Embracing the Beautiful Chaos: Bill Dolan's Philosophy on Redefining Success and Living with Purpose

As I sat down with the legendary Bill Dolan, we peeled back the glamorous veneer of television directing to unveil the raw truths about success, love, and inspiration. Bill's journey, marked by encounters with fame and a transformative near-death experience, is a stark reminder of life's true riches. His candid revelations challenge us to redefine success, emphasizing love, presence, and the depth of our relationships far above the hollow shine of status and wealth. 

With Bill's narrative as a backdrop, we venture into the significance of our inner circles and the resilience they foster within us. Throughout the conversation, we dissect the power of gratitude, and I share how influential mentors have left indelible marks on my life's trajectory. We tackle the gritty realities of facing rejection head-on, revealing that it's often a compass pointing us towards our destined path. The episode is a tapestry of stories and reflections, inviting you to embrace the beautiful chaos of personal growth and forge ahead with courage and purpose.

The journey doesn't end there. In the latter part of our discussion, we unravel the complexities of self-discovery and the courage to evolve beyond one's established career. Drawing on personal anecdotes, I explore the pivotal moments that chart our course toward authenticity, revealing a 'mission manifesto' that acts as a blueprint for living in alignment with our deepest aspirations. Bill Dolan's insights, coupled with my reflections, offer a heartfelt call to action: to live intentionally, passionately, and in service of the greater good.

Chapters

• 0:00 Defining Success Through Love and Inspiration
• 10:50 Importance of Inner Circle and Resilience
• 18:59 Embracing the Journey of Personal Growth
• 27:10 Discovering Purpose and Self-Awareness

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another episode of Rise in the Ashes podcast. It is such a privilege to be in the presence of an absolute legend today, who has got a plethora of experience. I invited him on the show to share his story and his knowledge here with you. His name is Bill Dolland and he is in the west coast of America and he, as I said, he's a complete legend. Bill, please introduce yourself to the world, tell me who you are and what you do.

Speaker 2: 0:31

No thanks, baz, and it's great to be here, great to actually meet you for the first time, because I'm one of your fans, by the way, and I think you're a legend, so maybe between the two of us this is going to be a great program. My background I grew up in television. I started out very young, was very blessed to land a job when I was 20 years old, working for the ABC network, and became one of the youngest major market directors in the country and followed the path I guess most people say the path to success, where you grow as a director. You get to meet with celebrities, you grow because you have mentors, you have systems and people and all these things that helped me understand not only how to be better as a television director and a storyteller, but also learn the dark side of media and understand that, as much as media has the power to impact millions and millions of lives, it's what we do with that. Media determines the quality of the impact we have on those lives, whether it is to inspire and encourage and inform, or whether it is sometimes to deceive and sell and manipulate. And so media becomes a platform that, if it's in the hands of people with integrity, heart and the values that are going to make the world a better place. It is powerful, there's nothing to be afraid of, but I think we have to be very vigilant about it. And that's something I saw as I grew in my career.

Speaker 2: 1:55

I ended up leaving after marrying my high school sweetheart, starting a family and then exploding into the entertainment space, and I had a ball. I really did. I had a ball. I was traveling, I was working with great projects, great people, but then I became, I have to be honest, somewhat of an absentee father and husband. We could talk about values and talk about all things that, oh, we want to do this, but the truth is I was modeling the behaviors I saw In others show up by big house, big checks in the kids, the private school and everything is okay. But I realized that the greatest gift I could give to my family was my presence. But I didn't quite get it. I really didn't. I'd love to tell you I was really smart. I didn't get it.

Speaker 2: 2:41

And then my life changed dramatically in on January 28th 1999, as I was flying to do a deal in Nashville, and in about 20 minutes in the flight, my heart stopped. And there's obviously more to the story and more to the outcome and everything like that. But I'll just say this I think all of us sometimes need a two by four moment. It's a wake up call, and for me it was a wake up call and it's awakening that I continue to walk through every day to say what are the lessons I learned, what are the mistakes I need to create and who is it that I need to aspire to be the best version of myself, to realize my destiny. And that ultimately led to our agency, spirit Media, and the writing of the book Seven Disciplines you see the acronym back there the Seven Disciplines of Relationship Marketing. Because I learned that life is not just about business and success scores. Life is about so much more. And when we start to understand that and embrace that, we go from chasing happiness to living a life of fulfillment. And that's my prayer.

Speaker 1: 3:48

Yeah, I love that the distinction is there between your happiness and changing the idea of success from, like you said, going around the world, traveling with all these celebrities, etc. What do you define success as today? After that, going through all that experience, how does success shut up for you in your life today?

Speaker 2: 4:10

I'll first say that the idea of success is a personal thing, yes, and I think one of the great dangers is we've put this model of success and it reminds me of after I left television work, did some projects for ESPN and the sporting world and continued to do some work in that space and in that world. You have an arena and you have a scorecard. It's an arena and a scorecard and we know if you're going to play in that arena, you're going to play for that score and in life, what we find ourselves shoved into arena we never chose and trying to chase a score that does not really have meaning to us. For example, it is how much money you make or how beautifully are, how many followers you have, or you can go down the list, but it always comes out of that money, power, authority, the same game.

Speaker 2: 5:02

After my death experience and really that awakening that took place with that, I realized one that my highest value really wasn't about money and it wasn't about power, it was about love, and that love sounds great on a pillow and on a logo and in a song, but love in its truest powers only expressed in relationship, which, knowing what I told you about my life before.

Speaker 2: 5:30

I was doing a lot of things and meeting a lot of people, but I wasn't present in relationship with the most important people in my life. I wasn't present. So my great aspiration, what I would call success, is if I can continue to discover what the best version of myself is, realize the unique purpose and call I have in my life and be extremely present, very present, to make sure that the people in my world, if I die tomorrow or I choke and we have to wrap this conversation up really quick that, above all things, the people in my life will know that I love them and that will never be a question if those are the last words out of my mouth that living a life of genuinely showing up and loving to me is probably the greatest measure of success you can have.

Speaker 1: 6:23

I love that distinction and it's very powerful. The way not only you put it, it's the empathy and the love within your words and the emotion that you convey with that makes it even more substantial about your mission and what success is to you. So thank you for sharing that. You mentioned your company. Now what is it that makes your company unique about the way you interact with your people and your staff, your clients? What makes you shine in your industry?

Speaker 2: 6:56

I would say that there's a few ingredients. Our agency is called Spirit Media and just so you know the roots of that, there's a when you start thinking about great works of art. We're a creative agency and so what we do is art. It's strategic art, it's marketing art. But the idea, if you look at some of the greatest masters of our time, one of the commonalities that is in that description of their work is this their work is inspired, and the word inspired actually means to operate in the spirit. It means that the creative element that brings the greatest out in the human expression is not just something that we manufacture in our front left cortex. We can't just put it on a spreadsheet and go boom, here's creativity. No, creativity has to be a part of the spirit. It means that we have to touch the soul. We touch the limbic, to get scientific, we touch the limbic system, we touch those pieces of the person that makes them not just know but to feel deeply.

Speaker 2: 7:59

And I would say, with that framework, the work we do and we produce videos for companies, we create events and event experiences for companies and we work with people and they're messaging and helping them with their marketing framework what we believe is effective marketing is first, it's about telling the truth exceptionally well. And number two, we do it in a way that tattoos your soul. It's not just a brush with a message, it's not just the classic marketing where we say let's do it seven times. I basically call that institutional nagging. It still works. We know psychologically it works but it's institutional nagging. But we know that and it was from your work that when people have a profound experience it tattoos their psyche and as much as we've had things in our life that have tattooed us in very painful ways, there's ways that we can tattoo other lives that are powerful and meaningful and inspiring and lasting. And that's what we want to do with spirit media is tell those stories, create those experiences and craft those messages that really will inspire and tattoo the lives of those we're called to serve.

Speaker 1: 9:21

I love that. It's all about service and I know from my own journey and I know from listening to you, just for the few minutes that we've had together here. It's about inspiration, and you correctly said earlier, inspiration comes from the soul. It's about living from that element when you are your true self, that self expression the authentic expression.

Speaker 1: 9:44

Who are you grateful for in your journey to where you are today? Is there anybody that really stands out as a mentor or as a family member that has been inspirational for you in the elevation of what you do and maybe even the creation of what you do?

Speaker 2: 10:01

You mentioned one of my keywords and one of my themes for these last two years grateful, I'm incredibly grateful, and it is part of it. Is that grateful for mentors and honestly, there is no one in our world that we can't learn from and to that degree sometimes they're little mentors, sometimes they're profound mentors. But I will tell you that I am here in part because I married up. I married my high school sweetheart and she had every reason to dump me like a bad habit because of the life I was living running around and it wasn't like I was cheating or anything like that, but for all practical purposes, I was having a fair with my career and the fact that she was able to work with me and grow with me and love our children. I'm grateful and she's taught me a lot, my children teach me a lot.

Speaker 2: 10:50

So those are my immediate sphere and certainly my inner circle the people of my life who speak into my life and always remind me and hold me accountable to the values that I aspire to live, because I always say aspire because I don't always live them and I have to work through it every single day. Every day there are headwinds that want you to compromise your greatest values, but though inner circle makes a difference. But beyond that, I can say that from the moment I got into this industry, I've been surrounded by great directors, great producers, great writers and great business leaders, and each one has either taught me directly or modeled values or practices or behaviors that inspired me and informed me and have helped shaped me. So there really are a lot. I don't have one specific, but if I had to go back I'd say, yeah, let's start with my wife.

Speaker 1: 11:55

I'm into that I can relate to that story actually from what my journey is, what I'm going to right now. But the gratitude of people around you that actually support you in ways that you sometimes forget is important to be recognized, not just every once in a while, but on a daily basis. I think it's an important message where you are grateful but you show it in different ways and you're not traveling as much, but even when you are, you can just pick up the phone and say hey, I really love you and I really care for you. I want you to remember that in today and as you go forward. It's important we do that and make a habit of doing that. It's not done enough, I believe, so thank you for bringing that to people's attention. Courage and resilience how would you define the two and how has resilience or forms of resilience shaped the evolution of yourself today?

Speaker 2: 12:55

That's a great question, baz. It's a really great man, and it goes to something that I know you teach, and that's that element of purpose. And one of the things after my death I had to really understand is why am I here? Times after people have near-death experiences. Some people have guilt Like, why me, why not some, why did I get to come back? And, by the way, just a note, I wish everybody could die and come back, because it would totally change how you live. So every question that you ask has more meaning. It's not just inquisitive it's going to be nice if no. It is asking why I am here and understanding the purpose behind why we are here.

Speaker 2: 13:40

And one of the things I believe that is a process of finding purpose is understanding our passions. And I believe there are false passions and I think that's something that we sort out in the process, comparing that against our skill sets and our life experiences. But when we find that passion that aligns and truly does become a piece of our purpose, that's where resilience comes in, because just living and trying to live well comes with obstacles, comes with failure, and and some of those obstacles are in our own heart and mind Forget the rest of the world telling you you can't do this and to overcome those obstacles usually is, I think, rooted in passion. Because I think that passion is like that fuel that's inside, that continues to rev the engine of your heart and no matter how many times you hit the wall, you hit the wall. That resilience to press through because you say one, I don't just want to, I need to. I know that I don't just think this is a good idea, I know I'm called to it and I believe this is the essence of why I am here, the way I can serve and the impact I can make in the world.

Speaker 2: 14:56

When you get that and you have that conviction and that passion aligned with purpose, you're resilient. You figure out how, and you get beat, you fall, you fail and you get up again. And you get up again and you get it. And I will tell you, my life is a trail of failures. I am not a tall man, but I know that when I fall flat on my face, guess what, I'm about five and a half feet closer to my goal. So that's happened time and time again and that has really been, I think, the key to resilience and that also leads to that courage piece, because when you really believe that, you believe that this is where you're supposed to be, and that's a breakthrough.

Speaker 2: 15:38

It also means that the aspiration of the greatest version yourself is scary, because the gap between who we are and what we're called to become in the process of getting there, we don't always see that, and we don't like the unknown. We don't like that dark space of the unknown to walk in and to grope around. We'd love we think about when we're in school we talked about school systems earlier. We're taught that we're supposed to know the answer to everything, and if you don't know the answer, Billy, you're gonna have to go in the corner. Or, billy, you didn't study well, or, billy, you're not gonna achieve, or, billy, you're not gonna realize your potential. Guess what? Little Billy doesn't know the answer to a lot of things, and the process of, though, becoming that person that knows that is scary and the only way you're able to break through that, hopefully, fueled by passion and purpose, we rise to the courage to step into the unknown, to become the person we need to be to realize our greatest destiny, and that, combined with the resilience, that's the breakthrough. And, by the way and you know this it's not a pretty process.

Speaker 2: 16:47

We always talk about the story of the butterfly. Butterflies are beautiful. Oh, we love butterflies. Look at it. They go in their cocoon and then they come out and they fly, and all that.

Speaker 2: 16:54

If you look at the story of a cocoon in a butterfly. They grow up as this little pupa thing and just eating Cause. They're like teenagers. They just eat a lot of food in preparation for the transformation and we consume a lot in preparation. But once you go into the cocoon, what happens? The first thing that happens is your digestive juices turn on you and they start dissolving away everything that you've found familiar, like these fake legs and parts of the organs that aren't necessary anymore. And now things get transformed.

Speaker 2: 17:28

It is a terrifying, hideous process. It's a good thing they go in a cocoon, because if we had to stare at that, it'd be like a monster movie. But that monster movie plays out every day right in the mirror and it plays out every day in the relationships we have. And so if we were able to wanna understand the process, give ourselves grace for the transformation we're going to make and give other people grace for the transformation they're making and believe for the butterfly, believe for the destiny that they will be. We can tolerate the fear, we can tolerate the discomfort, we can tolerate, sometimes, the ugliness of the process because, deep down, we can celebrate the outcome of the process.

Speaker 1: 18:14

I love that you mentioned something there earlier about, firstly, the transformation and the uncertainty.

Speaker 2: 18:21

In my experience I've heard it from many people.

Speaker 1: 18:24

Entrepreneurs, business owners, grow the best when they're on the path and they don't know the next step. But what happens on that process? And so, if you've experienced this, have you learned to trust the pathway? Have you learned to go despite what you're seeing, to learn to trust what's internally within you going? I know this is the way. It doesn't matter what's it could be Beirut going off around you, but there's something internally within you going. Stay the course. Is that the case with you as well?

Speaker 2: 18:58

Oh, absolutely. I think the one thing and it comes with age. When I was younger I might not, I would have answered it differently oh no, I don't wanna do that stay the course thing, because you get to something. It's like those automatic vacuum cleaners, that robots, that they hit a wall and they boom, go over here. And they hit a wall and go over here. And a lot of us, until we're confident in the path, we look like that little Roomba, bouncing from wall to wall.

Speaker 2: 19:24

But once you recognize and get clarity about that purpose and again, that passion that presses you through it, it means that, yes, you're gonna hit that wall. It's not gonna be considered though an obstacle. Rejection to me is direction, and failure is a university course on resilience and corrective action that will help you become smarter and wiser for the next step. And so that path, where most people would say, oh, it's rocky and rough guess what that's the path will help me become what I need to be and teach me what I need to learn. So I do love the path and I do embrace it. It's literally we go to movies to watch these exciting page turners and what's gonna happen next. Follow the path. It's more exciting than any motion picture you're gonna go to. Hopefully not as much explosions and things like that, but trust me, follow that journey. It is a page turner. It is a page turner I love.

Speaker 1: 20:27

That Is it when you were leaving your media career, your corporate media career. Was there any belters or haters or naysayers you had from there? And if there were, is there anyone you can go back now without naming these people? I don't want you to do that cause maybe shaming I don't, that's not what this is about but just good people anyway. Is there anything you would like to say to these people who would say, look, I'm doing this, I'm not faking what I'm doing, I'm a representation of my ideal life. I am the. I am my pinnacle of success today, even though you said it couldn't, be done.

Speaker 2: 21:06

I'll say, probably the biggest naysayer was me. That was probably the biggest obstacle, because when I left broadcast television, I'd been in that career for 12 years and it would be so good. I'd love to read these things on LinkedIn stories where I said, look, I finally the light went on and I took the courageous step and I did this and I left my job and blah, blah, blah. Look, I don't have any glorious story like that. I had an inglorious departure. Just try to tell you the short version of it, please. I told you I married my high school sweetheart and we had our first child. I won't say names, I leave my family out of it. This they haven't given me permission to tell their story. So we have our first child, we have our second child, our third child him as a pair. So during that time, I was starting to do some freelance work and really start what was the framework of this company? Because I decided I was gonna do this as a vehicle for my wife to have the freedom to do what she wanted to do with her career, with her life, with the children. I want the kids to have opportunities or our kids to have a good life. So I was doing all these other things and our business was growing while I had my career. Then, when my wife gets pregnant, she comes to me, she goes and she knows me really well. She goes. Bill, I know that you've got a lot of things going on and you have six months of paternity leave that you could take. I need your help, seriously. I'm going to have a five-year-old, a three-year-old and newborns in the house. I need your help". She couldn't have said it more clear. Sign language poster billboard. Put it in the air, exactly, exactly. And I'm like oh, yeah, oh, of course, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I go into the TV station where I'm working and talk to the production manager. I said, look, I want to take some time here to be with my wife and kind of help the kids. And he goes. Bill, don't you realize how hard that would be for the station? Think about your clients. You got right now you're directing the number one show in the market in this time slot. You also have commercial clients.

Speaker 2: 23:15

Bill, what's going to happen if you leave? What's going to happen if you're gone and I'm gone? I am totally to the oh, that's right. How unemotionally intelligent can you be? You look at me and you might go. That's an intelligent man. That's what I wasn't. I did lip service. I didn't get it. So I came home thinking I can do all things, by the way, because I'm invincible. I said, hey hon, I walked to the station. I'm just going to take a couple of weeks off. I'll get back, don't worry. I'll be here to help. I'll be able to do whatever we need. She knew me better than that, and as soon as I said that, it was like putting a knife in her heart.

Speaker 1: 24:00

Did you see it right then when that happened, or does he know?

Speaker 2: 24:04

Yeah, that's why I didn't quite get it. I was so blind because I was just like, go, that's where my head was, Go, I can do all things. And what ended up happening is I took that brief little thing, came back, had no idea what it was like to have a home with a five-year-old, three-year-old, infants. It was literally like walking her home. It was like walking into an episode of National Geographic. It was like monkeys swinging from the vines and stuff and things eating each other. And it was just, I was a mess and I was not sleeping, as my wife was not sleeping very well. So I'm going back to the television station, I'm directing my shows and doing all my projects I will say flawlessly, because I was great at my job. But I was physically exhausted and I was emotionally exhausted In one day because I was a very high energy, if you can't tell.

Speaker 2: 24:55

I was a high energy director doing my show and I irritated one of the writers and in the middle of a commercial break he got up, shut up. He said something very disrespectful. Normally and I know the writers, they've been working all night they're irritable people. Anyway, I would just deal with it. I said what did you say? And he was in one of those moods. He came over While I still had my headsets on. I'm standing at the control booth, we're in a commercial break, and he poked me in the chest to say I said, just hone it down. And when he touched my chest a hulk came out of me and helped him to the floor and I walked out the next day with my last check from that facility. I deserved to be fired. I deserved to be fired.

Speaker 2: 25:41

That was my two by four moment.

Speaker 2: 25:43

That's when, all of a sudden, I could see how I stouted my wife.

Speaker 2: 25:46

I could see how I'd let her down.

Speaker 2: 25:48

I'd see how I'd let my priorities become shifted the wrong way. I could see how it was blinded to the emotions and the needs of the people that I cared about most of my life. And I remember coming home and apologizing to my wife and literally getting on my knees and praying that I didn't lose my home, that I didn't destroy my kids' futures, anything like that. But I will say this at that point from that wake up call, our life and our business literally exploded in the most beautiful way. I could not have told you how successful things emerged from the ashes of that moment, and I always hold on to that because I think a lot of people spend so much energy trying to avoid the pain of difficult decisions, try to avoid the pain of difficult circumstances and not realizing that from those ashes, even as you've experienced those things, Baz, miracles literally come sometimes out of tragedy, and if we open our eyes and look up instead of just down at our own circumstances, we'll see opportunities we might have never realized before.

Speaker 1: 27:01

I love that and you mentioned something really powerful there. One grace, two, gratitude Three. It's the opportunity of more. These three things in any life, not just in business or entrepreneurial journeys, but in any life. If you start to notice these things as you experience from your right at the ashes moment, it's a game changer and it changes not just your perception in that moment but as you stand up and go okay, what the hell was that all about? You're good down there because you're speaking to a previous version of yourself. What's really going on? And that's not just building resilience, that's nurturing it and stepping into the, the unknown.

Speaker 1: 27:48

But it's more than that. It's partly the authentic self that you've been blind to because of other aspects, that you've been led to believe the truth. And this is the part I love, because now you can stop dreaming, now you can start creating your life, and for many people that happens at one point, two points in their life. You had at least three that you've counted so far. One was that that experience of leaving the industry. Then the plane incident when you your heart stopped, and learning to listen to your family, your wife. These are three pinnacle points in life that led you to where you are today. Is there any five tips you can give the listeners that you've learned in resilience or in building, rebuilding themselves, because you've had it obviously great experience doing that and what the five go-tos for you? But you could give advice to but it it really?

Speaker 2: 28:48

I would say, come down to what I would call the first discipline and and in my book, and knowing yourself and Trying to understand those questions of why you're here, why have you been given the gift of breath today? In all practicality, I didn't earn my breath today. I can't even say I deserve it. I do believe in all my heart of hearts, especially after my death experience, that it is a precious gift and Because I've been given that gift, you've been given that, we've all been given that gift. The question that rises out of that is how will I use that gift To be a gift to others? And so, in understanding ourselves, I, I truly believe that if we can form what I call mission manifesto, made up of five key elements all things You've heard before, but things that are hard and we often pass by pretty quickly. But it demands that we ponder it, we pray about it, we dig deep and we document it and we pursue a life of living it. And the first one is that that idea of purpose. Why am I here now?

Speaker 2: 29:53

I believe that there's three ingredients. You've got some great things you teach about finding purpose, purposes and isn't easy to find, but it's not because it's not there. For me, I believe it's a. I use a compass version, I call it the authentic purpose compass. And that really has to do with what are your passions? Let's find out, what are those things that just burn inside you, that it's not just a, it's not just a want, it's not just a. Wouldn't it be nice if it's the kind of thing that you almost Tear up thinking about living for and you might even tear up thinking if you can't live for it. That's passion. But along with passion, recognize that we all were born with different aptitudes. So when you understand those aptitudes what are your giftings and combine that with your passions a lot of people have passions for which they don't have aptitudes and we call those hobbies. Those are enriching life experiences. But those are hobbies if you have no aptitude for it. But if you have aptitude and you have passion, you've got a clue there. But there's a third piece, and that is life experiences that if we actually start paying attention more, instead of just running down the freeway of life with just a blur of billboards Zinging past us, but actually paid attention, you're gonna start seeing those things come together and the passion, the aptitude, and you'll start to see what I call the compass towards that purpose. From that framework Becomes the next step, and I and its missions.

Speaker 2: 31:21

Now a lot of people say mission. Like I've worked in corporations, I think it puts a mission statement on their wall yours are mission, what are like that? When I died, I just let you know. You know, I grew up Catholic and and after people have death experience, they often if they weren't a little spiritual before they get spiritual. And I went back and one of my Mentors is Jesus. I want to know of all the people who changed the world.

Speaker 2: 31:47

This Jesus person did a lot of fascinating things and maybe one of greatest marketing Genius in the world, and I'd say that respectfully. And when you start breaking down his life, as well as a life of others who have done profound things, they don't have a mission. They actually have mission. It's like a military scenario. He said here's the purpose, but here's the missions we must accomplish. So when you break yourself free from this idea of there's one thing that you must do, I think purpose tells you why you're here, but the missions Start outlining what you need. In the case of Jesus, we found 26 missions when we did the homework on him and there's even a book written about that. So free yourself and be able to say what are the missions I must accomplish and when you break that down. That leads to the third principle and that's finally where goals come in, because a lot of people say, oh, I got this goal and do this. They're dangling out there like some kind of floating balloon at a parade, but a balloon that's attached, goal that's attached to a mission now is about action, accountability, timeline. Those goals now are more inclined to be Observed, in, in, in completed, because, oh, guess what? We talked about resilience and courage and passion and purpose. That goals attached to that and when the goals aligned with that mission, life changing.

Speaker 2: 33:16

The fourth thing I would say is vision. When we were little kids, a lot of us put together puzzles. Well, what's the first thing you do when you put together a puzzle, if you're good at it? You look at the box. You look at the box, you go, oh, this is what I'm making. But in life we just spend most of our time collecting pieces and try to figure out what we're making. Vision is the breakthrough that helps to see the cover of the box. And when we get that in front of us when we process it, usually aligned with purpose and the missions we need to live out. That box becomes clear and then we could free ourselves from the distraction of the world trying to sell you pieces Saying, oh, you need this piece, oh, you need this piece, you need this piece. Lord knows, we get bombarded with peace Headlers and instead have that, the conviction to be able to say this is the piece I need, because this belongs in my puzzle. This is what I was looking for and you can build towards that vision.

Speaker 2: 34:12

And the last fifth piece, that's not because it's long priority, it's just because it felt good, its values it it does. It circles in with that purpose why I'm here, what I need to accomplish, what I'll be accountable for, what I see when I've accomplished it, and I'm gonna operate within the framework of those values. And I'd say this lovingly Values are like going into a boxing match. They fight each other every day because we can always say, oh, we think this is really important, guess what that probably is. But tomorrow is it as important as this or this? Understanding our values and the fact that they can shift it doesn't mean we undermine those values, but we prioritize those values based upon the circumstances and the missions we must accomplish. We can embrace that Rather there's posted on a wall and walk away from it. Put overalls on your values and put them to work. That's the way you live it. Those are my five Purpose, missions, goals, vision, values.

Speaker 1: 35:22

Yeah, that's an amazing list. It needs to, especially the values part of it, because, you're correct, people disguise them and they get wrapped up in different ways and we stop actually living that from that place. It comes back into what you were saying originally about the belief system of who we truly are. If you could start a movement and I want to be really respectful of your time, there's a nice precious If you could start a movement of something, not just a mastermind or something, but a true movement, what would that be?

Speaker 2: 35:55

It would be 360 degree love One. It goes back to my death experience, yeah, and again, not to get overly spiritual here, but look as a little kid growing up and I experienced some physical abuse, verbal abuse. My dad had a tough time. He was very ill and in a lot of pain and it was tough for me growing up and in many cases the things that he said in his darkest times were the whispers I continue to echo in my own heart about who I am and what my value is to this world. And then I used to think, man, if I ever died and saw God, he was going to tell me what a failure I was and how I really messed up, what a disappointment I was.

Speaker 2: 36:38

So a lot of us talk about life and eternity, all these things, but I will tell you secretly, I did lip service about that, but I didn't want to meet God.

Speaker 2: 36:46

And then I did, and my experience was that when I crossed the threshold of eternity, I met the embodiment of pure love. I met the embodiment of something that doesn't just know us and doesn't just like us, but is madly in love with us and is our biggest cheerleader and is there hoping for us and dreaming for us and shedding every tear with us. And when I came away with that breakthrough understanding of the divine, I realized that for us to live, that would be one of the most powerful ways to transform this world, because we live in a world where we hear the constant echoes of being unworthy and unloved and unvalued, when that is a lie. So if we were to start with one recognizing a relationship with the divine and then recognizing a relationship with ourselves, then it frees us to be able to love others, to give grace to others, to help and inspire others. And I call that 360 degree love, because if we can practice that, really practice that, I believe that will be the greatest transformation in the world. But it starts with us.

Speaker 1: 37:59

That was very powerful and I wanna thank you for your time, your love, your energy and also I'm grateful for you having that second chance to change people's lives, because it's important that we recognize that as people. But you also have the opportunity to pay it forward as well Before we leave today. Is there anything you'd like to add for the audience? I know you've mentioned earlier you have it up on coming book Would you like to share that with them?

Speaker 2: 38:25

I appreciate that, beth. Thanks, I think if people wanna learn more about one my death experience, the resurrection experience, but also how it applies to business and life and the seven I would call it the seven most critical disciplines that I see modeled in relationship marketing, they may be interested in getting my book, the Seven Disciplines of Relationship Marketing. It's available on Amazon and I also have a digital course where I teach that and then I coach and do keynotes on it as well. But I think that is the nucleus after my death experience and what I learned in marketing life that right there. It's a short, it's simple, but I think it's transformational and it talks a little bit more about what 360 degree love looks like in life and business.

Speaker 1: 39:15

I love that. Thank you very much for your time, bill. It is a pretty privilege to be here with you today, and thank you for spending it with me and sharing your story, thanks.

Speaker 2: 39:26

Baz.

Speaker 1: 39:26

You're welcome For myself. Thank you very much for joining us on this episode. Remember to share it. You'll change someone's life. If you're not subscribed, please subscribe. It doesn't take much, it's free and it will help someone else get this message out there from Bill Myself. Thank you very much for listening. Have a blessed day, Be the divine gift that you truly are, and remember you are rising always from the ashes. Take care, Be safe.