[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign the podcast for those who find themselves immersed in adversity and choose to write their story instead of having others write it for them. I'm Drew Duraney and I'm your host.
Today's guest is Rudy Rickstiens.
Rudy Ricksteins is a renowned leadership visionary, business mentor, and a high performance coach.
Rudy supports people on achieving their highest and greatest potential, instructing and inspiring them not just to survive, but to thrive in any environment, situation and relationship. He advocates that the only way to achieve this is by bringing mindfulness and consciousness into every aspect of daily life, especially within business.
Louisiana Weekly named Rudy as a leader called upon by leaders. He was awarded Top five Coach by Thrive Global alongside Tony Robbins and Jim Quick, and honored by Business Insider as a top 20 thought leader in 2021 alongside Deepak Chopra and Dr. Joe Dispenza. Rudy has consulted and or coached startup entrepreneurs, CEOs, creatives and public figures on achieving their highest and greatest potential.
Visit www.rudyricksteins.com or listen to the Empowered Life Podcast to learn more about Rudy.
Enjoy the show. Rudy, so good to see you.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: It's so good to see you. Drew. Thank you so much for your time.
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Oh, it's my pleasure. It's my pleasure. I'm honored to be speaking with you. I know we talked a couple weeks ago again and we just talked a little bit before we hit record to catch up and towards the end of the episode you'll have something exciting to tell the audience. But before we get to that, I always like to thank the individual or individuals who introduced me to my guest. And this one's a little unique. I Remember looking on LinkedIn and Amberly Lago posted something and Rudy replied and, and their reply to each other was so sincere and genuine and heartfelt. I could tell it wasn't AI it was really Amberly and Rudy that I wanted to meet Rudy. So I just clicked on his, his name in the, in the thing and I said, hey, I want to meet you. And we got a chance to meet. So Amberly Lago, indirectly, thank you for introducing Rudy to me. There's always a reason why people meet.
So why is Rudy on the show?
Well, you know, guys, and, and you guys have heard me say this. I, I believe that, you know, when we're growing up and it's not malicious teaching, but we're taught that life is linear.
We're told if we do step A plus B plus C in that order, D is going to happen, everything's going to be fine, and we believe it because we want it to happen and we know nothing else. And for the most part, life is linear until it's not.
An external circumstance will get in the way of one of those letters and turn our straight line path in life to a more circuitous one.
And I also believe that there's three types of men out there.
You have man number one, who's got so many blind spots. He doesn't see that external circumstance shifting his life. He just goes in the direction that he's been told autopilot, and nothing changes. And then there's man number two. A little more heightened self awareness than the blind spot man.
Yet he sees adversity as something that's happening to him. He's the victim, everybody else is to blame. He has no control over the path of his life. He doesn't change anything. And on his deathbed he has a ton of regrets.
And then there's man number three. That's Rudy Ricksteins man number three has a heightened self awareness and sees that adversity and he's sick and tired of being sick and tired. And he says, you know what? That adversity, that's not a barrier. That's an opportunity for me to do something different, change my life and become a stronger man in the end.
So Rudy, I ask you, sir, for the audience, reach back as far as you need to for that defining moment, that tap on the shoulder, the whisper in the ear, or like what I needed two by four upside my head, that helped shift you and to transform from whatever man you were to man number three, the man you are now, Rudy, and how it affected you personally and professionally.
[00:04:40] Speaker B: Man, it is such a great question and a great setup because I think that we are all three of those characters at different times and that that in itself is also not linear. Meaning you could be man number three today and have a moment where you perceive something as man number one or man number two. And so it's always this constant growth of evolution which I think is the entire meaning of life. I do fully believe that every experience that we have is always a preparation or a pre qualification for the person that we get to become.
My 2x4 on the side of the head was around my 26th birthday and I was sitting in a loft apartment that I paid cash for. I had a sports car downstairs in the garage. I was wearing high end jeans. I just thought that all of the success that I had achieved would finally make me feel like I was enough. And it was in achieving all the monetary gains that I thought would make me feel like I was successful, like I was worthy, that I realized I still felt unworthy. I still felt like the victim. I still felt like I wasn't good enough. You know, at the time I owned three businesses. I had approximately 60 people responsible for their livelihood, for themselves and for their family. And I share all of this with you because all up until that point, I believed in creating success and wealth and driving nice cars and living in a nice home that people would finally see me.
But sitting there by myself, I was having dinner and I mean, I just. The memories come back so fast of sitting there in that moment and realizing, man, I still feel like I'm completely broken inside and that there's, there's no worth to who I am. And my relationships were terrible. You know, my friendships were terrible. I had money, but there was no joy and fulfillment in any of those things. And that was really the beginning stage of me starting to ask questions.
I do believe now, after having been in high performance for, well, 26, going on 27 years now, is that, you know, when we are asking questions, pointed questions to ourselves, about ourselves, about our thoughts, our feelings, some of the decisions that we've been making, that's where our power lies. And for me, it took the first 26 years of my life of feeling debilitated to really set me up, to start asking really important information, empowered questions. And I started asking questions like, you know, is it true that I am unworthy? Is it true that I'm not good enough? Is it true that I'm stupid?
You know, I was six years old when I went to school and I walked into the classroom on the first day and the teacher said to me, hey, you're stupid and you need to sit on the stupid chair. And she had a bar stool in the corner of the room that she called the dancer's chair. And in that moment, I got labeled stupid by an authority figure. At the age of six, when the human brain does not have the ability to process with logic and reason, I couldn't look at her and say, well, she's just a miserable 70 year old teacher who, you know, can't retire, who hates being a teacher, doesn't want to be in the classroom, she's burnt out, she's mean, she's rude. No, I just took it as the instruction. That lady, the authority, labeled you stupid. You are stupid. And so the conditioning began around that age of me viewing the world as I'm not good enough, I'm not smart enough, I'm not worthy. And then I Started stacking all the evidence in my childhood that I am not, in fact, in that moment, worthy. So sitting on my couch around 26 years old, eating my celebratory birthday dinner and realizing, man, I still felt like that six year old boy, that I was absolutely broken inside, thinking all the external things would validate me, and they did nothing to validate me. And that was when I realized that we place all our value outside of ourselves. That is the human conditioning. We think someone needs to love us before we can love ourselves. Somebody needs to see us before we can feel the way that we aspire to feel or to be. I would love to tell you, Drew, that in that moment, right there, right then, all of a sudden, a light switch went off and I shifted from, you know, personality type 1 to 2 to 3. It was a long, arduous journey, but it was the most incredible, incredible, I want to say nurturing ground, because today that's what I do for a living, is help people shift from that state of feeling like you're disempowered to, to being empowered. But I would never be qualified to be who I am today had it not been for that incredible moment.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: Unbelievable. And you think about it too, when that teacher said that in a way, and you don't realize this at age 6, that that comment potentially could have been a gift wrapped in sandpaper because she in essence challenged you on. She didn't do it on purpose, but you were able at 26 then to see a contrast between what you felt like versus what you want to feel like.
And I mean, it's not a good thing. She should not have done that. And you wonder why people are in certain positions in life, authority figures.
But at six years old, when you heard that and accepted that as truth, did you tell anybody that the teacher said that?
[00:10:07] Speaker B: No, because I didn't want anybody else to know that I was stupid. Right. And so if you think about the logic in that, you know, I absolutely could have gone home, said something, she could have got reprimanded or even fired, but I didn't. Because I immediately, in that moment, process that. That is in fact who I was. I absorbed that information as a fact. And you know, we could spend the entire time we have together today just explaining how the brain receives and perceives information under the age of seven, absorbs it as a fact, and then you don't question it. That defines who you are. And so I was then categorized as stupid. I then viewed the world as somebody who was stupid. So I went through my entire School, career, never paying attention, not doing my homework, not finishing projects, not studying. Because I was thinking, what's the point? Like I'm just stupid. So why, why bother trying be aligned.
[00:11:05] Speaker A: With what we think we are? No, that's a very good point, Rudy, because, you know, the I, you know, I've doing a lot of research on the brain and, and the numbers state that probably about 50% of our, our view of the world and ourselves is kind of hammered into us by the time we're 7 to 10 years old. And by the time we're 18, 90% of view of 90% of the view of the world and ourselves is kind of fixed.
And at age 18, you know, boys, their prefrontal cortex we talk about the brain doesn't really develop until the 30s, you know, so men in essence, or boys in essence are kind of created to make dumb decisions at a young age because we don't have the capacity not to do anything different. So to challenge, you know, what we believe we are because someone told us is really not feasible for us.
So at 26, when you sat there, do you know what triggered that thought?
[00:12:06] Speaker B: You know, it was my birthday and I had just purchased this loft apartment. I had moved in and furnished the entire place over a three day weekend. You know, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, walking into stores, saying, I'll take that couch, I'll take that tv. And just feeling like, man, I could do anything.
And then going home, unpacking everything, getting my house all set up, and then finally sitting down like the king in the castle where you take a seat at your throne. And I sat on my couch in front of a tv, massive flat screen tv. At the time they were new. And I thought, man, I have finally arrived, I've done everything. And when I sat there, I realized I felt empty. And so it was really in that moment, the catalyst for me was realizing that everything that was around me that I thought once I put it, the paintings on the walls and once I mounted the TV and I sat there, I could really be proud of myself. I realized in that moment I wasn't proud. The things I had done, I had done because I worked tirelessly, I worked really hard because I'm an incredible, you know, I have an incredible ability to stay focused and committed on something that I'm wanting to do. I'm high, performed by my nature, right? But it did not bring me what I thought it would bring me. You know, there's a quote of Jim Carrey where he was being interviewed and he turned around, he said, I Wish. My wish for the. For the entire human race is that every single person could experience extreme wealth and fame so that they could realize what they seek is not in fame and fortune. And, you know, that's really the. The crux of my story. Not to say that I achieved any of the things that Jim Carrey had achieved, but in my little vantage point of if I could just make a million, if I could just buy this, if I could just drive that, then I would be enough. And when I started to achieve those and not.
My story is my story. And, and I don't want the audience to hear my story and filter through my lens of how I viewed it. I want you as the audience to listen to this and apply it to you and your story. Where in your life right now have you been labeled something and that is how you view yourself. That is who you are, and so you don't change. Where in your life right now are you looking for outside, external validation either through physical things or through somebody el. Or through other people giving you what it is that you need or want?
Instead of outsourcing your joy, your fulfillment, your freedom, your happiness, could you, which you can internally create that shift inside you, and there's the beauty in it, because every single person has that story.
Every one of us do. Every one of us at one point in time have either outsourced our joy, happiness, fulfillment, freedom, or we're currently still outsourcing it, or, or we're looking at the world like it's an unfair and unjust place. And other people have, and we don't have. But again, when we realize that we individually have the power to create the joy, the fulfillment, the freedom right here, right now, I'm going to go as far as to tell you. At 26 years old, when I didn't feel like I was good enough and I wasn't worthy, I was everything then that I needed to be, to be the man that I am today.
I was the only person that was slowing me down from creating that shift and creating that joy, creating that fulfillment. And when we realize that that is where the power lies in this very present moment. You know, so many people are living in the past and many people are living in a hopeful, potential future that may never come. And we're missing the gift we have in the moment. And so, as you hear these words, I want you to challenge yourself. This is to the listener. I want you to challenge yourself.
Could you today walk as the version of you you aspire to be? Could you dress like that person? Could you act like that person. Could you, in this moment right now, start to think, feel, believe, and then decide how to move forward as the future version of yourself? Because in this moment, it's the only moment you're ever going to have. It's the only moment you're ever going to get. And that is the moment that you're in right now. So stay grounded in this moment that you are in fact enough and that everything that you want to have and be already is in you. There's nothing outside you have to do, there's nothing outside you have to be or achieve. And there's no one that is going to be able to come into your life to give you the thing that is the internal job.
[00:16:32] Speaker A: I love that. And it's so true. You know, while you were talking about sitting on that couch at 26, I'm putting myself, trying to put myself in your shoes, the empathy piece. And I'm sitting there and I'm wondering what I would now do after I had that change of thinking. What did you do after you had that realization that you could create your own joy from within? What physically did you do at that point? Do you recall?
[00:17:00] Speaker B: I do, but it wasn't in. In response to the very specific question you asked. Because I didn't get to that stage yet.
[00:17:09] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: The first step that I took was taking out a piece of paper and writing out questions and statements. Now, I alluded to it earlier, but I'm going to give you the exercise now. So I sat on that couch and I was like, man, I'm still the little six year old dunce sitting on the chair. So I wrote out, am I stupid? That was the first thing I did. I wrote down am I stupid? With a question mark. And then I sat there and I really thought about that. I contemplated, is Rudy stupid? I was sitting in this beautiful two story loft apartment, everything furnished, everything brand new. And I was like, could a stupid person create this? And so I wrote, I can't be stupid if I paid cash for this two story loft. No stupid person couldn't stumble into that. Right then I said, could a stupid person have three businesses?
Probably not successfully, if is my business successful? Yes. Do I make good decisions in the. Yes. And so I started looking for evidence everywhere around me. Am I in fact stupid? And when I realized, Rudy's not stupid, he's actually pretty fricking wicked smart. And when I realized, hang on, things come really easy to me. And when I say things come easy, I mean how my mind works. I can listen to A conversation and pull out things that most people miss. I can dissect a problem and come up with a solution. I'm really creative. I can walk into a business and see the problems and the flaws inside of a business, even if it's not mine, even if I don't work in the business. And just that having that understanding that only came when I was asking questions. Now I mentioned to you, your power lies in being present in your mind and being present in your body. When you asking a question, you're snapping your unconscious mind. The pre program where you said at 18, you know, 90% of what we do, the data shows that at 95, I mean at 35 years old, 95% of everything you think, feel and do is an automatic pre program. You are solidified at 35.
The only way to snap out of that is to ask a question. So when you ask the question, the brain says, now we actually have to look for the information. We have to find the evidence, we have to then come up to the conclusion. And that brings the conscious mind, the present mind, into focus and, and asking the question, am I stupid? My brain now didn't go to the pre program. It said, okay, well let's look for evidence. Are you or are you not? And that was, was my beginning of my journey. I fold an entire legal pad of just asking questions and then looking for the evidence and then asking, you know, am I worthy of love? Am I a good friend? Do I deserve good friends? And I just started looking at all the things in my life that were quote unquote broken. And that was when I made very big decisions in my life. I mean, I left a two and a half year relationship, I stopped being friends with certain people, I moved out of business partnerships with certain people. I made very big life decisions because I realized the wrong version of me was making all these decisions. And now I'm going to start with awareness because that's the first step in transformation is being aware, being conscious, and then taking accountability for everything I had done up until that point, how I thought, how I felt. But now I'm going to take accountability for what am I going to do next. And that's where the action came in. So many people have the awareness, right? Meaning a moment smacks them with a two by four on the side of the head, using your terminology. But then they don't ask the additional questions. And then they also don't take new steps, new actions or new behaviors. That's where the change comes in.
[00:20:41] Speaker A: See, I love that. And you know in reading the book Paradigms, I forget the name of the author. But to have that paradigm shift, you have to be willing and able to do it. And in that moment, you are willing at on that couch now to make that change. And then the ability comes with the certain processes. Right? You got it. You can't when you're, when you're a baby, you can't, you know, run up the stairs yet. You gotta crawl first and the first step, second step. And I love the fact that you're asking yourself questions, both yes, no questions or open ended questions because it gets us to start to think about ourselves. And you go the brain and heart connection, then you really can have the true answers are within you. And I've noticed that with myself the more when I started telling my story to people, I started to heal myself from within and that started to build my self confidence that I could do this my, I could do this for me, within me. And so I love that. I love your approach, Rudy.
So once you started changing your personal life, did that automatically get you to want to coach and help other people? Because you could have taken that information and just kept it to yourself. You're not that type of person. So what made you think of sharing your gift?
[00:21:54] Speaker B: So we're gonna have to go back before I can answer your question. Okay. I was 16 years old, sitting in a high school gymnasium when a motivational speaker slash business coach came in to speak to the school.
And that day I knew who I was, who I was going to be and why God put me here. Okay. It was like I got struck by lightning bolts and I had that voice in the back of my head that said, rudy, that is what you're going to do with your life. You are going to move people. You were going to motivate people. Like I, I tell the story so often. My body was electrified. It was like with crystal clear clarity, I knew why I was here. Now I was 16.
I didn't start motivating, speaking or coaching until I was 36 years old.
[00:22:43] Speaker A: 20 years. Okay.
[00:22:44] Speaker B: So it took me 20 more years, 20 years before I had the courage to actually start to teach what it was that I was learning. Now the answer to the question is more complicated because at 26 years old, I wasn't qualified asking those questions. I didn't have enough. That was the beginning of my inner journey. And then for the next 10 years, I really did dove. Now, I've always been a seeker. I've always been very spiritual. I've always been focused on how to Take accountability for your life. But doing it at 26 was a very different level of the work. That was when I took a hundred percent ownership, 100% accountability. And that's when I started to, you know, make the changes in my life.
The reason I made all the money that I made in my 20s, it was because I wanted to be a speaker. And I believed that not unless I was successful, not unless I had all the success to point to would people look at me worthy of what I wanted to share.
When I was 36 years old, I wasn't even the person that put me on my first stage.
My wife did.
She went onto a meetup platform and invited absolute strangers to come to my house on a Wednesday evening and, and posted the topic that we would be speaking on. And then she said to me after the fact, people are coming on Wednesday and they're coming to hear you speak. And I was like, what the f. Like, I was like, no, no, no, no. Because everything in me said, you're not good enough, you're not worthy, you're not ready. Because that was the default pattern. Even though I'd been doing all the external work. Yeah, well, seven o' clock came, my doorbell rang, people came in, they sat in my living room. And at the end of the evening, which was almost three hours, I, I realized I didn't die. I was still around, everything was okay, and I didn't do a half bad job. And then I did it again, and I did it again. And we ended up hosting 56 events over a period of three years. And we created tremendous change in people's lives.
Then I applied it into business. And then once I had brought it into business, I went into corporate America and took all of these practices in and changed huge companies, huge culture shifts. That was when I realized, okay, I really have something here and it's time to take this forward. And that's when I started. But I want to bring it back to the, to the audience. I love that when people ask questions and I get to tell my story, to teach a topic to, then bring it back to who's listening. Because anyone who's listening to this, they're listening because they want to change something in their life. They want to gain a different level of vantage point, they want to move forward in one or more areas.
And I love to ground things.
Had my wife not pushed me, nudged me, I don't know if I would have started at the time that I started.
And it wasn't until I actually took that leap and did what it was that I believed that I could do. Did I realize I had been ready for a very, very long time and that I was the person that was slowing me down because I was crossing my T's and dotting my eyes and waiting for everything to look picture perfect.
And I'm going to tell you now, people don't want picture perfect. They want real. They want you. And you are ready today. You are going to grow and evolve and change. Now, had I started at 26 years old, I wouldn't be qualified in the same sense that I was at 36 or now 46, but I absolutely would have been able to serve the future version of who I was going to become or the earlier version of who I was. And at that stage. And so that's the gift in it. Regardless of what you're aspiring to do, you can start doing it today. And that when you do it today, with micro steps and adjustments, you are going to be moving yourself closer to the life of the person that you aspire to be, rather than staying stagnant or stuck. And the majority of people, they just don't take action.
[00:26:46] Speaker A: Rudy, I love what you said, though, because that a lot of us do think we have to be perfect, and we wait and wait and wait because we don't believe in ourselves. The fact that doing it scared has forced me to believe in myself because, like you said, you didn't die, right? You survived it. And. And I think that having somebody like your wife, and I want to thank your wife because for, you know, thanks for pushing him. What's your wife's name?
[00:27:14] Speaker B: Aniston.
[00:27:15] Speaker A: Aniston. Thanks for pushing Rudy because you helped a lot of people by doing that.
But honestly, though, Warren Buffett says the biggest decision anyone can ever make is the partner they choose to be with in their life. Because you want to have a partner who pulls you up rather than drags you down, a partner who wants you to be the best version of yourself. And Aniston, you said, did I get that right? Aniston did that.
And people out there, we all, we, none of us can do it ourselves, right? We have to believe in ourselves. It comes from within. But to surround yourself with people who care about you, like Rudy's wife, is so important. So seek out those. The people who are going to bring you up and that. And Rudy even said when he had that, that transformation, he kicked people out of his life who weren't serving him. And we have a choice. Who we allow in our life, every choice, everything that happens, we have a choice. To make.
So we are accountable for where we are right now. We created our current position based on decisions, right?
So if you start to believe in yourself, your decisions are going to reflect your belief in yourself and then you're going to, you're going to find life is going to be a lot more sweet.
So thank you, Rudy, for all that. It's unbelievable.
So I can truly say that I believe that the audience has captured the essence of Rudy Rickstein's and they're going to want to get in touch with you, Rudy. We know that. So folks, best way is Rudy's website is rudyrichstein.com It's R U D I and last name R I E K S T I N S dot com. You're going to find a lot of information there. If you want to find them on social media, it would be at Rudyrickstein's. Whether it's on LinkedIn or Instagram.
I'm sure we didn't grab everything you want to tell the audience about, if you could tell them a little about how you do the work you do and then anything else you believe the audience will benefit from.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: You know, I want to first thank you obviously, for the opportunity just to connect with you and to connect with your audience because I feel that very strongly every single moment is always perfectly and divinely happening the way that it's meant to happen, because it's serving the person that we get to become.
And so for anybody that's listening to this episode, you're here for a reason and there's value in this. There's something here for you and it's always looking for the gold moment, even if it is surrounded in sandpaper in that point. But there's always going to be this blessing, this gift and this opportunity. I work with people in a myriad of ways, but the easiest way for people to learn more about the work that I do is to join my community.
I have a very, very powerful, robust program where I support people to go through a transformational journey of identifying who they are using six pillars of having an empowered life. My entire life, from when I was young all the way through until the man that I am today, was a pre qualification to get me to this moment. Your life has been your pre qualification. Now sometimes we do need that external force, that person that nudges you. For me, it was Aniston and she gave me the confidence to take that step forward.
My sole mission is to hold people accountable to the highest and the greatest potential of who they are and who they've come here to be. And sometimes people just need to be reminded. So I created a community to remind people of who they are. For people to work with me. It's typically one on one. It's reserved for, you know, high net worth individuals, people that have achieved tremendous success in their lives and then they go and impact their teams and their companies.
But what about the everyday person who's aspiring to also become one of those big net worth individuals who also wants to create an impact? And so the community was a way to be able to create that. We are in right now a launch period of the community, which means there's introductory pricing for a very, very limited time. Now that sounds like a sales pitch. I'm not a salesperson. I'm not pushing a product by any means. But if somebody is interested, you can join for as little as $1 for your first month and it's $49 thereafter. That pricing is going to go to $111 a month. And right now you can join at an introductory price more than the actual dollar value because that is inconsequential. It's the question of who do you want to be and what is holding you back? Because the empowered life is about reminding you that you have the power within you to live, to have to be and to achieve everything that you desire. And, and this is just a framework that we get to follow to bring you back to the remembrance of who you are and who you came here to be. I had to go through that journey from 16 to 26, from 26 to 36.
And actually as of today, a week ago, I just turned 46. So there's a lot of sixes in that.
But knowing that my journey was slow and long and arduous because I needed to find, fully understand all of the processes in how to create transformation. Because I had to do it for myself. And then I learned how to teach it. What I want to share with you as the listener is you do not have to go through 20 or 30 years of pain and suffering to get to the person that you aspire to be. It can happen in a very short amount of time as long as you surround yourself with the people that are holding you to the vision of your highest and your greatest potential. And, and that's what the empowered life community is all about.
[00:32:50] Speaker A: I love that. And folks out there, for your own good, realize that when you spend money on yourself to improve your personal development, it's an investment in yourself. It's an investment. It's just like when you spend Money on the mortgage on your home, you buy a new couch, a flat screen tv. You're doing that because maybe it makes you feel good, whatever. But when you spend money on yourself, you deserve it, all right? It's an investment in your future, in your joy and your happiness. So take Rudy up on this introductory offer.
Rudy's amazing and he's, you see here in this podcast is who you're going to see when you do get a chance to talk with him. So thank you for that. Rudy, two final questions for you, my friend.
Give you the opportunity. You're sitting down with young 7 to 10 year old Rudy Ricksteins and you want to give him advice about life.
What are you going to tell him.
[00:33:51] Speaker B: When you ask the question? I actually see an image of me sitting on my bedroom floor as a child playing with Legos and feeling that feeling of unfulfillment and unworthiness and not understanding why I would be created less than anybody else.
I actually remember a very specific moment when where I had come home from school and all these kids, you know, were doing a talent show and one girl sang beautifully, the other one played the piano, the other one did this and I had no talent. And I sat there thinking, how could I be made created by the creator, talentless, stupid, not worthy. And I remember that feeling so vividly of sitting in that room on my floor asking that question of myself, of God, why am I so talentless? Why am I so unworthy?
[00:34:38] Speaker A: And.
[00:34:39] Speaker B: And if I had a moment to go back to that version of me, I would lovingly sit in front of him and remind him that he is everything that he aspires to be, that he is whole, he is complete, he is perfect. And I think that so many of us, we are disconnected from the true essence of who we really are. And for me, my entire life's journey, if we listen to this whole podcast episode, it is really one concept repeated again and again and again, that all the validation that I thought was outside was what I really needed to do inside. Rudy needed to love him exactly the way that he was. And only when he could do that would he see all of the talents and the gifts and the opportunity and the brilliance that was him. I desperately was looking for love and validation everywhere else but within myself, which birthed my entire life. Why I have the empowered life, community. It's why I have the podcast. The speaking, the coaching is just a way to remind not just little six year old Rudy, but to remind everybody, the six year old version of them, that they are Complete as they are right where they are.
[00:35:45] Speaker A: Love that. Rudy, the next question.
I think you're going to give a similar answer, a little different, let's say, put a different hat on. Now you're sitting down with young Rudy, the young businessman, young entrepreneur, and you want to give him advice about business. What would you tell him?
[00:36:04] Speaker B: What would I tell him about business?
You know, I think that in life, we hear things many times, and each time we hear them, we hear them slightly differently.
And I believe that that's the case because every time we hear something different, whether we watch a movie that we've seen before, we're seeing it as a new version of ourselves. When you read a book a number of times, you draw new information every time you read it, because you're a different version of yourself every time you read that book. And so the conversation I would have with myself as it related to business is probably very similar to that conversation, because I made a lot of decisions in business based on how did I think other people would perceive me in business and not making the decisions that I internally, intuitively felt about myself. I believe that we all have all of the answers to everything within us. But if we are clouded in our thought process, clouded in our emotion, clouded in where we spend our time, meaning we either thinking about the past in regret, or we're hopeful in the future, and we're not in the present moment. You see, Drew, your power lies in being present where you are. And if I was going to be grounded in that moment at 25, 26, 32, and making decisions from that vantage point, I think I would have made very, very different decisions in my business. I think my success levels would have been astronomically higher because I wouldn't be making the decisions based on someone else. I would have been asking myself, what do I think is the best decision? What do I want to do? And not looking through the room to get that validation. You know, I remember sitting in a. In a meeting making decisions and knowing what I wanted to do. And then we're asking the room, and other people had different decisions, and. And mine was not the favored decision.
And so I went with what other people thought was best as opposed to doing what I thought was best. And I think we all do that, you know, in every area of our life, not necessarily just in business right now.
[00:38:11] Speaker A: Very good point, Rudy. Thank you so much. The message you're really providing is powerful.
We all have to trust ourselves, everything we need to be inside of us. And. And as somebody who once I was told I'M an adult. At 18, I started to ignore my inner child.
Don't ignore your inner child. That six year old sitting on the floor is still inside a Rudy, right? And instead of us saying no to our 7 to 10 year old inside of us, start saying yes.
It's only because others tell us we have to be 18 and older and this is an adult that we start to ignore our inner child. The inner child is going to fuel you and he's inside of you. She's inside of you and is going to help you move forward. So trust your gut, trust your instincts, trust yourself.
Rudy. I trust you and I thank you for coming on. I thank you for coming into my life.
I thank Amberly for posting something that you responded to. Otherwise we wouldn't have met. Keep doing what you're doing. You're a wonderful human being and you're sharing some valuable insights from your experience and your wisdom that's going to help somebody and it's going to help somebody right now. So thank you so much.
[00:39:23] Speaker B: Well, I appreciate you, man. And you keep doing what you're doing. You're creating incredible impact in a place that really needs it. So thank you so much for your time.
[00:39:30] Speaker A: My pleasure. Everybody out there, please take care of yourselves.
Thanks so much for listening. If you enjoyed the episode, please subscribe and give us a review to help others find it.
I'd like you to answer this question.
Are you living the life you want to live or are you living the life others want you to live? I'd like you to think about that for a second because I strongly suggest you live the life you want to live. If you want to learn more about what I stand for and my services and how I'm able to help many men get out of their own way, please go to my
[email protected].
feel free to also email me at
[email protected]. i'd love to have a conversation with you.
Take care of yourself and choose to write your own story instead of letting others write it for you.
