Unlock Billion-Dollar Mindset with Blake Baumann #32 (Flashback)

Join us for a game-changing episode with Blake Baumann as he unveils the mental blueprints behind staggering wealth and success. Discover the habits, decisions, and fearless mindset that separate billionaires from the rest. Blake breaks down how to conquer self-doubt, seize opportunities, and build a legacy of riches. Packed with raw insights and practical strategies, this conversation will spark the shift you need to think—and win—like the elite.

Episode Transcript

(00:06):
Welcome to Wax on Wax off the podcast, where a teenager gains
wisdom and insight from pioneersand innovators that have come
before in search of how to win in every facet of life and
change the world. I am your host, Solomon Cole,
and let's get into today's episode.
So before I tell you, who is theguest who's going to be on the
episode today? Whatever I just said.
Anyway, I'm hyped up on caffeine, if you can't tell.

(00:29):
Today's guest is my life coach. He is amazing.
He is a survivor. He is like my hero.
He just is. He embodies all of these things
that I want to be when I grow up.
He is extremely successful. He's worked with many, I don't
know what they're called, Fortune 500 businesses.

(00:49):
He has just done a lot of big things in his life, and he's
continuing to do big things. And I would not be the person I
am today if it weren't for him. Yeah.
So everyone, give a round of applause.
It's actually a second time on the podcast.
Give a round of applause for Blake Bauman, Everyone.
Also, I want to do a quick little thing that I was going to

(01:10):
do that I didn't do. I want to just say #1 thank you
guys for all your support, all the things you have done for me.
I would not be where I am today.This podcast would not exist if
it weren't for you. If you want to, and if you can,
I would love for you to share this link, send it to other
people, spread the word because we're nothing without you guys.

(01:32):
Honestly. I'm, I'm not going to lie, and I
do this for you. And I hope that you maybe can
change the people around you because of this podcast and it
filling you up and you being able to give out and to other
people. So yeah, that's kind of
everything. Today's episode is not sponsored
by Liquid Death, but I drink it.It's the drink of podcasters.
I want to thank you for being onthe podcast.

(01:52):
I would not be the person I am today if it weren't for you.
You have helped me start this podcast.
You have helped me in just my personal success journey, my
personal life journey, groundingmyself, figuring out who I am as
a person and who I want to be. So I want to thank you for being
on the podcast, and I want to thank you for just being there
for me whenever I need you. Absolutely.
It's, it's actually a, a privilege to work with you.

(02:15):
So I just want you to know not only privilege, but a pleasure.
And you've been a, a model student, so to speak.
But the funny part, Solomon, is I learned so much from you and
the coaching process. So kudos to you as well.
Thank you. I kind of want to start off this
podcast and I asked this question a lot, but I think it
can be either like a superficialquestion or a really deep

(02:38):
question. So I want to ask you what do you
do and why do you do it? Sure.
So I'm a life and success coach and essentially what I try to do
is I specialize in working with the neurodiverse.
And so these are individuals that typically are labeled ADHD,
autism spectrum disorder, OCD, things of that nature and really

(03:02):
what it is, it's just their minds are wired differently.
And I'm actually autistic myselfand I have 4 kids that are all
neurodivergent and they range from 18 to 24 right now.
And so it's, it's a strong passion for me because typically
this population of individuals are the ones that have been
looked down upon. As you know, take autism, for

(03:25):
example, autism spectrum disorder, they're calling it a
disorder when really it's just they're wired differently.
And so I have this mission to work with these individuals to
unleash what I would say is their genius inside to help them
live an extraordinary life and and essentially pass that on to
other people. Yeah, you really like you.

(03:47):
You help people who no matter like who they are, but
specifically people who would beprobably more difficult to find
a way to like thrive in life. And you help them like find like
how to how to thrive and how they can thrive in their own
like individual path and life place.
What does it mean to like Thrive?

(04:08):
So, you know, thrive is a is a is a word that can be
interpreted, right. And so when I think about
thriving, I think it's more of being able to live life on your
own terms. And so that could be, you know,
I'm often asked, you know, what if one of your kids wanted to be

(04:29):
a janitor? And there's nothing wrong with
janitors, right? It's just, but people have this
fixed mindset that that's a bad life.
And I said, well, if they want to do with it and they're
enjoying it and they're doing iton their own terms, I consider
that thriving. Now, they may have a different
definition of what thriving means, and that's OK.

(04:49):
That's their definition, That's their truth.
But for me, it's really helping people to tap into exactly what
do they want to do? How do they want to do it and
can they live life on their own terms?
And when typically when you do that, you're enjoying life at a
higher level, you're more fulfilled does.
That make sense? Yeah, 100% yeah.

(05:11):
So for the people out there who are like, OK, I want to, I want
to thrive. I want to be successful.
I want to whatever. How For those people who want to
thrive but don't know how to, what do you recommend?
So the first thing I would tell you is there's a lot of people
out there struggling and, you know, life is tough that let's

(05:32):
just put that out there. Life is tough.
You know, my generation probablysays, oh, to your generation,
you don't know how life was hard.
We had to walk up a mountain three, you know, and three feet
of snow and stuff like that. No, life is tough no matter what
generation you're a part of. And I would almost say life is
tougher now because there's so many distractions, there's so

(05:52):
much going on, You know, with social media, if you're not
doing XY and Z, you feel like you're way behind and you have
all of this going on and, and mental health is at an all time,
you know, high as far as struggling goes.
And so I would talk about the very first thing that somebody
has to do is they have to have the belief that it's possible to

(06:13):
thrive, right? Just that it's possible, not
that they can, but that it's possible.
And the way you find that it's just look around, are other
people doing things that you want to do in life?
And if they are, then you know it's possible.
And if you can start with just that small belief, then you can
start shifting and doing things that you want to do.

(06:34):
So for example, the next step isonce you know it's possible is
typically just taking a small step on something that you can
control, right? And a lot of times it can be as
simple as, Hey, I got a, a counter that has some clutter on
it. Let me just clear that clutter
off. You're going to feel better for

(06:56):
clearing that clutter off. And now you are in control of
things and you're taking controlof your life.
So when we think again, my definition of thriving is being
able to take control and live life the way you want to.
And so you start small and then you grow from there.
Because once you grow, then you're going to be able to take
that little step of clearing theclutter and turn it into finding

(07:18):
either the job you want or doing, you know, the hobby or
the dream that you want to fulfill and being able to equate
it that way. And so that's kind of how I
would start the process. But the other aspect of this too
is, and I think most, most of the quote UN quote experts out
there would say this too, is find gratitude where you're at,

(07:42):
right? So when we think about the
present, it's a gift, you know, the future is not promised.
And so if you can find gratitudewith where you're at, what that
does is that shifts in your mindall those things that you're
missing to now, it's telling your mind that you're OK, you
have, you have the capability ofhaving things.
And when we have that capabilityof having things, then we can

(08:05):
actually go get those things. But it starts with that small
belief of that it's possible. Yeah, so it really all stems
from belief. And I've found this in my life,
that the power of belief. And I didn't understand it
'cause people would tell it to me.
You would tell it to me. You'd be like, like, it really
is your perspective and how you like, what belief do you have

(08:26):
behind whatever it was? And as soon as I got it, I got
it. Like as soon as I got it, 'cause
like you can understand intellectually, but not like
experientially. I don't know if that's a word.
But it it definitely is a word. Think about it this way.
Your belief controls your thoughts.
Your thoughts control your actions.

(08:48):
Your actions control your results.
Your results reinforce your beliefs.
So if you have negative beliefs,This is why people keep on
getting what they don't want is because they have the negative
beliefs and that's just reinforcing their thoughts,
their actions. And then it reinforces and it's
just this loop that goes around.And so you can break that loop.

(09:11):
And typically if you're in a place, and I know you asked
about the thriving aspect, if you're in a place where you're
not thriving. And I would say one of my, one
of my geniuses from autism aspect is I see patterns and
it's a pattern that they're running and you got to break
that pattern. But once you change that
pattern, then all of a sudden you can put a new belief in.

(09:33):
That new belief is going to cause you to take a different,
to have a different thought. That new thought, it's going to
cause you to take a different action.
That new action is going to get you to take a different or get
to, to have a different result, which then reinforces and you
can change paths. You're not stuck.
And that's the big thing I want people to to know is that
they're not stuck with where they're at, even if it feels
painful and the world around them is kind of chaotic.

(09:56):
They're not stuck, but it startswith the belief.
Yeah, it really does. You talked to me about the money
thermometer and I didn't, I'd never heard of this before.
Can you share what that is and how that like can, I mean,
they'll understand as soon as you share what it is, but how
that like can play a role in ourlife?
Yeah. So think about, let's just take

(10:16):
the money part off and let's just talk about like a
thermostat in our house and this, and we're going to use
this as a metaphor. So essentially, if we have our
thermostat say set at 72°, what happens when our house gets to
about 75°, right? Our AC comes on and pulls us

(10:37):
right back down to 72. Well, what happens if it gets
too cold? It goes down to like 6968.
Our heat comes on and raises us back up at 72, right?
So when we think about, and we'll use money as an example,
most people have this money thermostat in their mind.
And what that means is that theyhave this belief of how much
money they're capable or they'reworth making.

(11:00):
So if somebody has a belief thatthey're worth making, like say
$50,000 a year, you know what, if you look back over their
history, they probably made everywhere close to maybe 55 to
45 somewhere in there. And but if they start getting to
that point where they start getting too high, then all of a
sudden that thermostat kicks in and they start self sabotaging

(11:24):
to pull us back down. But say they're not making
enough. This is where then that
thermostat kicks on in their mind and they start doing
additional things. It could be taking its second
job or third job. It could be doing extra projects
or whatever it may be to get noticed at work.
But all of a sudden they get a raise to get back to that
$50,000 a year level. And we have that in all of our

(11:45):
areas. So I'll give you a perfect
example with me. So when I was much younger, I
tried playing Professional Golf.And for people who don't
understand golf, the lower you shoot and golf, the better it
is. And so typically you're trying
to shoot somewhere below 72, andwe call 72 par.

(12:05):
And a lot of times I'm playing and I would be like four or five
under that. So I'd be on pace to shoot 67 or
68. But when I'd get to those last
three or four holes, all of a sudden I had this gauge in my
mind and I would make all these mistakes and shoot 71 or 72.
And then vice versa. I would be 4 or five holes down

(12:26):
and I'd be four or five shots above that and then all of a
sudden would come on. And then I'd do really good the
last three or four holes and shoot right around 72.
And we do this all over our life, not just with money, but
if you ever have that person that says why do I keep on
making the same mistake over andover?
It could be a self sabotage thatwe're doing based on our belief

(12:48):
system. Yeah, it's like, what value?
It's like a value or what beliefyou have about yourself affects
the way you live your life. And I think it's not even
consciously most of the time. I think it's a subconscious
thing. And I wonder, do you even know
like what, why we subconsciouslydo that?

(13:08):
So a lot of times it's it's fromoutside factors and it's in our
environment, right. You know, our environment can
have an impact on our DNA and our environment can have an
impact on our belief systems andthings of that nature.
And So what happens is as we're growing up is a perfect example.
You know, if there are some religious beliefs out there

(13:29):
that, you know, the money is theroot of all evil, right?
And so if you have that, you've gone to church and you hear that
and then you're at home and you hear maybe your parents arguing
over money situations or you seethat, hey, these wealthy people
did bad things to get their wealth.
Then all of a sudden you start putting these roots and they

(13:49):
just subconsciously come into your mind and they take plants
like a little garden. And what happens is as you start
to make more money, the subconscious belief in the back
of your mind is saying, you know, if I make more money, I'm
going to be bad or I'm going to,it's going to cause me to have
arguments with my, my friends ormy, you know, my partner or, you

(14:12):
know, I may not be able to go toheaven.
If you have a belief in heaven and hell and things of that
nature based on your beliefs, right?
And it's all absorbed from an environmental standpoint.
And so we have to be very, very conscious of the information
we're letting in because if we're not, then all of a sudden
we're letting beliefs in that wedon't necessarily are useful for

(14:33):
us. And they'll take root and then
they'll start controlling our thoughts and our actions and and
eventually our results. Yeah, so it's like an evaluation
of like and I, I love when you hear something and it forces you
to kind of go inside and like kind of check what's going on
and dust the shelves and see what's going on inside.

(14:55):
And this kind of does that to you where you're like, OK, what
standards am I holding myself to?
What beliefs do I have about myself that are self sabotaging
me? Like I see that like if I will
make like more money than I likethink I should, I'm gonna go out
and spend some money and then I'm equalizing myself back at to
whatever the amount of money that I have.

(15:16):
And it's like, but I also, if I go beneath the money of the
level of money that I think I should have or this goes for
anything, I boost myself up and I find ways to get there.
So I feel like if you can figureout a way to hack this, this
truth of, of how we are wired, you can like, if I believe I'm
going to make $100 million, you're going to, if you actually

(15:38):
believe that you're going to figure out ways to get there,
you're going to grind and you'regoing to cut out some of the,
the fluff in your life that you don't like, really need to have.
Yeah. So think about, you know, you
can you look at a couple of examples, you can look at
lottery winners, you know, if you actually do a, they did a
study and if you Google this, it's somewhere in there.
I don't know the exact stats, but basically they did a study

(16:01):
where these people that would win millions and millions and
hundreds of millions of dollars on an average seven years later
or broke again, but not only broke, they were actually worse.
They were more in debt than before.
And a lot of times it's because of our belief systems and what
we think about money. Think about the athletes that

(16:21):
are out there that make hundredsof millions of dollars and next
thing you know, you know, they're broke.
And again, it's because of the money education aspect, but it's
also the belief system of how much you should have.
And that is something that it goes across.
And money is just kind of a metaphor and goes in every area

(16:43):
of life. So if you believe you should be
having a great life or an easy life, you know you're going to
have a great life and an easy life if you truly believe it.
If you don't, you know, you might have a belief that you
know life is a dance and you're going to have all this
excitement, but you might also have this belief that life's a
battle. Maybe you grew up in an
environment where your parents said you have to work really

(17:04):
hard to make money and earn a living and to live life.
Well. If that's your belief and that's
the story you created, you're going to fulfill that story.
And that's what we do. Yeah.
How so you talk about life story?
How how do we live the life story that we want to live?

(17:27):
Like how do we become instead ofbecause I think a lot of us
watch our story get written out by someone else or something
else or just the world around usand we are a product of our
environment. How do we instead say screw
that, give me this notebook, give me this pen and I'm going
to write my own life story. How do we how do we do that?
What advice do you have for people who want to write their

(17:50):
own life story? Sure.
Well I will tell you, you just said it is the beginning.
Point is you grab a pen, grab a piece of paper, grab your
computer if you don't like writing things out and you start
putting what you want to happen in your life down.
See, what we have is we have in our minds this thing called a
reticular activating system. And sometimes it's known as Ras.

(18:13):
And basically it's a filter. So we have so much stimulus
coming at us all the time that if, if we didn't have a filter,
we'd just go mad and go kind of crazy.
And so this filters out what we don't want and, and let's
through the important stuff based on our beliefs, based on
our values, you know, based on what we're looking for at the
time. I don't know if you've ever

(18:34):
experienced this where maybe youwent out and you saw a shirt or
if you're older, maybe a car that you bought.
The next thing you know everybody has is driving that
car or everybody has that shirt and you never noticed it before.
That's our reticular activating system.
And so when you start designing your life by putting it on
paper, what happens is your life, your reticular activating

(18:57):
system starts looking for those things in your life and it
starts making you aware of them.Because I will tell you in my
own personal experience that if you're looking for good or
you're looking for bad, it's right there in the same moment.
It's just what are you letting in?
And you know, I have a, a beliefand a filter that life works for

(19:21):
me. So we were just talking, you
know, a few minutes ago before the podcast started that my
electricity went out. I'm, I'm in a newer neighborhood
and, and electricity's been going out because they're
putting into new homes and some new shopping complexes where I'm
at and lectures will go out for four or five minutes.
OK, well, if you're in the middle of working on something,

(19:41):
that could get frustrating, right?
And so I asked myself, how is this for me?
Well, it gives me an opportunityto drop down and do some push
ups or to go play with my dogs or to go, you know, walk around
and take a break from technologyor things of that nature.
So it's happening for me and that's how I truly believe.
And because of that. You know, there's a calmness

(20:04):
around me. I'm not losing my mind getting
crazy about interruptions or things of that nature I have
found. But I could easily take that
other story and say, oh, this iscausing me.
I'm getting upset. But that, you know, when you
think about control and what thriving is, thriving is living
your life on your own terms in asense.

(20:25):
You know, obviously we can't control every single factor in
our life, but we can control on how we react to those factors.
And so being able to control howyou react to it is absolutely
something that happens to you. And so when we go back to a long
way to get back to how do we start writing our own story and
living our own life, the first step really is to get really

(20:48):
clear what you want. Most people are not clear.
So what happens is because they're not clear on what they
want, they end up in somebody else's story and they're living
out somebody else's story. If you want to live your own
life and have your own story, you got to write it.
And it doesn't have to be a perfect, you know, Shakespearean

(21:09):
story. It can be bullet points, but get
really clear what you want to experience.
And it's phenomenal, the magic that will start happening when
you're truly clear about it. And then you add the belief that
it is possible. Yeah, there's so many directions
I want to go with this. Oh my gosh, I love this.
I have just figured this out andit has changed my life is that

(21:33):
life loves me instead of viewinglife as just like kind of this
path I'm on, I kind of have started to.
And it doesn't matter if this istrue because the way I view it
helps. If it helps the way I live my
life, then that's great. I kind of view it as its own
separate entity and I, I, I viewit as if it loves me and it

(21:54):
wants the best for me. And it's kind of this like, I
don't even know. It's, it's this like forge that
is making me the best that I canbe.
So sometimes the forge feels great and I'm happy and I'm in
like a good season. And sometimes the forge is hot
and it's purifying some stuff out of me that makes me
uncomfortable, but it's good. And no matter what, I view it as

(22:20):
a win because no matter what I'mgetting better.
If it's bad, I know that there'sgoing to be an even better good
at the end. Like that's after the, it's just
like the rhythm of life is up and down and up and down.
And some people are like, I lovethe high and then the low is
really low. But if you view the low as like
you shift your perspective and you say the low is a good thing.

(22:41):
The lows are an amazing thing. The low is something that like
is making me a better person, probably quicker than the high
is making me. I think it's it's just changed
my perspective. Yeah.
So think about this. Think about if you took all of
your successes and you look at it, what typically got you

(23:01):
there, right? What typically got you there was
that low because you had to fix it.
You had to overcome it. You know, most people look at
problems as a bad thing. But if you know, you know, if
you, if you think about life, you know life is all about
expansion, whether you know you're doing it through a loving
way or you're doing it through, you know, however you see life

(23:24):
yourself, but it's all about expansion.
And the only way we keep on expanding is we got to grow.
Well, if we're the only way we can grow is we have to have
these things called problems or else we're just going to stay
stagnant. You know, I was talking to my
brother a couple of days ago andhe had an opportunity that he

(23:45):
was looking at for a new job. And and he says, I got it really
good here right now. And I said, well, you know what
the opposite of great is, right?It's not bad.
The opposite of great is good. And because if, if life is good,
then you're going to, this is where you'll get stuck.
Where people get stuck a lot is they don't have enough problems

(24:10):
because it's just staying problems will push you one way
or the other, but you're not going to stay, right.
Yeah. I heard, I think it was, yeah,
it was Robert Edward Grant. And he was talking about how he
was working on his video game and he's was trying to figure
out how he can make a game to like get people to
enlightenment. And that was his goal.
And he, I think he ended up doing, I think it's called Maya

(24:33):
or something. But he, when he was doing it, he
lets you program your character with anything you wanted to.
So you get to create yourself with whatever aspects, whether
you're courageous, whether you're whatever, and the game
will shift towards that. And he, he tried about a
different, a bunch of different aspects and different kind of
versions of himself that he wanted to create.

(24:54):
And he tried one where he had everything he ever wanted and
life was so boring. And he was like, what?
Like that's, I think that's the whole point of life is that we
have the suck. Like we have a little bit of
like this stinks because that's the hero's journey.
It's it's like if the hero had all the superpowers in the
beginning, then you're like, well, what's the point?
I, I just kind of like kill bad guys.

(25:15):
And then after a while it's likethat gets boring.
But if you had these powers and then you lost them and then you
have to go get find them. And then along the way you make
friends. And then along the way you're
learning things and you're, you figure out, maybe I want to do
this. It's like that's, that's really
what life is about is about likeviewing it as this story that
sometimes you're not going to always be in control of, but you

(25:37):
can. When you're out of control, you
can embrace it. And when you do that, you become
in control of it. That is beautifully said,
beautifully said, you know, you're wise beyond your years
there. You know, it, it, it, it's, it's
so true because if we get everything that we want all the
time, it becomes boring. Think about, you know, and

(25:58):
again, I'm going to go back to the money side because that's
how a lot of people measure success.
Think about people like, I don'tknow if you knew who he was.
He was a famous comedian. You know everything.
He made people smile all the time, but he was empty inside.
And so he ended up taking his own life.
And you think about these millionaires, billionaires that
are empty inside and they turn to drugs and they turn to all

(26:21):
these other devices to try to fulfill that hole that they have
inside. When you know, when you think
about it. Life gives.
You a gift every day and it's what you do with that gift.
You got to own that second, you got to win the battle in the 2nd
and when you do that, you know you can take control of life.

(26:44):
When you think about everything that you have from an
opportunity wise, you know the appreciation of the problem
because it's there to help you, it's there to push you.
It may not even be for you. It may be for you to help
somebody else with right? And that's how sometimes you
have to look at it, right? If you're going through
something difficult, why am I going through this difficult

(27:07):
could be a question that you're continuing ask yourself.
It could be that you may have kids or you may have a relative
or you may have a friend that eventually will go through that
and you're going to be able to help them be get through that
time. And maybe that's what it's meant
for. And again, you get to control
the meaning. And that's the beautiful part
about this. You get to control the meaning

(27:29):
and what you're getting it. Yeah, 100%.
It's all about the the value that you put on things, the
value that you put on yourself, the value of all of that.
I wanted to ask you, what did you learn from having cancer,
like having a terminal illness, so you know?
Let's give the back story. Let's give the story is I turned

(27:53):
45 in September of 2022 and when?
And I go every. Year to see my normal what I
would say practitioner and and do some blood work just to make
sure everything's good and he said hey Blake, you know that at
45 you can now do colonoscopies you don't have to wait till
you're 50 and I said. That's not the most exciting.
Thing I've heard today, but why don't we go ahead and schedule

(28:16):
it unless we schedule it for January of 2023.
So 20 January rolls around. I go in just thinking it's going
to be an easy peasy procedure when I wake up.
They told me that they'd found, you know, basically cancer in
me. And, you know, that was kind of
scary. You don't always think about

(28:37):
those things that that never even crossed my mind.
And all of a sudden and I will tell you Solomon, it, it, it was
tough and I had to use everything that I'm talking to
you about and more on keeping mymind right.
And so I just, I never asked why.
I just said, OK, let's. Let's just.
Stay still. There's nothing I can do to
change it. So I need to control my reaction

(28:59):
on how I handle this. And so let's just go to the next
step. Well, the next step was to have
surgery and see if it gets in your lymph nodes.
So if it gets in your lymph nodes, that's the pathway to
your blood system. That's where it spreads.
And so going into that, I know this is going to sound silly.
I said, you know what? It's really a gift that I went
ahead and went through with the colonoscopy at 45.

(29:22):
Instead of waiting five years, we found it.
Now it can be handled right. So I saw it as a gift.
Go in and they do surgery and they said, hey, once I came out
of surgery that it revealed thatit did get into a lymph node and
so it spread and that was that was that was tough.

(29:42):
Again, I didn't ask why. I just said OK, I said tell me
about it. Said the procedure was easy.
You know, we took 20 lymph nodes.
Normally we only take 12 and we found it in one.
I said, OK, again, where my mindwent was what if they would only
take in 12 and not found it in those 12?
I would have thought I was Scottfree and then, you know, it

(30:04):
would be worse, right? But they found it in one.
I said, OK, well, I'm grateful they found it in one.
So now we can take care of it. And so then we went to the the
chemotherapy process, which is atough process, right?
And. I went.
And I called everybody I knew that had ever had cancer.
And I asked them and across. The board, they had different

(30:26):
answers, but one answer across the board stayed the same.
And they said it's your attitude.
So I went out and I actually hired a coach that had cancer
and he had a brain tumor and he was in England.
And so he said, you know, Blake,part of what you have to do is
you have to understand that the medical side is only one element

(30:47):
of the healing process. Your mind, your diet, you know,
all the things that you can control, your exercise, these
are all elements of the process.You've got to master all of
this, not just think the doctor's going to solve it.
So I went on a little bit of a, a mission to look at life a
little bit differently. And one of the cool things is he

(31:08):
got me. And again, This is why we have
coaches and and counselors and people like this is they get us
to shift our perspective. He said, every time you go on
chemo, what I want you to do is I want you to envision that the
medicine they're pumping in, which is really poison that
they're pumping in, fill it withlove, bless it, see it going in
and see it cleansing your body as you go through.

(31:33):
I did that, Solomon, and I will tell you that based on what my
doctors told me, based on other people's experiences, they said
I had very, very mild reactions and they said, you know if.
Anybody didn't know I was going?To cancer, they would have never
known I was going through cancertreatment, chemotherapy.

(31:54):
And I attribute that to the mind.
I attribute it to, you know, getting the help because that's
important. And I want to make sure people
understand even though I'm. I'm telling you as a coach,
coaches need help too. We need coaches to help.
And so it's OK to ask for help. Yeah, so.
I went through. That and as of September, they
said cancer free and, and so, but you know, it changed my

(32:17):
lifestyle. But what it also did is it was a
blessing. And I told people this to this
day, I told person on the phone yesterday that I was talking to
they for setting up my actual next colonoscopy.
And they said, I can't believe your attitude about this.
And I said, well, it's a gift. You know the part that I left
out for them is. When you face something like.

(32:39):
Cancer. And you face something with so
much uncertainty, all of a sudden you become very present.
And the present is a present. You don't know that you're not
promised the next 10 minutes. Even though that I'm, I'm healed
of cancer, I'm not promised the next 10 minutes of my life.

(33:00):
Yeah. So I am so much better at
staying present. And there were some things that
I was hard as this is to say, I was scared to do.
So I wanted to. Start and.
It's called the Autism Independence Academy.
I wanted to start that, but I was too scared to start it after
this experience. Boom, we started it.

(33:20):
I've already run it and we're running it again and you know,
and there hasn't been anything Ihadn't tried now because I faced
that and it just shifted my whole perspective about life.
And I'm here to tell you that. Don't.
Wait to. Follow your dreams, you know.

(33:42):
So I mean hopefully. That helps a little bit on the
story and. Yeah.
And I, I want to ask you like when, when stuff like that
happens or it even happens to someone that you like, you know,
'cause I've never like been in the place where I've had like
some possible terminal illness. But even like having you or

(34:04):
having like my grandpa who passed away, you noticed that
life is a vapor. And I think when you're at that
place, a lot of things, you see how unimportant they actually
are. And you see how there's like a
lot of like to use like a, a whatever biblical reference,
like the chaff, it just falls away.
And you see like all of the fluff falls away.

(34:26):
And you see like what really matters, which is you talked
about it, it's the present moment.
What did you, what were things that you found that, like,
didn't matter that kind of fell away and that you were like,
I've been holding on to this stuff, treating it like it was
super important and it wasn't atall.
And I don't need this in my life.
And then what are some things that what, what's at that center

(34:47):
surrounded by fluff, what reallymatters?
Yeah. So.
That's those are two really big questions.
Those are great questions. I'm going to answer the second
one first. You know what?
What did I find that really mattered?
What? Really mattered to me.
Was really three things. One was, you know, my faith.
It I actually. I'm I'm a.

(35:08):
Believer in God and and the man upstairs and and I hadn't gone
to church in a couple years. We're back at church because
that put me front and center andand just brought me back to
having that relationship on a stronger level.
I never abandoned it but just didn't feel it as strongly and

(35:28):
now I do the second. Thing is.
My family, you know, my kids arelike I said, between 18 and 24,
they're all off living on their own.
But it's me and my wife. And then I have some immediate
family, but making sure that we don't skip the opportunities
because in the past I would haveput work in front of family and

(35:50):
I'm no longer doing that. And I'm looking for instead of
giving like gifts of like, I don't know, just toys or
whatever it may be, I'm giving gifts of experiences with us.
So, you know, giving trips that we can go on together, giving,
you know, moments that we can have together as experiences.
And then the third thing is justkind of the mission I talked

(36:12):
about in the beginning, you know, I, I truly believe that
I'm here for a purpose. And my purpose is to really help
others get from struggling and get from not saying that they
have this component in them. And I call that component their
genius, right? Helping them tap into that,

(36:33):
helping them tap into the strength, unleashing it so that
they can not only live an extraordinary life, but make a
generational difference in theirlife.
Because think about this is you,the way you're living life right
now. One day, I'm sure you're going
to, you know, get married and potentially have kids and all
that. You're making a difference for

(36:54):
those kids. But even if you don't, you're
making a difference for the generation below you, right?
And so I believe that we should make a world better than we
found it. And before we leave this planet,
we need to leave it better than we found it.
And so those are the three things that brought front and
Center for me as far as the things that, you know, I was

(37:16):
holding onto that wasn't as important work, right?
And you know I and when I say work, you know I'm.
Very fortunate enough. To work in a field where I get
to meet some incredible people, I get to help people and watch
them succeed, and I get to be their cheerleader and I get the
sideline seats. So it's an incredible journey.

(37:38):
However, I can't put that in front of my family, right?
And because my family needs me too.
And that's one of the things that I dropped is instead of
working every weekend and going to events and doing all the
studying and all of that, I let a lot of that go and focused on
my family. Second thing is, you know,
traffic is not getting any smoother.

(38:00):
And I know this one's kind of silly, but I would get irritated
in traffic a lot because everybody's going at their own
different pace, cutting people off and all of this.
Well, now I'm just when I'm in traffic, I'm just so present
that I'm enjoying the moment andI'm.
Using that moment. And, and I'm sure this is an old

(38:22):
saying from somewhere that's called net time.
No extra time. So I'm using that moment either
to listen to an audio book or podcast or if I have somebody in
the car with me just enjoying their presence of the car.
I'm using it to call friends. And I hadn't talked to you in a
while. And so I'm changing those things
from always being kind of wired and ready to go to now being

(38:42):
more at peace. And then the fears, you know,
that that's probably the, the biggest thing was the fear.
You know, I had all these fears that I was holding onto and it,
and I almost feel kind of hypocritical because I help
people through fears all the time.
And here I am kind of stuck in some fears.
And so going through this experience, let me know, you
know, it's OK to be scared. You can still do it scared,

(39:05):
right? And, and now that life has
really hit me that tomorrow is not promised.
There's no better time than now.It's like, when's the best time
to plant a tree 20 years ago when the next best time right
now. And so that's what you know,
that's, that's basically the three things that I've kind of
let go of. That's amazing.

(39:28):
And I think that for whoever's listening, that is probably some
of the most valuable informationbecause not even information,
just valuable lessons, because those are only lessons that you
get from living life. Like those are the only lessons
you get from being in that experience and getting through
that. And that I think that's why we
go through struggles and trials is so that not only we learn it

(39:53):
ourselves, but we can share thatwith other people.
And that means for you people listening who are having stuff
shared with you, you have to be teachable.
You have to be learnable and youhave to.
Grow into becoming this. Sponge like I was not always a
sponge like I am. But I figured out.
OK, how do I learn? How do I love learning?

(40:14):
And then I became that sponge and I was able to not only soak
that all in, but now I go and I bring my sponge and I like,
squeeze it out on other people. That sounds weird, but but yeah.
Yeah, I, I think your listeners get that point that you're
making and think about. You have all this wisdom from
people that have done it before you.

(40:36):
And a lot of times the wisdom doesn't have to be from sages or
gurus, or it could be just from your dad, from a friend, from a
teacher, from somebody who maybeis not living life the way you
would want to live life, right? You can learn lessons from
people that aren't living life the right way according to you.
And so as long as you can look for that and train yourself to

(40:59):
to see those opportunities of, you know, this isn't how I would
like to live life, that helps you write your story.
So I'm going to go back to that story thing because I think it's
so important. It is that the more clear you
can get on what you want, it's it programs a reticular
activating system. It programs your belief system
and it's going to start happening for your listeners.

(41:22):
And it starts with just getting clear.
And part of this too is. Going and looking at the.
People that have done this before you, you know, if there's
somebody who's living life like you want to live it.
And that's actually how I started is I found a person that
had the life I wanted and I wentto him and I said, hey, his name

(41:44):
was Joe. And I said, Joe, would you
mentor me? And he looked kind of shocked.
And he said, I'll tell you what,Write a letter to me about why
you want me to mentor you and what you would like to learn.
I wrote him that letter. He agreed to mentor me over the
next two years. And this is all his wisdom.
I was, I was 19 at the time. I have, you know, I was dumb,

(42:08):
didn't understand life. I had my own struggles going on.
You know, over the next two years, my life radically
transformed. My if we measure finances, my
finances tripled in a positive way.
I was happier than I ever had been because this guy had the
formula for the life I wanted. And he's like a second father to

(42:31):
me. And, and so when you're out
there and if you're struggling, and that's another thing, is
look for a mentor. You know, it doesn't always have
to be a life coach. It doesn't always have to be a
counselor or a therapist. It can be just a person that's
living and don't be afraid to ask because.
And it's in our nature to want to help.
And so I think that's, I think that's important, Solomon, is to

(42:52):
make sure that people know that based on what you said, the
wisdoms out there. Sometimes you just got to ask.
Just got to ask. Yeah.
And I. Think there are a lot of on both
ends. I think there are a lot of
mentors who don't have anyone tomentor.
And I think there are a lot of people or mentees, like maybe
that's what it's called, who areeither not ready or are scared

(43:15):
or don't want to or it makes them feel uncomfortable.
And I think that on both ends it's like.
I think the mentor should. Learn how to go find those
people because I, there are a couple people in my life who
came and found me and they saw something inside of me and it
just took them pursuing me. And they like, no matter if it

(43:36):
was a good day or bad day, they were like, hey man, how, how are
you? What can I do to make your day
better? What can I do to make your life
better? Whatever.
And they were always there, always there and then.
On me I. Mean you can't just be throwing
stuff at a brick wall forever, correct?
Because some stuff. Will.
Stick, but after a while you're just kind of wasting whatever it
is you're throwing at the brick wall.

(43:56):
But then if there are those people that you see who are
willing to be mentored, I think those like and wanting to be
that person and you have to, youhave to want to change and
everything, whether it's addiction, whether it's
whatever, you always have to want to change.
If you want the life, if you want to write your own life
story, you have to want like a life story.
You can't like, and I say this, you, you have to live life, not

(44:18):
let life live you like you have to.
We talked about this, we talked about this in our in our
meetings. We talked about this in a lot of
different aspects of. Life.
Is and I want to ask you, how doyou live life?
Not let life live you? Yeah.
So I I. Think it starts with, you know,
first you have to have the intention of what you want to

(44:40):
succeed or have in your day. And you know, and, and we talked
about this before is I'm a big believer in scheduling success,
right? And that means that to be able
to schedule success, you have toknow what you want.
Yeah. So typically, typically the end

(45:00):
of every single day, I will spend probably, you know, 10-15
minutes writing down what I wantto achieve the next day.
And so. I'm always.
After that outcome of what I'm wanting, and when you get
consistent with this, Solomon, what basically happens is that
you're able to start having one successful day that turns into

(45:23):
two to three to four, then all of a sudden a month, a year, a
life. But it starts with, again, going
back to what is your intention of what you want to achieve and
making sure if you talk about it, you know, I think it's
possible, but when you start scheduling it, it becomes real.

(45:44):
Yeah. And so I would challenge your
listeners to just start off withmaking a list of what do they
want to experience in a day, right.
And when I say experience and and success, I'm talking about
emotions too. So do you want to feel
enthusiastic? Do you want to feel happy?
Do you want to feel peaceful? Do you want to feel angry?
I don't know if somebody might want to get mad or something of

(46:05):
that nature. And so there's crazy people out
there, Solomon. So maybe that gets them going.
And and so, but write down what do you want to feel as part of
it and. Then.
Think about what can you do thathelps you feel that way?
So for example, if you want to feel excited or happy, does
working out help you feel that way?

(46:26):
Just turning on and listening tosome of the your best jams or
music or or things of that nature get you pumped up and
excited. Just calling a friend who can
pour into you, does that get youexcited?
Just helping somebody get you excited.
Schedule that stuff out and put it on your calendar.
Because when you do that, then you're going to get those
emotions. And when you have those emotions

(46:48):
going, you're going to feel so much fulfillment and you're
going to feel essentially better, happier, that you're
going to want to do this more often.
It's going to become contagious in a sense.
And and so when you do that, youknow I.
Will tell you life becomes fun. Yeah.
No, I agree completely and I think.

(47:11):
I've found that. The stuff I didn't like to do in
the beginning, after I do it fora while I end up loving it and I
start finding that like with working out, I didn't like
working on the beginning, but once I started working out, it
became this place where I could.Like just be.
One with my body, one with myself.

(47:32):
And it took, it took scheduling and it took every morning.
I need to allot X amount of timeand I need to do it every single
day. And I worked out for 100 days in
a row no matter what day it was.No matter what I was doing.
Because of that, and it took me doing that, scheduling it, and
also just embracing it. And I think for a lot of things,

(47:54):
my dad always says this, and I've said this on podcast
before, it's the wisest 3 words like that I keep with me always
is like, there are only three ways to live life, acceptance,
enjoyment or enthusiasm. The rest is going to lead you to
a sad, like not fulfilling life.If you accept it, that's that's
if it's worst case scenario, youhave to accept it because the

(48:16):
rest is denial. If you enjoy it, then then
great. And if you're enthusiastic about
it, then you're passionate aboutit, and you're sharing it with
other people. That's exactly right.
Yeah. I don't.
I don't know where my dad probably stole that from
someone. If he didn't, then he's an
absolute philosopher. But.
There's wisdom there. Yeah, there's definitely wisdom
there, 100%. I kind of want to go out asking

(48:40):
you what is and I want to start asking people this because I
think this is a good question tokind of get the not the dark
side of someone, but kind of thethe human side.
What is the thing that you are struggling with most right now
and how are you going to overcome it?
Sensational question. Sensational question.
So we we talked about the cancersituation and going through

(49:04):
that. So right now I still have what I
would say a little PTSD wheneverI hear the word cancer that I'm
still, you know, it takes me back immediately to my feelings
and emotions that I experienced in January and February.
And so I'm, I'm trying to retrain when I hear that word to
think of victory because I was victorious over it, so to speak.

(49:29):
And when I and not because I'm cancer free, but because I never
gave into it, right, I kept on pushing through.
So that is that's probably the biggest challenge I have.
Now I can talk to you about building businesses and things
of that I'm doing on the side, but that's not that.
That's just, you know, those areonce you face cancer, those are

(49:50):
tiny problems, right? And So what I would.
Eventually like to. Do is actually coach people who
are going through cancer? Because I found it so valuable,
I couldn't find anybody. I actually had to beg people to
say, hey, is there a coach out there?
And they finally hooked me up with the incredible, incredible

(50:11):
coach named Damon, who had just gone through cancer.
And he told me he goes, hey, I just want you to know there
could be a little bit of, you know, PTSD for himself.
And so I just want to warn you on that in case you feel that
energy. And I said, no, I completely get
it. And so I'm not there yet.

(50:31):
So that's the dark side right now is I think I will eventually
be there, but I have to retrain my my brain when I see the word
cancer to mean something differently.
Yeah. Because I think when anybody
sees the word cancer, they they automatically think death.
Yeah, they think. And yeah, the truth of it.
Is that we all have cancer at one point in our lives.

(50:51):
We just may not know it. Yeah, because it's just the
cells that go rogue. And if our immune system doesn't
knock them out. And so I want to get to a point
where I can walk into the facilities that I went to and be
able to get back and volunteer there.
And so I'm trying to ramp that up.
I, I set a five year goal on that.
I know that sounds maybe like too long with time, but I don't

(51:12):
know. So I'm trying to ramp that up so
I can go give back to that community as well.
Because it's hard to find somebody out there that can help
you. And I know they have grief and
I'm not about the grief side. So they offered me all these
groups is they said, hey, we have a grief group, We have this
group, we have that group. That's not what I.
Want. I want a group that where you

(51:33):
have these positive people that can find the meaning, even if it
is a terminal that they can finda meaning in, you know what
they're doing. If they can't, are they open to
finding meaning to it? And, and that's kind of the
direction. Eventually I'll go.
I'm not there yet, but that's, that's kind of the struggle.
So you asked me what I'm struggling with.
If you look at almost every commercial, every drug

(51:54):
commercial side effect cancer, side effect cancer, you look on
the back of the bottle of something potential cancer.
And so it's just getting comfortable with that.
Word has taken. It's taken a while.
And I was talking to my wife yesterday.
We joked about it for the first time and that felt a lot of
relief. And that's just being real.

(52:15):
So just being real. Yeah.
And I think. That that is like number one, I
view you as a champion. I view you as not just because
of that, because I don't think that that's and I think a lot of
people can get like, oh, like remember him who had cancer and
beat it. Like that's not you.
That's not like your identity oranything, like that's not even

(52:36):
how I view you, but I view you as a champion.
And I think you just kind of didwhat you always do is you just.
Like you figure out a way to. Thrive.
You know what I mean? Yeah, I do.
I do. And I'll, I'll tell you, it
comes down to the belief. I have a belief that life is for
me. That's my eternal belief.
Anything that comes to my way, as uncomfortable as it is, it's

(52:57):
for me. I don't know why it's for me.
I don't know how it's for me until I start asking when I'm
processing through it. But that's my initial belief.
And because of. That.
I very rarely get angry. I very rarely ask why in a
negative context. I usually ask like, how is this
for me? And so, you know, and, and if

(53:17):
you didn't know I had cancer, I want to tell you I don't, I
don't really share that or talk about it or anything of that
nature. Maybe I should, but it's just
not my identity. And so that's that's part of it.
Yeah, 100%. If.
You could go back. And tell 18 year old you one
thing, what would you tell 18 year old you?

(53:41):
Well, it would start with. That life is for you, right?
I, I would try trying to plant that belief in there right now
is that life is for you. I would also plant the belief
that there's all this wisdom around you.
You know, I think sometimes whenwe're 18171920 in that age
group, we think like we know everything and, and people can't

(54:05):
really tell us anything because we know it already.
And I think it's because our minds are are closed off still
at that point. If I could get myself to open my
mind up sooner and start taking the wisdom in because there's
the wisdom out there will help you get further, faster.
Yeah. And even if you.
Have a little bit of a mess going on.

(54:25):
It will help you turn your mess into a message, right?
And so that you can serve others.
You can you can get to that lifeand thrive.
So if I could go back, those arethe two things I would tell
myself is life is for you. I'd help myself show myself how.
And then, hey, tap into the wisdom that's around you.
You know, podcasts like you're doing Solomon, you're giving

(54:46):
wisdom out with all your other guests that you're bringing on
and they have a story to tell. And I promise you, nobody's had
a straight line path to success.They've had their downs and lows
and downs and lows and but. If you can, listen to.
How they got through those and how they got through it better.

(55:08):
All of a sudden, that wisdom cantake your any viewer or listener
that you have that's struggling right now and help.
Them get out of it. You know, if they could take
just one piece of information from each of your podcasts, they
would be so far, you know, out of where they're at.
And I'd like to give this example, and I think it's Tony

(55:28):
Robbins who does this example. As he says, you know, if you
could just make a 2mm shift in your life, let's just say you're
flying from LA to New York, right?
And let's just say your flight is off 2° S So do you end up in
New York? No, you end up in like
Washington DC, so down in DC andit's that big of a difference.

(55:52):
So with your life, you don't have to make all these big
adjustments to make a difference.
You can just start with making one or two minor adjustments
with and I would start with yourbeliefs.
Or it could be something as simple as, Hey, write out what
you want to feel the next day. I want to feel excitement.
Write out, I want to feel excitement.
Then write three ways that you know that you could potentially

(56:14):
feel excitement if you're not there yet.
Maybe it's, I'm at a point whereI'm, I'm really feeling sad.
So excitement's too extreme. Well, how can I feel peace,
right? Maybe get lost in a book or a
movie or something of that nature, but write that out.
And so I just, I think it's important for your listeners
just to know that it is possible.

(56:35):
Wisdom's all around them, not only the gurus across the board,
but people like you, people likeme, people that are walking down
the streets from full Wisdom that they can offer and help
people. Yeah, 100%.
I was literally just going to say that analogy that you just
said, because I carry that with me and no matter like because

(56:58):
sometimes I do things that I feel this might be
insignificant. Even like the podcast.
Sometimes I'm like, maybe peopleare listening to it, but it's
just kind of like they're just listening to it out of pity,
which I know they're probably not doing and I don't think
anyone's doing that. But those are doubts that I
have, and I think that what you.Said is if I.
Can just shift someones. World.

(57:21):
Half. A percent.
Half a percent. Over a long period of time.
That half a percent I contributed to and that's going
to get way, way bigger. It's going to have a big effect
and it's going to change the course of their life forever.
And I think that and also what you were talking about with the
talking to random people, I've started like if we're at like

(57:41):
amusement park or I'm just somewhere and sometimes I get
overstimulated and it's like groups are too much.
So I'm like, I go and I find a bench and I there's like an old
person just sitting by themselves.
I'll go sit next to them and be like, hi, how's your day going?
And I hear their whole life story And there's so much wisdom
there. And it's fun because I do these
like not interviews, but like I do like a mini podcast with
these people who. Have so much wisdom and.

(58:04):
No one would ever know about, but I get to like glean from
what what they have lived. Oh yeah, I mean if.
If anybody wants a great volunteer activity, go to a
nursing home 100%. And talk to.
Those individuals because they have incredible stories,
incredible stories and going back to your, you know, your
half a percent. So there's a a thing that James

(58:26):
Clear, you know, the author of Atomic habits, I didn't realize
he had this in his book, but I was kind of talking about it as
well. Is just trying to make a 1%
improvement, right? And if you were able to make a
1% improvement every day for a year, it doesn't have to be big.
It's just 1%. Most people would think after a
year, I've made 365% improvement, which is
incredible, but it's not 365% because you're improving upon

(58:51):
the improvement upon the improvement.
It's really like 3700% somewherearound like 3778.
If you want to get exact percent.
It's a massive thing. And so I'll give you a quick
example. A personal story is my eldest
son had autism and or has autismand basically when he was 16

(59:12):
told me he was never going to drive.
He was scared to death of driving because he could see
himself getting in accidents. So I took this 1% methodology.
So I just want to share this real quick.
It didn't have it didn't have tobe anything major.
So what we did is the first thing we did is I, I walked him
outside and I showed him how to use the car door.
He thought he was stupid. I already know how to use the

(59:33):
car door. I said, I get it, but we're
going to use the key fob and we're actually going to take the
key out and use it just in case the battery dies in the key fob.
Who knows, right? And so day one, we just learned
how to use the, the key fob and,and the key and open the door.
Day 2, we learned how to get in the truck and sit down, put the
seat belt on. Day three, we learned what the

(59:53):
gas pedal did, brake pedal, the gauges met.
Day four, I don't actually startthe truck.
Day 5, we move the truck like just a foot, maybe half a foot.
Day 6, maybe 2 feet. Day 7, maybe a little bit
longer. Day 8, into the drive or into
the street. Then I have to have him bring it
back. Day 910, by 30 days he was

(01:00:13):
driving and got his driver's license and it was all these 1%
aspects. Because what sometimes people
look at is when they think aboutmaking these changes, they see
this big change they have to make.
Maybe they're, they're struggling right now and where
they're at and they think that they have to make this complete
180 shift. And but no, all you have to do

(01:00:34):
is make it a minor shift. That could be just one little
thing that you can do that's going to change the trajectory
of life. And it could be just as simply
as learning how to unlock a tractor.
Yeah. It it can change your world,
those little 1 percents. And I think noticing that for

(01:00:54):
yourself and changing other people.
But also, what 1% are you doing?Are you doing positive?
Are you doing negative? Because you're either
purposefully getting better or you're passively getting worse.
Because if you're letting life happen to you, you're you're
going down. You don't just stay where you
are. You're always moving.
That's the whole point of the world.
We're always revolving. We're always going somewhere.
So you going up? Are you going down?

(01:01:15):
Yeah, yeah. Well, I want to thank you for
being you. I want to thank you for being on
the podcast. I want to thank you for sharing
your wisdom and giving me and the listeners your your time.
Where can people find out more about you, your work?
Sure. So I would just.

(01:01:35):
Tell you to go to my website andthe website iscalledaspire.com,
but it's felt spelled funny. So it's www.aspie-r.com.
So ASP as in paulie-r.com and essentially what the word play
is, just in case somebody is curious, is people with autism,

(01:01:58):
we're also known as ASP. So you've got ASPI, ASP, IE.
And then when you add the R, it makes aspire and aspire means to
rise high or rise higher. And so my mission is to help
people with neurodiversity rise higher and and accomplish your
dreams. So that's, that's the best place
to find me. Yeah.
Well, you. You.
Do that you change people's world and you change their life.

(01:02:21):
And I just want to thank you again for being who you are.
Also, the link will be in the description for his website, so
if you want to learn more about him, it'll be right there.
And let me know what you think about the episode.
And thank you so much for listening.
Bye everybody.