From Grit to Grace: Dr. Nola's Path in Military Leadership

Embark on a transformative journey with Dr. Nola Veazie as we uncover the leadership secrets honed from her illustrious 20-year career in the Air Force. Dr. Veazie, a clinical psychologist and authority on organizational management, imparts her wisdom on leading with empathy and the fine line between task management and true leadership. Through stirring personal stories, she illuminates the critical role mental health plays in high-pressure environments, and we discuss the evolution from logistics to mental health care, emphasizing the need for continuous learning and innovation.

Feel the pulse of motivation and witness the dance between inspiring change and sincere listening as Dr. Veazie and I exchange insights on motivational interviewing and the essential nature of internal drive. We pay homage to the influential figures in our lives and reflect on the powerful effects of spirituality and personal beliefs. The conversation gets personal as we share our own struggles with societal biases and the triumph of affirming one's self-worth in professional settings.

Finally, we contemplate the multifaceted dynamics of resilience and courage, proposing a notion of strength that encompasses mental fortitude and emotional intelligence. Dr. Veazie and I discuss how confidence in our innate knowledge can catalyze growth, and how intuition can be an ally in the journey. As we wrap up, we touch on the vision of an integrist-based movement, exploring the potential of a collective human vibration that could redefine our connection to mind, body, and spirit. Our dialogue concludes with a call to action: to seek self-understanding, foster individual potential, and be the catalyst for the change we desire in the world.

Transcript

Baz Porter: 0:00

Ladies, gentlemen, people of the world, welcome to another episode of Rise from the Ashes Podcast. I am so blessed today to have my next guest and, if you just tuned in for the first time, these podcasts are about journeys, resilience, leadership and also life lessons and gratitude. Within them, the real life stories and these are real emotions on this platform. So if you have the incantation to share this message and change someone's life, please do. It's free and I don't expect anything from you. Without any further ado, let me introduce my next guest, and I always get your name wrong because I'm terrible and dyslexic, so please introduce yourself.

Dr Nola Viazie: 0:43

Thank you, baz. Viazie and and I know that it's written as if it's pronounced VZ, but it's Vise.

Baz Porter: 0:51

This is exactly why I say can you do it?

Dr Nola Viazie: 0:53

Because I You're not the only one who have trouble with my last name.

Baz Porter: 0:57

So, dr, how did you come into what you're doing? Please introduce yourself and what you do to the world. It's a pleasure to have you here.

Dr Nola Viazie: 1:04

Thank you so much, jen. It's a pleasure just being on here. As I say, I'm Dr Nola Vise. I'm a clinical psychologist, but also I have a background in leadership and organizational management.

Dr Nola Viazie: 1:14

I spent over 20 years in the Air Force Go Air Force and loved it, loved it. And while in the Air Force I went from being in logistics to helping people in the area of mental health and just really love mental health because I like to help people. But I also wanted to learn a lot about myself. When you talk about mental health and you look at anybody's background, someone in the family has mental illness and I had an aunt with mental illness. Of course I didn't understand it then, but as I got older and understood how mental illness could be devastating, not just for the person but for the family, I wanted to get in, I wanted to help and I wanted to understand it a little better.

Dr Nola Viazie: 1:58

And so I came into the mental health field while I was in the military, went back to school, got a doctorate degree and then I started working in the mental health field and worked in private practice for a while and I love it. I love working with people, but I thought that I could have a greater impact on more people by helping the people who help people. In other words, I started a V-Solutions Consultant and what we do is train in staff development and consulting four people in the mental health and addiction field. So counselors, therapists, we all need to get what we call CEUs continuing education and so V-Solutions we provide that, but most of all, we look at research information and we bring it in a very innovative way so that they can help the people that are their client.

Baz Porter: 2:47

I love what you do as well, and you mentioned that you were in the Air Force for a time. Yes, I find that a lot of veterans, including myself we are all passionate in some way or form about leadership and different roles in that. What did the and, if you're able to say this and speak about this, what did the Air Force teach you within that leadership or pair you for the leadership role that you do today?

Dr Nola Viazie: 3:12

I think one of the most important things that I learned, the most important lesson regarding leadership that I learned in the Air Force, is not so much how to lead, but how to lead from behind with compassion, how to be a motivational leader. I didn't learn that immediately when I started in the Air Force. Of course, I had leaders who were not great leaders, but I also had some really good leaders, great leaders and the one thing that I learned from them is that when you lead with compassion, you get a better return. People do a lot better. So if I had to say one thing that I learned from my tenure in the Air Force regarding leadership is that you don't manage people, you manage things. You manage contracts. You lead people. I love the differentiation there.

Baz Porter: 4:04

And, by the way, thank you for your service in the capacity that you did. Many people find that just a blasé thing to say. I'm also a veteran.

Dr Nola Viazie: 4:14

Thank you for your service.

Baz Porter: 4:15

It's not about the words, it's about the actual meaning behind that statement and for the sacrifices that you've made and many others before us and for people to come, we'll continue to make that sacrifice because it does leave a lasting emotional and mental mark on us that we can't see. And they've now PTSD, for instance. Cptsd many others form of mental health issues are servicing through military service, but it's not talked about enough. But more than that, it's not understood enough. So what you do I find very important, not just for your leadership, for your role in the world, but for many others it's leaving that lasting impact.

Baz Porter: 5:03

Is there a time in your career either the forces career or the one you're in now that you had a mind blowing story of a leadership lesson that left a lasting impact and a lesson with you that dares in your life today.

Dr Nola Viazie: 5:21

There have been many, but one that comes to mind and it may not seem as serious to some, but it really left an indelible mark on me regarding how we lead people. I had a supervisor who we were getting ready to deploy overseas to a war theater, as we call it and I had just had a loss in my life. I lost my sister in law to a very violent shooting. She was the victim of a shooting she was not the intended victim, but she got killed and I was supposed to deploy and I had a supervisor who could not understand that I wasn't mentally ready to deploy. And back in the 80s this is even before I got into the mental health field Mental health was not at the forefront of leaders and how people's mental health made them ready or not for service. And he insisted that I go to the Middle East.

Dr Nola Viazie: 6:18

And when I got to the Middle East, of course there's something we call in the mental health field psychosomatic illnesses, and that is how your psyche, how stressful events, how stress, affects your soma, which is your body, and I became very sick. We didn't know why. I didn't even relate it because I was in a different career field at the time. I was in logistics at the time and I was very sick, but never connected it to the loss that I experienced prior to that deployment. And I did not connect it either to my feelings about a supervisor who did not have the compassion to say, hey, you just had a major loss and it was a traumatic loss. It was in a loss because of illness. It was traumatic and all he could think about was the mission. And although the mission is important, because we wouldn't be the Air Force we are, we wouldn't be the Army we are, we would not be the services we are, if we were not mission ready. And I understood that. But we cannot be mission ready when the people are not mentally ready, correct, and I was not.

Dr Nola Viazie: 7:27

But I pushed on and I went anyway and I stuffed my feelings and I stuffed what I was experiencing. But it finds a way out and it came out through my physical being and I was extremely ill during that deployment and subsequently when I came back. So one of the leadership if you want to call it a leadership experience or learning experience there, is to be compassionate and to listen to people for what they're not saying I was not able to articulate. He knew what I had gone through because he was there, they had to give me leave so that I could go burial, all that.

Dr Nola Viazie: 8:07

But sometimes we can articulate what we're feeling and I wasn't able to articulate that and so it comes out in a way that is more psychosomatic. Or sometimes it may come out via depression but not everybody's depression look the same. So you don't have the sadness and you don't have I was able to forge on, I was able to accomplish the mission and put on a smile and do the things. But my body, it kept the score, like that book says, it kept the score of the mental strength Strain and the mental stress that I was going through because of that.

Baz Porter: 8:42

But this is what you're fine with. Especially with military personnel, serving or non-serving. There is a certain form of resilience within each of them that is above and beyond a normal character because of the conditioning and upbringing for them, the somatic imprints of the beliefs and Also a desire to serve in a different level. And that's a common trait within any military Personnel across the globe.

Baz Porter: 9:10

But it's very not a very misunderstood by others who haven't had that experience to Sit back and observe it happening, but it does leave a very lasting Tole on each and every single one of servicemen, which is not talked about Enough in the right environment. Going back when you were serving, there wasn't anything called mental health or PTSD then it was just called shell shock. You were told to get over it or live with it. If you were to go back now and have a conversation with that leader, that your boss, what would you, without being angry or upset with him, how would you communicate with him today and say, look, can you handle this better with me? How would you frame that for him?

Dr Nola Viazie: 10:00

That's a very good question. I think one of the main things I would say is listen with your heart, listen with compassion. We learn communication skills but sometimes or oftentimes we listen with our head and so when you're doing a job, a mission, like in the military, you often you learn to it to be in your head, headspace, you learn to be very cognitive in your interactions and it serves a purpose. But if you're able to do that and to balance it with listening with your heart, with compassion, then you might hear things that I was not able to articulate or even understand back then and that's an amazing distinction.

Baz Porter: 10:43

And if you're just listening to this and not watching it on video, have it go back and replay just what she said just then, because her tonality changed, her heart came through and she wasn't speaking from a mental space or the brain space, she was speaking from a very much heart space and compassionate outlook on her past, essentially what she just did, whether she knows it or not, which forgave the situation. And it's important in any walk of life, in any situation, to forgive With compassion. Which brings me to my next question what makes your company and you unique? How do you show up in your uniqueness and your authentic Self to your clients, to the other businesses that you serve with all your experience?

Dr Nola Viazie: 11:34

one of the things that make the solutions and myself unique is that, as a company who provides training, who provides staff development, we Take an individualized approach to our clients. People learn differently and so we tailor teaching to their learning style. We tailor staff development to their unique self, rather than just one big we're gonna teach a lesson like our trauma, inform or motivational interviewing. No, we take that and I think I'm talking about motivational interviewing we take those techniques and that philosophy into our teaching.

Dr Nola Viazie: 12:19

When you want to motivate someone, you have to understand what really motivates them, whether it is intrinsic work, and so we come from that perspective, understanding that you're not a unique person and you're motivated by something that's different. And the only way for us to know that is to listen. Listen both with our heads and with our hearts, what you're saying and what you're not saying. There's a form that we use is called a decisional balance, that we help people. We try to get people to change, but change only comes when we first hear change talk in the person, because now we know they're ready to change. And so we use a lot of different techniques, such as motivational interviewing and some other techniques, to bring about change. Talk rather than to bring about change.

Baz Porter: 13:10

I love that. I was once told there's no such thing as motivation. However, there is such thing as an inspired action. So what you're speaking about now and it's a buzzword that you're using a motivation interview. But equally, if you can inspire somebody and inspire means to come from in spirit, within yourself, within yourself that's where the create, the change, is actually created. Would you agree with that statement?

Dr Nola Viazie: 13:36

I totally agree with you. And when you think about inspiration, we aspire to be inspirational leaders, because an inspirational leader, an inspirational person, can have an idea, can have a passion and others buy into it. So when we say come with me, you're going because you believe in something even greater than the leader. You're inspired by the passion, the, the mission, whatever you want to call it. So I totally agree with you.

Baz Porter: 14:08

I love that and it's a mission or a vision statement. What would be your vision statement for 2024, going in from what your, your knowledge base is, where you want, where you're aspiring to be? Next, what would be your mission statement, not only for yourself, but for your business?

Dr Nola Viazie: 14:24

what my vision statement for 2024 is to bring about the types of training that Create or that compel people to do a call to action Versus just present an information, but a call to action so that they, in in turn, can change the landscape, because it's not just the solutions changing the landscape, but we're calling people to action when I say people such as drug and alcohol counselors, mental health counselors or anyone who we're bringing a leadership perspective to so that they can make a change in their, in their catchment area, so to speak, in your own health.

Baz Porter: 15:09

That's a very good distinction In your sphere of training. Is there anybody that you have gratitude for that really helped you as a stepping stone and played a vital role in your elevation of what you're doing today?

Dr Nola Viazie: 15:26

I've gratitude to so many people.

Dr Nola Viazie: 15:28

I can't name them all, but I can name this my mom because, she was my first inspiration, she was my first cultured out-now and she created a framework for me to follow that people. And to give you a little background, I was an immigrant. I was born in Central America and as a black woman, a black Latino woman, sometimes back then you didn't see yourself in places, you didn't see yourself doing great things, you didn't see yourself. I didn't see myself. I would rephrase that, I didn't see myself walking into things that were beyond my environment, the environment that I grew up in.

Dr Nola Viazie: 16:11

But my mother was that changing agent for me. So, although I had many leaders, many people in my circle that I am grateful for, that provided different things for me at different time frames. I think my mother, she created that platform, so to speak, that frame on which I built and the most important thing is a framework that is based on spirituality and my spiritual belief in God, and I think that was something and it is something that has taken me higher than I could have ever wanted to go, and it's not so much in the realm of money or things although that comes as you gain some success but it's in a space that is more ethereal, almost. It's a space where you feel a freedom and a peace at the same time, to do what you do.

Baz Porter: 17:07

I love what you just said, then, about success and the distinction between it's not monetary, it's not a tangible thing, success. Success is a feeling, it's a vibration. If I may, I'm going to ask something, probably on borderline. This is going to be a controversial subject with a lot of people, and this is why I do it. What challenges did you find and could break it out from the military into your business now with racial profiling, with the fact that you were as a child growing up your class was black, latino and you said it yourself. You didn't see yourself. Did that manifest in later life for you, and how did you overcome that to be the person and the company you are today?

Dr Nola Viazie: 17:51

I think the way it manifests was in what they call microaggression. It was in very blatant, although sometimes it was you get that blatant racism or blatant classism or just because I'm a woman, it was mostly microaggressions. Things like I remember this woman when I started my business and what I was charging, which was standard, industry standard, and I remember she said it must be nice to charge that much.

Dr Nola Viazie: 18:21

This is an employee, this is a company, who they were the prime, I was the sub and this person, who was not in leadership but was in HR, said that and I thought would you feel or say the same thing? She happened to be a white woman. I said would you feel or say the same thing if it was a white male, for example, or a male? And I approached her with it white her feelings and I said when you said that what I felt is that I was not worthy to charge what I charge based on your implicit bias. She felt bad, she didn't last because I did report her to the higher up that she didn't last in the company. But there were many microaggressions that this is never blatant.

Baz Porter: 19:09

I had some experience. I sent an email for something, and my price for an hour is expensive for some, but what I deliver is above and beyond, as you may know. However, I got an email back from an attorney. Of anybody else. It could have been anybody, but it was an attorney.

Dr Nola Viazie: 19:29

I can't obviously mention who this person is.

Baz Porter: 19:31

And I got a lot of backlash from this particular person because he said I've been in. He said I he him had been in leadership for 25 years and he's never charged that ever. So I politely wrote back to him on a one on one email, without being on a chain or anything. I said obviously you're not raising your stand enough and you don't believe in what you do and your product, but you have a very blessed career and blessed day. I never heard back from him and I removed him from the list. But that's a common thing. People don't find themselves worthy of something. And it's nothing to do with the value of money. That's a myth. It's to do with the service you're giving and also the value of yourself internally and what you're going to produce and the result of what you do. That is all it is. It doesn't become a money battle. It becomes of where can you see yourself in six months time, in a year, five years, 10. That's the value in what, the projection of what your knowledge is, and that, personally, is priceless.

Baz Porter: 20:46

So I love that and the way you confront friend. A colleague of mine says care front a lot. It's not a confront, it's a care front. So you care, fronted something professionally, you call her on her own BS, basically, and that's a professional thing to do. And then it needs to be personally. I think there needs to be more of that in all fields because racism should, in this day and age, should not exist and it's systemic and even from. I'm a white privileged person but I've experienced that in my time in different forms.

Dr Nola Viazie: 21:21

Oh yeah.

Baz Porter: 21:22

Bullying, shaming, et cetera. There are all forms of what people form as one word, but it's not understood enough and there's not enough as always, spoken about it in an environment where it's there's no controversy. It's an equal play and feel, which is why I like to try and bring it up here, without having the stigma of you're doing this to get brownie points or you're doing this to shame somebody, and I think what you say about it could care. Fronting it and challenging that behavior needs to happen on a daily basis, but not through violence, not through backlash or or shaming somebody using social media as a weapon, which is what's happened.

Dr Nola Viazie: 22:05

I hate that. You said something really important back is confronted behaviors, not the person. Yeah, because, please, oftentimes people are projecting their own insecurities and I think if we understand that, if we're able to understand that I've had situations where I had confronted microaggressions but me and the person became that was the best boss I had, because he came to a point where he understood me and I understood him as a person, not as a white male or as a black female, but as a person. We I'm sorry about that. Yeah, what happens often is that we throw the baby away with the bathwater, so to speak. We don't understand that behaviors are not the person necessarily, but people behave in ways for a lot of different reasons and if we don't understand the reasons, we interpret behaviors as a personal attack, and it's very seldom a personal attack.

Baz Porter: 23:12

No, it's not. It's conditioned. They've got an anger issue because they've had an experience prior to that and you showing up, you've just triggered something within them deep down emotionally that they can't. Most of us don't even understand what it is. We don't have the awareness to how to confront it within themselves and deal with it. So they project all this negative, perceived, negative emotional stuff onto the person that they've brought it up, which is then perceived mostly by it for an attack or something, and then escalates, turns into violence, etc. Etc. And that's why bad things happen and escalate in the world.

Dr Nola Viazie: 23:52

Absolutely, absolutely. And I think one of the things that we need to understand also is that when attacks happen, there's a projection that happens on an idea, a race, a people, a concept, not necessarily on you as an individual. Our brains make sense of our environment by putting things, people, situations in these neat little boxes, and so we create these patterns and we engage with these patterns and these concepts rather than with people, and then you have the group think and everybody jumps on the bandwagon and it escalates. And if we can just pull ourselves back for just a second and listen with our heart, then we can see people in a different light altogether.

Baz Porter: 24:42

That's conditioning thing as well, because we are conditioned in the complete opposite of that. We're conditioned to follow the sheep, the leaders, the sheep of the communities. You look up I don't do politics because I can't vote over here but you look at the political environment at the moment, not just in America but the whole world. You have one leader and you have people following them. You have community leaders in churches and in AA environments, alcohol, agronomists, drug environments, and that everybody is conditioned to follow that lead because they're so afraid of their own voice and their own power to stand up and say, actually I don't believe in that concept, I don't believe in what you're saying. I understand it, but I don't believe in what you're teaching.

Baz Porter: 25:34

If, for whatever reason and as soon as somebody does, they're shut down, they're shamed because the leader isn't in a place emotionally, mentally, spiritually and physically to deal with it on a foundational basis and say, okay, let's have that conversation. What's really going on? How can we align to a level everybody up in the communities and not just myself, because that's what happens in a lot of the not all, but a lot of these communities because they're not emotionally intelligent enough to say let's have a discussion, let's stop, pause a minute and you can speak. I wanna hear what you say and that needs to happen, which I love about what you do and how you show up in your world, because these are the conversations that you have on a day-in-day basis. To elevate somebody else, I wanna touch on resilience for a moment. What does resilience mean to you?

Dr Nola Viazie: 26:32

When I think about the term resilience, I think about a rubber band and it's the ability in the face to snap back. In the face of tension, stress, change, the ability to not just snap back and show up and do what you have to do, but do it in a way that takes into account my mental health, my physical health. Because if we go back to that story that I said I spoke about earlier, you talked about my resilience and I had the question was it really resilient? Shutting down and going on with the program may not necessarily be resilience, it's just being able to do the mission. If I'm not able to look at me as a whole person, including my mental health and hair front, like you say, the situation, so that I'm well and the people around me are well, then how resilient am I?

Dr Nola Viazie: 27:29

When we look at resilience, we think in terms of our physical comeback from bad situations or our physical going through during bad situations, but seldom think about the mental aspects of it. And I think resilience is being able to confront situations, because stress is gonna happen, situations are gonna happen as long as we live. But to confront situation with the fortitude to know what I have within my store, meaning my storehouse, meaning how well I'm equipped, whether it's physically, mentally. However, what do I have? What am I lacking and where can I go and get it?

Baz Porter: 28:11

Can I reframe that for you for a moment? You said lack. I don't believe there is such a word. You have all of the knowledge and capabilities already there. It's having the confidence within yourself to actually say I've got this shit, I can do this. I don't care what they're saying, I don't care what is being presented to me. I have already within me the knowledge, courage and resilience to achieve whatever that is you're going into. Does that help?

Dr Nola Viazie: 28:45

It does. But when I say lack, for example, I may have partial knowledge, but I don't yet I have not attained a full knowledge that I need to confront this particular situation it doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. I don't have it in my repertoire, but there are places I can go to get it.

Baz Porter: 29:06

Do you believe in the power of intuition and tapping into that to support personal and also other growth within yourself? Absolutely, so that's why we're referring to within that concept. So I wasn't clear, so I apologize. When we look at resilience and you said that it wasn't resilience could it have been courage?

Dr Nola Viazie: 29:28

It could be courage, because I believe I have the courage to just forge through. The resilience would for me, at least in my estimation, would have been able to tap into the things that were already there and then look for the things that I did not have and get it to compliment what I already had.

Baz Porter: 29:48

I love that. When you look at about influence and you look at resilience and buying the two, do you believe they go hand in hand?

Dr Nola Viazie: 29:57

Resilience and influence. I think they do. I believe they do Because people of influence often are people who have resilience. When I influenced and one of the things that someone told me a long time ago and I took that and I kept it on the shelf thinking about it she said you're gonna be a woman of influence and I did not understand that. But people who are resilient, who say no matter what happens in my life, if that's the calling, then I need to do what it takes and get what it takes so that I can have that influence. So I have to bounce back.

Baz Porter: 30:32

I'm sitting here smiling because I know something just happened within Dr Nola that her penny dropped somewhere. I'm not sure where it is, but I know the penny has dropped within her because her whole physiology changed. She started to smile, her shoulders went back as she was speaking, if you watch on a video.

Baz Porter: 30:52

Please go back and rewatch it because you'll just see what happened. And it's these micro-distinctions that I love about having these conversations. And this isn't just a podcast, it isn't just a show. These are conversations that I love having because I know this story is going to change somebody else's perception on a situation, possibly even their life. So this is why all the rise from the ashes shows exist for that reason to change and influence change. When you look at resilience and the courage, would you say they're a friend or folk? Do they complement each other or would they somewhat combat each other?

Dr Nola Viazie: 31:33

I think they're friends. I think resilience complements courage and it complements all the things we need to be great leaders. A resilient leader is a leader who goes to combat and, no matter what comes, they're able to think on their feet and go back into the fund and all the resources that you've had and pull it out. I may not have it right here right now, but I remember somehow in my tool bag there's something I can use.

Baz Porter: 32:04

I like that, defying all the odds. Is there anything in your life that you were told? Would it be your alter ego, one of your alter egos, or somebody else saying you can't do that, it's impossible? Is there anybody that really shows up for you that you've got, I'm going to do it and that's it. I'm done. I'm not listening to you. It's a done deal. Who would you like to prove wrong and say actually, I did that?

Dr Nola Viazie: 32:30

A professor, my first professor in my PhD program. I was timid and I would panic to speak in front of people and I remember that first speech that I had to do, my first class in a PhD program, and he not just verbally but non-verbaly said I could not do it. All these years later, professor. So when I do it every single day with V Solutions Consultant in front of hundreds of people, I get up and I speak and I encourage them and I listen to them rather than telling them what they can and cannot do. It was not his position to say that. The problem was is that I accepted it at the time.

Baz Porter: 33:16

That's my bad.

Dr Nola Viazie: 33:18

We accept things people tell us and we take that incorporated into our thinking, into our being. And I did that for a short while, but then I said he is not the boss of me.

Baz Porter: 33:31

Thank you. We have a similar story. I won't go into it now, maybe a bit later, but we have a similar story from the first time I went on stage and I'll share that with you on a later date. Defying the impossibilities, the limitations that someone else sets on us is a part of the resilience and it's a part of that growth system that we go through as entrepreneurs, as business owners, operators, to overcome, not just to prove someone else wrong, but to prove ourselves wrong, because at one point that was our belief, because we, as you rightly said, we embodied it from somebody else that told us that statement or something very similar, and then we interpreted it as I can't do that, I'm not worthy, etc. Etc. Who?

Baz Porter: 34:15

is your real life rock star. Who would you go? That is my rock star. I love that person, whether you've met them or not, and they not as much idealize them, but they inspire you on a daily basis.

Dr Nola Viazie: 34:29

There are many human beings that inspire me, and I don't know that I idealize them, but I respect them and I've learned from them. But when it comes to my spirituality, god as I understood him, as I understand him, that's my rock star.

Baz Porter: 34:45

I love that. No, I've never had that answer before, so that's a new one for me. Actually, that's nice because that's a term.

Dr Nola Viazie: 34:53

Because he's beyond above me, where other humans have the same limitations, so maybe a little different as I do, I love that answer.

Baz Porter: 35:01

Thank you, building resilience is somewhat plus can be difficult. Can you share with the audience five tips that you've learned to install and grow resilience so they can get not better knowledge from you to that next level?

Dr Nola Viazie: 35:18

Number one be a researcher, question what people say about you and then compare it and see how they align. Is it objective data? So when I say, be a researcher, you want to question what people say, you want to question what you say. Does it align with the fact? That's the number one thing. The second thing I would do is to sometimes steal away.

Dr Nola Viazie: 35:45

Sometimes you have to get away from the crowd and meditate so that you can come or become your best advocate. The only way you can do that is by knowing who you are. When you know who you are and people tell you things that are different, they don't align, they're disconnected. There's a dissonance. You're able to say that is not matching who I say I am, and that's the second thing. The third thing is that when you have gotten into that research, that researcher mindset, and you look at what's going on, you're ready, check it against what you believe to be true. Then you have to make a choice Do I take the objective data or do I take the subjective data from somebody else who is not necessarily an expert on me? Sometimes I'm not even an expert on myself, because I tell myself things that are not true and I need to compare it to objective data. Then I choose, I choose objective, measurable data, and then the last thing I do is I implement it.

Baz Porter: 36:50

I love that and the structure and the trajectory of it is very concise and also very actionable. So if you listen to this, please pause it, rewind and go back and get a pen and take notes on what Dr Nuller just said, because it may change your trajectory in what you're doing and whatever challenge you're facing right now. I love this next question because I get so many answers from this and different theaters. If you could start a movement today, an integrist based movement, what would it be?

Dr Nola Viazie: 37:24

Think about that, because there's so many things that and the front of my mind I would start, but I want it to be a movement that brings about long-term change. And that's difficult, because to bring about long-term change in human beings, it means that, number one, I would have to first accept the human being where they are and then help them as they grow. So if I were to bring about a movement, it would be to bring about a cognitive change. We want people to change and we do that through teaching, which affects cognition. So that's one aspect of it. But there's another part of us that I believe, the spiritual part of us that often is not touched and so, even though I'm changing cognitively and we need to there's that spiritual part of us that just doesn't seem to catch up. So my movement is to integrate the two or the three, because I don't want to find, I don't want to forget the psyche. So psyche, soma and the spiritual aspect of us, and to bring about an integration of it so that we can be our best self.

Baz Porter: 38:37

I like that. What if I told you that would be condensed into a vibration, a collective vibration of oneness, instead of acting of race or separate of countries. If we were collectively, as people, as a globe, to say actually we're human, we are one race, we are not separate, and each one of us have the ability, or with the awareness and the ability to tap into cosmic consciousness, not just universal consciousness, which Napoleon Hill speaks about in great length, and the law of attraction, the law of the universes, etc. Etc. What if there was a level above that where you had cosmic law, where you have the interaction of the physical and the daily routine, but you had the physical, mental and emotional awareness of a different vibration? I believe what you're speaking about. Is that correct?

Dr Nola Viazie: 39:40

That's what I'm speaking about in terms of spirituality, and people take that in different ways depending on their belief system. When you talk, when you're saying those things and I agree with you I'm thinking about the body. There's one body, many different members of the body, and so each member does a different thing, but we're one body and if we can see ourselves as one body, then we will move in consonance. We will move, not in dissonance. We would move in concert with the goal that we have set for the body versus the different parts of the body.

Baz Porter: 40:20

And that's what I love about these conversations, because they bring about these and for anybody just tuning in or they've listened to this way through, thank you very much, firstly. Secondly, my advice, impartially, has always been that change for somebody else, but more importantly, first and foremost, be the change for yourself, because you make that different. Dr Nola makes a difference. The people listening to this makes the difference, and it's about being of service to other people with your experiences. Someone said to me once dream big and never stop dreaming. I still do that in different ways, but your true potential is limitless and it isn't the sky's limit. You can do this. No, it's limitless In the aspect of what you can. As Wayne Dyer said, what you can think, you can then create, and there's so many stories of this that aren't front page news. I've listened to miracles happening. I've seen miracles in the world, but they start with a thought. They start with a vibrational aspect of a human thought.

Dr Nola Viazie: 41:26

Is it your thought?

Baz Porter: 41:27

Nobody really knows, but you have the responsibility and the capability as a human being in this day and age, to action. As that thought, the dream meeting of who you want to be and who you want to meet. For instance, if you could meet anybody in the world past, present, who would that be?

Dr Nola Viazie: 41:48

That's a very good question, not one that I would answer in a path of the man or the woman. The first thought, I would think, because of spiritual, I would love to meet Jesus, but obviously it'll happen in a different way. But if you're talking about people here, people who make a difference, people, Be imaginative.

Baz Porter: 42:10

It could be two or three people, just have lunch with them or sit on a park.

Dr Nola Viazie: 42:14

He doesn't be number one. Jesus will be number one. Number two I would love to meet Mother Teresa. That's resilience. That's a person who left us. She was not poor, she didn't come from a poor family, but she left it all for a bigger cause. I don't know that I'm there or would ever be there, but I would love to sit down and ask her how, why, to get a better understanding. There are many people I like to sit down and talk to, but those two probably will be at the top.

Baz Porter: 42:46

Is there anything you would like to leave the audience with a call to action or advice ready to cement who you are within the world? Please, the stage, as always, is yours.

Dr Nola Viazie: 42:56

Thank you so much. I first want to thank you, Bas, for what you do. I want to thank you for even giving me this opportunity to come on. I really appreciate it from the bottom of my heart.

Baz Porter: 43:07

You're welcome. It's a privilege and an honor to do this, as I've always said.

Dr Nola Viazie: 43:10

What you do is so important because you're not just talking about things, about events. You're talking about the feelings people have and how they can use that to make a difference. There is a verse that says without a vision, the people perish. It speaks to what you spoke about. We can do limitless things, but we cannot do it without a vision. I was one without a vision for many years, or took on the vision that others gave to me. You have to find your God-given vision. What were you created to do? Find that vision, because you're going to make a change in this one.

Baz Porter: 43:53

As I said, dr Morale, it is an absolute privilege doing this. We don't do it for any other gain than seeing people smile and learn from it, because your message, your vision, is important and just as important as anybody else is. If we work together as a unit, as a human race, and forget about our care, front opinions in the correct manner, not with violence or style of riots or whatever else they can come up with to create fear in the world, and start de-weaponizing the media, the platforms, etc. And use them for positive change, then we have a chance in the future. This is why this exists. So I want to thank you for your time and for your love showing up today with me. I know you're not 100%. I'm not 100%. There's something going around. I don't know what it is, but this is what I love about people like you, because you have the dedication and it's not dedication to me, certainly, but it's dedication to your mission, your sense of being and your own message. So thank you for doing that.

Dr Nola Viazie: 45:09

Thank you for what you do. Again, you keep emphasizing that. That's something that warms my heart. If we can be one people, not race, not this or that, but human race, that really warms my heart because that's part of my vision, part of my mission, and we can only achieve that if we individually are well. We are projecting our own stuff.

Baz Porter: 45:32

BS basically on others, and we're damaging the future I have, and I'm going to say it in a few minutes you live with purpose and inspire with legacy.

Dr Nola Viazie: 45:44

I love that.

Baz Porter: 45:45

There is a huge meaning behind that. You must first know your purpose, live your purpose, embody who you are as an individual. It's not about what everybody thinks about you and, believe me, for a long time in my life I was the person that I most despised. I became that person without knowing, and I stayed there for a very long time. I had no purpose, I had no vision and I was hated still by many around the world for a version of me back then. They've got no idea who that person is now, and that's OK, I don't care, because I've gone past that point.

Baz Porter: 46:24

But then you must have an inspired vision of yourself and a much greater aspect, looking outward for the future. You must inspire the future generation, because as a society, we're screwed right now. There is no coming back from where we are unless we implement change in the next generations. That's where the change will happen, not tomorrow, not in the next 10 years. The next 20 years, yes, but in order to do that, we've got to nurture the growth of our grandkids, our kids now.

Baz Porter: 47:01

That's where the change is created, not by some idiot standing up saying let's create change, because you cannot influence 8 billion people in 24 hours. You could. However, it's very difficult to change the society and the systemic beliefs and the hate in the world. But it's hi Max. It's been created by hate and opinionated views of people not educated from an elevated point. That's what I'm trying to change, wow. And I can only do that as a ripple effect, one person at a time. So the statement live with purpose and inspire with legacy is much more than just a statement. It is a vision of the future. So that's why that exists from where I stand.

Dr Nola Viazie: 47:49

You've just inspired me also to continue to sow seeds. Somebody else will water it. I may not be there to water it, it doesn't mean I shouldn't sow it, and you really inspired me today.

Baz Porter: 48:00

Thank you. I appreciate you. I appreciate your feedback and your love and what you do in the world. So thank you very much for myself, thank you very much for listening. Please share this message. This was an awesome interview and it needs to be shared. It's your responsibility, if you're listening to this, to change someone else's life by a vision and inspired action. For myself, have a blessed day Until we meet again. My friends, live with purpose and inspire with legacy. Thank you.