Rewriting our Mindsets & Decoding the Matrix | Dr. Victor Manzo | Ep. 14

If you’ve ever been burnt out, questioned the conventional definition of success, or wondered if there is more to life than hard work, then this episode is for you.

In this episode:

• Redefining “success”
• What burnout really is
• Why we can trust our bodies to tell us the truth
• Discerning what is true vs. what is your conditioning 
• Letting our evolved standards be a filter for anything that isn’t a fit
• The temporary financial hit that can come from redesigning work 

I’m here with Dr. Victor Manzo.

Dr. Vic is a successful business owner turned business mindset coach. He’s written 3 books, all with very compelling titles I might add. He is the creator of The Mindful Experiment Podcast, ranked in the top 1% of podcasts globally on ListenNotes. He is a reiki master, who has studied many other healing arts, and even took a deep dive studying end of life at one point!

Today, Dr. Vic and I explore “success,” and the burnout that can come from chasing it. After reaching the “top,” Dr. Vic realized that he wasn’t actually happy or healthy working this way. Something had to give.

With some powerful mindset shifts, Dr. Vic was able to get clear about what was most important to him, and then redesign life + work to match those values. This shift didn’t come without a financial dip, though. Tune in to hear how Dr. Vic navigated the transition into a new mindset, and a new way of operating, and who he became on the other side… spoiler alert, he’s now tapping into quantum physics and helping others step out of the matrix!

Learn more about Dr. Vic and his work:
https://www.empoweryourreality.com/
^ here's where you can find Dr. Vic's free ebook on the power of visualization, and order your copy of his latest book, Decoding the Matrix. 

Transcript

0:10

The way we've been doing work and leadership is deeply broken. Whether you're healing from burnout or just looking for a better way to run your company, you're in the right place. What is the future of work even look like? That is a question we get to answer together. After working with 1000s of executives and entrepreneurs around the world. I know that the deepest leadership issues are deeply human. We've got to heal ourselves if we want to heal the world. Welcome to the new self Podcast where each week, I'll help you explore topics that will level up your leadership and your life. I'm your host, Nicole Belisle. I'm a leadership expert and Reiki master, and I believe the secret to more conscious work and leadership is self healing, grab a seat and get cozy because we're about to go on a journey. Hey, conscious leaders, welcome. I'm joined today by a truly profound individual, Dr. Victor Manzo. And I loved this conversation for so many reasons. But I think for any of us who have bought into the conventional definition of success, and really chased that or have experienced burnout, I mean, this, this is a man who experienced all of that, and then started to rewrite what his version of success really was. What I think is so profound about this episode is that we are getting to hear from someone who has done the deep work to rewrite his beliefs to update his mindsets to redesign how he does business and life. And he's now experiencing the benefits and the outcomes of doing that. He's gone through the fear and the the initial hesitation that can come with honoring ourselves and choosing against the grain. So he is a living proof point of what is possible on the other side of these of these bold choices of choosing ourselves. And he has so much to offer around how he actually did that. From questions. He asked himself to practices to notice things in his own body around when he was in alignment, and what was lighting up for him. So we will get to learn on multiple levels today from Dr. Vick. So as you listen to the episode, I invite you to listen across multiple layers. Listen with your mind, listen with your heart, listen with your body, because the the wisdom that this man is offering is multi-dimensional. And just by being in his presence, I know that I felt like my own being and my own mindset was rewriting itself in real time. So this is definitely an episode you don't want to miss. There is some incredible wisdom, especially towards the end, so be sure to tune in, all the way through and let us dive in. I'm here with Dr. Victor Manzo. Dr. Vick is a successful business owner turn business mindset coach. He's written three books, all with very compelling titles I might add. He's the creator of the mindful experiment podcast ranked in the top 1% of podcasts globally on Listen notes. And Vic I did my research, I learned that you are also a Reiki Master, who has studied many healing modalities. And you even took a deep dive into studying end of life at one point. So fascinating individual, thank you so much for being here with all of your wisdom today. Now, thanks for having me, I'm really excited to be here and have this awesome combo with you and share space. Thank you so much, that your story is so powerful. So I really want to lean into storytelling as medicine here and to drop us in to really the pinnacle of your success because you you built a ton of success by every definition. You put in the hard work, you chase your dreams, you built the financial wealth and you were having the impact in your community. But so drop us into that. What What was it like to get to that peak in your career and what was going on in your body in your mind at that time? Yeah, it's it's one of those things were took five years to hit my financial peak in my chiropractic office and at that time, you know, when I hit that, I thought that when I got to that point because it was I was making I had a huge impact in the community. That was my main, like, inspiration to keep driving forth, but and then the money follow that. And it was one of those things like when I saw how much money I was making, I was like, Okay, why am I not happy? Like, maybe it's just my mindset. Maybe I just don't I mean, I know I had issues of smelling the roses at time. So I was like, maybe it's that. But I was unsatisfied, I was unfulfilled. And one of the things that when I was looking back on that journey was is like, every four to six months, I was burned out. And that was very puzzling for me, you have to understand, anything I get into anything I put my energy towards is I have to be extremely passionate about it has to make a difference in some way, shape, or form. Or else I'm just not gonna be interested, I don't care about I don't ever, I don't ever do things just because of money. And for someone that like me, who is even to this day, I don't practice chiropractic, but I'm still passionate about it, I still talk about it, I still share it as much as I can. Because I love the profession. But at the same token for someone who loves something so much, but yet got burned out every four to six months was one of the most confusing things for me, I just, I was just like, How is this possible? I can, you don't have to give me a why to wake up every morning, I'm ready to go. But I was exhausted and burned out. And I really had to do some retrospective and really doing some deep dive into some soul seeking and really look at my life. And because I really looked at my wife at that time, and I looked at her. And I said, I don't know, if I want to continue doing this. It's always an uphill battle. There's always like struggle showing up. And I never feel like I can just take the foot off the brake, like just take a second just to chill for here. Because if I do that, everything starts to dip. And then I have to put the energy back in to get it back up. And it was like, it just does it doesn't seem right. And with my background and energy healing and so forth. Even though I learned a lot about the depths of healing. I also learned a lot about consciousness, quantum physics and all this other amazing stuff in spirituality. That was didn't expect it, but my mind was loving it. And I was in embrace, I got to learn a lot about life. And I was like, there's universal laws that say something different, the law of least effort, least amount of work to get the greatest game possible. That means that there's only there's only so much work, which gives you the max gain, you can keep adding more work, the max gain is not changing. And so I was like, How can I do that? Or what how do you define things is what becomes a reality. You know, definition, the words we use the stories we tell ourselves and I'm like, But why is it that this is happening this way. So I took some soul seeking and I started to realize I was conditioned. I was a prototype of many other successful chiropractors, I was a prototype of other businesses listening to because at the time, when I came out of chiropractic, even before chiropractic school, I come from blue collar family. So I was very seeing financial scarcity was something I saw what I didn't want to have, and seeing that grow up. I saw it in my community, I saw it around. So I was like, I don't want that I want to have financial abundance. And so I was very driven from that. And so like studying what I was like what is it becomes this one of the most successful CEOs and most successful people in the world, they they read 5060 books a year, on average, okay, I'm gonna read at over 120 Then it was like, you gotta you gotta sacrifice right? This is the main some of the mainstream messages. So you have to, you gotta give you can't go out. Don't do this. Don't listen to music. Always download information. Now let's just pop knowledge, meet more knowledge means more money, more success. Okay, fine. Then listen to music, which I love listening to a variety of different music. But I was listening to podcasts, videos, all these other things. So I was doing all the work that I was supposed to do to have success. And somebody just say, well, at least you made it financially. That's what you want it. I was like, yeah, no, that's not what I really wanted. I wanted fulfillment. And I thought that was going to be part of the pie, they opened up the door to opportunities that allow that. And it wasn't. And that was very disheartening in a lot of ways until I started to realize how I was conditioned, and I was being just products of other people. And then I started seeing the trap how others do this too, in business and in life. And that's the moment where I literally said, Well, I looked at my wife and said, Well, we're going to make a change. And we're going to run our practice the way we want to run it because I had a coach at the time who was a phenomenal business coach, she helped me out massively. But I remember one of the things she used to say was like, meet people where they are when it comes to health. Don't try to you know, no one's gonna want to be like you, for the most part, you take your health to a whole nother level, you're not going to find too many people like that. So just meet them where they are. If they can't commit to this care plan that you're recommending, then, you know, maybe they'll do a little less, but at least you're getting something that never sat well with me, but I was like she was very successful in business. I'm gonna trust her. And well, well, that's one of the things one of the Bernat why I had burnout so much is because I was living not only just being a prototype to others, but I wasn't living what was chiropractic to me. I wasn't living an authentic life of what it really mattered to me, like if I was just gonna lay everything out on a piece of paper and say, This is what I want to do for chiropractic, run my office and do it in this way. I was I wasn't doing that. And I think deep down. We all know what we really want to experience in life. And I think this is why we have burnout so much and we're seeing burnout so much more. There's other reasons for burnout too. And I can we'll get into But I think that's one of the the issues, at least for me at that time was, is not living, what's authentic to me, and how I want to do things. Wow. So, so well said, I think this living authentically, to us can look so different for every person. And it sounds like you found so much success you like you played the game, right? You got really good at the template that was already out there in a lot of ways. But then, and even emulating those around you. But then you started to question I'm really hearing in your story, the power of the questions that you were asking of literally questioning your own reality and how it all works. And it seems like you hit a point where you saw a different path, you felt the misalignment perhaps and, and saw a different way. So I definitely want to get into that. But can you? Can you also walk us through? What did burnout really look like for you on an embodied level? And in your relationships? And what was that point where you, you really said enough is enough and chose to kind of do this in a different way? Yeah, I mean, mental exhaustion like just not not not showing fatigue. But creativity wasn't always there, like I wanted, I mean, my mind wasn't as sharp as it could. But one of the things that it's is what I teach my, my patients all the time, and like your body never lies, it will always show you what's in your environment, like how you're invited, it's a it's a, it's a representation of your environment, your environment is what you live in how you think your stresses, mental, emotional, chemical, physical, all these different things. And that's what your body is, it's a representation of the environment. So if you have something wrong there, your environment imbalance in some way, shape, or form. And so I would have, you know, it wasn't until it's funny, because I would have like my backlog out every once in a while wasn't too crazy. But once I made this change, I my body, your body, sometimes it's some people do it during the process. For me, it was after, we're all of a sudden, the stress, I kind of made the changes, I was all excited. And then it was like six, eight months later, my back goes out like I never had before in my life. It went, it took me eight months. And there was a period of that time, where pretty much pretty much almost the whole time where I was almost thinking of how to get another chiropractor in the office because I just couldn't, I'd have to go adjust patience for a little bit, I go four or five at a row. And then I go into my exam room, and I have to lay on the floor for five minutes. And my wife knew this, I told her, I'm like, I'm going to be taking breaks. I said, when it comes to adjusting infants and kids, I can't do my normal way of adjusting. So we're gonna have to modify, just let the moms know for me, so that they know that. And it was one of those things where I had I did this for eight months. And it was it was getting very exhausting and taxing. But imagine just being not having those reserves Now show me as your best best person. So like, after the end of my days, I was tired. And I'm never tired. But I was like, just like, I don't mean tired. And I mean, like energetically, like I just get home, my wife would I would just go to her normal rhythm of just like, alright, let's just make dinner really quick, okay, we're gonna take the dog for a walk. And it wasn't like being present in showing up in the best version of ourselves. And I say us because my wife was going through some summer. And it was one of those things that, you know, it just do you lose out on the aspect of like that zest of life and that that, for me, it was more presents, I just wasn't, it was more just having to do rather than enjoying the journey of it. And sometimes be like, Okay, here we go, we got this much end of the day, great. I'm going to relax here a little bit. And it's all like I was working like crazy. My work hours were you know, chiropractors have bank hours for the most part. But it was just that that concept of, you know, like, Okay, I just got very, I had enough of enough of an uphill battle. And it's getting to the point where you're just like, and what I mean by an uphill battle is just there was I never was like, felt like I was in this groove. Because I was sharing earlier like, I always had to be on the a game I can never just take a step off can ever just relax for a second I can let things just work out the way they normally do. And I knew chiropractors they were able to do that. Like they're like, Oh yeah, I had a referral practice and never had to worry about anything, everything took care of itself and it's like, why am I not having that? You know, why am I always having this other part so mentally exhausted and emotionally probably even there and it played a toll because what happens when you don't have those reserves, then in a relationship or in anything short fuse come something happens you know, your minds gonna you're gonna react you're gonna be more reactive, you're not gonna you're gonna get pulled in more to focusing on negative things rather than positive. And so I just wasn't showing up as my best version anymore and it was disheartening and it was at a point where I was like, I'm not I'm not happy with this. But on the outside you would have thought I was because when I was a public here's the thing when I was in the office, that was my happy space. Like it was just like, that's my zone like I can get I can be in a very bad mood but we had a rule in our office where everything anything personal anything you had outside that office, you leave we had like an imaginary hook outside the door. You leave it there, you walk in, we created experience for people. So I was always able to do that. But it was one of the but then again, there's also a cost to that because I'm I'm pressing, the more I did that, which I showed be present for my patients and give them my 100% that I could there, I will lose the other areas of my life. Wow, you know this this burnout happening across the multiple layers of our human experience, right? The physical, the mental, the emotional, even even the spiritual, it sounds like you were noticing the resistance, but you could still align when you were in the office with the thing that needed to be done and find the joy. And I think so often there's this this inner dialogue that happens of I should be happy, I'm presenting as very successful by someone else's definition. And I should feel this way. And yet I'm having a completely different inner experience. My inner world isn't exactly matching up with that outer world. So talk to us about how you started to connect those worlds and begin to rewrite the rules of the game for yourself. Yeah, it was, you know, once we got to that point, and I started doing this deep soul seeking it was six months, but one of the things we started to, we looked at because I started like, Okay, where's this conditioning? What what is what's real for me, and then what is conditioned? Now think about things like okay, being a family wellness chiropractor, right? In I was originally eventually I was and started looking going into pediatrics, but I was like, family wellness. Well, what I was I told you have to work weekends, why do I have to work weekends? Well, it's good for the moms, it makes it easier for them. They make their appointments for the kids. I'm like, okay, I get that. But that doesn't work well for me. And then I was like, Well, you know, if I everything's energy, right? Everything's attraction, everything's no vibration. And so if I set the tone for what I want to create, for my practice, and have the hours I want, then those who are going to come here are going to be attracted to the times that I have, right? Because sometimes we think and like from a chiropractic perspective, we think having more days and times means more availability for people to come. But the actual truth is, when you do that, actually, you get more three people excuses to miss an appointment to rebook, and then give them more chances of missing again, and what ends up and I seen that I saw it happen a couple times in my own where I extended hours, and my numbers would drop. And I'd be like, how is that happening? I'm adding time to make it easier. And I was like, this is interesting. So I started to what I did is in the journey in that process, I just started to look within and what was really what was valuable, what was important to me. Right. And so one thing I you know, I remember growing up hearing work smarter, not harder. So I'm like, How can I work smarter? What are the things that I can do to be more effective in what I do? I've learned all about time management, everyone hears about time management, especially in the business world. But what about energy management? How can I show up? And this was a question I asked myself, I was like, How can I show up to the office? How can I cut my hours down, where it can be satisfying for me satisfying for my wife so she can have her breaks, I can have my breaks, because I had other projects I wanted to work on. But then also we can have more time for each other and enjoy our time. And and I was like but still at the same token, provide the exact same service of care, to be able to be there 100% for my patients and present the way I want to present and run my office, the way I do, the way I wanted to. The way I wanted to run my office was be more of a lifestyle office to where if someone came to my office or like, I just want to be out of pain, I wouldn't take them as a patient. I'd like you know what, that's chiropractic is not a treatment, we the you know, we had a script that they would they would knew that my wife was very good explaining this. But our front team, our front desk team also had this where they just be like, you know, if you're just looking to get out of pain, we'll refer you to somebody else. But if you're looking to understand why it's there, and you want to work through this, and so forth, then we're the office for you. And so what ended up happening was is we started to shift gears and I started to be like, I started thinking to myself, well, if someone's going to come to me, and they want to you know, chiropractic is one of the most missed informed professions. People think it's for neck pain, back pain and headaches. And I blame some of the media I blame also chiropractors on this. Some people think it's good for you know, treating digestive issues or colic babies and things like that. But the thing is, chiropractic doesn't treat anything, no symptom, illness, disease or condition. So when we're looking at that perspective, I was like, Well, how can I if I was gonna go to a master martial or someone who's like a master at something, right? They're very well they got 10 degree black belt in something, you know. And if I went, Hey, I want to learn how to be like you or learn the your way. So I can create my own and what do I need to do? And they'll tell you, you got to do this. This is okay, great. Well, I want to do half of that, because I can only make that time for that. So but I still want to continue so can I be accepted into your dojo? The sensei is gonna look and go no, it's this is what you asked me what it what it takes to go here. This is what the path is. And what that was is just being for me it was more of like having self worth itself, I guess certainty with myself having confidence in a way to know that I can share that with a patient and be like really truthful and honest. And I use science to back it up to be like, here's what I know I can do for you. So if you want my help, here's what I can do for you. And it was just being truthful. And I thought that it wasn't before. But it was being truthful, and what mattered most to me. And knowing that I can help them, because I like results. And so when patients follow up care, and they get amazing results, when we do people see our testimonies, I'm always like, those are the people that follow up care. Because people don't follow up care, they don't get the results most of the time. And it was just starting to lead my life and the what I want. And I end up finding out through this process, I really had a passion to want to help solve and work with kids. Kids is just a, you know, 53% of kids have some sort of chronic illness and you see ADHD, and autism rates and all these other things. And that was important to me. What I didn't realize is when I dove into that there was a lot of inner healing I had to go through. Because with that opened up, I wanted to help kids. But in reality, what I didn't know at the time, it was just the feeling I was going with. Later, when I look back, what I really was doing was I wanted to help heal me as a kid. I didn't have chiropractic as a kid, but I wish I did. And all of a sudden that became that's when I talked about being authentic. Like again, I was just dive deep into feelings I wasn't this was wasn't logical wasn't a system of like is there's chiropractors out there, like work with families, it's an easy way to grow your practice and blah, blah, blah. I wasn't doing it for that I was doing it because it later on, I started to realize like, I had a kid who had like chronic chronic chronic ear infections and stuff like this. And I was and I remember myself being that way. And I was like, No, I knew exactly what I can do to help them I saw the mom how stressed out she was. And all of a sudden it was like resolving and everything was fine. And mom was just you see the stress coming off them. And I'm like, interesting. And I'm thinking about what I all the other stuff I grew up and I'm like, Man, am I this I really am doing it more for me. Not from a selfish standpoint, but just like, I don't want another kid to go through what I had to go through. Because those are very primitive years of our life that really constructs our brain and our life in how we live and how we respond to things. And so going through all this, it was just one thing after another, but then it came to how many hours do I want to work? And I just chose it. I was like I want to make I want to work 1415 hours a week. That's it. That's my office hours. That's what I'm adjusting. Some people were like, Yeah, you can't do that. Because you know what the people can't fit in how you gonna have to be for families to work, I get it. And I was like, This is what I'm going to do. I have to do it. I have to test this out. Because I'm not going to listen, anybody else, this is what I want to do. And ended up yeah, we took a hit. Initially, when we made the change three fourths four or five, six months later, we were right back where we were in breaking records. And it was one of those things. I was like, wow, this is all working. And I'm like, Okay, what else is there? Because my mind was just getting curious, like, what else can I change? What else can I do? From from the elements of what I'm questioning, because I'm really just all I'm doing really is just peeling a layer off. It's okay, here's the conditioning, I'm getting rid of that. Here's what this means to me appealing this layer off conditioning, here's what that means to me. And it was really looking at my internal world and seeing what did I greatly like what mattered most to me. And no matter what, I saw it all working out. And it was all meant, like I just I deep down, I kept telling me I need to make this change. And just let all the listeners know, me doing all those changes. I was changing the way we directed our practice us doing all that stuff. We took a financial hit for that, because we were letting patients go that didn't fit the fit the fit our office anymore. And it was up to 40% hit, we took a financial hit that was at the peak of how much we were letting go. I mean, for me, it was like 60 patients in a matter of like six months. And it wasn't like we're going oh, you're gone. This is it. It was just, I would I had a conversation I bring up to them. And I just say, Hey, listen, I know this will be been How you been here, blah, blah, blah, and then they go, we kind of have shifted gears. And I would like to be a little bit more helping you get the results based on the scans of the technology of what we're using. And I want to make sure that you're moving in a direction that is going to get you those results. Well I feel great that everything's been working. I understand your feelings, but and what you're saying, but you know, here's this is the site, this stuff here is going to tell us where you really are. Because what you're doing is if you feel great, what is it going to be a week, a month, six months, a year, two years, if we're not correcting the stuff properly, it's going to come back or it's gonna show up different. And then you're going to be in this state again. And then what happens I heard this before all chiropractic doesn't work. And it's like, no, chiropractic works. So it was all this kind of stuff, reevaluating every aspect of my business in life, what mattered to me, and then just start living my life that way. And I had a coach who helped me with that. I remember when I first started coaching him is like, what's your what's your ideal office hours? And I told him, he's like, okay, when we started that, I was like, Well, what do you mean we're gonna start? He goes, No, when we starting it, like you this is what you want. Why are you not living the way you want? You run your own business, why don't you run your own business? And I was like, yeah, so I get that. But that was the journey a little bit. Thank you so much for sharing that especially the the piece the transparency you're offering around the financial hit that the shift created at least momentarily, right? Because I think sometimes living by our authenticity and our deeper truth, it becomes a bit of a filter. You know, I often say like I either want to attract or repel clients and the sacred know that we get to have with saying no to something that's not a fit, that doesn't fit the new template we've created. That that's so empowering. But it's, I'm amazed at this, this piece of your story where it's the world of chiropractic care, seems like such a microcosm and a mirror of what you what you were actually doing in your life, right? It's like, the even with the symptoms, it's no, we're not here to just alleviate pain and symptoms, we're going right to the root cause we're going to the deeper realms of emotion, energy and all of that. And I don't know if this is true for you. But I've found in rewriting a lot of these a lot of these beliefs, it's, you know, similar to that, that financial hit, it's almost like, if you throw in the towel too soon, you don't you don't get to the the life that you're creating, there's almost a lag sometimes in the creation process until you get really good at it, I think. And then it's even more synchronistic. So I'm curious, what were some of those moments that maybe felt disorienting, or moments when you could have thrown in the towel? And how did you how did you keep going with like when the veil is dropping? You're realizing oh, my gosh, you know, reality isn't what I thought it was? What were some of those those interesting moments along the way? I mean, it was one of the one like, when we I'll never forget 2016 That's the year. That was our financial peak year. And I remember four months later, you know, my accountant reached out, she's like, Hey, got some good news or bad news. And I was like, okay, she was good news is you made more money than we were expecting. I was like, well, we doubled the most of the year before that. And she's like, Yeah, you grew like another 57%. This year, you tripled in the last two years. And I was like, well, it's not a bad thing. Because yeah, but there's a big fat tax bill coming to you because we didn't expect it. And I was like, dang it. But when I because then I really started to see the numbers, but I was already going to change the transition, because we started at the end of that year. But it was because it was one of those things that like I literally thought I mean, like I said, I said it before is I was like I'm just tired of that pill. I'm tired of the grind it because I was doing things that weren't me, or what mattered most to me. And I thought about it at one point, I was like, Maybe this isn't for me, maybe I'm just destined to go into something else. Maybe Maybe that was, but I'm very intuitive. And I've always trusted my feelings even when logic can't understand it. And I wasn't like this before. I used to be like this as a kid. And then around 12 years old, I I, I wasn't fitting in being that way. So I decided to let that go to fit into my society and my growing up. And it wasn't till I was 24 that I started to come back to that place. And it was just this, this feeling and it feeling kept telling me no, just keep moving forward. This is this is where you need to go. And I was like, Okay, I'm gonna trust it. I have no idea why I'm trusting it. It was scary. It wasn't easy. Because again, when you're taking hits financially, like I remember when we were my wife was like, how many more patients are gonna, like, go and like, I'm not doing this on purpose, trust me, it's not like I just want to fire and destroy the business. I'm like, I'm just the I'm having conversations. And then we did it. We looked at our patients, and we said, who was not really committing to care the way we want them to. And I started looking at their scans and all the technology that we use to evaluate stuff. And I'm just like, yeah, these people are stuck and not really changing. And I was like, so when we hit the last one she's like, is this that I'm like this is that now we just got to embrace where we are, and just hold, everything's gonna be fine. We just got to hold the ground now. And things will turn around. And so But even you know, at that point, it was more when you have your wife on board. My wife is the most supportive person ever in my entire life. I mean, she's an angel and a blessing. And she's my rock. I mean, I love I appreciate her so much. Because there's things that like even being I mean, I'll pick a talk about this probably later, but being my transition as a coach and having her support, and that has been monumental in so many ways. But it's it's one of those things where I do have to never give up mentality, mental attitude. I've always, you know, it's one of those things where no matter what the situation is, no matter what presents, I will always move forward but you also have to understand it this this was probably given to me growing up so I grew up in a very stressful household, very emotional ups and downs. I mean, just a lot of that. And I had to learn how to handle my own emotions, and how to figure things out my own way. And so when it comes to things that are stressful, I look like I can handle it, you'll see like you put me in a stressful situation like you're very calm and collected. And it's just like, well, when you had that all your life growing up, you just, it's just a norm. But I deal with stuff later. But that there was a couple of times when I've had had other moments in my career to where I thought about throwing in the towel. There was one time where when I first started a business was not moving as fast as I needed it to. From a personal standpoint, financially, not a business mean, business wise, I was doing well for starting up. But it was in I remember, it was a it was the lat it was it was a weekend, I'm going into the new week, and I'm just praying like, I don't know how this money's gonna come in. But I need this at least this much money to, to keep the doors open for a little bit, or I'm have to close them. And, you know, I took it all the way to the it's like the last second the last shot that you know of the game to win. I mean, that's what it took me down to. But I kept staying for with it because I just told I'm like talking to God universe is saying, This is what I'm meant to be. I'm putting all my cards on the table, I put in everything I got to this, this is what it's meant to be. It's somehow it's going to work. That week, I had four patients pay in full, which came up to like 10, some odd $1,000. And I looked at it and my expenses were so low, I looked I go great business wise, I can stay open for at least six months easily. And I was like this is awesome. And then I was like this is perfect. And I was able to stay open. So I had other experiences that kept me moving forward. That's what I'm trying to bring up that past story to understand. Like, I've always I mean, I had another point, it was two years in my career. I wasn't growing as fast as I wanted to. And I was really annoying. And I kind of said if I don't hit a certain point, I don't know if maybe I'm I don't want to get into some house. It was like two years in and I was just like, we had good growth. I mean, I doubled from year one to year two, but it was like, not again, financially, from a personal standpoint, just understand I had a lot of student loans and banks were not friendly at all about working with you because of what happened in 2008 2009. So they were like, Nope, you pay full. And that's it. And I'm like, great. I have a mortgage No, no What heck the keys are to the house, I don't even know where the house is. But I have a payment coming every month I have to pay. And I was like, I wish I had a house that I paid at that price, because I would have been a very nice house. So there was those kinds of things. But having those experiences and seeing them work through knowing that make the change. I had confidence, though to know that I would work out even though still my brain was like, Is it really worth it? Maybe we should throw in the towel because liquid and then but at the same token, there was an inner voice, that little feeling that was like no, take a look at this. Take a look at this, let's and then I just put on my I put all my cards on that one and just said, here's where I'm gonna go off. I've done this before in my life, it worked out, I'm going to do it again. And it did it was amazing. And it worked out way beyond what I could ever imagine. I mean, that's, that's the thing that's at stake, right? It's like, what if it does work out? What if it is better? What if I have my health and I can live life in, in my terms, essentially. And I think this distinction that you're making around the feeling in your body versus what the mind will show up to say is so helpful, because that inner chatter or that self talk may still come up. But that doesn't mean we have to always listen to that or let the logic brain be the leader all the time. So I'm wondering, how do you know, in your experience, how do you know what that what that feeling? When it comes up? And what that inner alignment is in the body? How do you know it's happening? Because you've you seem to have developed an amazing relationship to this, this trust and this confidence that you've built through seeing the evidence, essentially over time of it working. But what's the felt experience in the body for our listeners that you're that you're having? So for me personally, it always shows up between my my heart and my stomach, and it's just a it's a feeling that's very light. It's like a butter like feeling it's very, it's like a childlike energy to have sight of excitement. That's kind of what I get. Now, we all have something within us that's like this. It's our it's our your, your your feelings are actually what, and I don't mean I'm feeling like I don't feel like working out today. Or I feel like working out today that that's not the feelings I'm talking about. This is intuition. We all have this. It's a compass that guides us to where we want to go. Right. So what a lot of my work, you know, and this is where I started to when I was in this process. I started to I started looking at vision, and I was like, you know, I had a vision before I got away from it a little bit. I was focusing on goals. I'm like, let me go back to vision. And I started looking back at stuff I read before and stuff and I'm like, Yeah, vision is where it needs to be. And now I could share very strongly why that is but it's you want to have that that where I wanted to take the practice, right seeing I had an image in my head of seeing the kids in the office, I saw moms bringing the kids I saw moms cook hanging out, talking to each other setting up appointments close to each other. And then going out on dates. We had parks nearby so that was like I saw them coming here getting their adjustments and then going taking the kids to the park and the moms hang out. Mom's doing data. I just saw all this like a huge array Emily, and I was like, okay, that's gonna happen. But when I came back to then, you know, the feeling how do I know that I'm aligned with that? How am I alo that I'm in that process is because I've, I've trained I've developed and felt, where does it show up for me when I'm in alignment? Now everyone can do this. So think of something that you really love. Just picture it in your mind, whatever that is a child, maybe it's your partner, maybe it's something love what you love to do every single day. Where does the work now feel your body? What does it feel like? Is it lighter? Is it heavier? You've Where do you feel a sensation at? You know, and that's your guidance system that will guide you in this process. It's the same the other way where you're not in alignment, or you're not in that process, because think of something you dislike, something that you hate, you know, whatever that may be, or something that gets your blood boiling, right? What do you feel like where your body tightening up? Do you feel like there's heaviness I call it like slime or sludge. That's what I feel like it just in my body gets real sludgy like and I'm just like, oh, I don't like that. It's like muck, I want to get this off me. And so when you become aware of that, and this is a training process, because we all been able to do this at one point, and then we let it all go. Because the eight, seven, this is when we start to disconnect from that. You can but when you get aware of that you help the mind you let the mind because the mind likes control. But the mind has to be involved. So what I tell I teach my clients, this is like, when you get that feeling, just tell your mind, hey, when this shows up, thumbs up, let's move forward. But when I feel this other part, be aware and let me know Hey, got that slime going on again. And that's your job. You cool with that mind mindset. All right, great subconscious is like thumbs up once you condition that. And then all of a sudden, that becomes your navigator. Now you don't have to think anymore. You don't have to figure things out anymore. It's just a feeling. Does it feel good? Does it feel right? Does it feel like you're centered. And sometimes there's some emotions that come with this. In my experience, in in looking at this, it's usually going to be bliss, joy, and you feel some commerce or even peace. For me, it always shows up. There's some joy. It's like a little kid, when I say a little kid excitement, that's joy. And then there's also a deep grounding. Like, I just feel like really calm and centered it with that feeling. It's not me, you may I talk very fast, as you can tell. So I may not show that I'm calm and centered and grounded in the moment. But the feeling inside me is my heart. It just feels nice, relaxed, everything's calm. And I'm just like, that feels right. I think we're just going to do that. And the more I've done that in my life, things have worked out, even when they don't look like because my mind will play games on me to taking a 40% hit on your business, when your lifestyle didn't change. Personally, your like, will still be good. But man, this is tight. It's a little tighter than I like, but it's good, we'll be fine. Right mines run in like crazy crate and all that stress. But then it was like, but then I remember in my meditations, I was always like, you're on the right path. You're finally like, I would always be told like you're stepping into your, your, your what you really want now, just just hold on to that get through this point, things are going to turn around, you will see it look in the past that happened before it happened here. And so I was like, Okay, I just got to trust that even more, because my mind needed it because it was playing games, let me widen my mind needed because it was bringing up fears and limiting beliefs that I had. And so working through that stuff and trusting it, and helped me make that huge transition to do that. Yeah, it's Wow. It's I love how how simple on one level this is and that anyone can do it. And I think we're all running around navigating this thing called life. And for many of us who have that entrepreneurial spirit, or that connection to a vision as as a leader, this this practice of just knowing your own body, knowing what what that compass, as you called, it really feels like and honoring this inner guidance system, I think is so so powerful. And for a lot of us, I think our inner guidance system has led us out of the previous version of work or work culture. And because of the movie, I think many of us have come to think of it as leaving the matrix. And you actually have a book that came out called decoding the matrix. So I want to dive into this a bit because the context of work is on its head right now. I mean, this is just changing. So so fast, there is no going back, we you know, we've moved already into this this new way. So what is the matrix in in your definition? And can you speak to this, this shift or how we might be conscious through the shift? Yeah, so the the matrix is, you know, another term for it is just human collective consciousness. And so when you think of what's consciousness or consciousness levels, it's it's averaging every single human on this planet, their thoughts, the stories the words they use. And then their beliefs and feelings, the emotions that they give energy to. So there's, there's a plethora of stuff here that adds up. But it gives us a vibration in essence of where we are and where we are at this consciousness level or vibration or frequency, things like that, or energy level. And so when you average out the human humanity of it, it becomes this vibration. Now, it's not just with humans, dogs have this in their own matrix. I mean, there's every specie has it the planet has its solar system has it, the universe has it. But there's also some matrixes underneath it, that create the human sub matrix and are then human matrix. And that is, the continents have their own matrix, that matrix, then you have countries, states, cities, towns, and it comes all the way down to the map micro, which is you and me. And so this creates the experiences of what all humans go through. Right, so we have COVID. Now COVID happened, because were nama St. They'll from this one essence. But, you know, from the human collectiveness, there was some vibe energy there that allowed for something to happen. It just happened to be COVID. I'm not saying that it was because of that was COVID. It just opened the door for some like that, because or it could be, you know, look at look at how endangered species we have. Now, how many are going extinct? Or look at the difference? Right? So then the when we look at the matrix, it's at a level and this comes from the work of Dr. David Hawkins book, power versus force, where he talks about consciousness levels, and he says that, you know, when humanity has been under life supporting or supporting life, in other words, so what does that mean is that we don't support life? That's why look at diseases and illnesses, are they going up? Are they going down? You look at look at our oceans, are they getting cleaner or dirty or look at our rivers, you know, you start to see this this whole thing? Well, this also happens in you know, when we look at business, or look at the constructs of life, or how to become successful, or what is the main essence of that, what's the main conditioning, and that conditions and frames our mind. And that starts to then condition us in some way, like I was conditioned about being, you know, when it came to being successful chiropractor. But I've also been conditioned as where I grew up, I grew up in Chicago, Illinois, a small town called Murrells. Park at the time, it was very Italian American community. And so there's there's conditioning and constructs from there, that I have, that's why people from Chicago versus Florida, you know, from let's say, Orlando, or somewhere in Los Angeles, you ever notice they're a little different, they're not all the same. And there's there's that that sub matrix is playing a role on our conditioning and think what life is and how life is the constructs of it. And so in the matrix, I sounds like I'm making seem like the matrix is bad, but it's not it's not good nor bad. It just is, what the matrix does is it gives a framework for us to have an experience in this life. But at the same token, it also if we don't set the intention of our life and our vibration in our conscious level, where we want to be, the matrix pulls you down to be average. That's the design of it. This is called the law of association. We've all heard this when it comes to especially in business where it's like the five closest people do you average them out that you or the you take the incomes of the five closest people to you, you average out, that's pretty much where your income is. And so but the law of association also works this way. And so if you're, if you're not setting the tone for yourself, you're being pulled back into the matrix into the conditioning into the average experience. And that's why in most people, because 95% of our life is dictated dictated by our subconscious mind. Most of us don't even realize we're in the matrix and stuck in it. We don't we think this is what it is. And we think we're pressing for it, this was me, thought I was pressing for thought I was doing all I was supposed to do, right, based on everyone else, I would say when you say something like I shouldn't be doing this, or I shouldn't be having this or I shouldn't be doing something like that. That's conditioning, you when you start to become aware of that, and follow that. It's not you talking because you don't tell yourself, I shouldn't be doing this, you never say that. It's always someone else's opinion, or whatever the commonality of the condition you grew up in, that's the conditioning that says, well, that's how it should be. Nothing is except what you want it to be. And so this is where we can start to you can say step out of the matrix or not let the matrix influence you. And now all of a sudden, you have a vastly different experience than what humanity goes through. And you start to you start to you know, you the drum at your own beat beat at your own drum here, your beat at your own drum. And the sense and there's there's there's a lot of you know, there's a couple of things out there. Well, especially in business look at in my book, I share how billionaires during COVID, right, small businesses getting smashed, but you know, the business world is not doing well. But yet again, billionaires grew their net worth by 56%, which was over$600 billion. Right? But let's let's not use that as an example. Let's go take it one step further. There's one time in the United States history that had the most millionaires produced out of any time in the history, history in the Great Depression. And when you think about that for a second, you look and you go, Well, how'd that happen? Hold on, everybody was suffering. Well, there were people that were suffering, but then there's people that said, I'm gonna, I'm going to take a step and stuff and I'm gonna focus on what I want to create for myself. Not let this influence me, not be conditioned in any way, shape, or form. And I'm gonna step out of that. Just like right now everyone's talking about recession. In all the doom and gloom, all this other stuff, and I warn people, I tell them, Don't feed into it, what you focus on was what expands. You don't have to have that experience. I'm not saying that ignoring, you're not you don't ignore what's happening like don't, but what I'm saying is just put energy to what you want to create for yourself and forget the rest. I mean, I started my chiropractic business during right after I graduated in 2009. September, so it was almost a year after October 2008. At that time, before that debt to that all happened, I could have just walked into any bank, I'm a doctor, I want to get a loan, here's my business plan, and the money, whatever I want, when it came to me, why, because they know where a doctor, they're gonna most likely time you're going to be successful in some way. That was not happening for me, they would not allow that allow it at all. And so but at the same token, you know, I had chiropractors at the time telling me, you need to work with groups, that's where it's at. Now, people don't want their own anymore, doesn't that I was like, Man, that's your limiting belief. I'm not gonna take your belief system and taking it as mine, I'm going to I'm going to choose my own path. And I did, I wouldn't say it was all sunshine and rainbows, but it worked. And it continued to. So that's kind of the matrix, how we step out of it, and how it kind of plays a role on us. Amazing, yeah, it worked. And at least it's yours, right? It's, I'm so resonating with what you're saying about context. And being in the energy of our surroundings, whether it's a geographic place, or a work culture, or family norms, or whatever it might be. That's, that's going into the conditioning. What I love about what you're saying is that it sounds like we have a choice, we once we have that conscious awareness, we have a choice of where to focus, that consciousness, and therefore what we start to call in. And I think this in and of itself is so empowering to get to choose what, what we consume what we attune ourselves to. And I think I think the last question that I really want to dive into here is when it comes to conscious leadership, for for those of us who are stepping into the the conscious, creator role, essentially, through our businesses, and through the templates that we choose for our lives, how do you relate to the idea of responsibility now? Like, do you feel a greater sense of responsibility now that you know you create your own reality? And like, what can we be doing as conscious leaders? Given this, this knowledge coming out of quantum physics and all of this? Yeah, I mean, sometimes it's kind of daunting when you're like, 100% of your life is you and that's it, you're 100% up. But at the same token, that's also very empowering. Because now I have a choice. I can choose, right? Because every day of our life we're creating, you're always creating, you know, some people say, well, law of manifestation or law of attraction, and all this stuff doesn't work. And I say, yeah, it does. But yeah, but look, I wanted this and it didn't happen. I said, Yeah, but what did you attract? And they're like, Yeah, but I'm like, hold on, let's own responsibility. Let's let's really own that. So it always works. It's gonna mean, it's been shown even quantum physics of what you see how you see something. And what it becomes, what you focus on is what's going to expand. So in what you focus on what you're looking for, it's going to be there. And so it's like, if you're stuck in thinking things that are not at a certain level, I mean, this is stuff that I always say, like this, this, this stuff I teach, I'm like, it's very simple, it's not easy. Imagine you have to monitor all your thoughts, by minute by minute, making sure that you're keeping it aligned to where you want to go. That's, that's, that takes some work, and it's gonna be exhausting. But once you start to wire that into the brain, you get into the subconscious to be your detector for that now, that's again, then you don't have to worry about anymore. Now that's the secret to be having effortless success in some ways of how I share that. But when it comes to then, when you know these things, and being in this level and playing in this game, you set a tone and a vibe. And so like when I came out of chiropractic school, the biggest flaw I had, when it came out and chiropractors do this, sometimes we want to heal the world. I'm gonna go out and heal the world that said, doing mentality. And when I started to dive into this type of work more, I remember I was in a meditation one time and I started laughing and they're like, you want to heal the world? Hmm, you think you're Mr. Superman, I'm going to heal the world. And whatever is speaking to me at that time is my thoughts, my head, whatever it is, but I laughed, I was like, Oh, my God, I see what you're saying. And their show, and I was getting into representation of showing, like, how I felt like a ripple effect of water dropping, and I saw ripple. And they're like, that's how you heal the world. And what the drop was, was me. And I was like, Oh, my God, I have to focus on me. Because then I become that person who is at a different vibration. And then the people around me, the ripple effect is I help liberate them to give them the opportunity to have the same experience I had doesn't mean it's gonna happen, but at least that given they're going to have that opportunity unconsciously. And so then I was like, that's where the the whole concept came. So when it comes to like healing the world, or improving the energy to collective and raising the matrix to higher levels, it comes out At the end of the day, how we're showing up, how are we living our truth? How are we living to our potential. And as a leader, the key is just making sure your shirt your beard, you're setting the tone for yourself to be the best version of you every single day, supporting yourself focusing on your thoughts, right? The first thing is thoughts. Where are you putting your energy to where you should focus going? Right? What are you thinking? Because thoughts? Here's the you have 50 to 70,000 thoughts a day. You can't monitor all your thoughts there. But what you do do is you're going to focus on certain ones. And so where are you focusing the energy to? Then the second is your words, your words are going to be what you know, we call them when you spell out a word, you know, sometimes the word spell, it's called spelling, you're casting a spell. That's what spells are, they're just words. You're casting literally a spell abracadabra, this is nice to share a little bit about, you know that word abracadabra means I, I speak I create. And so when you're speaking in words, you bind them into when you blend words together, that's a story. When you blend stories, words have a vibration when you put the story together. Now, that's another vibration all of a sudden, you're creating a vibration with the story. Does that story make you feel good or not feel good. Again, focusing on the higher end of that stuff, because you are in control your life creating every single day, do you believe what your story is telling you is true? If you believe it, whatever you believe is going to be true. But you have to really believe that. And then of course, the energy is the emotions behind it, because that's the generator that helps it all. So that process right there, monitoring that, then all of a sudden, you are showing up in creating the life that you desire, in every aspect, not just in business, not just as a leader, because you gotta again, define things. What does it mean? Like what's a leader to you? Right? What's leadership mean to you? What does being a husband or wife mean to you? What does you want it to find every single construct? Because the problem is, if you're not doing that, you are getting conditioned and falling into whatever the matrix and all everyone else thinks it is. You see, and that's how we have to take some people, this is a lot of work. Well, no one ever taught us this, it would have been a lot easier if we were taught this as kids. But we're not taught these things. And this is how and I think at some point in time, you're eons ago, maybe 1000 2003 4000 years ago or something. I think this was the way we think you defined what what this meant to you. And in reality, we live in a world today where it's all about No, this is what that means. No, no, no, no, no. That's what it means maybe to what you want to accept. That doesn't mean that to me, if I say the word lazy, some people look at that as a negative word. But for some others, they look I was I had someone I was interviewing, and they brought up that they're like, lazy and I was like, that can be looked at it one or two ways. And they're like, Yeah, I see lazy as self care. I see lazy as this. And I'm like, I love that because you're defining what that means to you. So looking at your life, knowing this stuff, when you start to define it, and you build a story around that you believe in that story. And whatever that may be, then you put you have that vibe that comes? That's living consciously. That's living every single moment of your life consciously. And yes, in the beginning, it's not fun. I tell my clients this all the time. But you can the wiring process, when you get that into the subconscious mind. It takes a few months. But once you do that, then you don't have to think about it anymore, then it just automatically happens. The ultimate investment in self right there itself and life. Wow, Vic, this has been profound on so many levels. I feel like as someone who's been studying law of attraction since I was 18, this is maybe the best description and steps I've ever heard when it comes to manifesting. And I just love what you're saying about starting with self starting with what's true. And really that there's a component of self leadership that that gets to be the prerequisite for showing up as a conscious leader in the world redefining all of these all of these paradigms, all of these definitions of success, health, whatever it may be. So thank you so much for sharing your wisdom. I'm, I'm still soaking it in and if people want to find you read more about your work where's the best place for them to connect with you? Yeah, my websites my hub, it's www dot empower your reality that calm. I have a free ebook on the power of visualization, you can get access to my book decoding the matrix, it'll sink you the Amazon. And if this resonates with you from a coaching perspective on learn how to master you know your mindset and all these kinds of things, I do a free call on that to learn more about you to see if I am the person who can help you and then if you qualify into my program, and if you want to connect on social media, I'm on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Tik Tok. You'll find that at the bottom left of the website, any questions reach out I love hearing from people. Excellent. Thank you again, Vic. I'm excited to read decoding the matrix. It feels so up for my own life right now. And I just can't thank you enough. No, thank you for having me on. I really enjoyed this wonderful questions. Love the flow, loved your energy and I really just enjoyed our conversation. Thank you so much. The inner work is often the hardest work, but it is the work required for lasting change and healthier future for us all. If you found the show valuable, please leave a review and subscribe. You can also take a deeper dive with me at Nicole bellisle.com. Thanks again for being here and showing up for your new self. Your future self was certainly thank you