Latest / Your Thoughts Your Reality / From Heritage to Healing: Arron Lloyd's Journey through Neuroencoding and Artistic Expression for Veterans

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From Heritage to Healing: Arron Lloyd's Journey through Neuroencoding and Artistic Expression for Veterans · Your Thoughts Your Reality

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to your Thoughts, your Reality with Michael Cole, the podcast that shines the compassionate light on the journey of veterans battling through life's challenges.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Michael is a dual elite certified neuro encoding specialist in coaching and keynote training presentations dedicated to guiding military veterans as they navigate the intricate pathways of post-deployment life.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Join him as we delve into the profound realm of neuro encoding science, empowering these Hello, hello, hello Society, forging a new path forward Hello, hello, hello, hey.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: So today I have a special guest.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: I've been trying to get this man on here for a little bit.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: We've made it happen.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Very happy to welcome our guest, aaron Lloyd.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Aaron is a dual sorry, what is it?
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: It's a one-star dual elite, certified neurocoding specialist.
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: You know he was born in the inner city and raised by a single mother, as I was.
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Aaron developed a deep appreciation for what it takes to create the life you deserve.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk a lot about that as well.
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: He's dedicated to helping actors, creatives and entrepreneurs unlock their full potential by encoding minds to default to their best selves.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: And Aaron comes from a family rich in military history I think it's your grandfather had a Purple Heart in World War I.
• 1:33
  Speaker 3: I just have the note World War I my great-great-grandfather.
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: Great-great-grandfather.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Wow, really cool.
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: Can't wait to hear some more about that.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: So, aaron, tell us a little bit more about yourself.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 1:43
  Speaker 3: So, aaron, tell us a little bit more about yourself.
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so thanks so much for having me on the podcast.
• 1:45
  Speaker 3: It's amazing what you guys are doing About myself.
• 1:48
  Speaker 3: As you mentioned, from the inner city, bridgeport, connecticut.
• 1:50
  Speaker 3: People here in Connecticut they think it's like everything's ponies and white fences not where I'm from.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: Bridgeport is unique because Connecticut is traditionally in a country, one of the wealthiest countries and one of the wealthiest counties, but Bridgeport's like right on the line where the wealth is not there.
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: So that's that's kind of where I grew up.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: Single mother, you know, there's, there's, and I've always kind of been somebody who wanted more for my life, and I attribute it to grace because when I was young, I had two sisters to help my mom out.
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: So at the time when I would want to be going out to the streets or hanging out or going sneaking out to go see a party or something like that, or go to a party or do whatever that I could get into, I had the responsibility of my sisters.
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: I could either it could be one of two things Either I would leave school without them, make sure they weren't on the bus, and then not make sure they're in the house, because I was the only one with the key, or go out and be selfish and do what I needed to do.
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: So that kind of led to some grace.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: At the time it felt like, ooh, I'm gritting my teeth a little bit, but, um, looking back and reflecting, it really was a saving grace.
• 2:52
  Speaker 3: Now, um played football, played a lot of sports and things like that.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: Interacted with people that you know.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: I could talk to the valedictorian as well as I could talk to somebody who, who was, um, not really doing the best and making the best decisions with their lives, so I kind of had the best of both worlds and navigating that.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: Um, yeah, just grew up and helped my mom out and have two younger sisters and uh, yeah, our relationships are thriving more than ever Fantastic Big brother.
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: And how do you think and I'm just going off script here, obviously, because it's just us talking right how do you think that kind of propelled you to be the man you are?
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: I mean, was it more responsibility?
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: Because it could have went both ways?
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: Yes, actually, and to be transparent.
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: I'm going to be transparent here because it's something I'm learning about myself as well.
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: So I think the responsibility something that was always said to me as a kid was that because of what I was going through, I was going to mature very early and I did.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: I typically had a higher maturity level than some of my peers at the time and was wise beyond my years and things like that.
• 3:56
  Speaker 3: And that just came from one, the environment and two, some of the leadership things that I needed to learn on the go in order to help.
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: So there was that, and in terms of the transparency piece, I learned that's actually part of my trauma.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: Part of my trauma has been putting other people's needs ahead of mine, right, because I learned that subconsciously I need to take care of this person, make sure this person's good, make sure this person's good.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: So I've learned in recent years to kind of have a balance in that, to recalibrate that within myself, and I think that's that's awesome.
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: So that has helped build the foundation of my, of my, of who I am as a man today in terms of leadership, in terms of, um, maturity, in terms of, uh, care, kindness, um, all those emotional intelligence, all those things, and then also learning the balance between, okay, making sure you're good, but also, aaron, you need some love and care too, so that's been great as well.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: That's fantastic.
• 4:49
  Speaker 2: How would you say um?
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: Neuro encoding has made a change in you in the last couple of years.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: Oh man, no, I'm cold and I came at such an amazing time and shout out to Joseph McLennan, the third.
• 5:03
  Speaker 3: I told him I had a chance to tell him this too, but he really was pivotal in my life change at 25.
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: So to to be around him and then to to, to, to just be in his proximity and and be honored or whatever, or speak on his stage, is still I still pinch myself sometimes.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: It's, it's uh's, not imposter syndrome, it's just because I really have such a profound respect for the man and what he does and how he changed people's lives and how he's changed my life.
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: So, to answer your question, how NeuroAccording has changed my life one, being in proximity with somebody I really admire and respect is amazing.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: And then two, learning from somebody everything that he knows how to change people's lives really gives me amazing joy and love in my life as well.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: So I've improved my skills in terms of coaching people.
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: I understand he always says physician, heal thyself.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: So through the things that we've learned, I've been able to do some things for myself and then I'm also able to help others, so I'm able to have the greater impact that I want.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: That's how Noam Cording has changed my life.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Amen, man, amen, I love it.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: So, just before we're going to dive in and then we're going to get into the military stuff and, of course, how to find hobbies and things to really start creating more excitement and thrive in life, right?
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: So before we do, I just want to mention on the top right-hand corner you see a blue QR code.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: So veterans, veterans' families if you're looking for resources, all those things, please click on there.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: There's a couple of books I've written.
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: We have our Facebook groups to kind of just get around, just like he's saying, around people that can transform your life and understand and feel where you are.
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: So when you get around that it really changes the game.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: So just want everybody to do that.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: If you're on the podcast empowerperformancestrategiescom Again, empowerperformancestrategiescom Check that out.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Want to make sure everybody knows.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: At the end of the podcast, aaron's going to bust out with three tips for veterans and their families.
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: So just stay here for all of that.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: So let's get into it.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so your family has strong military background, like we talked about.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Talk about your great, great grandfather.
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: Tell us a little more about that.
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, great, great granddaddy.
• 7:14
  Speaker 3: So I recently found out about him in recent years, and the way I found out is because obviously my father passed when I was a one-year-old.
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: He was also in the army, as well as a lot of the men on my father's side of the family, and because of me having that gap, my mom obviously remarried.
• 7:30
  Speaker 3: So I kind of had a distant relationship with my father's side of the family and as I matured, as I grew into manhood, I wanted to kind of rekindle that relationship with them which I have.
• 7:39
  Speaker 3: And my grandmother, grandmother Carolyn Lloyd, she hit me up and said you need to really get in contact with Perry Lloyd down in South Carolina.
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: So I got in contact with him in South Carolina and discovered that he had been fighting for a couple of years to get my great, great grandfather, his grandfather, the Purple Heart that that he had earned during the the Moose Argonne-Hindenburg line, world War I, which was one of the most, from my understanding, one of the most deadliest, bloodiest battles in American Army history and my great-great-grandfather was in that and had gone years without his Purple Heart recipient.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: And my cousin Perry Lloyd really fought for that and accomplished that and got him his purple heart a hundred years after he actually wrote an amazing, amazing book.
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: This is my great, great granddaddy right here.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: Oh, how cool, so you know.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: So he, from my understanding he just I got to visit his resting place and all this kind of stuff and hear amazing stories and and just uh, he had a great gift for singing, he had a great gift for horses, Just really kind of entrepreneurial and really what they call a man's man and stuff like that.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: And just yeah, that's what I've learned from Perry Lloyd and then his namesake, my great-great-grandfather, perry Lloyd.
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: He was in the 371st Infantry.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: Fantastic story.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: Thank you for sharing that man.
• 9:01
  Speaker 3: I love hearing that.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: I actually got chills.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: I got to tell you I got chills when you started talking about rekindling and you know, um, um, we had uh on here and because she was going to be on here, she actually started talking more about her father and getting stories about her grandfather and it was, it was uh, it was pretty cool.
• 9:18
  Speaker 2: You know how this this I'm not taking credit for it, but this podcast and brings out a lot of those stories you know for family members and things.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: It's pretty.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: I love that.
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: So and great story, by the way, you emphasize reviving passion through hobbies and play.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: I'm excited about hearing more about this.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: So could you share some strategies that veterans and their families could use to rekindle their creativity and their passion?
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: Absolutely For the passion piece.
• 9:47
  Speaker 3: I think every human on earth has a passion for something.
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: Everybody has different passions, so I think the first thing for any military man or woman on here is to discover for yourself.
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: Take some intentional time with yourself, write down what is it you're passionate about.
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: It might be music, it might be art, it might be technology, it might be whatever it is, and I'm going to share a story with you in terms of if you want to rekindle your creativity in this particular way.
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: I'm going to share a story with a way that my movement teacher, greg Webster, helped us my freshman year of college do, and something that we did is we went to a museum and he said your assignment is to pick one photo.
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: You're going to have a group, a team of like I think it was like four or five lists.
• 10:27
  Speaker 3: We're split into two different groups.
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: You're going to pick these, these photos, these, uh, this piece of art, art, and I want you to create it, and we're like create it.
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: What do you mean?
• 10:36
  Speaker 3: He's like like well, creativity starts from questions.
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: What if?
• 10:40
  Speaker 3: What if the color yellow had a sound?
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: What would that sound like?
• 10:43
  Speaker 3: What if?
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: What if the color yellow had a sound.
• 10:45
  Speaker 3: What would that sound like?
• 10:46
  Speaker 3: What if purple had a sound?
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: What would that sound like?
• 10:47
  Speaker 3: Recreate the soundscape, recreate what it is, and then let your imagination go wild.
• 10:51
  Speaker 3: And then I mean by that is simply okay, well, who I?
• 11:06
  Speaker 3: Up until that time I didn't think.
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: Well, what if colors that sound?
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: How would red sound?
• 11:09
  Speaker 3: How would purple sound?
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: How would white sound?
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: How would black sound?
• 11:11
  Speaker 3: How do all these things sound?
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: And then how do you come together as a collaborative to recreate the thing of that?
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: So that's, that's one technique I would share with you in terms of if you wanted to expand your creativity that way, if that's a little too much for you, like hey, I ain't doing all that then I would just say people watch.
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: People watching is cool too.
• 11:28
  Speaker 3: Reading books if you have children, retouch and rekindle that play in you.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: And reading the book, if you have a young child reading it, do the voices for the kid, do those kinds of things that rekindle that child in you.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: I think we're all just big kids at heart, you know.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: So if you just really kind of um, allow yourself to play a little bit, it'll bring some more joy to your life.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: I think Absolutely.
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: And and you know you bring that up and I had a fifth grade teacher, mr Morrow, and he taught us, taught me specifically anyway, because I took that and I did it the rest of my life.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: I literally would act out the books with the different characters and different voices, and it was so much fun to read books, like he would read Thomas Sawyer or you know Huck Finn, you know those kinds of books, and then we'd watch the movie at the end and it just impacted me so much and made the book so much more fun when he would do that.
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: So it's really cool you brought that up.
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Blast from my past, there we go.
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: So what started you down the trajectory of acting in the art?
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: That's a great question.
• 12:34
  Speaker 3: I initially wanted to be a musician because my grandmother on my mother's side introduced me to things like Earth, wind and Fire and Louis Armstrong and Ella Fixture all these people when I was very, very young.
• 12:46
  Speaker 3: So I had a great desire to play the saxophone.
• 12:49
  Speaker 3: Actually, I wanted to be a sax player in New York City and my music teacher in third grade, miss Patterson shout out to Miss Patterson she one day during Thanksgiving.
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: She asked the class.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: She said we're doing a Thanksgiving play.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: Who wants to be in this play?
• 13:04
  Speaker 3: Who wants to play the lead in the play?
• 13:05
  Speaker 3: Excuse me?
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: And nobody was volunteering.
• 13:07
  Speaker 3: So I looked left, I looked right.
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: I said, hey, I'll do that.
• 13:10
  Speaker 3: Shout out to great-granddaddy right, that's where I get that from, the courage.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: So I got into it from there.
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: So it was just fun, it was just something to do after school, so I didn't have to go home and do a homework right away.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: And then this is where the kind of click happened for me in sixth grade.
• 13:28
  Speaker 3: As I mentioned, I grew up in inner city.
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: There, at the high school I would later attend, there was a, a program headed by westoverover called Profiles Theater, and Profiles Theater was a theater of student written, student directed, student performed plays on issues plaguing the city.
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: So you had things like gang violence, teen pregnancy, homophobia, just a whole gambit of different things.
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: And I was like, wow, I cannot just have fun, I can actually impact lives too.
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: I can, I can, I can help people too.
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: So so when I got to high school, I auditioned for it and I was like I really want to get into this.
• 14:04
  Speaker 3: I got in and I really went all in and I really enjoyed it and some of my most profound memories and just just the passion is is there.
• 14:13
  Speaker 3: And and then when high school was ending because acting isn't necessarily a practical career, it's one of those careers that people say have something to fall back on, and they would be right, have a practical mind with that.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: And we're going back to the passion.
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: I think a passionless life is just I just don't think that's good for any human being.
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: So I said I'm a pray.
• 14:32
  Speaker 3: I'm a pray If I get into one school.
• 14:34
  Speaker 3: I'm auditioning for one school.
• 14:35
  Speaker 3: God, if I get in, that's just going to be my indication from you that I should probably pursue this.
• 14:40
  Speaker 3: And I got into UConn.
• 14:42
  Speaker 3: Shout out to UConn.
• 14:44
  Speaker 3: So you know who knows what that's going to mean.
• 14:46
  Speaker 3: It doesn't mean I'm going to be a star or anything like that.
• 14:48
  Speaker 3: It just means that this is something that I want to do for the rest of my life, and whatever way that manifests itself I'm happy with, as long as I get to do what I love to do.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: Amen, man, and you already are a star brother.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: You already are a star.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: I'm a star, that's true, but feel it, man, you are, you are, you are loved in the Neuron Coding Institute and outside.
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: Man, you're a star in whatever that means.
• 15:12
  Speaker 2: Man.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: Thank you, man, I appreciate that.
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: So what do you think changed that really said this is it in the very, very beginning, and I'm looking, I'm looking for information for again, veterans and their families of I just got this itch or did it just hit you like no damn, this is it.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: It was.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: It was an itch initially in third grade.
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: I guess what we call is the acting bug Right, or you get bit with the acting bug.
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: I got bit with the acting bug and it wasn't a decision where this is it until until that, that moment in high school where I was like, hey man, I don't want to stop doing this.
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: A life without doing this is I don't know what else I do.
• 15:58
  Speaker 3: Yeah, sure, I could go be a doctor or something like that, but I, you know, so I don't believe.
• 16:03
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, no, it's doctors.
• 16:06
  Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying?
• 16:07
  Speaker 3: We need those we do we do so.
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: I, I just really, it was just this is it like I?
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: I get such joy from it.
• 16:16
  Speaker 3: I, I love exploring characters, I love exploring story.
• 16:21
  Speaker 3: I love, I just love it.
• 16:24
  Speaker 3: So it was just.
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: It's one of those inexplicable things.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: It's the best way and this is for the veterans get into, like helping them.
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: Have you ever had an emotion or a feeling or something that you can't even describe?
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: For a veteran Particularly, you guys.
• 16:36
  Speaker 3: You guys have, have experiences that the majority of civilians will never, ever experience.
• 16:42
  Speaker 3: And thank you guys for that, thank you for your service.
• 16:44
  Speaker 3: All that it's.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: It's it's from my part, it's not a notice or unappreciated at all.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: You guys have experience.
• 16:51
  Speaker 3: If you, especially if you've seen combat, if you've seen things like that, there's things that you've seen experience in terms of humanity that the rest of us will never experience for the most part.
• 17:01
  Speaker 3: And that experience, that feeling, that thing that you can't really express to your peers, or they don't get you or they understand.
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: I think art can fill that gap, I think stories can fill that gap, I think poetry can fill that gap.
• 17:16
  Speaker 3: There's a great line by Shakespeare.
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: He says my bounty is as boundless as the sea.
• 17:20
  Speaker 3: My love is as deep.
• 17:21
  Speaker 3: The more I give to thee, the more I have, for both are infinite.
• 17:25
  Speaker 3: That is just poetic.
• 17:26
  Speaker 3: Have you ever heard of something that just makes you cry?
• 17:29
  Speaker 3: And maybe just me?
• 17:30
  Speaker 3: You guys might be military people, like no, you're dismissed, darren.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Art touches everybody, my friend you know what I'm saying.
• 17:41
  Speaker 3: Art touches everybody, my friend.
• 17:42
  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's just like how, how, how profound to express love that way.
• 17:44
  Speaker 3: So for for you guys, if you found, particularly with shakespeare because shakespeare, you could tell, I'm passionate about this, mike, I could talk all day, so interrupt me at any time you go so so like shakespeare particularly, he has has such his range of human experience and his stories deal with the heights and the very lows of the human experience and he does it in such a profound way in which you might not understand the emotion that you're feeling.
• 18:11
  Speaker 3: But once you read it or you see a profound act or performance, like I understand, it's like what he says he puts a mirror up to nature form, it's like I understand, it's like what he says he puts a mirror up to nature.
• 18:21
  Speaker 3: So I've I've worked with um, um, some for, for, for, for, uh, veterans and things like that.
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: There are some veterans that get into the acting field.
• 18:26
  Speaker 3: There are some actors, there are some, some, some veterans who really find a level of catharsis from being able to get those, those feelings out that they couldn't express on their own.
• 18:35
  Speaker 3: But once they find a good playwright or a writer, that helps understand them in a way.
• 18:40
  Speaker 3: Then they have the space, the safe space, to explore that creatively.
• 18:45
  Speaker 3: And I was in a play in 2017 called Soldier's Play, and this was a play very, very.
• 18:50
  Speaker 3: You know, initially Denzel did it, sam L Jackson did it, all these kinds of people did it, and I did this with the Negro Ensemble Company and I played Corporal Ellis.
• 18:57
  Speaker 3: So I had to be crisp because I was a corporal, so I had to learn how to march and all these kinds of things.
• 19:02
  Speaker 3: And we had an actual Marine.
• 19:04
  Speaker 3: He's also an actress where I'm going with this story.
• 19:06
  Speaker 3: He's a.
• 19:07
  Speaker 3: He was an ex-Marine.
• 19:08
  Speaker 3: I think once you're a Marine, you're always a Marine, but he's a Marine and he had he had us do like a boot camp, like a mini boot camp where we're doing mama, mama, can't you see what the army's doing for me?
• 19:25
  Speaker 3: All that kind of stuff and like marching and stuff like that.
• 19:26
  Speaker 3: So I'm just passionate about this.
• 19:27
  Speaker 3: I want to share all that, to say that art can help express things in you that you might need to express.
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: Amen, and I love the story.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: Dude, you didn't have to stop, you could have just kept on going for like an hour.
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, fantastic stories.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Thank you for sharing.
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: So let's tap into that a little bit more.
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: As far as veterans and again their families, tapping into the creative sides, why do you think creativity is important for their mental and emotional well-being?
• 19:49
  Speaker 2: I want to add to that before you answer it's also the unheard heroes that are at home, right, the families.
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: Yes, you know that people are very focused on veterans.
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: They should be, but they should also be focused on the families that are at home and the disconnect and things they go through as well.
• 20:08
  Speaker 2: So, again, what are some tips that they can tap into their creative sides?
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: I think, yeah, I definitely want to acknowledge that as well, because, going back to that point where there might be people that don't really kind of understand that, that might include the family, that might include people that can't really relate to the army men or the marine men or the navy men or whatever.
• 20:28
  Speaker 3: That's come back from experience and things that they've experienced.
• 20:31
  Speaker 3: So, in terms of some strategies that both family and the army the veteran can use, is that you can simply find ways to tap into your creativity via going to museums, reading stories.
• 20:44
  Speaker 3: Maybe even there might be a place where you can bond together by allowing the veteran space to creatively express themselves via a monologue or express themselves via a painting, and sharing that with your family and saying, and then let the family make space for that veteran to say, wow, that's amazing, that's how you felt.
• 21:03
  Speaker 3: I can't, I can't even understand how you felt and I just want to leave space for you to feel that.
• 21:08
  Speaker 3: So that's one way that you can kind of go through that together as well.
• 21:12
  Speaker 3: Does that answer your question a little?
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: bit.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: It does Absolutely.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: And can I, can I?
• 21:16
  Speaker 2: Just before you go into the, I think you're going to give another thought, same as for the families, of what they are going through.
• 21:22
  Speaker 2: You know they can go do a painting too.
• 21:29
  Speaker 2: In fact there are companies out there that you can go and do introductory painting classes and you can do it as a family.
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: You can do it again with your brothers and sisters from the military, whatever the case may be, but it also gets rid of um or helps with the solitude.
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: Get out there, get involved.
• 21:43
  Speaker 3: you know, yeah, yeah, and I think I don't.
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: I don't know cause, I've not been as experienced.
• 21:47
  Speaker 3: I think the solitude can come from the lack of connection that they might feel.
• 21:52
  Speaker 2: Absolutely so.
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: I found long time ago with with veterans and families.
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: You know, when you, when you leave the military, you have just left all of your brothers and sisters and that family that you have bonded to an extent that most people will never understand.
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: And when you leave that and then you go back and you're back with your family, that you again have all grown in that two years, 20 years, whatever it's been, you're all different people at this point.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: So when you can find that camaraderie that's why I bring up the facebook groups and I bring up, you know, going together to do this I think there's nothing better than experiencing art, whether that be music or um film or whatever the case may be.
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: But it's a beautiful way to always reconnect, because arts bring everybody together.
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: It does, I think we've always found you go to a concert.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: I don't care what nation you're from, what color you are or anything else.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: You see a mix of those people and they're all one family at that time.
• 22:54
  Speaker 2: Yes so the same thing can happen for veterans and their families.
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: So I strongly encourage go do a painting class.
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: Go do a dance class, go whatever your thing is.
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: You never know, it might really be your thing by trying something new.
• 23:08
  Speaker 3: Yeah, there's a Marine somewhere saying dance, no, absolutely not.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: No, I'm just playing.
• 23:19
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Dance is real to do, would I would add to that I recently discovered I've never been to one myself, I don't know if they have these in California or wherever you are there's something I think they're called like.
• 23:24
  Speaker 3: They're rooms where you can just break things Like do you know what I'm talking about?
• 23:30
  Speaker 3: No, but I'm interested.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, oh man, I don't know what the name of it is 're here in New York because I have a friend that went.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: I was like wow, you could smash toasters, you could just throw things, and they have a dedicated room where you could blast music and just release.
• 23:44
  Speaker 3: That might be helpful for any veteran that needs to get some things out of their system in a healthy way I love that Go in the room by yourself.
• 23:57
  Speaker 3: Yes, exactly yes, by yourself.
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: Yes, not with your family, by yourself.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: That's fantastic and please look into it.
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: I mean that, veteran or not has to get rid of some shit.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: I love it.
• 24:12
  Speaker 2: In fact, I'm looking it up after this.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: Why?
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: Not it's like my wife has brought up break rooms or rage cage or rage room.
• 24:20
  Speaker 3: So yeah, it's a thing man.
• 24:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, susan's like I'm going right now.
• 24:25
  Speaker 3: I'm going right now.
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: Hey, so can you tell us more?
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: We're getting a little lower on time now.
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: Can you tell us more about your upcoming Actors in Demand, their eight-week program?
• 24:36
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: So Actors in Demand is a program in which I'm going to help struggling actors go from struggling to in-demand to be able to ace their auditions and booking with ease.
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: Booking with ease to me is not only booking the actual gig, it's actually getting the audition and booking with ease.
• 24:51
  Speaker 3: Lack of stress, lack of procrastination, hesitation, fear of failure, fear of success, self-doubt, self-loathing, fair rejection all those things, particularly fair rejection, because that's something that, actors, you're going to face in your career.
• 25:03
  Speaker 3: Anybody's going to face rejection if they're doing anything worth doing.
• 25:06
  Speaker 3: So I'm going to help get them from that.
• 25:09
  Speaker 3: And the things that I teach is not based on theory.
• 25:11
  Speaker 3: There's content in there that our mentor, joseph McLennan III, who obviously coaches peak performance people and celebrities and billionaires and millionaires all those things there's content from him that he charges $350,000 for that you're going to be able to have access on within the modality of acting.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: So I think that's going to be really profound for people.
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: I'm excited to release it.
• 25:31
  Speaker 3: I'm probably going to make the announcement this week or next week and there'll probably be a promo on that so you'll be able to get in at the ground floor and, uh, really, really, uh, explore some of those concepts to help you go from struggling to in demand very cool.
• 25:45
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: Get further, faster, right?
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: What's all about?
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, um, and I think we just dropped a teaser yes, it's coming out soon.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's coming soon.
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, fantastic, fantastic.
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: So, um, you have uh, I'm going to go back just a bit.
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: So, because I want people the opportunity to get into your class, so, after you're found, you know what I want to.
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: I think I want to ask, I think I think that would be something that I would enjoy.
• 26:13
  Speaker 2: So what are the first tips to get started?
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: I think the first tips for any veterans or anybody that wants to get into the acting game is to first you have to get the fundamentals done, so learn how to act right.
• 26:28
  Speaker 3: Get a craft class, find an acting class.
• 26:31
  Speaker 3: If you don't want to find an acting class, find a passage, find a monologue.
• 26:36
  Speaker 3: And there's great books.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: You can go on, you can go on.
• 26:38
  Speaker 3: Backstagecom is a great one, playbocom is a great one.
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: Playbocom is a great one.
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: Actors Access is a great one.
• 26:44
  Speaker 3: If you want to start looking for regional work and get your headshots, that's going to be important.
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: And then you also want to get something like a reel or some kind of like footage and you can get reels like wherever you are in your career, you'll have different quality of reel and things like that.
• 27:00
  Speaker 3: You could get further, faster and ways of getting more professional reels done if that's what you want to do.
• 27:03
  Speaker 3: If you don't, it could be as simple as you just recording a monologue and do something that resonates with you when I was auditioning for grad schools what they for grad schools I mean, like the MFA programs and things like that, like the Yale's, nyu, stuff like that.
• 27:15
  Speaker 3: What they want you to do is they want to see who you are through your work.
• 27:20
  Speaker 3: Obviously you're playing a character, and I think Chadwick Boseman he had a great way of saying it.
• 27:24
  Speaker 3: He said it's kind of like a wine glass the glass is who you are, who the actor is, the wine inside is like the character.
• 27:32
  Speaker 3: So the character is obviously going to be encased in who you are.
• 27:35
  Speaker 3: So for you, the military, for the veterans, obviously you bring your own experiences, your own expertise, your own love and all those kinds of different things and what makes you human to whatever character you're going to play.
• 27:45
  Speaker 3: Now, obviously there's different perspectives or different things you have to consider when playing different characters, different ways of moving and all that kind of stuff.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: So you want to discover that.
• 27:53
  Speaker 3: Find a good acting teacher.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: That's one.
• 27:54
  Speaker 3: The second thing is you want to find a mentor right, that could be your teacher as well.
• 28:04
  Speaker 3: And then terms of practical practicality, I would.
• 28:05
  Speaker 3: They're like actors access, start submitting for work, um network, talk to people.
• 28:08
  Speaker 3: Feel free to hit me up in dms if you need some some advice and things like that.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: I'm, you know, I'm an open book.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: I have nothing that I'll be happy to help in whatever way I can with where I'm at and, uh, I think it's a I I just have such a profound love for it and I know what it's done for my life I think.
• 28:24
  Speaker 3: I think anybody could benefit from, from acting for real.
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: It's just a lot of fun, fantastic, and thank you for all those tips.
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: That was that was amazing.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: So if you were to very first start and you're like I just don't know, but it kind of sounds cool, you know, I kind of like to be denzel.
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: I'm just saying you know, so would, would would you start with um, potentially as um, besides acting classes, whether that be at a community college or you know, depending on your, your financial realm, if you will, would you say start somewhere there, or maybe try out with just a local club or something, is that?
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: there.
• 29:06
  Speaker 3: Oh, you know what I just thought?
• 29:08
  Speaker 3: There is something called improv.
• 29:09
  Speaker 3: There's improv and that would be great for for veterans too, I think, because it also helps you tap into your creativity.
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: So there's something called improv classes in here in New York.
• 29:18
  Speaker 3: It's things like the pit is one or the improv and things like that.
• 29:23
  Speaker 3: And improv is basically when you it's like play, it's like an elevated form of play, and the whole concept is based on yes.
• 29:30
  Speaker 3: And so if I were, if we were improv right now, mike and I was like hey, man, it's a beautiful day in the desert, I'm riding a hippo.
• 29:36
  Speaker 3: You'd be like what, aaron?
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: You, what?
• 29:38
  Speaker 3: You talking about A hippo?
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: There ain't no hippo here.
• 29:39
  Speaker 3: Now you've just you've just destroyed the game.
• 29:41
  Speaker 3: The game is yes, and it would be like yeah, hippo, isn't this hippo slippery or stuff like that.
• 29:49
  Speaker 3: So I think that can help tap into the creativity and the play.
• 29:51
  Speaker 3: And it sounds silly and all those things.
• 29:52
  Speaker 3: But you know, be silly a little bit sometimes, and uh, and also practically so, improv is one that you could do too is uh.
• 29:58
  Speaker 3: Something else you could do is the backstage community colleges you can reach out to, and also YouTube.
• 30:08
  Speaker 3: You have a distribution channel you can.
• 30:09
  Speaker 3: I can't tell you how many people have gotten discovered on TikTok and things like that that are now in movies or TV shows and things like that.
• 30:13
  Speaker 3: So, the world's your oyster with that.
• 30:15
  Speaker 3: I would start a TikTok and start documenting the fact that you are a veteran.
• 30:18
  Speaker 3: You bring something different and, hey, I want to act and I'm going to be doing monologues, guys, and here it is veteran acting, hashtag, veteran acting or whatever it is, and you start recreating, like, like jarhead scenes or scenes that relate to you or, or, um, pearl Harbor, whatever it is that really resonates with yours, with your spirit and your soul that you want to recreate, and you can go on and do a TikTok video and build a following from there.
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: Create, and you can go on and do a TikTok video and build a following from there.
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: And something else practically I would do as well.
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: This is more uh, more being bold.
• 30:54
  Speaker 3: Something else that I would suggest is, if you want it to be like in a in a movie and you really love a war movie that you love to do, uh, then find that director and write them a letter.
• 30:59
  Speaker 3: You never know they might respond, you know.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: So you know you could go on a site called IMDB.
• 31:07
  Speaker 3: I M as in Mary D as in dog B as in boy, and you can.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: Actually, if you have an account, you can see if the director or the, the, whoever the agent, has their email on there and you can shoot them an email, you know.
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: Hey, you never know.
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to say I'm just going to make a little announcement here.
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: Started the podcast and I was like man for my 50th episode and I want it to be cool, Right.
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: So reached out to Joseph McLennan, the third, and he's going to be on the show.
• 31:36
  Speaker 2: Let's go, and if you don't ask, you never know.
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: I just wanted to bring that point out.
• 31:45
  Speaker 2: So, yeah, I'm excited about that.
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: So great tips.
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: You know we're way past time now.
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: That's OK, because we can be so really quick if we can.
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: First of all, thank you, honored, you're here again.
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: It took a little bit to get you on here, but I'm so happy you made it.
• 32:03
  Speaker 2: And you know, as human beings, most important resource we have is time.
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: We don't get it back.
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: So thank you for spending that 33, whatever minutes in the time before talking.
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much, totally honored, that you were here.
• 32:15
  Speaker 2: So thank you, my pleasure, my pleasure, brother.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: So do me a favor.
• 32:23
  Speaker 2: We promise three tips, whoops, three tips.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: Give me three tips to get, uh, help veterans and their families get further, faster and potentially arts or acting three tips for the families as well have hold space for those that you love.
• 32:32
  Speaker 3: They're going to things that you may not understand.
• 32:34
  Speaker 3: And also vice versa, um, for the veterans understand that your family is probably going through some, some, some changes as well that they need to hold space for.
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: I would recommend creativity as your guide.
• 32:45
  Speaker 3: Creativity as your guide, creativity in terms of your own creativity, creativity in terms of solutions that you can find in terms of rekindling connection, and creativity in terms of connecting with yourself so that you can reconnect with others as well.
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: That's two.
• 32:58
  Speaker 3: And the third piece is to smile smile more, right, if you can.
• 33:03
  Speaker 3: And the third piece is to smile, smile more right, if you can and when you can.
• 33:05
  Speaker 3: Just praise yourself for that, because that's going to be the beginning of all great things for yourself.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: And, yeah, continue to tap into this podcast That'd be the fourth extra tip so that you can get further faster.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: You rock, you rock.
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: Thank you for the plug.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: All right, everybody.
• 33:20
  Speaker 2: How do people reach you real quick, Aaron, before we go.
• 33:23
  Speaker 3: They can find me on Aaron Lloyd.
• 33:25
  Speaker 3: It's spelled A-R-R-O-N-L-L-O-Y-D on IG, or you could also find me on aaronandpowerscom.
• 33:31
  Speaker 3: It'd be my pleasure to serve you, guys.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: And everybody keep an eye out for that course coming up.
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: This is a fantastic individual, spread so much light in this world and I'm proud to know you, man.
• 33:46
  Speaker 2: Thanks, man, look out for that.
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: All right, everybody, we are out of here.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Peace.
• 33:48
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on another insightful journey of your thoughts your reality podcast, with your host, michael cole.
• 33:55
  Speaker 1: We hope the conversation sparked some thoughts that resonate with you.
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: To dive deeper into empowering your thoughts and enhancing your reality, visit empowerperformancestrategiescom.
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: Remember your thoughts shape your reality, so make them count.
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: Until next time, stay inspired and keep creating the reality you desire.
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: Catch you on the next episode.