Successful Life Podcast
Self-Improvement Podcast for Contractors that want to learn about how to grow their business through management and marketing. Develop business ideas to improve your business experience and be successful. Real stories from real business owners.
Successful Life Podcast
Building Relationships and Businesses with Mike Agugliaro
What if overcoming early career challenges could lead to building and selling a $32 million business? Join us as we uncover the remarkable journey of Mike Agugliaro, who transformed from a struggling electrician to a thriving entrepreneur. Learn how Mike navigated the hurdles of incompetent employers and initial business setbacks, ultimately revolutionizing the service industry with his coaching business and new venture, FU Dog Group, which focuses on life, business, and wealth by design. Mike’s story is all about resilience, strategic thinking, and achieving success holistically.
Discover the keys to forming and maintaining healthy relationships, especially after personal struggles like addiction. Mike and I dive into the importance of honesty, transparency, and aligning intentions from the start. We share practical advice on understanding each other's needs, recognizing love languages, and building long-term partnerships instead of merely "dating" your spouse. This segment provides invaluable insights for sustaining meaningful connections through effective communication.
Explore the transformative power of energy and perspective on your mind and body. From the scientific underpinnings to real-life applications, Mike illustrates how positive and negative thoughts influence our physical and mental states. We emphasize the role of gratitude and intention in personal growth, sharing personal anecdotes and biohacking practices that can help you harness your energy for positive transformation. Don’t miss our heartfelt conversation, where Mike expresses his gratitude and commitment to supporting the community, offering valuable resources and insights to uplift others.
https://join.fudoggroup.com/mikespeaking
Mind Power: The 17 Secrets Of Using Your Thoughts To Powerfully Accelerate Every Area Of Life https://a.co/d/0ePksTsr
https://www.audible.com/pd/9-Simple-Steps-to-Sell-More-ht-Audiobook/B0D4SJYD4Q?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=library_overflow
https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Steps-Sell-More-Stereotypes-ebook/dp/B0BRNSFYG6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1OSB7HX6FQMHS&keywords=corey+berrier&qid=1674232549&sprefix=%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1
https://bit.ly/4bFz4yc https://www.housecallpro.com/successullife
https://www.facebook.com/corey.berrier
https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreysalescoach/
Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I'm your host, Corey Barrier, and I'm here with my man, Mike Aguilario.
Speaker 2:Aguilario, you got it, brother, perfect.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, I really tried there. Well, it's a tongue twister if you look at it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, you know the Italians. They threw a couple extra letters in there to throw people off the trail. Well, it worked. It definitely did.
Speaker 1:So, mike, I'm super excited to get into this conversation with you. I've been following you for a little while now and I don't know, you know, I love having people on that I don't know a ton about, because then I get to ask whatever questions I want to hear and usually we go into a direction that I don't even know the direction, to be quite frank with you, and I feel like that's the best way to do this. So, before we dive in with me asking a bunch of questions, can you give everybody a little overview of who you are and what you do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll give everybody and Corey, thanks for inviting me. I'm excited to speak to everybody. If I take it back, I'm just a guy that's been on his own at 15 years old. So I always say I'm a survivor of a pretty wicked parent. Divorce Ended up kind of a conveyor belt in school like built for college. Built for college, you might know, probably a plumber or electrician. I went to a vocational school. I became an electrician. You'll find out pretty soon.
Speaker 2:It played out pretty good for me, graduated in 88, lived in New Jersey and soon as I graduated I was in the game working as an electrician. It became pretty apparent, corey, pretty fast, that the people I was working for I just thought they were idiots. I thought all my bosses were idiots. So I thought, hey, what do we do? I can do my own business. I'll do it so much better than them. I found out I started my own electrical company and I was just an idiot, just like them too. I had no idea what I was doing. I thought it looked easy, but it wasn't.
Speaker 2:I'll shorten the story up a little bit, like after 10, 12 years of struggling as an electrician. So I'm the guy you called to your house fix things that are flickering, not working. You want to put in a paddle fan. I've crawled in a whole lot of attics, a whole lot of crawl spaces, dug a lot of ditches. I know you're probably saying this is like your dad talking to you, like walking you know five miles in snow barefoot, on one leg or something, but it's the reality. That was my life. I finally woke up one day and was like I'm going to figure out how to do this different, hired some coaches, and then I took an electrical contracting company from under a million to over 32 million, from a couple employees to 200 employees, from two trucks to 165 trucks, from crappy profit to double digit profit, to selling a $32 million company in 2017. In 2017, which? Any of you listening? That's like Nirvana, right, you want to build something, you want to sell something and you want to have legacy style wealth.
Speaker 2:But, corey, in 2014, I found myself in an interesting kind of paradigm. Every time I was around my friends, I'm all excited, I have this big company, we're making lots of money. I didn't even have an office in my building, corey, for about five years. I'm making a million dollars a year. Life is grand, but every time I went around one of my friends. I'm all excited and they're very depressed. I'm like, wow, things are going. They're like it's horrible. I can't find good people and I got no money, and clients, customers are horrible and everyone's cheap and all my people break my stuff and they're all on drugs and I'm like so what did I do? I started dimming my flame. Oh well, my life's not so good either. And one day I was talking to my wife, my beautiful wife, jennifer. So anybody listen, I've been with my wife since I'm 15 years old. So it's 38 years now and I'm level 54. I don't know why anybody says they're 54 years old. I'm wiser, I'm tougher, I'm stronger than ever before. So maybe some of you will take that.
Speaker 2:But in 2014, I decided to create a movement. I was going to change the service industry. I was going to change how the world looked at the blue collar worker, the plumber, electrician, the HVAC, the guy that comes to your home and by 2020, I was coaching a thousand business owners. I had over 20,000 tradespeople come through my trainings. I was doing 35 three-day trainings a year out of a 10,000 square foot building that I owned, and I built that coaching company to over a $40 million company, and then I sold it in 2020.
Speaker 2:And you're probably people listening, corey, like what the heck? Why'd you sell that thing? Like the service company, I could get it. Well, I go to where the world's calling me next and I built a company that was coaching people.
Speaker 2:Corey, I was making people really, really rich, but what's happening is they were getting wealthy and divorced and wealthy and sick, and that wasn't part of the plan. I wanted them to become wealthy and get closer to their marriage, not further away. And so after I sold that coaching company, like probably a couple of months later, I built this company called Food Dog Group and what I wanted to do was enter the world and teach people and I'll hand it back to you in a minute teach people how to have life, business and wealth by design. And we do that through trainings, online, offline events, partnerships, and we have a whole bunch of stuff we do. And that takes me to today.
Speaker 2:But if we summarize it, look, I'm a family guy. I got a 25-year-old son who's bigger and tougher than me. I got a 22-year-old daughter who's just brilliant, smart, and I have an incredible wife and partner in crime here that we've been together since we're 15. And we live a life by design. We never vacation because we live a vacation style life. So that's a lot to be said, but hope it helps everybody, not only maybe give them a North Star, like, if it's possible for this tattoo guy, and I know you've got some mink too, if it's possible for yeah, there you go.
Speaker 1:If it's possible for us. Well, everyone listening, I promise you it's possible for you too. So, man, that was great. And you know, I knew a little bit of that, but I didn't know the details of it. So let's go back for a second. And you know, to be married for 38 years, a happy dude, first office, not really. It's not heard of a ton.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So what would you say was the reason you? You know it's real easy to get caught up in business and put things before your family. You know I got to go. If you're running a company, I got to go run this call because so-and-so is out. You know it's a. You know I don't really think there's much of a balance in life. Maybe there is, I don't know that, I found it. But how did you balance growing not one but two companies to that level and keep a happy marriage?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is a great question. Everybody should make sure you got a notepad and write down some actions, because Corey and I don't want this just to be a drive-by. We want it to be something you could take action on to execute. First thing, and please, everybody listening, don't judge me for it, but I've never drank alcohol my whole life. I've never drank alcohol my whole life. I've never done drugs my whole life. I haven't eaten gluten in 18 years. I have never drank coffee. I haven't done any type of caffeine in probably 15, 18 years. And please, everybody listening, don't think I'm that guy wakes up 530 in the morning sniffing oils and ice bathing. Like, I'm also not that guy. Right, I wake up whenever I wake up. I guess it's funny, corey.
Speaker 2:I was telling somebody they said what time you wake up, mike? Cause they hear my success and they figure he's got to be up talking to the birds at four in the morning. I'm like if I woke up at four in the morning, I'd throw up three times. And they said well, what time do you get up? I said, well, when my body wakes up, which is normally around seven, 30, I wake up. And they said what do you do next? Cause they think I'm going to get up and start pumping weights and stuff. I'm like why I grabbed my phone and I go on Facebook and the guy stops me. He goes hey, let me give you some advice. He goes you know, um, it's proven that people that go on Facebook in the morning are way less successful than people that don't. So I said to him, corey. I said hey, by the way, how's business going for you? He said it's horrible, it's not working. I've been having problems for five years. I said well, you know what you should do Wake up a little later and go on Facebook when you get up. That's what I said to him. He didn't find it as amusing as I did, but I did find it funny.
Speaker 2:My wife says you're like a purple unicorn. We know they exist, we just never had one. And I think so. First point I'm a martial artist for 38 years. I'm doing martial arts since I'm 15 years old. It's created a lot of discipline and focus in me, and also I'm from a broken. My parents had a very dysfunctional marriage. Italian guy, so my dad, he passed in November. Great guy, but one woman was never enough. So that's not normally a good formula for a successful marriage and that created in me.
Speaker 2:I never wanted to have a relationship like that. I wanted to make sure. And if my wife was on here which is fun some people should say to me we should do a podcast and invite you and your wife, cause you might see us argue on it or something. It would just be fun. We embrace each other's crazy and we also make sure that we create three things crazy and we also make sure that we create three things clarity, alignment and accountability. And when we're off track and I've been off track because you don't build, you know I've done over 500 million in sales you don't do that kind of sales with hundreds of employees and companies and selling if you don't get off track a little bit. And I'm a guy that can get off track, dive into work, wake up one day and go oh man, I got children and a wife here and stuff Right, and people listening probably can relate. But I did make sure.
Speaker 2:When I got the awakening I wanted to do everything in my power. I am like a super dad. I like I'm the guy that had to learn how to fastest way to change a diaper and quickest way to put on the cream and best way to feed and birth the baby. I also did whatever it took for me. I would come home and eat dinner and did my best to get home as I could to have that family time. And then normally I'd go train martial arts and at a time when I had young kids I brought the martial arts right into my home. So I had a dojo inside my house and I taught three days a week out of our big living room, sometimes 20, 30 students in our house because I was bringing the culture in and this is a big lesson for everybody to consider. I never excluded my children and my family from my business and I watch people do this every single day.
Speaker 2:My son was just showing a picture. He did a post on social media because now my son's 25. He authored a book when he was 17. And he posted a picture when he was probably 10 years old on stage with some of the top marketers Joe Polish, dean Jackson, some of the top people. My son's been around because I was including him in the business. Our dinner table was me asking the kids what do you think about this flyer at five or six years old and letting them explore. So you know, look, we had our turbulence and relationship like anybody else, but we refused to quit and we embrace each other's. You know, my wife say it, we say it every other day. She says to me you know, you're a lot to deal with. And I said, man, you're just as much. And we agree on that. We don't try to isolate it. So hopefully people pick up a few tips from that.
Speaker 1:So that would be a great example of alignment. Can you give me a couple of other examples of how you all are aligned? Because that's a big deal, and I think you know I'm personally going through a divorce. However, I'm, you know, in a new relationship and the difference is, you know one. I got honest and completely sober back in March of 2023 and just started working, you know, recovery and doing the things that I knew I needed to be doing anyway, but I just got off track, kind of as you mentioned. Yeah, but being aligned with someone on almost every level is something I didn't think was possible, but what I found is that it is possible. But I believe that if you have the right intentions and if you're honest, if you're transparent and you just dig everything out at the beginning at least so far, that's how it's worked for me. Yeah, would you say that's a similar thing with you, or?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I don't know about the second round of doing another relationship. I feel like if you do a second round, that is brilliant. When you're doing a first round, like you just don't know, you're taking on the framing of what you learned from your parents. You don't know any better. And then maybe you have some kids and man, that throws a loop in it because all of a sudden you're focused on the kids, not the relationship.
Speaker 2:I believe if couples could be curious first and not judgmental curious meaning because if you do look it is and I've coached not only a thousand business owners, I've been through 20,000 different people and 99% of them are men. And when I talk to men through all these years and I've been doing helping people for over three, almost four decades, probably heading into I find out it's the unspoken conversation, it's the same stuff. Like it's like money. Like we got to get clear. Like how do we feel about money? Now, for me, I had a lot of scarcity of money, even though I've made millions and millions of dollars. I had scarcity.
Speaker 2:But when you're on your own at 15, you know what you. Your concern is how long you can make the ramen noodles last. Like I can get that? I used to buy, like I think it was five for a dollar the package, not even the cup ones. You couldn't afford the cup ones when they get the little plastic package and I used to throw an extra one in the bag and try to convince the woman, the cashier yeah, there's only five in there, so I could get one more and they were only 25 cents, you know, so one. If you get that out, like how do we deal about money? And do we have to ask permission. Do we have to like? You know? Number two, I think it's so. People treat it like so voodoo today and I don't really understand it. But you know what is connection, what is interaction, what is passion, what is sex? What is this going to be like? And I think people in relationships just aren't clear.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of unspoken things and people go off track because there's a desire. It's no different than you or anybody, and that itch is going to get scratched somehow and if you can't scratch it with one thing, you're going to sedate it with another, Right? So I think you've got to get that out of the way. And then there's like social interaction, Like who do we hang around? How do we hang around them? Like me, I don't go to bars and stuff. I've never went to it because one I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't deal I've never dealt well, Corey, with Conversations that don't mean much. You know, I just like I like talking with depth, I like really understanding people and to sit there looking at a TV and trying to sedate your life and forget about things like I've never done well with that. So I stayed away from that stuff and I believe that's what makes relationships. I do think there's a couple things that people just seem not to do and I'll give everybody and thank you for sharing your experience here One is wants and needs experience. Here One is wants and needs. If a couple just sits down and puts down wants, this is what I want to have in my life and then this is what I need Like a need might be respected, right. Like I don't want someone to curse at me, yell at me. It's a need, like clear communication, safe communication. A want might be like hey, I want to. If someone's a golfer, I want to golf every day. That's a lot, it's not a need, right. So that's number one. Everybody should write that down. Number two I'm still blown away that people like it's a problem we had when I learned about the love languages and I don't know if you ever did the test. A lot of people did it, but they forget about it. Yeah, Now my love language. The top two is words of affirmation and physical touch, which means my wife doesn't believe it, but I feel I'm a pretty easy human. Tell me I'm great, Touch me, we're good. Now I don't want anybody else touching me, but I want my wife touching me Right now.
Speaker 2:My wife's is quality time and acts of service. I always say that's horrible because I have to spend time and then I have to take out the garbage and do things right. But in the end and any of you listening go to fivelovelanguagescom or something, there's a free test Take it, you and your relationship, and really understand it, Because some of you out there listening might be trying to give gifts to your relationship, and gifts don't even mean nothing Like, oh thanks, you got me a necklace Big deal, and really what they wanted. And the last thing I would share, because those made big impacts in my life. The last one I would share is I'm not like my wife.
Speaker 2:We don't do this date night thing because we're not in a dating. I don't want to date my wife, I'm married to my wife. People date when they're in the beginning until they make that commitment of longevity. And I watch all these guys out there married. You're like, oh, I'm going on date and I'm like, so do you date someone different tomorrow? Like I don't even understand guys out there married. You're like, oh, I'm going on date and I'm like, so, do you date someone different tomorrow? Like I don't even understand the concept of it. Why don't you just call it connection night or spending time with who I love or, you know, enhancing our relationship?
Speaker 2:And then one more thing there's trends and cycles, right? Kids like me and my wife talk about before kids and before. Focus on health, Before health, hamburger helper, baby. We're all in Big calisones, Like my wife and I say, if we ate like we ate 30 years ago, 40, we'd be dead today. But then you have kids, and that's another change. Then kids grow up, and that's another change. People don't take a minute, Corey, and say, hey, how is life going to be and how do I want it to be when our kids hit their 20s or something. So I hope that helps everybody that's listening a little bit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dude, that's great and that is great. I think that's great advice. You know, it's like when you go into a partnership in business but you don't talk about what happens when the partnership ends. Yeah, because people don't want to believe it's going to end. People don't want to believe their marriage could end or that kids move out, and I hear a lot of times that you know when kids move like, that's the main focus. A lot of the times when you have kids, that's the main focus, and then what do you have? When they move out, you don't really have anything to talk about, because that's been the main focus. So you know, I know you mentioned the date night thing. I think that's an interesting perspective. I don't know that I ever looked at date night that way, but, but it's completely fair what you said.
Speaker 1:So you know what, in terms of we're going to get into business stuff, I promise, in terms of spirituality, in terms of your, I'll say, my relationship with god, it was one of the things that we put first in this relationship that I am in now. We pray together, we talk about, we have extremely deep conversations and there were some things that I needed to make sure, not from a control standpoint. Just, I've done a lot of deep work on myself. Just, I've done a lot of deep work on myself and I've learned that you know, when you don't handle things from a previous relationship since that's what we're talking about here you drag that stuff into the next. And that could be also, I imagine, in business.
Speaker 1:If there's things that didn't go right in a business, that you didn't solve within yourself, you're probably going to drag that in to the next business. And so that's one of the things that we've done is we've gotten all that stuff out on the table and done work together, and one of those things is that we do believe in God and we pray together and we um, we and we put you know, we put our she's sober, so we put our sobriety first, which obviously obviously includes God. So, where you know, where did that spirituality or that that come into your relationship with life?
Speaker 2:I was. I was brought up a Christian and then through that journey, I watched my mom tell me hey, when we go to grandpa's house, tell him we went to church today. I'm like we didn't go to church. She's like just tell grandpa we went to church. I'm like, oh man. So that relationship seemed a little weird in the beginning. It was built on like, almost like shame and guilt. I went on a quest. I was a Buddhist for a decade. I spent three decades understanding energy, universe, healing and everything in between.
Speaker 2:And now me, I'm a universal being. I believe that there's God, I believe there's Jesus, I believe there's Buddha, I believe there's everything that's good and I am happy for, like, if there was an alien green man dropped here right now, I would be happy for whatever he is, long as he does good to the human race. Um, I don't do well with what I would call the dark side and evil people. I do think there's evil elements in the world. I do think there's people that are hurting people. Um, so I don't support. If somebody is like cynicism or something, I'm like, hey, we can't be friends, but you could be friends with whoever you want. I don't judge it as good or bad. I just judge it as I don't want it near me. So, but as for belief, I think for me in relationship for my wife, we never forced each other to believe in anything. We just invited each other to come in and visit what we see or what we think, and over time we've created a lot of universal alignment of how we think about things and do things, and so I do believe that some form of faith in people is important. I do tell people I like when people find I think if you don't have faith in yourself first, it's hard to have belief in anything else because you don't even have certainty in yourself, because you don't even have certainty in yourself. And so I like to look at it as not above or as a below, but as together.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because I do believe, and it's my belief, right, I believe whatever God or somebody believes in, I believe it's a journey together. It's not his or her job to tell you what to do and when to do, like the formula's there, and I think no matter what people if they read the Bible or Quran or anything, the formula's there. I think where we get in trouble with humans is they just don't. They want to keep hijacking the formula. So they're like well, you know what, let me justify.
Speaker 2:I guess I could do a little CBD and like I'm blown away today that we're puzzled in, especially the US. We are, we are confused by the massive amount of addiction, by the massive amount of legalization of stuff that causes addiction. Yeah, so I look at it as, whatever you believe in, it's not there not to tell you, do you? You're, you're supposed to support it together and also everybody listening. I'm not here to tell you to believe in what I believe or not believe it, and it doesn't even matter if you respect my opinion or not. I'm just sharing as open, as honest as I can.
Speaker 2:I do like one universal thing Every person I connect with if it's you or people listening or someone in Walgreens I just want to do my very best to leave them better after they met me and that's been one of my core beliefs for three decades is so I'm the guy that's walking down the street and see somebody upset and I'm the guy saying do you just need a friend? Like you need a hug, like what's happening? And most people they don't see that query, they they see the tattoos and they see the intensity and then and they don't think that that's there but, um, I'm that guy in Walgreens where you look really sick in the NyQuil aisle saying, are you good? And I love that about the people that do that, you know.
Speaker 1:So you mentioned energy and I think energy is, you know, a lot of people think that's a woo-woo thing, but if you know being in sales, being in, you know, being a business owner, you really have to learn, or you want to learn, how to transfer that good energy into people, and that's, in my opinion, that's really one of the only ways that you can help change people, and I guess is that you've transformed thousands of lives by this point. There has to be some of that belief in you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there is. Well, I've studied energy and here's what we know. Let's just talk about facts, about energy. This pen, okay, it appears solid, but we do know scientifically, looking under a microscope, a very intense. This thing is moving, but you don't realize it because it's solid. Sure, we also know that our minds I don't remember his name, but there was a Japanese guy and they looked at the molecular structure of water in a pond on the other side of earth and then they sat down a circle of people to focus intention on that pond across earth and the molecular structure of the cells changed. What does that tell you? Now, this is not woo woo. This is not the movie Avatar and Firebender and stuff. This is proven scientifically.
Speaker 2:When I started to learn about energy was from an instructor of mine that I trained with over 19 years and I watched him do things that well. First he was a master. I watched him cut a hornet out of the sky with a samurai sword. So like this is like you would think he was Mr Miyagi, but he was an American guy, school teacher during the day, but so tough and so focused. And when we started doing things and some of you can try this in some of our events we do. We do one called Seekers of Power, and if anybody knows about kinesiology, kinesiology is the ability of things that affect the body, and what we would do, corey, is I would have people, and some of you, test this out tonight with your kids or something Take a little sheet of paper and write a really negative word what you would look at like evil, bad devil, I don't care what it is and then write another word that's maybe God or faith, or light or happiness, Crumble them up, mix them up and put them in the hands, and in the hands you go to push down on each hand and you will push down on one that's weaker For a fact, all of you. You'll send Corey a message oh my goodness, this was an incredible podcast with Mike and you'll open it up and that word will be that negative word over and over again. I've even done it where I've had people take a can of Coca-Cola. So hey, everybody that loves Coca-Cola, don't send me hate Facebook messages, but they would take a can of Coca-Cola and you could try this later with your partner. You put a can of Coca-Cola or something that's made chemically, that's not organic Soca-cola, put your arm out, make it stiff and have your wife push on the end of your arm and feel how weak it is. Take the coca-cola, take an apple or something from earth, a plant, put it on your chest and let her put down on your arm. And then you'll send me a message and go holy crap, mike, I think we better have you come back again, because there's a lot more to talk about here, and that is the connection of energy. I'll give you one more.
Speaker 2:When we would do our events and I've done events with you know, I spoke in front of 3,000 people I would have somebody come up, do the same thing and look away from the crowd, so the person can't see the crowd. And I would tell the crowd, send thoughts of like, not nice, weak, weak, that person's weak, and it would just fatigue the person. And then I would say send strength. Now the person can't see nothing. So I would prove to the person who's the, you know, doesn't believe in anything. And then they would go holy mackerel, holy mackerel. If this is what's happening now, ready, corey.
Speaker 2:The man's body man and female body is about 65 to 75% water. Okay, stick with me here, corey. 60 to 70% water If your thoughts change the molecular structure of water from either looking like a beautiful snowflake or looking like sludge and inside your mind you go to bed. Life is horrible or guilt and shame. I used to drink, I used to smoke.
Speaker 2:What do you think you're doing to your internal body? I just had a client the other day. He said to me the doctors can't find what's going on. What do you think you're doing to your internal body? I just had a client the other day. He said to me the doctors can't find what's going on. I said, okay, just answer me one question and that's all I need. Are you dealing internally with any shames, guilts or traumas? And he goes I have so much trauma. I said they're never gonna find it. You're gonna have to find it and we going to have to redefine, remove, replace or do something. And every single time we've done this, corey, the doctors go. I don't know what it was. Of course you don't know because you're not focusing on what the internal mind is physically doing.
Speaker 2:If you tell your body have you ever said this, corey? Have you ever had anybody say body? Have you ever said this, corey? Have you ever had anybody say I always ask crowds this have who's lost weight. So everybody listening ready, who lost weight before? Raise your hands. Okay, so let's pretend, corey, we see all of them listening. They're raising their hands. How many of you gained it back more with a vengeance? Tell your mind you lost something. Your mind will do everything in its power to find it and not let you fail. So your mind goes oh my goodness, you lost it. Let me give it to you. They don't change their eating, they don't change their habits and they put on weight. So, cory, obesity, obesity, obesity. Somebody tells me I tried everything Atkins, keto. I keep, I keep gaining obesity.
Speaker 2:I said, okay, how grounded are you in your life, your relationship, your health? And they're saying life has been bad my whole life. I said, well, your body is stacking weight on you to ground you to the earth because it feels you're all over the place. Let's fix that. And all of a sudden I tell you, time after decade, after decade, they fix that. And all of a sudden they say I can't believe it, I'm doing nothing different, and weights come off. I said that's right, because you no longer need to be grounded. You're internally grounded, you don't need external grounding. So I'm throwing a lot at people here and they might say, might sniff in you know unicorns butts or something. But I got over three decades of proving this over and, over and over again.
Speaker 1:I agree, I 100 percent agree with you If I would have stayed in. I look at myself as a sober alcoholic, not as a broken individual. I understand exactly what you're saying. I think really a lot of this too comes down to being present. This has been a really big thing in my life. You know, I'm 46 years old and I don't know that I have been present in my life up until this past year, my life up until this past year. I always live in the past, which is damaging, or always live in the future. What's coming, which you know. Does it normally come the way we want it? Not for me.
Speaker 1:And being present in this conversation with you, being present in whatever it is I'm doing where my two feet are, has really showed me how good life can be. I'm not missing anything, or I'm not missing as much. We'll just say that it doesn't really do any good to live in the past or live in the mirror saying I'm fat or whatever we say to ourselves, because we'll just be honest. I mean, if you're saying all that stuff to yourself, likely it's, it's going to be true, and if it's not already it will be. You know, our internal dialogue is a nightmare. If you let it, it's also can solve so many things because you have a choice. You don't have to choose to say I'm an idiot or I'm fat, or fill in the blank. You could just make a choice to say you're happy and good and you know like what do you have to lose? It's a choice, that's it.
Speaker 2:You know, corey, the thing about choices. And let me give a quick for everybody here, without getting too deep. There's, there's three key parts. There's what we call the conscious mind. That's, that's you, they're listening. It's the subconscious, it's the program. So just everybody knows, in case you haven't heard this before, every single thing that's happened to you, everything you heard, taste, touch, felt, you were hit as a kid or you were complimented, it's all in the CD player in your mind. You're referencing. Everybody listening is referencing everything they're hearing. Against that past mind. Then there's the superconscious. The superconscious is this energy field. You could only move into your future at the level of the programming of your past. I'll give a supermodel. Somebody tells me they're always struggling with money and I tell them a story. When I was a kid, corey, I was walking down the road and it might've been a nickel, and I found a nickel. And I was a little boy and I went mommy, mommy, look, I found a nickel. And she said oh, that's so good, michael, now go wash your hands, because money is dirty.
Speaker 2:Now everybody listening probably doesn't believe. Well, wait, what did you tell your kids last week when they counted their birthday money? Did you tell them go wash your hands? With the interpretation money's dirty. But you think as you're an adult now you're 30, 40, 50, it went away. No, no, no, no. It's still in your mind. Program that money is dirty.
Speaker 2:Until you go back in your mind, you could try being as positive as you want and even that. Look, let's break some things apart here. There's no right and wrong, there's no good and bad and there's no positive and negative. Every time I see someone that says I'm always positive, I said, well, we better find a way to make you negative fast, because you're going to be out of balance. It's called homeostasis. Homeostasis is all of a sudden and maybe you got business owners, you just got a big job and on the way home a flat tire and you're mad at the flat tire when you should say thank you, I'm balanced. My wife says it all the time. She's like they said so many good things about you. I'm going to have to balance you out. She laughs at me. I'll balance myself out.
Speaker 2:We don't have to argue. We don't have to argue tonight or anything. So if everybody I want everybody to write this down. I'm serious. If you're driving, pull over a minute and grab a pen. I want you to ask a question Is that true, what you're thinking? Is it true? Do you want it to be true? Do you still want it to be true? And a lot of us, we have a truth that's from 50 years ago and you're still. You haven't stopped a minute and say wait, do I still want that to be true? So that's one thing I'm going to do.
Speaker 2:The second thing is what I would call a neutralizing practice. It's one of the best neutralizing practices I've ever found, especially because I've worked with majority men. So divorce is a pretty common thing that I've experienced. And after 30 years, somebody would say, yeah, well, you know I was divorced and I was like oh my goodness, they made it sound like it was last week. I'm like when was it? They're like 30 years ago and I'm like you're still carrying it Like it was.
Speaker 2:Yesterday I said tell me all the benefits that happened from this divorce. And they're like what do you mean? I paid alimony and I was broke and I lost my business. I said, okay, so I hear all the bad things. You can't find one good thing. And I look at them. I go so your new wife? She's horrible, she's bad, she's no good. You're going to get rid of her. It doesn't work. No, she's a gift from heaven.
Speaker 2:They say I said okay, so you mean that divorce you had brought you a gift from heaven and all of a sudden it starts to click. So I say, well, what else was good? And then what else was good? Until we get a point where there's no more goods or no more bads it's equal where they actually will start to cry and go oh, my goodness, that divorce was one of the greatest gifts of my life.
Speaker 2:And when you find that you no longer need, you don't need I'm not saying people to stop, but you won't need three decades of therapy, you won't need medications, you won't need to sedate this stuff no more, because you'll neutralize it. And you will find, like you said, your feet are on the ground and you could have bliss in this conversation. Right, I'm here not because I have to, because this is nothing better in the world. I would rather have than connect with you in hopes of someone else gets a connection, and they just change. Sometimes I'm on podcasts. They go okay. Well, how can I help your business? I'm like, look, I'll help the world. The world will end up helping my business. It will just happen. It's just a byproduct of everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, I totally agree with you. It's a realist perspective of you know, whatever happens in your life and whatever perspective you take, you know it's a game changer. You know, and I know when people I'm sure people that are listening to this are probably not in great marriages or probably not in great relationships and probably feels like this is the only choice, for whatever reason, maybe they're, you know, as kids, their parents told them you shouldn't get divorced, whatever the whole, the CD that's playing, whatever that is. But you can break that, I believe. But you got to do, you know, you got to look in the mirror. You got to really look at, as you mentioned earlier, you got to look at the facts. What are the facts about this situation?
Speaker 1:Well, you know, if you break it down, you know I have a whole list of reasons why I should not have been in that marriage and I am grateful for those things because I know what I don't want and I know what I do want and I know what I'll you know what I'll, you know, agree to what I want.
Speaker 1:I mean, it's really a framework at this point for me to live a better life and I would never have seen that if I didn't have bad experiences. I say bad experiences learning lessons really is what it was Probably felt like bad experiences at the time, but the truth of the matter is is I've always made it out of those things and you know not I guess not everybody does, and not for whatever reason but I've just always believed that there was something on the other side and I always believed in myself enough that I just knew that I was destined for for bigger things, yeah, and I still knew that I was destined for for bigger things, yeah, and I still believe that. Um, I just I don't know. I don't know where I got that thought. I don't know where I got that belief because you know, uh, my parents weren't super successful. They got a divorce, like. I don't really have the framework to be able to think that way, but for whatever reason I've, I've always felt that way and it's always seemed to work out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I didn't talk to my when I was a young kid, from the age of 15 to 24, I didn't talk to my mom, so I lost, you know, she lost a big part of my life there and I lost a part of hers. And then, after about 24, my wife says you know, and you got to talk to your mom eventually, like you're just never going to, you're going to carry it. And then these conversations sometimes are tough. And then my dad you know, my dad did things to me for years and I just couldn't understand it. And then one day and maybe some of you listening will consider this I reached out to my dad and I said dad, I want to tell you something. You have been the very best dad for me. You showed me things I wanted to be and things I didn't want to be, and for some of you listening, I'll share this. It could be a little touching for some of you. So maybe buckle up for a minute. And when my dad passed in November, and probably a couple of weeks before he passed, he grabbed my hand and there's going to be a big lesson in this and he said you know, son, I'm really proud of you. And I said well, dad, that's, that's really nice, Thank you for that. But I want to let you know something. I've been really proud of myself for a long time and he just looked at me in a way of like, like his son has given him a gift, like he's given he didn't. He didn't. I didn't need my dad's pride, I needed my own pride, and he just like. It was such a magical moment because I knew over the years that's what I needed to find. I needed to stop questing other people to be proud of me and to acknowledge me and the significance. I needed to find the inner part of myself where I wake up in the morning and go you did your best yesterday. Well, first off, every night I go to bed right before bed. You did your best yesterday. Well, first off, every night I go to bed right before bed.
Speaker 2:I do gratitude, but I do it different than a lot of people. I'm very grateful for everything that worked out well and I'm equally grateful for everything that didn't. And I think people that do gratitude it's a lot of one-sided I'm thankful for this cup, I'm thankful for this food, I'm thankful for the car, but they never say well, I'm thankful for this cup, I'm thankful for this food, I'm thankful for the car, but they never say well, I'm thankful for the argument and I'm thankful for the money that I lost, and so I balance it out. And then I make one commitment. I go hey, universe, let me wake up tomorrow, and I promise I won't waste the day and I'll do everything I can to change as many lives as possible.
Speaker 2:When I wake up in the morning, I smile. Every morning I'm like here we go, baby, one more day, let's do it. And then I go on Facebook. Right after that I start scrolling on Facebook, but I acknowledge that. You know, wow, this is an opportunity, and years ago I picked it up from somebody. They said the day you stop living for things and start living for the experience, everything will change. So probably for the last two decades I lived for the experience of the day, not the material thing of the day.
Speaker 1:Well, you know, you really opened my eyes to something with that story. I do a gratitude list every morning, I send it to about 25 people and I'm I don't know. I don't think that I recognize when something goes sideways, so to speak. I don't know that I voice in that message the gratitude for those things. But I understand exactly why you do it. It makes complete sense because on the other side of that is going to be something likely better or less than if you're paying attention, I guess and there's always something to learn, whether it's a good thing you're grateful for, whether it's a bad thing you're grateful for. But I think you, you really open my eyes to being able to recognize those, the things that do happen, that that are not, you know, the greatest.
Speaker 2:That's why I wrote one of my last books. I come out with probably four books in the last year, but one of them that's really been impacting a lot of people. Matter of fact, this book, it's called Mind Growth. It actually I sent it to a homeless person and they ended up in a shelter, ended up turning their life around and teaching other people to help them which, by the way, anybody listening. If you have any places where there's veterans or shelters or people down on their luck, please reach out to me. I will ship them this book, I will pay for shipping and if it's a group of people, I will talk to them for free to help them.
Speaker 2:And what I found out? I wrote the book because my whole life everybody was telling me, corey, it's all about mindset. Now, my dad was a Mason, so you know, I was brought up carrying bricks and mixing cement and one day I was thinking I always ask my question that I shared with everybody what if? Like, what if? That's not true anymore? And do I want that to be true? And I'm like wait, mindset means like if I poured concrete in my mind it's set, it doesn't expand, it doesn't change. I don't believe people want mindset. They want mind growth. They're listening to this because they don't want to stay stuck. They're listening to this because they don't want to stay stuck. They're listening to this because they want to grow.
Speaker 2:And in that book I talk about a whole lot of concepts about you know, thoughts and and how they create things. And it's a very it's a workable book. So you could go through it and take it, and I'm everybody. I am not selling you this book, please. If if you're in a bad place and you can't go on Amazon, I will ship it to you or give you a digital version if you're in Australia and Canada, because it's more of a pain to ship there. So, please understand, I'm not here to sell you a book. What I am here is to sell you on this concept of what you want every day is mind growth and that we don't have to look at this. I'm aging into a hole we can put. Longevity is something created and right now it's. I'm going to share it about me, but it's possible for everybody.
Speaker 2:You know I did this thing where it's called the inside tracker. I'm a big believer and I've been doing it for six years probably, where they come to our house twice a year, my wife. They take our blood and they run all these biomarkers because the doctors have their. Like you're within reason and like within reason and within your eyeball. Falling out is like a sixteenth of an inch and I don't like that. And they give you your inner age and it was probably when I was this is probably four or five years ago I took the blood test. I think I'm doing great and my inner I'm aging by a decade. And I look at this thing and go are you kidding me? So maybe I was 46 and it said I was 56. I'm like this got to change and then I really started to focus on OK, this is a longevity game, and now I'm beating it by a decade. So what that proves to me is that you can reverse every single thing that you're dealing with. And I believe you could remove, because I've watched it over decades. I don't care if it's a tumor, a disease. I have watched not miracles, magic happen when people are committed that I can heal myself.
Speaker 2:Just a year and a half ago, if we got time for one quick story a year and a half ago, a client of mine called me up. He goes I just went for a stress test. He says A client of mine called me up. He goes I just went for a stress test. He says they're panicking. I got to get in the hospital. They said every valve is clogged, you could possibly die. And he goes we got to go in. They got to shoot up. They got to check everything. Try to clear things out. You're a walking time bomb. So I simply said to him is that what you want? And he goes no, I don't want that. I said well, can you change it? And he goes yeah. So I ran him through some mind process. I said here's what you're going to do this, this, this and this, some stuff I've learned over decades with the mind. He goes okay, but he still hasn't. He's been in my year, my life, seven years.
Speaker 2:I said look, do you believe you can heal yourself and change it? And he gets certain yes, I can. I said OK, here's what's going to happen. You do this, you're going to go in tomorrow. They're going to do this test. You're going to wake up, doctor's going to come and look at the results and they're going to go. We're sorry, we were completely wrong, the tests were all wrong. And you're going to look at them and go. The tests weren't wrong. I had a different plan. So I said when you go tomorrow, you don't tell people you're going to the hospital, you tell them you're going for a healing session. When you think of hospital, you think of death and consequence and hurt. You never think of babies being born, which is amazing. So I said you're going for a healing session. He says OK, so call me before you go in. He reaches out to me. I said you're good. He goes, I'm all good.
Speaker 2:Goes into the test, wakes up Doctor, comes in and says they were wrong, the test is wrong. The guy says the test shows everything. Clyde goes. He said exactly. He said the test wasn't wrong. I had a different decision that I wanted. They never. They never experienced anything like it. Every blockage is gone. That's in a matter of 24 hours and I'm not promising this for anybody on here and I'm not telling you to stop what you're doing. Check in with all your you know, prescription, medical doctors and stuff.
Speaker 2:But what I am saying is that mind not only controls a thing, it controls everything. So I hope that maybe, maybe wakens up some people or gives them a little bit of you know and it look mind, body and spirit. If the mind is broken, well, the body's going to break and then you end up putting the I don't drink Starbucks but you put the mocha locas and stuff in you which then hijacks the mind more and then your spirit, which is your energy field and your field. Like, if you just want to fix things, just start focusing on the mind, the body and the spirit, you don't have to go.
Speaker 2:I watched a lot of people in the gym, ripped with muscles, die at 30 years old and I've watched a lot of people, really big and obese, live until they're 100. But if you optimize those three together, oh man, business is easy. Corey, we could do another one about business because if you get the 80% of life dialed in, the 20% that you do in business will expand. That's how I did 500 million was I kept optimizing myself and it made me make all the decisions on marketing and sales and operations and financial excellence and all that stuff.
Speaker 1:Dude, this has been. I mean this, you know, I really didn't know what to expect today, but this has been. But this has been just a really different conversation. So I do have one question for you Do you use any biohacking? I know you mentioned ice bath, which I do. Do an ice bath every day. I think it's amazing. I love it. I do get up early. But also, what I found is that my story was that I wake up at 3 am and my story has changed a bit because what I realized is that story was somehow feeding part of my ego, feeding part of my ego and I'm just killing myself to live the story that I kept telling myself. That wasn't the question. I don't know why. I just said all that, but you get, I'm sure you get what I'm saying is the stories we tell ourselves are. You know, we wind up living those things out. So, biohacking, do you do any biohacking in terms of, like peptides or anything? You mentioned longevity?
Speaker 2:I'll share. Look, I was trained in a lot of types of martial arts. One of them was called, you know, I trained in the practices of Yama Bushi, which were these ninjutsu warriors. Which were these ninjutsu warriors? So you know, for 20 years we would go train barefoot in, like gi tops and nothing on, and 30 degrees and two foot of snow and melt ice around us. I've also done exercises in groups where we will take an ice cube and, with our intentions, we will just melt the ice cube in sometimes seconds, from a solid to liquid, and we'll take a solid piece of, go in our draw and take a spoon or a hard fork you can't bend and make it so pliable and turn it into a pretzel.
Speaker 2:I think all of those things the ice baths, the meditations, the let's face it, a lot of people meditate. Meditation is nothing more than than creating space to either create a new decision or find a decision. You don't know and I don't care if it's through chanting or mountains, or yogas, or I've done, I've done every one of these over the years. Here's what I do today. I have things that I like. I have a coin, I have these elements that I use as intentional focus. So, like in this pocket, you know, I have this two ounces of silver, and I pick it up and I make an intention on it. And I pick it up and I make an intention on it. So, to give you my biohacking, I've learned that I can raise my metabolism and slow it without ice. I can create energy at will and I found out that the more the phrases everything's within you now, but most people don't understand that. So no, I don't do anything else except use my mind and I do clear myself. I clear my energy field daily, which means I have a practice where, because people bathe their body but they don't do anything for their energy and energy sticks to energy fields. So I do do things like shielding, where I'll block my energy so only good things come in and and not evil things.
Speaker 2:But I don't use anything. Well, I use an aura ring to give me indicators, but I don't use anything. Well, I use an Oura ring to give me indicators. I use that, but I drink a basic protein with nothing in it. It's like just pure beef protein, and I'm not against that. I do a vitamin IV or before I travel long distance, but I don't do anything else. A lot of this. I also don't.
Speaker 2:A lot of people do these. Certain they'll put these frequency things in these eye things for frequency and they tell you what the frequency does. But I promise everybody listening, whatever frequency you need, you can do it without a patch, without an eye. I tested these grounding pads and I just found out like you can ground yourself. They seem good for the average person, but as you advance and enhance, you just don't need enough. Man, I just spent so much trying them all and in the end I come back to I have more energy, power, focus. Like, let's face it, you spoke about God like there's no bigger tool, no bigger energy field, no bigger connection. There's nothing else you need when you tap into it and you align with it. So that's my things about biohacking and Dave Asprey and the biohacking people. They don't love my talk about it because I do make intentions.
Speaker 2:Here's a little tip for everybody If the body is 65% to 70% water and I'm drinking water and I charge that water myself and see, that's the only thing when people do their prayers and I don't pray over my food, I do my gratitude at night. So I'm not like I don't say, like my grandfather, I'm thankful for this meal we're going to eat. What I do is I neutralize any negative effects from the food, any negative or ill feelings attached to the food, because I'm eating chicken man For all I's anything attached to it. Negative feelings, harm, horror through the processing as a food. Please remove it. Please send you know, grace and love to where the food came from, to that being, and I do that type of stuff.
Speaker 1:So that's pretty cool and that that makes again. That makes complete sense, do you?
Speaker 2:is it safe to assume? You probably ground in the grass. Look, I live at the beach of the oceans right there. But okay, I want to give you guys some visuals. Here we are on a ball. As far as we know, is truth which looks that way, floating in space. So when we say we're grounding, we're really looking to ground to a ball. But, understanding the conversation, that what you think grounding is, I don't ground to a ball. I ground within the field of all energy that there is. Right now, we think everything's solid and we think, like this is space and nothing's there, right, so I can ground right through shoes, rubber soles through, like boom, I just ground right now, like that. But for people who need to get to that point, yeah, it's good, bury your feet in the grass, get your feet in the ocean, in the sand, it won't hurt, it will help. I just want to give everybody that there is a level of evolution. I mean, look, the dalai lama, this guy's pretty incredible.
Speaker 2:Um, I watched him come on stage one day and we went to see him. This is 30 years ago, cory, and we were in new him. This is 30 years ago, corey, and we were in New Jersey and it is pouring rain I mean it is thunder, dark, raining umbrellas and I say, ok, the Dalai Lama is going to walk out now and I will tell you that this guy opens up, it becomes blue all the way around and I sit there and go are you effing, kidding me? This guy comes and, like sun, comes through, he talks for hours. I'm looking at my wife going have you ever? I mean it was like stop. He did. His smile, happy little Buddhist smile, walked off stage, the sky closed and rain came down and I. That's when I knew holy mackerel.
Speaker 2:There is a connection to beings and it's not about him. Every single person here listening has the ability to be great, to be magnificent, to enhance other people's lives, to help people heal and help people live happier and love more. Everybody has the gift right, because if you look at it like we're connected to the whole, you're not this and that, you're all of it, but people. They're so framed and today, with Netflix series and everything else, we're getting so jacked up especially the younger generation on what they think is true and possible. So I know I give you longer answers, but I don't want to give you shallow, because it's within the depth, that one person gets a new spark and goes.
Speaker 2:You know what? I'm going to watch? Corey's this. I'm going to watch this one again. I can't watch. Wait to watch who Corey is next and I. They're going to feel I don't want motivation here. Wait to watch who Corey is next and they're going to feel I don't want motivation here. Everybody motivation goes away If you just got one new glimpse of transformation today. That's what my hopes are for anybody listening and for you, corey, and for myself. I had transformation just by speaking to you today. That's what we want from the world as a whole.
Speaker 1:So I got to go back for just a second with the grounding. When I asked that question again, I said I assume, but then you pointed out it really doesn't matter how, it really doesn't matter if you have shoes on. So as I sit here and think about what you just said me, being me standing in the grass is just a belief that I need to stand in the grass to become neutral.
Speaker 2:It's all it is right, because your shoes are, are your shoes are energy and it's moving at a rate of speed. You think it's a solid, which means if it's an energy, you're all connected to everything you're. You're never disconnected from anything because we forget we're on a ball floating in space and that space is a field and we don't know the beginning and the end of it. Right, it's the same thing about God you know it exists, but you have not shaken his hand or her hand or its hand. But you felt it. Yeah, so it's at such a and we give it a word because it's beyond really comprehension. So if you could get back to grounding, like what are you grounding? On a ball spinning in space, you're right. So you just lift up your hands and you are grounded to existence.
Speaker 2:It's also the theory like I don't believe people die. I believe bodies die and consciousness moves on. If you want to believe, you go to heaven or wherever you go, but I'm a believer. Your consciousness came from somewhere, moves to somewhere and it's, it's so powerful. And when you connect like this to people everybody here can relate to being at a party or a wedding or something and then looking that way and someone walks in and you go. Oh, my goodness, you felt that force. Of you also felt when someone came in and the energy rots.
Speaker 1:That's right.
Speaker 2:So when everybody starts to dig into this, you start to find out that the widget that everybody's doing may not be needed. What's needed is a higher evolution of learning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I do 100%.
Speaker 2:Lord, have mercy A higher evolution of learning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I do 100%. Lord have mercy. Yeah, we certainly have to do another show and I would encourage people to go back and listen to this again. I mean, this has just been a next level conversation that I just didn't anticipate, so I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you. Thank you for inviting me. This has been an honor and welcome me back, and we could just do a whole section on more of this or business and any way I could serve anybody. I did not want this to be a drive-by. I'm sure Corey will give you links or anything. Find me on social media, say hello and if I can serve in any way, just know you're never alone in the darkness. Like just reach out and like I'll be glad I answer all my Facebook messages, everybody. So you know it's not a bot, it's not some cool AI thing. I'm not that cool. I respect you too much. It'll be me responding to you, so I appreciate that.
Speaker 1:Where can people find you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Facebook's really good. You can just look up my name there. Make sure it's me. You'll see me with the tattoos. Fooddoggroupcom is really a great place and we also have fooddogstorecom, so if you go on there, there's some free products and different things you could look at. And if anybody's out there just intrigued, reach out to a team team at fooddoggroupcom and say, hey, I'd love to set up a time to either speak to me or one of our team or anything. But I'm easy to find them everywhere and my life is an open book. You'll see it all over social media.
Speaker 1:Speaking of book, can you tell us the name of the book that you just wrote? You mentioned it earlier. Can you read yeah?
Speaker 2:Mind, growth.
Speaker 1:Mind, growth.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really great. And if you want, corey, if you send me an email, I'll send a link where they actually can get the digital version for free. They just give their email, it'll get free if anybody wants it, and I can send you a couple other links of some things we got going on, if it serves people.