EP 31: Choose Love Over Fear: Acacia Thornton's Path to Personal Growth & Adventure

Ever wondered what it's like to transition from a high-stakes legal career to a life of spiritual coaching and global adventuring? 

Join me as I talk to Acacia Thornton, a former Fortune 500 attorney who traded the courtroom for the vibrant energy of Las Vegas and a fulfilling life as a digital nomad. 

Acacia shares her journey from legal expert to award-winning speaker and coach, revealing how she balances the city's dynamic atmosphere with her own tranquil retreat away from the hustle and bustle of the Strip. 

Discover how Las Vegas inspires her professional growth and how she thrives in her new, adventurous life.

Together, Acacia and I reflect on her individual path through the demanding world of law. From her formative years, which were steeped in challenges that honed her argumentative skills, to the competitive environment of law school and the pressures of legal careers, we explore how these experiences shaped her.

Our conversation also touches on the surprising turns that led her to pursue more heart-centered careers, challenging the conventional wisdom that career shifts mean financial setbacks. The power of self-care and listening to one's heart becomes a pivotal theme as we discuss how these choices doubled her income and enriched her life.

Embracing love as a force for healing, Acacia and I delve into stories of overcoming trauma and choosing love over fear. With insights from "A Course in Miracles" and plans for future travels, we explore how love can transform fear into gratitude and propel us forward in life. 

Acacia shares her aspirations for continued personal growth and professional endeavors, including adding university instruction to her repertoire. 

Join us on this journey of discovering your inner strength, embracing love, and pursuing happiness wherever it may lead you. 

Acacia's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/acaciathornton/

Acacia's Website: https://www.acaciathornton.com/

David's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-young-mba-indy/

David's Website: https://davidjyoung.me/

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Real you Podcast.
This is episode number 31.
I'm David Young, your host.
I'm a LinkedIn content andbusiness coach, and I help
coaches and solopreneurs growtheir businesses through better
storytelling and contentcreation.
I launched this podcast inMarch of 24 to spotlight
interesting people doing amazingthings, and today I'm thrilled
to welcome Acacia Thornton, anaward-winning speaker, former

(00:22):
Fortune 500 attorney turnedspiritual and business coach.
An award-winning speaker,former Fortune 500 attorney
turned spiritual and businesscoach, and a global citizen who
now lives in Las Vegas.
But she has spent quite a bitof time exploring the world as a
digital nomad and I can't waitto talk more about that.
We will dive into herfascinating journey from the
courtroom to the keynote stage,how her legal expertise supports
entrepreneurs and buildingthriving, soul-aligned

(00:42):
businesses, and the stories andlessons for her global journey
balancing a vibrant coachingcareer with life on the road.
So, acacia, it's great to meetyou for the first time and thank
you so much for joining metoday.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
I'm so excited to be here.
David, Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Awesome.
So I want to start with LasVegas.
So you do reside there Now.
I used to take a yearly trip toVegas.
I've been there nine timestotal.
I haven't been there since 2011.
So I haven't seen the sphereand many other newer things, but
Vegas is a really interestingtown that I can usually tolerate
for about two or three daysbefore I have to leave.
So what is it like living there?

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Living here.
I chose a place that's actuallyin the north part of the strip.
I'm tiny to the strip, but I'mnot in the crazy, crazy part of
the strip.
I can see even the sphere frommy balcony and I love it.
And one of the reasons I pickedthis is I moved here.
I was off being a digital nomadfor two years, was barely in
the country during that wholetime, took my job on the road.

(01:36):
But unlike you, where you'vebeen here nine times, I'm the
type where I grew up aroundVegas but not in Vegas.
I lived in LA, I lived inPhoenix and my parents were here
for work, so I was sometimesaround Vegas, but not in Vegas.
I lived in LA, I lived inPhoenix and my parents were here
for work, so I was sometimeshere nine 10 times a year.

Speaker 1 (01:49):
Oh wow, it was like my second home?

Speaker 2 (01:51):
Yes, and my job at the time was like you've got to
come back to the country.
You have to come back if youwant the promotion.
You got to come back and I waslike have my digital nomad heart
.
I need excitement, I neednovelty.
But I also understood energyand vibration and for me to
elevate my life into being aspeaker, into creating more

(02:13):
wealth, having the energy andvibrations about things that
were new all the time.
What was my other home?
Vegas?
Vegas, and so I get all of thaton the strip, which is why I'm
close enough to the Strip butfar enough from the Strip to
keep both my sanity and myexcitement every day.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
I love it, I love it.
Do you go?
So you'll go down, I assumethen you go down to the Strip
and then go back.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
Yeah, I'm actually on the monorail line, that is how
close I am, I can just hop onthe monorail.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Because I remember during some of my trips there we
would talk to people that werelocal and they hated coming to
the strip because they hated thetourists.

Speaker 2 (02:48):
The tourists yeah.

Speaker 1 (02:49):
They hated the lights and the shows and the people on
the strip handing out all thestuff, and so they were like we
rarely come down here.
This is totally.
This is only a visitor place.
The locals don't come here, andso I always thought that was
really interesting.
But it sounds like you kind oflike that part of it, because
there is a lot of energy andit's a lot Like just walking.
If you don't do anything andyou just walk down the strip,

(03:11):
it's a lot.

Speaker 2 (03:13):
It really can be a lot.
And it is true, a lot of thelocals don't come down to the
strip, but, like with anyamazing city in the world,
there's so many reasons to loveit.
Some people love being awayfrom the strip.
I can tell you, I live in acondo high-rise, so I have
hundreds of neighbors and wecollectively go to the strip

(03:34):
often.
We love it.
There are locals that you'llfind down there.
Of course, we do it a littlebit differently.
We're not having the drunkenlose $1,000 weekends.
That's not what we're doing.
But that doesn't mean we don'tappreciate how amazing it is
down there, because it really isa unique place.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
Yeah, it is.
It's a fascinating place.
The last time I was there thereason I was there is my friend
had one entry into the WorldSeries of Poker main event.
Yeah, so it was reallyinteresting they put together
like a local tournament with agroup of guys and the buy-in was
like a thousand and they did aseries of tournaments and they
had 12 players.
So the winner got like 11 000,which paid like travel, and the

(04:13):
entry in second place got athousand or something and it was
like a seven month thing andthey did points and it was very
elaborate anyway.
So this particular year myfriend won.
They've been doing it forseveral years.
So he won, got entry, wantedsomebody to go with him, and so
I did.
And what's interesting is I.
So he played day one uh, Ithink it was at the rio, and I
just played in an adjacent room,like not the main event, but

(04:35):
just played.
I played almost as much as hedid like the same day and then
like I would just go out andmeet him in between breaks and
I'd go back, uh, anyway, so wewere there.
I don't know why I rememberthis so clearly.
So we wanted to have, we wantedto eat at the best steak place.
So we would ask everyone likewhat is the best steak place?
And we got it was one of those.
Like we asked 20 people and wegot 20 different answers.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
So we're like.

Speaker 1 (04:55):
This isn't.
This isn't like.
This isn't working.
Can we please get like aconsensus?
And so, finally, what we endedup doing was, as soon as we
heard the same steak place forthe second time, that's the one
we went to.
It ended up being, I think itwas Delmonico's, which I think
was in the Venetian I don't knowif it's still there and it was
amazing.
It was the best steak I've everhad.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
So it ended up working out but I just thought
it was hilarious.
I was like, well, there's a lotfew, everybody's going to say
the same one.
It was like, nope, go here, gohere, go here.
I was like, oh, this is nothelping at all.
Steak, here is what Chicagostyle pizza is to Chicago, I
lived in.
Chicago for over a decade.
I absolutely love it, buteverybody has there's a
particular style of Chicagopizza.
Right, we all know what that is, but the best place for it
that's a long list.
At least three are going to beon a list and technically
there's like five or seven.
Everyone's going to have adifferent opinion.

(05:47):
So it's true, here with steak,it definitely, definitely is
that way.

Speaker 1 (05:52):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
And Delmonico's is one that, if you're looking for
a high-end, refined, you knowdining experience, with a solid
steak that you can rely on, thatyou know you're getting good
value for it.

Speaker 1 (06:03):
Yeah, monaco's is still a great thing and, yeah,
it's still in the, therestaurant, row over at venetian
nice um so you're a big pokerplayer uh, not really my.
My friend was is a much betterand a much bigger poker player.
I I had a phase a really longtime ago, um, and I played quite
a bit of poker.
I was never that good.
I was too conservative most ofthe best players that I

(06:24):
experienced.
Just, you have to release thefear of losing, you have to be
aggressive and you can't worryabout winning and losing, and I
was just too concerned withtight, with money and bets and
always wanted to have the besthand, and that's not how poker
is played.
I got the math and I understoodthe logic and reading people
and I just yeah, it wasn't me,but I enjoy card games.

(06:45):
You know blackjack and poker.
We played a lot of Euchregrowing up.
You probably don't know whatthat is.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
But I grew up in a cribbage household.
I definitely know what.

Speaker 1 (06:52):
Euchre is Okay.
So so, yeah, we, we like cardsand we played a lot, but he's,
he's, he got to be pretty good.
I don it much anymore and theydon't have that.
They're not doing that eventwith his friends anymore, but uh
, but it was interesting and hegot pretty good with playing and
poker is still quite big.
I think they get still likeseven or eight thousand people
for the main event on these dayslike it's still a big, still a

(07:14):
big draw definitely still a bigdraw.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
yeah, and there's actually a book I want to
recommend to you, and I'mforgetting the name of it right
now.
just came out earlier this, andit's by one of the guys who does
the stats for politics andpoker and it's the whole thing
about risk-taking, what that isin business and life, and what
does it really mean to take arisk versus not?
And is it just logical?

(07:37):
Is it just math?
What is that sort of je ne saisquoi?
That other, that Nate I thinkit's Nate, something that would
be a great book for you, nateSilver, probably because Nate
Silver does politics.
Then I believe that's right.
I was going to say I think it'sNate Silver.
He came out with a book earlierthis year.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
Interesting.
I didn't know he did.
I know he does math and statsfor politics.
I didn't know he did poker.
I read Annie Duke wrote a bookseveral years ago.
I think she's written two nowand I can't remember the name of
it off top of my head.
That was interesting and it wasabout applying her life playing
no limit hold'em to businessand thoughts and she had really
interesting the way she couched,he references it.

(08:15):
Yeah, she couched certain thingsabout how risk and implied risk
and reverse odds and all thethings that you do playing poker
, you can then apply to yourlife or business, and it was an
interesting read.
I should probably go back andrevisit it, but it's yeah, I
mean, there's a lot of lessonslearned, you know, with risk
taking and betting and gambling,because, let's be honest, this

(08:36):
is all one big life, right, it'sone big gamble.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
Yes, yeah, there's intuition.
And then there's when do youreally have the best card?
Just because you don't have thebest cards doesn't mean you
can't win.
That applies to everything,right.

Speaker 1 (08:47):
Yeah, for sure.

Speaker 2 (08:48):
The smartest people aren't the ones ruling the world
the most.
This and best, that, the bestsingers aren't the most famous,
and so on.
Best doesn't always equate tosuccess.
There's more that goes into it,and so, yeah, it's a to see it
going into something that wealways sort of at least I always
did sat more mathematically.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
Yeah, for sure.
Let's talk about yourbackground.
Did you know you wanted to be alawyer?
Growing up you wanted to be alawyer, or you just decided, hey
, let's go to law school and seewhat happens?

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Yes and no.
What I would say is yeah, Iknow you want to get to what I
speak on my background.
Growing up was not a pleasantone, is what we will say, and so
I ended up finding some grit toget through that.
And one of the things I had Ikind of want to use the word
over my parents, or that I coulduse in defense, was my mind.

(09:40):
I was more intelligent than myparents, and that became clear
at a certain point, and so Icould use my smarts.
And one of the things that Ifound in a bin of paper in my
dad's stuff my dad was anentrepreneur from home was this
like little pamphlet of the textfrom the US Constitution, and I

(10:00):
would use it.
I would quote it to defendmyself or my parents over
controlling abuse, and so I grewup standing up to the scary
people to the right in defenseof, sometimes, my younger
siblings and so on, and so thatpart of me was always there.

(10:21):
Now, unfortunately, it came froma place of trauma survival
there.
Now, unfortunately, it camefrom a place of trauma survival.
So, as great as a natural skillas it was, it also wasn't one
that developed to be so strongfrom a healthy, loving situation
and that ended up playing outin my legal career.
But having that, and then myfather seeing that I was such a

(10:41):
good arguer and defender andalso just being really book
smart I've always been thehonors kid, separated since
kindergarten and all of that itjust seemed like a natural
career for me, for somebody whohad never taken the time to know
herself.
So I had everything on theresume that would set me up for

(11:02):
success as a lawyer and I wenton to be a very successful
lawyer where parts of that werewho I really was, but parts of
it, unfortunately, were from myupbringing, for better or worse.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Got it Now.
Did you enjoy law school?
So my last year of college Ilived with two my two roommates
were in their final year of lawschool and they joked that I was
kind of a de facto law studentbecause I showed up Like I went
with them to, like I played onthe intramural flag football law
team and I played on thebasketball team and I was always
like in the law buildingplaying ping pong, and so I got

(11:35):
like a little bit of an insideglimpse and I just remember them
doing an inordinate amount ofwriting and reading.
Did you like?
Did you enjoy that?
Because writing and reading,did you enjoy that?
Because that seems like that'sall they ever did.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
What was really?
Yes, yes, that is what lawschool is.
It's going to change how youthink.
You're going to write a lot.
You're going to read a lot.
I love reading.
I read a lot.
We've already talked about NateSilver's book.
I read a lot, I love it.
The writing part I didn't reallylove growing up at all.
What was hard me, though, is,while I was going through law
school, I was pushing myself todo something I thought I was

(12:07):
supposed to do.
This should do.
This is what you're good at.
You do it, but I was alsoworking full-time.
So trying to work full-time, dothat, support myself.
Then go to law school, and whenyou take law school part-time,
you're only taking one lessclass than the full-time
students One less class.
You have to take four classesstill, so it was a heavy load.

(12:30):
So that's my way of saying Ididn't get all my reading done.
I would try to find ways toExactly Something had to cut.
Sometimes it was laundry or thedishes, or sleep.
Other times it was is that casenecessary?
Or things like that.

Speaker 1 (12:48):
No, yeah, I definitely could see that that
is a lot, because I don't know.
I mean, I feel like they werejust always studying and writing
and working or reading, sotrying to mix a full-time job
into that.
You didn't have a lot of freetime.

Speaker 2 (13:01):
Yeah, and one thing that's different about law
school is well, every school yougo to, there's the idea of
who's the valedictorian, who'snumber one, but the entire idea
of law school is to competeagainst each other.
You have to compete on yourLSATs, you have to compete to
get into a law school.
Once you're in it.
Now you have to fight for yourplacement.
For 90% of those students, itwill be the first time in their

(13:24):
life they're not in the top 10%of the class.
When you're 25 years old, aquarter of a century old, and
you've never not been the best,it hurts and you give it
everything you have and you'vegot to do that.
And you're fighting to the very, very end.
Because even if it didn'thappen, year one doesn't mean
you can't figure it out by yearthree, and so it's not just

(13:46):
learning, it is a inner battleof competition that pushes you
further than you've realized.
You could go for better orworse.

Speaker 1 (13:55):
In some ways, though, it's probably good that they
face that, because at some pointyou're not going to be the best
, right.
Most people don't just like inthat top one or two percent
forever, and there's alwaysgoing to be those kind of bumps.
So it would be nice if ithappened earlier than that, but
it's probably good that ithappened then and not when they
were like 45 and they were likeI've never dealt with, I've
never dealt, dealt defeat or uh,you know not not feeling like

(14:19):
I'm number one.
But it is interesting thatbecause, because it's because I
think they do I don't know theystill do it, but I remember I've
had, I know, several peoplewho've gone through the process.
But when you interview for jobs,like a lot of it is like where
you ranked in your class,because typically the law class
is relatively small and so youknow they want to know like
where, like where you ranked.

(14:41):
So it is it, you're all.
You're not just.
I think you're not justcompeting with the people in
your class, you're competingwith anyone who's going to be
getting out around the same timeyou are, who's going to be
applying for those same jobs,right?

Speaker 2 (14:53):
Yeah, which is why you start competing even for
which law school you go to.
Certain law firms will onlyinterview students from certain
law schools and then, even ifthey do interview at your law
school, they may only take on,you know, the top 5% or top 3%
for even interviews.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
That's amazing.
So what type of law did youeventually practice once you
started working?

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Where I stood out.
So I was not in the top 10% ofmy class, at least not until
third.
You would have been if youweren't working full time third,
you would have been if youweren't working full-time, thank
you.
I had a seven-year careerbefore that and I was working in
the sports industry, so Ialready knew contracts.
I knew what it was to be aroundtelevision, what it was to be

(15:36):
around athletes, stars,copyright-based businesses,
license-based businesses, so Ialready knew the business side
of things.
And also, being the child of anentrepreneur, right, so I knew
what business was like.
I understood business.
My undergrad is in business.
So, having that and having sevenyears already doing that, I

(15:58):
became in charge of compliancefor a national television
station while I was in lawschool.
I already had this resume andso, just kind of continuing to
build through that, what do Iwant to do?
And I really felt a calling.
I wanted to be in the boardroom.
I wanted to be at the mainconference table negotiating,
because at the time I thoughtnegotiations were done in person

(16:19):
.
Right, going back to what I didas a kid, I can get in there,
I'm not afraid, I'll talk, I'llwin.

Speaker 1 (16:25):
I'll persuade.

Speaker 2 (16:27):
But that's not what negotiations are.
Negotiations are more on paper.
It's more of a back and forthcommunication in written form.
So I ended up learning to takemy we'll say my interpersonal

(16:50):
skills, my ability to work inthe room, work with teams
interdepartmental,cross-departmental, all of those
things and then bring it topaper, and so that's kind of how
my career transitioned, is, Ihad that base and then I got in
with an international companyand that's when, and because I
had, I fell in love withintellectual property in law
school Probably not a surprisebased on everything I was doing
before it.

Speaker 1 (17:12):
But you don't know if the logic is going to stick in
your brain because property lawis very different than
intellectual property law.
Well, there's so many differentareas right there, really are.
There's so many specializationsand then even like Criminal,
everything yeah.
And specialization withinspecializations.

Speaker 2 (17:28):
I mean it can get really, really niche, which is,
I guess, why there's so manylawyers because there's so many
different areas where you couldbe needed.
Human rights.
I mean, it's literally how weas citizens, how we as
corporations, how everything,how we interact with our
government.
Our government sets the laws,and how we interact with those
things is the lawyers are ourcommunicators, they're our
bridge.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
Did you find once you kind of found that you know
negotiating intellectualproperty, kind of phase of law
or facet of law, were you happyLike, did you like it?

Speaker 2 (17:56):
Yes and no it was.
I kind of hit one of thoseemotional burnout points kind of
quickly, which was interestingbecause it was doing something I
genuinely loved.
I love the communicating, Ilove the problem solving, I love
helping and I love beingstrategic about the problem

(18:16):
solving and getting to the rootcause of something, not being
distracted by the emotions orthe egos, but to do that I was
triggering my trauma response.
This has got to be perfect.
This can't be right.
I mean, it can't go wrong.
People's lives are on the linehere, but it's not people's
lives, right?
I was representing corporationsand negotiations.

(18:36):
It's not exactly the same, andso my emotional inner response
was different than my mentalresponse.
It was kind of an inner clashthat I still love going through
a contract and a license, andI'll be able to quote copyright
law on my deathbed.

Speaker 1 (18:52):
That's funny.
I hate reading contracts.
It's so dense, Like just someof the words like not even in
English, you can't even likethey're just making stuff up.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Not every contract, let's just be very clear.
Okay, the one's an intellectualproperty, licensing or certain
types of projects for business.
There's other times you want togive them your corporation's
bylaws.
Okay, I will fall asleep.
I'm not going to lie, I'm goingto charge them.
I'll just keep me awake.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
That's funny.
So then, at what point then?
So you got in point then, soyou got in.
You knew you were in the rightplace, like intellectually, but
you weren't loving it and youstarted to experience some
burnout.
Is that when you startedthinking about pivoting to like
business coaching and speaking,or was there another phase in
between?

Speaker 2 (19:35):
No, there was definitely a phase earlier than
that.
The first phase was thisrecognition that I was
physically breaking.
I'm in my 20s, I'm in theemergency room because I'm
having organ failure.
I'm constantly sick.
I have specialists and specialdisease doctors telling me we

(19:55):
don't know why you're not in thehospital dying.
How are you functional?
My body was breaking.
My body was breaking from theinside out and it was breaking
for a lot of reasons.
From the trauma as a child Inever recovered from.
My father took his own liferight when I was about to start
law school, I took on so much ata time where I never got time
to learn who I was.
So on the outside I wasintelligent, I was professional,

(20:19):
I was polished, I was ready torule the world in my
20-some-year-old head right.
But inside I never stopped tonotice, I never stopped to
listen, and so I ended up havingnot one but two doctors tell me
if you don't stop, you're goingto die.
And one of them was a holisticdoctor, she was a homeopath and

(20:43):
I'll admit I didn't hear whatthey were saying.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
Yeah, you were too young.

Speaker 2 (20:49):
Right, I did not hear it, but my body I could
understand it.
I couldn't give anymore.
I couldn't get up, I couldn'tdo what I needed to do to be me.
And so I decided to take a weekoff.
And I my cousin at the timeworked for one of the really big
international hotel brands.

(21:10):
I was like, look, I haven'tsaved up for this.
I'm only two years out of lawschool, so more debt than I have
in my bank than in the bankaccount.
Right and I.
But I need to go somewhere.
I need to do something now.
And she's like here use my, usemy discount.
And I found an all-inclusive inJamaica.
I had never been toldall-inclusive, I had never had

(21:31):
that type of vacation.
And I just showed up and forfive days I didn't think about
anything.
I had to think about where thefood was going to come from, I'd
have to think what I was goingto do, and it was the first time
I ever had that little bit ofpeace in my life.
I'd always been a go go, go, go, go go.

Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yeah, no off.

Speaker 2 (21:52):
And so when it came time to my last day on that
vacation and I go, it's time togo back to work my entire body
tensed up and I needed thatcontrast to see it.
And so from there, I decided totake some family medical leave
act, take a few weeks off.
Couldn't afford much, but Ineeded to give myself the space,

(22:15):
and that was the first time Iever stopped.

Speaker 1 (22:19):
Yeah, I mean, the all-inclusives are amazing.

Speaker 2 (22:22):
Yes, I try to go off to now.

Speaker 1 (22:24):
Yeah, under different circumstances.
But yeah, uh, yeah, it's the.
There is.
I think there's a lot to thatlike not having to make
decisions.
You, I mean there's books aboutit and stuff where you like
even like what you wear, like,you just wear like the same
thing, so you don't likedecision fatigue.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
He literally wears the same shirt every single day,
in the exact same color, so hedoesn't have to think about it.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Right, it seems simple, but those add up over
time, even throughout the day.
I'm sorry you had to go throughit, but it sounds like at least
pretty early on in your lifethen it provided some much
needed like you kind ofunderstood the power of rest and
taking breaks and not beingable to just plow through like

(23:03):
everything all the time.

Speaker 2 (23:05):
Yes, I mean.
Well, first off, thank you.
In hindsight now, though, it'spart of an amazing story that
gets to be told, and I needed tobreak to heal.
Just because I now saw itdidn't mean I knew what to do
with it.
If that makes sense, right, weall can be like, okay, I need to
work out.
That doesn't mean we suddenlyhave the habits and the mindset
and the eating and all thosethings.

(23:26):
There's more that needs to gointo place.
That can be easily put intoplace if we're ready and we're
open to it, but I was clueless,absolutely clueless, so I had to
go on a learning journey to getthere, but I'm very happy and
glad to say I got there.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
Nice.
Did you end up hiring like anutritionist or therapist or
life coach or anything, or didyou do it just kind of on your
own?

Speaker 2 (23:49):
At the time, I didn't know what a life coach was.
I had never heard of thesethings.
I didn't know even what acareer coach was, other than you
know you have your careerperson who comes with you from
your, your college is like ifyou want to apply for the same
jobs that you've already appliedfor with us.
So what had happened was ispart of all those physical
problems that were happening ismy medical doctors.
I was tired of paying thousandsof dollars for inconclusive

(24:12):
test results.
I don't have much money, I justdidn't.
And I and I just got to thispoint where, like, like, I'm
having endoscopies,colonoscopiesies, I may put
under everything and there's noanswers I was like, no, I, I
need an answer, I deserve ananswer.
And so a friend of mine hadfound she was, she's gluten

(24:34):
intolerant, has celiacs, andshe's like, look, I go to a
homeopath and I'm like, well,that sounds wackadoodle, uh.
But that was fearful being toldI I'm gluten intolerant.
I'm like I don't want to betold, I don't want anything else
taken away from me.
I can barely hold it together.
So I was afraid, fearful.
I was going to lose thingsinstead of realizing what I was
actually being called to do andI was to heal.

(24:55):
So I went and paid out ofpocket for a homeopath and the
very first appointment she'slike you're allergic to dairy
and you're gluten intolerant.
You look at my stubbornness.
But once I started to givemyself permission to try and
heal in a different way, that'swhen it kind of happened.

(25:17):
So I'd say much of it startedwith the homeopath because I
learned there was a differentway than what I had been grown
up with.
You're right, what I grew upwith, which was just normal go
to school, do the things be this, earn the money, get the health
insurance of your company,retire and die.
That's the path I was on,that's what I had been raised

(25:39):
with and so and I was the firstperson in my family to go to go
to um like get a master's or lawschool, and so I didn't have
examples in my life to show methat there was more that was
possible.

Speaker 1 (25:51):
No, I feel that, and I'm the same.
You know, I was the firstperson to graduate from college
on my mom's side, since my herfather, uh, so it was like a 40
some year gap and, uh, I boughtthe same thing, Like I had to
get a degree, get a job, didn'treally matter what it was Just
do it and do it for 40 years,try to save some money, maybe

(26:12):
take a vacation once a year, andyou know 65, 68, retire and
then start living and hope yourhealth holds up, and then you
have about 10 years and thenyou're gone.
I didn't even really questionit.
That's the sad part.

Speaker 2 (26:24):
I was like, okay, I guess that's it yeah, it seems
to be what everybody else isdoing okay right yeah complete
herd mentality.
I didn't question it I didn'teither.

Speaker 1 (26:33):
I was like, okay, and then I had all the jobs that I
didn't really like.
So I was like, well, this, thisisn't really working for me.
Then that took 25 years toresolve, anyway.
So Exactly.
So once you kind of got throughthat, started to heal, started
to feel better, probably startedto make some changes in your

(26:56):
approach.
What were you doing?

Speaker 2 (26:58):
work-wise and then kind of, how did you then
proceed?
Yeah, no, that's a greatquestion.
So I took a break from being apracticing attorney, kept my
license and everything and whatI did is I sold legal
technologies to law firms.
So still very much using mylegal brain, still negotiating
with lawyers, but from a salesperspective, instead of a win
the.
It was a different meaning.
To win the deal is the one itis.

(27:20):
It was win the sale instead ofwin the contract closure.
And I went and I did that andwhat was really interesting is I
was kind of better at that thanbeing an attorney.
I doubled my salary my firstyear as a sales rep than I had
the year before as an attorney,and that was important to me

(27:41):
because it was the first time Iunderstood what it was to follow
my heart and how greatersuccess can come when you do
what feels right instead of whatyou think is right.
I think, like many of us evenwere considering a career change

(28:01):
I'm not going to get more money.
I'm an attorney Like, come on,like I'm not going to make more
money, I'm going to go do thisor do that and I'm going to
start at the bottom all overagain and the truth is you don't
who you are in its entiretycarries with you.
Maybe you don't use the skillsthe exact same way, but that

(28:30):
doesn't mean you can't use them.
That doesn't mean they're notpart of who you become.
Even on stage as a speaker,what words I come up with, the
way I decide to flow a sentence.
You know that I could have beena communications major, I could
have been an English major.
I was a legal person.
Right, I know how to write.
It's different writing, totallydifferent writing, but it's
still writing and so and I'mstill up in front of people I'm
not afraid to get up there right.
So it's same skills, differentuse, different light from within

(28:54):
me, and I would say that ismore of kind of what the
approach was as I went into thesales and then sales was good
and bad.
It was closer, better to who Iwas, but I did like being a
lawyer.
I just didn't like being alawyer the way I had been a
lawyer.
So I ended up moving with mythen boyfriend at the time and
the world got crazy.

(29:15):
Covid happens and I decidesomething inside me goes.
You know, I think it's time youreturn to being an attorney,
but you got to do it differently.
I was like, okay, don't knowwhat that means, but okay, start
my job search with that in mindand, sure enough, the perfect
job description comes along.

(29:35):
It was just temporary and Iliked that.
It was a six month.
I was going to cover somebodyon paternity leave.
I'm like, okay, that's a good,put my toe in the water.
If I don't like it, I'm onlythere six months.
If I like it, I can progressfrom there.
Within two weeks I fell in lovewith that job and they fell in
love with me.
They were offering me afull-time job and I loved it.

(29:58):
I loved it and they were theones who were acquired by the
Fortune 500 where I ended up.
Just, my career completely tookoff Again because I followed my
heart and did it my way insteadof what I thought I was
supposed to do.
The supposed to wasn't aboutwhether or not I was an attorney
.
It was how I brought that tolife.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
It's a really important point about following
your instinct, your heart, yourgut, whatever you want to call
it and aligning.
It's hard for a lot of people,but the closer you can align
your work with that, then Ithink that's where you start to
flourish.
You start to see success.
You feel better about whatyou're doing, you're better at

(30:39):
it.
Typically, you can make moremoney.
There's a lot that goes withthat, but I think a lot of us
who especially fell into thesocietal trap.
We don't really do that.
We just end up doing somethingand then you're like yeah, I
guess this is it.

Speaker 2 (30:54):
Yeah, or you think you have to be the best at this,
or I've got to compete in thisjob, in this employer, to get
the promotions.
And it's like maybe you aremeant to get a promotion and do
that, but maybe it's not here,maybe it's somewhere else, right
, we get so tied up with.
I love, love, love.
Going back to books who movedmy cheese?
Who moved my cheese?

(31:15):
An amazing book, very simple,it's like 40 something pages
long and it's merely about thesemice who had cheese.
Love the cheese and somebodymoves their cheese.
It's such a simple, adorablestory.
But learning to be okay withchange, not just in the world
but within me.
I'm glad that I don't think thesame way I did when I was 16 or
26 or even 36.

(31:35):
So why would I still be in thesame job, at the same place that
I was when I was 16, 26, or 36?
At the same place that I waswhen I was 16, 26, or 36.
And so giving yourself thepermissions to continue adapting
and feeling the space aroundyou, feeling the space of your
job, your home, all of thosethings, your relationships, and

(31:55):
adjusting to what's right, yeah.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
Yeah, I mean that is a great book.
I haven't read it in a longtime, but I mean the story will
stand forever because it's allabout evolution and adapting to
your environment and if thefood's not there anymore.
you can't keep going back,you've got to go somewhere else.
And so many of us you just get,you know, and that's what a lot
of the mice end up doing, right, is they just keep going back,
thinking, well, it's got to bethere today, it's got to be in

(32:20):
the.
You know, you got to adapt.
At what point, then, had youbeen traveling I know, obviously
, the trip to Jamaica but hadyou been doing any traveling
with the law firms?
Or at what point did you reallystart embracing the digital
nomad part of it?

Speaker 2 (32:35):
Okay, that's always pieces, right.
So I'd say I always had acuriosity about the world.
Since I was younger I had apostcard collection.
I loved to get the stamps fromthem.
And then my grandmother wastaking care of this elderly
woman named Rose, and Rose wasin her nineties and her and her
daughter, and then also herdaughter separately, had
traveled the world and they senteach other postcards and Rose

(32:58):
kept them all and Rose gave themto me.
And I remember sitting thereone day on my floor, cutting off
the stamps and throwing thesepostcards away.
I'm a kid, but there were somany postcards I couldn't get
through them all at once, and soin time I stop and I read a
postcard and then I read anotherone and I realized that these

(33:19):
postcards were like the historyof the world, but through the
lens of people, and it wasbeautiful because it was their
American perspective, butsomewhere else, about what was
happening after the war in thiscountry or what the economy and
the textiles were like in thiscountry.
And of course it's just apostcard, it's just a few
sentences, but it's continued tospark my interest.

(33:42):
But I grew up in a family Idon't think anybody on either
side of my family had been toanother country in generations.
If anything, they left theircountries to come to the United
States.
Right, that would be the nextset of international travelers I
had is those that emigrated tothe United States.
And so it was scary.
I'm a girl by myself.
I was waiting for the husband,for the boyfriend, for somebody

(34:04):
to take me, and then my dad diesand my mom's not around and
something in me goes.
Life is too short, you have togo.
And I was sitting at theStarbucks and there was a guy
from one of the otheruniversities and he and I would
just always like save each othera spot at the tables because it
got crowded and he had justgotten back from this big world

(34:27):
around the world trip with hisgirlfriend.
He would tell me about it.
Just more interest, right.
And so I remember one of myfriends in undergrad.
She went as a solo female.
She booked with one of thosetour companies that you can show
up and join a group.
She said she didn't love it,but I'm like you came back alive
and to me that became thestandard You're coming back
alive.
That's all I really needed.
I was over the rest of thefears.

(34:49):
I was over the rest of theconcerns.
I just need to come back alive.
The second I touched the ground, it was I lit up.
I was a whole other person.
My friends could not get me toshut up about traveling.
I immediately booked my nextinternational trip.

Speaker 1 (35:04):
Where did you go first?
Where was the?

Speaker 2 (35:07):
first one was actually to Greece and Turkey.

Speaker 1 (35:09):
Oh nice.

Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah, it was my, my friend at the Starbucks.
He was like, well, where do youwant to go?
And I was like, well, I don'tknow, I just want.
I want history and culture, butI don't want to be overwhelmed.
I want good food, but I lovenature.
And he's like, well, how aboutTurkey?
And I found this thing that wasthe other part is with work and
school.
I literally had an eight daywindow that I could go and not

(35:34):
have to take time, right?
So I was like, what will fitinto this?
And there was a trip to Greeceand Turkey with the company my
friend traveled with, and so Ibooked it and you made it back.
I made it back in one piece,extremely excited about the rest
of the world and feelingconfident as a solo female
traveler.

Speaker 1 (35:54):
Yes, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
I've traveled to six continents and I'll be hitting
the seventh one next year, yeah.

Speaker 1 (36:03):
I think you just had the recent post about Antarctica
right yes, that was me thosewere some amazing pictures.
In the story you told howrecent was that and how long
were you there.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
That was January of 2023.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Okay, so pretty recently.
And then, how long did you stay?

Speaker 2 (36:21):
So when you're down there, the longest you're
actually allowed to be downthere is eight days, unless
you're on one of the reallyreally like the month ones, just
for international treaties.
So we were there for the eightdays.
Yeah, and that's actuallytouching shore.
That did not include thecrossing the Drake Passage to
get down there or to come back.
That was on top of it.

(36:41):
I think the total time on theboat was like 12 or 13 days.

Speaker 1 (36:45):
That was amazing.
How did you prepare?
Prepare gear-wise, I'm assumingyou needed special all the cold
weather gear the cold weathergear I have here in Indiana, I'm
assuming, would not passAntarctica.
How did you upgrade?

Speaker 2 (37:05):
Two parts of the answer is one you were more
prepared than you realized, dearsir.
So I went with my mom, and mymom had been in Arizona for 40
years, where I had been inChicago for 10 years back in
Wisconsin.
I was living in Michigan at thetime.

Speaker 1 (37:18):
Oh, so you were.
It's probably colder there.

Speaker 2 (37:21):
Exactly so.
I remember my mom.
She's very much into the gear,always having the right gear,
the right stuff, the rightluggage.
And she's because Antarctica wehad booked it two and a half
years before we went, so we hadplenty of time to prepare.
And my mom calls me franticallyone day I think it was February
she's like I don't know whatI'm going to do.
How much, how much clothing areyou buying?

(37:41):
Are you bringing it?
And I'm like mom, it's February, it's 17 degrees out and I'm
walking the dog right now.
It's February, it's 17 degreesout and I'm walking the dog
right now.
I think I'm going to be okay.
I'll just bring some extrastuff for you Because, yeah, in
Antarctica, when you go downthere, it's their summer, so

(38:02):
temperatures sometimes we'll gobelow freezing but, they're not
going to go dramatically far, sowhat you're already used to in
winter is not what you're goingto hit in.
Antarctica summer.
Sometimes it can get as warm as50s or 60s, if you're really
lucky, I wouldn't.
It mostly hovered low to mid30s for us day, and night.

Speaker 1 (38:16):
Oh yeah, okay, yeah, I think.
In my head I was thinking itwas like 50 below all the time.

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Yeah, no, no, I mean, you can have that experience if
you want, but you're going togo in the dead of winter when
there's no sunlight.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
I was going to say it's dark all the time.
Yeah, that's fun.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
Yeah, so which continent have you?

Speaker 1 (38:32):
not been to, have I not been to.
Australia, yeah which one haveyou been to?
And then, when are you goingAustralia?
When are you going?

Speaker 2 (38:39):
Yeah.
Australia is the one thateludes me, because when I was
working it would take so far tooscheduled to go there.
October I'm doing Nomad Cruiseagain, that's going to be their
10-year anniversary.
And that cruise goes fromSeattle.
It hits Fiji, Samoa, Hawaii,and then we land in Sydney.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
So, that's when I get to officially wave the seventh
continent flag, have that bigInstagram photo moment and
scream and squeal like a littlegirl with pure excitement.

Speaker 1 (39:11):
No, that's awesome.
I've sworn I'll never get on acruise ship and so far I've been
successful.
But I hear why?

Speaker 2 (39:19):
Why is that?

Speaker 1 (39:20):
here.
I hear great things about them.
I don't know there's somethingabout it's too many people and
too close of quarters and Idon't.
It just makes me.
It just makes me uncomfortable.
I want to spread out.
I don't want to be around likea lot of other people when I
vacation.
I know those ships are huge andI'm sure it doesn't feel that
way when you're there, but Idon't know there's something

(39:41):
about it.
I don't.
I don't love it.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
I hear you and I can see that, like any type of trip,
right, there's different typesof hotels based on how you are.
If you're co-living, are you ahostel?
Are you a high-end this?
Are you an Airbnb?
There's a cruise for everybody,but that would mean making sure
that you're picking the rightone for you for sure, because,
yeah, some of them like the onesthat are more easily accessible
, like the carnivals and theRoyal Caribbean, because that's

(40:04):
how they get you.
You get in there and it's likeit's $250 for five days, why not
?
And then you're like oh, I see,okay.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
I got what I paid for .

Speaker 2 (40:13):
Yeah, I mean, don't get me wrong I've traveled with
them and they are a wonderfultime, amazing value for what you
get.
But yeah, the boat is packed,it's right, it's a different
standard More than that for alarge suite and the luxury
balcony and the fine dining, butit doesn't sound like you would
want to pay that just to trysomething when you have other

(40:36):
forms of travel that you love.
What's your favorite style oftravel?

Speaker 1 (40:41):
What do you do?
Well, mostly I like to drive,so we do a lot of long driving
trips in the States.
We have been to Hawaii.
I'd love to go back.
I don't love super long flights.
I'm not afraid to fly, but Idon't know.
Again, it's a lot of people ina tight space, which is not my
favorite thing.
Car is better because there'sjust four of us, and now these
days my kids are just pluggedinto their devices, so really

(41:05):
it's like two of and peaceful.
But yeah, I like to travel.
I don't do it as much as Iwould like to.
My first job was sellingpharmaceuticals, and so we did
travel.
We had a conference in Vegas, Iwent to Anaheim, New Orleans,
multiple trips to New Jersey,New York City, stuff like that.
So that was probably the most Idid in a relatively short
period of time.
But yeah, these days mostlydriving, long driving road trips

(41:28):
, which I kind of enjoy.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
My whole thing started on long road trips.
As a child I was in thebackseat a lot listening to my
Walkman and my three cassettes.
Three cassettes doesn't evenget you through Texas.

Speaker 1 (41:40):
Those cassettes are short, short.
My oldest son, he's 15.
He found a cassette taperecently and my wife was trying
to like explain to him like howit worked, and he, he was like I
don't what there's music likeon the on the film, like what do
you mean?
And she was like, well, right,like you would put it in the

(42:00):
player and then press play andthen the tape goes forward and
he was like what?
he couldn't comprehend it.
It was like so foreign to himand I'm old enough to remember
eight tracks like I can rememberyeah my mom had this eight
track and it was a the bluesbrother soundtrack and I
remember I would.
I was fascinated because itwould light up and so I would

(42:21):
press the the lever and then itwould go to three to four and I
would love.
I loved watching the lightswhen I was super young and it
made a really cool sound too.
So, yeah, so I remember this.
But yeah, he was really.
You know, I mean he's born in09, you know, yeah, even even
cds.
I mean he's familiar with cds,but it's his most of his life
has all been streaming, um, youknow, spotify or youtube, if he

(42:43):
wants to listen to anything onthe cloud, something
non-tangible other than what ittakes to play it so like.
The other thing is they don'tunderstand is like you know, we
used to have to wait for songsto come on the radio, so you
would like oh, they're playingthis song now.
His whole world is a digitaljukebox.
He can listen to anything hewants, anytime he wants, and
it's so.
There's no, you don't get thatlike oh yeah, I love hearing the

(43:03):
song.
It's like oh yeah, I can hearthat anytime.
But it was really interestingwatching his brain try to
comprehend this plastic tapewith the small words at the top.
He's like these are the songs.
And it's like why is it sosmall?
It's like well, they don't havea lot of space.

Speaker 2 (43:16):
Then you had to rewind it be kind rewind yes.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
That's fun.
So you've traveled.
Clearly that lights you up.
You love the adventure and justthe food and the people and the
different places.
And so then, at what point didyou start thinking about telling
your story like on a stage, andwas it like a combination of

(43:41):
what you'd been through, or wasthere like a spark where you're
like I want to speak?

Speaker 2 (43:46):
I don't remember when the seed first got planted and
I don't really recall it beingconnected to travel if I'm
honest, as weird as it might be,although travel is.
When I started communicating,travel is what my first blog was
about, so I felt comfortableenough, knowing that I knew it
in a way that I could helpothers, and so that was the
first time I was in that stancewhere I could help others help

(44:09):
themselves, unlike a lawyerwhere I'm helping others by
defending them or protectingthem.
As a blog, I'm helping you,help you in written form.
And then I don't remember,there was somewhere along the
lines in my back half of myfinal year abroad, living out of
my luggage.
I was literally, I had washomeless, right, I didn't have

(44:31):
an address here in the States,and that's when somehow the seed
got planted.
I was like I think it's timethat I go be a speaker.
I'd been on stage occasionallyfrom my childhood.
Then I was, you know, in mocktrial moot court debate.
I've given businesspresentations and been I think
it was that I was a mock trialmoot court debate.
I've given businesspresentations.
I think it was that.
I was a corporate trainer.
As the lawyer, I was our maintrainer for all different the

(44:57):
legal team, the global legalteam, as well as the sales team.
I was our person.
I really really started to begood at it in a way that I just
got passionate and my colleaguesnoticed that to where they just
started to let me be thetrainer.
It's kind of what it was.
It was just like I go to Acaciafor that and I started to
embrace that.
And then I remember thinking onmy way back to the United

(45:19):
States that I want to be aspeaker now, but I wanted to do
with my own personal story and Idon't remember why, but I
remember asking the universe andgoing through the process of
manifestation in order to bringit about and I think that's one
of the reasons the universebrought me to Vegas.
It was one of the reasons Icould see the connection to

(45:39):
Vegas.
I mean, there's so many eventshere.

Speaker 1 (45:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:43):
What conference has it been in Vegas?

Speaker 1 (45:44):
at some, point All the time.

Speaker 2 (45:47):
So getting to do that , I think, is one of the reasons
it brought me here, and I'mgoing to kind of go into one of
the deeper little, darker sidesof my personal story here and
that's the day I moved into myhome.
Like I said, I'm in a condo,I'm in a high rise.
I am literally in the lobbywaiting for my agent to bring me
my keys.

(46:07):
I had closed just over an hourbefore, so I'm about to be
homeowner for the first time.
Hell yes, and my agent isrunning late and instead of her
walking in, a man walked in withan assault rifle and he began
shooting.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
And that process with my mother my mother was there
with me was obviously extremelyscary.
That process with my mother mymother was there with me was
obviously extremely scary.
It was nerve wracking and theexperience for us lasted 40
minutes, even though we now knowthe true experience wasn't that
long.
But we didn't know that rightand we heard a lot of gunfire.
It was really, really scary andI had to process a lot.

(46:44):
In those moments I had to wonderif this is the end of my life.
What have I accomplished?
What haven't I accomplished?
What do I do with my mother?
Do I protect her?
Does she protect me?
What do we do here?
Like?
I'm in a place I've never beenbefore, in a way I've never
thought I would ever experience,and we come out of it
physically unharmed.

(47:05):
Nobody passed away that day,nobody died.
Only injury was the gunman whenhe was taken down by security,
thankfully.
But in my trauma I go throughPTSD.
I do.
This is my home.
I have to walk through thatlobby every single day.
I'm being traumatized over andover again every day.
But I had been through traumabefore as a child.

(47:26):
I know how to heal.
I had already healed.
I'd already spent almost adecade healing from all of that.
I know how to heal and so Iwasn't afraid.
I was afraid in one way, but Iwasn't afraid of what I needed
to do and what I needed toprocess to heal.
And two amazing things happened.
One, as I was about to be hitwith the massive tidal wave that

(47:47):
comes when you let thoseemotions surge up.
Right, it's not an easy one.
It can sometimes spark a panicattack Is my subconscious brain
cuts in, shuts down the emotionsdead in their tracks and goes
no, you can choose to see thisdifferently.
You can choose to see loveinstead.
And it was a line from a book Ihad read earlier that year.

(48:09):
I had read just when I got backfrom Antarctica, in fact, and
the book was May Cause Miraclesby Gabby Bernstein, and it I
don't know why this thoughtliterally came out of nowhere.
It was like a self-defensemechanism, but I go oh my God.
Of course I can see this alldifferently.
I was in like survival modeagain in my life, different type
of survival mode, but insurvival mode I was in a

(48:29):
different type of panic.
That's not everything.
I am right now because rightnow I am safe.
Right now I know what I'mcapable of Right now.
I know I am ready and capableof healing, and so I chose to
see it all differentlyemotionally, but mentally I was,
for better or worse.
The legal brain is a legalbrain.

(48:51):
It doesn't stop, it keeps going.
So I was reliving those picturesof that day over and over again
.
What his face looked like, whathe was wearing, what was the
gun like, what were the soundsof shots, right, all of that
it's a cassette in your head,over and over again.
And so I decide well, if I'mgoing to see love, I, over and
over again.
And so I decide well, if I'mgoing to see love, I have to

(49:11):
relive it looking for love.
And that's what I did.
I closed my eyes and I relivedevery moment, every scary, panic
moment of that day looking forlove.
What I discovered is the reasonsI was panicking and scared is
because I loved something.
I'm scared I'm going to lose mymom because I love her.
I'm scared I'm going to diebecause I love my life.

(49:34):
I'm scared I'm going to gethurt because I love my body.
Every deep moment of fear wasactually representation of how
much I deeply loved something,and so I got to turn my pain and
my fear into a form and reasonto be grateful, to turn my pain
and my fear into a form andreason to be grateful.
And when I started to look at itthrough, that lens massive
changes, not just for me,because my brain goes that's the

(49:56):
ending to your story, that'sthe ending to your talk.
I never would have learnedthose things in those moments.
I would have never seen howmuch I had grown from that
traumatized child who didn'tknow how to process or have an
emotion.
I would have never known shehad grown into this, this
powerful woman who could findlove and scary things if I

(50:17):
didn't have that shootingexperience.
And so because I know nobodygot hurt, because I know right,
and what's really weird isalmost nobody was there Like
other people, weren't evenmentally traumatized.
There were very few of us.
So it was almost like theuniverse put me there for a
reason.

Speaker 1 (50:34):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (50:35):
To have this realization, to have the tipping
point in my story that I canshow and prove that this really
does work and you can be this nomatter what comes your way.
And so part of telling my storywas again that manifesting the
universe gave me somethingshitty.
I am not going to say I wantedthat.
I am not going to say I wouldhave ever chosen that, but any

(50:59):
more than I would have chosen myabusive childhood.
I needed it.
I needed it to help others.
I needed to tell the rightstory the right way, in a way
that's going to inspire andtransform others, and so that
conclusion there, that became amassive tipping point.
Now it's like I am ready, I amready, and so I went and I got

(51:21):
the speaking coach.
I was up to give a TEDx talkhere at UNLV.
I went and told my story inother places, and so the
universe told me I was ready.
It showed me I was ready and itmade sure I was ready, and now
it does most of the work for me.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
That's amazing.
I mean, what a horrifying story.
I don't know too many peoplethat would have relived it
through a tunnel of love.
I think most would have foughtit and looked at it through fear
, which is how you experiencedit the first time.
That's amazing.
There's somebody I was like.
Six months ago I was on a callwith someone and they said

(52:00):
something similar in terms ofwhen you're making a decision,
try to make a decision out oflove, not fear, because so many
of us are kind of held back byour own self-doubt and imposter
syndrome and you know all ofthat and worst case scenario and
what if it doesn't work?
What if I fail?
Which I think is justprogrammed into us like the
psychological safety there, weall have.
Yes right that our brains,trying to keep us safe so we try

(52:21):
to it tries to talk us out ofdoing those scary type things.
And she was like what if youlike, what if you choose love?
What if you just choose it?
So very similar to what adifferent circumstance, but
similar to what you did to totry to process it and do it just
a more positive way, which is,like I said, I don't think too
many people could do it.

(52:42):
So that's, that's amazing.

Speaker 2 (52:43):
I can tell you that before 2023, I probably wouldn't
have done that either.
Yeah right, that's Right.
That's what kind of came fromthere and one of the books I'm
reading right now.
I feel like it's just like abig podcast interview about
books.

Speaker 1 (52:57):
I know why you're starting a book club now.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
Yes, I know why I started a book club.
I love books.
It's called A Course inMiracles, and you do just a
little bit every single day.
It's not like a sit down andread a book, it's kind of a mini
lessons along on your life book.
But the one I'm actually on thisweek is there are no neutral
thoughts.
Every thought you have iseither for love or for fear, and

(53:22):
so the task simply isthroughout your day when you
notice you're having a thought Ihate traffic, I hate sitting in
traffic.
Wait, that's not a neutralthought.
That's coming out of fear,anger, pain.
Okay, let's let that go.
I only want loving things in mylife.
I don't have to sit here andturn it into love.
But I can reject the idea of itbeing negative, right, I can

(53:45):
observe that and choose to notfollow it emotionally into it.
And so that's been reallyilluminating for me, just
practicing that little thingthere.
Because, like you said, we dotend to go towards the fear,
because that's what triggers oursafety, that's what triggers
prevention of harm, that's whatprolongs us and our brain is

(54:07):
hardwired to do that, to protectus.
It is important.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
No, yeah, I think the other book you referenced was
Miracle.
So you like books with thetitle Miracle?

Speaker 2 (54:17):
That is pure coincidence, but one is a
derivative of the other, whichis how I got to, after what May
Cause Miracles did for me theshooting.
I thought it was time to honorthe full scope, which is A
Course in Miracles, but A Coursein Miracles is for me the
shooting.
I thought it was time to honorthe full scope, which is A
Course in Miracles.
But A Course in Miracles is ayear long.

Speaker 1 (54:33):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 (54:35):
It's a commitment, which is why it took me so long
to make the commitment.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
So how do you set up your time now?
So you're doing speaking andthen you do coaching.
How do you set up your time andhow are you spending your time
in terms of work?

Speaker 2 (54:50):
Yeah, what's really great is I'm kind of a big
believer in the manifestingright Inspired manifesting.
What am I inspired to do when Iam sitting in that feeling of
success?
And so most speaking gigs don'thappen all day, every day,
right, they're here and there,which is nice, because then I
can work the coaching clientsaround them, I can work the

(55:10):
social media around that.
Of course I have an assistantthat it would be a little too
difficult to get everything done.
She's not a full-time assistantbut, like all of us, I need
help too, Right, and I'm not amiracle worker on my own and so
just trying to get into a rhythmon the things that need regular
habits and the things thatdon't make sure I'm flexible to

(55:32):
do that, right, If a conferencehappens next weekend and that's
when they need me, okay, eitherit's a yes or a no.
Am I in town?
Is this where I can be?
Am I ready with the type oftalk they need?
If not, do I have the bandwidthto get it done, to get it
prepared, that type of thing.
But also, as you do anything,you're not starting from scratch
, right?
I've written enough talks nowand I've got.
I think I'm coming out withfour more in the next year.

(55:54):
So it's you know you can piecethings from other lessons that
you've written, other contentmaybe social media content,
podcasts, whatever it is and youknow work that and when you
work the words right, they canbecome habitual, which is really
nice.
And so you find the short,little succinct ways to just be

(56:14):
in the moment and trust thewords are going to come out the
right way.
And it's the same with my dayto day.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
Nice.
So what's the future?
You'll be in Australia in 10 or11 months.
That touches off the continent.
It checks off the continents.
What's the future hold?
What do you want to do?
Gosh geez, you.
Continent that checks off thecontinents.
What's the future hold?
What do you?

Speaker 2 (56:30):
want to do Gosh geez, you know that's not a simple
answer.
I just even asked you what yourgoals were for the podcast the
next year and it was still afive-minute answer.
And that's just the podcastpart of what you do, which I'm
really excited for.
I love this podcast of yours.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (56:45):
Well, so, keeping it short, I am becoming a
university instructor.
I start instructing at one ofthe local universities in the
spring, so I'll be doing that,teaching critical thinking.
But what's great is I'm goingto be combining these other
elements of you.
Know, like we are human, wehave a spiritual, we have an
energetic, we have our emotionalside.
So what is that with thinking?

(57:05):
Where does thinking fit in toall of that and where does it
not?
Where do we need to stopthinking and be human?
Then I actually go to Africa.
It'll be my second trip toAfrica with my mom.
That'll be more of a vacationstyle trip.
It'll be about two weeks long.
We're going to hit Kenya andTanzania.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Nice.

Speaker 2 (57:24):
Then and I'm also going to start focusing more on
the travel blog getting more ofthat content out.
I've taken a whole lot of videofootage in my two years while I
was abroad and I publishedalmost none of it.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
Wow, okay.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
So one of my dear friends, he just moved into the
co-working space that I work outof here and he's like I'm ready
to start my career as a videoeditor and I'm like I got a job
for you, I've got 24 months offootage.
But it also does mean I want tosit down and tell the story.
What was it to grow as a person?
What was it to become fearless?
What fears did I have to face?

(57:58):
What were me?
What was my environment?
And then, of course, the heycan you work on the road?
Is that even possible?
How were you a lawyer on theroad?
That seems really impossible.
You work on the road?
Is that even possible?
How were you a lawyer on theroad?
That seems really impossible.
And you know, say those storiesand give it value, reason, a
storytelling moment behind thefootage.
So I'll be focusing on that inearly 2025 as well.

(58:19):
Then I'm back on Nomad Cruise,yep, and I'll be speaking as
well as giving a workshop onNomad Cruise.
Again.
I do have some other podcastsand things in the works in the
meantime.
And then a big one for me nextyear is also going to be Suicide
Prevention Week and MentalHealth.
Those are going to be really,really big for me.

(58:43):
One of the talks I want tofocus on is helping
professionals who are thoughtprocess oriented, like engineers
, lawyers, those of us that weretold and taught that for
success you have to put youremotions aside.
No emotions belong here, and soyou've risen to success using
your mind.
How do we become whole again?
How do we get through theawkwardness?

(59:03):
I remember the first timesomebody asked me in an art
class how does it make you feel?
And I went ew, how does it makeyou feel?

Speaker 1 (59:13):
Yeah, what are you talking?

Speaker 2 (59:15):
about.
So that's a big talk that Ilook forward to seeing how it's
not quite ready, but I lookforward to seeing how that lands
in 2025 as well, that soundslike a very active year.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
I love that you're teaching a class on critical
thinking.
I think that should be taughtmuch earlier in the school
system.
I think it's a real deficitthat I see I don't spend a lot
of time around young kids, butwhat little I do.
That just seems to be somethingthat's missing.
They just don't have thatability to take information,
assess it, really think about itand then move forward based on

(59:50):
that.
Like it's like that step isjust skipped.
So I don't know if that's justgenerational or it's not taught.
They don't know, I'm not sure.
So I love that that's somethingthat some university is
offering and that you'reteaching it.
Hopefully more are doingsomething similar, because
there's a real, it is a learnedskill and it can be very

(01:00:10):
important.

Speaker 2 (01:00:11):
It really is.
To me, critical thinking hasbeen sort of my social media and
media headline blocker.
It's kind of like spam blocker,ad blocker.
I can let through what I wantto get through, but I also can
think for myself and I don'tjust take something on its face
and value.
But I also can think for myselfand I don't just take something
on its face and value or I canchoose to if I want to, but

(01:00:36):
understanding that.
But it's also important for methat, as I teach critical
thinking, that I'm not teachingpeople to overthink or to put
your emotions aside, to put whoyou are aside, that gut feeling,
because they matter too in theequation.
But they're both individualparts of the equation and we
want to strengthen them both.

Speaker 1 (01:00:50):
Yeah, for sure, that's a great point.
I feel like we could at leastgo another hour, but we won't do
that today.
But it's been great having youon.
I love your energy, I love yourstory, the way you've risen
above some pretty unpleasantthings and how you're shining
today.
I think it's a greatillustration and a great example
for others, so I reallyappreciate coming on and sharing
it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Thank you, david.
I mean thanks for reaching outright.
We had been following eachother on LinkedIn for a while,
but we both kind of like we knewwhen it was time to just let
the other parts of each of usshine, and I love that.
I love your transition thatyou're doing to here in 2025,
right, you're following yourheart, you're following your
passion and you're making thatequation in your daily life the

(01:01:33):
way you want and to betterbalance, and I love it.
And it's already coming through.
It's already coming through andyour year hasn't even started.
So thank you for being you inthis podcast.
I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:01:41):
Oh, thank you, that's very kind of you.
I appreciate that a lot and thepodcast has been great and I
just I love, I love doing it.
I love hearing people's stories.
Just again, I find it somotivating and energizing and
and just it's a fascinatingprocess.
So very happy that I started itand very fortunate to have just
so many great people that havecome on and shared their journey
.
And that's what we're all onright, it's all one.

(01:02:02):
It's all one big journey.
We never know when it's goingto stop.

Speaker 2 (01:02:05):
One big storybook, yep.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Exactly so.
Any final words Welcome to hearany final thoughts, and then
I'll let people know if they'reinterested in finding out more
about you or getting in touchwith you, like the best ways to
do that.

Speaker 2 (01:02:16):
Absolutely.
What I would say is just alwaysfollow your heart, know that it
is always possible.
Fear takes us in one direction.
There are no neutral thoughts.
Flip them into love.
Because there are no neutralthoughts.
Flip them into love becausejust choosing love in places
where you thought it wasabsolutely impossible for it to
exist, in the deepest, darkestmoments of life.
It even exists there, but we'vegot to be brave enough to go

(01:02:40):
for it.
But I promise you it's there,no matter what.
It is a career change,switching up your friends in
your life, or facing somethingtraumatic and horrible we can
find love on the other side ofall of it for sure.
And if you, my website isacaciathortoncom, and then, of
course, you can always follow meon LinkedIn, acacia Thornton.
As far as I'm aware, I'm theonly Acacia Thornton on there.

Speaker 1 (01:03:03):
I am not the only David Young, so you win there.
Yeah, I'll put your.
I'll put the website and yourLinkedIn profile link.
That'll be in the show notes.
And again, thank you so muchfor again your time, your energy
and your insight, love theconversation and I really
appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
Thank you, David Same .