A Guide to Embracing Authenticity and Personal Growth w/ Norma Hollis

Stack time and think and reflect and think about your decisions. Part of that is knowing your values. When you know what's important to you, it's easier to make decisions. Everybody's life has patterns. Everybody's life has a theme to it, so you can't see it if you're just living it and not taking time to reflect on it. If you are believing that what you're doing is what you're sent to do, what your purpose is, what your calling is, then that comes from a voice that speaks within you. So now you want to create a better relationship with that voice.

The journey to wealth is a long walk and some may walk quicker than others, but what good is sprinting to the finish line if you pass out when you cross it? On Walk to Wealth, we enlighten and empower young adults to build wealthy, abundant lives. They say the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step and your first step starts right now. This is Walk to Wealth with your host, john Mendez.

Hey everyone, Welcome to the Walk to Wealth podcast. If you're tuning in on any of the podcast directories or YouTube, make sure to hit that follow button so you never miss a beat. I'm telling you guys, this year 2023, we haven't had a bad guess at all, yet we kind of keep on bringing the heat. So if you don't want to miss a beat, make sure to hit that follow button Without further ado. Let's get right into this one. I'm excited, Norma. I'm excited. We were talking on the pre-show call. We had an amazing conversation, but for anyone in the audience that hasn't got the chance to hit the number about you, let's live it, about who you are and what you do.

Well, I'm all about authenticity. I came to the planet ready to do my thing, whatever. I didn't know what it was, but I came ready to do it. But I've just followed my nose, followed my spirit, throughout my journey. I am an authenticity expert and that started when I was 28 years old and realized I had done everything my parents had said they do. I had a husband, I had, we had cars, had a good job, money to bank, all that good stuff, and I was miserable and I didn't know who I was. So I didn't know what to do with myself in the world. So that's when I broke off from the world, in a sense, and started to dissect myself and understand, well, what's it mean to be human and what am I? Because I could teach that anyway. You don't learn it in school. You learn from the bullies in the playground, you know, or your parents' view. But they're a different generation and generation by generation, there's changes in humans, you know, maybe a slight, but there are changes that occur. So I started to figure out who I am and I didn't know. It would be a 30-year journey of researching human nature from personal, professional and spiritual perspectives, and that led me to create this grid that you see partially behind me. I started out by identifying, by recognizing nine energies living within me and I gave them all names of animals, and that then I turned it into a grid that just like similar to the one you see behind me, and then that turned into my authenticity grid, which is what I teach, so I teach people. I have an energy grid that I kind of realized, and it's I call it an energy management system. So I help people understand the components of authenticity from an energy perspective and get to know themselves in such a way that they have a happier life living in the gifts and talents they were born with.

Yeah, amazing, and so I always love to dive deep into you know, tell us about your walk to wealth. And I want to start with what was your childhood like? What was like little Norma running around and playing around, what was she like? There's something that you kind of feel like you had deep within you and then rediscovered as you got older. Or were you a completely different little kid and you didn't have this in the you know, in your vision at all?

Well, I do have quite a backstory. It was I was born with it in my vision, and at the age of as early as two years old, is when I realized that it would be a difficult journey here on planet Earth. That was when my father tells the story that he was trying to teach me my name and he would say your name is Norma, what's your name? And I would always answer him my. He says no, not my name, your name, your name is Norma, what's your name. And I would always say my, because I have memories of getting my assignment actually before I came on the planet, and I thought I was supposed to tell them and they would be ready to learn what I'm here to do. So then then helped me to do it, but I didn't realize that it didn't work. Doesn't work that way on the planet. And so I was very, very frustrated. So frustrated that my mother says my hair changed overnight. You know, black girls are children are born with this, where hair looks like white people is very straight, but it usually changes pretty quickly. Mine took two years to change. It changed overnight at two. Some of my mother cried through that, so we all had a difficult time. I remember that very clearly. I remember I have a picture of me at the age of five, when we're at it's Easter Sunday and I'm all dressed in my pretty Easter dress to have gloves on, you know, and my sister and my girlfriend would dress the same. We were born in the little bourgeois black community, you know, and Easter Bunny is there and my sister and girlfriend are like, oh, the Easter Bunny, and I'm looking like that's just a man in a suit. Come on, girl. So I came with a different level of awareness and I've always had that. So. So anyway, I finally decided around five or six or so, that I would finally have to accept the name of Norma, because they kept calling me that. I went to school, they called me that, so I was Norma and that I was happy for about two or three more years. And then, at age eight, I developed a hole in my ear drum. I woke up one morning to to spots on my ear. It was it up being a hole into the, being an infection. They gave me several antibiotics that wouldn't stop it. I had to go in the hospital for culture. They only found one thing that was stopped the infection. It had to be applied in the doctor's office. Topically it felt like acid on the inside of my head. It was extremely painful. So that changed me overnight. I went back to school. That was on a Saturday. I went back to school on a Monday and the kids said you check what happened to you? And I couldn't even explain it. It was so painful and it also made me very, very sensitive. It made me even. I was a sensitive anyway, but then I became more of an empath and that that situation was a a foundation for a great deal of my life. For number one, it taught me to listen more closely. It taught me to live in, to listen to my inner voice, to listen to the voice that speaks to me all the time. That's connected to my reason for being here that I don't fully understand, but it taught me to listen to it. It got me on a path of taking antibiotics which I took for 40 years. I had ear infections for 55 straight years and it wasn't till I had kidney stones and changed my diet that I had no infection for the first time in fifth, since I had been eight years old. And then it also gave me a very strong spiritual connection because I had I got these terrible ear aches for two years and I had one in the summer of my ninth year, visiting my parents in Buffalo, and when the earache came, my grandfather, a Baptist minister, prayed over my ear, and his prayers and the conversation we had that that night gave me a God connection or a spirit universe kind of connection, a deeper connection that has guided my life. So that's how my childhood has greatly impacted me, and I have since learned that a lot of people have significant experiences at the age of eight that impact their life. So I've been kind of looking at that in some ways and mentioning it from time to time. For others to look at that as what was the message then? Because I've also met people who talk about your message and your purpose and your passion are the things you did from eight and younger. So what might have been and that might have been what took you off course, which takes you away from your authenticity, which is what I talk about.

Yeah, no, I love that you mentioned that. Right, this is that it's really uncovering that inner child. I love to say that we are all born entrepreneurs. We are all born creatives and through some experience or during our upbringing whether that's trauma or missing on one or two of your parents or a loss early on it's like all these different things that impact us, that help us when I help us, that pretty much put that inner child further, further under the rug, and it's like as you get older, it gets increasingly difficult to try to peel back the layers, to finally pull yourself back out. But once you do, you get to live life in a way that most people never ever get to experience.

Right, let me tell you a little bit about that. I'm glad you mentioned that. I just spoke on that to a group of other childhood people just last week. Because as children, as babies, when we're born, we're very much in our right brain and our right brain creates our creativity. And the different areas of that is like our bodily, kinesthetic movements, our ability to move and dance and feel free that way. Our love of music, that's right brain. Our artistic skills, that's right brain. Our enjoying being outdoors, that's right brain. And that's how we're born. And so we express those very naturally and very easily, without any judgment, without any filtering. And then life filters us and we first get filtered when we love to sing around our friends when we're two and three years old, and like to beat the drums, and we go home and mommy and daddy say don't do that because it's too loud and I work too hard. You know it's a little things, but that still takes us away from our authenticity, from that joy that we had. And then, when we get to be four-ish, we learn how to read, and read is left brain, okay. The things on the right brain, the ones I just mentioned, you're born with. You don't have to learn those, they're yours. Okay, the left brain you have to learn. That's what society teaches you. You can't do math unless you learn it. You can't read unless you learn it. And that takes you away from the creative side of you. And what happens to so many people, since school so much promotes left brain, left brain, left brain it takes you away from the creative right brain. So one of the things I tell parents of young children is it's not that important that they read so fast. They're going to catch up. They're only going to read as fast as their brain allows them anyway. And if you're going to force that left brain stuff on them, they haven't fully expressed their right brain, their authenticity, the part that's true, their gifts, the area of where their entrepreneurship should come from, from what you love to do and what comes naturally. But if you mask it with left brain stuff, if you mask it with reading and numbers which they're important but they're going to come, they're going to come no matter what, but they come best when the brain is ready, and allow the spirit to lead your child's gifts and talents and so you can recognize where you need to help them develop and then, for yourself too, peel back the layers and remember what you love to do when you were eight and under. What was it you and? Are you doing that now? That's the area that should be your entrepreneurship, and it's not that math or reading doesn't be a part of it, but it's not so important to learn to do that. It should be integrated. Your gifts and talents should integrate with the math part and the linear part of life and the reading part of life. But don't lose sight of your gifts man.

That's such an amazing perspective and one that I haven't heard yet, not only just on the spot guide, but just in general the people I ever talked to but it's such unconventional advice when learning that. So let me ask you this is the one the question came to mind when you were talking why do you think it is that school focuses so heavily on the left side of the brain?

Because it can be measured, it can be controlled easier. You can't really control music. I mean, think about, for example, intuition. You know we have six senses. The six senses, intuition. We all see green the same, we all hear. We hear words the same. We smell things the same. I can't see what's inside of you. So your creativity is very individual and I want to mention also that there's a lot of conversation and a lot of circles about how the future is all about creativity. As a matter of fact, I spoke about that in a group I talked about and then I host some major co-ships around internationally and I hosted a lady two days later who said the same thing from an adult perspective. So that was like confirmation. So what's coming is that, since there's so much robot and automation coming in the world and that's taking over the left brain stuff, that's what you can teach. You can't teach a robot to do art. You can't teach a robot to create a dance step. Okay, that's what, human, that's your creative side. So school can control. You can measure linear. Did you answer the math problem right? Did you do this grammatically correct? How did you answer the multiple questions correctly? You can measure that. You can't measure the others in this, and that's where there is a continued effort to remove us about individuality and make us as robots, as I see over the long run of being on the planet. So that's what I see.

Yeah. So for the vast majority of us who are kind of those that have to rediscover themselves, I don't know so many people that were kind of like from the beginning, just kind of were able to just hold on to that creativity and throughout their whole life. But I feel like, from my personal experience, most people are in a phase where they lost a lot of that. So, like, where do we begin to rediscover ourselves, rediscover that authenticity, rediscover that inner child that we once were and now have through, as I said, through all the stuff that we've been through, whether school or the indoctrination, whether whatever it may be Like? How do we begin to even start unpacking that? Because, one, it's hard to remember because it was probably years ago, right. And then, two, it's like well, when you go back there, you might see some things that you don't want to see and that may not be the most fun experience. So how do we begin this process?

Well, just as you said, you know you got to bite the bullet I would first suggest getting the journal and starting to write things down. When you start to think that you want the information just the way it works, it'll start coming to you. And let it come, because you end up healing. What you don't deal with you deal with later. I'm 74 years old and just about two months ago I had a sobbing experience because of something in my childhood I didn't realize was still lingering and because I just, you know, I tucked it away, tuck it away, tuck it away, tuck it away. Well, just what, it just sits there and if you don't deal with those things, that's what turns into the cancers and the heart attacks and the strokes and the other things. It's kind of all comes together. It's, you know, so much of life is what you're thinking is. So thinking positive thoughts is one of the most important things you can do for yourself, no matter what. Really, looking at how you talk to yourself, I did an experiment with myself when I spoke once. I spoke for 90 minutes and after I finished speaking I made a point of remembering everything I said to myself while I was speaking. You know, like you didn't say that right or you couldn't have done that differently, or why didn't you do this? And then when I looked at the list of 30 things I had written when I was in my room that night, I rewrote I found that 30 and 29 of them were negative. I said, well, no wonder I'm not feeling good about myself. So I rewrote all of them as a positive. Okay, so that started the process of me stepping back into my myself. So that's probably why one of the reasons why I developed a program that I do, that I have that helps people actually find that who they are. I have several components to the program that helps them find their gifts and talents, helps them connect more with their inner voice, with who they truly are. Just a number of different activities through online programs, through group coaching and through do-it-your-own-pace coaching. So I would highly recommend that you do something. I do have a program. Others have programs. Don't just ignore it. Do it by yourself. There's all kinds of options, but don't. When you keep tucking things away, they end up being doing blocks. So you're in your heard statement. Don't block your blessings. So you block on your blessings if you don't. Just if it's coming up, get it come up. Find a friend, get a coach, go find a lonely place to be by yourself, whatever it takes, but just deal with it. Deal with it, otherwise then you can't speak about it and it's painful, and short-term pain gives you long-term goals long-term pain.

Yeah, that's amazing advice and I love that you brought up the idea that if you hold it in now then it's going to bring up issues later. And it reminds me of the quote is conflict. The latest conflict multiplied right. So it's like this thing that if we keep it as tuck the way and keep it tuck away, it doesn't increase linearly, it increases exponentially, and usually the weight of that doesn't get felt until it weighing you down so much so that you can't even move. So it's like being cognizant and aware of. Hey, there's a little thing, it's not a little smudge, maybe it happened when I was six years old, but it's like, yeah, that happened when you were six years old, but you let that weight off until you're 60. And by that time it's its own monster and it's easier to go attack and slay the dragons that are threatening than to try and defend the village once a dragon's been attacked. Exactly Right, and so it's one of those things where it's like you got to be a lot more proactive with it and just it was life in general. So I want to kind of ask you so let's say we take that first step right, how do we make sense of it all Because a lot of the times we don't know where to start and if we just come up, we'll just start right in or just start expressing stuff that we probably never shared before or never even realized. And it's like we have this giant influx of maybe emotion, it may be sadness, it may be a regret or whatever it may be. So it's like how do we begin to make sense of it all once we do begin to start documenting a little bit?

Well, a couple of things. First is to stop, reflect and assess. You know life requires you to run on a rat wheel, cassidy going, doing and doing and doing and doing and doing. You're doing so much you're not thinking. People end up, especially when you're young, when you're in your 20s, when you have very little and you need the most and everybody has told you what a good life would be, especially to have a baby early and get married early and get in debt early. So all your life you have money to pay and you really can't find yourself because you got yourself locked into a financial commitment for several decades. First, avoid that. If you're not stuck in there already, recognize it and start thinking a little differently and put in plans and action. If you're not in that stuck, don't get stuck. Please, give yourself to 30. It's no rush, trust me, life is so. In 20s you're just leaving the home that had values that may not be aligned with yours, that paid for everything for you, when you haven't figured out how to do that just yet. You need everything. So take your time. There's no rush to be it. Being an adult is not all that is put up to be, trust me, especially if you don't go into it right. So that's number one. So to start time and think and reflect and think about your decisions. Part of that is knowing your values. When you know what's important to you, it's easier to make decisions. But I also want to mention look at the patterns. When you're journaling, you get a chance to see the patterns in your life. Everybody's life has patterns. Everybody's life has a theme to it. So you can't see it if you're just living it and not taking time to reflect on it. When you can start seeing the patterns, you get more guidance about what it is, your direction, your path, where it is you want to go, how you want to live your life. So that's what I teach, what I help people with and talk them through in different ways as well, is finding the patterns in your life, because that's a clue to the decisions that you're making on a day-to-day basis. You realize you're making them. We make 35,000 decisions a day. That's a lot. So you kind of have to know your values. You make the decisions easier. So you know your values, value, value-weighting and reflecting what you've been doing, whether you still want to do that or do it differently, and tweaking them. And your 20s is when you're really coming to that, because you really only know your parents' values and you're getting exposed to values of all kinds of people that may be different than yours. So give yourself time to really establish what your values are, what your boundaries are in life, because that's important Also. You need to know your boundaries, otherwise you get walked over a lot.

So, yeah, I love that you brought that up too, because it's one of those things where I feel, from what I've been learning so far, the more in alignment you are in life, the more you know yourself and what you stand for and the values you believe in, the simpler life gets, not because you have all of a sudden some cheat code to life, but because the decision-making process that you now go through to filter out what you should and shouldn't do gets so much easier as you get more and more clear with who you really are and who you feel that you're meant to become and the message you're meant to share. For me, I had shiny objects in your wall last year. I had my real estate license, I was still trying to do the podcast, I was doing some social media stuff and teaching in classes, I was working at a restaurant, and so it's like I had my head all over the place. My bandwidth was spread so thin, but now for this year, it's solely just focusing on how do I grow the show? That is the one orienting question that I'm asking myself, because I feel like I've been called to help younger people figure out what I had to figure out through the teacher myself. Not everyone is an autodidact. I feel Not everyone could teach themselves. It's like bringing that information in a way and presenting it in a way that people my age can easily grasp and implement. It's something that I felt most fulfilled with. I still have a lot of people that ask me hey John, so you're not in real estate anymore? Hey John, so you're not really focusing? It's like I'll keep my license open to break referrals, but I'm focusing all my time and effort in the short term and long term so that it could be aligned with what I truly feel I'm called to do you can't use your terminology In my most authentic self, my true self, and fulfilling that message, because it's something that if I had the knowledge I know now, back then it's like well, I don't know what my trajectory would have been, know what I changed it, because I probably wouldn't be speaking to you if I went back and changed my life, just knowing that this information is definitely out there and bringing that to the world. Because I grew up in a project that information wasn't easily accessible, because it's always on the internet but it wasn't ever brought to my attention and attention of those around me. It's like figuring out hey, I think this is where I've been really feel called to do. It's hard to hear all the noise and all the stuff that goes on in your life, but saying, as you said, we made 35,000 decisions, trying to figure out which one, especially at this age, is so, so difficult.

That's because, again, you haven't lived enough life yet to know exactly what your values are. You're still influenced by the values of your parents, which may or may not be your best. It takes a while, it takes some hard knocks, it takes some experience. It takes a lot to be able to really start, just to make enough mistakes to say no, that ain't my value. How am I going to do that? My eyes are open now. I realize that. But I would just one thing what you're doing will give you a lot of wisdom because you're talking to a lot of people. I grew a lot myself when I owned a speaker bureau because I had a bunch of speakers I was listening to all the time. I had a lot of people to learn them. You're doing that. What I would say to you and any other young entrepreneur is, as you're living your gift and talent, make sure you also have, because that's that creative side, that's the real. Bring it out yourself, because we are on planet earth. You have to also have that left brain linear side. The creative side is nonlinear Marketing and money comes from being linear. You need to have a partner and someone doing the nonlinear stuff. Some people will usually. You do it yourself when you start, but then you get so frustrated with it because it requires so much linear stuff, consistency from day to day and creative people. That's not really what we're about. We want something new every day. We might last two days, maybe three, but it's not going to go anywhere in that case. You have to have a funnel, you have to have the structure, social media stuff going on. You have to have all the other bells and whistles that make the business work. You can start off doing it yourself, because sometimes you have to do that, but certainly you would want to be able to grow that to the point. There's a lot of wise way to do that. We're opening some programs up soon to address entrepreneurs who will be solo entrepreneurs, to start moving to be entrepreneurs as you started solopreneurs, the message makers, the message sharers.

That's amazing. Let me ask you on the same topic how do we turn that authenticity once we find it we talked so far about journaling and documenting to start getting some awareness and some pattern recognition as to what's going on in your life and then trying to figure out where are the patterns that I could change, where are the patterns that aren't serving me, things like that. Now that we've got to assuming everyone's been listening and keeping up with what we're talking about right now, what's the next step? How do we turn this authenticity there's no found authenticity this message that we might have never, really ever, felt called to do and served. Once we get that calling, what is it that we do next? How do we turn that into something in this world that is not only valuable to ourself but, of course, that other C is valuable, so that we could turn it into a living and be in continual pursuit of that and not have to worry about the paycheck and the consistent income?

Well, it's a combination of things. Once you find what your creativity is and what you want to do, then, as I mentioned, you have to get it on a linear path. It's generally not you but someone that you hire, even if it's a $5 an hour virtual assistant from the Philippines or something. You need someone to help you to make sure you're doing the linear things that create success. Then you go back to work on yourself, and that is listening. If you are believing that what you're doing is what you're sent to do, what your purpose is, what your calling is, then that comes from a voice that speaks within you. So now you want to create a better relationship with that voice. So first, what you want to do is see how well you can discern that voice, how well you listen to it. So how do they speak to you? Think about how you answer yourself when you ask yourself three questions every day what time is it? What am I going to wear? What am I going to eat? We ask those questions every day. So think about, see if you can connect to how the answer comes. Does it come as a vision? Does it come? You know, vision would be something that's a vision in your mind or put in your eyes on the clock. So it could be either one of those. Does it come as a sound? Is it a voice in the head that wakes you up, or is it the alarm clock? Is it? Do you hear voices in your head? Do you hear messages? When you say you know I'm led to do this, or the Holy Spirit told me, or the universe told me, or God said, or I think I'm going to do this or whatever, or you need to say dang, I know I should have, because when you say that, that means you heard the voice and you didn't listen to it. So how does that voice come to you? How does it speak to you? So, if you're not sure, you can start by listening to see how those three questions, how you answer them to yourself and, as you get more confident, to how the voice answers to you. Just begin to build a relationship. I did this when I was eight years old, when I had that time period when I had all that pain in my ear and I was walking home from school and the adults in my life didn't really understand how deep the pain was and the kind of help that I needed. And then the voices came to me and they started speaking to me. And I said to the voices if you're the voice I should listen to them, prove it to me. Let somebody walk by with red socks and let somebody mention the word elephant in a conversation, and if both of those things happen, maybe I'll believe that you are the voice I should listen to. And both things did happen in that week period and I did it again for four or five weeks and by that time I had a pretty good feel about how the communication was coming. And then they said do you believe me now? And ever since then I've been in conversation. Communication is so natural for me I don't even know what I'm doing. It's just my voice. That voice guides me. That's the voice that's guided me all through my life, guided me through the work that I've done, even guided me to two new employees who are so perfect, john. I can't tell you how I could not have found them if I had looked for them myself. So they just landed in my lap out of nowhere and they are better than perfect. I mean, I'm just. I can't tell you. I've been looking for them for years and they both landed within three months of each other. It's like, wow, look at this. So, yes, it's another confirmation, and I've had many, many confirmations over the years, but that's the process that I use. That created you know the level of working with authenticity too. Authenticity for me is when your earthly self and your unseen supporters, your, the energies, the universe self, are aligned when they're working together. You know, it's not, we're not on this planet by ourselves. We are here with partners that we can't see them, but they communicate to us all the time. And when you generate, when you are able to successfully trust that communication, access it and trust it, then how can you fail? You can't. So in your confidence level, just you know, skyrocket. So that's what I promote big time. That's what authenticity is to me, that's what I teach.

Yeah, no, I mean, that's such amazing because I can resonate with that as well, like for me, like I feel like God like is just putting me something where it's like I can't shut off and no matter what. And once I it took for me, so like the moment I realized it is, I say, probably earlier on in my child, maybe like middle schoolish around then around I started realizing like I was a little wide in terms, like you know, school always came easy and stuff like that, so I was relatively book smart. And then then once I got into like middle school, I said, develop a little bit more where you do like things like philosophical chairs, and I would constantly go on. Like you know, the other side of the room let's just say it'll be like what's the best snack? It'll be Oreos or chips of Huy, right, and I would go on the side that I disagree with if that side had less people, just so I can get into a new perspective. And so it's like that side of developing a little bit. And then once I got to high school, I grew up kind of a third grade, I started going to church. Once I got to high school, that church background, that I, that foundation I built. Then I started realizing, as most people, my age. They were starting to get into promiscuity and drugs and you know all of the different vices that people started getting into at that age, and I was just like not indulging in any of that and so I was like, okay, and then it just from there, just kept on developing. And then once I got into the entrepreneurship space and I really just went, like you know, balls to the wall, like personal development, like junkie I was, you know, reading books and podcasts and everything like and like addicted to this, like to learning about myself almost. And that's when it really started to flourish. And, as I said, it took a lot of listening, because sometimes it's like you'll get an opportunity and it's a good opportunity, so you think you're being led to that direction. And then for me it was, as I said, it took me a lot of reflecting and really thinking. There's some nights I'm like, just look at myself and like, yo, what am I doing? Because, as I said, last year I spent so distracted so I wasn't making any progress really and much, and there were just times like yo, what am I doing? And I would just have to sit there and think and I couldn't have, didn't have an answer, no, once I really started to like try to be quiet and still and think about you okay, what is the where is the guy sending me to? And it was like the podcast, was it? And so it's like just ever since then it's been going Amazing, since it's like if only I started listening a little sooner, wasn't so distracted. But like you know everything, you know. This is saying it's like if you don't learn the lessons that life is teaching you, that it will show up in new ways. And like the way that I was being taught, it was just new opportunities. And my lesson that I needed to learn is that if I keep trying new opportunities, no matter how great the opportunities are, if I just go on to the next opportunity after a couple months, it's not gonna end up working out for any of the opportunities. They're just thinking about one. And so the fun. Once I finally got that lesson and dialed in, it was like now the Podcast has kind of been going on this here since then and opportunity had been starting to open up like in Overflow almost, and say it's exciting to you and where your life is Is is the trajectory your life takes on once you get, as I said, in In relationship with that inner you, that's kind of they're the guide, you, but most people never. Ever gets a year.

Yeah, well, but yeah, I just applaud you for your awareness, you know, for taking the time, and I just want to remind you that you you don't know it, but you're very, very, very young, so you've got a good. You've got a good 30 years of doing this and other stuff Before you really step into your, your true stride. Okay, you're striding now, but for where you're going In 30 years it'll make a lot more sense, you know. So just don't be a stump East, and this is for all of you that are listening Don't be scared to make, to fight, to fail, because that's how you learn. We always say fail forward, don't fall, don't fall back, but when you fall, just fall forward. So you just so that at least you know how they do in football. And they fall, they did, they take a few inches. Take your few inches, okay, because you're going a little bit further each time you do. So just know that when you make a mistake, you've learned something that will come back around again, but you'll know how to deal with that. That's where the wisdom comes. That's why age is important, that's why it's important not to try to do so much, and and some people I know that you often think that if you haven't done it by 30 is not gonna happen. That is so far from the truth. You know, at 30 is when you really kind of say, oh, whoa, okay, this is. Oh, there really is no Santa Claus. Okay, there really is no Easter Bunny. Okay, they didn't tell me that before. They made me think that there is this big fantasy world out here and all I got to do is do the right things and just follow the society's pattern. Everything's gonna be alright. That's a bunch of lies. Okay, it's not true. There is no Santa Claus. You're your own Santa Claus if you choose to be, and a lot of being your Santa Claus means having the right mindset about it, thinking positive thoughts, the thing with things you think come to you and I realized how many negative Statements I had made to myself and I started and I changed. It took a while, took a few, several years, because I was you know, I was very much a banado at that time, but you know I've forgotten how much anxiety I used to live in because I changed, you know, and his life is. Life is so much, so much more exciting. You know it is, yes, it is. I don't wake up worried and not. I have challenges, you know, but I also find solutions to challenges. And even in doing my own business there have been years when there was no income whatsoever but because I was doing what was mine to do, you know, money came. You know I've never been without a mortgage or without a car. So you know, and those are the basics, right and everything else you know, kind of kind of showed up. You know I was. I'm doing a report now and asking me about how my income for over the years I had my corporation I didn't really have much income because I was willing more putting into it. I was more. You know, the research in the development. We're ready for the income now, but it took a lot of years to really took me 30 years to do the research, you know, and then 12 years to figure out what it was and what it did. So it was a long-term journey. So creative things are like that and sometimes they're very much well worth it, particularly if you're here to make a difference and to leave something on the planet. It takes a while to get the wisdom of the ages to really. You know, whatever you start now, you might use later as a poem that I wrote at 28. That is a lead-in for me and many of my presentations. I mean, who would have thought? But I have several poems I use like that. So the stuff you're doing now, just don't ever throw anything away. And I have a lot of things that I've used from before. I just I can't some of the videos I can't use because I'm older and my hair is different, you know, and all that stuff, but the words you know they're timeless in many ways. So don't you know that right brain creativity, don't let it stop. Always be doing it in one way or another. It's who you are, yeah.

Definitely, and that's for me one of the reasons I started this show. It's like when it's time for me to eventually start writing my book, I'm just gonna go back and listen to my episodes, because there's enough that I say sometimes and it's like Okay, now that I'm starting to be interviewed as a guest myself, like sometimes there's some time where someone will interview me and I just happen my zone and I listen like and I get off the interview and I'm just like I was really like dropping something, that interview out. I don't know where I came up with that or how I put those words together, but like God just started speaking through me and I just started putting words together and metaphors and analogies and ways that I never thought of before. And it's like, you know, being in that naff-loat, like you know that we call right, being in that flow and then being truly centered. It's like when you happen to stumble across that and being that, you know that wavelength that you're just, it just comes to you. It's something that it's so amazing what you can accomplish once you're in there. And so I'm on to ask you because usually when that's happened Is because you're probably in your most authentic. So if you're doing, what you feel that you're meant to be enjoying and brings you the most fulfillment and happiness and joy. So it's like, how can we stay in that zone right At least? How can we learn to Access that zone more frequently so that we can not only just be in a you know, authentic, but also be in that flow state, so that we're actually coming up with stuff and just operating in this zone of genius all at you know, all times?

Well, a lot has to do with the people that you're around. Be around people who celebrate you, not those who just tolerate you. So we all have different energies, different vibrations, and you want to be around. You. Don't want to be around people who have a lower vibration than you, because that's what brings you down. So as long as you are discerning and slow down enough to be able to read yourself and the energy around you and to be able to listen, you'll be able to make those decisions. If you're uncomfortable in an environment, you shouldn't be there, and especially if it's a work environment. When I had my bureau, I had a lot of people come to me and tell me they lost themselves and working for a full-time company for 10, 20, or 30 years Because they had to be what the culture required, and that's another way people lose their authenticity and then they want it back. So the main thing is don't lose it. Don't find yourself in environments or around people who don't support the true you.

So let me actually write that true you. I wasn't going to ask you this earlier, but I kind of get caught up in conversations I lose, but you brought it back up, so there's a quote you don't worry about fitting in when you're custom made, but when you're custom made you stick out. So it's like, how do we get used to that? Because when we're uniquely us, we're not going to fall in soup, you're not going to fall in line like most people that are asleep currently are. So it's like when you decide to find yourself and you actually do find yourself, then inherently you're going to stick out because you found yourself. And most people are lost right now, are sleeping still. It's like, what mindset shifts did you have to make in order to kind of overcome that feeling that may have come with? Hey, I've woken up, I found myself a lot sooner than someone else had in their life. And because they're still sleeping, it's a lot harder to resonate with those. It's like and it's not like you can completely avoid them, because the majority of people haven't found themselves, majority of people. So it's like you're bound to engage with someone who hasn't. It's like, how do you kind of like become okay with that and not let the outside or the majority affect you and your inner self.

That's a really good question. For me personally, I guess I've kind of isolated myself in a sense Because I doubt I'm not comfortable. I just had an episode of this about a month ago. I'm just not comfortable around lower vibration groups. Individuals is one thing, but when groups are, when I'm in groups like that, it's a different energy that I'm very uncomfortable in Because I'm very sensitive and I'm an empath, so I can feel it and it just feels uncomfortable. So you kind of have to do what's comfortable for you. A lot of being authentic means that some of the people in your life you have to let go of. Many people are living an inauthentic life because they're living the values that they didn't understand in their 20s were not their values and then now that they're 30, 40, 50, they're realizing that was a mistake. That's why I suggest that everybody wait until at least you're 30 Before you make some of those major lifelong decisions that you can't really get out of get away from. They're hard to get away from. So keeping yourself as free as possible If you are already entangled, it means looking at how you can gain back some freedom. You probably can't get it all back right away. A lot of men do it by just leaving, and some women do that as well. But you put yourself in your situation and you just have to plan your way, get coached on your way, slowly, think your way, Find a way to get your freedom back. Life enslaves you, no matter what. You still have to go to the grocery store to get food. You still have to need money to do that. So you still have to do certain things, certain things you can get away from, but you can't get away from everything. So create your own authentic life to those things that you can tolerate and those things that you can't. That's what I did. I created my own company and it was a lot of sacrifices to do it, a lot of sacrifices, still making sacrifices for it. But I'm not happy unless I'm doing it. That's what I'm here for and I've done so much. I would never, ever stop doing it. That wouldn't make any sense. So you just if you make, you have to make the commitment. You know and you're gonna do it or you're not. You know. So if you have children and other, you know Responsibilities you might not be able to follow. You may have to put it off for a while. You may have to do it slowly until Until the time opens up. But if it's yours to do, the time will open up. You have to trust that. If it's yours to do what you know is yours to do, just stay on the path, don't lose sight of the path. Or if you lose sight, you know, make sure you got a lifeline somewhere. It'll pull you back, because we all do that too. I've done that too. I've had years when I just forgot about some of the deeper things that I'm about, because I had to. When I was Right in my business, when I was trying to figure out how this creative mind was trying to figure out how to market and realizing that I shouldn't be doing it, but I couldn't afford to hire someone. Then I had to run people. Then go on and on, and on, and on and on and on. That's how I learned so much. Okay, because I made a whole bunch of mistakes. So Don't be afraid of them, because if it's yours to do, it will work out in the long run. If nothing else, you'll be wiser. Yeah, you just be patient, right? Yeah? And, and trust me, I'm 74, I've been 20, I've been all of those and it goes by fast. But make just make wise decisions every step of the way and Take time and reflect and look at the patterns. You know so yeah, and then that, then then and make that connection with that voice and you've and you've done all the right things and just stay Attentive to it. And you know, don't, don't rush. You know life will come at you On its own, on its own. The love you want, the children you want all that when I was supposed to. I was having a hysterectomy Before I turned 35. I had to decide do I want to have kids and I need to have like to have now I want to have them. So I borrowed my girlfriends two daughters and took them down to see world for the weekend and by the end of the weekend I said I'm good, I love them, good and brawl kids anytime. But it's hard, you know, when you're, if you really feel you have something to do. It's hard to do it with a full-time job, it's hard to do it with a full-time family. So you know you, we all, make decisions and you just have to make a mistake by them. But at least take the time to figure out what, what's involved in the decision. You know it's not Santa Claus, and it's not the fairy tale, the fairy, the fairy godmother not showing up. Neither is Santa Claus, no, it's Easter Bunny. Nor is Tinkerbell not, I'm not gonna show up. So it's you, it's you and whoever you choose to do life with or not, so you know, just keep the reality. Point to it, nobody's coming to put some money under your broken tooth. It's not happening. So if it happened, it already did. That's past tense. So you know, move forward. Yeah and it's tougher. You know it's tougher for you guys because there's so many more of you and then you've got the Artificial intelligence to to deal with. So the more collaborative you are in hand, the the better it is for the beef, or you know, the networking with other people? Yeah, you know.

Amazing, no, but you dropped some amazing about this entire podcast. I generally, during this conversation it's not much where you get to that really talk about, you know, being okay with the you and they're just being okay with Living out as you and not trying to put on another mask to hide yourself or protect yourself. For, you know, out of fear of not feeling enough or okay or worthy or whatever limiting belief, you can probably potentially think of it Just like you know, knowing that if you decide to live as you, you will be okay. It's just so. It's something that's the word that I'm looking for aren't coming to me right now, but, for lack of a better word to find, it's something that's so, I guess, inspiring to know that you lived your life as you and it turned out amazingly. And knowing that just psych I hope that for anyone listening is you don't have to pretend to be someone you're not. You don't have to pretend to Act like you got it all figured out. You just have to be you and that's it, and it'll turn out, as long as you're putting Work in your, as you said, you're reflecting, you're making wise decision and you're listening to the guide that you have within, and so no, but where can we find you at? Where could we connect with you at so that we can learn more about what you got going on and potentially tap into some of the programs that you are currently working on right now that are out yet?

Well, I would love to invite you and your guests to join me for my Tuesday authentic light networking circles. It is a free event and we it's an hour event, is five o'clock Pacific time and it's on zoom, and what we do is we have a speaker every week who speaks about 10 to 15 minutes about one of the dimensions of authenticity. I developed this authenticity grid nine energies of that hint energy management system that I spoke about earlier. So we spend four weeks on each of the nine dimensions to help you understand it more, and then we put you in small Networking groups. We give you a thought-provoking question that requires you to slow down a minute and to reflect and to assist and to assess, and then you come back into the big room and share. So everyone is learning from each other about how to do this thing called life and how to be more authentic. So it happens every Tuesday at five o'clock Pacific time. If you go to gift from Norma comm, that'll get you registered and you'll get the links to join us every, every Tuesday, and If that doesn't interest, you then go check on up, check me out on LinkedIn Norma T Howl, that's on LinkedIn and send me a message and let me know you listen to this show and I get back to you. I look forward to hearing from you because I'm yeah, I did drop a few nuggets, did not. So I would love to, and and I love the drop nuggets to your generation, because I want to be authentic with you, having been there and having studied this thing called life for a long time, to make it easier for you, because you're the generation, you're the rainbow children and the Pistachildren and the indigo children that are here to make a difference, and many of you came on the planet knowing you're here to make a difference and know what your purpose is. But maybe the people around you don't quite get that. Well, I get it. Okay, I was, I'm an early you, so I get you. So I'd love to get you. So I get you, so I'd love to connect with you. We delighted to hear from you. Thanks, thanks, john. Amazing number, and now it's right. Hold on, I got some thought provoking questions for you now.

Hey, let's go rapid, rapid fire around Question number right. What is the most impactful lesson you've learned in life? I, just to be myself, just in no matter what?

just just just be that I'm good enough. You know, and the and the voices within me are real, and and that's all I need. What is the most admirable trait a person can have? Respect, respect in themselves, respect in others respecting life, respect in the future, respect in humanity. If you have to change someone's life for one book, which book would you recommend? It's a good question. My voice keeps telling me to say mine, and maybe that's what I should be saying. I have a book called blueprint for engagement authentic leadership. I just learned a couple weeks ago that it's been cited by 13 leadership authorities, and I'm not even in the academic field, so I'm I'm told that that's a pretty big deal. So I guess that's what I should say my book. What is the legacy that you're trying to leave behind? Oh, that life is about being your authentic self, that there's a creator that has a consciousness far greater than any of us. And whenever we say God is with us, I always say are you with God? Because we're not the creators, we're not the architects, we are the builders of whatever it is the architect is sharing with us.

That's why it's so important to connect with your inner voice, and for anyone that wants to embark on their walk 12 today, literally right after listening to this episode, what is the first step you recommend them take?

When I have wealth. I thought wealth is that wealth is one of the dimensions of my authentic with one of the energies, and when I refer to net wealth, what I mean is abundance, abundance, enjoy. So abundance, enjoy is what everyone should embrace. Know what makes you happy and go for it.

You've now finished taking the first step. Now let us help you take the next one. Subscribe to our newsletter at walk to wealthcom, that's, walk the number to wealthcom, so we can keep you moving on your journey. We'll see you on the next episode of walk to wealth with John Mendez.