Heroes in Business - Alex Petrowski, 5EP Podcast Conversation with Rick Moschel Founder of Plant Revolution Apparel

Episode Date: April 10, 2023

Waste No Days. Alex Petrowski, 5EP Podcast Conversation with Rick Moschel Founder of Plant Revolution Apparel, talking how to own your emotions, and reframe your story for success. Catch this partt 1 of a 2 part interview and become part of the 5EP community by following at 5EP Podcast on Instagram  

Hey Siri, what's on my calendar for today? Today, you have the 5EP podcast. Would you like to keep it on your calendar? 5EP? Yeah! Welcome to the 5EP podcast, interviews and conversations to guide the genesis of personal development, mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, and social, the five pillars of living a five exclamation point life. On now with your host, Alex Petrowski.

your host, Alex Petrowski. Welcome to another episode of the 5EP Podcast. Joining me today is CEO of Plant Revolution Apparel and Life Coach extraordinaire, Rick Moschel. Thank you for having me, sir. It's a pleasure. It's an honor, Rick. I want to get right into this thing because I know we have a lot to talk about. So the first question I have for you is how would you define life coaching and what is your unique style? To me, life coaching, I mean, truly, it's somebody that anything that somebody needs, whether it's help with goals, whether it's help with career challenges, whether it's help with, you know, any facet of their life in general. What I do is I support, I listen, I show just patience and I kind of kind of guide them through never with telling anybody what to do, but helping them find the find the strategy, find that find the answers themselves. helping them find the find the strategy and find that and find the answers themselves. I'm kind of just a guide through their journey with amazing different different amazing approaches as to finding out why we are how we are and how we move through our lives and how we how

we ended up to where we are understanding how we ended up to where we are and then moving through that. That's probably the easiest way that I coach. Yeah. understanding how we ended up to where we are and then moving through that. That's probably the easiest way that I coach. Yeah. So pretty much you're the guy who allowed other people to uncover their full potential and what sets themselves apart from everyone else. Yes, 100 percent. 100 percent. Easiest way to explain it. I love it. Tell me about what led you to become a life coach and that journey that took you to where you are today. So everybody's got their path and, you know, my path started long ago. You know, most people, I won't say most, I'll never generalize,

but a lot of people, they went to school for it and they did all the studies and all that stuff. For me, I studied the human in the purest form. I have worked at just around about 35 to 40 different bar restaurants in the last 26 years. And what I realized was I'd always soaked up the human in the purest form, in their highest of highs and their lowest of lows and everything in between. And throughout that process, I had always kind of coached people anyways. It's just the person I've always been in my lifetime. And I was very blunt about it. I'm from the south suburbs of Chicago. So there's always a way that I spoke as to I was just brutally honest, getting deep into you. I didn't really have the verbiage just yet. But I had always kind of done that in general in my in the business throughout my career. And so I, just as many people, went through some of

the lowest of my lows later on in my career, in my life, some detrimental things happen, and I really wanted to find answers. So the way that I slowly got into it was, I went in and I pretty much life coached myself. I would go on hikes in Sedona quite often and started truly asking myself all the deep questions that I was so curious about as to why I held anger, why I reacted to things so deeply, why I held pain, why I held all these different things, all this blame, all this guilt throughout my life, and how I could get through that and lead my best life. I had always thought that everybody who had been around me saw the way that I lived, and I was always happy-go-lucky, but it was always in a fashion of I had none with different substances.

For truly 25 years, truth be told, which is another reason why I connect with so many people so deeply, because I've not just read the information, but I've actually lived the life of the lowest of lows in every facet of the way having almost died twice for I was 21 years old and then all the different numbing throughout my life and so I got a little bit closer and deeper into understanding what had happened in my life I was finally true truly kind of happy in my life happy with myself which I had thought and didn't really need much else when it came to, you know, a woman because things that happened when it came to the

female side of me, things that happened when it came to the job. I didn't know if and when I wanted to get out of the bar business at the time. And then I crossed paths with my now fiancee, who had been a life coach for 60 years plus was a worldwide trainer for the company that she worked for for training uh women and now men on how to be life coaches and once we got together she pretty much brought in the true verbiage as to what the little pieces that i was missing in if i was if i were to life coach and then she kind of challenged me one day it was like you know i see how you are at the bar. Have you ever thought about doing life coaching yourself? And I feel like I always there's some people that have just that light that go with them.

You know what I mean? They're just they walk in a room and you can feel in them. There's there's something about them. I kind of always had that everywhere I went. And it's not something that's an ego thing. It was just a confidence thing. And, and I was, I guess that one, you know, something we'll probably go into later on was I was unapologetically myself, my whole life. I did not care. I did not try to fit in. I always went on my own way. And in that sense, you know, she kind of challenged me to, to let her kind of teach me a little bit about what she knew but for me to find my own way of coaching and so over that amount it's over that next couple years she brought me into into a space where I realized that yes this is something that I wanted to do when I was the one of the best at what I did in the bar business everybody expected me to open bars everybody expected me to do all these

things and I realized that that wasn't my future. What happened was that was my training for the future. And I got to soak up so much human. You know, when people walk into the bar, everybody's like, yeah, he's just a bartender. But for me, the bartending was the easiest part. I loved watching people at the door. I watched their conversations. Because I worked in clubs for so long, I could read lips from about 30 feet out. So I would literally read their conversations, read their energy, and read if you're low, I want to bring you high. If you're high, I want to bring you higher. But I want to know how to actually intricately really absorb and get into the conversation and bring you to a good place. And I had done it for so long in the sense of behind the bar,

it really translated perfectly into the life coaching when I finally jumped in two feet and nobody expected it not even me when I gave my notice I didn't even expect to do it it was in a meeting that had nothing to do about me leaving and halfway through I just said it I'm giving my three weeks they were like are you serious and I was I just kind of said I guess so I guess I am serious and from then on I jumped both feet in and I've never looked back since and so my coaching as opposed to my fiance's coaching she does somatic work which is kind of healing through sound breath and movement and for me I had to find my own way because I did not go to that type of schooling for

it so my way was it was kind of funny because I did not go to that type of schooling for it. So my way was it was kind of funny because I joked about it with my mom because, you know, in a Jewish family, they pretty much treat you like you're five years old till the day you die. So even at the age of seven, I still for birthdays and Christmas or Hanukkah or Christmas, I got puzzles. And so it's funny in our family, puzzles were a big deal. And so it's funny in our family, puzzles were a big deal. And what I realized was I actually had to thank my mom over time because the way that I coach is literally putting together a puzzle. pieces slowly just fit in to actually what how I help people understand where they want to be what their goal is or how to truly understand what their shadow might be or everything they work through because of what I had done for myself in my life I can actually understand how the different how different people kind of get to the place that they are today through their

past experiences because truly our mind is a file cabinet it has a file cabinet of all the different experiences from our past and it's i mean it's anywhere from inside our bones inside our blood it's it resonates and it sits all this stagnant energy sits inside of your body and you really don't even know that sometimes it's affecting you until you actually go in and start to look at all the different times of your life from from zero a lot of it is from zero until 10 years old where these truly detrimental things happen to you and you don't think about how it really affects you and for me i finally went in to my life understood where all those things came up understand where

i took on that energy why I was reactive in my life, why I blamed in my life, why I did all the different things in my life. And as I corrected them, that's how I coach. That's how I actually coach people myself is listening to their story from the base to the end, but also getting into the family, the lineage and how their lineage was actually affected and what they took on from their family and their bloodline altogether. So that's pretty much the easiest way to explain how I coach and how I came about coaching. I love that puzzle analogy because a lot of the patterns that we have in our daily lives today are due to this past conditioning. And in order to move on to the next level, you have to put those pieces together of your unique puzzle up until your unique puzzle that was created to where you are at

in life right now. And without doing that, you can never move forward. So I applaud that aspect of your life coaching so much. And I also love how you're coming from somebody who's been in the arena and already done all these things and have firsthand experience because there's theory and there's practical application and your practical application is spot on from all the experiences that you've gone through. And which leads me into it, which leads me into the next topic. And you talk about being aware of teachers in life. What do you, what do many people not realize about negative experiences that they've, that they've experienced?

So one of the things that we talk about in the easiest way to explain it is nothing happens to you. Everything happens for you. And it truly, you have to take that to heart because if you really go back to each part of your life and you look at something that was dead, that was horrible, that you thought was so horrible. It's all about your perspective on what really happened that day. If you think it was horrible, well, guess what? It's going to be, it's going to be horrible. But if you think of it very quickly as to, okay, wait a second, let me step outside of my body. Let me look from the outside in and see what this is actually teaching me.

Everything truly is a teacher. Everything in your life is a teacher. I've still yet to find anything truly negative that happened in somebody's life, including my own. When you step outside of it and ask yourself, what was this teaching me? I've never seen somebody yet that says, it didn't teach me a thing. It's just something that happened. Now I can understand that if somebody says that, to me, that's actually the ego speaking. And that's not you being truly

honest with yourself. And that's what you have to be. You have to be blatantly honest with yourself as to what really happened that day and could I have listened to it in a different way to change my life into a positive and it's funny because so many people have all these things that they keep happening to them and I was one of them I was one of those guys where my highs were so high but my lows were lower than any low known to man and I kept thinking like why is this always happening why is this always happening to me and And I kept thinking like, why is this always happening? Why is this always happening to me? And because I kept asking that question, I mean, one of the most important things is your words are your wand. So the way that I spoke, that brought on that feeling. Why is this happening to me? Well, guess what? It was all happening to me because that was the way I spoke of it.

Now, when I started to learn differently and I started to learn what is this teaching me, differently and I started to learn what is this teaching me very quickly. Every single thing was stop, breathe, feel into it, navigate what this is really teaching me. And that's a word that I, that I truly preach quite often. It's just, is navigate. Don't, don't be stressed about life. Don't be stressed about your things. Don't, don't get disgusted with all the different things. Navigate every single thing that comes up in your life. And so what I did was I started to navigate actually each one of these occurrences that I said happened to me. I navigated with a different perspective on it.

And all of a sudden I came out with this big smile and kind of like that. Okay. Okay. You know, and then sometimes the hardest thing to do is look in the mirror and be really honest with yourself and take blame you know when i was one of those people my ego for a lot of my life i didn't have an ego as to you know face to face with somebody but my ego was it wasn't me it was you it wasn't me it was my it was my dad it was my mom it was the teacher it was my friend and it wasn't when i really really got to the core of what really happened, it really was me. And I could have changed that. And now, at this point in my life, I can literally say I have no negative second of any day ever. that I believe could be negative or could be something that's not good in my life

or stressful, I quickly stop, I breathe, and I navigate. I step outside of my body, I look down and say, okay, how is this happening for me? What am I really supposed to be learning for this? Because truly your external world is a perfect representation of your internal world. And so many people, once again, they're like, this is happening and this're like, this is

happening and this is happening and this is happening. It's not my fault. We'll put it this way. We are the most intricate magnets on planet earth. So everything is a magnet to what you have going on inside. So once again, your external world is a perfect representation of your internal world. So start to hold yourself accountable for what's really going on inside. Go internal. And if something on the outside is negative or something is a whirlwind or something is stressful, you really need to feel into your heart, feel into your soul, feel into your past, present, and future, every single thing in our life as a teacher. And it's just taking time, having patience, really stepping outside, looking down and looking at how you live your life, how you're showing up every day. You know, do you have a routine in the morning? Do you have a routine during the day to hold yourself accountable for how you want to live your life? And in that sense, everything will slow down and you will be able to truly understand what your teachers are telling you. And, you know, that's the thing is we all have guides.

What you believe and what you don't believe when it comes to the spiritual side of things, that's up to you. But the fact is we all have guides and they're guiding us in a certain direction. The question is, are we always listening? And that's what our teachers are. They're teaching us constantly. But are you really listening to what they're saying to you? And if you start to listen, it's not about why did I not listen before? Because you're exactly where you're supposed to be. There's no accident why things are happening in this part of your life this way. The question is now, how do we learn from those things that happened in the past? And now how do I show up for myself in the present and future? Because the present and future, we can change.

But you can never go back in the past. You never drive down the freeway backwards. You always drive forwards on the freeway. And that's one of my jokes I say. But it's actually honest truth. You know, you can look at your past. You can look at what you truly should have learned from your past. But then how do I want to show up today and how I want to show up tomorrow? And what am I doing to actually make that happen? Do I just wake up and do I just go about my day

or do I wake up? Do I have a little bit of routine, maybe some meditation, maybe some breath work, maybe whatever it is that makes you feel good. And then small wins, making your bed, brushing your teeth, being present in the moment and actually thinking about these things as you do it. You know, it's so funny because, you know, most of my life, I just went about my life and I didn't think of anything. I was a little bit present in the things that I did, but I wasn't present into how my day was being constructed from the minute I woke up. And that's when you literally live in limbo. That's what self sabotage, that's what all the different things can happen in your life. But if you don't live in limbo

and you are present in every moment, starting your day with the little things, making your bed, making your room clean, brushing your teeth, thinking about it. When you have your first meal, think about that. Like, okay, I get to eat, this is a beautiful meal. Just that thought in general, puts your mind in a

beautiful place maybe starting out with your different gratitudes what am i truly grateful for and it's not just saying i'm grateful for my family i'm grateful for my kid yeah yeah that's i know we're all grateful for that but what am i truly grateful for because no matter where your day goes if you are in a in a spot where're navigating, you can always slow down and you could go into what you're truly grateful for in your life. And it'll take you out of that, that spiral of a negative thought pattern. It'll bring you back into the light. And then you can think about what you have going on in a different headspace and move on to your day. Yeah. Reframing those experiences to where you look at them as life is giving this to you and not life is forcing

this upon you is so beneficial no matter what goals that you have or that you're that you're on and that you're endeavoring for it's having that mindset of I have this opportunity to learn and grow no matter what life gives me that's's how you enter the flow state. And that's how you get better and better and more resilient, which actually leads me into one of your sayings that you've always told me is feel into the feels. I'd love for you to expand on the meaning behind that and also what benefits would someone derive from feeling into the fields? So the reason I say always constantly is feel into the fields is so many people are afraid or angry at what they're feeling. So they have this quick reaction to something. They have this, they're, you know, they're feeling so angry.

They're feeling so hurt. They're feeling down. They're feeling happy. They're feeling any of the above. Don't be afraid to feel the feels. It's important. It's not that, oh my God, I don't want to feel this. No, I actually have a different perspective on that feel. Feel into it. Once again, navigate. So feel into that feeling. It's healthy to feel that feeling. But the question is, where does this feeling come from? Is this feeling my feeling? Is this feeling from my family, from my lineage? Is this feeling from somebody else who has given me this feeling? talking bad to you or talking down to you or somebody's having a bad day and they and they bring you into that bad day feel into that feel now wait a second i'm looking at this person now they're in a bad way and they're saying something bad to me and put me in a bad way so misery loves company so wait a second is this my feeling is this me no this is somebody else's feeling or if i'm truly angry i'm'm truly depressed, I'm truly depressed about something, absorb, be all right with feeling this because it's healthy to feel the feels.

The question is, what do you do with that feeling? Feel into the feels so that you understand where it's coming from. Diagnose to yourself and navigate where this feeling is actually coming from. Is it attached to the way that I is actually coming from. Is it attached to the way that I'm living my life? Is it attached to the routine that I have? Is it like I said, is it attached to your family? Is this something that has been in your lineage? And for some reason, it still affects you when you know it shouldn't affect you. It's truly what you know, it's truly just so healthy to actually feel everything. Be present. That brings you to being present in every moment.

And that's where we want to be. We want to be present in every moment. So that's kind of the easiest way for me to explain feeling the feels. You know, it's anytime I'm coaching somebody and they're angry that they're feeling something, I always tell them, no, no, no, stop. Feel that. It's all right to feel the feels. It's all right to feel the feels. It's not bad to feel the feels.

You want to feel where it's coming from. Decide, declare what you're really available for in the way that you want to feel and the way that you want to show up for yourself. And understand, is it, you know, once again, is it my childhood? Is it something that happened last week that's still creeping into my life? It's always attached to something deep inside of you. Take the time to search, take the time to question, and then slowly move that energy also from, you know, just how my fiance coaches through sound, breath, or movement. You know, quite often, you know, if you're feeling something through sound, let out a big, ah, let out a big scream, let out a big shriek, you know, go in your car, let out a couple of screams. You will see how much that stagnant energy actually moves. If you want to feel the feels and you come from a place where I came from, where you weren't really allowed to cry in your lifetime.

So, you know, because you were judged per se, allow allowed to cry in your lifetime because you were judged, per se. Allow yourself to cry. That itself, those tears are actually moving that energy. If you want to go for a jog or go get a workout or go train fighting or whatever it is that you do that's physically active or movement or dance or roller skating, whatever it may be, just that movement itself can move that energy too. So allow yourself always to feel the feels, and then allow yourself to step outside and move that energy in one of the different facets that are available to you. Definitely. One of my favorite books that you actually introduced me to, The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz. He talks about how when your subconscious is still reacting to certain situations, you haven't actually taken a step back and dealt with what you needed to deal with in your past. You could tell yourself that you've already covered it,

but if you're still having emotional reactions, have you truly dealt with it? Have you truly dove deep into the ocean of your past and really found what it is that's causing it? And what you talk about with feeling in your feels is precisely that. And that actually leads me into my next question, which is how important is nature to your well-being? question, which is how important is nature to your wellbeing? So it's funny cause you know, I kind of joke about it for 13 years of being in the bar business out here. When I first moved here from 96 to 2009, I went to Sedona maybe five times and maybe did a couple of nature hikes in 13 years. And my life was a tornado of limbo and all over the place you know when i was living back downtown chicago i love the city life but the city life there's not a lot of nature but what i would do is go down lakefront and that was without even knowing it

that was where i did my releases that was where i did my thinking now that i've been back in arizona i live a completely different life for the last seven and a half years. I am in nature constantly 24 hours. I mean, 24 hours a day, whenever I can get out there, which I don't waste any days, any day that I have two to four to six to a full day of hours to actually have on my own without work, which my work isn't work anyways, but I go out and I do nature and truly nature nurtures, you know, there's that, that saying, there's a reason why nature and grounding in nature, it actually does revive your energy. I mean, you know, they used to kind of joke about the hippies as tree huggers, but you know, it's kind of funny. I have, I have a cousin Ellen and

she lives in Colorado and you know, she's older, she's in her seventies, was doing a ton of yard work in a place in Durango, Colorado. And she had some time where she went over and she literally hugged one of her trees for about five minutes. It revived her energy. She admittedly told me that it revived her energy to where she could finish the day's work and not be tired whatsoever you know and that's one of my most of one of my most favorite things on planet earth is going out you know where i did a lot of my healing was i would hit sedona every single week which i still to this day for multiple years now every single week i take at least one day and I go out to Sedona and I hit that vortex energy, that pure, that pure, incredible, deep energy from the many different trails out there. You know, one of my favorite trails, the West Fort Trail, which you literally have four different portals, four different climates in this forest that goes along the Oak Creek. And there's many different amazing trees where I always will

take the time to sit and just touch, talk to, you know, trees have, they are, they are energy. They are life. They are life force. They are communicating to each other constantly. They will feel your energy as weird as that sounds, which, you know, many of the words I speak, I didn't speak coming from the South side of Chicago for a long time. But now that I've been around it for so long, it is it is literally brought me to a place where, you know, that's why that's why me and my fiance started this clothing line. Plant Revolution Apparel, because it truly represents nature and how much it can truly change the aspects and the outlook of your whole life in general. change the aspects and the outlook of your whole life in general. You know, if you're in a place where you are navigating, if you're in a place where you are down, you take the time to take your shoes off and just even walking grass and ground a little bit. Mother Earth will send energy to you that will help you understand what's going on and help you navigate those feelings. I mean,

yeah, I mean, me and my fiance, nature has, I won't say it's changed my life because my whole life was, you know, going up to Minnesota in the North woods in our cabin up there and going fishing and being in nature. But, you know, taking the time now to be more present as to, as I'm in nature and really looking around, not just walking through a trail and saying, yeah, we did it. We went three miles in, we went three miles out, and that was amazing. No, no, no. Taking time to walk and really look around. Really look at nature.

Look at the different plant life. Look at how it makes you feel. Think about how it makes you feel. What are your actual thoughts as you walk through there? And I guarantee if you take the time to have a different perspective on how you absorb nature, you take the time to have a different perspective on how you absorb nature, it will help you actually, nature can also be its own life coach. Because as you're going through there, it will make you kind of have it in perspective and have a smile and just like a different energy as to what you have going on in your life. And as you walk out of there and you get back in your

car, you get on your bike and you go back home, you're going to feel the difference as to what you have going on in your life. And as you walk out of there and you get back in your car, you get on your bike and you go back home, you're going to feel the difference as to when you're in a room like we are today or if you are out in nature and when you're really looking at the beauty, the energy, you know. So, I mean, nature is one of the biggest parts of my life. And you know as well as anybody that my favorite thing to do is guide people on trails. And I've never, I've yet to see somebody who comes out with me who's having a bad day or whatever it is, leave that trail in the same mindset that they started that trail on.

Yeah, it's so important to not just feel into the feels when you're having a negative experience, but when having a positive experience, just like you said, you can become your own life coach when you feel into what's causing you to feel these good feelings, what's causing you to feel these bad feelings and giving yourself your own advice that you give to somebody else in that situation and pretty much telling them something along the lines of, hey, you need to do this emotional work to figure out what's causing these negative reactions. But at the same time, all that energy that you put into figuring out these negative triggers and what was going on there, you got

to recharge at some point, you got to, you got to put some positive energy in there and you got to, you got to get some smiles going, you got to get the laughter going, you got to, you got to balance out your energy levels because you only have so much throughout the day. And if you're always spent figuring out, well, what's causing this? How can I improve? How can I do this? You end up stressing yourself out too much to where you're constantly in fight or flight mode. And just like you said, anybody that goes into nature and takes that time for themselves in silence or just with friends and being and being unplugged from the technological world, they'll experience that recharge and refresh that will allow them to be better for themselves in the upcoming week or even just the upcoming day. And that leads me on.

Well, real quick. And now real quick, I was going to actually say, and that's why i'm actually wearing the shirt that i'm wearing today unplugged to recharge and that's why this is one of the shirts that we brought into our clothing line because like you said you know that was one part that i actually forgot to touch on is how often do we truly unplug you know i grew i was born in 1975 i grew up at a time where we didn't have cell phones so it was very easy to not be plugged into anything you just lived your life and it was a lot easier to have happiness and it's it's so much more to navigate these days because of and i and i love all this because it also enhances in some ways too but you have instagram you have facebook you have snapchat you have news constantly that you can tap into you have this phone which is literally a computer in your hand that you constantly tap into. And we've all been in that, in that place to where it's become a part of us.

It really has. You wonder why you say something, all of a sudden your phone gives you an ad. You're like, well, this is really following me. This is kind of weird, but it's funny because the nature, you know, taking yourself out in nature, a lot of times in nature, your phone is actually not connected to anything. So it's actually, you know, that's why I love his shirt is unplugging to recharge. Truly having you putting yourself in a position to where at least once or twice a week, if you can unplug from everything, go out in some type of nature, go for a walk, go on a lake, go, you know, go ground a little bit in some grass and really unplug yourself so that you really can recharge. And I'm telling you, the more that you do it, the more you're going to realize how much you're actually plugged in constantly as to what it feels like to be unplugged. And it really is something that just a couple hours, I mean, put it this way, when we

were all shut in our houses for COVID at the very beginning for, you know, for, was it three, four weeks, or I think a little bit longer where nobody was allowed to drive, nobody's allowed to do anything. If you looked on TV, it shows you how much the earth actually rebuilt itself just in that small amount of time, just in that small amount of time where everything stopped, it was all unplugged. The earth got to recharge itself. So just the same as a human a human you take the time to just even a little bit each day unplug from everything you will recharge a lot more than you than you actually thought that is even possible you've been listening to the 5vp podcast with alec petrowski interviews and conversations to guide the genesis of personal development.

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