514: Proof That You Can Overcome Anything with Brianna Greenspan

Hal Elrod: Hello, friends, welcome to the Achieve Your Goals podcast. This is your host, Hal Elrod, and you’re in for a long overdue episode today. In fact, you’ll hear me say that to our guests. I say this maybe the longest overdue episode in the history of the Achieve Your Goals podcast. This is with Brianna Greenspan. And Brianna Greenspan was my coaching client in 2008 when I created the Miracle Morning. She’s one of the first people I ever told it about.

And she was a suffering from a chronic illness, which she still is, it’s a lifelong illness. But she really was a victim at that time in her life. And she made excuses as to why she couldn’t do things and she had a lot of self-imposed limitations. And one of the excuses she said, “Hal, I can’t do this. I can’t do this morning routine. I’m sick all the time. I have seizures. I need to sleep.” And long story short, she decided to give it a shot.

And now, what do we at? Fifteen years later, she is now the director of education for the Miracle Morning in Schools Program. She is the coauthor and co-creator of the Miracle Morning Art of Affirmations Coloring Book. And she has done probably almost as many Miracle Mornings as I have. And you’ll hear her today talk about her journey. It’s very inspiring. But beyond that, you’re going to hear her talk about how she approaches the Miracle Morning, which is different than you might feel like you need to do it, meaning hers is never the same. Every day is different.

She’ll talk about how she’s able to intuitively, in the morning, ask herself what practices she needs that day. And some days, it’s all six of the SAVERS. Some days, it’s only one. In some days, it’s two or three. But I think you’re going to really love Brianna and her energy, her spirit, her story, all of the above. She’s one of my favorite people on the planet, one of my best friends, and one of the biggest advocates for the Miracle Morning, spreading it to tens of thousands of teachers and principals and students in New York City first and now across the country. So, one of my favorite people, you’re about to meet her. And she’s been on the podcast before, but we’ve never talked about this story and her story of the Miracle Morning and how it impacted her. And I think it’ll make a huge impact for you.

Before we dive in, I want to thank our sponsors for today’s podcast. They bring you this show. They help support me and my family. Now, first and foremost is Organifi, and two of the products that I love, well, Organifi, I do their protein powder every morning. I take their Vanilla Protein Powder and I use half of the amount. In fact, you can hear that as a theme that I want to talk with the sponsors. I actually use half the recommended amount which makes the products last twice as long and it cuts my cost in half. So, little bonus tip that I’m giving to you.

But the protein powder, I find half the amount is the perfect flavor profile, etc. There’s protein, there’s superfoods. I use their vegan vanilla protein. They also have a vegan chocolate protein, but I prefer the vanilla with my berries in my smoothie and that kind of thing. So, if you want to improve your smoothies and add protein to your diet, not to mention a lot of superfoods and minerals that are crucial to overall health, check out Organifi’s Protein Powder. Head over to Organifi.com/Hal, that is spelled O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I dot-com/Hal and use the discount code Hal, H-A-L, at checkout for 20% off your protein powder and any other product that you decide to use. I use that in the morning to start my day.

And at the end of the day, our other sponsor, our next sponsor is CURED Nutrition. And you heard me talk about this. I use their Night Oil. And Cured Nutrition’s Night Oil is a combination of CBD and CBN oil, which has a relaxing effect to prepare you for bedtime. And then when the CBN oil kicks in, that’s the sedative effect, they help you fall asleep and stay asleep. Now, I use and I would encourage you to start with half of the recommended allowance. And what I find is this CBN oil, the night oil from CURED Nutrition is a game changer for me as part of my sleep regimen.

Now, I also take the Organifi Magnesium. I’ve told you that before. But CURED Nutrition CBN oil, here’s how I know how well it works, because if I take too much of it, I don’t want to wake up in the morning, like I’m sleeping so soundly that I just want to keep sleeping. So, I learned that by realizing that more isn’t always better, sometimes less is better, less is more. And so, I would encourage you, when you get your Night Oil from CURED Nutrition, start with half the normal amount that it recommends. And I think it’s like 0.25 milliliters. Don’t quote me on that. I think that’s the amount. Start with half of that.

And if you start with that amount, that’s probably fine. But what I found is when you take too much of it, that’s how you know how well it works, because I just want to keep sleeping. I’ve taken as much as half a milliliter, like double the amount and man, I can’t get up in the morning. So, that’s not a good thing. But it is a good thing knowing that, wow, this stuff really, really works to help you fall asleep and stay asleep. So, it’s about finding the right dosage for you. To try the Night Oil, head over to CuredNutrition.com/Hal, that is Cured, C-U-R-E-D Nutrition.com/Hal, and use that same discount code Hal, H-A-L, to get 20% off your order as a listener of the Achieve Your Goals podcast. And if you support my podcast, sponsors, they support me which supports you and round and round we go.

All right, without further ado, you’re about to meet one of my favorite people on the planet, Brianna Greenspan, the coauthor of The Art of Affirmations Coloring Book for the Miracle Morning Book series and the director of education for the Miracle Morning, who is transforming, by herself, tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of people through the Miracle Morning practice and sharing her own story. And she’s got to share it with you. You’re going to love this. Enjoy.

[INTERVIEW]

Hal Elrod: Brianna, I have to say, this is probably the most overdue podcast episode in the 500 and roughly 13 or 14 episodes that I have done. Would you agree to that?

Brianna Greenspan: Just funny statement and absolutely, although I’ve been on the podcast before this conversation is definitely overdue.

Hal Elrod: Totally. All right. So, we’re going to talk about your Miracle Morning journey. And it is unlike any Miracle Morning journey of any human being on the planet. I’d say it’s probably closest to mine. Like, your journey is closest to mine where it’s like, you discovered this practice and then it transformed your life. And now, you are out there sharing it with hundreds of thousands of people through the Clubhouse room. So, again, we’re very similar, right? In fact, we’ve joked, like, I’m the male Brianna, you’re the female Hal, whatever. Everyone, look at it. So, for those that don’t know, it was 2008. I was coaching you way back when, 15 years ago, and I came up with this morning routine. Go ahead.

Brianna Greenspan: I was like, let’s take it back even further. That was 2008, you came up with this morning routine for yourself. You had lost your clients. You were figuring out what it would look like for you to navigate a new space during this financial challenge. And then you started hearing about people that you could potentially pitch to be your clients and I was one of them. And I remember you reaching out and it was like the greatest day ever. I knew about you because of your book, Taking Life Head On!, like that reputation preceded you. And I had just learned to walk again.

So, when you called, I was like, “Hal Elrod is calling me. Whatever he’s going to say, I’m a yes, too.” And it was such an exciting moment. And then I became your coaching client. And then you enrolled me in these practices that changed my life. So, I think it’s so interesting that you made this thing for yourself, and eventually, you enrolled some people, and eventually, you enrolled the whole world in caring about their wellbeing.

Hal Elrod: Yeah, well said. I’m glad you went there. I’m glad you shared that part of the story because it actually is kind of funny that I created the Miracle Morning in 2008. It got me out of my financial trouble, and the way I got out of my financial trouble was learning strategies to get more coaching clients because that was my business, I was a coach. You were one of those coaching clients and then, therefore, one of the first people I taught the ritual to and then it transformed your life.

So, let’s just start with where were you at in your life. So, I will say this, you were a top Cutco sales rep. You were breaking records, which was incredible. But you also were struggling and still struggle with a chronic illness. So, talk about where you were at mentally, physically, financially, like when you learned about the Miracle Morning, when I shared it with you and what your initial response was, and then how you overcame the initial resistance that you had.

Brianna Greenspan: I love this line of questioning. So, back in 2008, I actually lost the ability to walk, which was why I was so drawn to Hal because he had this story from the accident of relearning to walk again. And so, I thought you were super unique in that sense. And I left college after losing the ability to walk and went through a 378-hour therapy program. That therapy program changed the trajectory of my whole life. The whole goal was to be able to walk up a flight of stairs without medication or assistive devices, and I ended up succeeding in that. But it was nine hours a day, every day for six weeks. It was one of the hardest things that I’ve ever gone through.

And it was the first time that I learned about personal development. It’s the first time that I learned about a fixed versus a growth mindset. It was the first time that I learned the power of my mind. And right after that, my parents said, “You learned to walk again, you should get a job.” And I got a job working for Cutco Cutlery. And it was so awesome because there was…

Hal Elrod: How did you find that job? I’m curious. I don’t know that.

Brianna Greenspan: It’s so random. It was like the first job I saw in Craigslist and actually, even more random because I walked in and the moment I walked in, I said, “Oh, Cutco, I know a lot of people that did that. That’s not for me.” And I left the training. And this guy ran after me and he said, “Well, maybe it is for you, but you won’t know unless you give it a chance.”

Hal Elrod: Wow.

Brianna Greenspan: And what’s so interesting is that I really struggled with my self-confidence at that time. I really struggled with just reading, which is a whole ‘nother conversation we’ll get into in a moment. And in the Cutco training, after you get accepted, they want you to read a script, they want you to practice. There’s a lot of things that I was not good at that were being asked of me. And so, I said, “You know what? The thing that I am good at is showing up 300%.” And so, I practiced that script. I did all of the things that were being asked of me, and as a result, I actually broke a national record in my first month.

And then you called me and you said, “Hey, I heard about you. I heard you broke a national record. You should be my coaching client.” And for me, that was like, “Heck, yes.” This guy that I’m inspired by who did something, not just learn to walk again, but you ran a 52-mile double marathon. There was a poster of you in my Cutco office. So, I knew all about you and your story, and I was so inspired.

And then, shortly after, you said, “Hey, Brianna, I want you to wake up earlier than you already do. This is just going to be a social experiment. I want you to do it for just a week and I want you to start doing these practices that I’m doing and see how it works out.” And I was an absolute, “No, thank you.” I was like, “I love you. You’re a great coach, and I’m a no because I’m not a morning person.” So, anyone who’s listening to this who is currently not a morning person or is like questioning if the Miracle Morning practices are for you, I was right there. I was like, “Absolutely, no, thank you.”

And you said one thing that changed the trajectory of my life. You said, “What if you changed the way you showed up to your own life and you got a different result?” And that was so profound for me because as someone who grew up with a chronic illness, I was constantly doing a lot of the same things, pill, shots, surgery, medication, a lot of things that weren’t actually working. But each doctor or each therapist would kind of recommend the same type of thing that I would do that would not work.

And so, you saying, “What if you just flipped the script on how you show up?” That was really intriguing. And in that moment, I had this wave of, I want to be a yes, but I’m also still confused. And I said to you, like, I understand this concept of reading, I’m not good at it, but I get what that is. I understand the concept of writing. I’m also not good at that, but I understand what that is. And I understand the concept of exercise, I’ve been in physical therapy for 20-plus years, but I didn’t understand what silence was. I’d never quite in my mind. This was like just a crazy concept. There was constantly mental chatter all of the time.

And then I didn’t understand what affirmations and visualizations were either. And you said something so profound. You basically said, “You’re a master at affirmations and visualizations just for all the things you don’t want.” And I remember distinctly, you said, “Have you ever decided that the doctor or the medication wasn’t going to work before you went through it?” And I was like, “Oh yeah, next week, this neurosurgeon, he for sure doesn’t have the answer.” And you said, “That is a visualization.”

And that was the moment that a light bulb went off. And I said, “Actually, I might be more familiar with these concepts than I had thought but probably using them in the most detrimental way possible.” And so, that was the moment that I was a yes to your ask. I was like, “Okay, I’m going to do this thing, the Miracle Morning.” And by the way, back in 2008, breathwork was not popular. Mindfulness was not popular, like meditation. These things were out there in the world, but they were not mainstream.

Hal Elrod: They were on the fringe, yeah.

Brianna Greenspan: They’re on the fringe. And so, in my first Miracle Morning the next day, I very clearly saw that if I did some version of this habit stacking, I wouldn’t spend another 24 hours in bed or in a hospital ever again. And that was the day that I said to myself, “I think I want to do this, like some version of this every day for the rest of my life.” And that was in 2008, I’ve done the Miracle Morning every single day without missing a day ever since. And I think about how I made that possible because I’m not a very consistent person. I have friends that they’re like 5 a.m. every day for two hours, I’m doing the same thing, I’m none of that.

And the reason I’ve been so successful with my own practice is because I said to myself, “I’m going to set the bar so low, I’m going to give myself a bare minimum of six minutes every day for the rest of my life.” And I think if I had said, I want to do this for 30 minutes or an hour, I probably would have missed a lot of days and then missed, like created streaks where I missed a lot because I would have been discouraged that I didn’t follow through. But because I set the bar so low, I’ve had thousands of one-hour, two-hour, three-hour Miracle Mornings. But I’ve also had hundreds and hundreds of those 6 to 10-minute Miracle Mornings.

And if I wake up and I’m throwing up or have a seizure or fill in the blank of real serious, complex challenges that happen every day, those 6 to 10-minute practices are just as powerful. They’re just as important. And so, the Miracle Morning, you handling my objections so nicely, you saying, like, “I see your limiting beliefs and I’m going to invite you to see a new perspective” really did change the trajectory of every aspect of how I showed up and how I continued to show up.

Hal Elrod: So incredible. And I’ve learned that a lot from you in terms of, it doesn’t have be this all or nothing pursuit. I think that, for me, I was always like, “All right, wake up.” I used to end my keynote speech with “Here’s the Miracle Morning 30-day challenge. Wake up one hour earlier and do the six SAVERS.” That was my challenge at the end of my speech. And you were like, “Hal, that’s like the bar at the top for people. And that’s going to overwhelm a lot of people. And they’re not going to even try it because you’re telling them you got to do it like this.” So, you’ve really taught me a lot and I baked that into the new edition of the book, like really giving yourself more flexibility and it not being perfect.

And now, when I end my speech, it’s wake up 10 to 30 minutes earlier, even 10, and do one, not six, one of the SAVERS. And then you get a win, you’re like, “Wow.” If someone’s brand new to the Miracle Morning, I say just do the R in SAVERS, meaning just read the book. And so, if you wake up 10 minutes earlier, 10 minutes is not a big deal. It’s not this huge monumental shift, right? It’s just 10 minutes. And then all you do is you walk into your living room and you open up the Miracle Morning book and you just read for 10 minutes. It’s super easy.

And then when you get to the chapter on silence, you go, “Oh, I’ll add a couple of minutes of silence in my Miracle Morning tomorrow.” Then you get to the chapter on affirmations and you add your affirmations the next day. And so, it’s like over the course of maybe a week or two, slowly, gradually, you baby step your way into a full-blown Miracle Morning. That might be 10, 15, 20, 30 minutes, or even 60 minutes. But it was easy. You leaned into it versus trying to leap into it. And so, yeah, Bri, I cannot thank you enough because that alone, your mindset and how you’ve imparted that on me has made a huge difference in how I teach people and invite people to try the Miracle Morning.

Brianna Greenspan: I’m so glad because that idea of leaning into something, ease in flow is exactly what we’re all looking for. And the truth is like, it doesn’t matter what your limiting belief is if you’re listening to this that you’re like, but you didn’t live this or that or the other, and that’s why I can’t this. Well, the truth is we’re all capable of doing significantly more than we think we are. And what’s so interesting is that for so much of my life, I thought that this was for healthy people, that there were things that I, because I grew up so ill, just weren’t capable. I had this mindset of I can’t, I won’t, and I’ll never.

And what’s interesting is that now, I actually coach kids and families and schools and districts surrounding, letting go of that mindset. And every day in my Miracle Morning, so just behind the scenes, my Miracle Morning does not look the same every day. So, the SAVERS, specifically, like those practices are amazing, but I don’t necessarily do them in the SAVERS order. I actually don’t do them in the same– I know people that they’re like, I do the reading first and then the scribing and then I do this and then I do that. Every day looks different for me.

And the one thing that is consistent is that when I wake up, I ask myself, despite how I feel right now, what can I do to best support myself for the present and long-term future of the day? And that one question, the answer is sometimes silence, right? Sometimes, it’s, “Oh, you need to move your body right now.” And so, which SAVERS I choose to do first is dependent on answering that reflective question. And so, I invite a lot of people to just say, despite what you’re experiencing, it’s not saying, let me ignore what I’m experiencing. It’s saying, like, we can do hard things. Life is hard. And that’s something that nobody taught me when I was a kid. Like, life was so hard and nobody said, actually, life is always going to be hard and it’s going to just get progressively harder in different seasons and there’s going to be new challenges added on.

And so, I couldn’t imagine my life without the Miracle Morning because the Miracle Morning didn’t magically make my illness go away. What it did is it taught me how to be my most resilient self in the midst of consistent adversity. And as a child, when I would get knocked down physically, like I would literally have something that was so physically debilitating that I couldn’t get out of bed or I couldn’t move or I couldn’t this and there were just so many of those narratives and they take me out for a long time.

And now, I’ll have an episode, as I call them, and I’ll do some of these practices. And it doesn’t matter if it’s at the beginning of the day or if I’m bringing it in at 10 a.m., 2 p.m., 5 p.m., whenever I need them and what it does is it re-regulates, it reorients me so that I’m able to pick myself back up so much quicker. And as a result, a lot of people say to me, “You’re so resilient.” I’m like, “Well, I practice it literally all day long. I get knocked down and then I have different tools that are available to me to pick myself back up.” And what’s so unique and special about the SAVERS specifically is that it’s not like a thing. It’s a category or a bucket of things. So, silence, it’s not silence. Breathwork, prayer, devotional meditation, mindfulness, there’s a whole category within each one.

Exercise, it’s not exercise. It could be riding a bike, walking. It could be doing these jumping jacks. It could be physical therapy. It could be fill in the blank. Exactly. So, for every moment, I get to meet those moments with what I need then within each category. And that has been so expansive because I’ve been able to teach myself when I have this episode, when this thing comes up. These are things that help and then I use them. It’s not just like these are things that help, that’s a nice concept. It’s like these are things that help and I’m going to do those things to move through the friction I’m feeling. And that has been just over time seeing my condition is progressive.

And as a result, I know a lot of people with this condition who have passed away, who are on disability, who are getting weaker and weaker. And I’ve retired my handicap placard, I’ve retired my neck brace. Almost every day, I’m able to walk. Almost every day, I’m able to see. And so, as a result, I’m getting stronger, where other people that don’t have these tools are constantly getting weaker. And so, I know that these tools are not only the lifeline for me, but they’re the greatest gift that I can give myself and regularly.

Hal Elrod: Yeah, yeah. Such an inspiration, Bri. You’re such an inspiration. And it’s just inspiring to see how the Miracle Morning has transformed your life, and not only physically, but physically, mentally, and emotionally. But I want to talk about the mental and emotional transformation in terms of your confidence and using your voice because for the majority of time that I knew you, you were this timid, little shy, like, “Hal, hey, I really suggest you should talk about how the Miracle Morning can help people in this way.” And I’d be like, “Bri, that’s brilliant. You should talk about that.” You’re like, “No, no, no. I’m just the idea cheerleader person. You go out and talk.”

And now, you’ve led a Clubhouse, The Miracle Morning Clubhouse room, for the last few years with hundreds, almost half million people that have been exposed to that room. I mean, you have hard core business meetings with school board directors and principals and politicians and you name it in New York City, where you’re closing deals on getting Miracle Morning books in schools and districts and so on and so forth. Your voice, you’ve talked about it like that you’ve learned how to use your voice to make an impact for other people.

So, I’d love for you to talk a little bit about how the Miracle Morning and maybe less about how the Miracle Mornings helped you, but I mean, you can tie that in, but what are you doing now? How are you paying it forward? The Miracle Morning, you just talked about how it’s transformed your life profoundly, helped you overcome limiting beliefs, physical limitations, you name it. And now, you’re paying it forward at a level that nobody else is. Like I said, you are the most unique Miracle Morning practitioner in, not just how it’s transformed your life because there’s other people that it’s helped them, but the level that you are now impacting other people by paying it forward and sharing the Miracle Morning. Talk about that.

Brianna Greenspan: Oh, it would be my pleasure. So, first, I want to say that the practices, the benefits of the practices compound. And so, I want to take you back and share a story that when I was a kid, not only did I have a lot of physical challenges, I had a lot of academic challenges that were made more complicated by the fact that I was constantly missing school and constantly not feeling well so it’s hard to pay attention when I’m in class and hard to pay attention when I was not in class. And as a result, I was not absorbing the things I was being taught at a high level. So, I was behind, I got a below-grade level. I also really struggled with reading and writing. So, I’m going to take you through. I was in special needs classes my whole life. I was like a special needs kid. I did even special needs summer camp. It was a lot.

So, I was constantly with tutors and therapists. And I remember, this is like a vulnerable share, guys. I remember I had lost the ability to walk. I had left college. And I met Hal, I started doing the Miracle Morning. And a couple of years later, my grandma said, “When are you going to go back to college?” And I said, “Why would I need to go back to college? I’m a successful entrepreneur now.” And she said, “I’m not going to be proud of you unless you graduate, unless you go back to school.” And so, there was this little interesting friction surrounding education in my family.

And so, I applied to go back to school. And like, guys, if reading and writing is challenging, school as an adult is definitely daunting. And in order to get special accommodations to help you with reading your textbooks, you have to take this thing called the neuropsychological exam. So, I took this exam and it said, I’m 24 at the time, it said that I was in the less than one percentile in word reading. So, that means out of the whole world of people who read, I’m not even in the bottom five. I’m like in the bottom one. Okay. So, my mom saw this and she said, “You must have had a seizure when you were taking the test, like, you can read, right?” And I said, “I didn’t have a seizure while taking this test. And yes, I can read, I’m just very slow.”

And I tell you the story because I had already been doing the “Miracle Morning” for four years. And there is that component reading, which I had completely and totally ignored. I had actually made up my own SAVERS. I had said reading was actually intentional learning. And so, for me…

Hal Elrod: I remember you saying that.

Brianna Greenspan: I remember me. I felt just as good about listening to an audiobook. Fine, I’m learning. I felt just as good about watching a TED Talk or listening to a podcast. It was like for me, it was just the same. And then I took this test and I said, “It’s not the same. It’s actually not the same.” I’m clearly not like, although I’m intelligent and I’m gathering information and I’m learning more, I haven’t grown in this skill. And so, I said when I was 24, I am going to become a great reader. I’m going to become a great reader. And I started to affirm that I was going to become a great reader. I started to visualize being confident reading, and that led to picking up books, reading on Kindle, doing things that were very hard for me.

And let me tell you, I’m still slow, yet I am such a great reader now that I’m able to read things that I would have never imagined. And in ways like reading things in front of people that I’ve never read before, I used to practice and practice and practice. If I was ever going to use my voice anywhere, if you wanted me to read something in class, like, I would literally be not paying attention to anyone else, just paying attention to the one sentence I was supposed to read, so I didn’t stutter through it. And that changed everything using affirmations and visualization in order to really understand that I could shift the things that I didn’t think I was good at.

And now, I’m a great reader, and I tell you that because when we talk about using your voice, I had to first gain confidence in micro skills like reading before I could ever gain confidence in my actual voice or reading with my voice. And so, through the years, I started to gain these levels of confidence with myself, with who I was, with what I was capable of, with what I stood for. And over time, because I continued to visualize being a leader, not just in my own life, but being someone who stood for humanity, being someone who stood for what matter, that was able to change how I used my voice.

And so, it went from, “Hal, what about this? And you should say this,” and like advising and supporting all of our friends that had big platforms to actually using my voice. And during the pandemic, the moment the pandemic happened, I saw that there were so many people that were hurting that didn’t know the massive amount of tools that I knew of, that I was using. And so, people kept coming to me and saying, like, “How are you handling this hard time so well? How are you navigating so easily?” And I said, “I’ve been practicing for this literally since 2008. I have these tools.” And it dawned on me that if other people had the same tools, they would be significantly more supported in how they could show up not just for themselves, but for their family and for the communities that they’re a part of.

And so, we launched the Miracle Morning Clubhouse room, which impacted almost 450,000 people so far. And that was a daily show every day for two hours during the height of the pandemic. And it continues today with a couple hundred people each week and that has been really sweet. And it led to being able to serve different audiences, as you mentioned, like serving schools and serving the next generation at such a high level. And what’s unique and interesting is that I share it with a lot of them that I had such intense challenges and that these practices daily help me to feel confident doing hard things, things that used to scare me.

I know you’ve invited me on a podcast so many times. And I was a no up until our book came out in 2016. And even that interview, I was so uncomfortable in my own skin, I was like, practicing. What was I going to say? And like, who cares? Now, I just know that I can show up and be my authentic self and just have this level of confidence because I do these practices regularly.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. So good, Bri. You just mentioned the book that we coauthored or co-created, I should say. Yeah, so Brianna came to me and said, “Hal, we need an affirmations coloring book.” And I was like, “Well, I get the gist based on what you just called it, but what’s an affirmations coloring book?” She said, “You create the affirmations or we’ll co-create them and then create images. And people can color in the affirmations. It’s a meditative practice.” Coloring is literally a meditative practice that’s being done. There’s research being done on it right now. It’s done in hospitals, it’s done in schools, it’s done in meditation centers. And she said, “Let’s make a Miracle Morning Art of Affirmations Coloring Book.” And so, as she said, in 2016, we came out with that book together with the help of Honoree Corder. We put out the Miracle Morning Art of Affirmations Coloring Book.

And the funny part is, that was kind of a unique book in the series, right? Because we’ve got The Miracle Morning for Entrepreneurs, and so, entrepreneurs are buying that book. And The Miracle Morning for Real Estate Agents, and real estate agents are buying that book, and The Miracle Morning for Parents and Families. So, those were clearly who the book was for. Miracle Morning Art of Affirmations, people are like, “What the hell is this? I don’t need a coloring book.” So, that book was kind of like, I don’t know what you call it, Bri, like…

Brianna Greenspan: That was like a red-headed stepchild of the book series.

Hal Elrod: Like a red-headed stepchild of the book series, and so…

Brianna Greenspan: In the actual series on Amazon, it didn’t even make the cut. It’s like it’s going to sit over in a corner. So funny.

Hal Elrod: And so, now, it is the bestselling book in the series. And I would love for you to talk about how that has come to be and how you’ve become the Miracle Morning director of education, bringing this into schools, which, by the way, let me just say this last thing. In 2016, I wrote down my 10-year vision, and part of the Miracle Morning 10-year vision was that by 2026, the Miracle Morning would be practiced in every school in America and then moving on to the world. I had no idea how that would happen. And it is amazing. I’m not real woo-woo, but I’ve got one foot in the woo-woo. Mostly, I’m in the practical and the actionable.

But in terms of the woo-woo, it was I wrote it down, but I didn’t make a plan. It was like, hey, the Miracle Morning is practiced in every school in America. You literally put it in the 10-year vision, but I never made a plan. And then, as I call Bri sometimes, she is one of my angels, one of the Miracle Morning angels. And she was in the Clubhouse room. And in Clubhouse, a principal– I’ll let you take it over from there. Bri, go ahead.

Brianna Greenspan: It’s so good. Guys, the universe works in mysterious ways. And so, one of the things that I think is so interesting about the Miracle Equation, having unwavering faith and putting forth extraordinary effort is that Hal and I both had unwavering faith that the Miracle Morning was going to be the tool to support the next generation. We were very clear on this, but we didn’t have crystal clarity on how that was going to come to be.

And so, I had written in my journals that I was planning to impact a million people with the Miracle Morning Art of Affirmations. I had written on a board that’s still at my parents’ house, like I had put it on a Sharpie on a board that my goal was to impact just 100,000 people with the Art of Affirmations in the first year, which is very hilarious given Hal’s goal of how many people he wanted to impact with the original Miracle Morning book in the original year. I set similarly lofty goals that did not come to be. But what did come to be is a lot of these micro stories of somebody saying, “I wanted to kill myself and I read this thing and I had a new perspective. I was hurting, and then I read this thing and I had a new perspective. I needed this in this time. This was so helpful.”

And so, there was a lot of micro evidence that this was such a powerful thing. You mentioned Honoree. And so, I want to just mention Paul Joy, because Paul Joy was the illustrator of the Art of Affirmations Coloring Book. And he’s actually the crux of the whole thing. I had wanted to make a positive psychology workbook for kids in hospitals. That was it. And I found Paul Joy, who is part of the Miracle Morning Community, and he was doodling affirmations that were so amazing that I said, “Hey, do you think that we could do this together?” And he said, “You know, this should really be a Miracle Morning book. I wish that we could present this to Hal.” I said, “I know that guy. He’s one of my best friends. I can present it to Hal.”

And so, he’s actually the catalyst for this tool that I wanted to create for kids in hospitals becoming a Miracle Morning Coloring Book, if you will. But it was never a coloring book. That was just a fancy way of saying, “I’m going to create a tool that could shift your subconscious programming.” Because what I learned is that it’s not just people with a chronic illness who think they can’t, they won’t, they’ll never, it’s sharing the whole world that showing up at a limited capacity because they don’t know what’s possible for themselves.

And as a result, we created this tool. It was full of the affirmations that Hal claims to be his favorite, that I claim to be my favorite. Like, I believe in my potential, not in my past. I’m ready and committed to make this my best year yet. I am where I am because of who I was. Yet where I go depends entirely on who I choose to be. These types of affirmations allow us to propel ourselves forward. I use that affirmation. I am where I am because of who I was. Yet where I go depends entirely on who I choose to be. And I ask people, “Well, who do you choose to be in this moment? In this moment where you get to write your own script, who do you choose to be for the next hour that we spend together, for the next day, for the next week, for the next month?”

And what’s transpired is that on this Clubhouse show, schools started reaching out and saying, “Can you sponsor our schools?” “Okay, great.” We’d already been sponsoring schools for years and years. We’d already been helping a lot of schools. The Miracle Morning for Teachers was already out. There was a lot of traction happening in schools, but in micro areas where one person said, “I love this practice, I’m going to bring it into my classroom. I love this practice, I’m going to bring it to the PTA. I love this practice, I’m going to start a club at my school.” But it was nothing that we were instigating.

And so, in that moment during the pandemic, school started saying, “This changed our school’s culture, this changed our lives. We love this. You should know X and Y and Z.” Like, these principals, specifically Jamilah Hud-Kirk and Aneesha Jacko and Roxanne Dixon, these three incredible principals, really started opening doors for us to be able to support other schools. And what that transpired into is supporting hundreds of thousands of educators, hundreds of thousands of students. We’ve created citywide initiatives. So, we’ve been able to serve.

We were just talking about, we trained 1,200 parent coordinators on bringing the Miracle Morning for Parents and Families into Title I and Title III organizations. And so, these little things just kept piling up and piling up, building evidence to say everybody needs tools to be able to shift their programming. And our programming is one that really needs not just a revamp but a complete reorganization because the world doesn’t believe in themselves. And the truth is, when you believe in yourself, the reason why Miracle Morning practitioners, like we see in our community, so many people where we see online, like the 30-plus-thousand five-star reviews, people are saying, “I did this practice and this happened.” The reason why is because when you do these practices, when you believe in yourself, when you take action that’s in alignment with your values, of course, you’re going to show up and shine because that’s what we’re meant to do. We’re all incredible.

But we often are our worst enemy because we build a wall between ourselves and our hidden potential. And the Miracle Morning helps to unlock that potential. So, we’ve been able to bring the Miracle Morning Art of Affirmation to just shy of 100,000 people. And so, that original goal is definitely being hit this week, next week. Like, right now, we’re at that goal. And it’s beautiful to see that it’s not a coloring book. I say it’s not about the coloring, it’s about what happens next. It’s about saying and reading something 10,000 times. People will tear the pages out, make vision boards, make murals, make affirmation boxes, make all of these things so that you see these affirmations, put them on your mirror, your locker, your desk, your wall, put them in high-traffic areas so that your subconscious programming is saying, “Oh, I can do hard things. What hard thing am I going to do right now?” And that is something that is undeniable. You’ll see the traction that happens in your life when you change what’s in your environment to one that supports the growth that you’re looking to have.

Hal Elrod: Yeah, yeah, well said, Bri. And it’s been so inspiring to see you bring the Miracle Morning to schools and to hear the schools and the principals talk about how their detention rates have gone down and the mental health of their staff is improving. And I mean, it is just remarkable. Last thing to close with, the last question I want to ask you is just, what do you see for the future? Well, let’s just say, what do you see for 2024 in terms of the impact that you are committed to making or want to make, will make with the Miracle Morning, whether it’s in schools, in your own life, however you want to answer that question?

Brianna Greenspan: Oh, I mean, that’s such a powerful question because the Miracle Morning in schools has created such traction that we’re bound to support upwards of a million people this year. And what’s so interesting is that I would have never been able to conceptualize that years ago. But now, working with an organization and they have 100 schools, and that 100 schools have 180,000 students and that’s just one of the 50 different projects in the works, you can see that the numbers add up and then the stories add up and the impact is just so creative. And so, whether we’re working with kids with special needs or kids in prisons or kids in K-12 education or parents or staff members or administrations or school boards, we’re being able to see that this work is just invaluable and exactly what they need. And the benefits are just rippling beyond the people that we impact into the people that they impact. And so, I’m just so grateful and love the practice. It’s changed so many people’s lives. And I hope if you’re listening to this and you’re curious about starting a practice that you commit to doing one thing that can best support your wellbeing tomorrow.

Hal Elrod: Yeah, amen. Bri, you’re such an inspiration to me. You’re one of my best friends in the whole world. You have been the biggest advocate of the Miracle Morning since almost virtually day one. And the work that you’re doing in schools is remarkable. And I love seeing you use your voice. And I’ve seen you on stage. We’ve both spoken at the same educational events in New York that you brought me into. And I’m listening. You’re going, “Oh, man, I’m taking notes. Oh, the way she explained silence is so, so great, the way she does this.” You’ve really emerged in a lot of ways, this student has become the teacher, like you teach me so much.

And the last thing I want to say for anybody listening is to really let Bri’s story inspire the best in you, because she went from being someone who was literally, physically handicapped. As a result, she was mentally handicapped. She subscribed to an arsenal of limiting beliefs and negative self-talk and limitations she put on herself. And she used the Miracle Morning for the last 15 years to transform herself into an unstoppable force in her own life and one who is selflessly serving others at the highest level. And she’s an example that, hey, if she can do it, you can do it. Bri’s an example of what’s possible for all of us when we let go of our limitations and we dedicate time every day to our self-care practices so we can become the best version of who we’re capable of being. So, let’s go, everybody. Bri, again, the most overdue conversation in the history of the podcast. I’m so grateful.

Brianna Greenspan: We’ll dig in more because I know that there’s a lot of things that can best support people in this hard time and we’re here for it. That’s what the Miracle Morning is all about. That’s what this podcast is all about. How can we achieve our goals despite what we’re actually going through that is often really hard? So, love you all.

Hal Elrod: Right. Love you all. And I would say, you all, let’s make a vote that Bri comes on the podcast more often. Maybe we co-host it, maybe she does some solo episodes. I’m planting that seed now. I planted the seed for the schools program, and it worked. So, Bri, I just planted the seed for you co-hosting the Achieve Your Goals podcast. All right, everybody, love you so much and I will talk to you all next week.

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