Obstacles to Opportunities
When faced with life's obstacles, let's channel that negative energy into positivity and forge opportunities. Throughout the nation, business owners will share their experiences of triumphing over daunting challenges in their careers and lives, illustrating how they've harnessed these experiences for growth opportunities.
Obstacles to Opportunities
Clark Harrison: Survivor to Real Estate Success
Meet Clark Harrison, a Caine Luxury team member, accomplished property investor with over 25 doors, devoted husband, and special needs dad. Join us as we explore his journey, from the challenges of a young working actor to his adventures on Survivor and a stint in the music industry as a touring 19-year-old. Clark's story is a testament to resilience and transformation. Tune in to "Obstacles & Opportunities" for an inspiring episode of growth and success.
Welcome to the Obscles Opportunities podcast. I'm Jess Powell, your host, and I'm your co-host, heather Kane, and today we have Clark Harrison in the studio. Can't wait for you to learn more about him, say hello.
Speaker 2:Oh, great to be here, so great to be here. Yeah, that's great to see you guys, and thank you for having me and I'm looking forward to it for sure.
Speaker 1:I remember when we threw the question out to our team and we said who wants to be a part of the podcast? And we said the topic is Obscles, opportunities. And what did you say?
Speaker 2:I don't remember what I said. Here's what I do remember the context of seeing that. I remember I jumped on it immediately and I think it was something to the effect of and I don't remember what I said, just know, the truth is, I think my life is obstacles to opportunities.
Speaker 3:So as soon as I saw it, I was like yeah, yeah, I see that in you and just getting to know you, I've heard you continue to talk about you know how you've gotten through different obstacles, so I can't wait to share your story, and the number one thing that I loved when I was reading this because I do know a little bit of your story, clark is that you said as you have gotten older, the number one thing that has helped you get past this is your faith.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, absolutely yeah. It has to be Because but what the ironic thing is, it didn't start with that. It's not like faith was something that was in my life as a major factor. I mean, how about this? I did have it, but not in all the right ways, and it's something that I feel like was intentionally given to me to have to develop in order to. I feel like all of it was more or less kind of a journey to where I would need to develop faith in order to move forward.
Speaker 3:Almost just survive, right yeah.
Speaker 2:It's really interesting Because I feel like that, because, because that question about, like, what is the main thing that helped you get through it, or what's the help, anything that helps you persevere through these obstacles that have come across and you know, to you can, you can say, well, in this one I had to do this, and then this one I had to do. But really, if I could like boil it down to the one threat through everything, it has to be faith, because that's the only thing that can take you through. Without it it'll crumble.
Speaker 3:Yeah, amen.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, I completely relate and I want to share. Let's start from the beginning. A little bit about your kind of upbringing, childhood, all that. Let's start from there, because I think that's kind of where you took us when you first started thinking about obstacles, so so. So take us back.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know and I won't make it super long because everyone could I could spend 37 years telling you, love you in all, but come on, clark.
Speaker 2:So I actually didn't have many obstacles growing up, and that's what's something that was interesting is that I had a really good childhood, just that normal, typical suburban childhood, no trauma or anything. You know. The only thing that I guess someone would say and I'm sure a lot of people can relate to this is that I didn't have a lot of friends growing up. I wasn't social, I couldn't make friends well, I couldn't socialize well. I was always a loner. I was the one that never hung out with anyone, never went to parties, like was by myself.
Speaker 2:But at a young age you still want to be significant. So I channeled all of that into arts and you know, and obviously, when you and then for some reason, I happened to have parents that convinced me you can do things Like that, they didn't try to hold me back. They said you can go, do whatever you want. Didn't mean they were necessarily supportive, they just let me believe, which is really, I think, very important, just like let people believe, you know. So I didn't think that it was impossible to be something significant, and so I started at a young age going for things, like at the age of 10 or 12, I was like, okay, well, I'm going to go be on TV now and like you know, people don't do that, but I tried. But so the obstacles started in these pursuits and then they graduated into true obstacles later in life.
Speaker 3:So you wanted to be on TV.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's go back to that, and you're in Chicago, you're not in Hollywood, so where did you get this idea?
Speaker 2:So okay. So you know, I wanted to be what was influencing me, and when I was young, that was people on TV, right. So my mom was like, okay, well, you better, you know, start doing some shows. So I started doing theater and I was doing about two or three musicals a year. Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Break out of 10.
Speaker 2:There's no auto-tune on these mics. I think you can too.
Speaker 3:I'm like you're on it right now. Are you gonna grab it? Are you gonna grab it?
Speaker 2:Of course. I think Jesses may have heard some of my stuff, I think you've sent me something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you have a great voice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, thank you.
Speaker 1:We'll do that in another ancillary promo clip. We'll do that. We'll sing something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're intro on our next one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly so I wanted to be on TV and so I was just doing theater and musical theater and then I graduated into doing you know getting an agent and doing you know TV stuff and I ended up. The big thing that ended up happening was I auditioned for this reality show that was a spin-off of Survivor called Moolah Beach on Fox Family. Back in a long time ago, 2001-ish, when I was like 14, 15 years old and out of like tens of thousands of people that auditioned, they picked 12 people and I ended up being one of the 12 and I know why they chose me and I it's, it's, it's. I don't know how delicate the audience is, but in my interview I was 15, or in the in the casting call, in the in the audition, they said, okay, these are really quick casting. Just we just need to know something about you. If you were stranded on an island, what would, what would be the two things you would bring?
Speaker 2:That was the question for the okay okay, my answer is not suitable for television or for most for younger audiences, but what I said at the time was I said, oh easy, britney Spears and a backpack of condoms.
Speaker 1:that's what I said yeah, that's what. That's what landed you the gig.
Speaker 2:That's what landed me the gig but laughed at their no, I know I was just a dumb kid they laughed their, they laughed their butts off. And I got a call back and then I got on the show and then but because I didn't have friends and I wasn't like, didn't have a lot of support at home and I was an outcast and I knew this was going to be on TV and I I it just made me realize like, okay, you have to win this.
Speaker 1:You're approving yourself, you're approving something and it's like game time.
Speaker 2:I had to. And it's funny because the things I did to win because I ended up winning the show and the things I did to win, looking back now that I've read so many books and have learned so much about the process of achievement, I did some things by accident that I realized most people didn't do. I woke up before everybody else, I was on the beach by myself with my headphones on, I listened to music. I got into a state of accomplishment, a state of confidence, a state of ready to take on the day, because we lived on the island, like we lived on the beach, like there was no hotel, and so I would get up before everyone and just walk and listen and and prep myself for that day. And like I don't know if I'm going to go home today, I don't know what the challenges are going to be today. You know, I wasn't the best one there, but I had to. Um, I had to win.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so for me, it's all about mindset right. You, in your mind, you already won, so you are taking every step that you needed to make sure that you fulfilled your mindset, which is a winning right, and I think you're a visionary, which is one of the things that I I love about you, but you envision it and you just run for that vision right, and I think that's exactly what you did in the situation.
Speaker 2:That that show um, planted the seed in my head that you could do things that you could, that you could make something happen from nothing. And so, um, that was really the catalyst, because after that, everything I've tried to do with my life was a big thing and um, so, what are those?
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's, let's go into the next. Let's go into the next one the, the the shocker. When I first met you, I think we were living. We actually figured out we were living in Chicago at the same time, but you were touring around with my band your band, so tell us a little bit about that, yeah.
Speaker 2:So after I got back from the show, uh, and, and I won the show, I thought that was cool, um, but, like, as I started getting into adolescence like 16, 17, 18 years old, I, I won. I had more crea, like I wanted to. Um, I didn't want to be like an actor because I would have to read other people's work. I wanted to express myself, right, and a lot of teens feel that way. So I I started writing music and, um, I started a band when I was 16.
Speaker 2:Um, and I was influenced by this band called the All American rejects, and they started with just two guys, tyson and um Nick Wheeler, and it was just two guys, two acoustics. So I started my band like that, and then we um ended up bringing in other members and we got signed right after high school. Um, to, you know, this band called Fallout Boy Pete Wentz was our A and R. We all grew up in the same town. We got signed to Atlantic and, uh, at 19, you know, I was touring the world and on tour with All American rejects, so I got the opportunity to tell them. I said you're the reason I started music.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 2:And, uh, so it was so, yeah, um, that's what obstacle that you have there. Oh, believe, I mean the obstacle in getting my bands. I mean, first of all, no one does it. So you have the entire world telling you that like it's a terrible idea and you're not going to make it. You're not going to make it and you know, I guess, ultimately did I make it? No, but I made it. I mean ultimately, meaning like make it.
Speaker 1:You made it further than a lot of musicians.
Speaker 2:Right, right, and I changed my direction later in life. Um, but the point is is that my even my family, who was super supportive, wasn't supportive of this, because they're like you got to go to college, you finished high school, you got to go to college and I'm like, well, go to college, but I'm not going to go. I'm going to go, but I want to go to the class because I got to. I swear to you, we're going to be getting a record deal within my first year of being a guy. I swear, and in my mom's like, well, my dad, they're like, well, I don't, I don't see that. So you got to go. So I went and within the first semester, we got our record deal.
Speaker 2:And, um, so the challenges came from having the ability to see something. Cause, only, look, if the site is within you, it's meant for you, it's not meant for other people. You can't expect other people to see that again. Yeah, so you know the the, the inner site is divine. You, there's no substance to it.
Speaker 2:If you close your eyes and you see something for yourself, who gave that to you? Where does that come from? Did someone else give that to you? No, it came from inside, which came from the divine right, whatever you want to label that as, and if you don't trust that, then you're denying your potential future, and so I think one of the the things that's hardest for people to do is to have a vision inside themselves and then resist everything on the outside that tries to give, that tries to take it away, because you don't know what I see, you don't know what I feel, even if it's your family or friends or your significant other. You have to have the faith to to. You have to have the faith in that vision, and I feel like God or the universe or whatever you want to believe in, the greater, the greater consciousness here rewards those who are willing to fall into that potential.
Speaker 3:That was powerful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good, it is very good you talk. I mean we've previous episodes, we've talked a lot about vision.
Speaker 3:I think it's vision and you know I'm strong in my faith, so I feel like it's the Holy Spirit right. I feel like that. It's something that lives within you and and I do feel like if you use the gifts that God gave you which is the vision of what your future is and you don't let other people and other factors and other voices determine your path, you silence that noise, then you ultimately become the person that God created you to be.
Speaker 2:Right Out of 100%, spot on.
Speaker 1:And that's. It's like obedience and faith. You have to be obedient, like, once you get the vision, literally just walk through fire then to get there. Yeah, that's the obstacle. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Is bridging that gap between where you are and where you see yourself to be, or what was shown to you in your mind that could exist. And bridging that gap is hard, because the process of going from Discipline, discipline but also being also being understanding that things will fall apart before they fall together. Typically Right, if you, if the city you live in isn't the city you want to live in and you, you need a new one. There, you got to destroy it to build a new one, and so as you raise yourself to who you need to be like, so let's say you are who you are and all of a sudden you have this vision of where you want to go and what you want to do and who you are, at that stage you become that person first, not when you get there, like, how do you expect results before? That's like saying, hey, I want the apple before I plant the seed and grow the tree. That makes no sense.
Speaker 2:You have to, so you have to become the things first that you want to be, understanding that the dissonance between who you now are and the world around you is going to be strong and and things are going to get weird and shaky and fall apart and you might have relationships that don't continue and you might have things that go wrong. But you have to ride that out, knowing that those things are getting out of the way for the right things that are in harmony with your future self to come into place. And I think what happens, what most people do and everyone's guilty of it I'm guilty of it too, but what a lot of people do and one of the things that I really help people with, is that what happens is is the second they decide they're going to do something, the second they decide they're going to be, the second they decide they start going for it go and then they they run into adversity.
Speaker 2:They run into things falling apart, and then they fall back, they go. Oh well, you know, well you know, maybe it's not the right time.
Speaker 1:Well, maybe that's not, then maybe that's a sign. We've talked about that. Maybe that's a sign. If it's hard, is that a sign you don't go forward?
Speaker 2:It's not supposed to be, but I think people. I think people react to the adversity and go well then it's just not because I think people are too dependent on conditions lining up. People don't understand that signs of achievement requires adversity.
Speaker 3:I feel like nothing in my life that has come easy, has lasted or were fruitful, like everything in my life that I have grinded and worked and hustled, that has been that I've seen the success, and I feel like so many people just are willing to put in the grind, you know, and I think that it's maybe they don't have a clear vision or maybe they're scared of the vision and they allow the outside factors in. So I think if people that are listening right now, if you have that vision of your future self, like don't allow the outside factors to get in there, like put your head down, I always say don't, don't look in the rear view mirror and don't put the turn signal on. Stay focused and go.
Speaker 2:People think failure is not hitting the goal.
Speaker 3:Failure is a part of the process of hitting the goal.
Speaker 2:People think that that there's a wheel and like one spoke on the wheel is success and the rest of them are failure. So if they start going down one of those spokes, it doesn't work. They go back to the center and go have to find the right thing when in reality no success is at the end of that spoke. Success is just a lineage of failures until ultimately, other people say it's success and you go. Well, I just feel like I'm just battling to get here.
Speaker 3:You know it's funny I always say people are like, well, you've had such a successful career and I'm like, oh my gosh, I feel like I'm not hit success yet, like I have so much I still need to do. But it's like when I'm in it, you know, outsiders perceive success different than we do on the inside. Okay, so you have a band, you've been signed, a record label, you're in your late teens, 20s, so what happens next?
Speaker 2:Well, the band fell apart. You know we were really young. I had a 16 year old in the band and, just like most of the members, couldn't handle the stress of being on the road 24 seven. It's a whole long story. I didn't sign the right publishing deal so they had to put us on a lot more tours than putting your music on like radio and television, because they work at the labels and going to get paid from publishing. So it was like a whole bunch of business stuff that I didn't do correctly. I had the wrong advice from the guy that wrote I the tiger from survivor, so he was a good friend of mine and long story short is we were on a lot of tours. It was hard on people and so the band fell apart and I can't keep five people together myself, so I still stayed in the industry.
Speaker 2:I went to college in California but I once again didn't really go. It was they paid for me to go because they said well, we want someone who's in the industry here to kind of help the kids be encouraged. I went to California State University in Northridge and I immediately just created another band and start working in the industry. Now that band, I got licensed and I got a lot of music all over television and a lot of shows that people know of, and so that was paying me well. And then I was producing other artists, I was touring there. So basically I was still in the industry for a while until I started a network marketing business at the age of like 26 or so.
Speaker 3:So what? Why network marketing?
Speaker 2:So the real reason is because I had started meditating and really cultivating the spiritual faculties inside of myself and I wanted more and I wanted to. I wanted a different type of lifestyle. The music industry was amazing, but it just I just fell pulled in a different direction. So I still love it, but I didn't want it to be. I didn't want my my passion to be a job, because then it takes the art away. Like because I had to, I had to start writing music that I didn't really like. So I was like more I'll do something else, doing money, and then do music as my passion, right. So I started network marketing because I felt like it was an equal opportunity for people. I felt like you could. I felt like the only thing you needed to succeed in that business was a desire. Everything else is taught to you, everything else is given. If you have desire, you're willing to learn. Whatever it takes, you can do it. You don't need a fancy degree, you don't need anything, and so I was ready and willing to do whatever it took.
Speaker 3:You two have a similar background. We do yeah, because you did the same.
Speaker 1:Except I was playing at bars and coffee shops. I was not traveling the United States, wait, so you were in a band too. I wasn't in a band, but I music. You got the music background. Can you sing too?
Speaker 3:Little bit. Oh, so you guys are going to.
Speaker 1:Like you do not want to hear me sing, I have to say yeah, so we connected on that because I, you know, my dad was a musician growing up, so my dad traveled the world and then, like that's what he did, and then my dad was They'll leave guitars for John Mellencamp for 16 years. No way, yeah, yeah. And then, um, is that the first time you knew that? I did not know that. That's amazing. I'm just saying death wrinkling things out randomly. I actually have had to really good follow so many awesome things. I actually had really good friends that have known me for a long time and she'll know who she is. She did not know and uh, yeah, but anyway. So so we did connect on that um background side and then we were both did um direct sales for awhile Before real estate.
Speaker 3:I did direct sales. I did direct sales too. I did do Arbonne. Were we both Arbonne?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was my company.
Speaker 3:Yeah, when you say my company, tell me what you mean by that. You were a that.
Speaker 2:that was the company that I had built my network marketing business with.
Speaker 3:Okay, arbonne, that's what I. I built my network marketing business with as well, with Arbonne, and I was beauty counter.
Speaker 2:So we were all we were all cosmetic, we all have clean stuff.
Speaker 1:We all have clean stuff.
Speaker 2:We were a little bit in competition, but that's okay, that's okay, ah, holy in some areas, and Arbonne actually doesn't have the same type of uh, we don't, we're not, we're not really in the Cosmic Space anymore, so there, weren't no more competition.
Speaker 3:Yeah, both great companies though, yeah, yeah, I, um, I was in it for like four years, so I I've it's a long time. Yeah, yeah, Not not in anymore, but uh, you know it. It uh taught me so many great fundamentals and then it also taught me how to really work with people that um had no vision. No, no, honestly, you know, people joined because they wanted something else yeah, right, and they felt like they needed something else in their life. Yeah, and they wanted to have something and they wanted yeah.
Speaker 1:And then. But. But as I'm sure we all saw, when you're leading an organization of multiple people, it's actually a really, really good kind of um, not a science experiment, but also just like an insight into the human condition, because you kind of see, you know that vision start and then what stops people. And so if you could line up like a hundred people, 200 people, because if you did see the organization and that you know how that worked, we we would say one in 40 would hit success. I would one in 40.
Speaker 3:I would hit that one in a hundred.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That was kind of my thing. I need to be in front of a hundred people to find one person that will actually take the steps to have success.
Speaker 2:You know what's crazy though? Uh, 1% of people end up quote successful anyway. 1 to 3%. Yeah, so it's a people you know, finding your niche. Yeah, and it's also just like it doesn't really matter what you do it's are you willing to be one of those one to 3%? It doesn't matter what it is, it's just are you willing to do what it takes to be one of those, regardless of what it is? Unfortunately, in network marketing, I feel like a lot of people get it's. It's an easy entry of barrier.
Speaker 1:It's an easier barrier of entry.
Speaker 2:So it's really easy to get in, but that doesn't make it easy to get there.
Speaker 3:So then we all pivoted to real estate. We did yeah, so why real estate?
Speaker 2:First fall.
Speaker 2:Real estate was something I always wanted to be in and, um, you know, I have family and it might.
Speaker 2:My aunt, um, was a really successful in real estate and, uh, in California and she owned a brokerage and you know I actually had the opportunity in 2017 to go out there and partner with her and take over that vote brokerage so she could retire. And that was the same, literally like the month we went out. There was the same to like get everything started, and then the same month that my daughter's seizures started progressing to the point where, like, we had to cancel a trip early and go back home. So I got kind of like sucked into being a medical fragile, like a medical parent, special needs parent. Um, it didn't never take away my, my ability to want to be in real estate and I just always thought I'm like, well, you know, that's something I'll do, when I always thought it was like something when, oh you'll, I'll be in real estate when I have the time, when I have the money, when I'm here, when I'm that, when I have this kind of.
Speaker 1:I've heard so many people say that about real estate. I've always wanted to be in real estate I always, you know, I've heard that, yeah, and so you decided not to put it off.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, because once, once I realized so, so I, I I made some major breakthroughs with my daughter and I, and I really realized that, regardless of anything that you think is holding you back, you can make anything happen at any point in time. And after I started doing that and I changed a massive portion of our life, including her health, in a mere six months, I said then what the hell am I waiting for? And so I just jumped in with no experience, no money, no anything.
Speaker 3:And how many investment properties do you have now?
Speaker 2:Uh properties 20, units 26 and then five flips.
Speaker 3:That's incredible, it is.
Speaker 2:It is incredible, it's been a little less than two years.
Speaker 3:Um, that's a hustle. That is called hustle, it is also called a lot of work.
Speaker 2:I feel like 2020 was hey, welcome to re. 2021 was hey, welcome to real estate. 2022 was this is really hard. Get some rentals uh, because I was just flips my first year. And then 2023 was you got a lot going on. Turn this into a business, because you can't handle all this by yourself. There's no structure and foundation team, so I've like had to hire a CFO and a bookkeeper and people to manage certain parts of the business so I could do what I'm good at. And it's been a lot of work.
Speaker 2:Um, and then became an agent as well, because because I mean for many reasons one I was like I'm already doing this. I need to be involved. I can help myself by doing this, but I can also help other people. I could see things about the industry that not a lot of agents can see, like, like I was doing a lot of buyer, like I was taking some buyers out to a whole bunch of showings and one of the things that they kept saying that they loved about it was I was able to help them look at the property and how to buy it from the point of view of how to make it a good investment for them. I was like well, you know, I don't know if this price is right, because this bathroom isn't redone, but the other ones is and they're the same price. So why is it the same price? Like I saw, I'm not saying nickel in diming, but I'm trying to, you know.
Speaker 3:Well, you're coming out of protection. You know, for me I've always been an investor as well and so, you know, in a real estate transaction I always look at is this a good, is this a smart investment for the future? I don't look at necessarily. I try and take, you know, you try and take the emotion out of it for them and just strictly look at the numbers and so that that way they can make an educated decision. Cause unfortunately, most of the time the buyers are making an emotional decision, so they need the unemotional party to be the logic behind the transaction 100%.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and yeah exactly.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's hard. It's hard, though, for people that were real estates and not their main deal, where they're like just the average person selling their primary home or or whatever. They get really attached and really emotionalized, and that's why I think agents have such value, because they have the ability to see clarity through the business and through the transaction and help guide it to being the right outcome for everyone, without being emotionally attached to it, because that can really affect how you do yeah, it can really affect.
Speaker 3:I've always taught our girls that a house is sheet rock, two by fours and shingles. A home is where our family is. So when it comes to real estate, real estate is. It's an investment, and a lot of people aren't gonna agree with me about that because a lot of people will say you're home, that's your sacred place, that's your everything. But I've always looked at it as an investor side because it's done really well for our family, financially Right. So it's interesting how everyone has their different perception of what real estate is.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and the main reason why I wanted to get into it was because, as much as I love network marketing for so many, for a million different ways, I wanted ownership. At the end of the day I realized I couldn't sell my network of marketing business.
Speaker 3:Right control, like I always thought. Like too, network marketing is great because the power for digital income. I love it, but at the same day I can't control the quality of the product.
Speaker 2:And I can't control what the company does. Correct?
Speaker 1:and that to me, was always very If it's hard to control the organization. Even it was very, very turbulent in a way. Not to not network marketing or anything. I respect a lot of people that are in it and I know your family is still continuing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I'm still in it.
Speaker 1:But it's hard, it's hard.
Speaker 2:Pluses and minuses is everything. You know there's benefits and cons to everything and real estate had a lot of the benefits that my network marketing career didn't. And also when it came to my daughter, like I'm just thinking about the future, Like when I'm not able to do things, I need something I can own that's going to take care of her, because she can never take care of herself. So I'm not gonna be young and strong and thinking clearly forever. So I need something, cause she needs us. So I was like I need to create something that can perpetuate income and equity and ownership through assets for her.
Speaker 3:Well, think about it when she's older, you know, all those properties should be paid off, and those are all tangible assets, right, right? So, that's called wealth building Right, and you're creating a future that will help take care of her.
Speaker 1:Which is powerful and real estate's something.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the tenants are paying, so that that way.
Speaker 2:So the government's paying it, but still through the tenants the government's paying it off.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just great, just powerful, right? What would you say is like the biggest thing, jess, that you would want all the audience to take away with Clark, and then we want Clark to share.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think a common thread through this whole thing, like you mentioned, has been you know, your faith. Your faith has kind of gotten you through everything. But another thing that I have latched onto is the fact that, like visions change right, Like we're not born with like a singular vision. Life may throw some things at you and you know your daughter, being bored with special needs, was definitely this pivoting moment for you to then say what's next, you know, and really kind of dig into yourself. Like you had to overcome personal obstacles, you know, with your family and her, to then get to that next level, even with your business vision. So I think that's something that I noticed. It's not like you get a vision casted and that's it forever. Sometimes it changes, it modifies. You gotta keep the faith yeah.
Speaker 2:Especially when, if you are in a situation like me, where you get something that you have to argue with like why me, why her, why this happened? How come Like I didn't do anything to deserve?
Speaker 1:this. It'd be easy to be a victim and just sit at home and be frustrated and be angry. Can you go through that? Yeah, I'm, it's not you know, it's part of the journey of it.
Speaker 2:I'm sure Anyone who's listening that maybe like lost their legs and can't walk anymore and they go. How am I gonna do this? Or they have a child that you know can't take care of themselves or speak or communicate, and you have to take care of them and overhand for every little thing diapers, et cetera for the rest of their life, you know. No matter what that happens to you, it's like you're gonna go through times where you can't believe it and you're distraught and you hit rock bottom and you're gonna fail and you're gonna screw up and you're gonna mess things up. But, like, the point about faith which is what opened this whole thing up is that if you have it, though, you have the option, or at least you have the opportunity, to see what's in front of you as an opportunity. Without the faith, you're dead end.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's faith over fear, right, you can be fearful of the future or you can have faith in the future or work out.
Speaker 2:It's how you see the things that are happening around you. It's not the like one of my favorite people, jim Rohn, has always said it's not the wind that blows, it's how you set your sail, you know so it's not the circumstances that are going to end up dictating where you end up in your life and your fulfillment and your success. I mean, circumstances help, but you don't get to control all of them, and what happens is is, if something happens, if the circumstances hits you that aren't favorable, it's an opportunity for you to dig in and grow and become bigger and better than it. So then, when you're at the end, you go. I'm who I am now because of that circumstance and without faith, which, basically, is light at the end of the tunnel, it's being able to it's hope.
Speaker 2:It's hope, it's being able to see what could be. It's having faith in an outcome that is evolving for you and your world. And if you don't have it, I just you're just going to be a victim of circumstance to the things that happen around you. Because without faith, faith is the light at the end of the tunnel right there and it allows you to guide yourself correctly, and then that dictates how you work with what's happening.
Speaker 2:Interact with the circumstances, but without it you are reacting to the circumstances because you feel like that's bigger than you.
Speaker 3:I feel like I'm led to say something right now. My girlfriend is struggling with stage four cancer and she the only thing that, right now, everyone keeps saying to her is the only way you're going to get through this is if you find a doctor that has hope Is, if the doctor has hope, then they see the vision of your future, and you have to hold on to the hope and the vision, because that is the only way you're going to survive this. And so, for those of you that are listening right now, align yourself with the people that have faith and have hope in you to help you cross that finish line, so that you can turn every obstacle into an opportunity.
Speaker 2:It's scientifically proven. I mean, it is proven that your brain is plastic. It can become creative and create new neural networks. Your reticular activating system will search out things that align with what you've convinced yourself is important. Your subconscious has programs and you can change it, and faith allows you to have a program of hope and possibility and creativity and success at the end of perceived tunnels. And if you create that habit within your subconscious, the reticular activating system will actually filter into your awareness things that align with opportunity and hope. Without it, you don't see those things. They pass you by all the time. So that's why what you're saying is true. It does make a difference, because there's always a way and the one thing to crystallize this that there's all ways away, no matter what is with my daughter. I mean at the end of 2019,.
Speaker 2:She was in a wheelchair. She couldn't walk, she couldn't talk, she couldn't point, she couldn't even smile, she couldn't play with any toys, she couldn't feed herself, she had glasses. She had degraded into a child that was depressed, just sitting in a chair that couldn't do anything. There was no, and every doctor had gone to 10,000 doctor specialists all over the place. Every single one said this is just it, get used to it, like more or less and not that way. But they'd say like this is, this is abnormal, this is, you know, this is what happens with people with these diagnosis this is just whatever. And like it's so easy to say, oh, they have authority, they went to school, so you then concede your hope to trust them.
Speaker 2:And one thing that we did right was I said I was stubborn like a three-year-old. I don't care what any of you say. There has to be a way In this infinite universe that we are. Don't be so arrogant that you think you know how everything works. This universe is insanely different and creative. And what happened was I didn't listen, didn't listen and I just kept repeating there has to be a way, there has to be a way. There has to be a way, there is a way. I just haven't found it yet. There is a way. I just haven't found it yet.
Speaker 2:Over and over and over, day after day after day after day, in about 60 days after that, I ended up randomly hearing a podcast with someone who worked in special access programs for the government and said oh yeah, we have health technologies. I could do A, b and C and I'm like I'm finding. This guy reached out to him and he said he actually responded back and he said well, I can't, you don't have access to the technologies I work down because they're classified, but I would start with this guy. Call this guy. And I called him and then he said oh, you know, we can do a special kind of stem cell therapy that might didn't have the money to do it, but once again, that doesn't matter, it's not about your circumstance, it's about saying I'm going and figuring it out on the way. It's not ready, aim, fire, it's ready fire aim. And people don't get that. And so I read it, I fired and couldn't pay for it, but somehow it turned out, because what God wants you to do is put a stake in where you're going and have the faith on the path and then to align the path, and that cultivates the faith in your spiritual growth. Right. So I said we're doing it and somehow things fell in the place. We found the way she did it.
Speaker 2:Within 24 hours of the stem cell therapy she was out of a wheelchair Within three, four days. She didn't need glasses anymore. Her eyes got better. Within two weeks we did an EEG and her seizures had reduced by 85%. And then, a year later, she was running, she was laughing, she was pointing, and it's a miracle. And I have people reach out to me all the time going how did she make this turn? How this corner? Like, how would she go from having 100 seizures a day to maybe four or five a month. It's a big difference and I said because we found a way that every doctor couldn't find it, but we found it. Don't give the power away to other people to find the path for you. You can find it. You just have to be willing to be stubborn and resist. Even if all the info is compelling that it's not possible, it doesn't mean it's not possible. If anyone has done it, you can do it.
Speaker 3:Amen, oh, my, this is a good one.
Speaker 1:You're freaking me this morning. I like this. I'm on fire up. I love it. I love it, I love it. Well, I think we are out of time. Yeah gosh, we need to do episode two on this, I think. Good, we have a lot more to talk about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, because I wanna know more about Jess. I think I need to interview Jess next time, oh okay, thank you, clark.
Speaker 1:This has been amazing. I am pumped up for the day. I don't know about you, but I've got some good energy, good things to think about. I mean your story just really, I think, will resonate with a lot of people, maybe where they're at right now, and so thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it.
Speaker 2:My pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I wanna go out and conquer the world, thanks to Clark. Absolutely, let's go. Keep it All right, let's do it Okay. Hey, let's go.
