Episode 281: From Homeless and Addicted to Drugs to Transforming Lives with Mark Crandall

[00:00:36] Hal: All right, goal achievers. Hey, it’s Hal Elrod. I just got back from New York City last night. In fact, I was on The Today Show yesterday, which was a pretty monumental occasion for me. You may have seen the email that went out or some of the social media posts, but it was pretty exciting.

 

When I did get the news I was in San Diego. It was a couple months ago. I was on the book tour for The Miracle Equation and I got an email from my publicist and said, “Hal, we booked you on The Today Show.” At first I shouted. I was like, “Yeah!” I was so excited and then I just started crying. I was overwhelmed with emotion. I go, “Why am I so emotional about this other than the fact that I was excited?” I kind of realized, oh, man, it was this defining moment, if you will, of… I don’t know if that’s the right word, ‘defining moment’, but it was the realization that, wow, all that I’ve overcome and accomplished in my life… You’ve overcome and accomplished a lot in your life, if you’re listening to this, if you’re a human being, right? I went, “Gosh, now I’m being gifted the…” and I really considered it a gift and a privilege, “but gifted the biggest platform I’ve ever had to impact as many people as I could.” 

 

Yesterday was the actual live show. It was five minutes. It was really quick. It went by fast. If you haven’t seen it you can go to www.todayshow.com and I’ll be posting it. It’s already all over the Internet on my social media and stuff, but I’ll be posting it more on all my social channels in case you missed the interview. You can check out those five minutes, and hopefully you’ll get a lot of value from those.

 

That is not the topic of today’s podcast. We’re not going to talk about The Today Show today, but we are going to have a conversation with a gentleman who has quickly become a friend of mine, somebody who I really respect and I’m learning to respect more and more and more as I’m learning more about this gentleman. My guest today that I’m referring to is Mark Crandall. If you don’t know Mark, he is a licensed master social worker and licensed chemical dependency counselor. 

 

Mark’s a keynote speaker, a clinical interventionist and he’s the author of Embrace Your Past Win Your Future, a title that speaks, I think, to all of us. Last but not least, he is the host of not one but two podcasts. Those two podcasts are Purpose Chasers and the second podcast is Addiction Treatment 101. Mark went from a lost young man with countless traumatic experiences to drug addiction, prison and underlying undying self-hatred. That was where he was. He went from that dark place, or those dark places I should say, to building multiple six figure coaching practices and being a highly sought-after clinical interventionist. Mark’s also a member of the Quantum Leap Mastermind. It’s the mastermind that Jon Berghoff and I run together with roughly 100 entrepreneurs that meet a couple times a year and go to the Best Year Ever event together. That’s where I first saw Mark standing up and taking a stand for his fellow Quantum Leap Mastermind members. He’s just a power… He would just in the room call people out in powerful intervention work. It was like Tony Robbins was in the room. I was like, “Damn, this guy’s good.” 

 

Anyway, it is truly my pleasure and honor. I’m excited to introduce Mark Crandall to you today and have really what I would imagine is going to be a pretty powerful conversation that you’re going to take away a lot of value from. Mark, welcome to the Achieve Your Goals podcast, my friend. 

 

[00:04:02] Mark: Hal, thank you for having me here. I just want to start by stating that for those of you who are listening, this is full circle for me. Three and a half years ago when I launched out as an entrepreneur… I teared up when you were reading my bio, Hal. You are somebody that I have followed for a better part of six years now and watched you grow. It’s always been a bucket list item to even just have a conversation with you, let alone come on your podcast and have you call me a friend. Thank you for having me, man. I’m just truly, truly blessed to be here. 

 

[00:04:42] Hal: You got it. Yeah, a lot of those feelings are mutual. Your gratitude I’ve experienced it in different capacities and it’s very authentic and it’s one of my highest values. If somebody wants to get in good with me, just express authentic gratitude. If you fake it I can usually tell, but if it’s real it means a lot to me and I appreciate it and I receive it, Mark. It makes me smile ear to ear that this was a bucket list item for you and now I get to be a part of making one of your bucket list items come true. The cool thing is it’s going to be in a way that is going to add a ton of value for everybody listening because I’ve heard your story. I’ve heard your message. I’ve seen you coach. You’re a powerful human being. Let’s go back to that dark time and walk us through, how did you go from addicted to drugs and homeless to now an author, speaker, clinical interventionist, podcast host, so on and so forth. How’d you go from that place to where you are now? 

 

[00:05:39] Mark: For your audience that doesn’t know me I’m just going to give a cliffs notes version of my childhood and the trauma to get to answering the question that you just asked. At three I was taken by DCYF. My sister nearly drowned in a bathtub. My grandmother, in which we were staying with at the time, called the Department of Youth and Families and reported my mom for being neglectful. DCYF took my sister, placed her in foster care. 

 

My mom essentially kidnapped me and took me to New York. Throughout my childhood I was handcuffed and locked in a closet and burned with cigarettes. All of that stuff happened and then I was placed in foster care. I was just very lost and confused, and I tortured my adopted parents so badly because I was lost and confused. It led to a petition being filed on me, which is a child in need of services, so essentially my adopted parents reached out to the state and said, “We can’t handle him.” At the time I was setting fires and being destructive of other people’s property and assaulting others and was suspended from school a bunch, and I was 11. 

 

I was placed in my first group home. I learned about drugs, sex and rock and roll in the group home from older peers, even though it was a setting in which I was to be rehabilitated. I came out of there with what I believed to be a solution to what I was experiencing, which was a lot of confusion, sadness and hatred. Coming out of the first group home I smoked marijuana for my first time, drank alcohol to the point of… I had drank before but not to the point of experiencing I guess you could say the benefits of alcohol like the buzz, like taking me out of my mind. 

 

To speed up a little, it escalated very, very quickly. At 16 years old it was the first time I had done heroin. It was a result of my weed dealer being out of weed and telling me they had something better. It was one of those things that myself and my friends had always talked about not doing, like, “We’d never do heroin. That’s bad,” and there I was. That is really like a one-liner of my story. It’s full of a lot of things that I at one time said I didn’t want to do or didn’t want to become. 

 

Speed it up. 18 years old, my little brother caught me commando crawling in my mom’s bedroom stealing 20 bucks from her wallet. She threw me out of the house after I assaulted my little brother, and I was homeless. Throughout that period of time there was some county jail incarcerations. Got out of county jail for the second time. My adopted mother let me stay with her again and it just didn’t let up, if you will. I was arrested for four burglaries and went and spent two years in prison. 

 

To answer your question, even after being released from prison I never talked like I was tough because I knew deep down that I was just wasting my life. Prison is nothing more than a waste of life, like you just wasting away. I used drugs the whole time I was in there. I was about- 

 

[00:09:14] Hal: For the average listener, including me, how were you able to use drugs in prison? Or is it just not hard to get them? 

 

[00:09:22] Mark: It’s not. There’s a lot of prescription drugs. There’s a lot of heroin. There’s a lot of tobacco. Yeah, there’s a lot of drugs. 

 

[00:09:31] Hal: It’s just being passed around and… Yeah, okay. 

 

[00:09:34] Mark: Yeah, just being passed around. I was on antidepressants which I abused the whole time that I was in there. I was two weeks away from being released to this drug and alcohol rehabilitation center and I woke up one morning riddled with fear, like engulfed. It was really an anxiety attack. I didn’t have the label to put on it at that point. I woke up and this thought came to me like, “You’re two weeks away from going to a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center yet you can’t even be sober in prison.” It was a reality that made me swallow hard and I’m like, “This is accurate.” I’m thinking about it, and of course you don’t want to show too much emotion in there because the individuals that are in there prey off of weak or what appears to be- 

 

[00:10:21] Hal: Vulnerability, sure.

 

[00:10:22] Mark: Yeah, vulnerability. I walked to the chow hall that morning and this thought came over me of “Go to the one place in the library that you’ve never been.” I was like, “Well, that doesn’t make any sense. Okay.” I went and I go eat my crappy toast and my hardboiled eggs. I’m walking back and I’m still thinking about this. I just remember shooting up what I know today to be a prayer, but at the time I was just like, “Well, if there’s something out there will you give me an answer?” I’m dying inside the whole time I’m in prison. The self-hatred is just… I hate myself. I hate what I’ve become. 

 

[00:11:02] Hal: Now you’re about 20 years old at this time? 

 

[00:11:04] Mark: Yeah, I’m 20. My whole life I had been on a mission to not be like my biological father, and here I was worse off than he had ever become. I fire this prayer off. I’m like, “If there’s something out there just throw me a bone,” basically is what I said. “Just throw me a bone.” Like, “If you’re trying to tell me something, I’m not seeing it. I’m not hearing it. Just throw me…” I was looking for a layup, like, “Hey God, throw me a layup, please.” 

 

We went back to the unit to do chores. The yard opened up about an hour and a half later and I walked to the library. As I walked in the library I stood there confused. The librarian’s probably looking at me like, “This kid’s suspect. What are you doing?” I’m looking around the library, “What’s the one place I’ve never been?” I bet you could probably guess it, Hal. It was the spirituality/religious section of the library. I had never gone there. It was the one section of the library where there were no cameras, and that’s where all the narcotics in the prison got exchanged, ironically enough as well. 

 

I walked back there and I looked and I’m looking and there’s all these religious books and Tony Robbins was there. They didn’t have The Miracle Morning. They should have. I don’t know if I would have picked it up, I was just too broken to even see. There was one book on display and it was- I remember it as clear as yesterday- it was a man who was in an orange and red robe and he had glasses on, a shaved head. 

 

[00:12:35] Hal: Dalai Lama?

 

[00:12:36] Mark: Yeah. It was The Dalai Lama. I didn’t see any of that. All I saw in this book was this man’s smile. He had a smile bigger than I’d ever seen. I know I’d seen smiles before but I had not *seen* them. I picked this book up and I went back to the unit and I read half of it that day. That night after taking my sleeping medication I wrapped a towel around my head and attempted to meditate. I read the rest of the book the next day and I started meditating and I got some relief. That’s really where the journey started for me. That’s a long answer to get-

 

[00:13:14] Hal: No, your story is fascinating and it’s gripping. You meditated. That was your first foray into the spiritual realm, the personal development realm. How long after that did you get out of prison and what were…? I’d love to kind of continue the story. What were the first moves you made after you left prison? Were they positive or did you fall backwards a little bit? What did that look like? 

 

[00:13:36] Mark: I got released two weeks after grabbing this book by The Dalai Lama and consuming it and I went to this rehabilitation center. I was doing everything that they were prescribing there. I was going to the groups. I was doing all of this stuff. I was participating in the 12-step fellowship that they mandated that we do. I would go to church and I would get some relief while I was there. Then when I would go home I didn’t understand how all of these other individuals that I was attending church with were wanting to live, because I was going home with suicidal ideation and these limiting beliefs in self-judgment that were crippling me, and then getting up the next day and pretending like everything was okay.

 

About 11 months into this treatment center and I stumble across the book. It was Awaken The Giant Within by Tony Robbins. I started reading this book and hearing his story. As I was reading this book I thought about another series of books that my mom sent me the first time that I was incarcerated. She sent me a book called A Child Called “It” by David Pelzer. I remember- I’m getting goosebumps as I’m sharing this- and I remember reading that book and thinking in county jail at 18 years old, “I’m going to do this one day. I’m going to speak to people and share my story and message of hope with them, and use all of the trials and tribulations that I went through in life to hold a mirror up to other individuals to show them it doesn’t matter where you come from, you can achieve anything.” 

 

All of this was coming up. I get released from there and I get my own apartment. I’m meditating and I read some more of Tony Robbins’ work. I’m doing all of this stuff to gain insight, to gain clarity on what my path is. I don’t know that’s what I’m doing. I’m just seeking. That’s what we do is we seek. When the next teacher appears, the next teacher appears and we learn from them and we grow. 

 

I was painting and drywalling at the time because that’s all I thought I was ever going to be able to do due to my criminal convictions and my past. I was living in New Hampshire. In New Hampshire when the snow flies work dries up, and so the individuals that get work are those that own the company. I’m out of work. I’m doing my morning meditation one day and I started crying. I’m literally thinking about ending my life. I’m like, “What? There has to be something more.” I’m in recovery and I’m praying and meditating and helping a ton of people and just… I’m broken inside and I’m tired of pretending that I’m broken inside. I don’t understand why I can’t just tell people I’m hurting.

 

I’m in meditation and I get this thought, “Go to school.” I’m like, “Well, what does that mean?” I’m going to go to school for business in my mind and I’m going to launch this painting and drywall company and all is going to be well. I don’t know anything about entrepreneurship at this time. I thought you just started a company and work came in and all will be well. I had no clue. 

 

[00:16:49] Hal: I’m trying to track age-wise. You’re 21-22 now? 

 

[00:16:53] Mark: No, I’m 23 at this point. 

 

[00:16:56] Hal: Okay, got it. Your income has been coming from painting and drywall? 

 

[00:17:01] Mark: Yeah. I didn’t know how to save because I wasn’t taught that. I just didn’t know any basic responsibilities of how to live as a productive member of society, so I’m trying to figure all this out. I go to the number one resource that we have in this day and age, the Google, and I googled in “go to school.” That’s literally what I put in the search. A bunch of colleges came up, some high schools came up. I decided that I wanted to go online because I didn’t think I was intelligent. If I proved to not be intelligent I didn’t want to have to see people. 

 

Of course I didn’t know this at the time that’s what I was doing, but I didn’t want to see people and have them laugh. I get on a call, first enrollment counselor she says, “What do you want to go to school for?” “Psychology” comes out of my mouth and I’m like, “What? I want to go for business.” I’m like, “Okay, God, whatever it is that you want me to do I’m going to do.” I start going to school and I’m maintaining a 4.0 and I’m still obsessed with this personal development world, and I don’t even know that it is really, really a thing. It just took off. 

 

I got a job interview from the first man that I asked to mentor me. He got me a job interview. I nailed the interview and started working with runaway and homeless youth and providing in-home therapy for court-ordered youth and families. I really, really loved it but it wasn’t enough. Here’s the point in my life which I’m going to give you a plug because at this point of my life I was introduced to the Miracle Morning. In recovery we are educated and taught to do a very, very similar form, just without all six. My practice at the time had become very, very dry and stagnant. Jesse- I’m going to give Jesse a shout out- Jesse introduced me to The Miracle Morning and I started-

 

[00:18:52] Hal: Jesse Harless. 

 

[00:18:53] Mark: Yeah, Jesse Harless. I started doing this visualization practice. As I was doing this visualization practice I started to visualize what it would look like to be employed by the state of New Hampshire. You have to imagine the limiting beliefs that were coming up for an individual with four felonies on his record to be working for the state of New Hampshire. I wanted to work at the youth detention center. I’m visualizing it and all these fears and limiting beliefs were cropping up and like, “You’ll never do that. Don’t even apply. Save yourself the embarrassment.” I’d been practicing this visualization of what it’s going to feel like, what people are going to think of… just really getting into it. What it’s going to smell like, the taste of the food at the chow hall when I’m eating with the youth. I’m really getting fired up on this interview just talking about it. I’m really, really in it. I go to my mentor and I say, “Hey, I’m going to apply to work at the youth detention center.” He was like, “You’re never going to get a job there.” I was like, “I understand that, but I’ve been telling myself I can’t do things my whole life. I’m quoting your book,” and I’m like, “I’ve been visualizing this.” He’s like, “Yeah, great, dude. You can visualize it all you want. You have four felonies on your record. It’s not going to happen.” 

 

This moment is the moment that I started chasing this life with the desperation of somebody who had nothing to lose, which I really don’t. None of us do. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain. I applied. I’m a really skilled writer so I wrote up this amazing cover letter and I sent it with my resume, and I didn’t tell him I was a felon. I applied, I got an interview, I crushed the interview. I know what it smells like in there. I know what the food tastes like. I already role played scenarios of me deescalating youth in the detention center. I’m there. I’ve already lived it. I’ve already worked there in my mind because of this practice. They invite me back for a second interview. I nailed the second interview. The conversation comes up and I was like, “Hey, I just want to let you know,” after they made me an offer for the job I said, “I just want to let you know I’ve got four felonies on my record.” They’re like, “Okay. Yeah, no problem.” He’s like, “We’ve got to cross the t’s and dot the i’s but you have this job.” I get hired. All is well. 

 

The Union Leader, which is a newspaper in New Hampshire, which is not a big area, but it’s the biggest paper in New Hampshire, reaches out. They want to write an article. I was guided not to engage in this interview because it would be better off for the detention center, and I don’t. About a month and a half goes by and my mentor said to me, he’s like, “If they call the facility on Friday know that they’re about to print the article on Sunday,” which I think everyone who’s familiar with newspapers knows is like the biggest day for news because everyone buys on Sunday. They called on Friday. I wasn’t able to talk. They printed an article. The headline was “Convicted Burglar Counsels Youth”. It released Saturday night and I read it and I went in the living room to tell my wife and I said, “They printed it.” She was like, “What does it say?” I was like, “Well, it’s okay. They could have done a way better job of highlighting my attributes.” Hal, I’m talking tough on this interview but I was terrified. 

 

Sunday morning rolls around. I go get the paper. I’m reading it in my car in the parking lot of the store and I just started crying. I’m tearing up now, but I remember looking up to the sky and saying, “Thank you, God. Thank you for using me.”  In that moment I realized that every dark thing from my past didn’t happen to me. It happened for me so that I could show other individuals the power of this life that you and I live. The power of personal development work. The power of going within and doing introspective work to overcome limiting beliefs so that you can achieve what it is that you want to achieve. In that moment my life changed. 

 

[00:23:10] Hal: Yeah. I resonate with so much of what you’re saying. I think for all of us our adversity always holds within it the seed of an advantage. That there’s always something to learn, to grow, and you’re a living example of that. Mark, I love that you’re not only a living example of finding the advantage in your adversity, if you will, but actually having that spirit of service. Martin Luther King I think was the one that said, “We can all be great because we can all serve others, and to serve others is to be great,” and I’m paraphrasing. I honor you for doing that, actively doing that. I think for all of us, how can you leverage your past to serve others? That’s the title of your book, right? Embrace Your Past Win Your Future I think sums that up really well.

 

How do you go from closing the gap here, from working in the youth detention center to now coaching? Who do you coach primarily? Do you coach entrepreneurs? Do you coach addicts? Is it both? Who are the type of people that you help from your coaching? 

 

[00:24:20] Mark: Those in recovery are my passion project, if you will. I love empowering individuals in recovery to achieve what it is that they want to achieve in this life. I happen to have currently three business consulting clients because following individuals like you, I’ve become very skilled at entrepreneurship. My real calling in this life is conducting clinical interventions, which I show up to families and navigate the family dynamic to find out all of the loopholes, if you will, and the behavior patterns to intervene on those that are currently addicted. It was a real loaded question and I like the skill in which you asked that question. From that moment in the car I just started… My new England just came out when I said car. I just started-

 

[00:25:18] Hal: The car. 

 

[00:25:19] Mark: Yeah, the car. I just realized that nothing was out of reach, nothing was unachievable. When I believed that nothing was out of reach and nothing was unachievable… 

 

[00:25:34] Hal: This is the Achieve Your Goals podcast. What do you think holds people back from achieving their goals? Is it a lack of motivation? Is it a lack of clarity? If you were to sum it up in the biggest thing or the top three things, what holds people back from achieving their goals? That might be an aspirational goal, like making a million dollars, or if you’re an addict it’s to overcome that addiction. What’s that adage? The wealthy man or the… I don’t know. I’m messing it up. Basically, it’s like if you don’t have your health then your only goal is having your health. Nothing else matters. Point being whatever someone’s goal is, whether it’s aspirational to achieve something or they’re trying to overcome something that’s causing them pain, what do you think holds people back from that?

 

[00:26:25] Mark: Yeah. There’s a lot of noise out there, Hal, around, which I know you have experience with, there’s a lot of noise around motivation and individuals lacking motivation. My experience with this personally in coaching and practicing therapy with countless individuals is that no one really truly lacks motivation. The individuals that tell me that they lack motivation start 15 things and finish none. If you lacked motivation, if I lacked motivation, would I start 15 things? No. 

 

What I’ve found is that what individuals actually lack is the belief in themselves to fulfill on the things that they’re out to create in life. Give you an example. I’m writing this book, right? If I started writing the book and then my mind said, “No one’s going to buy it,” and then I stopped, do I lack motivation? No, I lack the belief in myself. I believe that the biggest thing that an individual can do is introspective work, going within. You can join QLM, you can come to the Best Year Ever and there’s going to be opportunities for you to go within, but most people are looking outside of themselves for answers. When my experience is all of my strength and guidance has come from others’ words and then taking those words and going within. The more work I do on my self-confidence, my belief in myself, the greater output I have in this life. Does that make sense? 

 

[00:28:02] Hal: It does. Jon Berghoff and I were talking about the day with Best Year Ever. We’re talking about next year renaming the event to the Miracle Life Live. Jon and I were talking and he said, “Hal, what is your vision for The Miracle Life?” I said, “It’s loving yourself as you are, seeing yourself as you can be, creating the most extraordinary life that you can imagine everything you want for your life, and then helping others do the same.” 

 

He just pointed out, he goes, “Hal, that’s beautiful.” He said, “That’s already what we do.” I said, “What do you mean?” He goes, “Best Year Ever that’s what…” To your point, it’s the introspective. It’s the internal work. If you’ve been to Best Year Ever you know it’s all about looking within and identifying what are your strengths? What are your deepest desires? What are the greatest sense of meaning that you have in your life? Really just aligning all of the inner world that is you and getting really clear on what that is, what your values are, what your purpose is. Then lining up your schedule and your actions and your goals so they’re in alignment with your highest truth. I love that you said that because it’s very much in alignment with how I think and how I try to work with people, and how you work with people by starting on the inside and then moving out.

 

Mark, how do you set up your day? Obviously I’m not just trying to tee up a plug for Miracle Morning. I’m sure that’s part of it. How do you set up your day to take consistent actions that will produce the results that you want? I guess that would be kind of a multifaceted question in terms of, are there things that you do to facilitate the introspective work? Then are there things that you do to facilitate the actions, activities that will actually create those tangible results? It’s kind of like what do you do daily? How do you set your schedule up to optimize your inner world, and how do you set your schedule up to optimize your outer world? I’m a big believer if you want to change your life you’ve got to change your schedule. 

 

[00:30:00] Mark: Totally. You have revolutionized my life. I do want to give you a plug, and The Miracle Morning gets all the plugs. It started with scribing. I originally started journaling and I would journal these thoughts. Then what it turned into, what I found was I shifted. Don’t be militant with your miracle morning, if I can give any plugs out there. I think the reason why people stop these practices is because they become militant and they think that “I think that my miracle morning needs to look exactly like Hal’s.” I know that’s not why you shared this with the world, Hal. 

 

I started with scribing and my scribing looked like a process of clearing my head for the day. My scribing looks like creating a task list of all of the things that I have on my calendar and all of the things that I’m out to achieve. In my task list I have an on-hold section, so those are things that I want to achieve that are not taking priority today. Then I also have a gratitude section where I write out five new things I’m grateful for every day. I would love to tell you that I’m super, super successful at this, but I fall off. I have days where I’m like I don’t… I do it every day, don’t get me wrong, it’s just become a practice of mine, but I have days that I don’t finish everything. Then I don’t judge myself. It just carries over to the next day. I had a moment recently in which we had my son in which when I heard him cry in the hospital, Hal, everything in life changed. 

 

Actually something that you said at QLM really came into the forefront of my mind. You were talking about speaking and how you either get paid full price or you do it for free, and you only do so many free talks a year. I started to really, really think about what was important and what was priority in my business. I’ve actually cut out a lot of things that I was doing that are taking away time from my family that were not priority in my business. I use the scribing to- 

 

[00:32:09] Hal: Can you give an example? Sorry to cut you off, but give an example of some of the things that you cut off so people have a real tangible, something they can relate to. 

 

[00:32:18] Mark: Yeah. I’m actually currently not taking on coaching clients. The vetting process that I’ve put in place to take on coaching clients is insured. I’m stating I’m not taking them on, but if the right individuals came into my life I would take them on. I was taking on everyone and anyone just to empower and have impact, and so what it was looking like is I was getting on calls with a lot of individuals that weren’t ready to take action. I’ve created some systems to sift through the individuals to make sure the ones that make it through are ready to go. I’ve put Purpose Chasers podcast on hold. Season one is concluded. Season two is actually going to launch to be announced with your episode number one. Just really taking a look at what I’m doing, where I’m going and getting clear on what’s taking away time for my family. 

 

You sharing that wasn’t in context with what I’m sharing, but I internalized it. I took that into my meditation. I’m not at the place where it’s I’m getting hit up by 50,000 people to go speak. You’re a couple levels ahead of me but you’re not that far. It’s like I need to be prepared for when I get there so that I can protect the time that I have with my family, because to me time is the only thing that we can’t give back. To be a meaningful father to me it means that I spend time. Again, I want to give a gratitude plug for having you in my life and getting to watch you navigate and see the time that you devote to your family because it’s revolutionized my life. 

 

[00:34:05] Hal: Yeah, I appreciate that. It’s something that I’ve learned modeling other people and going too far the other way of being a workaholic. The one thing that I realize and you hear it… The point is, yeah, modeling other people. Pat Flynn has been a great example for me of someone who said, “If I get asked to do anything that takes me away from my family too long it’s a really easy no because that is the number one priority.” You realize that we’re going to be in business and we’re going to be working and we’re going to be changing the world for the rest of our lives, but my daughter is nine and that means for roughly nine more years I can hang out with her and I can spend time with her. My son is 6, so I’ve got about 12 more years with him but that’s going to go by. We hear it from those that are older and wiser than us and have hindsight and they go, “Dude, it goes by fast.” I think too much of us we hear other people and we go, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’ve got to build the business. I’ve got to work.” 

 

John Broman opened my eyes to that. He said, “Your kids aren’t going to remember how many mortgage payments you paid at the end of your life or at the end of theirs. They’re going to remember how much time you spent with them, quality time.” Yeah, so keeping family number one. Congrats by the way on being a new dad. How many months ago was your son born? 

 

[00:35:22] Mark: He is, at the time of this recording, five weeks old today. 

 

[00:35:27] Hal: Wow. Five weeks, man. That’s exciting. Proud of you, dude. You’ve come a long, long, long way, Mark. Yeah, I’m proud of you and just so privileged to know you and grateful that you’re out there paying it forward and taking your life experience and helping other people with it. 

 

[00:35:43] Mark: Yeah. He has changed my life in ways that I didn’t even know possible. Everyone said, “Everything’s going to change when you have a child.” I guess you don’t really know what that means until you experience it. It changed my life for all… Everything’s positive. I don’t see any negatives with him coming in. Even when I get frustrated that I can’t get this done or I can’t get that done, it’s not that I can’t get it done or I’m not getting it done, it’s just that that’s not the time. It’s going to get done, I always get stuff done, but I just need to be present and experience this. It’s such a blessing. It’s come full circle for me on all of my limiting beliefs around not having the father that the story creates and being the father that I didn’t know that I was going to be. 

 

[00:36:35] Hal: Beautiful, man. That’s beautiful. Let’s wrap this up with he best place to follow you. By the way, your book… For anybody listening, you can go check out Mark Crandall’s book, Embrace Your Past Win Your Future. Mark, is Amazon the best place to find that? 

 

[00:36:50] Mark: Yeah, Amazon. It’s on Audible and we had a really, really skilled voice narrate my book. 

 

[00:36:58] Hal: Is that you? 

 

[00:36:59] Mark: No, Rob did it. 

 

[00:37:01] Hal: Rob Doyle? 

 

[00:37:02] Mark: Rob Actis. 

 

[00:37:03] Hal: Sorry, Rob Actis. Yeah, you guys so that’s the voice of The Miracle Morning book series. Rob Actis did your book. That’s rad. Yeah, he’s got a powerful voice. What’s the best way for people to follow, learn from you, connect with you? What’s the best way to do that? 

 

[00:37:17] Mark: https://markcrandall.net/ is where everything is housed. Anything about me, the books and videos that I’ve done, my podcasts, everything is housed at markcrandall.net. 

 

[00:37:28] Hal: All right, and I’ll spell it out for everybody. M-A-R-K C-R-A-N-D-A-L-L. Markcrandall.com. Mark, I appreciate you, man. Thank you for coming to the podcast today. 

 

[00:37:40] Mark: .net. 

 

[00:37:40] Hal: .net. Sorry. Markcrandall.net. Yeah, Mark, thanks for coming on today, man. I knew your story but hearing it in this context and this platform was really powerful. Thank you for sharing. 

 

[00:37:53] Mark: Thank you so much for having me on, Hal. I’m just truly blessed to have you in my life and look forward to continuing to head down the path that you’ve paved. 

 

[00:38:01] Hal: You got it brother. I’m looking at the gift you gave me, that beautiful hand carved laser etched ginormous Miracle Equation book cover. Thank you for that, dude. That was a really cool gift. 

 

[00:38:12] Mark: That’s my pleasure, man. That’s the least I could do for what you’ve done for my life. 

 

[00:38:16] Hal: Awesome, man. Awesome. All right, goal achievers, thank you for listening to another episode of the Achieve Your Goals podcast. I love and appreciate you more than you know. A lot of exciting stuff coming soon, The Miracle Life podcast being one of those things. I believe we’re going to be changing the name and slightly the format. When I say changing I mean upgrading. Of course we’re not going to change it unless I feel strongly that we can add even more value for you as a listener.

 

For now, thank you for being a goal achiever. I don’t know what we’re going to… Miracle lifer, I guess. I don’t know. We’ll figure out what the new term is going to be. I love you and I appreciate you. I will talk to you all next week. Take care everybody. 

 

Thanks for listening. To learn more about the Achieve Your Goals podcast and to get access to today’s show notes, transcript and exclusive content from Hal Elrod, visit www.halelrod.com/podcast.Thanks again for joining us. Be sure to tune in next week for another episode of the Achieve Your Goals podcast.

 

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