Latest / The Daily Writer / Cultivating Unconditional Self-Love with Tommy Breedlove, Business Coach
Transcript
- 0:07SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Writer.
- 0:10SPEAKER_00: Each weekday, we bring you a short lesson that helps you live out the four practices of a great writer: creativity, consistency, courage, and connection.
- 0:19SPEAKER_00: Here on the weekend edition, we take a deeper dive into those topics through conversations with notable writers, as well as teaching that helps apply what we're learning.
- 0:28SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
- 0:34SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm going to just dive right in and tell you that today's episode is going to be a little bit different.
- 0:39SPEAKER_00: You know, usually on this show we talk about writing-related topics like marketing, publishing, writing habits, and so forth.
- 0:46SPEAKER_00: But today we're going to hit on a group of topics focused on loving and accepting yourself.
- 0:52SPEAKER_00: Now, before you assume that this is going to be all woo-woo and just kind of out there, here's why we're doing this.
- 0:58SPEAKER_00: A huge part of your success in writing and in life comes down to your mindset, and it all begins with how you see yourself.
- 1:06SPEAKER_00: Have you ever heard of the phrase tortured artists?
- 1:09SPEAKER_00: Well, when you're a tortured artist, that means you have a mindset where you just loathe and hate yourself all the time.
- 1:16SPEAKER_00: And a lot of creative types and a lot of artists and writers have that kind of a tortured artist mindset.
- 1:22SPEAKER_00: They spend a lot of time and energy trying to punish themselves for being flawed, imperfect, and making mistakes.
- 1:29SPEAKER_00: So today's episode is much deeper than just strategies for writing and publishing.
- 1:34SPEAKER_00: And I love all that stuff.
- 1:35SPEAKER_00: And we spend the bulk of our time here on this podcast talking about those kinds of things.
- 1:40SPEAKER_00: But I want to go deeper today into the core of who we are and what we're about and how we see ourselves.
- 1:46SPEAKER_00: And it really goes to the core of who we are as individuals, of who we are as people.
- 1:51SPEAKER_00: And I cannot think of anybody better to help walk us through this topic than my friend Tommy Breedlove.
- 1:57SPEAKER_00: Tommy is the author of the Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling book, Legendary, a simple playbook for building and living a legendary life and being remembered as a legend.
- 2:09SPEAKER_00: Tommy's purpose in life is to guide ambitious people to become more successful and confident spouses, parents, and leaders in their businesses and communities.
- 2:18SPEAKER_00: And Tommy is not only a success relationship and mindset coach, he's also a regular featured keynote speaker at global events.
- 2:28SPEAKER_00: Tommy started his 20-year corporate career at one of the largest financial consulting firms in the world.
- 2:33SPEAKER_00: And eventually he became a shareholder as well as the international practice leader and a member of the board of directors for one of the largest public accounting and financial firms in the Southeast U.S.
- 2:45SPEAKER_00: At the top of his career, Tommy experienced a transformational moment that inspired him to walk away from the corporate world and to follow his true calling of rescuing ambitious people from themselves, just like he did for himself.
- 2:58SPEAKER_00: And Tommy now serves clients and audiences everywhere by empowering them to build and live legendary lives.
- 3:06SPEAKER_00: Well, as you can see, that's a pretty cool bio.
- 3:07SPEAKER_00: And Tommy is an awesome guy, and I'm so excited to share this conversation with you.
- 3:14SPEAKER_00: I want you to become legendary, not just for your own sake, but for the sake of the people that you can help.
- 3:20SPEAKER_00: This is not about us.
- 3:22SPEAKER_00: It's about other people that we can serve and that we can help.
- 3:25SPEAKER_00: But in order to do that, we have to be at peace with ourselves.
- 3:29SPEAKER_00: We have to be in the right state of mind in order in order for us to create, to live, to write, and to work on the correct level.
- 3:39SPEAKER_00: So in this conversation, Tommy and I discussed the importance of taking action, of cultivating unconditional self-love, and of being generous.
- 3:47SPEAKER_00: This conversation really had a big impact on me, and I think it will do the same for you also.
- 3:52SPEAKER_00: So let's get right into the conversation with Tommy Breedlove.
- 3:56SPEAKER_00: Tommy, welcome to the Daily Writer Podcast.
- 4:00SPEAKER_00: I'm so thrilled that you were able to uh do this and I appreciate it.
- 4:03SPEAKER_00: And it is a complete honor.
- 4:04SPEAKER_01: Uh Kent, it's my honor.
- 4:06SPEAKER_01: I'm humbled to be here, brother.
- 4:07SPEAKER_01: I've enjoyed the short friendship and uh the continued journey together, man.
- 4:11SPEAKER_01: So I am so grateful to have you as well.
- 4:14SPEAKER_00: Well, I am um thrilled to be able to talk about your book Legendary today, as well as some stuff that comes out of that.
- 4:20SPEAKER_00: Of course, this is really a podcast um about habits and mindset, but honestly, it's also a podcast for geeks who love books, which I am on a mission to help the world to love books and uh I love geeking out of her books and stuff.
- 4:35SPEAKER_00: So let's start out with a question about your book, which is called Legendary, a simple playbook for building and living a legendary life and being remembered as a legend.
- 4:45SPEAKER_00: How would you say that writing and releasing this book has helped you to impact people and expand your influence in ways that you wouldn't have been able to otherwise?
- 4:55SPEAKER_01: What a great question.
- 4:57SPEAKER_01: Um I can't begin to tell you how much this book has done for my movement, um, for the men I represent, but also the opportunities to get me on stages to, and I'm talking virtual online, and when they're happening, live stages.
- 5:14SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, I am a recovering perfectionist, Kent.
- 5:17SPEAKER_01: So this is very difficult for me to say, is I am very proud of the book too.
- 5:21SPEAKER_01: I didn't write the, I didn't want to write a brochure, and that's not in a knock on anyone who does.
- 5:25SPEAKER_01: It is just I wanted to write something that had my blood, heart, and soul.
- 5:30SPEAKER_01: And for me to say that I'm proud of the book, I think it's a generational book that will live much longer than me.
- 5:36SPEAKER_01: So it leaves a lasting legacy, which is a piece of being legendary.
- 5:40SPEAKER_01: And so from credibility to really honing in my craft to designing online uh supporting products, because each one of these chapters in legendary, you should see the cutting room floor.
- 5:52SPEAKER_01: It's quite extensive because I was trying to get 47 years of knowledge and wisdom and all the things that have been gratefully bestowed upon me by so many great others and books into one work.
- 6:03SPEAKER_01: It just didn't work that way.
- 6:04SPEAKER_01: And so what it also allows me to do is it's the building blocks for either 10 more books or everything from digital material to courses to keynotes and everything in between.
- 6:13SPEAKER_01: But from credibility to, I don't know if it's a result of the book, but it's a direct correlation is in 2020 my business doubled.
- 6:21SPEAKER_01: Um, and you know, I was nervous because I wasn't I was going to move myself out of masterminds and coaching and just go on the circuit, you know, for the book and to be on other people's stages and shows.
- 6:32SPEAKER_01: And um, when 20 as a result of the book and the commercial success it has, it allowed me to rebuild um my mastermind programs, my one-on-one coaching programs, my group coach, and now my my conferences and retreats.
- 6:45SPEAKER_01: So I'm very, very thankful for the book, brother.
- 6:48SPEAKER_00: That is awesome.
- 6:49SPEAKER_00: That's so awesome.
- 6:50SPEAKER_00: Well, I love that you mentioned doing something that has longevity to it.
- 6:53SPEAKER_00: Just last night, I was reading, I know we have a mutual admiration for Ryan Holiday and all his his works and books.
- 6:59SPEAKER_00: So I was reading his book, Perennial Cellar, actually rereading it.
- 7:02SPEAKER_00: And I'm curious, as you were crafting the book and deciding what to put in it, what to leave out.
- 7:08SPEAKER_00: How did you think about that process in terms of, okay, this is something that I think in 10 or 20 years is going to still impact people?
- 7:16SPEAKER_00: Here's a story, or here's some ideas that maybe are relevant right now, but maybe in 20 years they won't be.
- 7:21SPEAKER_00: Is that a thought that you had in your mind frequently as you were crafting this book?
- 7:26SPEAKER_01: Not until the very end.
- 7:27SPEAKER_01: And that's when the book came together, and that's where I felt like it had blood.
- 7:31SPEAKER_01: And when I talk about a book having blood, that's heart and soul.
- 7:35SPEAKER_01: That's where the the what I believed in, where I was going, and what I wanted to stand for came came to fruition.
- 7:40SPEAKER_01: But the truth is, Kent, that this book was three years in the making.
- 7:44SPEAKER_01: And for years and years, me, the team, the ghostwriters, the publisher, the editors, um, we kept trying to put a force, a piece of work out there because people were telling me to write a book because I had a somewhat interesting background and story.
- 7:58SPEAKER_01: But it never felt authentic to me.
- 8:00SPEAKER_01: It never felt like it had the right why behind it.
- 8:04SPEAKER_01: And I'm just gonna be very honest.
- 8:06SPEAKER_01: Um, we were right at the end of the publishing deadline.
- 8:08SPEAKER_01: We, the publishers were tired of me, the editors were tired of me, the ghostwriting, and I wrote almost all the book, but the ghostwriters made it so much better in so many different ways.
- 8:19SPEAKER_01: But um, I I don't know if you're familiar with the movie Jerry Maguire, but I I sent the Jerry, I sent the Jerry Maguire an email saying, it's done, we're done, I'm done.
- 8:29SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry I wasted your time.
- 8:30SPEAKER_01: This book is no good.
- 8:32SPEAKER_01: And um my wife was in Chicago, and um not I'm not advocating this, but uh I might or might not had uh a little bit of bourbon that night because I was so sad, so upset.
- 8:44SPEAKER_01: And I'm not one of those people that goes and drinks alone.
- 8:48SPEAKER_01: And uh, but you know, between the cuss words and the crying and the woe is me and getting down on myself, it hit me in that very moment, brother, that write the book that saved your life at 36.
- 9:02SPEAKER_01: Write the book that the that 36-year-old Tommy needed.
- 9:06SPEAKER_01: And and I'm not kidding, it was a divine moment for me, is the chapters just appeared and they appeared in the right order.
- 9:15SPEAKER_01: And so I sent a second email.
- 9:17SPEAKER_01: Um, hopefully it was clear.
- 9:20SPEAKER_01: And uh luckily I got all of those people on a call the next day, a Zoom call the next day, and said, here's the outline.
- 9:27SPEAKER_01: Can I have another three months to finish it?
- 9:29SPEAKER_01: And they were like, This is awesome.
- 9:31SPEAKER_01: Yes.
- 9:33SPEAKER_01: And the reason I believe it's gender, I think certain things you and I are big fans of Ryan Holiday, and the stuff that um the Bible talks about, the Stoics talk about, the Buddhists talk about, and they're talking about thousands and thousands of thousands of years ago.
- 9:47SPEAKER_01: Mindset, self-confidence, gratitude, affirmations, living in the present moment, uh, honoring friendships and relationships with others, and let the monetary and things and the shiny objects be what they are.
- 10:00SPEAKER_01: But this is what truly living life is.
- 10:03SPEAKER_01: You know, living life with purpose, meaning significance, and building a legacy.
- 10:06SPEAKER_01: That's the book we wrote.
- 10:08SPEAKER_01: And the chapters in it, from reconquering your time to finding purpose to building your network to mastering your mindset, to unconditional love and respect for yourself, to intimate relationships and everything in between.
- 10:19SPEAKER_01: I think it's a timeless book.
- 10:20SPEAKER_01: And um, I think there's so many timeless books out there, Delek Stoic being one of them that you and I both enjoy.
- 10:27SPEAKER_01: And so I believe that whoever picks this up in whatever time frame it is, it I think it will be very applicable in their lives.
- 10:35SPEAKER_01: And, you know, a lot of the books like this genre, um, it's just the way they're said, how they're said, and the flavor that they bring to it.
- 10:43SPEAKER_01: And I was really comfortable at the end of it that the blood, the soul, the heart, the book that would have really helped me when I was super struggling in life.
- 10:51SPEAKER_01: I've had two mega struggles in my life, and at 36 was one of them.
- 10:55SPEAKER_01: And that this book, if I would have been open to it and able to hear it and able to read it, that this book would have really transformed my life.
- 11:02SPEAKER_01: And that's how it came to be.
- 11:03SPEAKER_01: But it was a three-year fist fight with myself because I hated the work and what the book stood for because I was just writing to write.
- 11:09SPEAKER_01: There was no real why behind it.
- 11:11SPEAKER_01: And when I found that why, I think it became a generational book.
- 11:15SPEAKER_00: Man, I love that.
- 11:16SPEAKER_00: I really love that.
- 11:18SPEAKER_01: True story.
- 11:19SPEAKER_01: I haven't shared the bourbon story much because I was so embarrassed of it because I was just like crying and snotting and cussing.
- 11:25SPEAKER_01: And I'm the only one in the house.
- 11:27SPEAKER_01: My dogs are looking at me like, what is wrong with this guy?
- 11:30SPEAKER_01: My wife was asleep in Chicago and she's like, I'm sorry, baby, and just hung up on it.
- 11:34SPEAKER_01: It's funny.
- 11:35SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, it it it literally in just a moment, and I just started typing the chapters.
- 11:39SPEAKER_01: I just literally typed the chapters and they flowed.
- 11:42SPEAKER_01: And man, uh, we I redid that book in three months, and the unbelievable team behind me helped me.
- 11:48SPEAKER_01: And I'm just so, so super grateful and very proud of it.
- 11:50SPEAKER_01: And that's not easy for me to say, man.
- 11:53SPEAKER_00: Well, I appreciate you sharing that that uh very honest and authentic story.
- 11:57SPEAKER_00: But I think that's that is so many people's experience with writing a book because a book project tends to bring out the worst and the best in people.
- 12:05SPEAKER_00: And and what I mean by worst, I don't really mean the worst, but I mean it's a very emotional thing, and you can have very low, very high levels of self-doubt.
- 12:15SPEAKER_00: And uh in my case, I've experienced a lot of sometimes like self-loathing when you're doing a book project and it's not going well.
- 12:23SPEAKER_00: But then when it gets out there and impacts people's lives, it's such a high, and you realize, man, this was so worth the effort.
- 12:30SPEAKER_01: And all it's at a minimum, if it affects your life in a positive way, where when you when you dot that final period and you say this is a work I'm proud of, if it never sells a copy or is never read by one person, you're proud of it.
- 12:43SPEAKER_01: That is that is such an achievement for any human being to put their life and soul, even fiction, nonfiction, whatever your work is.
- 12:50SPEAKER_01: And then the the really the icing, the cherry on the sundae, and it's cliche, but it's so very true.
- 12:55SPEAKER_01: If one person picks it up and either has a moment of enjoyment, a memory, an experience, or it changes their life in some way for the better, there is no greater honor.
- 13:06SPEAKER_01: And that that is legacy, that is legendary, and that's what that's why we write.
- 13:10SPEAKER_01: And so what a what a beautiful honor, man.
- 13:14SPEAKER_00: Something that you talk about in the book that I I thought I really appreciated you talking about this, that a lot of artists and writers can relate to is this idea of loving ourselves.
- 13:24SPEAKER_00: And you use the phrase cultivating unconditional self-love.
- 13:29SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of people listening to this right now can relate to that because a lot of creative types just really seem to hate themselves.
- 13:37SPEAKER_00: I don't know any other way to say it.
- 13:39SPEAKER_00: That's a very crash way to say it.
- 13:40SPEAKER_00: But in your experience through your journey, how can we start to love ourselves better and give more grace to ourselves, especially during this pandemic when things are so mixed up and so crazy?
- 13:51SPEAKER_00: That's something that a lot of writers seem to need is uh a lot of self-grace, self-love, and really stop to stop hating and loathing ourselves in many ways.
- 14:04SPEAKER_01: Probably my favorite question ever.
- 14:06SPEAKER_01: And um the first thing I want to say, because it I want everyone to hear what I'm about to say, is it doesn't matter if you're a writer, a poet, an artist, a business person, uh, we all have varying degrees of self-hate, that voice inside our head that says, we're not enough, we're not valuable, we're not worthy, why would anybody care?
- 14:27SPEAKER_01: Or what if they really know my deepest artist desires?
- 14:30SPEAKER_01: And that comparison and competing with the world, we all have it.
- 14:34SPEAKER_01: And so what's important for all of us, regardless of the degree of it, is to know that we're not alone and to live in an authentic, vulnerable way and ask for help.
- 14:44SPEAKER_01: And how do you unwire this?
- 14:46SPEAKER_01: Here's the second good news is the good news is you're not alone.
- 14:49SPEAKER_01: So please don't soak in it and think you're the only one that doesn't like themselves, because we all face it, and in depending on pins and uh periods of our life, it can be severe, right?
- 14:58SPEAKER_01: And can lead to terrific consequences on ourselves, our friends, our business, and other things.
- 15:03SPEAKER_01: And so, no, you're not alone is what I'd say first.
- 15:06SPEAKER_01: The good news is, is we're not, we don't come out of the womb saying, Tommy, you're a terrible, ugly, overweight, not smart, who cares about what you're gonna write person.
- 15:17SPEAKER_01: No child in the history of the world was ever born hating themselves.
- 15:22SPEAKER_01: It's taught by us, it's taught by society, culture, pressure, uh, pressure, competition, bad teachers, uh, parents doing the best they can, sometimes brad, you know, preachers and shamans and all this.
- 15:35SPEAKER_01: It's the shame that we carry, right?
- 15:37SPEAKER_01: It's shame.
- 15:38SPEAKER_01: And guilt is I've done something wrong.
- 15:41SPEAKER_01: And shame is I am wrong.
- 15:44SPEAKER_01: Here's the bet, he's the here's the other great news.
- 15:47SPEAKER_01: And the reason we believe that is because we're so hard on people.
- 15:51SPEAKER_01: We judge, we criticize, we compare.
- 15:54SPEAKER_01: We always think someone's ahead of us and we don't feel enough in whatever way.
- 15:58SPEAKER_01: Well, and now it's heightened in our news, in our social media world, which is about division, it's about fear, it's about envy.
- 16:08SPEAKER_01: And so it's even more critical today that we're just inundated with this, I am not good enough.
- 16:13SPEAKER_01: The truth is, if it can be learned, it can be unlearned.
- 16:18SPEAKER_01: The problem is it's gonna be a lifelong battle.
- 16:21SPEAKER_01: It's going to be a battle we all have to fight.
- 16:23SPEAKER_01: If we choose to fight, if we want to start loving ourselves, want to live with our shoulders up and our heads back, want to live with confidence, want to walk into a room and say, hey, I belong here, or hey, I am very proud of this piece of work I just put out into the world or this writing.
- 16:37SPEAKER_01: Regardless if anyone ever reads it, if we want to get there, the truth is we've got to do a lot of hard work.
- 16:44SPEAKER_01: And I cover two or three chapters on intimate relationships, unconditional love and respect for yourself and mastering your mindset.
- 16:51SPEAKER_01: They're all sisters.
- 16:52SPEAKER_01: They're all very, very related because we can't truly love and respect others until we truly love and respect us, until we start mitigating that voice inside our head that's truly not us.
- 17:03SPEAKER_01: I've even named mine, I've even called that voice Ike.
- 17:05SPEAKER_01: My wife even calls him Ike.
- 17:07SPEAKER_01: You know, the voice, the voice that not only beats me up, and then it wants to beat up everything around me, too.
- 17:12SPEAKER_01: And it's just not a pretty human, it's not even a pretty thing, whatever it is.
- 17:15SPEAKER_01: But here's here, I'm gonna give you some tools, and I don't want to go too deep into this because one thing I love about the book Legendary is there's a lot of simple things that you can do and implement in your life to help you unwire that I am not enough.
- 17:27SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna give you some answers now.
- 17:29SPEAKER_01: It comes in what you consume.
- 17:30SPEAKER_01: So garbage in, garbage out.
- 17:32SPEAKER_01: If you're on social media and you're consuming certain kind of news and certain kind of movies, they're gonna that garbage in gets into your soul, gets into your DNA, gets in your heart, gets in your brain.
- 17:41SPEAKER_01: You need to surround yourself with as much goodness as possible.
- 17:44SPEAKER_01: That's both in what you consume in media and who you hang out with.
- 17:48SPEAKER_01: So positive, abundant people going the same direction.
- 17:51SPEAKER_01: That's the easiest one.
- 17:53SPEAKER_01: Start a gratitude practice.
- 17:54SPEAKER_01: Instead of seeing what you don't have or what you're not, it's what do you have.
- 17:59SPEAKER_01: And do it formally by writing it down and make sure you give yourself some gratitude.
- 18:04SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Kent 4.
- 18:06SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Tommy, for showing up today to be a little bit better than you were yesterday.
- 18:10SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Tommy, for leaning in and prioritizing your physical health.
- 18:14SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Tommy, for wanting to make a difference in the world.
- 18:16SPEAKER_01: And those are those are things I write every single day because once we start thinking ourselves, thanking our appreciating our gratitude for ourselves, we start loving ourselves.
- 18:25SPEAKER_01: So minimize the garbage coming in, hang out with good people, start an informal and formal gratitude practice.
- 18:32SPEAKER_01: And here's the biggest thing that you could do.
- 18:34SPEAKER_01: Read I'll give a third one.
- 18:36SPEAKER_01: Read every self-development mindset and emotional book that you can get your hands on because we're all saying the same things in different flavors, but it's all truth.
- 18:45SPEAKER_01: And it helps us to just put something in there and give us hope because we all struggle from this.
- 18:51SPEAKER_01: And the final thing, and this is the hard one.
- 18:53SPEAKER_01: Um, and this is a cultivated practice, and it takes time.
- 18:56SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna use the word practice because it's a practice and practice we have to do every day.
- 18:59SPEAKER_01: And I want to finish off by saying one other thing.
- 19:01SPEAKER_01: But the practice is forgiveness, and that's forgiving ourselves for the mistakes we've made, the things that we've done, the things that we regret, and forgiving others for the things that have been done to us.
- 19:11SPEAKER_01: Um, and so those are super important.
- 19:14SPEAKER_01: But here's the key, and I want everyone to hear this, and this is the most important, because you can you can dive into all of those topics pretty heavily, and I do in my book Legendary.
- 19:20SPEAKER_01: But here's here's the thing I want everyone to hear.
- 19:23SPEAKER_01: Just like our physical bodies, we have to, there's nutrition and certain exercises that we have to do, or our bodies atrophy and it atrophies quicker.
- 19:33SPEAKER_01: The same thing goes with our heart muscles, our mind muscles, and our soul muscles.
- 19:38SPEAKER_01: We must exercise those every single day, or the atrophy and the not good enough, and the mindset and the voice inside our head, and the shame and the fear and uh the insecurity that weasels it way back in.
- 19:52SPEAKER_01: But the more you build those muscles in short amount of times every day with certain exercises, the stronger and stronger and stronger they become.
- 20:01SPEAKER_01: And just like our physical bodies, which is the temple that we house all this in, we've got to take care of them.
- 20:06SPEAKER_01: We can't put, you know, I'd love to, I'd love to put chocolate cake into this all day long because I love me some sweets, but I can't do that every single day.
- 20:13SPEAKER_01: I have to honor my body.
- 20:14SPEAKER_01: Same thing with our souls, hearts, and minds.
- 20:16SPEAKER_01: And know that in simple steps, every single day you can unwind that.
- 20:19SPEAKER_01: Can you tell I'm passionate about this?
- 20:20SPEAKER_01: Because I could talk about it for six hours.
- 20:22SPEAKER_01: So I want to stop there, but no, you're not alone.
- 20:25SPEAKER_01: No, there's tools, no, there's and and you've got to work out on that every day.
- 20:29SPEAKER_01: And I think that would sum that up pretty well.
- 20:33SPEAKER_00: Well, that's a lot to unpack right there.
- 20:35SPEAKER_00: That's a whole that is a whole seminar right there.
- 20:37SPEAKER_00: But it's but it's so my favorite topic, by the way.
- 20:41SPEAKER_01: Because we all struggle with it, right?
- 20:42SPEAKER_01: Even like people we look up to that think, oh my god, they have it all.
- 20:46SPEAKER_01: They don't.
- 20:47SPEAKER_01: They have their insecurities, their fears, their demons, their mistakes, their am I good enough?
- 20:52SPEAKER_01: They all have it.
- 20:53SPEAKER_01: I mean, every single one of them, uh one of us, not a single human being done.
- 20:58SPEAKER_00: So many times in in the writing world, and I really believe this, people think that they look at the reasons they're not making progress on their goals.
- 21:06SPEAKER_00: And here I'm specifically talking about writers.
- 21:08SPEAKER_00: Why aren't they writing that book?
- 21:09SPEAKER_00: Why aren't they doing that podcast or blog or whatever it is that's important to them?
- 21:14SPEAKER_00: And they think that the obstacle is getting the work done, or it's something about the technical processes or whatever it is.
- 21:21SPEAKER_00: But I think so much of the time it's these things that you're talking about that are really the obstacles.
- 21:25SPEAKER_00: It's the lack of forgiveness, the last the lack of good habits, not having energy, feeling physically bad, you know, and or emotionally bad.
- 21:36SPEAKER_00: There's so many things that are just blocking our progress that have nothing to do with the actual thing that we think is blocking our progress.
- 21:42SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm really grateful you're bringing up all these things because I think those are man, that's it's such a missed component in the creative process.
- 21:50SPEAKER_01: I think I completely agree.
- 21:52SPEAKER_01: And it and all of that can be summed up with we're trying to be perfect in all areas of our life and purpose for.
- 22:00SPEAKER_01: Perfectionism is the death of creativity.
- 22:02SPEAKER_01: It's the death of movement forward.
- 22:03SPEAKER_01: It's the death of innovation because we're never going to be perfect.
- 22:06SPEAKER_01: We're never going to put the perfect art out there or the perfect piece.
- 22:09SPEAKER_01: It doesn't exist.
- 22:11SPEAKER_01: And what makes us not perfect is what voice someone somewhere, somewhere needs to hear, whether it's in your fiction writing or nonfiction writing or whatever type of writing, there is an audience for you.
- 22:24SPEAKER_01: Whether it's a billion people, seven billion people, or a hundred people, you do have an audience with people who want to hear your voice.
- 22:31SPEAKER_01: And the perfectionism and the not good enough is what's getting in the way.
- 22:34SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that really helped, two things helped me.
- 22:37SPEAKER_01: And I'm going to get one of them is a little technical, but two things that helped me is once the book became legendary and I wrote the book that I needed to help, you know, move me forward in life in love and in success, is it was no longer about me and my ego and my pride.
- 22:55SPEAKER_01: It was about there's another Tommy out there who's struggling, who's in a ditch, who is in a hole, or is struggling in some facet of his life that needs this book.
- 23:06SPEAKER_01: And when I made it about somebody else, it became a whole lot easier.
- 23:09SPEAKER_01: And I was able to surrender for lack of a better word.
- 23:12SPEAKER_01: And for me, it was nearly impossible for me to sit down and write.
- 23:18SPEAKER_01: But what's not impossible for me to do is put on a set of headphones and my phone and go for a walk in nature.
- 23:25SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 23:26SPEAKER_01: And I would call a trusted teammate and just start talking.
- 23:31SPEAKER_01: And they captured every single word.
- 23:35SPEAKER_01: And then I would go back and reread it and edit it and then type.
- 23:38SPEAKER_01: And that's what helped technical helped me because for me to sit down at a computer and just start typing, I would look at every shiny object around me and get distracted.
- 23:47SPEAKER_01: But when I just got in my zone and she got so good, and she was part of the editorial team and part of the uh the help me writing team, she got so good that she could just keep firing away questions, firing away questions.
- 24:00SPEAKER_01: And sometimes I was being redundant and sometimes I wasn't.
- 24:03SPEAKER_01: And she would capture it all and then give it back to me, and I would edit it.
- 24:07SPEAKER_01: And then we'd just go again, go again.
- 24:08SPEAKER_01: And she just kept asking questions, and that's how I wrote my book.
- 24:14SPEAKER_00: I love that.
- 24:15SPEAKER_00: I love that.
- 24:15SPEAKER_00: Something that I emphasize to people a lot is the power of dictating things because that that's the natural way that we learn to communicate.
- 24:22SPEAKER_00: You know, this idea of sitting at a screen and typing, that's not really how we're wired as humans to communicate.
- 24:27SPEAKER_00: That's that's like going through a translator almost.
- 24:30SPEAKER_00: But this this talking, this dictating, especially going for a walk in nature.
- 24:34SPEAKER_00: Man, that just releases the endorphins and the energy and the creativity.
- 24:38SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm glad that you were able to get the book done that way, and I'm glad you mentioned that process because a lot of people really needed to hear that.
- 24:45SPEAKER_01: And just find a trusted friend, a family member, mom, dad, brother, um, person, neighbor, and get them to walk with you and you know, pay them, you know, because their value's valuable.
- 24:57SPEAKER_01: You know, writing a book's a long, tedious process.
- 25:00SPEAKER_01: But um for me, just after the second question, I get I was so absorbed in the content and I care so much about the content and helping people gain confidence and be successful and happy and peaceful in life.
- 25:14SPEAKER_01: And for me, I'm so passionate about it.
- 25:16SPEAKER_01: Just a few questions, I was in a zone and I could talk for hours.
- 25:19SPEAKER_01: And that's what I did.
- 25:20SPEAKER_01: I would do two hour sessions.
- 25:21SPEAKER_01: And after about 30 of those, you've got five books.
- 25:25SPEAKER_01: And the key is to narrow it down.
- 25:30SPEAKER_00: One of the things that is so critical, I think, to the creative process and to writing a book is having a community.
- 25:36SPEAKER_00: Of course, you believe in the power of community, you've been a part of masterminds, you're running masterminds now.
- 25:42SPEAKER_00: For for writers who feel alone, they're not really part of a community.
- 25:46SPEAKER_00: Where would you suggest somebody could get started?
- 25:49SPEAKER_00: Just a small step toward building a community and finding some trusted partners in the life who could really help them to kind of pull things together and begin to make some progress in their life.
- 26:01SPEAKER_00: What are some good places to start?
- 26:03SPEAKER_01: The first, the that's what a great question.
- 26:05SPEAKER_01: And thank you for that, Kent.
- 26:06SPEAKER_01: Um, what a great, first of all, the only reason you're alone is because unfortunately you're choosing to be alone because you're not alone.
- 26:13SPEAKER_01: And it could be the topic that you're writing on, it could be that you just want to be around other writers.
- 26:18SPEAKER_01: Kent, I know you have a writer's group where you guys get together and write in what a more powerful way.
- 26:22SPEAKER_01: You you are in community with people writing and we are writing at the same time.
- 26:25SPEAKER_01: Even if you're writing Mary Had a Little Lamb, eventually something's gonna come out of it.
- 26:29SPEAKER_01: Um, and so whether it's a writing community or on your particular topic or your particular subject or your particular passion, I mean, it can be so niche that you know, I want to do underwater basket weaving with an apple in my mouth and listening to my favorite band underwater.
- 26:45SPEAKER_01: I guarantee you, if you're doing it, there's thousands of others doing it.
- 26:49SPEAKER_01: And with the power of the internet, they're out there.
- 26:52SPEAKER_01: Your tribe is out there, and they need you and want you, and you need them and want them.
- 26:57SPEAKER_01: So, what we have to do is push through that little bit of insecurity and fear.
- 27:01SPEAKER_01: And what you'll find is people are gonna, whatever your tribe is or topic is or passion is, or if it's just a writing community, it doesn't matter what they're writing, is it's I just want to write with other writers virtually in person online, they're gonna welcome you with open arms, introvert, extrovert, whatever race you are, however old you are, they're not gonna care.
- 27:20SPEAKER_01: They're just gonna say, Welcome, join us and lean in.
- 27:23SPEAKER_01: And so I would encourage, so if you read it, I mean, um, a lot of great if you just look through history of the great painters and the great writers and the great poets and the great business people and even athletes, they're all surrounding themselves with people in their craft to help lift them up and make them a little bit better and help them sharpen the pencil.
- 27:45SPEAKER_01: But also most importantly, it's for connection and holding space.
- 27:48SPEAKER_01: And one of the things that's made COVID so difficult is we're so isolated and we are tribal community-packed animals, and we want to be around each other.
- 27:56SPEAKER_01: Even if you're introverted, we need to be around other people.
- 28:00SPEAKER_01: So we we crave connection and isolation as the enemy to excellence and creativity.
- 28:04SPEAKER_01: So find that community, even if it's online, even if it's behind the scenes, that community exists, and I promise you they'll open their arms to you.
- 28:13SPEAKER_00: Man, that's great.
- 28:14SPEAKER_00: I'm so glad you're you're talking about this process and also about how your book came together because a lot of uh writers feel like this it's just me.
- 28:22SPEAKER_00: I gotta craft this awesome book, and it's like such an angsty, stressful process when man, collaboration makes everything better.
- 28:32SPEAKER_00: No matter how it happens, it just it's gonna produce a better end product.
- 28:37SPEAKER_01: I had a village, and I'm just super thankful for that village from just cheerleaders and my friends and family to a great publishing group to a great ghostwriting group that ended up uh just being great editors and move this here, move that there, take this out, add this in.
- 28:56SPEAKER_01: What are you truly trying to say here?
- 28:58SPEAKER_01: Do you here's how I would say it, and it's usually better than the way I would say it.
- 29:01SPEAKER_01: They were just invaluable.
- 29:02SPEAKER_01: And then the great editing team, and and you become a family through this process.
- 29:07SPEAKER_01: And what I found is they're as proud of the work as I am.
- 29:11SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they get to they do this stuff every single day and hundreds of them, but they take ownership.
- 29:16SPEAKER_01: If you have the right team and community, they take ownership with you, and just to know that people are standing left and right and they want you to be successful, and whatever success, I mean success means something different to everyone, but ultimately they want to see you finish and put this piece of work out into the world, is what they truly want.
- 29:31SPEAKER_01: And it's it's just invaluable.
- 29:34SPEAKER_00: And there's so much more joy in the process when you're working with good people.
- 29:38SPEAKER_00: I think it's it's just way, way more fun than doing it by yourself.
- 29:42SPEAKER_01: That's an analogy for life, my brother.
- 29:44SPEAKER_01: And um I to the point that I I think a lot of people don't think I'm as I I feel like I'm not, I feel like I work very hard at being nice because for 37 years I wasn't the nicest person.
- 29:56SPEAKER_01: Working very hard on the other side of that equation.
- 29:59SPEAKER_01: Um, but what I am have have high discernment, I'll call it discernment on is negativity and cynicism and judgment and fear-mongering and all that stuff.
- 30:11SPEAKER_01: And again, if we're already struggling with those things with our own heart and minds, if we're, you know, pain likes pain and darkness likes darkness, if we start attracting those people into life, you've got to have positive, abundant, loving, um, believing, affirming people around you because all they're gonna do is edify, lift you up, and make you feel great.
- 30:30SPEAKER_01: And so for me, I have to have those because the time I call it the time-go round.
- 30:35SPEAKER_01: Not only do I have Ike, I love Ike is Ike is that voice inside my head that wants to say and do mean things to me and others.
- 30:42SPEAKER_01: And then there's the timing go round that I'm not good enough.
- 30:46SPEAKER_01: So, what if they figure out I don't know what I'm doing?
- 30:48SPEAKER_01: And this, this, and this.
- 30:50SPEAKER_01: So I've got both of them, you know, I've got one on one side and one on the other.
- 30:52SPEAKER_01: I gotta have a lot of great people around me and coaches and teams and mentors and people who love me to help help me move forward.
- 31:00SPEAKER_01: And that's that's as honest as I can be about that.
- 31:04SPEAKER_00: I love that as well.
- 31:05SPEAKER_00: I keep saying that after every answer, but I I just love what you're saying.
- 31:08SPEAKER_00: It's it's uh it's fantastic.
- 31:11SPEAKER_01: It's because we're the same tribe, brother.
- 31:16SPEAKER_00: For sure, for sure.
- 31:19SPEAKER_00: Uh, one more final question here, then we'll um I'll kind of cut this off and move on to the bonus interview.
- 31:25SPEAKER_00: Uh any other routines or or habits that you would suggest that creatives or writers would really try to instill in their daily lives to help them to be more productive, more focused, and and just to be just to get the ball a little bit further down the field.
- 31:41SPEAKER_01: So this is my zone of brilliance.
- 31:44SPEAKER_01: Gay Hendricks, the great writer of the big leap, calls it the zone of genius.
- 31:49SPEAKER_01: One of my favorite books of all time.
- 31:50SPEAKER_01: Him and Ryan need to give me a commission.
- 31:52SPEAKER_01: I have sent so many of their books out to other people.
- 31:56SPEAKER_01: That's how much I love those books.
- 31:58SPEAKER_01: But um, in order for us to be the best possible, is one thing we all do.
- 32:05SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter if you're artists, creatives, or writers, whatever it is, all human beings do this.
- 32:10SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take it at a higher level than just the writing itself, because you and your community have so many.
- 32:15SPEAKER_01: I mean, if you want to write, join Kent's community and join other writers who write, you know, during the day.
- 32:21SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's that's an easy way to write because you've got community people doing it with you and it and it makes you accountable to that writing process.
- 32:29SPEAKER_01: However, where we all struggle in uh the mindset, emotional, spiritual relationship world, and we all do, if we all had it, if we were perfect and immortal, this life would be really boring.
- 32:43SPEAKER_01: Is I would highly, highly encourage you to spend an hour a day investing in yourself.
- 32:50SPEAKER_01: And it's only an hour out of 24.
- 32:52SPEAKER_01: That means you've got 23 out of 24 hours to do something else, but I would spend an hour a day investing in yourself.
- 32:57SPEAKER_01: And I'm just gonna give you some examples to build physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual muscles so that you can go put as much energy into your art, energy into your family, energy into your community, and do energy into your business because a lot of us put ourselves last.
- 33:14SPEAKER_01: Not only do we put our writing last, but we'll definitely put ourselves last, which is incredible in the human, and it's not selfish.
- 33:19SPEAKER_01: This is not selfish.
- 33:21SPEAKER_01: And we all have the same 24 hours in a day.
- 33:25SPEAKER_01: Take an hour to be to love yourself.
- 33:27SPEAKER_01: And what I mean by that, take an hour to read some great works from the past, the Stoics, the Bible, the Buddhists, you know, some great morning reads of great ancient wisdom that can speak into your life and help you with self-confidence and that goodness in.
- 33:44SPEAKER_01: Remember, garbage in, garbage out, goodness in.
- 33:46SPEAKER_01: Take a moment to write gratitudes to yourself and for the things that you have and affirmations.
- 33:52SPEAKER_01: Um, one of the affirmations I write every single day of my life, and I am not joking, is I am so grateful that good health, love, joy, happiness, courage, presence, patience, perseverance, peace of mind, money, success, and wealth flow easily, frequently, and abundant to me.
- 34:10SPEAKER_01: Write it every single day of my life.
- 34:11SPEAKER_01: So take moments to write gratitudes for other things in your life and for to yourself, write affirmations, pray, meditate, journal, exercise.
- 34:23SPEAKER_01: And exercise could be walk just a little bit further than you did yesterday.
- 34:27SPEAKER_01: Do one sit-up.
- 34:28SPEAKER_01: Uh, do what it do something to move your body and spend an hour a day, physical fortress, mental fortress, emotional fortress, and for me, it's important spiritual fortress, so that we're ready to seize the day, seize the moment.
- 34:42SPEAKER_01: We prepare ourselves, we prepare our hearts, prepare our minds.
- 34:45SPEAKER_01: We've invested in ourselves.
- 34:46SPEAKER_01: Now we can go invest in our art, we can invest in our families, we can invest in our friends, and we can invest in others.
- 34:51SPEAKER_01: It is the true key to happiness, success, peace of mind.
- 34:56SPEAKER_01: It has changed my life.
- 34:57SPEAKER_01: I'm 10 years into this.
- 34:58SPEAKER_01: And if I could, and I in a former life, I looked super, super successful.
- 35:03SPEAKER_01: And I was crumbling inside.
- 35:05SPEAKER_01: And today I live as best I can.
- 35:08SPEAKER_01: Again, it's a journey.
- 35:08SPEAKER_01: I don't have all the answers.
- 35:10SPEAKER_01: And I walk this journey with everyone else.
- 35:12SPEAKER_01: No guru or sage on the stage.
- 35:13SPEAKER_01: I'm a guy who walks this, but I do that every single day so that I can really go honor others and love others the way I want to.
- 35:19SPEAKER_01: And so that's what I would recommend to all the people on this, on this listening to this.
- 35:24SPEAKER_00: That is fantastic.
- 35:25SPEAKER_00: Thanks for sharing that.
- 35:26SPEAKER_00: I absolutely love that.
- 35:28SPEAKER_00: I love that affirmation too.
- 35:29SPEAKER_00: I think I'm gonna borrow that, if you don't mind, and uh make some adjustments for myself.
- 35:35SPEAKER_00: I have an affirmation practice too.
- 35:37SPEAKER_00: It's not uh as consistent or strong as I would like it to be.
- 35:41SPEAKER_00: So you've just inspired me to do that.
- 35:42SPEAKER_00: So thank you.
- 35:43SPEAKER_01: In whatever area I'm struggling with, um, so one of the intentions for 2021 for me is um is my wife and I have our hands in so many different things.
- 35:54SPEAKER_01: We just bought a retreat center for my legendary life retreats and some other things.
- 35:58SPEAKER_01: We've got my practice of masterminds and one-on-one coaching and conferences.
- 36:02SPEAKER_01: She's a CFO of a major company.
- 36:03SPEAKER_01: We have real estate.
- 36:05SPEAKER_01: And what I found is we're friends and business partners, and um, I want us to be husband and wife first.
- 36:10SPEAKER_01: So, my intention is every single day as I write, I am a good loving, present husband.
- 36:16SPEAKER_01: And so, whatever I'm working on, I write that affirmation as if it's already happened.
- 36:22SPEAKER_01: I am a good, loving, and present husband.
- 36:25SPEAKER_01: And so every day I write that, it sinks into my heart, sinks into my soul.
- 36:29SPEAKER_01: And it reminds me, instead of asking her about did we do X, Y, and Z at the lodge or hey, did you hear what I did this great contest with Kent today?
- 36:38SPEAKER_01: I ask her how her day was, how is she feeling?
- 36:41SPEAKER_01: Is there something we can go do fun tonight?
- 36:43SPEAKER_01: You want to go on a date tonight, you want to watch some TV, you want to veg out, want to go for a walk?
- 36:46SPEAKER_01: And I it just reminds me to be present and a husband to her first, and then a friend and and business partner second.
- 36:54SPEAKER_01: So that's one of the things I'm working on.
- 36:55SPEAKER_01: So that's why I write that affirmation.
- 36:57SPEAKER_00: That is great.
- 36:58SPEAKER_00: And that's that's worth the whole podcast right there, folks.
- 37:01SPEAKER_00: Because there's a lot of writers and creatives who needed to hear that.
- 37:05SPEAKER_00: They may have outward success.
- 37:07SPEAKER_00: They it looks like thing, good things are happening on the outside, but maybe their their marriages, their families are crumbling, there's they're full of conflict, uh, disunity, unhappiness, discord, whatever label you want to put on it.
- 37:20SPEAKER_00: So thanks for sharing that.
- 37:21SPEAKER_00: That's yeah, that's really, really vital.
- 37:23SPEAKER_01: We're all walking this journey together, and and when we share like this openly on authentic and vulnerable, without emotionally vomiting on somebody, like when we're honest and authentic and say, I don't have it all figured out, it gives others the gift of going second.
- 37:36SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
- 37:37SPEAKER_01: Hey, if he can be honest about that or she can be honest about that, hey, this is where I'm working on myself or need help in.
- 37:44SPEAKER_01: And if we do that as a world, this world will be a whole lot happier and successful place.
- 37:48SPEAKER_00: I think so.
- 37:49SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
- 37:49SPEAKER_00: Well, Tommy, thanks so much for being on the show today.
- 37:52SPEAKER_00: This has been a blast.
- 37:53SPEAKER_00: I appreciate you sharing openly and transparently uh with our listeners.
- 37:58SPEAKER_01: Oh, what an honor.
- 37:59SPEAKER_01: What an honor.
- 38:00SPEAKER_00: Where can people grab your book and learn more about all the cool stuff that you're doing?
- 38:05SPEAKER_01: Yeah, absolutely.
- 38:06SPEAKER_01: The books in all of your favorite book uh bookstores, whatever your flavor is, in every format, from me reading it to you on Audible and other audio formats to electronic to hardcover and softcover.
- 38:19SPEAKER_01: Go to your favorite bookstore.
- 38:20SPEAKER_01: It will be there.
- 38:21SPEAKER_01: And so please check it out.
- 38:23SPEAKER_01: Please let me know what you think.
- 38:24SPEAKER_01: And I'm since I'm talking to writers, hey y'all, we got to be better about this.
- 38:29SPEAKER_01: We need reviews, they're worth their weight much more in gold than sales are.
- 38:33SPEAKER_01: And we have a responsibility to our fellow artists and fellow writers to give each other reviews, honest reviews, candid reviews, but reviews nevertheless.
- 38:41SPEAKER_01: And so let's support if you like the work or if you don't like the work, um, leave me a review, and because it means the world to me.
- 38:48SPEAKER_01: And you can get the book anywhere.
- 38:49SPEAKER_01: And you can also check me out.
- 38:51SPEAKER_01: I'm always putting out um goodness, love, life, habits, tactics.
- 38:56SPEAKER_01: If you like some of the words I've said today, my social media is not about politics and division of my opinions.
- 39:01SPEAKER_01: It's just about what's worked in my lives, my clients' lives, and what's been taught to me by others.
- 39:05SPEAKER_01: And so check me out at Tommy Breedlove on all your favorite social medias, and please check the book out.
- 39:10SPEAKER_01: Let me know what you think.
- 39:11SPEAKER_00: Awesome.
- 39:12SPEAKER_00: Thank you, sir.
- 39:12SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it.
- 39:13SPEAKER_00: You're very welcome, brother.
- 39:15SPEAKER_00: Well, that was a really powerful conversation, and I'm so glad that Tommy took time out of his schedule to share with us.
- 39:21SPEAKER_00: My main takeaway is that in order to live at a higher level, we need to forgive others, and we need to forgive ourselves also.
- 39:29SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm not a psychologist and I don't play one on TV, but I do know that I'm really fascinated by all the psychological processes of artists and writers that sometimes hold us back.
- 39:41SPEAKER_00: A lot of us seem to struggle with resentment and anger and just really deep negative things that can oftentimes hold us back.
- 39:50SPEAKER_00: We have a hard time letting go of the need to be perfect.
- 39:53SPEAKER_00: It's almost like we're carrying around this giant backpack full of anger and bitterness and resentment that's weighing us down.
- 40:01SPEAKER_00: Now, if that doesn't apply to you, then that's awesome.
- 40:04SPEAKER_00: Um I hope that as you're listening to this, that you are an emotionally whole person, but I do know for the fact that a lot of people listening to this are not in that state.
- 40:14SPEAKER_00: So I just want to encourage you to take Tommy's words to heart and to find a way to begin setting down that heavy load that you're carrying around with you and to forgive others and to forgive yourself as well.
- 40:26SPEAKER_00: I also want to encourage you to check out Tommy's really wonderful book, Legendary, as well as to visit his site, which is TommyBreedlove.com.
- 40:35SPEAKER_00: Well, thanks so much for tuning in to this episode.
- 40:38SPEAKER_00: As always, I really, really appreciate your time.
- 40:40SPEAKER_00: I would also be extremely grateful if you would consider taking just a minute or two to leave an honest review of this podcast in iTunes.
- 40:49SPEAKER_00: Those reviews are extremely helpful for reaching new listeners, and I read and appreciate every single one.
- 40:55SPEAKER_00: And if you know of anybody who would enjoy these episodes, please consider sharing it with them.
- 41:00SPEAKER_00: For more, you can visit us at dailywriterlife.com.
- 41:03SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much, and I'll see you tomorrow.