Show Notes

Amplify Your Authority
Amplify Your Authority
Episode #70 Persuading Yourself to a Better Life [Ray Edwards]
Loading
/

Ray Edwards

A Sales Letter Can Transform Your Inner Dialogue and Save Your Life

Book Release: “Read This or Die”

In this episode, I introduce an extraordinary guest who harnessed the power of persuasion to ignite a profound transformation, ultimately rescuing his existence. 

Prepare to hear a captivating conversation with the esteemed Ray Edwards, a renowned copywriter, author, speaker, and marketer, as he recounts his arduous struggle with Parkinson’s. 

He reveals his victorious triumph during one of his darkest moments. Ray generously imparts invaluable insights on dismantling emotional obstacles through persuasion and encourages others to do the same. 

 

In this podcast, Ray shares the following. 

  • Discerning between merely existing and truly living 
  • Contemplating our mortality has become prominent throughout all generations, but its awareness can lead to a hopeful future.
  • Unmasking Covid’s lingering effects, consequences, or silver lining?
  • Writing a persuasive letter to yourself can lead to dramatic changes. 
  • Learning a new approach to life from a younger generation.

 

Takeaways

  • Persuading yourself is the first step towards achieving goals and success.
  • The way we talk to ourselves can significantly impact our self-confidence and motivation.
  • By changing our internal dialogue, we can boost our confidence and overcome fears of rejection and failure.
  • The role of empathy and creating a connection when persuading others.
  • The importance of taking action and consistently making progress towards your goals.

 

🎉🎉Check Out Ray’s New Book!🎉🎉

https://www.readthisordiebook.com/read-this-or-die-ray-edwards

Order Your Copy of “Read This or Die” Today

https://www.amazon.com/Read-This-Die-Persuading-Yourself/dp/0063074869/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0

 

🙌🙌Watch One of Ray’s Most Life-Changing Moments!🙌🙌 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnW8pXjBCDI/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

 

About Ray Edwards

Ray Edwards is a Communications Strategist, Copywriter, Author, Speaker, and host of one the top iTunes Business Podcasts. He has worked with Fortune 500 companies and with some of the most powerful voices in leadership and business. 

His clients include New York Times best-selling authors Michael Hyatt (author of Platform and co-author of Living Forward), Tony Robbins (author of Unleash the Giant Within and Money: Master the Game), Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen (co-authors of Chicken Soup For the Soul), Jeff Walker (author of Launch), and many more.

Ray’s copy and marketing expertise has helped sell an estimated $200 Million or more in products and services.

Ray is the founder of Ray Edwards International, Incorporated, which offers:

  • Copywriting
  • Consulting and Coaching
  • Product Launch Management
  • Training and Instruction

 

Links

 

Rate, Review, & Follow on Apple Podcasts

Did you enjoy this episode? Would you give this podcast a 5-star rating and review? You’ll help me reach and support more people like you. Together we can let our faith shape our work to create positive change in the world.

 

Watch on YouTube

1
00:00:04,940 –> 00:00:06,000
He has been a mentor.

2
00:00:06,269 –> 00:00:10,400
He’s also the person that I reached out
to when I wanted to get my copywriting

3
00:00:10,470 –> 00:00:13,119
certification. So without further ado,

4
00:00:13,280 –> 00:00:16,440
I want to introduce Mr. Ray
Edwards. Hi Ray. How are you?

5
00:00:16,900 –> 00:00:19,680
Hi there. I’m so good, so
honored to be here with you.

6
00:00:20,380 –> 00:00:21,640
Yes, I’m delighted.

7
00:00:21,780 –> 00:00:25,560
And you’ve been working on a project
and we are on this podcast today

8
00:00:25,840 –> 00:00:28,600
specifically to highlight
your latest book.

9
00:00:28,660 –> 00:00:31,800
So for the sake of those people
that maybe don’t know who you are,

10
00:00:31,801 –> 00:00:35,920
you wanna give us a little background
and then tell us a little bit about your

11
00:00:35,921 –> 00:00:37,320
book. Just, just the title.

12
00:00:37,409 –> 00:00:39,840
Let’s just tease it up and then
we’ll break it down from there.

13
00:00:40,270 –> 00:00:42,680
Sure, sure. Um, about me,

14
00:00:42,979 –> 00:00:45,680
I’m best known as a copywriter
and marketing consultant,

15
00:00:45,681 –> 00:00:47,120
communication strategist.

16
00:00:47,710 –> 00:00:50,880
I’ve had the privilege of working
with people like Tony Robbins and Jack

17
00:00:50,881 –> 00:00:55,760
Canfield, Margaret, Dr.
Hansen, uh, Michael Hyatt,
Stu McLaren, Amy Porterfield,

18
00:00:56,130 –> 00:01:00,360
names you probably know. And,
um, thousands of other students.

19
00:01:01,100 –> 00:01:03,640
And we have a copywriting
certification program. We,

20
00:01:03,641 –> 00:01:07,080
we write ads to sell ideas,
products, and services.

21
00:01:07,800 –> 00:01:11,040
That’s what we do at my company. And
it’s a million-dollar company, uh,

22
00:01:11,041 –> 00:01:13,200
that’s all very fancy.

23
00:01:13,300 –> 00:01:16,560
That’s how you introduce yourself
into a room to impress people.

24
00:01:17,200 –> 00:01:19,120
But there’s a lot of blood, sweat, and
tears that went into building that,

25
00:01:19,121 –> 00:01:22,690
of course. And, um, what people,

26
00:01:22,840 –> 00:01:24,850
many people probably don’t
know or maybe don’t know,

27
00:01:24,950 –> 00:01:29,950
is that about 12 years ago I was diagnosed
with Parkinson’s Disease and that

28
00:01:30,790 –> 00:01:33,110
progresses over time.
It’s incurable so far,

29
00:01:34,560 –> 00:01:37,800
and it progresses over time
and just gets worse. And it’s,

30
00:01:38,110 –> 00:01:41,680
it’s about more than just shaking hands.
People think your hands are shaking.

31
00:01:41,880 –> 00:01:43,480
And that’s what Parkinson’s is.

32
00:01:44,060 –> 00:01:49,000
You begin to lose control of your entire
body over time. I mean, it eventually,

33
00:01:49,001 –> 00:01:51,560
the disease rubs you of everything
that makes life enjoyable.

34
00:01:51,561 –> 00:01:55,520
It robs you of your ability to
walk, talk, eat, feed yourself,

35
00:01:56,640 –> 00:02:00,920
um, dress yourself, take care of the most
basic human needs, fill in the blanks.

36
00:02:00,921 –> 00:02:03,790
You can probably figure out
what I’m talking about. And, um,

37
00:02:05,040 –> 00:02:08,610
it’s a very unpleasant outcome for
everybody who gets it and survives long

38
00:02:08,611 –> 00:02:11,770
enough. Um, you may have seen Michael J.

39
00:02:11,770 –> 00:02:15,570
Fox interviewed by Diane Sawyer
recently, and he’s just, um,

40
00:02:15,760 –> 00:02:19,810
he’s had it for 30 years. He’s
one of the longest surviving, um,

41
00:02:19,980 –> 00:02:23,570
recipients of, of this special gift. Um,

42
00:02:24,169 –> 00:02:25,970
and I used to not be able
to call it a gift. I,

43
00:02:26,250 –> 00:02:27,889
I would get angry with
people who, who did.

44
00:02:28,790 –> 00:02:32,210
And the process that I went
through getting from a place
where I used to look at

45
00:02:32,211 –> 00:02:36,450
it as a curse and the end of my
life, and now I see it as a gift.

46
00:02:36,451 –> 00:02:39,690
It’s given me so much. We can
get into that if you want to. Um,

47
00:02:40,400 –> 00:02:44,800
the title of the book is called Read This
or Die Persuading Yourself to A Better

48
00:02:44,801 –> 00:02:49,360
Life. And yeah, It’s about
that. It’s about that journey.

49
00:02:50,000 –> 00:02:53,620
But what it’s really about is
how I tried so many things.

50
00:02:53,780 –> 00:02:57,419
I tried curing a disease, first of all,
cause I didn’t believe it was incurable.

51
00:02:58,090 –> 00:03:01,040
And so far I, along with everybody
else in the world who’s ever tried,

52
00:03:01,060 –> 00:03:02,120
has not been able to cure it.

53
00:03:03,419 –> 00:03:08,020
But there’s hope for that thanks to
Mr. Fox and his organization. Um,

54
00:03:08,150 –> 00:03:12,340
we’ve made lots of progress over the years
and I’ve seen treatments improve over

55
00:03:12,341 –> 00:03:16,180
the years as I’ve been
getting progressively worse
and taking more and more

56
00:03:16,181 –> 00:03:20,970
medication and so forth. But we’ll
get to that underlying, that.

57
00:03:20,971 –> 00:03:22,970
The real reason that I’m here today is,

58
00:03:22,971 –> 00:03:26,850
the reason I wrote the book is the fact
that I had to figure out whether life

59
00:03:26,851 –> 00:03:30,330
was worth living. And if it
was, how is I gonna live it?

60
00:03:31,250 –> 00:03:34,730
And that’s the real story of the
book. And the story is that, uh,

61
00:03:34,810 –> 00:03:39,330
I tried self-help, I tried religion, I
tried, I’m not speaking against religion,

62
00:03:39,390 –> 00:03:41,570
I’m just saying it didn’t
cure his disease. So that was,

63
00:03:41,571 –> 00:03:44,530
that was the outcome I was looking for.
That was the outcome I was looking for.

64
00:03:45,930 –> 00:03:46,740
Um.

65
00:03:46,740 –> 00:03:47,690
Right, right. Yeah.

66
00:03:47,690 –> 00:03:49,450
I didn’t get it. And.

67
00:03:49,610 –> 00:03:54,570
I think also, Ray, you’re
mentioning Parkinson’s, but
I think this book, I mean,

68
00:03:54,571 –> 00:03:55,890
challenges are everywhere. Right?

69
00:03:56,410 –> 00:04:00,490
I think this book is an
amazing book for anyone. Um,

70
00:04:00,560 –> 00:04:04,730
because I saw that it’s, it’s
sort of like a memoir, self-help,

71
00:04:05,310 –> 00:04:10,130
but challenges now go across the
board and sometimes challenges aren’t,

72
00:04:10,890 –> 00:04:14,810
uh, visible and they’re sort of hidden
because we’re told to, you know,

73
00:04:15,200 –> 00:04:17,730
step up and just show up and,

74
00:04:18,630 –> 00:04:22,810
and with some people live with
this just building inside of them.

75
00:04:22,811 –> 00:04:26,610
So I think for people, any person
that’s going through a challenge,

76
00:04:26,611 –> 00:04:30,170
whether it’s a debilitating
challenge, emotional, spiritual,

77
00:04:30,570 –> 00:04:33,850
whatever it might be, would you
say you would recommend this book?

78
00:04:34,130 –> 00:04:35,570
Cuz I feel it’s perfect for them.

79
00:04:37,010 –> 00:04:40,230
Yes. I would say that. Yeah. Thanks
for getting me out of book promo.

80
00:04:40,470 –> 00:04:41,550
Holding into conversation mode.

81
00:04:42,230 –> 00:04:47,070
<Laugh>. No, no problem at all. No,
I just, I love it. I love hearing.

82
00:04:47,190 –> 00:04:48,870
I was gonna ask you
those questions anyway.

83
00:04:49,240 –> 00:04:51,990
Persuading yourself to a better
life. When people see that,

84
00:04:52,670 –> 00:04:55,910
cuz life is so broad, um,

85
00:04:56,130 –> 00:05:00,350
are you talking about specifically
just their personal life with their

86
00:05:00,351 –> 00:05:04,750
relationships or business or
just for self-fulfillment or just

87
00:05:05,140 –> 00:05:09,270
feeling better each day? How would
you define that as far as life?

88
00:05:09,510 –> 00:05:12,350
Cuz it’s so broad and everybody
looks at it differently.

89
00:05:12,380 –> 00:05:15,350
Some people think life a better
life is success and money.

90
00:05:15,660 –> 00:05:19,430
There’s different interpretations.
What’s your, your definition of it?

91
00:05:20,440 –> 00:05:25,170
Well, I think it’s everybody’s term
to define for themselves. Mm-hmm.

92
00:05:25,250 –> 00:05:26,890
<affirmative>. And for different people
it means different things. I mean,

93
00:05:26,891 –> 00:05:29,450
if you have a disease that causes
you a lot of pain every day,

94
00:05:29,451 –> 00:05:30,650
or disability every day,

95
00:05:31,279 –> 00:05:35,370
then a better life could be getting
help with those particular problems

96
00:05:36,110 –> 00:05:38,610
and learning to ask for
that help. And also,

97
00:05:39,890 –> 00:05:43,070
it could be smaller challenges too. It
doesn’t have to be a life-threatening,

98
00:05:43,270 –> 00:05:46,510
debilitating disease. The fact is we
all have a life-threatening disease.

99
00:05:46,540 –> 00:05:49,580
It’s called life. Mm-hmm.
<affirmative>, it comes to an end.

100
00:05:49,920 –> 00:05:52,740
And that’s something that I
think we all know intellectually,

101
00:05:52,741 –> 00:05:55,630
but we don’t think about it very much.

102
00:05:56,470 –> 00:06:01,020
I think about it a lot <laugh>, because
I’m just more acutely aware of it.

103
00:06:01,560 –> 00:06:06,300
But what it makes you most aware of is
if you think about your own mortality,

104
00:06:06,301 –> 00:06:10,100
it makes you most aware of the
importance of living a good life today,

105
00:06:10,620 –> 00:06:15,180
a better life today. And that could
be for someone who’s not gotten a,

106
00:06:15,300 –> 00:06:18,900
a big diagnosis, or maybe you
don’t have a divorce pending,

107
00:06:19,120 –> 00:06:23,380
or your business hasn’t been
destroyed by a pandemic, for instance.

108
00:06:23,650 –> 00:06:25,740
Some people had that experience. Mm-hmm.
<affirmative>. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

109
00:06:25,820 –> 00:06:26,700
Uh, maybe it’s not something that big.

110
00:06:26,701 –> 00:06:30,300
Maybe it’s like you eat too many donuts
every day and you want to eat less

111
00:06:30,301 –> 00:06:32,660
donuts and carry less
body fat. Maybe it’s,

112
00:06:32,750 –> 00:06:37,660
maybe it’s you just find yourself feeling
down about the condition of the world

113
00:06:37,661 –> 00:06:40,980
or the condition of your life or your
progress as you compare yourself to all

114
00:06:40,981 –> 00:06:44,430
the other people on Instagram.
Um, maybe it’s right.

115
00:06:44,560 –> 00:06:47,750
Maybe it’s a mental kind of, I wanna
be more up, I wanna be more happy,

116
00:06:47,751 –> 00:06:49,670
more joyous. I wanna appreciate
the things in my life more.

117
00:06:50,200 –> 00:06:54,390
Maybe it’s just some simple things
like, you wanna get your house in order.

118
00:06:54,910 –> 00:06:57,790
Your your house is, I I’m not,
I’m not speaking metaphorically.

119
00:06:57,791 –> 00:07:01,070
I’m saying maybe your house is messy.
I wanna have a cleaner house. Mm-hmm.

120
00:07:01,150 –> 00:07:03,230
<affirmative> a better life could be so
many things to so many people and it’s

121
00:07:03,231 –> 00:07:07,180
different degrees. Yeah. And whatever
your problem is, whatever your biggest,

122
00:07:07,190 –> 00:07:09,660
think of your biggest problem right now,
you don’t have to tell me what it is,

123
00:07:10,040 –> 00:07:12,780
Marisa, but what’s your,
what’s your biggest problem?

124
00:07:13,250 –> 00:07:15,180
That is your biggest
problem right now. Yeah.

125
00:07:15,380 –> 00:07:19,100
And your biggest problem might be you
need to get your nails done. I don’t know.

126
00:07:19,340 –> 00:07:22,530
Yeah. It’s not for me to say,
but Right. I do know this.

127
00:07:24,490 –> 00:07:26,490
Whatever our problem is,
that’s not the real problem.

128
00:07:26,590 –> 00:07:29,010
The real problem for most of us
is how we think about the problem.

129
00:07:29,820 –> 00:07:33,320
And I know it because I was
forced to apply that philosophy,

130
00:07:33,321 –> 00:07:38,040
that way of thinking to this very
intrusive problem that I have. I mean,

131
00:07:38,041 –> 00:07:41,950
I can pretend not to. I can think
about it. I cannot think about it.

132
00:07:41,990 –> 00:07:45,190
I don’t have to pretend I cannot think
about it for some periods of time. Right.

133
00:07:45,390 –> 00:07:48,310
But eventually it will impose
this presence on me with the,

134
00:07:48,311 –> 00:07:52,830
my inability to pick up a pen and write
or to get up and walk across the room

135
00:07:52,831 –> 00:07:55,520
with confidence. And so I,

136
00:07:55,680 –> 00:07:58,880
I was faced with having to deal
with these issues that we all have.

137
00:07:59,480 –> 00:08:01,200
Cause we all have challenges in life.
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, as you said.

138
00:08:01,960 –> 00:08:05,480
But we don’t all have one that forces
us to pay attention to it. Yeah.

139
00:08:05,600 –> 00:08:08,440
A lot of ’em, we can press down
and ignore them, suppress them,

140
00:08:08,940 –> 00:08:11,920
but it comes out eventually
somehow. Yeah, it does.

141
00:08:12,160 –> 00:08:15,440
Which is not in a healthy way either
deal with your problems consciously or

142
00:08:15,441 –> 00:08:16,880
subconsciously. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

143
00:08:16,920 –> 00:08:18,720
I recommend doing it
consciously cuz subconscious,

144
00:08:19,400 –> 00:08:22,560
the subconscious way of dealing with
your problems is usually messy and ugly.

145
00:08:23,500 –> 00:08:28,240
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. No, I agree.
And even bottling it up, you know, and,

146
00:08:28,241 –> 00:08:30,840
and you know, the challenge
is whatever it might be,

147
00:08:31,550 –> 00:08:35,800
pain and suffering is, you
know, is common to all.

148
00:08:36,300 –> 00:08:39,360
And the, the reason why you’re going
through that could be different.

149
00:08:39,900 –> 00:08:44,080
But at the end of the day, everyone
is not living their fullest life.

150
00:08:44,081 –> 00:08:47,920
Which is why I love this
book. Can I just read a,

151
00:08:48,040 –> 00:08:51,320
a few little quotes and maybe you can
expand on it cuz I saw some things that

152
00:08:51,321 –> 00:08:53,920
caught my eye. Is that okay? Cause I
know the book hasn’t been released yet.

153
00:08:54,240 –> 00:08:56,920
Sure, of course. It’s okay to do
that. That, yeah. You, you said here,

154
00:08:57,400 –> 00:09:02,200
experiencing a global pandemic
that changed the way people lived

155
00:09:02,210 –> 00:09:03,640
their lives in many ways,

156
00:09:03,710 –> 00:09:08,240
this change caused me
to shrink into a smaller

157
00:09:08,750 –> 00:09:13,360
life and use it as an
excuse for receding from

158
00:09:13,900 –> 00:09:17,460
the lives of others.
Can you expand on that?

159
00:09:17,660 –> 00:09:21,580
Cuz I think that happened to a
lot of people. People began to,

160
00:09:21,630 –> 00:09:23,900
their world became smaller and smaller.

161
00:09:24,720 –> 00:09:27,179
And then as things started opening up,

162
00:09:27,300 –> 00:09:29,059
I don’t know if it’s
different for everyone,

163
00:09:29,200 –> 00:09:34,020
but it seems like the effects of that
is still things that people are dealing

164
00:09:34,021 –> 00:09:37,300
with. You wanna talk a little
bit about that statement? Yeah.

165
00:09:37,809 –> 00:09:40,900
Yeah. I, I think you’re
right on the mark. We,

166
00:09:41,160 –> 00:09:45,940
we all had to shrink back from being
in public and being in crowds and being

167
00:09:46,140 –> 00:09:49,100
with other people. We all had to
wear masks. Well not everybody did,

168
00:09:49,101 –> 00:09:52,780
but most people wore the mask for a
long period of time. And I noticed,

169
00:09:53,500 –> 00:09:56,420
I found myself, when it came
time to take the mask off,

170
00:09:56,780 –> 00:10:00,660
I found myself not wanting to take it
off cuz it hid my facial expression.

171
00:10:00,900 –> 00:10:05,150
Or as a person with Parkinson’s, my lack
sometimes of a facial expression. Uh,

172
00:10:05,151 –> 00:10:06,960
I didn’t have to explain
that. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

173
00:10:06,980 –> 00:10:10,120
And more to the point though, I
didn’t have to go out in public.

174
00:10:10,920 –> 00:10:12,480
I didn’t have to go to restaurants.

175
00:10:13,000 –> 00:10:16,320
I didn’t have to go to events and speak
and have people ask me, what’s wrong?

176
00:10:16,600 –> 00:10:19,080
You’re, you’re kind of shaky. You’re kind
of unstable. You’re not walking well,

177
00:10:19,081 –> 00:10:20,440
are you okay? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

178
00:10:20,441 –> 00:10:23,760
And I know that people mean kindness
when they ask those questions,

179
00:10:23,780 –> 00:10:26,840
but eventually that becomes
fatiguing for us. And it’s not,

180
00:10:26,920 –> 00:10:30,880
as someone with Parkinson’s who goes
through that, it’s anybody there.

181
00:10:31,380 –> 00:10:34,360
For many people who are especially, who
tend to be more introverted. Anyway,

182
00:10:34,940 –> 00:10:37,800
it was a, a retreat from
that interaction with people.

183
00:10:38,540 –> 00:10:42,520
And it becomes very difficult once you
become accustomed to being isolated,

184
00:10:43,240 –> 00:10:46,440
becomes very difficult to be more
public again. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

185
00:10:46,760 –> 00:10:49,190
because being isolated allows us to hide.

186
00:10:51,340 –> 00:10:52,960
We can hide our feelings from others.

187
00:10:52,961 –> 00:10:54,520
We can hide the truth of
what’s going on with us.

188
00:10:54,521 –> 00:10:56,920
We can hide the difficult things we’re
dealing with whatever they may be,

189
00:10:57,480 –> 00:10:59,740
and we don’t have to talk
about it. And then, you know,

190
00:11:00,300 –> 00:11:02,340
compound that with the fact that because
of what was going on in the world,

191
00:11:02,500 –> 00:11:05,820
what still is going on in the world,
the pandemic changed everything forever.

192
00:11:06,700 –> 00:11:08,250
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,
it really did. Mm-hmm.

193
00:11:08,330 –> 00:11:10,410
<affirmative> changed the way we
work, changed the way we interact,

194
00:11:11,130 –> 00:11:14,970
changed the way we think about public
health, about politics, about society,

195
00:11:15,020 –> 00:11:18,250
about different levels of
society, about racial issues.

196
00:11:18,790 –> 00:11:21,240
So many things came to light. You know,

197
00:11:21,241 –> 00:11:24,720
a time of crisis does not change
who we are. It exposes who we are.

198
00:11:25,270 –> 00:11:29,920
That is so true. That is so
true. And you know, I think too,

199
00:11:30,920 –> 00:11:34,440
um, that the reality, the threat of,

200
00:11:34,660 –> 00:11:39,080
and many people did die
from that season. Um,

201
00:11:39,140 –> 00:11:39,973
but the reality,

202
00:11:40,080 –> 00:11:44,920
I think people were beginning to figure
out what’s gonna happen to me if I do

203
00:11:44,980 –> 00:11:49,400
get Covid? Am I going to die?
And I think that being forced,

204
00:11:49,550 –> 00:11:50,161
like you said,

205
00:11:50,161 –> 00:11:53,970
sometimes we do it willingly to think
about our life and how we’re gonna live

206
00:11:53,971 –> 00:11:54,260
it.

207
00:11:54,260 –> 00:11:58,880
But it seemed like everybody was forced
to look at their own mortality and covid

208
00:11:58,940 –> 00:12:01,600
itself, even for those people
that came through. Even now,

209
00:12:01,880 –> 00:12:05,040
I think the last time we spoke,
I had come down with Covid.

210
00:12:05,200 –> 00:12:08,920
I was already having symptoms the
last time we chatted on Zoom. Mm-hmm.

211
00:12:09,000 –> 00:12:11,200
<affirmative>. And it wasn’t until I
took a test, I realized that I got,

212
00:12:11,600 –> 00:12:16,040
cause my whole family got it not that
long ago and this past spring, and I was,

213
00:12:16,559 –> 00:12:20,080
I had zip energy. I
mean the fever, I mean,

214
00:12:20,081 –> 00:12:25,080
it took four weeks and not being
myself with just with that was

215
00:12:25,140 –> 00:12:28,960
so difficult because I thought, is it
ever gonna get better? <laugh>, you know,

216
00:12:29,040 –> 00:12:33,360
a lot of strange things go between the
ears when you’re faced with something.

217
00:12:33,361 –> 00:12:37,600
Especially if something comes suddenly
like, like Covid did. So, um, so yeah,

218
00:12:37,740 –> 00:12:42,400
for sure. I think that was
kind of a, a first time, uh,

219
00:12:42,420 –> 00:12:45,559
of actually looking at mortality.
As you get older, like I am,

220
00:12:45,700 –> 00:12:47,920
you think about that more.
You think about, you know,

221
00:12:48,350 –> 00:12:52,720
your mortality and how you wanna live
your life each day and make it the best.

222
00:12:52,820 –> 00:12:53,800
But when people are younger,

223
00:12:53,830 –> 00:12:57,280
what would you say to younger people
that maybe don’t think of that as much

224
00:12:57,281 –> 00:12:59,640
because things are going really well
and they have their youthfulness.

225
00:13:00,110 –> 00:13:01,080
What would you say to them?

226
00:13:01,710 –> 00:13:05,320
Well, I think I pay more
attention. Uh, look around. But I,

227
00:13:05,321 –> 00:13:08,679
I think I wanna say
this. Um, I’ve learned,

228
00:13:09,309 –> 00:13:11,240
I’ve been spending a lot of
time with younger people.

229
00:13:11,360 –> 00:13:12,640
I have younger people on my team.

230
00:13:13,320 –> 00:13:15,679
I see younger people at the
events I go to and speak now.

231
00:13:16,380 –> 00:13:21,270
And I pay a lot of attention to them
because they are not only the future,

232
00:13:21,630 –> 00:13:24,030
they’re the present that, I mean, look
around you folks. If you’re in your,

233
00:13:24,210 –> 00:13:26,790
if you’re in the 45 plus age category,

234
00:13:27,300 –> 00:13:29,870
look around you and see who the
pilots are on your aircraft.

235
00:13:29,929 –> 00:13:32,230
Who the doctor is at the doctor’s
office. <laugh>. That’s true.

236
00:13:32,390 –> 00:13:33,590
Who the attorneys are in the courtroom.

237
00:13:34,470 –> 00:13:38,050
They’re people in their thirties and
they’re sometimes in their twenties.

238
00:13:38,870 –> 00:13:42,970
And so I think we, we have to
be careful as people of the

239
00:13:44,470 –> 00:13:48,280
earlier generation say it that
way. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, we,

240
00:13:48,780 –> 00:13:52,800
we sometimes tend to get
into this condescending tone
when we talk about younger

241
00:13:52,801 –> 00:13:53,240
people.

242
00:13:53,240 –> 00:13:55,800
And you’re not doing that cuz I know
you well enough to know you’re not like

243
00:13:55,801 –> 00:13:59,370
that. But I would say
so many younger people,

244
00:13:59,790 –> 00:14:03,780
people in their twenties and thirties,
or teens even because of Covid,

245
00:14:03,850 –> 00:14:07,860
they have more of a sense of
mortality than we ever did growing up.

246
00:14:08,100 –> 00:14:09,179
Cuz I thought I was immortal.

247
00:14:09,679 –> 00:14:10,512
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

248
00:14:11,059 –> 00:14:13,260
I had never faced anything
like a pandemic before.

249
00:14:13,340 –> 00:14:18,160
I was living in a little isolated
American middle class white person

250
00:14:18,161 –> 00:14:18,994
neighborhood.

251
00:14:19,980 –> 00:14:24,080
And that was a bubble that got burst
many times throughout the period of covid

252
00:14:24,780 –> 00:14:25,401
as I grew up,

253
00:14:25,401 –> 00:14:28,960
as I grew older and began to see the
truth of how the whole world is. So,

254
00:14:29,660 –> 00:14:33,200
but for, for those who are
in their younger years under,

255
00:14:33,570 –> 00:14:38,160
under the age of 45, let’s say. Yeah, I
know you think you’re immortal and you,

256
00:14:38,300 –> 00:14:39,560
you know, everybody else is gonna die,

257
00:14:39,561 –> 00:14:41,760
but you think you’re the main character
in your movie and you’re not gonna die,

258
00:14:42,420 –> 00:14:46,880
but you are. It’s not something,
it’s not something old Parkinson’s,

259
00:14:47,000 –> 00:14:49,880
how I love you. It’s not
something that is, um,

260
00:14:51,560 –> 00:14:52,600
<affirmative> that is
morbid to think about.

261
00:14:52,601 –> 00:14:54,480
It’s something that helps you
appreciate the life you have.

262
00:14:55,140 –> 00:14:57,440
Yes. So true. That’s why.

263
00:14:57,760 –> 00:14:59,400
Yeah. I was never a guy who had tattoos,

264
00:15:01,220 –> 00:15:05,560
but I got one after I got diagnosed
with the words Memento mori on it,

265
00:15:05,561 –> 00:15:07,920
which means, remember you’ll
die. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

266
00:15:07,921 –> 00:15:10,990
And then I got another one
on the other arm that says

267
00:15:12,840 –> 00:15:15,240
Vita abundant, which
means so live abundantly.

268
00:15:15,980 –> 00:15:19,320
That’s the whole purpose
of the me memento. Okay.

269
00:15:19,321 –> 00:15:21,000
I’m gonna get this Memento mori.

270
00:15:21,500 –> 00:15:25,450
Mm-hmm. <affirmative> try to say that
10 times. Right. <laugh>, I can’t,

271
00:15:25,560 –> 00:15:25,930
it’s not.

272
00:15:25,930 –> 00:15:27,930
About, it’s not about
contemplating the horrors of death,

273
00:15:27,931 –> 00:15:30,410
it’s kind about contemplating
the joys of life. Yes.

274
00:15:31,080 –> 00:15:34,610
Totally different perspective.
Right. Totally different and young.

275
00:15:34,880 –> 00:15:38,090
That age range that, that’s my kids.
Right. They’re in their thirties,

276
00:15:38,091 –> 00:15:41,730
early thirties. Yeah. Mine too.
They think differently. They,

277
00:15:41,750 –> 00:15:43,770
and I’m glad they’re interesting.

278
00:15:43,771 –> 00:15:47,650
Like my son is looking at just really
kind of not living completely off the

279
00:15:47,651 –> 00:15:50,210
grid, but just living a simple life.

280
00:15:50,630 –> 00:15:55,610
Not going after all these things that
a lot of the baby boomers and other

281
00:15:55,611 –> 00:15:57,130
generations went through. Yeah.

282
00:15:57,131 –> 00:15:59,450
But of course they had a
history why they did that.

283
00:16:00,110 –> 00:16:02,810
But they’re looking at things
differently. Would you agree? You.

284
00:16:02,810 –> 00:16:05,090
Know, I, I do think of the
boomers, I think of the,

285
00:16:05,370 –> 00:16:08,610
the hippie movement and the counterculture
movement. And it’s almost like,

286
00:16:08,970 –> 00:16:10,130
I feel like today the,

287
00:16:10,850 –> 00:16:14,570
the generation that’s in
their late twenties and early
to mid thirties are like

288
00:16:14,600 –> 00:16:16,530
hippies with practical
knowledge of the world.

289
00:16:17,190 –> 00:16:18,770
Yes. Very intelligent. This stuff.

290
00:16:18,970 –> 00:16:21,610
They’re gonna, yeah. They’re
very intelligent. They
know how technology works.

291
00:16:21,611 –> 00:16:23,970
They know how, what’s, what’s good
about it, what’s not good about it.

292
00:16:24,320 –> 00:16:28,410
There’s so much for us to learn from
them. Yes. That’s exciting to me.

293
00:16:29,090 –> 00:16:32,850
I agree. I agree. Totally different
perspective, healthier perspective.

294
00:16:32,880 –> 00:16:37,490
They’re wanting that slower pace.
Many of them, including my, my kids.

295
00:16:38,410 –> 00:16:41,530
Uh, my son has a kind of a
hybrid work that he does.

296
00:16:41,531 –> 00:16:46,530
He does film production stuff and he
only has to go in once a week to the

297
00:16:46,531 –> 00:16:49,810
office and he can work at home.
And they’re all pursuing that.

298
00:16:49,811 –> 00:16:53,250
They’re pursuing something simpler,
something easier. So they can,

299
00:16:53,550 –> 00:16:56,610
as they get kids, you know, they wanna
be able to have that flexibility.

300
00:16:57,000 –> 00:17:01,370
They’re already thinking that they don’t
need a sales page to tell them that

301
00:17:01,830 –> 00:17:05,530
the rat race is for rats,
not for humans. Right, right.

302
00:17:05,869 –> 00:17:09,930
And to live more of a human life.
Um, nobody has to tell them that.

303
00:17:10,010 –> 00:17:12,369
I think they’ve watched and
they said, I don’t want that.

304
00:17:12,990 –> 00:17:17,130
And that’s a healthy perspective. And
it’s the same with my daughter. My,

305
00:17:17,150 –> 00:17:20,010
my daughter and my granddaughter
live with us for that one reason.

306
00:17:20,230 –> 00:17:23,810
She didn’t want to have to have all
of the bills and all the things.

307
00:17:23,811 –> 00:17:27,690
And they’ve lived with us for 10 years
and it’s worked out great. Yeah. But she,

308
00:17:28,010 –> 00:17:31,609
um, she’s trying to make that shift as
well because she’s saying, you know,

309
00:17:31,790 –> 00:17:35,210
the years pass very quickly.
And so, uh, no, I agree.

310
00:17:35,330 –> 00:17:39,490
I think they’ve got a good perspective
and they are highly intelligent and

311
00:17:39,491 –> 00:17:40,730
they’re going in the right direction.

312
00:17:40,869 –> 00:17:45,570
So kudos to the younger generation
for sure. Yeah, I agree. For sure.

313
00:17:46,290 –> 00:17:46,570
So.

314
00:17:46,570 –> 00:17:47,091
They, they also got,

315
00:17:47,091 –> 00:17:51,359
they’ve got more awareness of their
own mental health challenges and Yes.

316
00:17:51,660 –> 00:17:52,520
You know, there’s lots of,

317
00:17:53,070 –> 00:17:56,119
lots of talk about mental health these
days and which is good. There should be.

318
00:17:56,380 –> 00:17:59,200
And yeah. Again, we have
covid to thank for that. Yeah.

319
00:17:59,600 –> 00:18:02,400
Cuz they came to the surface for a
lot of people. Yeah. And there’s.

320
00:18:02,520 –> 00:18:03,150
More.

321
00:18:03,150 –> 00:18:03,983
That.

322
00:18:04,180 –> 00:18:07,720
And there was a time where it
wasn’t talked about as much. It was.

323
00:18:08,119 –> 00:18:11,760
It was, yeah. It was, yeah. 2018
and, and back <laugh>. Mm-hmm.

324
00:18:11,800 –> 00:18:16,200
<affirmative> it was, I mean we, we’ve
learned it’s become, I mean, truthfully,

325
00:18:16,201 –> 00:18:21,040
it’s become more socially acceptable to
say I’m dealing with depression right

326
00:18:21,041 –> 00:18:25,510
now. Yeah. Before 2019, 2020 it,

327
00:18:25,580 –> 00:18:29,060
there was still a huge portion of
the population and there still is, I,

328
00:18:29,180 –> 00:18:30,540
I won’t pretend that there’s
not mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

329
00:18:30,541 –> 00:18:31,940
a lot of people just
wouldn’t talk about it.

330
00:18:32,400 –> 00:18:33,233
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

331
00:18:33,580 –> 00:18:35,740
Because they’re embarrassed by,
they’re ashamed of ashamed of it.

332
00:18:36,840 –> 00:18:39,140
And I think it’s healthy
for them when people,

333
00:18:39,490 –> 00:18:42,660
entrepreneurs or people that
are in a public space to,

334
00:18:42,661 –> 00:18:47,140
to be completely themselves like you
are very transparent with your book and

335
00:18:47,141 –> 00:18:48,300
your journey and so forth.

336
00:18:48,940 –> 00:18:53,500
I think people want to connect with
real human beings and know, wow,

337
00:18:53,680 –> 00:18:57,300
I’m not alone. You know, this person
is going through something as well.

338
00:18:57,440 –> 00:19:00,260
You know, because really, and when
we market, we gotta realize that,

339
00:19:00,261 –> 00:19:04,380
that people are going through all
kinds of changes, transitions,

340
00:19:04,880 –> 00:19:08,140
stress, all kinds of things.
Cuz you hear it all the time.

341
00:19:08,520 –> 00:19:12,140
So I think anytime we
can leverage our, um,

342
00:19:13,080 –> 00:19:17,740
our publicity in a way that
encourages people is also helpful.

343
00:19:17,800 –> 00:19:21,140
And I think that transparency is allowing
that because there was a day where

344
00:19:21,141 –> 00:19:24,460
people wouldn’t share that. They
wouldn’t share their faith, you know,

345
00:19:24,461 –> 00:19:27,300
because it could, you know,
compromise their work, you know,

346
00:19:27,301 –> 00:19:30,340
those kind of things. But I think
people are being a little bit more real.

347
00:19:30,359 –> 00:19:32,060
And I think people want that.

348
00:19:32,160 –> 00:19:35,740
It seems like people want more
human to human connection. So, um,

349
00:19:35,859 –> 00:19:37,140
I have another question for you.

350
00:19:37,200 –> 00:19:40,900
You talked about existing versus living.

351
00:19:42,130 –> 00:19:45,470
Can you, now, I have some ideas in my
head, but I wanna see your perspective.

352
00:19:46,750 –> 00:19:49,170
Can you give us some symptoms,

353
00:19:49,171 –> 00:19:52,810
maybe a way for somebody that’s
going through the day-to-day,

354
00:19:53,119 –> 00:19:56,170
they’re going through to work, they’re
doing the things they need to do,

355
00:19:56,171 –> 00:19:58,490
picking up the kids.
Can you give some, um,

356
00:19:58,570 –> 00:20:03,369
examples or maybe symptoms of people
that might be existing and not

357
00:20:03,370 –> 00:20:04,250
completely living?

358
00:20:05,800 –> 00:20:09,010
Sure. If you feel like you’re just
going through the motions mm-hmm.

359
00:20:09,050 –> 00:20:11,330
<affirmative>, if you feel like, oh,
it’s another day, like every other day,

360
00:20:12,010 –> 00:20:15,210
I don’t know why I do this. If you
wonder what the point of it all is,

361
00:20:15,670 –> 00:20:18,850
if you find yourself not interested
in things that used to fascinate, you,

362
00:20:19,270 –> 00:20:22,570
if you find yourself not really
having any real joy, I mean, for you,

363
00:20:22,571 –> 00:20:26,340
maybe a good day is I don’t want
to stick my head in the oven.

364
00:20:27,050 –> 00:20:27,883
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

365
00:20:27,900 –> 00:20:29,390
Then you might be just existing.

366
00:20:29,450 –> 00:20:32,590
Or if you just find life to be
empty and meaningless and pointless,

367
00:20:33,640 –> 00:20:36,500
if you’re into that nihilistic
kind of viewpoint, like it’s, it’s,

368
00:20:36,520 –> 00:20:39,220
it all means nothing when
I do a mouse to nothing.

369
00:20:39,240 –> 00:20:42,440
And there’s no reason to be here.
And it might not be that dramatic,

370
00:20:42,460 –> 00:20:46,550
but if you know those feelings as they
sound even faintly familiar mm-hmm.

371
00:20:46,630 –> 00:20:48,340
<affirmative>, because for a,
a long time I said to myself,

372
00:20:49,130 –> 00:20:50,650
I would feel those feelings, but I would,

373
00:20:51,930 –> 00:20:55,890
I would diminish them with the words I
use. Well, I’m feeling kind of off today.

374
00:20:56,450 –> 00:20:59,010
I’m feeling kind of low energy
today. I don’t, I don’t, I’m not,

375
00:20:59,760 –> 00:21:02,380
I’m not vibing with how things
ought usually are today.

376
00:21:03,260 –> 00:21:06,340
Then that’s when there’s
no, when there’s no flavor,

377
00:21:06,341 –> 00:21:08,980
when there’s no color to life, when
there’s no joy, when there’s nothing.

378
00:21:08,981 –> 00:21:12,820
You’re looking forward to
anticipating gleefully. Yeah.

379
00:21:13,020 –> 00:21:16,670
Then maybe you’re just
existing. Yeah. And to,

380
00:21:17,290 –> 00:21:19,869
to some I would say maybe that’s
the best you can do right now.

381
00:21:20,300 –> 00:21:21,310
Just do the best you can,

382
00:21:21,369 –> 00:21:24,630
but recognize where you are and
there’s a higher level of living that’s

383
00:21:24,631 –> 00:21:25,464
available to you.

384
00:21:26,230 –> 00:21:28,869
And protect hope. Don’t lose hope.

385
00:21:29,190 –> 00:21:32,869
Because sometimes people are in that
existing mode because they haven’t tapped

386
00:21:33,100 –> 00:21:34,590
into their potential.

387
00:21:34,591 –> 00:21:37,390
They haven’t tapped into some things
that maybe they really want to do,

388
00:21:37,730 –> 00:21:41,830
but they feel they can’t do.
So they feel like I’m stuck. I,

389
00:21:41,831 –> 00:21:45,990
this is all I can do. I need to provide
for my family. Be responsible. You know,

390
00:21:46,010 –> 00:21:48,710
and maybe those things that
they’ve always wanted to do,

391
00:21:48,780 –> 00:21:52,910
that untapped potential, those skills,
those talents, those abilities, the real,

392
00:21:53,350 –> 00:21:54,869
uh, purpose that they feel in their heart,

393
00:21:55,380 –> 00:21:59,630
that can also lead to depression if
they feel like they’re just existing as

394
00:21:59,631 –> 00:22:00,464
well.

395
00:22:01,970 –> 00:22:05,859
Yeah, for sure. And if
you’re, you know, I,

396
00:22:05,980 –> 00:22:07,780
I recommend anybody who’s
having those feelings.

397
00:22:08,160 –> 00:22:10,380
And certainly if you’re having
feelings of ending your own life,

398
00:22:10,381 –> 00:22:14,130
which is the point I arrived at,
I describe it in the book. Mm-hmm.

399
00:22:14,170 –> 00:22:15,930
<affirmative>, I’ve been there, I’ve
been there more than once, frankly,

400
00:22:15,931 –> 00:22:17,890
where I just felt like
maybe we’d just be better.

401
00:22:18,530 –> 00:22:22,460
I just checked out and I can’t,

402
00:22:22,700 –> 00:22:27,330
I can’t tell anybody how much pain
they can bear. I, I just mm-hmm.

403
00:22:27,410 –> 00:22:29,530
<affirmative>, I don’t, I don’t have
that ability. I don’t have that. Right.

404
00:22:30,119 –> 00:22:32,330
Only you could say how much pain you
can bear, but I can tell you this,

405
00:22:33,530 –> 00:22:37,060
that does not end the pain. If
you end yourself, you may end,

406
00:22:37,119 –> 00:22:41,190
you may end your own pain. We don’t
really know. So keep bear that in mind.

407
00:22:41,191 –> 00:22:43,869
You don’t really know if that ends the
pain or not. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

408
00:22:43,890 –> 00:22:46,920
But we do know that it leaves
a lot of pain behind mm-hmm.

409
00:22:47,000 –> 00:22:49,400
<affirmative> the people that you care
about, people that you love. Mm-hmm.

410
00:22:49,820 –> 00:22:51,260
<affirmative> maybe,
maybe, maybe you feel,

411
00:22:51,680 –> 00:22:54,260
you may feel like you don’t love a lot
of people, but you like a lot of people.

412
00:22:55,100 –> 00:22:56,840
You don’t wanna be the
cause of all that pain.

413
00:22:57,540 –> 00:23:01,080
And you’ve got something left to
contribute no matter how, how old you are,

414
00:23:01,100 –> 00:23:04,960
no matter how sick you are. I think
of Stephen Hawking, who mm-hmm.

415
00:23:05,040 –> 00:23:08,720
<affirmative> was so debilitated
by ALS that he wrote his last book,

416
00:23:08,721 –> 00:23:12,990
which was a huge book. I don’t know
how many hundred pages long it was,

417
00:23:12,991 –> 00:23:14,030
but it looked like a phone book.

418
00:23:14,930 –> 00:23:19,390
He wrote it by twitching a muscle in his
cheek that triggered a computer to type

419
00:23:19,450 –> 00:23:23,850
one letter. That’s how I wrote
the book. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

420
00:23:23,970 –> 00:23:28,210
And yet he’s the most
respected astrophysicist in
history. How’s that possible?

421
00:23:29,010 –> 00:23:31,970
Because he had a purpose and he had
hope that he could contribute something

422
00:23:31,971 –> 00:23:32,850
meaningful to the future.

423
00:23:34,790 –> 00:23:39,210
So this letter you wrote to yourself
that you have in the book, um,

424
00:23:39,320 –> 00:23:43,010
what prompted you to do that? To
just write that letter to yourself?

425
00:23:43,109 –> 00:23:44,050
It almost sounded,

426
00:23:44,051 –> 00:23:48,080
was it a journaling process that kind
of escalated to the writing the page to

427
00:23:48,240 –> 00:23:49,073
yourself or?

428
00:23:49,910 –> 00:23:51,880
Yeah, I did lots of journaling.
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh,

429
00:23:51,881 –> 00:23:56,530
most of it’s self-indulgent.
This is a g-rated show, isn’t it?

430
00:23:56,850 –> 00:23:57,890
<laugh> self-indulgent bull.

431
00:23:57,890 –> 00:23:58,723
Crap <laugh>.

432
00:24:00,590 –> 00:24:04,830
Um, but it led to me getting some
feelings out on paper. And you know,

433
00:24:04,831 –> 00:24:07,270
when you put ’em on paper,
they become more real. Yeah.

434
00:24:07,510 –> 00:24:09,150
And I realized I needed to
change the way I thought.

435
00:24:09,380 –> 00:24:13,200
Self-help seminars and books and
audios weren’t working for me.

436
00:24:13,900 –> 00:24:16,720
And faith healers hadn’t worked for
me and crystals hadn’t worked for me.

437
00:24:17,560 –> 00:24:21,119
Aromatherapy and essential
oils and everything else
you could possibly think of.

438
00:24:21,200 –> 00:24:25,560
I had tried infrared
laser, um, you name it.

439
00:24:26,640 –> 00:24:30,680
Um, so I was thinking one day, well
what have I done all my life as,

440
00:24:30,859 –> 00:24:34,200
as a living? I’ve persuaded people
to change their way of thinking.

441
00:24:35,100 –> 00:24:36,960
So I realized I couldn’t
change the disease,

442
00:24:37,580 –> 00:24:40,359
but I could change the way of thinking
about the disease. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

443
00:24:40,420 –> 00:24:42,760
So I wrote myself a sales
letter, a sales page.

444
00:24:43,640 –> 00:24:45,320
I did it intentionally as a sales page.

445
00:24:45,800 –> 00:24:48,280
I realized this was the most important
sales job I’d ever done in my life.

446
00:24:48,560 –> 00:24:51,990
I had to sell me on a,
wanting to live and b,

447
00:24:52,340 –> 00:24:53,910
wanting to live to certain standards.

448
00:24:54,220 –> 00:24:56,470
There’s a way to live that’s
better than other ways to live.

449
00:24:56,700 –> 00:24:58,830
It’s different for me. And
it just d than it is for you.

450
00:24:59,530 –> 00:25:01,010
We each have to decide on ourselves.

451
00:25:01,030 –> 00:25:03,850
So I suggest you write
yourself such as a letter.

452
00:25:04,330 –> 00:25:08,450
I used my own copywriting framework to
write the letter, the pastor framework,

453
00:25:08,609 –> 00:25:12,109
P A S T O R, which stands for problem

454
00:25:13,760 –> 00:25:16,090
pain, person Problem and
Pain. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

455
00:25:16,091 –> 00:25:18,490
So I knew who I was writing to.
I knew that guy. Well, yeah.

456
00:25:18,690 –> 00:25:21,090
I got the name a lot better
when I got this disease.

457
00:25:21,960 –> 00:25:23,920
I knew what the problem was.
I knew what the pain was.

458
00:25:24,670 –> 00:25:27,930
The A stands for amplify the
consequences of not solving the problem.

459
00:25:28,050 –> 00:25:30,590
I knew what that was gonna be. Uh,

460
00:25:30,690 –> 00:25:35,670
it was took the form at one point
of two bottles of pills and a

461
00:25:35,671 –> 00:25:39,470
bottle of bourbon. I didn’t
do it, but I thought about it.

462
00:25:39,970 –> 00:25:43,900
So I knew that where that led, it led
lots of pain for people that I love.

463
00:25:44,020 –> 00:25:47,500
I couldn’t, if nothing else
stopped me from taking that step,

464
00:25:48,020 –> 00:25:50,460
it was the thought of the, the
pain I knew would leave behind me,

465
00:25:51,260 –> 00:25:55,869
stopped me from taking it. The s
is the story of a solution. Mm-hmm.

466
00:25:55,910 –> 00:25:56,743
<affirmative>, I had,

467
00:25:56,750 –> 00:26:01,030
I had to go find and testimony is T So
I had to go find plenty of stories of

468
00:26:01,031 –> 00:26:03,270
people who had solved
this problem before me.

469
00:26:03,609 –> 00:26:06,270
People who had not been
cured of Parkinson’s,

470
00:26:06,730 –> 00:26:10,190
but people who had faced some
big life altering involuntarily,

471
00:26:10,191 –> 00:26:13,030
engaged in challenge to the way
they thought they were gonna live.

472
00:26:13,580 –> 00:26:15,920
And they overcame that
with their way of thinking.

473
00:26:16,170 –> 00:26:19,520
There was plenty of plenty
of examples of that.

474
00:26:20,590 –> 00:26:25,460
And then o stands for offer. So
the offer in this case is what’s,

475
00:26:25,740 –> 00:26:27,740
what, what are your choices?
You have choice A or choice B,

476
00:26:27,741 –> 00:26:30,100
you have the road to the left,
the road to the right. Yeah. The.

477
00:26:30,140 –> 00:26:30,460
Road to the right.

478
00:26:30,460 –> 00:26:34,140
I think you mentioned it as opportunity
for us as we’re doing this for

479
00:26:34,141 –> 00:26:37,859
ourselves. The o Yes. The offer
and opportunity. Yeah. I love that.

480
00:26:39,090 –> 00:26:43,560
And then the r is, you request a
response of yourself. Yeah. It gonna,

481
00:26:43,561 –> 00:26:45,280
what’s it gonna be? Are you gonna
do something about it or not?

482
00:26:47,410 –> 00:26:52,340
Yeah, absolutely. It’s interesting
that you went back thinking about,

483
00:26:53,180 –> 00:26:55,380
well, what have I done?
What do I do? Well,

484
00:26:55,840 –> 00:27:00,619
so you looked at your skills and your
strengths to help you overcome just a

485
00:27:00,620 –> 00:27:04,820
real weak, painful season. And
it’s interesting how sometimes,

486
00:27:05,400 –> 00:27:08,340
you know, our hard skills can
help us with our soft skills.

487
00:27:08,520 –> 00:27:11,260
And sometimes our soft skills
can help us with our hard skills.

488
00:27:11,530 –> 00:27:13,980
Because if you’ve got the soft
skills, if you’ve got the,

489
00:27:13,981 –> 00:27:18,540
the courage of creativity, um,
the resilience to continue,

490
00:27:18,560 –> 00:27:21,060
you can always learn a skill.
But you did the opposite.

491
00:27:21,359 –> 00:27:25,619
You took your skills that you had in
copywriting and you were thinking, okay,

492
00:27:25,620 –> 00:27:26,453
what have I done?

493
00:27:26,720 –> 00:27:30,780
And I think that process of just going
back and looking at some of the things

494
00:27:30,781 –> 00:27:32,700
we’ve done, some of the
things we’re grateful for,

495
00:27:32,800 –> 00:27:36,500
the people we’re thankful for is
a good place to start, isn’t it?

496
00:27:36,501 –> 00:27:41,420
To begin to kind of figure out, because
that first step is so difficult.

497
00:27:41,520 –> 00:27:45,020
If someone is in pain right now,
or someone has physical challenges,

498
00:27:45,410 –> 00:27:49,700
that first step is so hard. So
can you recommend a first step?

499
00:27:49,760 –> 00:27:52,740
Is it best to kind of look
back and see, you know,

500
00:27:52,741 –> 00:27:54,180
some of the things that
you’re grateful for?

501
00:27:55,930 –> 00:28:00,310
That’s good. Um, it’s, I mean, it’s a
great thing. I don’t mean to diminish it.

502
00:28:00,311 –> 00:28:04,070
It’s, it’s a good thing to do
for sure. Um, I think what’s,

503
00:28:06,869 –> 00:28:09,430
let me say this. If you’re really
in a really desperate place,

504
00:28:09,431 –> 00:28:12,190
you should talk to someone who’s a
professional. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

505
00:28:12,790 –> 00:28:15,190
I wanna make that clear beyond that as,

506
00:28:15,210 –> 00:28:18,270
as you’re examining what you’re
gonna do with what you’ve been given,

507
00:28:18,750 –> 00:28:20,850
whatever that is. Uh,

508
00:28:21,090 –> 00:28:24,290
I think getting your thoughts out on paper
or on the screen is what’s important.

509
00:28:24,560 –> 00:28:26,730
Yeah. Journaling, I
used to scoff at a lot,

510
00:28:26,950 –> 00:28:30,350
but you don’t really know what’s in your
head that you’re trying to deal with

511
00:28:30,351 –> 00:28:32,710
until you get it out of your
head and get it on paper.

512
00:28:33,330 –> 00:28:37,390
So I would recommend starting with
a practice maybe of every day.

513
00:28:38,690 –> 00:28:41,400
First thing when you wake up, just think
about what you start thinking about.

514
00:28:41,760 –> 00:28:44,510
Because most of us start are
really good at, we wake up, we,

515
00:28:44,830 –> 00:28:46,470
we realize we had a good
night’s sleep maybe.

516
00:28:47,210 –> 00:28:49,150
And the first thing we start
thinking about is what’s,

517
00:28:49,151 –> 00:28:50,270
what’s the problems I’m facing?

518
00:28:51,070 –> 00:28:54,050
And we start making that list of problems
and people who are problems and people

519
00:28:54,051 –> 00:28:59,050
who cause problems and politics
who make us angry and make us

520
00:28:59,051 –> 00:28:59,884
angry and so forth.

521
00:29:00,650 –> 00:29:02,570
But get all that stuff out on
paper and start writing it down.

522
00:29:02,571 –> 00:29:05,130
Then when you can start getting at
the core issue that’s bothering you,

523
00:29:05,330 –> 00:29:06,150
whatever it is,

524
00:29:06,150 –> 00:29:10,420
if it’s a relationship or if it’s
family or whatever the case may be,

525
00:29:11,040 –> 00:29:14,680
you can start writing those things out
and realize nobody else is gonna see

526
00:29:14,681 –> 00:29:17,240
them. Nobody else is gonna hear
them. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.

527
00:29:17,360 –> 00:29:19,880
But you need to get honest with you
yourself. That’s, that’s where it begins.

528
00:29:20,620 –> 00:29:24,800
Yes. I agree. I agree. I, I
think writing, journaling,

529
00:29:25,040 –> 00:29:26,120
whatever way you wanna call it,

530
00:29:26,390 –> 00:29:31,320
just having that time of reflection is
so important cuz really we gotta take

531
00:29:31,321 –> 00:29:34,680
care of us first and then that
helps us with our relationships.

532
00:29:34,681 –> 00:29:36,480
And the wonderful thing about this book,

533
00:29:36,481 –> 00:29:39,840
this can help people with their
relationships, with their business,

534
00:29:39,841 –> 00:29:43,120
with their life, with a lot of things.
Cuz they’re basic principles, right?

535
00:29:43,660 –> 00:29:45,600
So I think this is so valuable.

536
00:29:46,030 –> 00:29:48,960
Even if someone is not
going through a challenge,

537
00:29:49,160 –> 00:29:53,440
I think this would be a great thing
to really crystallize, you know, how,

538
00:29:53,660 –> 00:29:56,320
how they show up who they are
and really crystalize, do.

539
00:29:56,360 –> 00:29:57,720
You know somebody who’s not
going through a challenge?

540
00:29:58,680 –> 00:29:59,940
Not really. I haven’t messed.

541
00:30:00,100 –> 00:30:00,620
That question.

542
00:30:00,620 –> 00:30:02,820
<Laugh>. Well some people
think, oh, everything is great.

543
00:30:02,821 –> 00:30:04,620
Maybe it’s self denial. Maybe that’s it.

544
00:30:04,621 –> 00:30:08,860
Maybe those that are in denial that
things maybe aren’t going as best as they

545
00:30:08,880 –> 00:30:11,060
can. I think this book can also help.

546
00:30:11,100 –> 00:30:14,180
I don’t want them to think that
they have to have an illness to,

547
00:30:14,181 –> 00:30:16,460
to get the book and read and
get a lot of benefit out of it.

548
00:30:16,860 –> 00:30:21,260
Cuz there’s a lot of benefit to be
had. Even if you think, well, I’m okay,

549
00:30:21,400 –> 00:30:24,900
you know, I, I can take care of things.
I don’t, I don’t really, you know,

550
00:30:25,010 –> 00:30:28,340
have str a lot of struggles. I can
get over things pretty quickly.

551
00:30:28,980 –> 00:30:33,260
I think this is a real helpful resource
for anyone that wants to just really

552
00:30:33,580 –> 00:30:36,580
leverage and not exist, but live
their life to their fullest.

553
00:30:37,280 –> 00:30:38,860
So there’s my pitch <laugh>.

554
00:30:39,420 –> 00:30:42,220
That’s, that’s the intention that I wrote
it. Miss. I agree with you. Of course.

555
00:30:42,940 –> 00:30:44,860
Yeah. And you know, maybe you don’t have,

556
00:30:45,840 –> 00:30:48,700
you certainly don’t have to have an
illness or some tragedy happening in your

557
00:30:48,701 –> 00:30:51,140
life to, to make this
book relevant to you.

558
00:30:51,800 –> 00:30:55,020
But if you have anything that you’ve
wanted to change, that you want to change,

559
00:30:55,021 –> 00:31:00,010
you found it difficult to
do so you struggle with
getting the habit out of your

560
00:31:00,011 –> 00:31:01,690
life, whatever that may
be. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>,

561
00:31:01,890 –> 00:31:04,850
it could be something as simple as you
eat too much sugar or what something of

562
00:31:04,851 –> 00:31:06,890
that nature. This’ll help.

563
00:31:07,040 –> 00:31:10,890
It’s for anybody who’s got a behavior or
a challenge in their life or a problem

564
00:31:10,950 –> 00:31:13,890
or just a quirk in their personality
they’d like to, to work on.

565
00:31:14,590 –> 00:31:16,370
And they’ve been stuck.
If you’ve ever felt stuck,

566
00:31:16,800 –> 00:31:19,130
this can help get you unstuck. Yeah.

567
00:31:19,410 –> 00:31:21,690
Because I don’t just tell you
how I wrote the letter to myself.

568
00:31:22,090 –> 00:31:24,290
I give you instructions
with each chapter, uh,

569
00:31:24,300 –> 00:31:27,330
steps you can take to write one
to yourself and do what I did.

570
00:31:27,910 –> 00:31:29,650
And I assure you,

571
00:31:30,550 –> 00:31:33,920
no philosophy or sales pitch or,

572
00:31:34,700 –> 00:31:39,240
or set of beliefs or rules for your life
will ring more true with you than the

573
00:31:39,241 –> 00:31:40,440
ones you figure out for yourself.

574
00:31:41,300 –> 00:31:41,750
Yes.

575
00:31:41,750 –> 00:31:45,160
Even if you, if you, even if you’re
taught by a wise teacher who,

576
00:31:45,480 –> 00:31:47,280
somebody who’s an authority,
you look at them and say, well,

577
00:31:47,281 –> 00:31:48,640
this person knew more than anybody else.

578
00:31:49,370 –> 00:31:52,520
Until you learn the lessons for yourself,
they’re not really yours. Mm-hmm.

579
00:31:52,560 –> 00:31:54,930
<Affirmative>. Very true. Very true.

580
00:31:55,180 –> 00:31:59,570
Those aha moments are so helpful
and we, we remember them and we,

581
00:31:59,640 –> 00:32:04,330
it’s better to be able to implement some
type of habit to overcome whatever it

582
00:32:04,331 –> 00:32:08,690
might be. That’s why I write every
morning because those insights, um,

583
00:32:08,760 –> 00:32:11,010
just hit right to the
heart. Right to the soul.

584
00:32:11,550 –> 00:32:16,130
And so that helps to be able to think
differently and begin a new path.

585
00:32:16,870 –> 00:32:20,210
So any last words? This has been
wonderful. Thank you so much, Ray,

586
00:32:20,270 –> 00:32:22,250
for sharing your heart,
being so transparent,

587
00:32:22,520 –> 00:32:24,970
telling your story for the sake of others.

588
00:32:25,230 –> 00:32:27,570
Any last words from you and
how can they get the book?

589
00:32:27,580 –> 00:32:29,370
Where do you want to lead people?

590
00:32:31,330 –> 00:32:33,460
Well, thank you for that. Um, my,

591
00:32:33,600 –> 00:32:37,140
my words would be if we
leave you with nothing else,

592
00:32:37,160 –> 00:32:41,640
it would be don’t just exist, don’t
just choose existence, choose life.

593
00:32:42,600 –> 00:32:44,220
And that means with all the,

594
00:32:44,920 –> 00:32:48,420
all the bumps and bruises
and the extraordinarily
painful things we go through,

595
00:32:48,421 –> 00:32:53,130
as well as the most joyous and
rich loving moments as well.

596
00:32:53,320 –> 00:32:56,650
It’s all part of what we’ve been
given. Okay. Don’t miss any of it.

597
00:32:57,820 –> 00:33:00,980
And you can get the book by going to
https://www.readthisordiebook.com/.

598
00:33:04,050 –> 00:33:04,570
Awesome.

599
00:33:04,570 –> 00:33:05,540
It’s the best place to go.

600
00:33:05,890 –> 00:33:09,380
Awesome. It sounds great.
And uh, I’ll just say here,

601
00:33:09,400 –> 00:33:12,980
if anybody does want to read
the book and get the book,

602
00:33:12,981 –> 00:33:15,540
there’s some bonuses as well,
right? You’ve got it. Some bonuses.

603
00:33:16,420 –> 00:33:18,910
Yeah. We’ve got a free mini
course that goes along.

604
00:33:19,430 –> 00:33:22,830
It’s a video mini course goes along with
the book that shows you how to write

605
00:33:22,831 –> 00:33:24,990
your own letter to
yourself just like I did.

606
00:33:25,680 –> 00:33:26,513
That’s awesome.

607
00:33:27,380 –> 00:33:28,540
$197, yours free.

608
00:33:29,300 –> 00:33:31,100
I know you’re gonna enjoy
the book if you buy it.

609
00:33:31,320 –> 00:33:36,220
So definitely buy the book and leave a
review, leave a review, a rating, um,

610
00:33:36,480 –> 00:33:38,820
so that more people can
access the book as well.

611
00:33:39,080 –> 00:33:42,980
So be sure to get the
book, get the bonuses,

612
00:33:43,310 –> 00:33:45,700
write your own letter. That’s my homework.

613
00:33:45,701 –> 00:33:48,620
I’m gonna rewrite my own letter and
then leave a review in a rating.

614
00:33:48,650 –> 00:33:52,220
That would be wonderful. And if you
have a podcast, uh, I don’t know,

615
00:33:52,320 –> 00:33:55,620
I’m sure Ray is really booked, but
you’ll make time. Right, right.

616
00:33:55,680 –> 00:33:58,740
If somebody has a podcast, I will. I
appreciate that. Yes, absolutely <laugh>.

617
00:33:58,950 –> 00:34:01,740
Absolutely. Well thank you
Ray, this has been awesome.

618
00:34:01,860 –> 00:34:06,060
I really appreciate you being on the show
and I’m so excited that you are doing

619
00:34:06,080 –> 00:34:10,020
so well. We didn’t even tap into some
of the things that have ha given you a,

620
00:34:10,180 –> 00:34:12,420
a second opportunity at life.

621
00:34:12,489 –> 00:34:15,060
Some of the medical things
that have been going on.

622
00:34:15,061 –> 00:34:19,219
You’ve been very candidly sharing a lot
of that in many of your social media

623
00:34:19,620 –> 00:34:20,320
platforms and stuff.

624
00:34:20,320 –> 00:34:24,020
So please connect with Ray so you
can see some of the things that have

625
00:34:24,340 –> 00:34:28,820
transpired recently that has just given
Ray just an opportunity to do more and

626
00:34:28,840 –> 00:34:32,940
be more and be able to serve more
people. It’s really been phenomenal.

627
00:34:33,520 –> 00:34:35,060
So thank you so much, Ray.

628
00:34:35,790 –> 00:34:37,860
Thank you. I appreciate
you so much. Thank you.

629
00:34:38,290 –> 00:34:38,780
Bye-Bye.

Resilient Faith Online Podcast

Get email notifications, and never miss an episode.