542: The Reinvention Formula with Craig Siegel

[INTRODUCTION]

Hal Elrod: Hello, friends. Welcome to the Achieve Your Goals podcast. This is your host, Hal Elrod. And today we’re talking with Craig Siegel. I have known Craig now for the past probably two years. We’ve spent quite a bit of time together. And he’s the author of the Wall Street Journal best-selling book, the USA Today best-selling book, The Reinvention Formula. And I feel like this is a timely topic with all of us kind of figuring out what does the future look like. And while we can’t predict the future, we can decide who we’re going to become to be able to make the most of our future. And so, that’s what today’s episode is all about.

And if you don’t know who Craig is, in addition to being a bestselling author, he is a TEDx speaker, a global keynote speaker, coach, host of the CLS Experience Podcast. He’s been endorsed by luminaries like Jim Kwik and Ed Mylett. He is a seven-time marathon runner, and he left his Wall Street job during the pandemic to pursue his true purpose. His mastery, energy, and inspirational impact have made CLS one of the most engaging communities globally. Craig focuses on removing limiting beliefs, fostering positive mindsets in both business and personal realms, and encouraging a wholehearted commitment to one’s true purpose. He believes the riskiest thing we can do is to play it safe. So, today, we’re going to talk about how you can get really clear on what you want for your life moving forward and take your first step in the direction of making that your reality.

Before we dive into the episode, in the conversation with Craig, I want to take a couple of minutes to thank our two sponsors. And really, if you want to improve your health, I highly recommend checking out Organifi. We all know the importance of healthy eating, but we don’t always have time to cook with all the colors of the rainbow. Sometimes, we don’t have the willpower necessary to eat the right nutritious foods, and Organifi superfood blends make it easy and enjoyable to add more variety and nutrition to your day every single day. These are delicious organic powders that you can add to water or juice or a smoothie, stir them with a spoon and enjoy any time for more energy, nutrition, hormone balance, and peace of mind.

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Rise is their expertly formulated nootropic blend that combines the power of lion’s mane, cordyceps mushrooms, rhodiola, ginseng, and broad-spectrum CBD. It’s how I start almost every single day when I want to be on for the day. So, head over to CuredNutrition.com/Hal. That is CuredNutrition.com/Hal. Use that same discount code ‘HAL’ for 20% off your order of Rise nootropic as a listener of the Achieve Your Goals podcast. And thank you for being a listener to the podcast. I love you, I appreciate you. It is my great honor to introduce you to my friend, Craig Siegel, talking about his and your new reinvention formula. Enjoy!

[INTERVIEW]

Hal Elrod: Craig Siegel, it is good to be with you, brother.

Craig Siegel: Oh, man, it’s always good to be with you, brother. There’s no place I’d rather be. Let’s have some fun. Let’s chop some nuggets. Let’s get nuts.

Hal Elrod: I thought that, for sure, as I was prepping for today’s episode, I’m like, “I’ve had Craig on the podcast before.” And then I went and searched all my episodes. I’m like, “Where is the episode with Craig?” And maybe it’s just because I’ve been on your show a couple of times and we’ve had multiple conversations. And so, I lost track of where those conversations were all taking place. So, this is the first time you’re on the show, man, and I’m excited to share your, I would say, your wisdom, and that’s true, but your heart. Like that, for me, when I think of Craig Siegel, I don’t just think of like your wisdom. I really think of like just the authenticity, the heart. So, thank you for how you show up and how you’re going to show up today, man.

Craig Siegel: Thank you, brother. Appreciate it. Let’s have some fun. I’m honored to be here.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. So, you wrote a book called The Reinvention Formula. That to me is right now, I mean, it’s a timeless concept but, to me, it’s really relevant because I think that people are feeling either a need to reinvent themselves, they’re, by default, having to reinvent themselves. Like my dad, for example, my father-in-law just retired. My father is approaching retirement and he keeps delaying it because the idea of reinventing himself and like, “What does life look like without this steady paycheck?” And what does life look like without my identity as this executive for this guy, right? And so, it’s really scary for him. I know it is. He’s shared that with me. And so, whatever the reinvention is for people, in fact, let’s start there. How do you define reinvention? That’s a good place to start.

Craig Siegel: That is a good place to start. So, we just did a whole TED talk on this, which just dropped. And the whole concept of that was reinvention is not what you’ve been taught. And I think that when people hear the term ‘reinvention,’ it could sound scary because like, “Oh, I’m starting over,” or, “I’m starting from scratch,” or, “Maybe it’s too late,” and I don’t believe it’s any of those things. I believe reinvention is not starting over. It’s finishing and executing on what you’ve been dying to do. It’s the journey back to yourself. And also, as long as you’ve been having this human experience, you’re never really starting from scratch because you’re taking all the lessons and all the experiences with you.

And so, I want everybody to know reinvention is not this big, whole grand I’m starting over at any age now. It’s the journey back to you. What is it that you, your being, not any of the personalities or any of the BS, what is it that you really feel connected to? And let’s dive into that.

Hal Elrod: I love that. For me, something that came up in terms of my own personal reinvention recently, Craig, is I was mentoring a Cutco rep. So, a friend of mine started selling Cutco, and he reached out to me, Cal Callahan. He said, “Hey, my son is selling Cutco. Would you mentor him or just have a conversation with them essentially, and give him some pointers?” And so, I jumped on a call with him and we were talking for a while, and then I go, I was sharing something that I used to do when I was with Cutco, and I go, “Let me find a document. I think I have a document that gives this word-for-word.”

And so, I go through and I google and I find this 13-page like it was like the Cutco Bible that I had written in 2013. And I’m reading through it and I’m going, “Damn, I was…” like I thought differently back then, like, life has beat me up along the way.” And life has damaged my brain a little bit on and on. And so, here’s my point in this, and I’m sharing this, is that I realized that, actually, a few weeks ago, I was like, “I need to reinvent myself,” but it’s not starting from scratch. It’s taking the best of who I was in the past, combining it with the wisdom I have at 45 years old now, right? And really just becoming the best version of myself.

And so, to me, that’s how I would define reinvention or what you just said is it’s like it’s becoming the best version of yourself, getting back to who you really are, not who life has told you, you need to be or forced you into becoming. Talk about your story for people. Just share the story. Why did you reinvent yourself and how did you begin that journey?

Craig Siegel: Yeah. And I just want to say I totally agree with what you said but those are beautifully said. And let’s just say you want it to get in the best shape of your life, whatever you train for something. That’s not reinventing yourself but maybe it is, right? Maybe you’re just taking some of the attributes and skillsets that you had, and you’re going to get very disciplined and consistent. You have a goal. So, it’s not this big, audacious thing. It’s committing. And in regards to my story, brother, I feel like I’ve had two lives.

So, prior to the pandemic, I spent 13 years on Wall Street. And I know you can relate to that environment, and it was a lot of fun until it wasn’t and very stressful. And I was making a lot of money at the time. And at that season of my life when I was a bit more unenlightened, if you will, yeah, more of an ego consciousness, I was motivated by money. That was okay for that time but ultimately, as I began to grow with my spirituality and so forth, that career kind of started to get left behind. And so, I pivoted from the stock thing and I started my own company, basically, supplying working capital in loans all across the country. Wasn’t it stressful?

And it was lucrative, but once again, it wasn’t exactly like I was waking up every day and my soul was expanding. On the contrary, it was actually contracting. And as a result, I found myself in a very dark place and a few things happened at once. I just got out of a toxic relationship, which at the time is never fun. My best friend, my dad, had just been diagnosed with cancer. He’s still battling and even though I had my own business, I just felt so unfulfilled and I lacked purpose. And I started to slide into a little bit of a depression. I wasn’t diagnosed, but that’s how I would describe it. It was dark. I was very pessimistic. I was drinking a little bit more than I’d like to admit. And the reality was is I lacked real meaning with my life.

And so, all of a sudden, I started running. I felt connected to go for a run one day, and that led to just running marathons and marathons. And that was big for me because I had never been a runner and I started to run fast. But really, it wasn’t about the 26.2 miles, it was about the transformation. It was about building up and expanding my vessel. It was about beating the opponent in the head. And then ultimately the pandemic happened. And I guess you could say for me at the time, it was a forced pivot because I shut down my office for what I thought would be two weeks back then, and I just said, if not now, then when?

And I really had a spiritual moment. It was like I take accountability for this. But because I was a business owner on Wall Street, I never took the time to kind of slow down and reassess. And that was on me. And once I finally did that, I totally understood how mindfulness, one of your favorite practices that you see all over the world, was actually a portal to expansion for me. And it was at that moment when I was able to really connect to a creator and start getting the downloads, or what most people would consider divine inspiration or divine intervention. And that’s why I…

Hal Elrod: I call them downloads on my own. When I’m journaling, I go, “Ooh, downloads.” Downloads or breakthroughs. Yeah.

Craig Siegel: Same, brother. Same. And so, it occurred to me that I’ve been obsessed with personal development for 15 years, reading it, studying it in classes, NLP, Kabbalah, the law of attraction. I just didn’t think I was worthy of turning that into a career until I realized I think this is more than just a passion. This is my assignment. And so, once I started focusing on instead of what most people do, which is what can go wrong or it’s too late, right out of experience, I started shifting my focus to what can go right, what else is possible? And I put together a whole strategy. I started my CLS brand and I started putting out content.

And over the last 20 years, the brand took off, launched a book, speaking all over the world, just the UN, the podcast, the community coaching, all the things, left Wall Street for good. And this is it for me, in some capacity for the rest of my life. And I think for the first time in my life at that moment, I was authentic and I was in alignment. And as you know, when you really awaken that desire and you have the courage to be yourself, that’s when you can also receive surprise support or blessings or miracles, if you will.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. That’s one thing I love about your, I guess, style if you will. I don’t know if style is the right word. I think there’s a deeper word there. But, Craig, is that you do combine like it’s like Wall Street plus woo-woo, right? Like, meaning, that you really bring this financial business success goal setting like very structured mindset and approach that created a lot of success for you. But then you have gone on such a deep, broad spiritual path and journey that it really is kind of the best of both worlds. You mentioned your brand, CLS, which stands for, I believe, correct me if I’m wrong, Cultivate Lasting Symphony. Correct?

Craig Siegel: That and also Craig Landon Siegel.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. So, it’s your initials which is great and Cultivate Lasting Symphony but I don’t know what it means. It’s such a unique, Cultivate Lasting Symphony. That sounds beautiful. What does that mean?

Craig Siegel: You know what, brother, in the pandemic, when I put myself in that frequency to be available for why I’m really here and what the next season of life looks like for me. I was on a run in Central Park and it just came to me. I had always loved the word ‘symphony.’ Now, I’m not even a musician. I think of a symphony, I think of like an orchestra all playing in tempo on the same page, seamless, beautiful, effortless. And I wanted this to be something that represented not just like fleeting motivation, but something like that really change the conversations in your head and something that would be lasting. So, it just came to me, Cultivate Lasting Symphony. It was also a play on my initials.

I’ll never forget in that this is probably like really early in the pandemic. I pulled over. It hit me like a nunchuck to the throat. When I got the download, it pulled over to a bench in Central Park, and the first thing I did was I opened my phone. I went to GoDaddy.com. I was racing to get that domain as if that domain is going to be taken. For anyone listening right now that’s looking to reinvent themselves, do something else, I purchased that domain, which seems like such a small thing at the moment. That was huge. It made it real for me. I had so much momentum, brother. I came back and I put it all together and I never look back. So, kind of a long-winded answer. I’m a strange cat, always liked the word ‘symphony,’ and it’s a play of my initials.

Hal Elrod: I love that. No, and it reminds me of when I had the download for Miracle Morning and I went to GoDaddy and I’m like, “Dude, is the domain… The domain’s available!” Right? And like you said, it becomes…

Craig Siegel: That was available? No problem?

Hal Elrod: I couldn’t believe it. Yeah. I couldn’t believe it.

Craig Siegel: Wow. That’s great.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. At the time, it was. So, let’s get tangible. What is the reinvention formula? Break that down. Give people the steps, the tangible tricks, the methods, whatever you feel would be most valuable for somebody listening that they could apply to their life.

Craig Siegel: Yeah. So, for me, over the last year and a half have really gone into spirituality and stuff, and I think that stuff is really the needle mover. But I know we have to marry that with the tangible, with the practical, and so forth. And so, for anyone listening out there right now, that right away just listening today or just knows that they’re here for something more. And I saw a really alarming stat when I was doing the data for my TED Talk and that was only 20% of Americans find purpose in the work that they do. Could you imagine? That means 80% of the population that’s going to work doesn’t really love their job.

And I just want to be clear to anyone because I know there’s a big misconception about that. You’re going to spend about a third of your life most likely in your career, another third sleeping. You better love it, right? And when you do love it, when you have a desire for it and to wake and that you’re excited and you’re in alignment, there’s no better feeling. And that’s when you can really make the most impact. And so, if you’re listening right now and you’re just considering, right, that you want to do something else, I would just have you ask yourself, what else is possible for you to choose today, that if you did choose it could create an entirely different future?

And it’s funny because when you ask people this question and they’re so programmed, Hal, to be like pessimistic or be realistic, or maybe they’re beaten down by life and so forth, which is I’m empathetic towards, they really, really, really struggle with considering what can go right, what would they want to do, what are their skill sets, what else is possible. And then once you break that all down and we get rid of all the judgments that we’ve created over time based on where we are in life where we’re not where we thought we’d be, and we could just act from our being, and we can start to realize, “Oh, this is what I really love. This is what I’m good at.” And then we could begin to marry the two.

So, for example, for me, I was obsessed with personal development ever since I started NLP, like maybe 15 years ago, I had the ability to communicate pretty effectively. So, to be able to communicate and love personal development, for me, I was onto something. For anyone else listening, create two lists, the things that you love, the skill sets that you have, and there will be some commonalities at the beginning. And then right from there, now at least, we have a path.

Hal Elrod: I love it. You’re so right in terms of people rarely ask like this possibility thinking of what could I create or what could go right. It’s always immediately when we think about making a change aka reinventing ourselves, but just making any change, our brain goes to protect ourselves. “Oh, well, what could go wrong?” And we’re on the lookout for all of the potential challenges, failure, and then we don’t take that first step because we’re afraid. And I love that you’re just simply starting. Ask that question again, Craig, because it was a long but a very intentional question.

Craig Siegel: Yes. So, most people develop all these different personalities or judgments throughout lifetime. So, what I encourage everybody to do right now, pause this, grab a pen, whatever is good for you.

Hal Elrod: I’ve got a pen.

Craig Siegel: Ask yourself, write it down, what else is possible for you to choose today that if you did choose it would create the future that you desire? It’s crazy, Hal, between me and you, brother, well, and the whole audience, of course, I was on a coaching call. I was coaching one of my clients or my students yesterday, and I asked this exact question. And it was so challenging for her to get over the imposter syndrome, the unworthiness, the limited beliefs, the ego, the opponent. He had such a tight grip on her that it was so hard for her to even play with this question. Just had some fun with it. It was so challenging for her. And so, once we can really lean into this, we can start to break away the shackles and the different judgments that we’ve accumulated over life.

Hal Elrod: I love it. I wrote the question down. There it is. I’m holding it up. Written down. I’m going to personally explore that. Now, though, let me ask you about age. So, I’m 45. My dad is potentially looking at reinventing himself, and he’d like to start his own business into retirement. So, he doesn’t really want to just stop working. He wants to do something that he loves. Right? And it’s like he’s like 66 or 60… How old is my dad? 67. And he used to have a business decades ago and he kind of went into corporate or I don’t know if it’s corporate America, I guess it is, but he’s always longed to create something from scratch.

And he and I right now are talking about like what business could we create together. And I was talking to a buddy of mine, Jon Vroman, founder of Front Row Dads, and he said, “Hal,” he said there are not too many fathers and sons at that age are looking at starting a business when your dad is 60, 67 years old.

Craig Siegel: That’s cool.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. But the reinvention piece, here’s my point. The whole point in this is regarding age, I know that’s a big limitation. Let’s actually identify what are the other limitations. So, age is one. I’m too old to reinvent myself. Fear of failure, of course, fear of financial distress. Like, what if I reinvent myself and I’ve got this, at least, a steady paycheck? I might not love the work. It might not be as much money as I need or would really like but it’s the only thing that I can count on. And I’m afraid of what’s on the other side of me taking a risk. So, what are the things that prevent people from reinventing themselves?

Craig Siegel: Hal, brother, you know which one I say often and this one is very real because people make it real and that is the fear of judgment. What if I look silly? What if I mess up? What if it doesn’t work out? People really give a lot of energy to that because I noticed like if somebody could try something and build it from scratch at any age, but no one would know about it, they’re much more likely to take action. But once they put themselves out there, they start telling people, oh man, all of a sudden all these crippling, limiting beliefs come in and it’s very real.

Hal Elrod: So, fear of judgment. What about fear of failure and specifically related to financial failure? And let me just tell you, personally, right now, when it comes to even starting a business, the future feels so uncertain, meaning starting a business that I’m not, you know, new business for me and/or my dad as the future feels uncertain, the economy where we’re at right now on the brink of another recession if not depression. So, what does reinvention look like? How do you deal with that fear? The fear of failure and/or specifically financial failure?

Craig Siegel: I think that every single situation has a reframe and reframes aren’t just like for your mindset. They’re real. So, in any downturn in the economy or anytime there’s turbulence, it can hurt in some ways, but that could also present opportunities in others if you’re willing to be open and available for it. So, look, making money, I believe, is a skill. And what makes you successful, Hal, in the things that you’re unbelievable at, I don’t think those are the things. I think it’s you, brother. And I believe wholeheartedly that those skills are transferable to anything that you want to do. And so, you can take that to anything.

And I understand like fear of financial stuff but like, look, a lot of people are just coasting right now. There’s a thing called golden handcuffs. I see that a lot where it’s people are in an okay job. They don’t necessarily love it, but it pays the bills. And so, they would rather do that and stay unfulfilled than take a calculated risk and really stretch themselves outside their comfort zone with the potential to live a life fully of impact and fulfillment. So, I mean, you have to have that desire, like make it real for yourself. How bad do you want it in?

And something that I always like to ask myself, and I talk a lot about this in the book, is I always considered the COI and that is the cost of inaction, right? So, if you don’t take any action, you just keep doing what you’re doing, you wake up 6, God forbid, 12 months from now, is that okay with you? For me, in the pandemic starting when I did, I had no social media presence, no celebrity friends, nothing. I just consider that. And for me to go back to Wall Street and choose to stay out of alignment and miserable, I began to literally associate with that because, quite frankly, I don’t even think I was alive at that point. I was just kind of coasting and existing. And so, for me, all of a sudden, the fear of stepping into the unknown began to transform into excitement because I considered the alternative.

Hal Elrod: Well, what I liked about that is everything begins with our mindset. And just specifically it begins with how we approach, how we view life, how we approach life, what we do. There’s a lot of things we can’t control. But what we can control, even I text my dad, and my sister the other day. I’m looking to try and look for this quote that I sent them. Hold on.

Craig Siegel: Send it to me next time too, please.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. I don’t know where it is. It was basically something along the lines of six months from now, you’re either going to have six months of the same or six months of progress.

Craig Siegel: Right. Perfect.

Hal Elrod: And that… Oh, there’s a mosquito flying right in front of me. Got him.

Craig Siegel: You got him.

Hal Elrod: But anyway, yeah, six months of progress or six months of the same, right? And I think that for anybody listening, there’s a little bit of a gut check. Like, starting with what you’re saying, Craig, which is everybody’s got to start, you go to start dreaming. I did a podcast a couple of weeks ago about how we’ve all stopped dreaming. Like, in 2020, I think a lot of us started, like, even if we did have dreams for the future, in 2020, it’s like everybody became restrictive, constrictive, and started playing defense rather than offense in their life. And I’m guilty of it, too. I absolutely have. And it’s not like, oh, okay, the pandemic’s over two weeks, whatever.

Now, everything’s back to normal, and we can be expansive again. It’s like, wait, what’s happening now? What’s going on? And it felt very restrictive. And so, I think that we’ve got to start dreaming again. What about from your perspective? Like, dreaming, it can be considered cliche, but I think it’s real. It’s important that we start considering what does a better future look like for us. What do we want? So, how can people start dreaming again from your perspective or making their dreams a reality?

Craig Siegel: First of all, I could not agree more with you, in regards to thinking bigger, challenging, and limitations and giving yourself permission to get curious and dream again, right? And it’s like, even something happened to me recently where I hit a lot of the goals that I had set out for the year and, almost too fast, very humbly. And I’m like, I feel a little bit of like a complacency recently, but I have this eye of the tiger that I want to awaken, but I’m just not sure where to focus it.

And so, I was speaking to one of my spiritual advisors because I think we should all have coaches and mentors in many capacities. And he was like, one thing that you’re great at that you haven’t done in a while is just come up with something that scares the sh*t out of you and throw it in the calendar. And then let’s reverse engineer. And now that the goal is set, we can sort of awakening the desire. We can get really excited about it. And I got to tell you, every time I do that, I don’t even have to know how I’m going to get to it. As soon as I set it and I start awakening desire, all of a sudden, indeed something happen, someone reaches out to me. An opportunity presents, so it begins to unfold.

So, I could not agree with you more. I think it’s so important for anyone listening today. Give yourself time. Put it in the calendar. Just go for a walk. Just start dreaming again. What do you want to do? What do you want to sink your teeth into? What else is possible?

Hal Elrod: Craig, I love all of that. And a mentor of mine when I was in my 20s, he was giving a speech once and he said, “Most people, they don’t attempt big goals because they don’t know how they’re going to get there. They don’t allow themselves to dream because they don’t know how to make the dream come true or make it a reality.” And he said, “Once you commit, the how reveals itself.” And that’s exactly what you just said.

And it’s funny, I just experienced this myself. So, my dad and I were talking the other night for 2.5 hours. Awesome conversation. And he brought up the idea of a business and starting a business. And every time he’s brought this up in the past, and I didn’t realize it until that moment, I’ve always been like, “Dad, I love that idea, but…” There’s always a but, but not right now, but I’m too busy, but the economy might crash soon, so we should weigh. There’s always a but. And this time it was like, dad, I think it’s because I had just started dreaming again and I’m like, yes, let’s commit to go down this path and to start a business.

And then a friend reached out, and I won’t say who, I mean, just the timing was amazing because her book won’t come out until December, but she wrote a book on how to start businesses. And she is worth tens of millions of dollars. She’s been teaching on the space but never had a book. She’s brilliant. And she reached out and wanted a testimonial or a blurb. She said, “Hey, here’s an advance copy of my book that teaches step by step how to go from I want to start a business, but I’ve no idea where to start to. Now, I’ve got the idea. Now, I’ve done the research. Now, I’ve got the financial backing. Now, I’ve executed. Now, I’ve got an operator run. I mean, everything.” And I go, “Dad, the timing is impeccable. We just got this. I got this book. She sent it to me six months before it comes out. And it teaches us exactly how to do exactly what we just talked about and committed to doing.”

And so, that’s it. If you’re listening, you’ve got to start by going for that walk and asking yourself, what do I want? Not what do I think is realistic or likely or guaranteed because the future is not guaranteed. We have no idea what’s going to happen, right? But the dreamers become the doers, and those are the people that are living a life of fulfillment. It starts from that place of like Craig is talking about, asking yourself, what do you really want?

Craig Siegel: Hal, I want to unpack that for a second. Those are absolutely beautiful. And I know me, you kind of jammed out recently my community about spirituality and stuff. And I think it’s important to mention what just happened there, right? So, you commit to something, and by doing that, you’re tapping into a different consciousness. I call it this word, the certainty consciousness or knowing, if you will. So, there’s obviously self-belief. There’s being confident, and then there’s certainty consciousness.

And I think of a story that comes to mind if I could just tell it in a minute. So, I think of, everyone probably knows the story of Passover. You don’t have to be Jewish to understand this. Basically, Moses freed the Jews out of Egypt, and then all the pharaohs were chasing them, and then the Red Sea. And basically, what happened was the Israelites stood at the Red Sea, and they were provided with this technology of mind over matter, a knowing, a certainty consciousness. And they were being chased by the pharaohs, and they come up to the sea and they look behind them. It looks like a dead end to them, right? But there’s only one thing that they can do at that moment, as Moses was guiding them, and that was to exercise certainty.

And so, if the consciousness of the Israelites had contained any doubts about, could it work out, whether they could split the sea or not, or will the business work, it would not have succeeded. They continued walking into the sea until the water reached their neck, and only then did the sea split. So, the miracle is, without this technology, we don’t allow room for surprise, support, divine blessings, miracle. Someone to reach out, you can open on my book on just the topic that you want to do. So, you have to tap into something else. It’s a little bit beyond our logic, and the best way to do that is what you nailed, and that’s committing. And once you commit, activating that, knowing that you don’t have to necessarily worry about the how, but that’s when real blessings can start to unfold.

Hal Elrod: Yeah, that is so well said. And it is really a testament to, like if you look at anyone who has really created an amazing, extraordinary outcome in their life, they always talk about how they left before they knew how they were going to get there and that the right people and places and resources along the journey showed up at the right time. And that’s like a common tale, and I call it the Miracle Equation. So, instead of certainty consciousness, I just got unwavering faith, right? Different words, same exact thing.

When you go through life with unwavering faith that you can overcome or accomplish anything that you commit to, and then you put forth extraordinary effort consistently over an extended period of time, that’s when miracles become real. And you just use the word miracles a minute ago. So, yes, call it certainty consciousness, call it unwavering faith. And it can be in God. I think it can be in, whether it’s the higher power, but it also is unwavering faith in your ability, right? Like, we have to have faith in ourselves to keep moving forward. And so, I want to ask you, what advice would you give to someone who feels unworthy?

Craig Siegel: Yeah, you see this all the time, right? So, what is that judgment about yourself? Why are you unworthy? And then when you begin to unpack that, if you really want to go deep, they start to tell all the reasons as to why it’s too old or it’s too late, or they don’t have experience or this side of that thing. And then you ask them, “Are those beliefs that you just mentioned actually true?” And they’re like, “No, I don’t think so. They’re just judgments that I put upon myself.” “Okay, understood.” So, what else is possible? And then they could say, oh, yes, because it’s a little bit later, I have so much wisdom. Or maybe I can hit the ground running or maybe I can collapse time. I can throw myself with the right people, or I don’t know everything, but I’m willing to work with someone that can teach me to get there. And then all of a sudden, they start shifting their energy.

And so, when it comes to unworthiness, really, you have to have awareness to understand that whatever you feel unworthy of is not actually true. It’s a personality and a judgment that’s been created and molded over time. The society, your parents and news, whatever the case may be. And if we can unravel that and realize that it’s not actually true, now, we could choose a different belief and start to awaken desire for that. And that’s the thing you can really take off. But to be fair, this requires a lot of inner work.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. No, it absolutely does. Let’s talk a bit about the inner work. Meaning, I know you are a mindset coach. You are a mindset expert. How can people replace their negative beliefs, their self-limiting beliefs with positive, empowering, proactive ones?

Craig Siegel: Yeah. So, I think beliefs probably control our reality. Our point of view will create our reality, not the other way around. So many people, for example, a lot of people struggle with money, and that’s something we’re all trying to get better at, right? But a lot of people think that because they don’t have the income that they desire, they’re feeling some type of way. But is that really the case, or is it because they’re feeling some type of way? They don’t have the income desire because everything is energy and you’re a vibrational match, right? And so, this is really deep stuff, but it’s very, very accessible if you want to do the work.

Whatever’s happening in your life, you are manifesting. And you’re not going to manifest what you want, you’re going to manifest what you are because that’s the vibration that you’re sending out, right? So, it’s like you’re tuned into a certain frequency. So, if you want to change it, then we have to unravel what we’re projecting and change that to what you actually want to call in. And that requires a lot of vulnerability and really being honest with yourself. You don’t have to love everything about yourself, but you do have to accept that because then we can start to make changes.

And just like kind of the theme of this conversation, we’ve been talking about a lot about asking yourself what else is possible, really have to go into creation mode and realize you can create anything you want in this world, but you have to be willing to arm yourself with enriching, empowering, positive beliefs, possibilities, opportunities, and those are the ones that have to drive the car. You cannot create the stuff that you think that you want while holding on to unworthiness, subconscious negative beliefs, all that stuff. So, you have to acknowledge them, first and foremost, okay. But like an intruder in your house, get out and let’s replace them with the ones that are going to set us up for success.

Hal Elrod: So, let’s get practical in terms of like an exercise that people can do to do that, which is, yes, we’ve got to replace these negative beliefs, these disempowering beliefs with empowering ones. Is there a technique, like journaling practice or utilizing affirmations? Or what do you do and/or teach your clients to do to actually, practically, move through that, to actually do this?

Craig Siegel: Yeah. First of all, I think, all those are effective, which is one of the reasons why you, my friend, are changing the world through the SAVERS and the stuff that you do because all of those are good, right? But look, I would take some time to journal and really get clarity and have fun, begin to play it, and write a very compelling future for yourself. What does that look like? What are you doing? What are some dreams? What are some goals that you have?

And now that we have that and we can kind of start to get excited about, come 2025, I want to be doing this or I want to be already six months into this, or I want to be this type of weight, I want to start this business with my dad, whatever the case may be, then we can begin to reverse engineer. Okay, so what are the things that we need to do to get there? What are some of the beliefs, number one, that we need to adopt? What are some of the ones that we need to let go of?

A lot of times, everyone said no for that next quick fix and the next trendy thing, the algorithm. You want to add stuff. I encourage a lot of my students and my clients to say, let’s make a list of the things that we can let go of, waiting for the perfect time. Everything has to be right. Just everything, right? Give yourself permission to be less than perfect. I’m a big opponent of messy action, and also, one of the biggest things that I didn’t, and I think a lot of people could probably benefit from this is let go of trying to be something you’re not, right?

Authenticity could be one of the most scary things, but if you have the courage to really be yourself, life and the universe will begin to act as a true, authentic filter, and the right people have an opportunity to gravitate towards you. The wrong people will exit. And that’s the miracles can really happen. So, you have to find out who you are, where you want to take this thing, and then we can begin to reverse engineer. And like you said, visualization, affirmations, those are all unbelievable as well.

Hal Elrod: Awesome, brother. Well, I could talk to you all day, Craig. The book is The Reinvention Formula. Where is the best place for people to keep learning from you, keep connecting with you?

Craig Siegel: Yeah. Anywhere you buy books, I mean, magic formula, any way you listen to podcasts, CLS Experience, anywhere in social media @craigsiegel_cls. The massive community that’s growing rapidly that Hal is awesome enough to come in and be a guest with, you can check that out on our website, CultivateLastingSymphony.com. And if you love free inspirational nuggets throughout the week, we send a couple of free texts, you can join that. Just text (917) 634-3796 and text the word Hal, so that I know that you heard it here.

Hal Elrod: Right on brother. Well, Craig, the more time I spend with you, the more I admire and appreciate you, man. So, thank you for how you’re– I’m grateful you reinvented yourself, the things for how you’re showing up and leading others.

Craig Siegel: Thank you, brother, for having me. Love our friendship. And let’s keep going. Let’s do some great stuff together.

Hal Elrod: Alright, brother. See you soon.

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