Stepping Into 2026: Purpose, Balance & Reinvention

As we close out 2025 and step into a brand‑new year, many of us are asking the same questions: How do we pursue our passions without burning out? How do we align our purpose with our well‑being? And what does sustainable success look like in 2026?

In this special New Year’s Eve episode of One More Thing Before You Go, host Michael Herst welcomes Cliff Beach—recording artist, entrepreneur, radio host, and author of the Side Hustle & Flow trilogy. Cliff’s journey is a powerful reminder that transformation is possible at any stage of life.

From reversing Type 2 diabetes and losing 50 pounds to embracing long‑term sobriety and redefining his creative career, Cliff’s story is a masterclass in intentional living. His insights on culture, creativity, and personal growth offer the perfect inspiration for anyone looking to enter 2026 with clarity and renewed purpose.

Whether you’re setting goals, seeking balance, or simply hoping to start the year with a healthier mindset, this conversation will help you reflect on where you’ve been — and envision where you’re going.

🎆 Here’s to a happy, healthy, intentional, purpose‑driven 2026.

Find us on Apple, Spotify or your favorite listening platform; visit us on our YouTube channel Find everything "One More Thing" here: https://taplink.cc/beforeyougopodcast

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Hey, one more thing before yougo. How do we balance passion with
purpose without burning out?How can we get cultural awareness
and personal transformationand use that to fuel sustainable
success? Stay tuned Todaywe'll explore these questions and
more when we have aconversation with Cliff Beach. He's
an author, a recording artist,an entrepreneur, and the host of

(00:20):
Diva Grooves. I'm your host,Michael Herst. Welcome to one more
thing before you go. Todaywe're joined by Cliff Beach. He's
an acclaimed recording artist,radio host and VP of digital and

(00:42):
operations. An entrepreneurand a professional speaker, Cliff
is the author of the sideHustle and Flow trilogy, including
10 principles to living yourbest life and Shape Up A and the
forthcoming the Daily Grind.He also hosts the Deeper Grooves
podcast and deeper grooves on88.5 FM where he explores the intersection

(01:03):
of music, culture andcreativity. His journey spans music,
tech and personaltransformation, reversing type 2
diabetes, losing 50 pounds,and achieving long term sobriety.
Congratulations on that. He'sbeen featured in Authority magazine,
Voyager LA and Canvas Rebeland recognizes the 2025 Anthem Awards

(01:24):
nominee and top five finalistsfor the Obsidian Awards. Black Tech
Executive of the Year. Todaywe're going to uncover how Cliff
turned hustle into intentionand how his story can inspire us
to live with balance andpurpose. Welcome to the show, Cliff.
Thank you, Michael. So excitedto be here and chatting.
Today what a journey your lifehas been on.

(01:48):
Yeah, I tell everyone it's anon linear journey and I don't think
I could have curated itexactly that way except by just saying
yes to a bunch of differentthings. I think sometimes people
think it seems unfocused, butto me I see a through line through
through all of them.
I agree with you. Sometimeslife puts us in the direction we're
supposed to go and we hadn'tseen it until it's there.

(02:12):
Yeah, I think that makes itinteresting. If we knew all the things,
it wouldn't be. It wouldn't bea movie unfolding in front of us.
Exactly, exactly. Life is Lifeis a movie. It's a nice way to put
that. Life is a journey. Lifeis a movie. Well, I like to start
at the beginning, so can youshare like your origin story, where
did you come from and how thatjourney shaped who you are today?

(02:33):
Oh my gosh, when you say itlike that, I think of Marvel. I wish
I was bit by a radioactivespider or something interesting like
that. But yeah, you know, Itell everyone I'm kind of my mom's
only child and miracle child.When I was born, I Was born super
premature. So I was born at 28weeks. I weighed 2 pounds, went down
to about a pound and a half.And so I incubated for about 3, 4

(02:55):
months before coming home fromthe hospital. So unlike other babies,
there are no photos of me,like, you know, right at birth, I
didn't have anything until Icame home. But yeah, you know, I
think when you kind of grow upknowing that you're appreciative
of life, one more thing, youknow, I think of legacy and things
like that. And, and, and so,you know, there is a finality to
that. I'm appreciative ofevery day, you know, because I. There

(03:18):
are. You know, I'm justcognizant that there were some babies
that didn't make it out of thehospital at the same time as me.
So I'm very appreciative ofall the. The love I had at home.
I grew up in a family ofministers, like kind of Baptist ministers,
and into church. And so I grewup with a lot of church music, a
lot of gospel, a lot of joy, alot of jubilation, a lot of volunteerism.

(03:38):
Did a ton of, like, work withthe homeless. And we were always
having people come and staywith us for a variety of reasons.
So it was good. It was good tobe able to kind of see that kind
of collectivist atmosphere.And then in school, I got to study
a lot of different kind ofchoral music, Allstate choirs. I
came from the Washington d.Oh, Washington D.C. maryland area.

(04:02):
So go Blue Craps and Old Bayand all the things. And then I went
to conservatory in Boston atBerkeley College of Music. And that's
when I got to learn about allthe different types of music genres,
etc, and, you know, if you'veever seen the movie Whiplash, it's
very much like that in termsof conservatory, very stringent practicing

(04:24):
all the time, but it wasgreat. I really think that iron sharpens
iron. And so being around allthose great musicians really helped
me to. Then to push to LosAngeles. So after being in Boston
and D.C. and tired of coldweather, I flew to LA and been now
in LA for almost 25 years nowas a working musician. I've worked

(04:45):
in the corporate world aswell, which is kind of how side Hustle
and the Flow came to be. Butyeah, that whole journey was like,
I wanted to be a great singerand then a great songwriter and a
great pianist. And then fromthere that led me to radio and TV
and film and. And all thesethings. But I had no IDEA, you know,
25 years ago, any of thosewere on the. The precipice. But I

(05:06):
did learn thatentrepreneurship, I think is one
of the most important thingsthat I tell everyone. It's like Berkeley
taught me a lot about music, alot about the music business, but
it did not teach me I am abusiness. And so you're a solopreneur.
You have to shamelesslypromote what you do and, and put
it into the marketplace. Ibelieve there was Jim Rohn, he said
we are all equal as souls, butwe are not all equal in the marketplace.

(05:29):
And so, yeah, unfortunatelythat is, that is kind of part of
the, the course to be able todo that. So I just try to explain
to people like you, you inkhow you brand yourself. Especially
now in the world of socialmedia and stuff, it's just really
important to be able toembrace and you may have some uncomfortability
with it, but you, you have toget out there. You have to be known.

(05:49):
So it's a part of the artist way.
I agree with that. What? Yeah.You and I have something in common.
I was born three monthspremature and I spent the same time
in the hospital as you did. Myparents brought me home in a shoebox
pretty much because I was thattiny and, and way back when I was

(06:11):
born, we won't say exactlywhen way back then, it was the same
thing. There was, you know,very, very few that came home like
that. So. Well done, brother.Well done.
Yes. And I'm glad youmentioned the shoebox because I just
told someone. I was like,yeah, I was right after the shoebox
period. They had no idea whatI was talking about, but I was like,

(06:32):
that's what they did.
That's what they. Yeah,exactly. That's what they did. It
was pretty slick. That's cool.What inspired you to write the side
Hustle and Flow trilogy?
Well, I've always been avoracious reader. You know, in school
they would bring thebookmobile around and I would have
all these stickers and get mymom to buy me all kinds of things.
She said that when I was akid, normally you are read a bedtime

(06:54):
story, but I wanted to readand read her a bedtime story. So
very young I started doingthat and I used to listen to AM radio
and get very upset by, by pundtalking about all types of political
things in D.C. as a kid. So Iwas a very kind of weird kid. But
as I grew up and to adulthoodand started learning that school

(07:15):
really teaches you kind oflike a launching pad of how to Think
and how to learn, but not allthe things that you're going to learn
in a lifetime. Being alifetime learner, I wanted to be
able to read a lot of books onself improvement, personal development.
And so I got into a lot ofgreat authors like Zig Ziglar and
Jim Rohn and Tony Robbins.And. And so as I started absorbing

(07:35):
all this content, I was like,I really want to be able to kind
of condense all thisinformation into kind of my own journey,
my own book. So in 2014, Istarted interviewing people for a
book at the time that wascalled the Art of Awesome, which
I never ended up doing, but Iwas basically trying to answer this
question. Why is one person'spath so great and so fulfilling and

(07:55):
another person's isn't? Andthen I was like, okay, I'm an imposter.
I'm a musician. I never wrotea book. So I shelved it six years.
And then, lo and behold, 2020comes and the pandemic happens. And
so all these musicians arelike, well, what do we do while we're
just twiddling our thumbswaiting for the world to reopen so
we can go tour and do a bunchof stuff? And so I was like, well,

(08:16):
why don't I start a podcast?And why don't I start writing a book?
So I took this book writingcourse by Scribe Media and learned
how to kind of organize mythoughts, and eventually From Full
to Fulfill was the workingtitle. And it became Side Hustle
and Flow because I realized Iwas like, oh, my gosh. My whole has
been two parallel tracks. Howdo I work something outside of music

(08:38):
to sustain myself, which wasdigital marketing. And then how do
I have this track of music?And so they sometimes intersect,
sometimes they don't, butthey're always constantly, concurrently,
in tandem going. And I didthat because I wanted people to really
understand that whether you doit a lot of the time or some of the
time is still better than noneof the time. When I was learning

(09:00):
music, people said, well, ifyou don't do music full time, then
you're not really serious. AndI didn't think that that was great
because I thought it wouldn'treally give options since only 1%
of the working musiciansactually have a level of sustainability
that they can live on that. SoI wanted people to be able to understand
that that's not true, that youcan write whatever you want, whenever

(09:20):
you want and fit it in. Youknow, I met someone when we were
all kind of looking for work,and they were like, I really Love
the salsa dance. And I waslike, well, are you salsa dancing
now? And they were like, no,because I'm looking for work and
this and that. And I was like,if you know what you love to do,
if you're passionate about it,you should do it as much as humanly
possible. Whether you makemoney or not, you should do it. Because
what happens is that you raisea whole society and generations of

(09:42):
people who have veryunfulfilled, joyless lives, because,
again, someone has told themthat you can't do it all the time,
so do it another time. But allor nothing mentality really, in this
case, does not work. Believeme. If you can only work on writing,
you know, an hour a day, youknow, by the end of the year, you'll
still have a book. But if youdon't do that hour a day because

(10:04):
you couldn't do eight hours aday, then. Then nothing gets done.
And, you know, we won't alwaysget that book or that movie or that
song or whatever it is unlessyou do it. You know, the universe
is giving you that gift, andso we need you to do that. And also,
people need creative outlets.They need a way to express themselves.
So my biggest thing now, as Icontinue through the book series,

(10:26):
is telling people that you arecreated by a creator to create however
you believe that to be. Ibelieve everyone is born creative.
And we actually know from thework of Sir Ken Robinson, when he
studied the educationalsystems, that kindergarteners, when
they come into school, they'reall excited. Do you want to sing?
Do you want to dance? Everyonelights up, everyone raises their

(10:46):
hands because they're allsponges, and they haven't learned
about shame and gatekeepingand things like that. And then by
the time you get to 12thgrade, you get less than, you know,
5% that will raise their handand want to do that, because they
don't want to be weird, theydon't want to stick out. But the
world needs. It needs moreweirdos, because that's like the
best parts of life are thecreative things. That's why song
and dance have. Have beenpassed down generationally and orally,

(11:10):
you know, since the. Thecavemen and beyond. Because it's
something in our DNA that.That really connects us, as you say,
as a universal language. Andso I think that people need to do
it, and I don't think thatthey'll have to do it all the time
or want to do it all the time,but even some of the time is better
than no time at all.
I agree with that. Those Areprofound words. Profound words. Cliff.

(11:32):
I. I thank you for sharingthat with us because I think that
a lot of us do. I mean,everybody has. Can resonate with
music. No matter what levelyou are, where you're at in life,
you can resonate with music.It could be a song reminds you of
someone or something orsomewhere you've been. The lyrics
can tell your story and yousay, hey, I. I went through that.

(11:53):
And dance. Dance is the samething. Dance gives you a release.
It gives you opportunity justto, like you said, be weird. It doesn't
matter what you look likewhen, and it really doesn't matter
what other people think ofyou. Enjoy the journey with music
and with dance is what Iappreciate about it. You can enjoy

(12:14):
it within yourself, your soul.So those are profoundly agreed. Agreed.
For sure.
So how do you think your earlyexperiences in music, as you were
saying, do you think thatinfluenced your entrepreneurship,
your philosophy on the hustleand balance perspective all around?

(12:34):
That's what it sounds like,what you kind of just spoke about.
Yeah, I think music is a greatway to be able to explain those ideas.
Because I've heard a jokethat's not about the notes I play,
it's about the notes I don'tplay. So the music and the rest,
that is the hustle and theflow, the balance, the yin and yang.
And nature has that throughoutthat. You know, when you see water

(12:57):
flowing, then you know thatit's good.
Right.
But if it's not flowing, it'sstagnant, it's brackets. That's not
good. And so what you learn, Ithink, as a musician, is the adaptability
and how you're able to like,organize the chaos because there's
so many people doing so manyintricate things, but you're still
like having a dialogue. It'snot like a bunch of monologues. It's
a. It's a conversation. And sofor years, you know, I've done public

(13:21):
speaking with Toastmasters,and it was only until recently I
realized that, like, effectivecommunication is not being able to
just speak. Well, that's onecomponent of it. But really effective
communication is the symbioticrelationship between. I can be. I
can talk and I can beunderstood. Right. If your audience
can't understand what you'resaying, then then it has not been

(13:42):
effective. And so I think thebeauty of coming from the music world
is that you approacheverything with a curiosity and a
creative lens. Again,everyone's created to create. It
allows you to creativelyproblem solve. Because ideally, what
happens in music right there'sthis whole great thing where I was
taking a master class fromHerbie Hancock on masterclass.com

(14:03):
and he was playing with MilesDavis very young, and he was like,
I played the wrong note. Andhe was like, well, Miles just moved
so that it made it right.Right. So in music, like there are
no right or wrong notes. Likeyou're trying a bunch of things,
seeing what sticks. Somethings do, some things don't. But
the relationship of ustogether is that we can change or
elevate or adjust ourvibration so that even something

(14:26):
seemingly wrong can becomeright in the right thing. In the
same way with music, you'llsee when it comes to dissonance,
that if I have one note that'sreally close to another and they
rub together, it may clash.But if I spread them out with perspective,
right. A second becomes aninth and then that's beautiful.
So it's just like there isn'treally a right or wrong way. I tell
people all the time, like.

(14:47):
Okay, what a profound. What Imean, some amazing words of wisdom
that you just shared with me.Early experiences in music entrepreneurship
influence your philosophy andHustle and Flow and how that kind
of should reflect uponeverybody that's out here that's
trying to embrace this.
Yeah, well, I think the, themain thing about Hustle and Flow

(15:07):
and what you embrace, I callit the Hollywood Shuffle, but you
can do it in any city thatyou're in. But ideally, I think that
we are all, in a way, multihyphenates. Right. And the song Three
Times a Lady, Lionel Richie iswriting about his mom and he says
it's because she's a wife anda mother and a sister. We are onions.

(15:27):
We are layers of multipledifferent things. And so I think
when you look at the universe,when you talk about abundance and
having this kind of limitlesspotential and getting rid of all
the self limiting beliefs,what sihas on Flow allowed me to
be able to do is say thatwhether I do a lot of the time or
a little bit of the time,sometime is better than no time at

(15:50):
all. And so it allowed me tobe able to see that the universe
is constantly expanding. Andas you start to study music, you'll
see with all the notes and whyit's lasted for so many centuries
and generations through oraltradition and to now is because it
has limitless potential. Andit's amazing at the infinite possibilities

(16:11):
that are out there because youonly have the 12 notes and yet so
much music is done, even ifyou're using the same harmonic chord
structure. So Much is able toget done. So really, it's just allowing
people to understand. Istudied Japanese culture. I've studied
what's called ikigai, andunderstanding, like purpose and passion,
how that comes together. Sowhat am I good at? What does the

(16:34):
world need to, you know, getfrom me? What do I love to do, you
know, and what.
What.
What am I passionate about?They allow you to be able to. To
have longevity and to livelonger. And so my main thing is like
teaching people that werecreated by a creator to create, but
more importantly, that you cando it at any level, any social, economic
status, any time in your life.Because we're. We're sold this bill

(16:57):
of good, that if you don't doit all the time, then then you should
do it none of the time. Andthat's not true. We really should
have people who are doing intheir life to have little bursts
of joy into their routines andto be able to have consistent consistency.
Because consistency builds thehabit, right? So these books I have
flow, the trilogy is all abouthow you cultivate certain character

(17:20):
traits, characteristics, andhow you also build a consistent habit.
What I call underwhelmingyourself. Because ideally, you know,
people overwhelm themselvesand they'll quit. You know, a lot
of things are very daunting. Iwas just working on a house project
with someone, and it's a bighouse. And so whenever you do that,
I was like, like, you know, ifyou focus on all, you know, eight
rooms at once, that becomesvery overwhelming. You have to say,

(17:42):
okay, we're just going tofocus on the living room. We're just
going to focus on this squareof the room to get that in order.
And then we'll work our wayand fan out from there so there isn't
really a right or wrong way. Idid a lot of research as a research
assistant, and I would alwaysask my professor, like, how do I
learn how to do the rightquestions? How do I ask the right
questions? And she was like,no, what you learn is how to ask

(18:05):
questions. And then from thedata, you can ascertain if it was
right. Because people want to,you know, kind of believe we have
a crystal ball, that we justknow, like, always what to do. But
ultimately, what I've learnedis that you just have to fail forward,
fail fast, fail often. Becauseyou look at someone like Thomas Edison
making light bulb, 10,000experiments. Because it took not

(18:26):
only those 10,000 experiments,but all the inventors at the time,
thousands and thousands ofexperiments to eventually make that
happen. And so someone askedthat and they said, well, how do
you live with, you know,having 9,999 failures? He said, no,
correction. I did not fail anyof those times. I learned what wasn't
working and did somethingdifferent. And that's what the scientific

(18:49):
method is, and that's whatlife is. It's trial and error. There's
nobody who makes it to the topwho is not bruised and beat up by
learning. Right. But thereason why people write these books
and have podcasts like yoursis because we can learn from thought
leaders and other people. Wedon't have the lifespan to be able
to make all those mistakes.
Right.
I can enjoy lots of mushroomswithout dying from one. That's going

(19:11):
to kill me because someone hasalready gone through that process.
So I don't need to reinventthe wheel in that way, but I do need
to get out there and try otherthings to leave those success clues
for the future generations.
Ikigai. I love ikigai. Ipractice ikigai as well. My family
and I do. I know some of theother things that, if you don't mind
me interjecting with this,that I know about you is you also

(19:33):
deal with qigong and tai chi,which I appreciate as well. From
a healing perspective. Itallows us the mind, body, soul, connection.
And I think that's allimportant. We need to sometimes take
a breath and realize thatthere's more to life than 9 to 5.
There's more to life than,like you said, you have to. Everything

(19:56):
is a learning step, even thefailures. Bruce Lee said that. Bruce
Lee said every. What you thinkis a failure is only a stepping stone
to success. Because every timeyou fail, you either learn what to
do or what not to do.
Agreed. Yeah. I just saw aclip of him with Muhammad Ali being

(20:16):
interviewed, and the personsaid, bruce Lee, what do you think
about failure? And Bruce Leesays, failure is the teacher. And
Muhammad Ali chimes in andsays, and I never miss class.
Exactly. That's cool.Brilliant. I have to look for that
clip. I'm a fan of both.That's pretty slick in today's lifestyle.
I mean, in your own personalexperience. And we know that everybody,

(20:39):
usually it's a nine to five,everybody. You get up, you get breakfast,
you go to work, you have yourcoffee, you work eight hours, you
bust your butt. You don'tthink of joy, you think of work.
And then when you come home,you have dinner, maybe watch a little
tv, go back to bed, you getup, you do it again in the morning,
and it's kind of a repetition.It gets boring. It gets monotonous.

(21:04):
It gets, like, perpetuallymonotonous, where we always have
to try to think of what we'regoing to do to step outside that.
What was your turning pointwhen you realized that you needed
to shift from overwork toworking with intention? Because I
think we all need to work withintention. And I know that you talk
about that on your podcast.You've talked about it. To intention

(21:24):
and purpose.
Yeah, I mean, I think, youknow, growing up in the. The Christian
perspective, we say we workunto God. Jim Brown says it best.
I think he says, you know,when you just have to wake up to
pay those damn bills and gowork those damn people. That's not
compelling. That's not apowerful. What Simon Sinek says,
a powerful why to. To get upin the morning. And so sometimes
you do have jobs that are.That are less fulfilling, but you

(21:47):
think about it in a way oflike, but when I make the money from
there, what am I able to dowith that? What am I able to. To
impact and to spark joy intomy own life? It wasn't until, you
know, Marie Kondo came throughthe whole house and said, grab it,
and said, does that spark joy?Nobody was thinking about joy to
that level. But it's greatanalogy because, you know, it's like

(22:07):
what you're holding on to orwhat you're letting go of or are
powerful things. So when youtalk about qigong and tai chi, I
didn't realize for years thatyour organs, your cells, they have
memory, and what they do isthey absorb all of these feelings.
You go through a trauma, etcetera. Your liver absorbs anger.
Why?
Because the liver is this partof the body that says, if I have

(22:28):
something, I don't know whereit will go, I'll take it. I will
absorb that and take it on.That's why, you know, people, when
they end up with fatty liver,it's like, well, because the body
didn't know what to do withthe fat in your bloodstream. And
so delivery says, I'll takeit. But your organs are not supposed
to have any, you know, fat inthem to that level. So. But the beauty
of having that kind ofpsychosomatic approach with talk

(22:48):
therapy and qigong and tai chiis that that breath work allows you
to say it's okay to let it go.Like when you work with veterans,
right, and you have someonewho's lost a limb and they create
this kind of mirror boxbecause they were, like, clenching
their fists when their arm isblown off. And now their Mind is
like still holding this fistwith this limb that doesn't longer,

(23:10):
doesn't exist anymore. Theshadow box and the, the mirror box
allows them to see with their,them that they still have the reflection
so they can finally open theirhand and let it go. Well, that's
what qigong allows you to do.It allows you to realize, oh my gosh,
I've been holding these thingsthat are, that are holding me back.
If someone has wronged me,hurt me, good or bad, whatever, 20

(23:31):
years ago, and I'm stillcarrying it forward, that person
has moved on, found their ownjoy. I'm drinking now a poison, hoping
that they die. That's onlykilling me. I have to let it go.
And so it's crazy becauseeverything makes sense logically.
But like, as emotional feelingcreatures, we do hold on to things,

(23:52):
you know, things that we don'teven now consciously remember are
bothering us. And so it wasnice to be able to, to study a lot
of Eastern philosophy andholistic approaches because I think
they, they were verybeneficial for me to kind of see,
okay, we can take a breath.Because, you know, when you're going
through something difficult,you're stressed at work, you don't

(24:14):
realize those moments ofholding your breath, but everyone
does it naturally. So, youknow, one time I went to get my ear
pierced and the person waslike, just breathe. Because it's
like, it was like that onemoment to get the thing through,
I just stopped breathing. AndI hadn't realized it. Like, I would
have eventually startedbreathing again. But it's a deeper
breath, but it's also likeletting go. And now, you know, Mel
Robbins this year, she had anamazing book called the Let Them

(24:36):
Theory. If someone wrongs youand they show you who they really
are, let them, let them go.Like you're trying to control the
uncontrollables, and that'sgoing to be difficult.
That's brilliant. Again, Ithink that I kind of learned the
same thing when I was studyingqigong. I was introduced to qigong.
I practiced martial arts whenI was on the job in my old profession.

(24:58):
I did it prior to being apolice officer as well. And I had
brought that into my job withit. And it also helped me to relax,
it helped me to unwind, ithelped me not to turn. There's so
many first responders, whetherthey be firefighter, police officers,
firefighters, EMTs,paramedics. You carry so much with
you during the, during the daythat sometimes it's hard to let go.

(25:21):
And that's why they usuallyturn to Alcohol or they turn to,
you know, other issues thatare detrimental. From that perspective,
I luckily was taught at a veryearly age to carry for respect your
body, respect what you have tolet go, respect what you have to
keep. And I've had to do justlike anybody else has had to do.

(25:42):
I've had to learn that myselfor be reminded myself, because I
sat in a wheelchair for fouryears being resentful and angry and
really pissed off because ofmy situation and how I was placed
there, why I was placed there.I was in service of others and this
is my reward was my attitude.And it took me a reminder from my

(26:04):
kids and from my wife toopened my eyes up again, saying,
look, you know you can dothis, and I know you can do this.
If you think about it and ifyou relax and if you let go of the
anger and the resentment andthe bitterness of the whole situation,
it allows you to move forward,it allows you to make progress. And

(26:25):
that's when I really embracedqigong and from. I started with tai
chi and I moved into qigongfrom kung fu master, from here in
the local area. From here. Whosaid, move from tai chi to qigong?
This is what qigong can do foryou. And I haven't looked back. It's
a brilliant opportunity to beable to understand breath work. And

(26:48):
they're holding the breathlike you talk about. It allows us
to recognize when we're doingthat and not hold that in. So, yeah,
brilliant. Amazing. Are thosethe core principles of side hustle
and flow and what, like howlisteners can apply that today, or
does it go deeper?
It does. Well, it starts withmindset and it takes you through,

(27:12):
like different steps of reallysetting goals, really being goal
oriented, because if you aimfor nothing, you'll hit it every
time. And so it allows peopleto be able to organize, to structure.
You know, just like whenyou're writing a book, you have an
outline. What is the outlinefor your life? And I tell people,
even though I do say,underwhelm yourself in a long time

(27:33):
horizon, I say, no, youshould, you should have the biggest,
hairy as scariest goalpossible, because if you get halfway
there, you're going to befurther than what you would have
done if you go to too short.And so the principles really kind
of walk you through like away, but it does not say it's the
only way, because everyone'spath is going to be different. And

(27:53):
I wouldn't know that. I canjust show you, like, what I've done.
But even if I wanted to go, ICouldn't go back and do the last
20 years and I couldn't do thesame thing. The 20 years going forward,
they'll be slightly different.But the, the basic principles of
it is like, okay, how do wecreate metrics? How do we show is
it being successful or not?And when we want to make pivots and

(28:16):
changes, those all kind ofbreadcrumbs go throughout the book.
So the side has on flow andthen shape up is really about, oh
my gosh, if I had hustled onmy health harder earlier, how much
further.
Could I have gone?
And I think it, it's, it's alesson for all of us that we sometimes

(28:36):
have to just take a breath andpause and reflect and then understand
that we have the abilitywithin ourselves to achieve something.
We just have to recognize thatwe're in control. How do you balance
for, for those of us that aretrying to balance that, that life,
as we were talking about, youkind of going to have a balance,
the yin and the yang. How doyou think we should balance passion

(28:59):
projects and professionalresponsibilities without burnout?
I know you said that even ifyou're writing a book, an hour a
day is better than not doingit at all. You mentioned some tidbits
like that. But I also knowthat burnout from one end to the
other, whether it's creativelyor professionally or trying to balance

(29:20):
those. How can we maybebalance those?
Yeah, you know, it's aninteresting thing, Michael. For years
I would always talk about worklife balance. And then what I realized
is someone said it's actuallywork life integration. It's how those
things go together. And soessentially, if you ever study deep
work versus shallow work, it'sabout kind of putting all of the

(29:43):
building an ecosystem aroundyou, whether it's like on the self
care realm, whether it's inthe work realm, it's about setting
yourself up for success andhow you're able to do that. And no
two people are going to bealike because everyone is kind of
wired differently and thingslike that. But the beauty of it is
that it allows you to be ableto figure out how you can weave in

(30:04):
and out of things. Becausewhen people talk about multitasking
as human beings, we actuallydo not multitask. We become adept
at being able to switchquickly between tasks, but it's actually
all individualized tasks. Weactually don't do. Well when you're
trying to do two or threetasks at a time. In the same way
I tell people you should neverhave more than three major goals

(30:26):
throughout the wheel of lifein different sectors. Because if
you have more than three, youdon't have any right. They'll start
to conflict out. When Istudied some of the Buddhist principles
of Pima Chedron, she had thisgreat analogy of like life is a bull
of frogs and that you'retrying to get frogs into this bowl
and if you're able to luckilyhave two or three that hop in there
and they stay in there at thesame time, that's as good as gonna

(30:47):
get because eventually afrog's gonna hop out, there's gonna
be some uncontrollablesomething that you can't think of.
It's gonna fly off and youjust have to let it because it'll
just infuriate you to be ableto do that. Especially when we do.
A lot of things that happenhave to do with working with other
people. People management andworking with people adds a lot of
friction. But also teams thathave a lot of synergy, people that

(31:10):
work together end up doingbetter than doing it alone. That's
why the African proverb oradage says, you know, you can go
faster alone, you can gofarther together. It's true. And
so ideally it's aboutintegrating those systems, how you,
you know, you build thatright. Now I will say this. If you
have some type of job that isjust soul sucking like you just is

(31:32):
something that you don't love,that you just completely hate, you
have to write the prescriptionfor your life and get out of it,
which is one of the thingsthat you have to let go. Doesn't
mean that you, you didn't loveit for a time, doesn't mean you're
gonna love it forever. But youkind of have to ask self reflection
questions. I learned thisbecause Lissa Rankin, when she did
her book Mind Over Medicine,she was a doctor and she had all
these illnesses as a doctorknowing western medicine and essentially

(31:56):
she realized that her job wastoo stressful, she had to quit. And
many people will, will notmake that determination because people
will say, oh, that's too hard.But life is hard no matter what you
do. It's about picking andchoosing the hard that you want at
any particular time. Becauselife never gets any easier. You just
have to constantly and neverend improve. I have never had anything

(32:19):
happen to me that was justcompletely easy. Like it just took
no effort. You know, anythingthat's worth having a worthy idea
is going to take time, it'sgoing to take resources, it's going
to take energy. So when itcomes to burnout, it's really about
having the awareness to listento yourself. Because what happens
is that people have this cup,right? Let's say it's like a teacup,
and then you have your saucerunderneath. The abundance is like

(32:42):
you're pouring the tea outinto the cup, it overflows into the
saucer, right? Anything thatlands abundant over the saucer, you
can give away, but your cup.Cup has to always stay full. Burnout
is when you've now given allthe way to the cup that's depleted,
plus the saucer, plus theteapot, plus now you're borrowing
from somebody else's teapot.Essentially. That's what burnout

(33:03):
is. And the sad thing is thatas human beings, we are taught to
desensitize ourselves. We aretaught to ignore the systems of our
body and energy that sometimeswe could be burned out for years
and we don't have. We're notusing that verbiage, we're not using
that terminology, but it canhappen because you have to rest,
you have to reset, you have torecharge because you have to be able

(33:26):
to reflect. And the only wayto do that is to take a rest. And
the same with music. Like, youdon't know until, like, the song
has to end. The. Thevibrations have to. To be silent,
to be able to understand,like, you know, the difference. The
beauty of comparison is thatyou can only know what's good and
not good when you have twothings to compare it to. If I just
have one thing, I say that'sgood. Well, compared to what?

(33:50):
Yeah, exactly. And I like theway that you use the teak effort
analogy and especially theoveruse. If you overfill it, you
use all of that, you losewhat's in the saucer, and then you
kind of borrow somebodyelse's. I mean, it's a brilliant

(34:10):
way to kind of, kind ofreflect upon itself. Am I doing that?
If I am doing that, then Ithink I need to pause and take a
breath and reevaluate. We allshould do that as individuals, because
sometimes we're presented withthings that we don't really expect.
And, you know, that alwaysthrows a wrench in life. And once

(34:31):
it throws a wrench in life,you know, we can manage it or we
can let it overcome us.
Yes. And the crazy thing isthat you have good intentions behind
all those things. Like, yougive and you give because it feels
good and you want to behelpful and people need you. But
it doesn't mean that everything that wants to take should.

(34:53):
You know, you can enablepeople in Some ways or sometimes
you just. You don't have it togive in that season of life. And
I found this a lot with churchand volunteering sometimes, you know,
people love that you volunteerand you'll say yes to lots of things,
and they'll say, oh, my gosh,I don't have the time for that, energy
for that, or, this is not theseason of that for me. And so there's

(35:14):
a power of no or not yet ornot now or not ever. And it doesn't.
It doesn't make you, you know,now the bad person. It just means
that you are, you know, whenyou're in an airplane, they say,
put your mask on first. Forthat reason, you become a liability.
If you burn out and drop now,you're not going to be able to help
anybody or yourself. And so itdoesn't mean that, you know, you

(35:37):
do what you can when you can,but as a human being, you're going
to have a finite amount ofresources and time and energy. And
you do owe it to yourself tosometimes say, this is not a today
thing.
I like that. Owe it toyourself. Because I think that we
should all think aboutourselves from that perspective on

(35:59):
a regular basis. That we meansomething, we count, and that we
as individuals count, that weshould respect ourselves, our mind,
our body and our soul. So,yeah, I know you talk about a lot
of. I mean, you talk. Let'stalk about hosting Deeper Grooves.
I know you hosted both as apodcast and on 88.5 FM. The podcast

(36:23):
gives you kind of a platformto share ideas. How's that shaped
your perspective on cultureand creativity and where you stand
in this life today, especiallyfrom a musician's perspective, a
creative perspective, and as ahuman being. That's a deep question,
isn't it?
No, it is. And that's why wego deep. Yeah, I just wanted to,

(36:46):
like the Actors Studio. Iwanted to interview musicians and
find out their journey, butalso, just how did you do it? Like
people who have won Grammys,wow, that's like the pinnacle of
success. How do you do that?And everybody's journey was different,
but at the end of the day, Ithink most people said, I just want

(37:06):
people to see I was a goodperson and I really tried and I really
took it the distance. And ifyou look at any musician worth their
salt, you'll see that they'repracticing and doing something and
pushing the envelope up tilldeath, essentially, because they
really believe they canconstantly improve and they know

(37:28):
that they're going to leavebehind this legacy of music. And
catalog and things they'vedone that the future generations
will be able to listen to andunderstand and grow into over time.
But people do it because theylove it. People do it because they're
passionate. They do it becausethey would essentially do it for
free, because they have to getthe music out of them or they'll

(37:51):
go crazy, essentially. And sobeing a musician, two musicians doing
it on a peer level reallyallowed me to show that, you know,
there are people who wonGrammys and people who want nothing
but. But they're all, like, onthis wavelength and vibration of
trying to. To do the best theycan with what they have. And I've
seen people who have madeamazing music in their bedroom with

(38:11):
very little equipment, andpeople who have been at the top,
you know, studios where theBeatles record or whatever, and,
you know, everything inbetween. But ultimately, it's like
real musicians respect allmusicians of any level and caliber.
I was just at a concert lastnight for a youth orchestra, and,
you know, I was hearing a lotof screechy violins or whatever,
but it's like those are thebuilding blocks of success. Those

(38:33):
are the kids that are going tocome up and carry on this legacy
of music that has been aroundfor hundreds and hundreds of thousands
of years. And we want more ofthat. We want it to be able to continue.
And it is, you know, artsprograms and stuff in school get
cut. So we really want to havethese free resources, the library

(38:53):
and other ways of gettingcontent out to the generation. Because,
you know, I thought that nowwith AI, kids would want to utilize
that. But someone said it verywell. They said, why would you make
AI to create. I want AI to gowork so I could create. And so it's
true. People still have a partof them that wants to create. I even

(39:14):
meet younger kids now. They'relike, I don't like AI. I want to
make my own painting. I wantto do my own music. And I think that's
great. I think it's abeautiful thing that we still have
a hunger inside us to be like,I want to put my stamp and my idea,
my X Factor and my snowflakeDNA out into the zeitgeist, into
the lexicon of what is tocome. And I think, you know, if we

(39:35):
didn't have that, now that wedon't have as many gatekeepers with
the record label and stuff, wedemocratize a lot of things so that
YouTube and Spotify, you know,for good or bad, people can just
log into stuff and get it andpull it down and listen to it. But
I do think that there is, youknow, the old school ways of having
to actually physically go to aconcert or physically go to a record

(39:57):
store and support those shopsis still important because I think
sometimes if you go and spendyour own money and dollars and support,
you invest in a different way.And I think that's why I tell people,
you know, you can either spendyour time or invest your time. If
you invest your time, then youhave an roi. You have something to
look back to and be like,okay, that was time well spent. If

(40:20):
you just spend the time, youknow, it's just like a dribble account
where like, things are goingeverywhere. You don't, you're not
tracking it, you don't know ifit was good or not. But I think,
you know, there's a mixture ofboth. There's just so much noise,
there's so much distraction. Ithink that's one of the hardest things
for people in the nextgenerations is to realize that, like,
your attention is jockeyed byso many things. Waking up in the

(40:43):
morning, looking outside, yousee so many billboards, so many marketing
messages, so many apps thatare pinging you notifications, social
media, etc. And so it reallytakes a strong person to say, okay,
I need to kind of unplug fromthe matrix, listen to the choir inner
voice inside me, becausethat's going to be what really drives

(41:04):
you or really motivates you.We know that intrinsic motivation
is the strongest of all. Andso, yeah, you're going to have a
lot of people who kind of, forlack of a better word, become sheep,
you know, because it's easierto follow and float than to kind
of, you know, pave your ownway. The, the coolest paths are the
ones that you're going to haveto get a shovel and dig and, and

(41:25):
forge it. Then people canfollow you.
And I think, unfortunately,with the today's, like you say, instant,
everybody wants instantgratification. Everybody's looking
for instant. Whatever they'relooking for, it has to be instantaneous.
Whether it's the news orwhether it's music or whether it's
latest trends or whetheranything in cultural society and

(41:47):
culture, we want itinstantaneously now because they've
grown up this way, where Iremember having to race through work
to try to get done in time toget home to watch something on TV
that we were watching, a showwhere we didn't have the ability
to even record the show. So itwas like you either get done and

(42:07):
you get done in time to go Seeit or you miss out and everybody's
talking about it tomorrow, andyou don't get to talk about it nowadays.
It is such a. Even withpodcasting, you and I both know you
have, like, 10 seconds tocatch somebody's attention. If not,
then they swipe and they moveand they swipe and they go on, and
they go on. How do you thinkfrom a. From an influencer perspective?

(42:33):
I think in culture, society,and culture, we have, and I say we
as a whole have created anenvironment for influence to try
to jump into. I want to be aninfluencer. I want to be an influencer.
I want to be an influencer.But I find, at least in some of my
conversations, that that wantto be an influencer doesn't necessarily

(42:55):
come from a creativeperspective. It comes from a monetary
perspective. How do you thinkwe. We should try to, I guess, separate
that or. Or let people knowthat you could be an influencer from
a creative perspective?
Yeah, I think that's a greatway of thinking about it. So, yeah,
I mean, the term gets used alot. You see, people actually put

(43:16):
that at their title, I'm aninfluencer. And you might. You might
have a lot of fans, you mayhave a lot of followers, but ideally,
as an artist or just anyonebeing a kind of spokesperson, it's
like one you have to live. Youhave to live a life where you have
experience. So if you havedone nothing except, you know, being

(43:37):
influential, to beinfluential, but you have nothing
to say and nothing to talkabout, then I think that's problematic.
I think that's. That's, youknow, we praise the youth and we
should applaud the effort. Butultimately, I want to see a lifetime
of experience. If you aregiving relationship advice and you
have not been married fordecades, I don't want to hear, you

(44:01):
know, I don't need. I don'twant theories. I don't want, you
know, what could happen. Iwant tactical. I've lived it. I don't.
I don't like the way shesqueezes the toothpaste. I don't
like the way she rolls thetoilet paper. But I've learned to
deal with. That's the realthing, you know, because, you know,
when you've had aging parentsand people who have gone through

(44:22):
illnesses, cancer,disabilities, that's the staying
power. Right? And you don'tsee, you know, with relationships,
that type of commitment, youknow, you had to apprentice years
ago, if you wanted to be ablacksmith. You worked under a person,
they died, you took over thebusiness. That took 20 years you

(44:43):
didn't say, man, let me be aninfluencer, tell you about being
a blacksmith. I never smited asword, never lit a fire, nothing
that would not have worked.And so we need more of when you were
talking about like theinstantaneous gratification. Well,
we need to understand nature,right? You plant a seed, you don't
pick up the tomato right thenext moment. You know, it takes time

(45:07):
having to drive home and watchthat show it built delayed gratification
as the model. So people whoare able to, to believe in delayed
gratification, they have thestaying power, they have the stick
to it of this becauseperseverance, real perseverance,
is pushing past the pointwhere the feeling has left you. Like
if you, you said you were in awheelchair for years. To be able

(45:28):
to before you're in awheelchair and then still get up
and do that, that's aperseverance. You know, the first,
you know, Edison, 10,000experiments, someone quit after one
or 10 or 100, you know, you'renot going to make it because there's
no way you want to be justgetting head against the wall day
after day after day. But theWright brothers are getting a man
on the moon or any of thoseimpossible tasks, they happen from

(45:51):
someone who's like, you knowwhat? We're going to do it and we're
going to do it until it'sdone. And there's this thing where
like George Washington,someone there at the Delaware, and
they're just like, burn theboat. If you burn all the boats,
there's no going back. You'regoing to have to fight it out and
make it to the other side.There is no back. Nintendo Mario
Brothers, the very first one,there is no back. You can only go

(46:13):
forward. The castle is overthere, so is the princess, and keep
it moving. And so perseverancereally allows you to stick to it
when you've built delayedgratification. And sadly, it's something
that now you have to choose tocultivate because society does not
champion any way. It's like,have it your way, have it now. Yeah,
yeah.
Unfortunately, that'sunfortunate, in my opinion. It's

(46:34):
very unfortunate. I thinkthat, you know, we need to kind of
respect the process as well,especially from a creative perspective.
How do you think cultureawareness shaped the way you connect
with your audience and yourteams across music, tech and broadcasting?
I mean, it's allowed me. Look,as a police officer, I love my job.
I really, I was a good cop. Iwas a sergeant. I had a team of guys

(46:57):
I Ran DUI task force. I was aninvestigative officer. I was a traffic
cop. Okay. I mean, I ran thegamut. I protected. I was on protection
details for two presidents ofthe United States and the Prime Minister
of Japan. I've caught two ofAmerica's most wanted.
Wow.
I loved my career. I lovedbeing a cop. It was a great thing.

(47:18):
I used to walkabouts. I'd parkmy car and I'd walk the neighborhood.
I'd walk. Walk the shopsdowntown, walk in and talk to people.
Sit down on a bench, talk topeople walking by, see how their
day was going. Communitypolicing type atmosphere. I love
doing that. Okay. I had toredefine my purpose and change my
perspective on life fromthose. The perseverance you're talking

(47:40):
about. If I hadn't learnedwhat I learned as a cop, to persevere,
to push through, to not beafraid, to stand tall, I may not
be out of that wheelchair whenI had done. And I think that's a
testament to perseverance withregard to anybody that's faced with
any kind of an obstacle orsomething in their way. So I kind

(48:02):
of got off track there withthe whole question. But the. I think
from a society and cultureperspective, it allowed me the opportunity
to have conversations withpeople all over the world that I
never would have had as apolice officer in the city. I had
conversations, you know what Imean? But not like this. So, you

(48:24):
know, how does that work for you?
No. Yeah. I mean, I believethe technology has allowed us to
be able to reach out to thewhole world. I've had remixes and
worked with engineers that arein completely different geographic
locations that I never met,and albums that were made completely
with bands that I never sawbecause we were able to. To do that.

(48:45):
And that's why I tell peoplethat you should embrace the technology.
Like people who are like, oh,I don't like AI. I don't want to
embrace. I mean, use it as atool. Because all the tools are amoral,
right? They're not good,they're not bad. They wouldn't. You
make them to be. And I. Thesame way I tell people, you know,
if I pick up a rock and I useit to make food and. And help people,
that's great. If I use it andI. To kill someone, then the rock

(49:05):
hasn't done it. It was theperson behind it, the intent behind
it. So I think we candefinitely tell that all industries
who don't embrace thetechnology, they end up dying. You
know, there's a reason thatBlockbuster could have been Netflix,
but they didn't want to dothat. The record companies could
have created Apple Music andSpotify, but they didn't. Kodak in
the 70s had a digital camera.They said, no, we are in film. They're

(49:29):
no longer around as much, youknow, so all those things just allow
you to understand, like youcan be in the dark and you can light
a match or curse the darkness.The people who end up embracing the
technology, embracing thesocial media to be the early adopters
and building the tractionthere, they do move the needle forward.

(49:50):
But ultimately, I think youstill, I think you have that integration
or balance that, you know,analog and digital work together.
I think as a musician forsure, you should be working on your
craft. You should be workingon your craft offline in a sandbox
where people don't see youbecause that takes time. You don't
pick up an instrument day one,and you're just like wildly proficient.

(50:12):
Even if you're a savant, youstill need the life experience to
be able to have something tosay. That's why my first album in
2013 is called who the Funk IsCliff Beach. It was really me asking
and answering, who am I as anartist? I had done many years of
music and conservatory andplaying, but who am I and what do
I want to say? And what do Iwant the world to remember that one

(50:35):
more thing before we go. Whatdo I want my legacy to be? And that's
why I asked every musician ondeeper groups, what do you want your
legacy to be? Because when youzoom out, you think about the footnote
of the annals of history. Whatis going to be left behind, Very
small, you know, what kind ofimpact do you want to do? And so
I think the more people thatyou help, you know, I think you being

(50:58):
a police officer is a greatthing and making those pivots, I
think you've learned that evenseeing the worst of humanity, you
must believe in the goodnessof humanity because you wouldn't
do it otherwise. And so notonly to be a good person, but still
to look out into yourcommunity, walk that beat and say,
you know what? I believepeople are inherently good. And most
of the people around here domean as well. And I'm just here to

(51:20):
police, you know, the onesthat maybe get off track. But. But
I think as we reform thatsystem, obviously real rehab, rehabilitation,
really getting into the humanpsyche of like, if we had more people
self governing, if we had morepeople who had self awareness, if
we had more resources to helppeople get actual education and learn
to think for Themselves andhave more passion, purpose filled

(51:43):
lives, then yeah, I think we'dhave less recidivism and less crime
and stuff like that. And theyalready show that. They show. And
societies that treat eventheir criminals very humane, they
end up having less recidivism.So I think ultimately man wants to,
and I mean man, mankind,women, everyone in between. I think
they, you know, they want toself actualize, they want to climb

(52:05):
and sometimes they just don'tknow how. And you know, when you
look at the game, shoots andladders, some people, you know, have
immediate trajectory, somepeople, you know, they struggle a
long time, but whatever movesyou up the board is, is the main
thing. You know, some peopleget it very quickly, some people
don't. You know, some peopleare faster, some people are prettier,
some people are skinnier,whatever it is, but it doesn't mean

(52:26):
that whatever you're kind ofthe card that you're dealt. You can't
make the best of what you cando. And ultimately you, you owe it
to yourself. You owe it toyourself to do it because you will
do it differently than anyother person because we're all unique
and we need, we need you to doit when it cultivates in you. That's

(52:47):
what people forget, is thatit's not about winning the award,
it's about who you become bythe doing. The side hustle and flow
is the doing and the being andhow they relate to each other.
Which is brilliant. It'sbrilliant. The whole aspect of what
you just spoke about. I thinkthat we as human beings should recognize

(53:09):
that we are who we are and weshould be proud of who we are no
matter what. You should beproud of who you are because you
are part of humanity from lifein general and that you should embrace
that and kind of move thatforward. You yourself, I know we're
running short on time here, soI do want to touch upon a couple

(53:32):
of things in regard to whatyou just said, actually. You have
personal journey of reversingtype 2 diabetes, you lost £50 and
you have long term sobriety.And you know, from a personal perspective,
I want to say congratulationsand kudos for achieving those, especially
the long term sobriety. I'm agroup of two alcoholic parents and

(53:54):
there's a long history ofalcohol within my family and I know
that it's a very hard thing todo and it is also a very admirable
thing when you choose longterm sobriety. So first and foremost,
well done on those. You don'tknow me up until like now, but I'm

(54:16):
proud of you for what you'veachieved in that regard. How is that?
How has those influenced yourcreativity and your productivity
in regard to those kind ofachievements and where you stand?
It's so funny. I just had ajazz gig this last weekend, and I
have, have been working withthese two musicians for years. So
people knew me. You know, it'slike A, D, B, C, you know, before

(54:39):
drinking, after drinking. Andso my Trombonis is my horn arranger.
He was like, I rememberplaying a gig maybe 15 years ago.
He was like, you just had a.
Song that wouldn't end.
Like, somehow we just keptlosing it. I could not land that
plane because I was drinkingso much. Like, I just had no awareness.
Like we had started it, we hadended it where we were. And so musically

(55:01):
for me, especially vocally,but even with keyboards and other
stuff, I just feel like I'mlike laser focused sharp because
I have full awareness ofexactly what's happening. Good, bad,
ugly, everything between.Like, I, I don't have this kind of
hazy view of what's happening.I know exactly what I want to do
and how I want to do it. And,and that mental clarity has been

(55:24):
amazing on the bandstand. Butalso I can definitely see like, the
people working with me, theyrespect what I've done in that regard,
but also they, you know,they'll follow a leader into anywhere
knowing that this personclearly has the vision and will carry
it through. And, and like Isaid, it doesn't mean that I, you
know, doing no drinking years,I still was productive and got things

(55:45):
done. But, you know, Irealized that like, this was no longer
serving me. And, and no one,no one told me this was the choice
to make. I made it for myself.Because, yes, I had some family history
of it, but it was really, forme, all about transcendence. You
know, once they told me that Ihad health issues, it was kind of

(56:06):
understood. They were like,you know, as they told you, it's
like, well, you just live withit now. This is your new normal.
And I was like, I don't knowif that's true. There's got to be
something that you can do.Because what I didn't want, especially
with diabetes and stuff likethat, I've had have family members
who had their limbs cut offand things like that and went blind.
And I didn't want it to come.I did not want to be like, well,

(56:28):
grandpa had it, so this isjust my fate and I'll just, I'll
just eat cake and and wait forthem to cut my foot off. I was like,
no, no, there has to be abetter way. There has to be other
options. Doesn't mean that Iknew. I mean, I felt like it could
be reversible, but it waslike, even if it was only somewhat
reverse, first of all, it'slike still what you're doing to your
body and that you only get onebody, and it's not disembodied. You

(56:54):
know, mind, body, soul, theyare integrated together. It's not
like one works on the other.Like they. They're. They're in tandem.
So I just wanted people torealize, especially of different
ethnicities and differentages, that you can still make better
choices with new informationand do something else. And, yeah,
I don't. I will also say this.Learning new coping skills and having

(57:19):
to feel your feelings as amusician who feels a lot, it's probably
one of the hardest things todo. Like, there's a reason that you
go to numb, because it's hardto have to be like, what do I do
with these feelings? But. Butto be able to get that out musically.
Luckily I had outlets. And sodoing the podcast during the radio
show, doing books, books,different mediums, scripts, as we

(57:40):
talked about, whatever it is,it allows you, doesn't mean that
they're all going to becomeblockbusters or be amazing. They
may just never get anywhere.But the point of, like, writing it
out, regurgitating it outallows you. And even, even now, with
talk therapy and stuff goingto people, talking about your feelings,
communicating is verydifficult. You know, people are like,

(58:02):
well, why am I afraid to showyou who I am? I really am. That's
all I got. That's all I have.If you reject that, then that's whatever,
but. But that's okay. Like,all you got is all you got, and that's
fine. And that's enough.There's this societal problem that
we have of. It makes you feellike you're not enough. Like, you

(58:22):
don't have to do anything. Youknow, you don't have to. You don't
have to be the best of thebest in every aspect of everything.
And you won't be, but it'sokay. Just being a human being and
being on this rock together,sharing this experience together
is fine. And, you know, peopledo what they do to get through the
night. And numbing can helpyou, but it's a band aid, right?

(58:43):
It will not get to the. Thebottom of what is bothering you.
And at some point in life,either you implode or Explode or
something if you don't get tothe root of it. And even though feeling
the feelings in the short termkind of sucks, and the long term,
you're better off for itbecause you've now learned how to

(59:05):
effectively communicate yourfeelings and to. To have boundaries
and to safeguard yourself and.And to do other things and realize,
like, okay, there are thingsthat I need to let go. There are
things that did or didn'thappen, but ultimately, I cannot
be a victim and a victor. Ihave to choose my heart. What do
I want to be? And so sobrietyand 12 step and all that stuff, and

(59:28):
also the emotionalrelationship to food. I didn't realize
growing up that when I wentthrough something difficult, had
a bad day in school, andsomeone's like, oh, have a cookie,
have a Twinkie, have this.That it ingrained in me this Pavlovian
dog response that I couldemotionally eat when I felt bad or.
And drinking and emotionaleating to me were from the same.

(59:50):
Same thing.
The same box.
Yep, same thing. It soundslike you did. And kudos again for
that. My wife is five and ahalf years sober now, which we're
very, very proud of her for.
Very proud.
How did. It sounds to me likeyou took your failures and your setbacks

(01:00:11):
and it kind of shaped yourresilience and your outlook today,
which obviously what you justspoke about, it gave you a very positive
approach to life and allowsyou to enjoy your creative aspects
in such a way that you canshare them freely, understanding
that each step is a process.Each. Each step is a learning step.

(01:00:31):
And your successes and yourfailures are nothing but experiences
that we can carry forward in life.
Yeah. And you know what Irealized is that most people are
rooting for you. Yeah, there'strolls and bad people, but for the
most part, people, like,people want to see that. And, and
you don't get, like, thisjudgment that you think you're going
to get by putting it outthere. It actually humanizes you

(01:00:54):
and makes people feel moreconnected to you because they know
that you're a very transparentperson and that you do have to get
to a point where you're like,well, you know what? It is what it
is. And I just don't care whatpeople think because I. I can't erase
my mistakes. I can't pretendthat they didn't happen and I can't
cover them up because there'sno learning opportunity there. Like,

(01:01:14):
you know, if Edison didn'tlearn in all those experiments to
eventually get there, then.Then it would be for not. But you
know, it's like, you want tobe able to. To learn and. And unfortunately,
you know, pain is one of thebest teachers, but it's a catalyst
to help you move if you canget past the point of complaining,

(01:01:36):
right? So Les Brown, he hasgreat analogy where there's this
dog sitting on the nail, andhe goes by this old man. He's like,
your dog just keeps yelpingand yelping and yelping. What's up
with the dog? He was like,he's sitting on a nail. He's like,
well, why doesn't he, youknow, do anything? And they're like,
it only hurts him enough tocomplain, but not enough to get up
and do anything about it. Andthat's most of life. Most of people

(01:01:58):
are like, you know, you haveto. You have to put yourself to the
pain. Tony Robbins says, youhave to make the pain in your mind
so extreme that you want totake immediate, massive action, because
you will, but you have to doit immediately, right? Five seconds
into whatever it is you wantto do. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. You have to
get up and do it if you wantto go work out. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Put

(01:02:18):
the shoes on. You're out thedoor. Because if you don't, your
mind will immediately distractyou or give you many reasons not
to do it. But you only needone compelling reason that you're
going to be better off bydoing it. And then just do it and
do it when you don't have thefeeling. I do not wait for the feeling.
There's me. Every record, Ihave a point where I'm like, why
did I take this on? It's toomuch of a project. I've done enough.

(01:02:40):
You have to push past thatpoint because there's always a point
where you're like, this sucks.I don't want to do. It's a lot of
work. It's a lot of effort. Icould do anything else. You know,
people forget. When I wasstudying business, we have these
things about marginal utilityand substitute goods. And you talk
about, like, oh, what's thesubstitute to a Coke water? Like,
the substitute to doingsomething is doing nothing. Like,

(01:03:01):
that's always a good idea. Andso you have to be able to realize
that, like, there's going tobe a point where you're like, why
did I do this? But you'relike, oh, because I'm gonna be better
by doing it. But you. But yougotta push past the feeling. There's
going to be some times whereyou don't feel like Doing it and
you have to do it anyway oryou're going to be afraid to do something
and you're gonna have to do itanyway. That's like most of the time

(01:03:22):
it's like people think that,oh, you're just a fearless person.
That's not a human thing. Fearis a natural response. You will be
afraid, but you have to do itscared. You have to feel the fear
and do it anyway. Because onceyou push past that point, all the
growth happens, you know,outside of your comfort zone.
I agree. It's a choice. Youhave to make a choice. You can move
forward or you can sit backand wallow. Does that mean all my

(01:03:47):
physical reel bills I wentthrough, I've had eight operations
through every one of them.That's the message that kept resonating
with me was you have to make achoice to make that, take that step
forward. You have to make achoice to get up off the bed, you
have to make a choice to walkout the door. You have to make a
choice whether or not you'regoing to walk your daughter down
the aisle. And that's whatmotivated me from that perspective.

(01:04:12):
And they kept telling me, youhave to make a choice. And your choices,
you can either accept andwallow in what you, you can't see
me pointing, but wallow inthis or you can make a choice and
the choice is going to bebetterment of you and those around
you. And so yeah, it's aperfect thing. This is one more thing
before you go. So words ofwisdom. How do you want your work,

(01:04:33):
whether in writing music orbroadcasting, to inspire the next
generation of creatives and entrepreneurs?
I just want people to rememberwe're all just a kid from somewhere.
Most self made millionairesare people who are successful. They
came from nothing. Right? Weall, we all started as babies. We
get slapped on the butt and wehave to get out there. And so what
I want people to remember isto look at me not because of all

(01:04:56):
the things I did, but just theproof that one person with sheer
will energy putting themselvesout there can forge a path. And you
can do it as well. And you cando it at any age, any gender, any
status. But today's the daythat you get off. Someday I'll and
actually do the thing andyou're gonna fail and you're gonna

(01:05:19):
fail fast and forward and allyour face, but you're gonna get up
again over and over and overagain. And you know, I would tell
anybody who's trying torecover from alcohol or anything
else if you get off the wagon,you get back off on. You get back
on immediately. It's not abouthow many times you fall. It's about
how many times you get up. Wefall down, but we get back up. And
that's how we learn to walkright as babies, we never once think

(01:05:42):
that we can't do it and wejust need to carry that childlike
curiosity forward through allthe things. And you can be creative
in any sector of life, anyaspect of business or work or industry.
Everyone can benefit from acreative mind and remembering that
you have limitless potential.And I will leave you with the words

(01:06:04):
of Charles Schultz by way ofSnoopy. Do you no one can say you
did you wrong.
Brilliant words of wisdom,Cliff. Brilliant words of wisdom.
And you, you, Snoopy. Mywife's gonna love that. Let's tell
people how we can get a holdof you and the the book and your
podcast and everything aboutyou and how you can help help them.

(01:06:27):
Awesome. Well, you can checkout the books on we're all fine books
are sold. S Hustle and Flow orShape up my Deeper Groove podcast
which is on all streamingplatforms as well as Deeper Groove
radio Show on the SoCalsound.org you can always reach out
to me on social media at CliffBeach Music or email me cliffside
hustle.net and also check outour blog five articles for free every

(01:06:50):
[e-mail] as well. So Ilook forward to hearing from you.
If you need personal coachingor just words of wisdom, feel free
to reach out to me. I willalways give my best to be able to
help you any way I can becauseteamwork makes the dream work and
we're all on this rock together.
Outstanding. And I'll makesure those things are in the show
notes as well so anybody canjust click it and follow you right

(01:07:11):
to where they need to go. Soonce again, Cliff, thank you very
much for being part ofhumanity. Thank you for being on
the thank show show and thankyou for being here.
Thank you Michael, and thankyou for all your great work and continued
success in everything that youdo, everyone you touch, everyone
you talk to. We benefit andlearn and continue to learn together.
I'm grateful for that. I willmove on. I will take those steps

(01:07:35):
for our listeners. Check outthe side Hustle and Flow trilogy
and follow Cliff's work acrossmusic tech and his Deeper Groove
platform. That's it fortoday's journey. If something sparked
your curiosity or moved you,share it. Subscribe and stay connected.
You can find us on Apple,Spotify or your favorite listening
platform and you can head overto YouTube and watch the full episode

(01:07:57):
version. Remember, you're notjust listening, you're part of this
story. So until next time,keep seeking, keep growing, and never
stop asking. Have a great day,have a great week, and thank you
for being one more thingbefore you go Community.
To this episode of One MoreThing before you Go, check out our
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(01:08:20):
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