Episode 193: How to Overcome & Achieve (Almost) Anything: Wisdom I just shared with one of my first coaching clients…

[INTERVIEW]

 

Rob: Welcome to the MWF Motivation Podcast. I am excited. I’m coming to you live from Florence, Italy and I have Hal Elrod who, if you don’t know, was actually one of my very first mentors with his best friend, Jon Berghoff, when I was 19 years old. I hired them to be my mentors and I paid more to have them my mentors every single month than I actually paid in rent at 19 years old. And it was the best investment that I ever made in my entire life because I was at the point in my life where I could’ve gone two different ways. I could’ve gone the crazy, party route of being in college which I did do for a little while, but I was at that fork and I forked and went a different way once I start in Cutco and once I have them as mentors. And when I actually started investing myself in a substantial amount of money is when I started really taking my life seriously. And so, that’s one way that Hal changed my life. The second way that Hal changed my life was actually at his Best Year Ever Blueprint Event, the very first one. I was sitting in the crowd and I remember, I told Jon this, the specific moment that this happened when I decided to start the podcast because I started the podcast in that moment and I was sitting there and I was working for someone else for a while and I thought, “I really don’t feel like I’m living up to my potential and I just want to do something that helps people and I need to figure out how to do it.” And so, a couple of million downloads of a podcast later, a few hundred thousand people following me on Facebook and all those things and the Best Year Blueprint was something that was the catalyst for that. So, I want to tell you I appreciate that, Hal.

 

Hal: Rob, I am so proud of what you’ve done, man. It’s almost like a proud father. When I see your videos on Facebook or YouTube with a million views, I’m like, “God, Rob is killing it and adding so much value.” I’m proud of you, man. Really, really cool to see you. And grateful that the Best Year Ever could be a catalyst for that which obviously the next one’s coming up in a couple of weeks here, November 17 through the 19th.

 

Rob: And I’d love to talk about that, but I want to talk about – so first off, what I want to talk about is how your life has changed a lot in the past, what, year-and-a-half, 13 months? How long has it been?

 

Hal: Year. It’s been a while. I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a very aggressive and potentially fatal form of cancer. About a year ago, it was just right before or right after Halloween 2016 so yes, it was right around a year ago.

 

Rob: So, I’m curious, well number one, if anybody’s watching the video on YouTube or Facebook, they could see that there’s a camera guy walking around in the background. So, was Nick actually recording before that started? Were you recording the video before that happened?

 

Hal: The Miracle Morning movie which is a documentary about morning rituals that kind of goes beyond the book, we started recording that two years ago. In fact, the other day I got a Facebook memory that popped up that was the day I was with Robert Kiyosaki and his wife Kim, Nick and I was at his office in Phoenix filming him for the movie. And the other day, a memory came up on Facebook and said, “It’s been two years.” I’m like, “It’s been two years since we started filming the movie?” So, yeah, we’re filming the movie and we had a whole plan and vision. Nick is the director. Nick Conedera had this vision of what the movie was going to be and then all of a sudden, I got cancer. There were a lot of shots, by the way, that we had to film where we planned on filming later that going back and filming some earlier shots but then I lost 40 pounds. I was 6 feet tall, 127 pounds, lost every hair on my body. No eyelashes, no eyebrows, no armpit hair, nothing and we’re like, “Well, we can’t go back into reshoots.” So, then we went, “Well,” and this is also such an extraordinary part of this Miracle Morning mission that the founder, if you will, I was sidelined with cancer and potentially could die. And so now the film just took a turn and we’re editing in the final stages and brushing the debut at the Best Year Ever Blueprint. That’s the plan.

 

Rob: That’s so exciting. Okay. So, I’m curious. That’s like the perfect, you know, it’s kind of like an actual movie would be where there’s just this huge plot twist, right?

 

Hal: Yeah. Totally.

 

Rob: But it’s real life which is the craziest part about it. So, you have actually been – you were in a car crash when you were younger which is a whole other crazy story. So, one can go back and listen to the first episode that we did about two years ago now and you were in a car crash and were actually dead for about six minutes. And so, I’m assuming that made you take a whole different turn on what you thought about life, what you appreciated. I’m curious to find out with this happening and possibly something being fatal coming up in your future, now not being 21 years old, you have a wife, you have two kids, all of that stuff, what was that like? What was that whole experience like and how do you think you’ve come out on the other end?

 

Hal: Yeah. It’s something that you never think like when I was 20, I was hit head-on by a drunk driver, died for six minutes, broke 11 bones I believe it was, and you think that’s something that doesn’t happen to you. We all think, you see that stuff on the news, those crazy tragedies and you’re like, “Oh my gosh.” Your heart goes out for those people but then you can change the channel and you’re back to normal. And when I have the car accident, I was like there was no changing the channel. I was like, “Wait. I’m really being told by doctors I’m never going to walk again?” I’m only 20 years old. I have a lot of plans that involved walking. But obviously, that taught me the greatest lesson that it taught me which I’ll share in a second when how I brought it back in these current circumstances. I woke up last year and I couldn’t breathe. I was gasping for air in the middle of the night. And this went on for a couple of days and it was not getting better, so I went to urgent care and they diagnosed me with pneumonia, gave me antibiotics. I went home. They said, “If it doesn’t get better, go see your regular doctor because we’re not sure but we think it’s pneumonia. There’s a mass on your lung.” And so, I went home. A couple of days later still I can’t breathe. I’m sleeping in the guest room because I’m wheezing at night. My wife can’t stay asleep and I go see my regular doctor and he calls me to come in the next day and he sits me down and he’s very serious.

 

And it’s almost like he doesn’t want to tell me, and I go, “Doc, just so you know, I accept all things that I can’t change before they even happen so whatever you’re going to tell me right now, whatever the diagnosis is, I’m at peace with it, my friend. Let me have it.” And so, he says, “Well, there’s definitely something going on and it could be some sort of viral infection,” but he said, “It could be cancer. You’re showing the signs of a lymphoma with these masses in your chest.” And I go I’m thinking, “I’m like the healthiest person I know. I eat super healthy. I have no chemicals in my house. I’m like there’s no way. I don’t think it’s cancer.” So, I go I call my wife who was visiting my grandmother with our kids and I couldn’t go on the trip because I couldn’t breathe so I stayed back. And I called her to tell her the news and I was at peace with it. I was okay but telling her news that in her mind could be interpreted as you’re facing a potentially fatal disease that could take you away from me and our kids forever. And so, facing, knowing that that’s how she would receive it, I started crying. I got really emotional and it wasn’t the emotion that I was experiencing from my own interpretation of the cancer. It was how hard it would be for her to hear that.

 

So, I was crying, she was crying and then I got off the phone with her and then I went back into my own processing which I was okay with. And here’s how I took it. I called Jon Berghoff, our good friend and the co-creator of Best Year Ever Blueprint and I told him. I said, “Jon, hey, best case scenario I’ve got some sort of crazy viral infection,” and he knew that I was having trouble breathing so he knew there’s something going on. I said, “But worst-case scenario, the doctor said it could be this really rare form of cancer.” And I think when someone tells you that, it’s like how do you respond? Like, “Uh, that sucks.” And I said, “Jon, I said but look if it’s cancer, everything happens for a reason, but we have to choose the reasons and I’m going to choose that this is something that this is the next adversity in my life that I meant to learn from and then whatever I learn, pay forward that lesson by sharing with other people.” I said, “If there’s anything I learned from my car accident is that it’s not what happens to you. It really is how you interpret it and how you respond.” And the same thing when I was told by doctors that I would never walk again, and I came back and said, “Well, if that’s the case, I promise you, doc, I’ll be the happiest person you’ve ever seen in a wheelchair.” Because if I’m in a wheelchair I’m going to be grateful and happy because I can’t change it, but I can choose my mindset.

 

And so, for the cancer I go, “Look, there’s obviously another book I need to write. There’s something that I have left to learn and I’m going to go through this cancer journey as positive, happy and grateful as I could possibly be.” And I was able to stay true to that except for the instances where I was in extraordinary physical pain. And being in extraordinary physical pain, I don’t care who you are, in those moments, the fear, your attitude tends to waiver and I definitely thought about, I went from being I’m the ultimate optimist, but I think there’s a fine line between optimism and delusion. And so, I tried to walk that, and I remember I go, “Wait a minute, I could literally die. Like technically, statistically, I could die. There are people with positive attitudes that get cancer and die that think they’re not going to.” So, I mean, there was that like, I’m like, “Man, where is the gap between being positive and being realistic?” and I also believe in the mind-body connection. So, this is just a real mind trip going, “Well, how positive should I be and how realistic should I be?”

 

Rob: Right.

 

Hal: You go even like, “Where is that fine balance?” So, I really believed that our mindset does manifest itself in our biology. And so, I did these affirmations every day saying that, “I will never again have cancer or any deadly disease because I deserve to be happy, healthy and successful now and for the rest of my life.” And I affirm that every single day over and over and over again because creeping in my head was, “Maybe I don’t deserve the success I’ve achieved. Maybe I got lucky. Maybe I’m meant to die and there’s a lesson there for people. I don’t know.” So, I really had to use affirmations every day to stay focused on what I wanted to believe in order to create the life that I wanted to be destined for, not the one that I was afraid might show up.

 

Rob: Man, so there’s a couple of things that you said. The first thing was what you just talked about with affirmations because I think that’s really powerful in the way, actually, you believe and I believe the same thing that your thoughts can actually affect your biology. So, for people that are out there that aren’t going through cancer, but they have something else that’s happening in their life and I listened to the story and they’re like, “Man, if this guy can stay positive and he continues affirmations when something like this is going on, maybe I can figure out a way to stay consistent as well.” So, can you take me through your thoughts of how affirmations actually affect you physically and if you noticed also a cycle of when you did them, you mentally also started to feel better as well as you’re doing them?

 

Hal: Absolutely. And I’ll go back again to the car accident which is doctors said I would never walk again and I told them, I told my parents and it was my decision. I said, “I accept that as the worst-case scenario.” Like I said, I’ll be the happiest person you ever see in a wheelchair if I am in a wheelchair the rest of my life. I said, “But I’m not willing to accept that as my fate until I’m proven that that’s the only option.” I just was in this car accident. I broke my femur in half. I broke my pelvis in three places. I thought the healing is not even, I mean, it’s just barely even begun. So, I decided I’m going to visualize walking again every single day. I’m going to affirm it. I’m going to pray about it. I’m going to obsess about it, think about it, dwell on it. In other words, and this is for everybody, I’m going to put all of my energy into what I want. Not what I don’t want but into what I want while I simultaneously, unconditionally and fully accept the worst-case scenario as a possibility. So, therefore, if I never walk again, I already decided that I could accept that, but I didn’t decide that I would accept it as my fate. I decided I was willing to accept it if that was the only option. But I chose that I would focus on what I want. I think that for all of us that is a line that we must walk, and affirmations helps us do it. And I’ll get into the specifics of that but the line we must walk is we’ve got to focus on what we want consciously and unconsciously and intentionally and daily consistently so that it’s our reality. It’s all we see is what we want. But we take the time before we go into that every day.

 

We’ve taken the time to, okay, well what’s the worst-case scenario? This could happen, that could happen and just the general decision that I’m going to accept life. I’m going to accept all things out of my control unconditionally. Because here’s what we’re never taught in school and it’s the lesson that I learned during that car accident is that emotional pain is self-created. I might have said this in our first interview but every negative emotion that we’ve ever felt, so if you’re watching this or you’re listening, consider that every negative emotion that you’ve ever felt in your life, anger, sadness, regret, fear, depression, you name it, is a result and I’m not talking about chemical imbalances by the way. It’s a disclaimer. I don’t want someone to say, “Well, I’m deeply depressed and it doesn’t matter what I think.” That’s a different story. I’m talking in general. This applies to going through depression as well. I’ve been through that but is that – where was I going with that? Rob, help me out.

 

Rob: You were saying that…

 

Hal: Okay. Every negative emotion is self-created. Yes. So, consider that to the degree that we resist our reality, that’s the degree that we create emotional pain for ourselves. So, something bad happens and you go, “No, no, no. It was supposed to be different. She was supposed to do this or he was supposed to do that or I was supposed to achieve this thing that I worked so hard for. I didn’t get. No. Or I lost this person I love,” and it’s to the degree that we resist it and wish it were different that we create pain. And the moment that we go, “You know what, that sucks. I would never have asked for that. I would never have asked for cancer. I would never have asked for losing my job. I would never have asked for whatever.” But I can’t change it. It is what it is. I can’t go back in time. I’m not Marty McFly. I don’t have a DeLorean and I can’t go back in time and change it. The only logical decision that I have I want to be free from emotional pain is to accept it. And it doesn’t mean you’re happy with it, but it means you can be at peace with it. And affirmations in the simplest form, Rob, I believe that affirmations have either a bad rap. People think they’re cheesy because of the way they’ve been taught for decades, “I’m a millionaire. I’m smart.” I don’t think that’s the way that affirmations are effective. The way that affirmations are effective in the simplest form is as a reminder.

 

So, let me demystify affirmations for everybody. I’ve never talked about them this way on a podcast. This is something I learned during the cancer. Is that in the simplest form, affirmations, they’re not hocus pocus. They’re not even – it doesn’t have anything to do with law of attraction. Affirmations are simply daily reminders of what you want, why you want it and what you’re committed to doing to create whatever it is for your life and you think about it. When you set a goal or whatever, it’s so easy to forget and months go by and you go, “Ah, I forgot that I wanted to do that thing.” Well, affirmations ensure that every day, I have an affirmation for example that says, “Make my wife’s life amazing every single day. Do something simple whether it’s doing the dishes, putting the kids to bed, buying her flowers, listening to her without giving her advice because that’s not what she wants from me. She just wants me to listen.” So, I have an affirmation that reminds me to do that and guess what, Rob? I want to make my wife’s life amazing but if I didn’t read that every day, I would forget to do it. And what happens is that affirmation is simply a reminder and that reminder turned a plant to seed that grows into an action or behavior that day that guess what, actually that behavior doing the thing is what makes my wife’s life amazing. And every single day I do something to make my wife’s life amazing and I would probably not if it wasn’t for that simple affirmation that becomes that daily reminder so that every day I’m prompted to do that thing. And I have affirmations for me being the best parents I can be, my health, my fitness, my business, you name it, my happiness. I have affirmations that remind me what I need to think, feel and do to optimize every single area of my life. And affirmations are I believe they’re the most powerful form of personal development that I’ve ever discovered.

 

Rob: It’s amazing. I feel like I want to be the person in the crowd that says, “Preach.” I just scream it from the front because that was like so much of that was amazing. And I completely agree with you because what I’ve said to people is I love the book and the movie, The Secret, but I feel like there’s like a lot – it’s like instead of saying money flows freely to me from all different areas of life, I kind of made it one thing when I was speaking with a coaching client and I said that affirmations in my mind have to have three things. Number one, they have to be present tense, number two, they actually have to be true, and then number three, is they need to be something that’s empowering to you. It doesn’t have to be – because we know if we sit there and we’re like, “Money is flowing freely to me from all different areas of life,” immediately you’re going, “Ah, that’s BS.”

 

Hal: Yes, exactly.

 

Rob: And then it doesn’t even work.

 

Hal: Yep.

 

Rob: So, that’s amazing. I love that. Another thing that you said before then that when you were about to be diagnosed that I really want to dive into and I’m curious to see how it actually helps you as well was you said, before the doctor said, you said, “Before you tell me, I accept everything in my life before it happens.” And so, I know we say a lot of those things. There are sometimes where I’m like, “Oh, this is what I feel,” but then when the actual situation happens, you’re like, “Oh wow, that’s a lot worse than I thought it was.” So, how do you feel that doing that, having that mindset helps you, number one? And then number two, do you feel like when you finally got the news of cancer that it still was, “I fully accept it,” or was there a part of you that was kind of at ends of this is really hard to accept?

 

Hal: Yeah. So, great question. So, here’s the evolution of that mindset. So, in my Cutco sales training when I was 19 years old, I learned the 5-minute rule and the 5-minute rule was the start of all of this and my manager, Jesse Levine, said, “When things go wrong out there, out there in the field if you have a customer, you’re going to set goals and you’re going to fail to reach them. You’re going to go into a customer’s house that you think is going to buy from you because they told you they were and then they’re going to change their mind and not buy and you’re going to be disappointed. And you’re going to have customers that you’re excited for the appointment or you’re almost to your goal and then they don’t even show up and you’re like devastated.” He goes, “So, the 5-minute rule is where it’s okay to be negative when things go wrong but not for more than 5 minutes.” And basically, it was a simple form of what I taught earlier which he goes, “There’s just no point in dwelling on it,” because dwelling on it, “Oh I can’t believe she canceled her order. Why did that happen? I was so close to my goal.” That resistance that creates the emotional pain. He basically said, “Give yourself 5 minutes to feel what you feel. It’s okay. You’re allowed to be. If you’re angry or you’re upset or you’re afraid or you’re whatever.” He goes, “Just feel, punch a wall, cry, take something like whatever. Give yourself 5 minutes,” and he literally would teach us to set our timer on our phone for 5 minutes and then put it down and then whatever. And when I first heard that and if you’re like me and I think most people you go, “Dude, 5 minutes is not long enough. Like can I get like the 5-day rule? Like, give me a few days to get pissed off.” But here’s what I found happened is by doing the 5-minute rule and implementing it, I became simply conscious first and foremost that, “Oh wait, I’m in control of what I feel right now and I’m going to give myself 5 minutes to actually feel sad. And after 5 minutes I’ve got to accept it.”

 

And he taught us three powerful words. He said, “When the timer goes off after 5 minutes, repeat to yourself, ‘Can’t change it. Can’t change it,’” and the can’t change it is simply the reminder that, “Ah, okay. I can’t change what happened 5 minutes ago so the only intelligent choice that I have is to accept it and therefore be at peace with it.” It doesn’t mean I’m happy by the way. Let me give a quick distinction. If you’re watching a video, you see I’m holding up my right and my left hand spread apart. My right hand represents positive emotions, happiness, excitement, gratitude, you name it. My left hand represents negative emotions, fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, depression, you name it. And here’s the thing is this isn’t about emotions because emotions are fleeting. You could be happy one minute and a phone call changes that, right? It’s the bad news like, “No!” you’re devastated now. So, accepting things you can’t change is not about happiness or sadness. It’s in between happiness and sadness and, again, if you’re listening to the podcast, picture me putting my hands into the prayer position. There’s a place in between your positive and negative emotions that is called peace and peace is a state of being. It is an ever-present unwavering state of being and it’s not an emotion. It’s just you’re at peace and then you get to choose the emotion that you feel. So, when you’re at peace you go, “Okay. Well, what emotion would serve me right now?” And if I was just, if I had a disappointment and now I need to get motivated to create some results that will improve my situation because the negative, whatever just happened, wasn’t a good thing. Now I need to change things. I can’t go back in time and change it, or I can’t change it in the past, but I can change everything moving forward.

 

So, I would ask, “What emotion do I need to feel?” I need to be optimistic or I need to be grateful or I need to be resourceful or I need to be creative. And then I’ll use questions to get myself in that state. So, peace, acceptance allows me to be at peace which is this neutral state of being and then there I ask, what emotion would serve me? And then the evolution of that, I mentioned, that 5 minutes most people go, that’s not long enough. I need longer. Give me five hours to be upset. Well, here’s what happened, Rob. After a few weeks of doing the 5-minute rule, I’d set the timer for 5 minutes and I would go, “All right. 5 minutes. Ah, I can’t believe that happened. My goal was set.” And then I picked up my phone and I go, “Okay. I’ve got 4 minutes and 32 seconds left.” And I’d go, “I don’t want, what’s the point in sitting here and resisting reality and doing…?” I’d rather just focus on the solution now. So, 5 minutes went from I thought it wasn’t long enough to going, “Why would I sit here for 5 minutes and dwell? I need 5 seconds. I just need time to go, ‘Son of a…’” You know, I just need to curse or something. I need a release but then I’m not going to dwell for even minutes. I’m going to go focus.”

 

And then accepting life before it happens was kind of the ultimate evolution where it was the conscious decision that, “You know what, I don’t even need 5 minutes, 5 seconds,” and that’s okay. Take 5 minutes by all means but I got to a point where I went, “I’m just going to accept everything that ever happens to me before it happens so that nothing has control over my emotional state.” And so, when I got the cancer, I had lived that for 10 years and longer than 10 years, 18 years. And so, it was just part of who I was. So, if anybody was listening, I would say it’s like if you think you could just accept something like cancer in a moment and that sounds overwhelming to you, it should. This isn’t a snap your fingers, I learn this, and it became who I was. It was the 5-minute rule implemented for years into the 5-second rule implemented for a decade into the “accept life where it happened” implemented for years. So, I mean it was 18 years to get to that place. But I believe if I had it and started with the 5-minute rule, I wouldn’t have had that evolution to get to the place where I could have this deadly cancer and go, “Well, I’m not going to be upset over it.” And it was absolutely authentically who I was and how I showed up for the cancer. And anybody watching, if you google “Hal Elrod cancer” on YouTube or go to “Hal Elrod cancer” in YouTube, I’ve recorded four video blogs that kind of took people through the journey. So, you could see how I was from the diagnosis to shaving my head to being diagnosed a few weeks and goes cancer free.

 

Rob: That’s awesome. So, perfect, because I remember the whole journey and I saw I think the first two or three had popped up and there were two moments where I actually was watching it and what you’re saying is not BS which is the best part because I was watching it and I remember pulling my girlfriend into the room to watch the video because, number one, you had a video that said, “My hair should be following out soon,” and I pulled her over and I was like, “I’ve never seen somebody say that and have this type of situation but still be so happy and positive in a true sense that you could tell.” That was the first time that I’ve seen one of the videos. And the second time I remember you were talking about and I think your hair had already fallen out at this point, but you had a video and you said that you were in a situation that you felt bad and you wanted to raise money for other people because you felt bad that there were some people that didn’t have as good of a situation as you that was inside of the cancer treatment centers and all of this thing. And it was amazing and inspiring for me to see you have that mindset when you’re still going through terrible things to want to help other people. So, walk me through kind of that mindset and also what you did and the feeling of realizing that you have it bad, but you also felt like you still had it better than a lot of others too.

 

Hal: Yeah. Thank you. I was a few weeks in and I think like my hair was coming out in mats in the shower so I’m like, “Oh crap. Wow. I didn’t know it would be this fast.” I think I’ve done my first chemo treatment and so yes, so I shaved. I was like, “Might as well shave the head. There’s no denying it now and postponing.” I recorded that video and what happened was after I recorded my second cancer video blog, somebody commented on YouTube. It’s amazing. I mean, I read hundreds of comments. I read every single one. And one of the comments, she said, “Wow. It’s amazing that you have this much support. I hope you’ll pay it forward and offer support for someone else.” And that comment was, in fact, I need to go back and find that woman and reach out to her. I mean, it was a game changer and it’s actually – well, you’ll hear why but it’s going to make a huge difference in the world. That one comment, I mean, it’s amazing so I immediately realized, “Wow. She’s right. I am so blessed with so much support.” I’ve got this Miracle Morning Community which is 120,000 plus person Facebook group and when I post the first cancer video blog, I got 3,000 comments from people encouraging me. And so, between that and the YouTube, and my dad, he dropped everything. He’s an executive for an oil company. He dropped his like life and just came and became my full-time caretaker. We got an apartment near the hospital. He lived with me for like six months. He just told his work, “Hey, I hope you’ll keep my job for me when I come back but I’m here until…” Cry. He said, “I’m here until my son is better.” And so, having that support from my dad and then I also had the financial resources because I built a couple of businesses and written my books.

 

So, I realize I have so much support. I have financial support. I have friends and family support. I have community support. I have resources. I have educational resources where I know more than most cancer patients because I’ve looked outside of the normal just what your doctors tell you. And I thought most people don’t have the support on either one of the levels, if not all of the levels. They don’t have the family, the resources, the finances, the education, the community. And I thought, “I feel responsible to help others.” And so, my next video blog I guess I went from the second to the third one, I basically now explained that to people. I said, “Hey, I realize you guys, other people don’t have the support,” and I said, “I don’t know what this is going to look like but my intention now has turned from while I’m healing myself focusing on how can I heal others? How can I support others? How can I help others?” And so, in that video, I said, “I’m inviting everybody to volunteer. Let’s start simple. Everyone, in the next few weeks, will you commit to go volunteer 30 minutes of your time at a children’s hospital, you know, something,” and I gave a few different resources of organizations, so they could just tap into that, connecting with opportunities to volunteer. And hundreds of people were like, “I’m volunteering this week, Hal.” That was cool but what it led to is I started a nonprofit called Support the Unsupported and I just filed for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status and so it’d be probably six months before it’s official. And I don’t even know exactly what we’re going to do but we’re going to offer support to people that don’t have support and I want to figure that out.

 

And what’s really cool is one of my close friends, John Ruhlin, who you’re friends with as well, our friend, John Ruhlin, he went to an event, this entrepreneurial event called Mastermind Talks and he approached Jayson Gaignard who puts on the event. He said, “Hey, I have this wild idea. I’ve started asking people in the audience that have events and then coaching programs and books and all these different things. If they’d be willing to donate some of their services and we could do an auction to raise money for Hal Elrod who’s going through cancer.” And I need to get better talking about this without crying. It’s hard to just speak and telling the story.

 

Rob: No, man. It’s true. It’s better this way. It’s coming from the heart. I love it.

 

Hal: It is. You’re right. It’s authentic but I like being able to keep talking but I lose it. So, crazy. So, John does this impromptu auction and raises over $100,000 for me.

 

Rob: Oh my gosh. No way.

 

Hal: And I got a check in the mail a few weeks ago from Jayson Gaignard for $100,000 to pay for my medical bills. And here’s the beauty of it. This is the exciting part. I went, “You know what, I found a way to pay for medical bills. I paid for them out of my own money, whatever, and insurance covered them. So, that $100,000,” I made a public announcement, “That is starting Support the Unsupported charity.” So, I’m not keeping it and I’m not bragging or look at me or anything but it’s a beautiful to me thing how it all came. This one woman who commented to change my thinking.  I make a video. John sees it. Does this fundraiser and now Support the Unsupported has $100,000 to start the charity when it’s officially ready to launch next year. So, yeah, so that’s the evolution. I think that the more people that we helped, the more we become fulfilled and opportunities become abundant in our lives and I feel like that whether you’re – it doesn’t, just to me the most important philosophy in life is to always look to add as much value to the lives of other people as you possibly can. And like I said, when you do, that’s how I believe we become fulfilled and that opportunities become abundant because the more value you add of lives of others, the more valuable you become to them. And even in a professional setting, it takes time, but you keep adding value to your company, your clients, your organization, the world, and all of a sudden people start to look to you because you become valuable to them and that’s part of the reason I started podcasting was that was a way for me to add value at no cost to every person that wanted to listen to my words, my podcast and you’re doing the same thing.

 

Rob: Yeah. Man, that’s so amazing. It’s crazy like there’s that tiny little stone that’s thrown and the ripples that it causes across the world just from one comment. That’s amazing.

 

Hal: It’s amazing.

 

Rob: So, well, you’ve got a couple of minutes left. I want to talk about the Best Year Ever Blueprint which is coming up which is the event that I was talking about that changed my life which the small little ripple is the idea that popped into my head and then small little stone and then caused ripples was now it’s a podcast. It’s a Facebook. It’s all of these things that I’ve created just from that one idea that was created there. So, tell us about the event, when it’s coming up and you’re going to be there this year this time, right?

 

Hal: Yeah. Last year the morning of, I waited until the last possible minute. I had this crazy eye infection. My face was swollen, and I had to cancel my flight. I missed the event last year but my business partner, Jon Berghoff, he’s the main facilitator anyway so he picked up the slack and we ran an amazing event. So, this will be our fourth year. So, let me give me the important facts before I forget. I always forget something. So, fourth year, it’s in San Diego, California because November 17 through 19 which is when the event is, that’s the best place to guarantee good weather, almost guarantee. There are no guarantees but the average temperature is 76 degrees or something that weekend whereas the rest of the world it’s like 40 degrees.

 

Rob: Yeah.

 

Hal: So, San Diego, California, the URL, the website, for anybody listening, go to BestYearEverLive.com and I would tell, Rob, watch the video and read the testimonials. That’s it. Just spend like 5 minutes there, watch the video, go on the homepage, read the testimonials and you’ll see the difference. What makes the event different is unlike most events that you go to where you just take page after page of notes, you listen to speaker after speaker, our event is extraordinarily experiential. Anything that we teach you, we actually have you experience, do it, share it, engage with it, do it with other people in the room immediately so that you get it at a deep level. Every fiber of your being gets to experience the thing rather than take 10 pages of notes overwhelmed, go home, try to raffle through all your notes and somehow implement the 17 ideas that you learn.

 

I’m going to give you an example. If you were, for example, let’s say you were to go to an event, you learn about the power of the Mastermind which we talked about. I’m a huge believer in the power of putting together multiple like-minded people in the same room or the same time or the same space to share ideas, help each other with problems which is a part of the – the event is really just a big mastermind in a lot of ways. But instead of teaching you how to form a mastermind and then that being on page 7 of your notes from the event, then you go home, and you’re supposed to remember, “Oh yeah, yeah, that one thing of the 20 things I learned on the mastermind that’s page 7 of my notes. How do I do that again? Oh yeah. Okay. I call people then I…” No, no, no. We teach you how to do it but then we actually spend 20 minutes breaking into teams, forming your mastermind based on the surveys that were created before the event, so we know who’s your ideal people that you need in your mastermind then you guys actually mastermind there. We teach you how to do it. You do it. You now know what it feels like to mastermind and then we have you schedule your first mastermind after the event. So, now you go home not with masterminding on page seven of your notes. You actually have already masterminded and you got your next mastermind schedule. The entire event is like that so that you don’t just learn how to have your best year ever, you actually become the person that has experienced the things that are going to create your best year ever. You’ve already done it and then you have an entire group of 300 like-minded Best Year Ever Blueprint attendees in a private Facebook group that support each other the entire year-long.

 

Rob: It’s amazing.

 

Hal: So, much of what makes the event amazing and then beyond that, we incorporate yoga. You get to do yoga. We have live music from brotha James. I mean, it’s just unlike any – it’s such a once in a lifetime experience and, yeah, man, we love to have all of you listening. Any fan of Rob I’m a fan of so come check it out at the BestYearEverLive.com.

 

Rob: Well, thanks, man. Well, I appreciate this. This is great. I’m glad that we got the time to do this and I want to honor you and the fact of saying it’s been amazing to watch your journey and to watch how selfless you’ve been throughout this process. Everybody would’ve given you the okay and the green light to, “Okay. He can be selfish. He could stop being the positive guy. He could stop thinking about other people. He could stop doing all of that.” But it seems like not only did you prove that that’s actually who you truly are, but you actually became more selfless and cared more about people and not just about yourself. So, I want to honor you and say it’s been great to watch the journey to go along. It’s been great to see that you’ve been able to create your own foundation from it and it’s actually amazing to congratulate you from being cancer-free as well now, man.

 

Hal: Thank you. Thank you, Rob. I love and appreciate you, my friend. Thank you so much for the acknowledgment and thank you for what you’re doing and thank you for having me on today and allowing me to share some value. And send this video to me because I think the Miracle Morning Community this would be a cool one to share in there.

 

Rob: I love it. I definitely will. All right, man, Have a great day.

 

Hal: All right, brother. Take care.

 

Rob: See you.

 

[END]