[00:04] Intro: Welcome to the Heart Soul Wisdom podcast, a journey of self discovery and transformation. Moira Sutton and her amazing guests share real life stories, tools and strategies to inspire and empower you to create and live your best life. Come along on the journey and finally blast through any fears, obstacles and challenges that have held you back in the past so you can live your life with the joy, passion and happiness that you desire now. Here's your host. Create the life you love. Empowerment Life coach Moira Sutton.

[00:59] Moira: Welcome to season five, episode 99 unlock the Secrets to living a happy and abundant life with our very special guest speaker, Blue talks founder and bestselling author, Corey Poirier. Corey is a best-selling author featured in the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, as well as a multi time TEDx speaker renown for his engaging talks with over 7000 interviews conducted with global thought leaders, he is a prominent figure in personal development, leadership and entrepreneurship. As a Canadian speaker, author and podcast host, he is best known for his podcast conversations with passion where he converses with influential figures from various domains. Recognized for his dynamic speaking style, he is committed to empowering individuals to achieve their aspirations and lead fulfilling lives, which we're going to touch on today for sure. Corey has authored several acclaimed books, including the Book of why share your message with the world and his most recent book, the Enlightened Passenger, which I absolutely adored and recommend a new fictional parable which goes through the journey of ten invaluable life lessons and guides you to unlock the secrets of living a fantastic, abundant life and building a business and or impact that you leave a lasting legacy in the world. He claims that the alchemist, celestine prophecy and Og Mandino's many bestselling books had a baby, it would be the enlightened passenger. Corey will elaborate on some of the invaluable lessons from his book derived from his extensive interviews with thought leaders and his own life. So, without further ado, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Corey. Welcome Corey.

[02:49] Corey: Thanks so much. I'm so super happy and stoked to be here.

[02:53] Moira: Yes, me too. You're just an amazing person. We just talked briefly before we started here and shared our ages, which is just a number. And just how busy you are is, you know, I'm like, wow, you're doing this and you're doing that. And so, you are definitely one of those shakers in the world as we know you've been identify. We didn't put that in your bio. People will have to go over and see your bio to see everything you've done and how you've been acknowledged for the work that you are doing and the legacy that you're living in the world. So, thank you.

[03:25] Corey: Oh, thank you so much. It absolutely drives my whole life. It drives my purpose and my whole life. So, thank you.

[03:34] Moira: Well, you're welcome. So that's a big number. Interviewing over 7000 of the world's top thought leaders. What's one of the. I know there's many things, but what, what have you learned as a result of doing that? Like, I know it's one baby step at a time, but that's a lot of baby steps.

[03:50] Corey: Yeah. So, I mean, I guess, like, what I've learned is, for lack of a better way of saying it is a loaded question in some ways, because been so, you know, it's been life changing in many ways. And because of that, it's, you know, I continue to learn and I continue to grow from these interviews and the conversations that I have. But if I kind of distilled it down to, let's just say a few things, then one of them for sure is that, I mean, actually, I'll, yeah, say a few things. One is for sure that it doesn't matter where you start. Yes, I like to say is it's what you do next. And I say that to say, uh, you know, if I look at how I started and, you know, ultimately, it's not just about my life or what happened to me, because it's what I've learned during all these interviews. But I found the same thing whenever I've interviewed high achievers and thought leaders is that it doesn't matter, um, what their background is, their origin story, where they started. It ultimately always comes back to what they did after that. And so that's why I say it doesn't matter where you start, it's what you do next. But I've noticed that that is truly one thing that the top thought leaders and luminaries have in common. Another thing is that I've noticed that they are willing to and okay with saying no to all the things that won't, quote unquote, move the needle so that they can say yes to the few things that will.

[05:20] Moira: I love that. Oh, I love that.

[05:22] Corey: Well, and I feel like, I think sometimes we forget that everything ultimately that you're saying yes to means you have to say no to something other else down the line or right away. Just like everything you say no to means you can say yes to something else. And so because of that, I think that's another thing that I've learned during these interviews is that even though I was raised with the idea of saying yes to everybody and then you, as I like to say, figuring it out, how to do it later, the people that you know that are achieving the most, that are impacting lives that seem to be more fulfilled are saying no a lot more often, which I think preserves their sanity. And so, from that end, that's another thing I've learned, is that, again, it's not about just saying yes and then trying to juggle it all and trying to stay sane. It's about what are the real yeses and what are the real nos. And one of the things I share in the new book is the power of writing a powerful mission statement as a person, not a company, as a person, which, once you know your mission statement and have it really well defined, allows you to determine what a no and a yes is. And then I guess if I went to a third one, because honestly, I could go, you know, I could. We could talk about this for an hour. What I've learned during these interviews, but the other one that pops out is I've studied the thought leaders of our generation and modern thought leaders to try to determine what they do differently, what they have in common with each other, similar to what Napoleon Hill did when he wrote think and grow rich. And the one other one, or I guess I'll say the most common thing that they share is that they live every day on purpose. And what that really means is they figured out what their calling is and their purposes, and they live every day accordingly. And so, I feel like that is a really, really big one, because it allows us to know that if we're not living on purpose, ultimately we're going to have a hard time being fulfilled and creating the impact we want to create. So, honestly, in a matter of a few minutes, those are three. Right off the top of my head.

[07:30] Moira: I think there was even four there. You've touched on a lot there, and I know it was a big question. So, when you talk about mission and vision statement for your business and for your own life, I know you shared the demi one in the book. Is that one that you use in your own life today or was that. You shared it in the book? But is that something you've taken on the. I'll just put demi, and you can tell the people what that means. I know what it means, but yes.

[07:57] Corey: I mean, honestly, in a lot of ways, it is. Um, having said that, uh, for the sake of the book, I kind of. I wrote it, uh, as a different one than I use, because I like the idea of having an acronym.

[08:13] Moira: Yes.

[08:13] Corey: So, whereas, uh, whenever I kind of started my journey, I didn't have an acronym. And I honestly just kind of, um, basically did what felt right. But then what happened was, and I'll dive into it in a second. But my wife actually was the one who had sort of an acronym for hers. And because of that, I was like, well, I'd like to have an acronym. You know, it sounds kind of sexy. And so hers is smile. And it came, actually this. Well, this training I did where I had some stylists in the room, hairstylists, and they were all really young and, like, 18, 1920. And I asked them to break out into a group. I had three groups break out, and I gave them not impossible tasks, but really daunting tasks for 15 minutes. I said, you have 15 minutes. One group, I said, I want you to figure out who you're surrounding yourself with. So, like, a relationship inventory, which I talk about in the book, figure out who you're surrounding yourself with. The other group, I said, I want you to figure out what you're passionate about. Like, to actually find a passion. And the third group, I said, I want you to come up with a personal mission statement, which goes to the point of what we're talking about with Demi. So, the personal mission statement, I said, I want you to come up with something. That's your personal mission statement. And in the second, I'll tell you what mine is. My real one is, but this one girl. So, what they did was they focused on helping one girl in the group come up with one, which I always recommend, because it's easier to focus on one person. And then you can do your own later than trying to, you know, have five people in a group all trying to come up with their own mission statements together in 15 minutes. But 15 minutes later, they revealed to me the mission statement. They come up with this for this girl. And I was like, wow, you know, you did this in 15 minutes. Like, see, people spend their whole life trying to come up with a great mission statement. So, the one she came up with was. Was smile, as I mentioned. And so, what smile stands for, and I'm going by memory on this, because it was a long time ago, but it was something to the effect she was a hairstylist again. So, what she wanted to do with every client that sat in her chair was she wanted to share with them. So, share a moment or an experience. Motivate them, which is the m. Inspire them, which is the I and love them. So, for have them really feel she loved them and then engage with them. And what I said after they shared that with me, as I said, any stylist in this room, if you truly live that way, when clients come in, you'll never be looking for work again in your life. And that's whether that's. That's in the hairstyles business or any business. Like, that's a powerful mission statement. And so, like I said, my wife took the smile and made it her own. And so, in the book, I talked about Demi, and I said, it's like Demi Moore and I. In that case, it was to donate, entertain, motivate, and inspire, because, again, I wanted an acronym, so that was what Demi stood for. But my actual one is to be the guy who motivates the donates, inspires, entertains, and educates. So, the one I didn't have in there was the educate. Now, of course, I could have put it in and just said it was still to me. And the e covered both of them, but I just thought, you know, it. It just felt right in the book. All the book, or a lot of the book, is a fictionalized version of my life. And so, it's very close, as I kind of just implied, to my real mission statement. But I changed it, like I said, for the book to have an acronym so it would be remembered. And so, what Demi is going back to your point about, I'll talk about what it's about. It's basically about the power of us writing our own mission statement. I always say all these companies, these top companies, have a mission statement, and yet we're the CEO of our own lives. In many ways, shouldn't that be just as important as being the CEO of a company and having a mission statement? And because of that, I thought, why don't we have our own mission statement? I need to create my own. And I wrote one down, and over time, I've rewritten it because I've lost it or whatever, but it sits in my wallet right now in handwriting. Those five things I said. And then to finish this off, how that relates to the power of no, which I mentioned earlier, is, if you know what you're wanting to do, those five things, in my case, then it's really easy to figure out what is a yes. Because if it's four or five of those, it's a yes with it, regret. But if it's zero or one of those, it's a no without regret. And so that's how I use the mission statement of my life is I use it against what am I going to do and how am I going to spend my time.

[12:34] Moira: That's wonderful advice in my mission vision statements. Being more or less surrounded around creating and living your best life on your terms for many, many years, it might have had other little down that path. Down that path, adding things in there, but that's like the core of it for people to live their best life. And definitely when you say yes and no, you know, I used to teach how to create healthy boundaries in her life. Because you're right, a lot of people don't know how to say no. And if not only with what you said, which is true. If you don't say no to the things that do not align with your purpose and your mission and that you don't really have time or energy to really serve why you're here, what your purpose is, what your passion are. But let's go around to that, because as you probably know, a lot of people have difficulty, you know, discovering their passion and their purpose. And, you know, you, you have different things in there. You talk about how passion fits in with purpose and, and just also how it's outside of our comfort zone at times. Can you expand on that?

[13:35] Corey: Yeah. So, for me, passion, I always say, is what you do, and purpose is why you're actually doing it. So ultimately, obviously, though, or I shouldn't say obviously, what could be like to me, I look at what is. Like, what could be, for example, photography, let's say, or stand-up comedy or writing a book or knitting, you know, if that's your thing, it could be whatever it is you do. It's what. It's like the career. That's the passion. In my opinion, purpose is the why. So why are you actually doing this? What do you get from it? What are you doing for the world with it? So, for example, my what could be, as an example, performing stand up comedy. At one point, that was my what and why I'm doing it could be because I want to make people's days better by helping them when they're at the comedy club, watching my set, forget about all the **** that's going on at home or in their life. So that could be the why I'm doing it, and that could be the purpose. And, you know, and then a bigger purpose of that could be to create an invisible impact or a positive ripple in the world in terms of every person I come across or run into. And so that's an example to me of the what and the why. And often that passion, and especially that purpose, is way outside our comfort zone. When we start, Neil Donald Walsh, who wrote conversation with God, I mentioned a quote in the book of his that is one of my favorites, which is that life begins at the end of our comfort zone. And so I do believe our purpose and our passion is usually where life begins. And that usually, again, is at the end of our comfort zone. At the same time, what I've discovered, which is kind of fascinating, is people that live with passion and live on purpose every day typically seem to be happier, healthier, more successful, more fulfilled. They seem to be, people want to be around them more. They seem to be hard to replace at the office, meaning they, career wise, they seem to excel. And the great part about this is, and I say this in the book as well, this isn't just like, even though I've done 7500 interviews, I think we could say that I've technically done enough of a study to know that this is true, even if you ignore that. There is the blue zones, which is a 25 plus year study by Dan Buettner, commissioned by National Geographic, around the regions that live both the longest and the happiest. And the one thing glaringly that stands out among the two groups and overlaps is they have meaning in their life or they found a purpose. So, here's another example. You know, the people that live the longest and are happier have found purpose. Then you can go man's search for meaning by Viktor Frankl, which is a book about how Doctor Viktor Frankl was a psychiatrist before he got pulled into the Holocaust. He survived the Holocaust by having meaning in his life. And after that, he created his own practice. I believe it's called logotherapy, where he basically started helping people find meaning. And he could stop prescribing and talk therapy once he helped somebody find meaning in their life. And I could finish that off by saying, there's also a great book called ikigai, an ikigai in Japan. They. I think it's loosely translated into the art of always moving or something like that. But the idea is it's when you found something that keeps you excited every day, and that's because of ikigai. That's the reason that in Japan, there's no actual word for or definition of the word retirement. They don't believe in retirement. It doesn't exist. Because why would you stop doing that which you love, regardless of what age you are? And so I say all this to couple together to say, I call it vitamin P, which is passion plus purpose. But I couple this together to say when you take vitamin P every day like I do, which again, you can't buy in the stores, and again, all of is finding passion and living on purpose. When you do that every day, in my experience, you have all the good and little of the bad.

[17:33] Moira: Mm hmm. I'm just taking it all in while you're saying, yeah, no worries. No, I like, I like that vitamin, taking that vitamin every day. And, um, I think it ties back into too from people that I've coached and worked with all through the years is that, you know, back to that saying that, no, a lot of people, you know, they, they put their dreams on hold for that some day, which I say it's not a day of the week versus in the present, like you said about taking action right now, like, what are you going to do right now? What are you waiting for? Which is, by the way, I thought that was funny when I read that later. That, and thank you because I got to be part of your authors in your last business, life in the universe, volume twelve. But that's, that was my title. If not now, when what are you waiting for? Which is also a song, by the way. I don't know if you know it, Corey.

[18:23] Corey: I don't, I don't actually now I probably know it to hear it, but I don't know it like top of mind.

[18:28] Moira: It's, it's kind of that thing again. Is it the time? Is it money? Is it you think your age or do you have something to do? Like there's always a story, like, you know, versus telling, you know, changing your story, writing an empowering story because as you said, you know, we get to write our story that's exciting and to own it, own the good, the bad, the ugly, whatever, because it's part of that journey. Tell me what you feel about journey and destination because that's another thing you touch upon and keep people talk about that like, you know, are they waiting that one day again for, you know, to reach that destination? And then I'll write the book, then I'll do that. Versus the whole journey. What's your thoughts on that?

[19:03] Corey: Yeah, I mean, that's also a great question. I feel like, yes, people are, first of all waiting for that day. Now, when I say people are, I should clarify. I'm saying in general, like, I'm not saying every person is because when I say people, it could sound like a blanket statement. But I think that a lot of people are unfortunately, waiting for retirement that golden day. And I remember there's this great quote by Seth Godin. But it was actually triggered by a story, as far as at least how I heard it, which was Seth Godin was at a beach one day. So, Seth Godin is the guy who wrote the purple cow and 13 books on passive marketing. And he was at the beach one day. At one point, he had, like, the most popular blog in the world, and it was like 250 words or less every day. And he put it out every day. So he was at the beach, I think, just working there. Like, just kind of went, ah, if I'm going to work, I might as well go to the beach. I live a laptop, laptop lifestyle. And all he did, I believe, if I remember correctly, the two weeks or three weeks he was at the beach or more was he literally just got up in the morning and wrote that blog and then did whatever he wanted the rest of the day. And so, we remember, like, he talked about this couple walking by him, and he was working on his laptop, and it might have been like eight in the morning. And again, he only might have done it from eight till nine the whole day. But because he was doing it when they saw him, they said, how sad is it that that guy has to work even while he's on vacation? And his view was completely the opposite. He thought to himself, how sad is it that that couple works all year, maybe at something they don't like, to just get two weeks that they could escape from their life. And what he said, so his quote was something to the effect of, try to create a life that you don't have to escape. Just two weeks a year, something like that. And I always thought that was so profound because of the fact that it is true. So many people wait for the day when and the day when could be the weekend, the day when could be, like I say, the two weeks vacation, whatever that or the retirement. And what my experience is, and this, by the way, ties into something bigger for me, which is that when I interview thought leaders, one of the things, so we like to always talk about what are the things they do that are positive, that allow them to do this or that? But we sometimes ignore the things that they, that thought leaders have in common that are negative. And one of the things that I've discovered that thought leaders have in common is they're always focused on next. So now, again, this is generalizing, but they're always focused on next. So, what do I mean by that? Well, they write a book like the one I just wrote. And then they go, okay, can't wait to hold the book in my hand. That's when everything will change. Uh, I'll be so excited then. And then, and this is especially true for the first book. And then they write the book, and they kind of ignore the writing process, ignore the everything. And then they hold the book in their hand, and then they go, huh, that's it. Okay, what's next? And they sit in the juice of that achievement. And by the way, I'm guilty of this. This is how I knew it was a thing. Uh, but I thought I was alone. And I started interviewing a lot of thought leaders, and I find many, many thought leaders are always focused on, okay, that happened. Now what do I do? And don’t actually take time to celebrate. And by the way, there’s two options there. One, you could figure out how to take time to celebrate. But for me, I thought that might go against my natural being, because obviously there’s a part of me that likes the next and to be able to work on the next. So why don’t I embrace this? And instead of saying, how can I start enjoying that when I'm holding it in my hand? Why don't I just enjoy everything? Why don't I enjoy the journey? Why don't I enjoy writing? Why don't I enjoy marketing the book? Why don't I enjoy talking about the book? Why don't I enjoy being interviewed about the book? Why don't I enjoy writing the book? And why don't I enjoy holding the book in my hand? Now, the book, in this case, is a metaphor. Could be whatever stand up comedy, could be retirement, could be the weekend. But I thought, what if I had just enjoyed the journey? I'm here anyway. I don't know if I have it tomorrow. And so, again, the takeaway from all this is that imagine if we enjoyed every nuance of the things that we do. And so, the question I pose in the book, but also, I've shared it as a quote over the years, is, what if the destination really is the journey? And I could do that reverse, too. What if the journey really is the destination? And so, what I mean by that is, what if the destination of holding the book in my hand isn't the destination I should be aiming for? What if I actually enjoy every aspect of that book from start to finish, and that is instead the destination? So that's what I mean by the journey versus the destination.

[23:24] Moira: I think that's wonderful for people. And then again, you're back in the present moment, which we know that's been used as an acronym for years, the present is the gift right now because like you said there, too, and you mentioned it in the book, why people don't. Okay, so there's a couple of things I really love. One was there about the Les Brown talking about the wealthiest place on the earth being the graveyard. You can expand on that. I think that's a good one. I just shared it with somebody the other day. And also, why people don't go after what they, you know, tomorrow was your last day, or, you know, why, what would you do? And then what comes up for you? And then start doing some of that and really getting back to the why people maybe do not do that, you know, versus taking a step in that direction. And I know in the story you talk about, it's kind of like you said right there, like, you know, we don't know if we have a tomorrow. We have today. This is all we have. And not to be pessimistic, but, you know, we had Covid there and we've had different things happen in the world. And right now, there's lots of things happening in war and violence, and you just don't know. So really embrace today, because we don't know if there's a tomorrow. Tell us about Les Brown's the wealth. I thought that was good for people to hear. The wealthiest place on earth being the graveyard.

[24:42] Corey: Yeah. I mean, I think that ties into another part of the book, too, which is kind of when you, when you just shared that about, we don't know if we have a tomorrow. I mean, and you could minutiae that and say, we don't even really, all we know we have is this minute, the second. But having said that, to your point, it made me think about when you said, all we know is this day. So, one of the other things I talk about, the book, which does tie into the Les Brown quote that you mentioned, is around the mayfly. And so, this was out of nowhere. This wasn't supposed to be in the book. It was added late in the game. But I was watching an episode of Everybody loves Raymond and Robert, and I put on shows like that in the background because I can put them on while I'm working. If I'm not doing stuff that's like, I don't have to be on it, you know, an interview or talking with somebody or what have you. If I'm just working, I get, for whatever reason, inspiration from having something in the background versus silence. And so, but I put on shows that I know if I miss it, it doesn't matter, because either I've seen it many times or it's a rerun and I can rewatch it. And this one time, it was everybody loves Raymond. And I heard his brother Robert talk about the Mayfly, and it pulled my attention in. And I think, if I remember correctly, I was maybe even writing in the book, or I was getting about to do that. But he mentioned the mayfly and something about it, and I decided to look it up because it seems so far fetched to me. But what he said, which I don't remember the context, I might have to go back and relisten sometime. But it was about the fact that the mayfly only lived 24 hours and, and kind of, how are we spending our time? That type of thing. And it was fascinating to me. And for people that don't know, the male mayfly, when I did my research, lives 24 hours. What's even more fascinating is the female Mayfly only lives three to five minutes. What that means is her whole life is about creating more mayflies. And that's it. And, but obviously, it didn't make sense to pose it in the question of what would you do if you had three to five minutes? Because, you know, it's, it's pretty hard to tackle multiple things in three to five minutes. But I decided in the book to have the characters say that about the mayfly, share that fact, and then say, if you were the mayfly and you had 24 hours, what would you do in those 24 hours? And then, to your point, this doesn't answer necessarily why it is the case. But Robert, in the character, the younger character, started listing all the things he would do with 24 hours. And once he's done, Treb says, well, here's a, here's a bigger question then. Why aren't you living that way now? And so again, and, you know, we could explore that. The why? Because just asking, why aren't you living that way now? Some people don't know why they're not. There is a bigger answer to that. But on the surface, it's also the idea when you hear him say, why aren't you living that way now? Hopefully, is a reflection for the reader who may be not living that way now, and getting them to go, wait a minute, why am I not living this way now? And the Les Brown thing, which again, I feel it's all related, is about how Les Brown has this great quote, and Les has shared this with me three, four times. It's always pretty much come from the same source. But you'd think by now I'd remember exactly name his friend. But it was a friend of his that said it, and I forget. And it was a mixture, because it was a friend that said one of the things at another famous person shared an aspect of it. So, it was kind of a combined quote by somebody else and a thought leader statement. But basically, it summed up to Les saying that he learned that the wealthiest place in the world is our graveyards. And the reason the graveyard is the wealthiest place is because, as he said, that's where the dreams, hopes, the ideas that people have that they never use go with them to die. So, when they go to die, they bring those hopes and dreams with them that were never acted on. And because of the value of those dreams and hopes that were never acted on, he makes the argument that it makes the graveyard the wealthiest place because all those ideas go to die there with them.

[28:26] Moira: Kind of scary to think about that, really. Not just personally, like, in a bigger sense that, you know, I know I used to talk about regrets being one of the lowest vibrations, and you, you know, not regretting, like, what, what do you want? And. And, you know, not to be. It's not about a selfish thing. It's about self less, like, being able to give more because you're doing what you love and. And to really step in, like we said earlier, stepping out of your comfort zone. I know the first time I did a television show for Rogers, you know, I was nervous, and there was supposed to be a makeup artist, and there wasn't. And then the person who did my makeup was something you do with your grandma, and I just went with the whole thing. Like, whatever was happening, I went with it. And then I got in and I got a show, and I got, you know, was on for two years, and it was just every. You do one show at a time, as you know, with the people that you've interviewed, the 7500. I wanted. I want to thank you for that, by the way. I want to talk about synchronicity, because it's somewhere that you really start in the book and about synchronicity happening in our lives. How do people, first of all, please share what you define for that? And then how can people start trusting to make choices in their life that, you know, I know some people might say, oh, I don't want to make that path, because maybe I'm supposed to go over here, and what if I go down here and it's the wrong path? And what's your, what's your wisdom on that?

[29:50] Corey: So, the first aspect of it, for those that aren't familiar with the term, because I'm going to be honest, for me, full disclosure, I didn't know the term 15 years ago, and yet it's been famous a lot longer than that. And one of the things in the book, interestingly, when somebody shared this with me, it was a great, a great, I had beta readers with the book that read it before it was out and gave feedback, and one of them had this great feedback. And by the way, it was meant to be kind of like, I'll just say it this way. I had two people out of like the 40. That one wasn't into the book because I mentioned yoga. And he said yoga is pseudoscience, which I never heard that before, because to me, yoga at the surface is just like exercising and some breathing. But he said it was. So, the point is the book, and I would say almost any book in the realm of that even just goes in the area of mentions, meditation probably isn't for him. So, it's hard to take that as gospel as far as why I should change stuff in the book. But he had some good ideas that I did change. One of them actually ended up being a mistake that I shared that somebody else since recently pointed out, which is I said that he said, you should add like a couple of elements of like them flying over places like the Grand Canyon and describing the Grand Canyon. And so, I entered it and put it in there. And then somebody pointed out to me that the flight path they followed wouldn't go over the Grand Canyon. So, I put this thing in, and then all of a sudden somebody said, that's wrong type of thing. And Robert had just woken up. And they said, is that supposed to mean that he was groggy and tired and maybe still half asleep? And I said, yes. But the truth is, it's that I, you know, I just made a mistake because of it. But the other person said something that really ties into this whole synchronicity. So, I wanted Robert, one of the characters, the younger character, to be a spiritual skeptic because I always jokingly say I'm a recovering spiritual skeptic and I want. And so I wanted that to be in place because I feel a lot of people aren't ready for some of the stuff, so they need somebody to say, how could this be possible? And so I say that to say this person commented and said, I find it hard to believe that the character would know about the secret but not know about all these other spiritual things. And here's the funny thing. That was me. The seeker is my first introduction to spirituality. I didn't know the celestine prophecy existed. I didn't know synchronicity existed. So that was a long tangent to say what synchronicity is to me now. And James Redfield, who kind of made the term famous synchronicity, um, Carl Jung is the one first person to start talking about it, I believe. But it probably was before him. But, um, ultimately, what James described it as, describes it as is meaningful coincidences. And I think the great part about that is then we don't have to argue whether it's coincidence or not. We can all agree that we can call it a coincidence. But does it have meaning or not to you? So, to me, synchronicities are the ones that have meaning to you, the coincidences that have meaning. Or you got me. You could say miracles that have meaning. But these are things that may only happen for some people once in their whole lifetime. For me, because I talk about in the book, once I started wanting to have more of them in my life. The character talks about it, but it's really me. Ultimately, I created a synchronicity journal. So, I created a journal where I write down when things happen that are meaningful. And what I've noticed is now I have five or six of them happen in a week versus before that same one used to only happen once a year or once every few years. Now, I could argue whether or not I see them more now because I acknowledge them, or I see them more now because I know they're happening. And to be honest with you, it doesn't matter which of the two it is. It could be both. But for me, I write them down because I do believe if you acknowledge them, that the universe will say, oh, you like these? Let me throw another at you. And so, in the book, it's basically how the character plays it out. And again, it's loosely based on my life. Treb, the older character, the wiser one, uh, earlier in his life, got seated next to James Redfield on a plane. Again, James, who wrote Celestine prophecy. And he ended up learning about synchronicity, ultimately from James in the story, kind of like I did in real life. And then, um, but ultimately, what happens is that in the book, then he starts teaching it to Robert, and he talks about, as an example, uh, when you see somebody over and over again, you eventually have to ask, why am I seeing them over and over again. What message do they have for me? And case of the book Treb talks about running into this kid is his friend's nephew, sees him multiple times, eventually asks him to sit for lunch to figure out what he, you know, what this kid has for him as a message. And the kid tells them, they got talking. Get talking. The kid says he's a delivery guy. He's out of work. Treb’s company needs a delivery guy. He ends up hiring him. And then his Treb’s niece ends up coming over for supper a few times, meets the kid, they fall in love with each other. And then this one day, Treb’s niece is ready to be mugged outside their apartment. The boy jumps to the rescue, gets stabbed, lives, and basically saves Treb's niece's life, all because he acted on a synchronicity. So, you know, that's a longer explanation of one. But as crazy as it sounds, these kind of synchronicities happen every day. So that's really what synchronicity is to me, yes.

[35:02] Moira: And it's also what we have, the mindset in there. We have our belief systems. We have what we pay attention to. We create more of is how you. By acknowledging that, create more of that. I know. Fifth and I started. We just came back from Europe, and we started in our journal, choosing a word for each day. And lots of times it could be a challenge one day if it was rainy or something, whatever, but mainly was gratitude and peace and things like that. But by focusing on that, it just brought you more of that for the day. And yesterday, Cliff was looking for some documents that he required, and he couldn't find them in our garage. We're having it renovated. And so, I said, I'll come look. I'm a finder. I find things. And then when we went to walk down to get the mail, he was very. No clarity. Unfocused, kind of distracted in his mind. And I said, well, what word would you like to choose that would give him more clarity than that. So, he went into clarity. Now, by the time we came back, we went into the garage and boom, within a minute, we found the documents. I said, did you notice that just by. By shifting your. What you're looking at, what you're paying attention to, and then, of course, taking action on it. I always talk about inspired action after that. That's important. With that being said, yeah. So, we know that core beliefs and mindset play roles. How did you transform any old, limiting beliefs that you had along your path so you could create, which you have a wealthy, abundant mindset, which is not just about money, it's about our health, well being and all the other aspects of our life, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. How did you work on that? Was that something that you have done through the years?

[36:50] Corey: It definitely was something I've done through the years. And, you know, I won't jump back a step, but I'll just say the one thing that's talked about in the book, too, is how synchronicity can be, quote unquote, leveraged for your business as well. I just want to, because a lot of times people think of it as woo woo, and it's something that just, you go, oh, I see numbers, you know, and that's it, and you move on.

[37:11] Moira: Thank you.

[37:13] Corey: And honestly, you know, for me, I see numbers like 1111. And honestly, again, here's the challenge with this kind of stuff is, I think, with, with something like that, everything that we hear is a belief around that meaning nobody can. There's not many people that can actually physically prove to you that what they think the meaning is true. You know, I had a guy on my show not long ago who's, who actually died for, I think it's up to 48 hours, and he has a book about it and he talks about it. And I said, if he tells me what happens on the other side, well, I can say he's probably an authority on it. You know, like, it's hard for me to argue when he literally died and, you know, he died to be able to share it with us. But, you know, people say, well, what 1111 means is this. Now, what I, what I get from that is what 1111 means to them is this, or what they believe 1111 means. So anything I share with you around what I've discovered, I also, and this maybe is the skeptic in me also believe. It's simply my belief of what it means. Just like dream interpretations, you prove to me that if you're a dream interpreter, how can you prove to me that you're actually 100% right? I mean, it's kind of hard to prove that. So, I believe it's what you believe. And then when you share it with me, it's, do I believe that or not as well? And so, I believe we're ultimately sharing our wisdom about what we feel it means based on our life experience. And so, because of that, and this probably ties into the question about how, you know, how it happened for me. Well, it's still happening. Like, I'm still, I'm still being introduced to stuff that I was skeptical about years ago, but it started for me about 20, you know, I'm going to say 25 plus years ago, I was having balance problems, and I would stand up straight with my eyes open and still sway. And I went to the doctors and they just kept saying, could be an inner ear. Like, we don't know for sure. Not much we can do about it. And so, I was stuck with this idea that I might be, you know, now, like, 50 years, 60 years, 80 years, I'm going to be having balance problems, and I just have to accept it. And that didn't seem right. You know, I felt like there has to be a solution, and, you know, there's got to be a way to bring my body back to balance. So, somebody said in passing, have you ever tried yoga? And I was like, yoga? You know, did men go to yoga? That was where my head was at, you know, almost 30 years ago. And they said, I don't know, but you got balance problems that you're trying to fix, so maybe you should be willing to try it. And so, I got myself a mat at the store, which I find funny that we have to have a mat to do yoga, even though do it on the dirt for years, but we have to have a mat. And I have a funny story around that. But I went to this yoga class. It was terrible environment. It was like at panel walls that were falling apart and a rug that probably shouldn't have been on a floor. And I went to this yoga class, and it was just like, what am I, what am I doing? Um, it. Well, I was the only guy for, like, the first five years probably doing yoga almost every class. And, uh. But I went, and the yoga part didn't excite me that much. It was like a workout. It was a really good workout. But at the end, I did this thing called shavasana, which is like a minute in silence or five or whatever at the end of your practice. And it was like, this is what meditation is. And I didn't know that, but I was like, oh, my gosh. That minute felt better than my whole day, my 24 hours. And I was like, I want more of that. So, I just kept going back for the 1 minute at the end. Slowly, I started falling in love with yoga. But what really was fascinating is about three months later, somebody asked me, hey, how's your balance coming along? And I said, you know what? I never even thought about that recently. And so, I said, let's try it. And so, I closed my eyes and I did tree pose. Uh, so for those that, you know, don't know what that is, it's basically you bend one leg and put it on the other. So, you're standing on one leg, almost like a crane, uh, or, and it looks like a tree, I guess. And then I put my arms up in the air and I had my eyes closed, arms up there, standing on one leg, and I wasn't even swaying. And three months before, I couldn't stand on both legs without swaying. And I was like, oh, my gosh. Yoga also cured my balance issues. And to this day, by the way, I can still do a tree pose without swaying. And so, because of that, honestly, that was the moment that I started believing in something bigger, because the meditation, I was like, how can 1 minute of silence give me so much joy? So that started making me think about, what does that really mean in the bigger scope? And then, same with yoga. And then, so over time, I started going for things like ear candling, like more fringe stuff, and just started trying new things. Then on top of that, I hadn't read a book until age 27. And my first book I ever read was a book called how to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie. Say, we're going to start late. That's a powerful book to start with. But the second book I ever read was a book called think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. And those two books changed my life to this day. Still, Napoleon Hill, though, was so far ahead of his time. He was talking about stuff that in some ways we still don't talk about. How to have an invisible mastermind with people that have died, but that are your mentors, and how to, uh, what is he called? Use sexual transmutation to create abundance in your life, how to use the law of attraction. Like, he was talking about stuff in 1937 that people still are kind of hesitant talking about. And so, but the book pulled me in because of that get rich part. And just like, you know, Robert in the story, he gets pulled into talking to Treb because of the get rich part. But like Robert in the story, I became a richer person because of the book, think and grow rich. And so that's a little tangent about how this all started for me, but I had all kinds of dots or moments like that all throughout the next amount of years that pulled me further into believing what's possible, believing how to create abundance, believing in fulfillment. Also, those 7500 interviews didn't hurt, you know, getting to interview the people like Deepak Chopra and get to ask him questions to figure out why am I not believing what he's talking about? And then trying to understand it better? All those things played a part. I believe in me being less skeptical.

[43:01] Moira: For sure. The people that you interview, like a Deepak, was that because you also were a speaker at an event, or that was you reached out and he said, yes. How did that come about? Because you have some big names, for sure, that you've interviewed.

[43:15] Corey: Yeah, it was the second one. So, I became obsessed with interviewing people even before I ever did, ever spoke on a stage. I had a newspaper when I was, uh, 19 Ish. And in the newspaper, I had to interview people. Now, mostly then it was local business owners, one-person, solo businesses. But I was interviewing them to learn more about what made them tick, what they did, that we did, others. And then over time, because I started reading think and grow rich and stuff like that, I recognized that I was really excited by interviewing people. And then I thought, well, the sky's the limit, why don't I. And it wasn't about influence. It was about, why don't I interview people that have reached the top 1% of their field to figure out how they got, how they did that, and how they were able to stay there despite all the other people doing what they do. So, like Tommy Chong, for example. I would interview Tommy Chong from Cheech and Chong because he was part of the most successful, arguably comedy duo of all time. And so, I wanted to know, how did he achieve that? Or Deepak, how did they become the most famous meditation type guru of all time? So, like, I wanted to interview the ones who got to the very top, because I wanted to figure out what they knew that I didn't know. That's really what it came down to. And then wanted to share it with other people.

[44:32] Moira: Mm hmm. For sure. I know. One of the things you also share, you know, don't let other people tell you can't go for something or do something. Again, back to it's your life, it's your story. Because one of the people that wrote a testimonial at the big front of your book, many of them I personally know, but Michael Gerber, I thought was interesting, because Michael, I invited him to my success breakthrough show on Rogers, and people said, you can't get Michael. He's a big name for me. It was a challenge. I said, I can get Michael. What are you talking about? Then I met him and his wife, and we were even invited to their wedding. So. Yeah, and then people were like, they didn't know what to say about that. But just that one step, like you're saying each person, who do you want to interview and just go for it, but for your sake, to learn, what are the top performers doing? What are the. You know, you mentioned Wayne Gretzky and different things, and that 1%, how. What can they do that next thing to do whatever they're doing better, and then be very present and honor each one of those. Who has been your biggest, inspirational teacher, mentor out of all the people. And that's a hard one because I know there's many, many names, but is there one that jumps out at you?

[45:47] Corey: Well, I mean, when we talk about mentor and people, if I use the general question, meaning like, people, and don't go toward the interviews, then I would say my grandfather, who, a carpenter with a grade three education, built a fiberglass space shuttle replica to scale, uh, did things that probably shouldn't have been able to as a carpenter with a bag of nails and a hammer. And he's, uh. He inspired me not only by what he did, but also his words. Like, he became my surrogate father. He taught me to drive my first car. He gave. He co signed a loan for me to buy my first car. I get this. Drumroll. Dollar 400 was the cost of the car because he thought I needed to have credit, so that was the best way to do it. And so, he was. As far as mentor, if we just use people as general, like, who did I learn the most from in terms of people? If I go to the other end of the spectrum and say interviews, who did I maybe learn the most from? Or who did I, you know, become the closest with or things like that in terms of learn the most from personally, as personal mentors, I would say on one end of the spectrum would be James Redfield, who I mentioned earlier, who wrote Celestine prophecy with James on a documentary. We haven't released some other stuff. And so, I really got to know him personally. And you learned so much kind of studying at the feet of. Of James and then also, more recently, Richard Paul Evans, who wrote the forward of my book, who's a 46-time New York Times bestselling author. We were just at his writer's retreat in Utah last week, went there last year as well. We've become really good friends with him as well. And so those two people have been mentors personally. And then if I finish the whole thing, I would say from afar, again, as you said, there's so many, one I would maybe jump to would be maybe Robin Sharma, who wrote the Bunk Ferrari and I think eleven other international bestselling books because Robin speaks in powerful soundbites. So, he's always got like, he'll say, I think you should do this, and then he'll describe it. Then he'll say, Picasso said this. And I think that's why Jon Bon Jovi did this stuff that stands out to you because he uses a lot of pop culture in terms of talking about what he's learned, and he shares it in such a way that it's hard to forget it. And so those are top of mind. Again, reaching a three spectrum, like personal in terms of my own life, personal in terms of who I met through the interviews and then somebody who I've met on multiple occasions but don't really know super well in that being Robin Sherman.

[48:28] Moira: That's wonderful. Thank you, Corey. I know that we could go on for quite some time because you have so much knowledge to share and you're just a really beautiful person. And, but we've got to come to a close and I want to say thank you. And I also want to ask if you could share the special gift that you would like to give to our listeners today, a part of honoring the listeners in this community and all the links to you, Corey, and their gift will be below in the show notes.

[48:55] Corey: Yeah, no, thank you so much. I so appreciate that. And I feel like, and I know we talked about this, I think this would serve people best because it's a book that I'm not really as focused on as much right now. But it came out a few years ago. It was also a self-published book for a few years before it went to a publisher. So, it's had quite a long life. But anybody that reads it, that reaches out to me, it seems to have a really big impact on them. So, I wrote this book called the Book of why and how. And one of the things that you can't buy it, we don't actually sell it. You can't get it on audible or anywhere. So, I always like to say it's priceless because there's no price set on it. But it's the audio version of the book. It's called, well, it's basically the Book of Wise audiobook. And to get it, really all a person has to do is go to pretty easy the bookofwhyaudio.com. so again, the bookofwhyaudio.com, if people go there, they can grab a copy of the book and, and just start listening to kind of right away.

[49:54] Moira: Wonderful. That's great. And we're also going to put links to your book, the Enlightened Passenger, which is officially launching right after your next week when this interview airs. And they get many bonuses by signing up, being part of your community. And so those will all be written on there, too, which is very generous of you.

[50:16] Corey: Oh, thank you so much. I aim to serve and give. I mean, I believe that's why, at least me, I can't speak for everybody else, but I believe that's why I was put here. And so ultimately, at the end of the day, we try to create abundance in our life so we can give back and help others. But also, I believe we become abundant by what we give as well. And so, for me, almost any project I'm involved in, I always feel I have to try to find a way to give more than just the thing that we're offering. So happy to do it.

[50:47] Moira: Thank you, Corey. And thank you for sharing from your heart and soul your wisdom on unlocking the secrets to living a happy and abundant life. Namaste.

[50:57] Corey: Namaste.

[51:04] Outro: Thank you for listening to the Heart Soul Wisdom podcast with Moira Sutton. I hope you enjoyed today's episode. Please join our community@moirasutton.com and continue the discussion on our Facebook page. Create the life you love. You will be part of a global movement connecting with other heart centered people who are consciously creating the life they love on their own terms. Together, we can raise our consciousness for the greater good of humanity and for our planet.