plans 3 years ago or is it something that's just come about over the last couple of years or the last year for you? What is, what, why did you want to write the book?

Yeah, so I think you guys know by now how methodical and intentional I am with life. And I always, I'm always thinking of life as like a chessboard and thinking 10 moves ahead. So when I created that 10-lane highway that we spoke about, one of the lanes was a book deal. And for me personally, I wanted a book deal as opposed to self-publishing because in my head it gave us more credibility. It reminded me of like a movie coming out backed by a big studio as opposed to like an indie film. Now that doesn't mean that I'm right. That's just how I felt. And so I set the intention to get a book deal and then I divorced from that and then I just kept building and compounding and doing the work and manifesting. And then Wiley ended up coming to us and I renegotiated a big advance for a first-time author. They said yes. They're like, well, there's only one caveat. We have a tight turnaround. We want to leverage your momentum. And it just felt like the right time. It felt good. I liked Wiley, good vibes, good energy. I said, okay, let's do this. And as it turns out, as you guys probably know, and I'm sure your guests have probably admitted this as well, writing the book is kind of the easy part. Promoting, spreading the message, talking about it, that's really a full-time job in itself if your goals are to put the book in as many hands as you possibly can, because that's how you make the biggest impact. So when it came to writing the book, I had a system. I woke up, I'll never forget, December 2022. I woke up every single day at 4:00 AM, which is a little bit earlier than usual, pitch blackout, looking at the, the nice river behind me in New York City. And I would just write for about an hour, hour and a half. And I would never reread what I wrote because as a recovering perfectionist, I knew if I did that, I'd never make it to chapter 2. So I allowed myself that flexibility to do a month-long brain dump, and the book just started to unravel. It wrote itself. And I was done. And it's cool because if and when there's ever a book 2, if I want to go down that route, right? I'm not even thinking about it because I acted like this book is the only one I'll ever write. I could duplicate that process. So the book was something that I set the intention for when I reinvented myself, but I divorced from it because I wasn't— I didn't want to create subconscious resistance of not having a book deal. I think that's a big part of manifesting. You set the intention and then you release. And then just do the work. And then it came around and everything about it felt great. And then we attacked and obviously Wall Street Journal, USA Today, bestseller and all that good stuff.

We're getting towards the end of today's show. For somebody that's listened in and they're like, wow, Craig's a pretty cool guy. I'm vibing this, I'm vibing with this energy. I really enjoy all of these lessons, but they're not sure if the book is going to be a good fit for them. I'd love to have you kind of tell everybody what your expectations are, what, what people can walk away with if they choose to buy a copy.

Here's how you'll know if the book is for you. If you're into thinking and playing bigger, gaining clarity, learning how to brand yourself, entrepreneurship, sales, falling in love with yourself, creating relationships, and wanting to live a more meaningful life and make more money, then the book's for you. I think it's safe to say we covered everybody to some capacity. And if I'm being honest, that's what I take most pride in, is this book is not niche. It's not just for people looking to do one specific thing. It's for anybody that wants to live a more fulfilling, meaningful life full of impact, contribution, more money, relationships, and all that stuff. And, and also in regards to reinventing, I want to reinvent the term reinvention for anyone that's listening. I know your guys' listeners are probably a little bit younger, but I'm sure you guys have older too. Reinventing is not starting over. It's finishing and executing on what you've been dying to do. It's about arriving at yourself finally after all these years. And the reason why I say it's not starting over, it's because you're taking all your life experience, your skills, your experiences, and you're applying them to getting into alignment with why you're actually here during this season of life. And so it's just a beautiful thing. And I really believe that we should be reinventing ourselves in some capacity Every single day, whether it's an identity or shedding old skins or whatever the case may be, but always be growing and expanding.

Yeah, I love that. And in here you talk about entrepreneurship, and I think for a lot of people, reinvention means entrepreneurship, maybe for the first time. But entrepreneurship has a price, like you say in chapter 15. So for anybody that wants to understand more about what that looks like, make sure you grab a copy of the book. Here's my last question before I kick it back over to Luke. Something that we've started to ask recently. What book have you gifted the most to other people other than your own over the last couple of years?

It's a great question. I would say the one right next to me, which is The Secret. You know, we were talking about the energy stuff a while back, and it's funny because I read The Secret earlier in my life, but I wasn't available for it. Then I reread The Secret a few years back and I was available and it just hit differently. And I just started to go down the rabbit hole of all this energy stuff and law of attraction. And to be clear, and this isn't anything I wouldn't say to their faces, because John Assaraf was just in my community yesterday speaking to my members and so forth. And a lot of the authors in this have become my really good friends. It's a little bit incomplete. You actually have to apply the law of GOYA, which is get off your ass, not just sit there and manifest stuff. But it, it really opened the door for me on all this energy and vibrational stuff. And I think it's a really good starting point for anybody. that wants to play a much, much, much bigger game in life is to understand that we are a vibrational universe and we are energy and we can manifest stuff and so forth. And I think that concept is more important than strategies and tactics. So I would say probably The Secret is the book that I've gifted the most aside from my own.

It is a great book, a classic for sure. All right, before I ask my last question, um, let our listeners know where they can go to find you, order your book and all that fun stuff?

Yeah. Um, anywhere you guys are on social media, @prexegal.cls, please come say hello. I love to interact. Anywhere you listen to podcasts, The CLS Experience. Anywhere you buy books, The Reinvention Formula. Uh, and if you like inspirational free nuggets throughout the week, we have a texting community. You could text 917-634-3796, um, and text the words Book Thinkers so I know that you heard it here.

Perfect. Thank you so much. All right. We'll also link all that in the show notes. So my final question is this.

Hit me.

If after you pass away, all the information that you put out there disappears, the courses, the books, all the coaching stuff, the videos, the podcast, everything's gone, but you can leave the world with a single piece of advice, what would it be?

Why not you? So many people want to do something much bigger. I know that. Then they get dejected because they think they're unworthy or it's too late or they're too old. Why not you? And when I ask someone that, they don't really have a good answer because they realize it is possible for them once they start to remove the limiting beliefs and really think bigger. And I think those 3 words, why not you, will be applicable and relevant Till the end of time.

I 100% agree. Why not you? Great place to end it. Well, thank you so much for your time. This has been an awesome conversation. Appreciate you so much, boys.

Thank you so much. This was great.

That is a wrap. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of Book Thinkers, Life-Changing Books. It would mean the world to us if you could write a review and share this episode with a few of your friends. I mean, these books truly have the power to change people's lives, and by reviewing or sharing our podcast, you're helping us make an impact. If you have any recommendations for future guests or any constructive feedback for us on how we can improve our show, please feel free to submit a form on our website, www.bookthinkers.com, or send us a direct message on Instagram @bookthinkers. With that, I am signing off, and I hope you have a wonderful day. Don't forget, go read something.