Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Speaker A: Welcome to from caving in to crushing it, 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 Durani, and I'm your host. Today's guest is Sam Lebowitz. Sam Liebowitz, known as the conscious consultant, is a facilitator, mentor, speaker, healer, serial entrepreneur, host of the top rated radio show the Conscious Consultant hour, and is a three time best selling author and author of the number one empowerment book Everyday Awakening. He has been in business since 1993 and has owned several successful businesses. His current ventures include talking, alternative broadcasting, and double diamond wellness in Manhattan. Sam has lectured in several venues in New York City, including being a featured speaker at TEDx Upper west side in 2016.
Enjoy the show. Sam, so good to see you.
[00:01:11] Speaker B: Wonderful to be on your show, Drew. Thank you so much for the opportunity.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: It's my pleasure. It's my pleasure. Now, I always like to thank the person who introduced us, and I was going to look at this ahead of time. Do you recall who introduced us?
[00:01:33] Speaker B: John Javier.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: There we go. It was John Javier. That's right. That's right. And what's really ironic about that is my business colleague and my business coach is Keegan Schaefer. And Keegan Schaefer and John Javier have a networking group together. And I met John through the men's group that Keegan was running in. That's where he thought about you. So unbelievable how things work.
[00:01:58] Speaker B: Yes, yes. And I met John through a different networking group, and then I met Keegan through John, and now me and Keegan actually talking about him possibly joining the network.
[00:02:08] Speaker A: Love it. Love it. You see, that's how it's all about building relationships. So, you know, Sam, I wanted you to. To have you on, because I bring men and women on who have gone through something in life, and. And a, were aware it was happening, and b, made a decision not to run away from it, but to face it head on and to become a stronger human being because of it. And I know you've got a variety of different angles where you can go with this question. I'd like you to reach back as far as you need to and grab on to that defining moment or moments in life that were either that tap on the shoulder, the two by four upside the head, said, hey, Sam, there's a better way to learn. Life's not linear. We were promised that it's not.
What would that defining moment be that really changed or shaped the course of your life?
[00:02:58] Speaker B: Well, it wasn't a defining moment so much as a defining period in my life.
[00:03:03] Speaker A: Perfect.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Perfect and defining and few different ways. So when I was in college, my first year of college, I met someone who is kind of weird, but, you know, I like weird people. I'm a little weird myself.
[00:03:22] Speaker A: We all are.
[00:03:23] Speaker B: And because we became friends and because of the whole situation around it, it really was the first thing to put me on a spiritual path. I'll say, okay, okay.
Only at the time, what we didn't know was that my friend was schizophrenic.
[00:03:49] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:03:50] Speaker B: Wow. Although that was revealed. And actually, he's the one who diagnosed himself as a schizophrenic because his girlfriend came home from her psychology class one time, and he was looking through her textbook, and he saw the section on schizophrenia, and he read through it, and he's like, I have of all these symptoms.
And at the same time, he did not want to go to a doctor. He did not want to be put on medication. He did not want to be turned into something he was not.
And so I ended up supporting him and his girlfriend for a number of years and living with them and event and even living with them.
And it was the most challenging part of my life because, you know, after school, I'd go to work and to help to pay the Bills and everything. And then I'd come home, and he probably had some psychotic break during the day and broke his glasses or broke something in the apartment. And then we'd have to sit and talk for hours to calm him down and get him grounded again.
And it would be the middle of the night, and I'd go to bed and have to get up early in the morning, go to work the next day. And this went on for six years.
[00:05:09] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: And there were a lot of things in the beginning that really made me believe that there was a lot of spirit involved, that it was a really unusual thing.
But then things kept getting worse and getting worse and getting worse. And so, so much. I was. I was a kid at the time. I didn't know what the hell I was doing.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: No, we don't.
[00:05:35] Speaker B: And so much of my identity, because, you know, you're young person, you're forming your identity, was tied up in this whole experience.
And there were so many people in the beginning who are like, what are you doing? You don't need to help him. He's not a family member. He's just a friend. What are you doing? But, you know, in my eyes, he was someone who his family had totally turned their back on him. No one wanted to have anything to do with him. I felt like if I didn't do this, he'd just end up on the street.
[00:06:06] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:06:06] Speaker B: And I couldn't.
I couldn't. I couldn't allow myself to see that happen.
[00:06:12] Speaker A: Understood.
[00:06:13] Speaker B: And he was smart. He was very smart. Like, almost Einstein level smart.
[00:06:18] Speaker A: Unbelievable.
[00:06:19] Speaker B: But, you know, they say there's a fine line between genius and madness.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:06:30] Speaker B: And so eventually, I began to feel as if my own sanity was slipping. And so then I knew I had to get myself out of that situation. And eventually, you know, we had a move out of the apartment. We kind of got kicked out.
I helped him and his girlfriend to get an apartment.
I actually moved back in with my mom, which I really didn't want to do, but I did because I had no other choice.
Still supported them for a while after that, but not at the same level. And then eventually stopped.
And then for many years afterwards, I, you know, I was lost. I was just kind of going through life. I became an entrepreneur, just focused on making money because I felt like the cosmic rug had been pulled out from under my feet. And I just. I didn't know what to believe in. You know, when so much of your identity is built up around this belief system, and then everything goes to shit. Part of my language, authentic.
[00:07:38] Speaker A: It's fine.
[00:07:40] Speaker B: You don't know.
[00:07:41] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: And so that whole experience, both what I learned from it and the trauma from it, really defined a lot of my life since then.
And it took a long time. It took probably about 15 years or more until after I finally met a woman, got married, and started to rediscover personal development.
And then from that got me back into sort of learning all these healing modalities. And I started going to all these healing workshops, not because I was ever looking to be a healer myself, but just because I knew I needed my own healing. I knew there were these emotional scars.
And then from that, got back into sort of the spirituality stuff. This was probably 15 to 17 years ago, and, you know, to the point where I was like, you know, hip deep in the spiritual community here in Manhattan. And it was really kind of interesting how it happened, because it was like these little nudges from the universe, these little things that happened over a period of time that brought me back to that stuff that, you know, if I had been just confronted with it, like, head on right away, I would have gone running, kicking and screaming in the opposite direction. But because it was a little nudge here, a little nudge there, a little nudge here. And, you know, I'm taking all these healing workshops for my own healing, but somehow I would end up with, like, some of the most difficult people to process. You know, it's like you learn some process and they pair you up in your process. And then there was that one modality that, you know, they pair you up with someone. And I helped this woman release a condition that she had had since she was a little girl, six years old. And it was after that, like, the light bulb went off and it's like, oh, like, I can use this to help other people. It's not just for me.
[00:09:47] Speaker A: And that's a great way to learn. The modality, obviously, that aligns with you is that that experience of you try all the others, they don't work. And then one thing that you probably weren't thinking about that well, they all.
[00:09:59] Speaker B: Kind of built on top of each other.
[00:10:00] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: And, you know, eventually, like, and I don't do as much healing work now as I used to, but, you know, I kind of took all the different things I learned and they all kind of bleed together. And I kind of distilled things down to sort of two forms of energetic healing. A hands on form of more, a little more traditional and a non hands on form of instant energetic healing.
But it's been a continual evolution, and I've learned so much. And now I do some ceremonial work and I work with people outside of my quote unquote business to help them heal their trauma. And it's sort of something one of my teachers once said a while ago. You have to know there to go there.
And so I guess I've just, over the years, had so much challenges and capacity to hold that. And I think people feel that. And so something that people have always said is they always feel very safe around me.
[00:11:10] Speaker A: Yep, I can understand that.
[00:11:12] Speaker B: And that's one of the things that's such a key ingredient that when you need to get over something very challenging in your life is to work with someone you truly feel safe with, because you can only go as deep as you feel safe.
[00:11:26] Speaker A: 100%. Absolutely. So wondering about, about your friend who had schizophrenia, do you often wonder where he is now and if, if you helped you him towards that healing process?
[00:11:40] Speaker B: Well, a few years ago, about three, four years ago, after doing some of my own healing work and shifting my perspective on the whole situation, I wanted to actually reach out to him and let him know that as difficult as it was, that it's a real honor to care for another human being like that.
And that I wasn't upset anymore and that I had released a lot of the energy around it.
And so a mutual friend of ours out in California was connected with his girlfriend on Facebook.
[00:12:17] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:12:18] Speaker B: And so I said, hey, look, can you talk to her? Tell her I want to see him. Tell her I want to talk to him.
Didn't hear anything back for a while. After about a couple of weeks, he finally got back to me. She said, he doesn't want to see anybody.
So I didn't get a chance to see him.
And then last year, two years ago.
Two years ago, Christmas Eve, there was a fire in Hoboken where he was living. And actually, he was living with his girlfriend out of a storage facility, not even an apartment, and there was a fire, and they were both killed.
[00:13:02] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:13:03] Speaker B: Wow. And what I had learned was that basically, I mean, I don't know how they survived after I left, but they found other people like myself who would help them, and they were constantly, like, connecting to people, and people would help them for a period of time, and then they would leave, and then they'd find somebody else.
[00:13:26] Speaker A: Okay, well, I mean, you know, you did what you could do for him, and you've. You've healed on your healing journey, and now you're healing others.
What the. I know. I know that you have the rate the radio, talk radio NYC, also, and I love behind you, and until I put this on video, people listening can't see it. But uplift, educate, empower, empowerment. Those three words really encompass what you've done with your healing and also what you're doing with your radio show. Can you tell us a little bit more about uplift, educate, and empower with talkradio NYC?
[00:14:04] Speaker B: Sure. So, again, my life has been a series of twists and turns. I've had a lot of different businesses over the years. I initially had become a computer consultant after working sort of corporate jobs for nine years, I've had businesses in entertainment and aerospace and real estate. Real estate really killed me. I lost a lot of money in real estate.
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:14:29] Speaker B: But then I met this gentleman who was an acupuncturist who had decided to become a buddhist monk, and he was selling off all his worldly goods, and I thought I would just help him to sell his business.
Instead, I ended up buying it from him.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: You did Acu. Acupuncture. All right, I want to hear about this.
[00:14:48] Speaker B: So. So, um, yeah, so he was an acupuncturist. I don't know anything about acupuncture. My wife doesn't know. My wife is a psychotherapist.
[00:14:57] Speaker A: Right.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: But what we did was we brought in an acupuncturist for him to train for a month before he left and to take it, handle his clients. And then I know a lot of practitioners. So I had naturopathic doctors and biofeedback specialists and. And other people doing energy medicine. And so we was, we turned his acupuncture practice into more generalized wellness center that became known as double diamond wellness. That was 13 and a half years ago.
[00:15:24] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:15:25] Speaker B: And so over 13 years, different practitioners come and go. The center expanded, contracted, and now it's pretty much just my wife's psychotherapy practice. Okay? So, you know, especially during the pandemic and, you know, in person, we got rid of the office, and so we went all virtual, both on the radio station side and on the therapy station side. So it was really just me kind of saying yes to what life was presenting to me.
[00:15:55] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:15:57] Speaker B: But what I realized was, and early on in the first three, four years, I had a show on the network called the dudes of disruption. It was these three guys who were all coaches. One was an executive coach, two were life coaches, and they. Their rules of being a dude.
[00:16:16] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:16:17] Speaker B: And they'd go through, like, the top five or ten rules. And I remember when the, the number one rule was, know your higher purpose.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:16:27] Speaker B: And for some reason, when I'm in the studio that day and we're streaming the show, and I, like, it just dropped in. I just knew it instantaneously that my higher purpose was to support and facilitate the unfoldment of consciousness on the planet. And everything I do falls under that umbrella some way. So with the radio station, you know, we're an online station. We're not mainstream media, so we don't do divisive stuff. No sports, no politics, no religion. And so we're really about sort of educating people and. And being an alternative to mainstream media. And the original name that Giorgio, the founder, so it was talkingalternative.com dot.
[00:17:15] Speaker A: Okay, okay.
[00:17:16] Speaker B: But then when the dot NYC domains came online, I was like, the first day I was online with Godaddy, I'm like, hey, I need this domain. And I got it.
[00:17:24] Speaker A: Good for you.
[00:17:25] Speaker B: And so over the years and looking at all the different shows we've had and what really was the brand of the network, it's to uplift, educate, and empower our audience.
[00:17:36] Speaker A: I absolutely love that. I absolutely love that. And I noticed that your name of your company, your business, is the conscious consultant.
[00:17:42] Speaker B: So that's my personal brand as the conscious consultant. The business is actually double Diamond Wellness, Inc.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: Double Diamond Wellness, Inc. Wow.
[00:17:51] Speaker B: So I was actually became the conscious consultant before we had the wellness center.
[00:17:56] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:17:56] Speaker B: Because I was taking, like, all those healing modalities and doing this stuff sort of before this all happened. And then when I had that experience of helping that woman, I was like, what do I do with this? And sort of, it kind of came to me that it's, well, you're. Because I was a business consultant at the time. I was a business mentor and stuff. It's like, well, you're still a consultant. You're just a different kind of consultant. So now you're the conscious consultant. So I was the one people came to when none of the traditional stuff worked. And the way I would work with my clients would be, like, getting at what was really the underlying energetic pattern that was keeping them from having what they wanted, keeping them from having the success they wanted, the relationships they wanted, whatever. And so as we worked on sort of that underlying energetic pattern, not just and typically, people came to me for business related stuff. Not only would their business or their career improve, but then their personal life improved and other things happened, because when you get to that core issue and you get to release the energy around it, everything gets better.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: Yeah. And I'm sure you've noticed more often than not, the first thing people come you with, come to you with thinking that they think that that's the problem.
It rarely is. Right under that surface. There's more to it, Jeff.
[00:19:17] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely. Like, I had this gentleman. He came to me. We worked for many years, on and off for many years in different, different businesses. He had.
[00:19:25] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:19:26] Speaker B: And he came to me, you know, because he was transitioning. And then he came back to me because he's having a real problem with his business partner and his man. Not his partner, his manager at the time.
[00:19:36] Speaker A: Right, right.
[00:19:37] Speaker B: And his manager would show up and do all kinds of crazy things, and he'd have to deal with the aftermath, and he'd get really triggered by this guy. And I go, I don't know what to do. And I'm like, well, so when this happens, how do you feel? And he tells me how to feel. I'm like, well, when have you felt like this before in your life?
He's thinking, thinking, thinking. And he all of a sudden, I hear, oh, my God. I was like, oh, that sounds like a recognition.
[00:20:03] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:20:04] Speaker B: When had you felt like this before? He goes, oh, my God, my dad was an alcoholic. And when he would come home drunk, he could act all crazy, and I wouldn't know what to do. And then he'd do all this crazy stuff, and then I'd have to deal with the aftermath and help my mom. It's just like when I'm dealing with this guy, now we're getting to something. So as we helped to unwind his trauma around his dad's drinking issue, suddenly he was able to deal with his manager a lot better. His relationship with his dad improved, and all kinds of other things shifted in his life.
[00:20:46] Speaker A: It's amazing that it takes somebody like you to ask a question that then has somebody like me actually stop you. Block out all the world in your thinking, and it must be you're clearing parts of your brain to allow yourself to get through all the mess that's been in the way to be. For him to be able to pinpoint that, how really traumatizing that experience was with his father being bring that right to his present moment is unbelievable.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: And you see, that's the thing. It's like we've all had different levels of traumas. I mean, look, we don't all have had alcoholic parents or this or that, but we all have our own trauma.
[00:21:30] Speaker A: Yeah, it's all relative.
[00:21:32] Speaker B: But the thing was, because I was asking him, when have you felt that way before? It was about the feeling.
[00:21:39] Speaker A: The feeling is what?
[00:21:41] Speaker B: And that's the thing, is, like, we all tend to be very caught up in our minds, and he didn't have.
[00:21:47] Speaker A: To think about that. It was.
[00:21:49] Speaker B: You had to feel it that brought.
[00:21:50] Speaker A: Him back to the last time he felt that.
[00:21:53] Speaker B: Right. Because we're not just a brain. We're a body. We're. We're a heart, we're a spirit. So we have these four aspects of ourselves, but we tend to only think about our mind, and we forget. Forget that there's this whole other vehicle below our neck.
[00:22:10] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:22:10] Speaker B: That is very important.
[00:22:14] Speaker A: Absolutely. And I think more so now we're realizing that connection between the gut, the brain and the heart, that we're all. It's all connected. And too often we only listen to one of those three things. The conversation's got to be with all three of them.
[00:22:30] Speaker B: Right. And the thing that's so interesting is scientists have found that there is a whole neural network in our heart and that there are actually probably as many, if not more, neurons in our heart than in our head. Not only that, but they found that there are a bunch of neurons in our gut as well.
[00:22:47] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. And they're connected. You know what I just heard the other day I was talking to life coach mentor. His name is Gordon Melville, and he told me that he recommends shaking hands with the left hand. And when you lean into hug, you hug left to back side.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: So it's hard heart to heart because.
[00:23:09] Speaker A: Of the neural pathways in our heart. You really get that connection and that real hug. So he says, forget doing with the, you know, shaking with the right hand and going that way. You go. And, you know, it's funny, Sam, I tried that with my son Matthew yesterday, left hand, and I forgot to tell him why I was doing it. We headbutted each other so it didn't start, didn't really start off well. So I had to explain. I'm sorry. I was supposed to tell you that.
[00:23:33] Speaker B: I don't usually, I usually shake with my right because I'm right handed, but when I give someone a hug, not all the time. I'm actually a little selective about who I do a heart to heart hug with.
[00:23:47] Speaker A: Oh, interesting.
[00:23:48] Speaker B: Not everybody, but, but certain people, a lot of people, I will specifically always go left to left and not right to right.
[00:23:58] Speaker A: Interesting. I had never heard of the left heart thing, so now I'm glad. I'm glad I have. So I'm glad I mentioned to you. So I learned something else. You can be selective where you go left and where you go right. Absolutely. Anything else you want to tell, mention about the radio or your healing stuff?
[00:24:18] Speaker B: Well, you know, everything we do informs everything else. And I spent a lot of time talking about sort of my healing journey and my path. What does that have to do with the radio station? Well, without having experienced what I experienced, I wouldn't have been as open to what life brings me. And I wouldn't have thought to help this guy who wanted to become a monk, who's been a monk now for 13 years and take over the network. And it's funny because I've had lots of different businesses in the past, but this is the longest I've ever stuck with anything. I mean, before this, it was usually three to five years, and I'd get bored and have to do something else. But with, with the radio station, it's, it's wonderful. I, now that we are virtual because of the pandemic, I work with people around the globe. I've had shows on the network from as far away as London, England, Sydney, Australia, all across the United States. I even had someone do a limited series from India with me.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: Right.
[00:25:22] Speaker B: And it's really about helping people to have a voice who have a message, have something they're trying to get out there to connect with their tribe. And one of the things that I've learned sort of through my whole experience through life was that sometimes we're out seeking our tribe, we're out looking for the people who we resonate with and who will resonate with us, when really we just got to show up and share ourselves authentically and vulnerably with an audience and our tribe will find us. And that's been my experience with my own show on the network because now I've been doing my show for over 13 years now. You know, I've released a book. It became a number one bestseller on Amazon because of it. I've had amazing people on my show, like John D. Martini, Doctor John D. Martini from the Secret, and Doctor Raymond Moody, who wrote the book life after a seminal work on reincarnation. And I've really got to be a TEDx speaker. And I didn't even have a speaker's reel and all I could send them were a few episodes of my show where I was interviewing people and the guy organizer thought I was great. And he says, yeah, we'd love to have you as a feature speaker on TEDx, Upper west side. So, you know, so many things have opened up and happened for me from just doing my show, doing it consistently, and sticking with it. And, you know, sometimes we just need to say yes to what life brings us without really knowing what's really going to be the long term thing from it.
[00:27:04] Speaker A: Absolutely. And, you know, you know, Sam and I thank you for mentioning that because we all have. That inner child is always in us. And at some point in our lives, we start saying no to them, you know, and it's time to say yes to them. Just because someone says, we went from a child to age 18 on the calendar, we're an adult, and adults are defined as this. That child in us has limitless possibilities and we've been telling it no, let's tell them.
[00:27:28] Speaker B: And just. Just think about as adults how little we give our inner child an opportunity to play.
[00:27:36] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh, play and laugh and.
[00:27:39] Speaker B: All kinds of stuff. And so sometimes I feel like it's good to remember what did we love to do when we were a kid? Yeah, that might bring a little joy to us in our world today.
[00:27:55] Speaker A: Absolutely. It's funny, I had talked a little about my three kids about that and with their father, it's the practical jokes I played on my roommates in college. They said, okay, dad, let's not go there. Let's think of some other time. I'm like, all right, I won't play practical jokes on you kids, but you're right. I mean, I think we get old. I thought I saw this again. My mom has a sign in her. It's in the bathroom, believe it or not. She's like, we don't get old. We. We don't stop laughing because we get old. We get old because we stop laughing.
[00:28:21] Speaker B: Stop laughing like that.
[00:28:23] Speaker A: And I love that. And it's so true. It's so true. I could. I could talk to you. To you forever. I want to let the audience know how to get in touch with you. So, obviously, folks, you have certainly captured the essence of Sam Lebowitz. He is the real deal.
Sam has. Has told me that a good way to get in touch with him is via his calendar, and I'll give you that link. But really reach out to him to set up a complimentary discovery call.
My message to you is, you don't know what you don't know. You just have a call with this gentleman, and you're going to walk away feeling different in a wonderful way so you can reach out to Sam. It's HTTP the colon, the two backslashes. Calendly.com.
Sam Leibowitz. L I e b o w I t z. Backslash s h o w. Dash. Discovery. Dash. Call. And I'll put that in the show notes, too.
I mean, there's so many reasons to talk to Sam, from. From the radio stuff to his life to the educating to the healing, to. He's just a creative genius.
Sam, I got. I have two final questions for you.
You have an opportunity to sit down with young Sam, seven to ten years old, and to give him advice about life. What are you going to tell him?
[00:29:56] Speaker B: That you are much more powerful than you know and that your creator. So create what you want.
[00:30:06] Speaker A: Love that. Wow. Okay, so now put on a different hat. And now you're sitting with young Sam, the young businessman entrepreneur, and you want to give him advice about business. What are you going to tell him?
[00:30:22] Speaker B: Value your contribution.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: How often do we not understand our value? Love that, Sam. Thank you. Thank you. Well, Sam, I want to thank you for a being in my life, being my friend.
I want to thank John Javier for introducing us, for thinking of it. Please continue to be who you are because you're a wonderful human being and you are doing amazing things for other human beings. Don't stop, please.
[00:30:54] Speaker B: I couldn't if I wanted to.
[00:30:56] Speaker A: Good. And this will be one of many, many times that you and I speak, my friend. Thank you again for coming on.
[00:31:03] Speaker B: Absolutely, my friend. A pleasure. Drew, thank you so much for having me on your show. And listen, when people reach out to me, just let me know that you came from Drew Duraney's show, the mindful man movement, so that I know where you came from.
[00:31:20] Speaker A: Okay, thanks so much. All right, everybody, 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. If you find yourself immersed in adversity and would like to find support from other men in times of struggle, please become a member of my men supporting men collaboration tribe by emailing me at Drew prophetcompassion.com expressing your interest and I'll get in touch with you. Speak to you soon.
