High Performance Mindset | Learn from World-Class Leaders, Consultants, Athletes & Coaches about Mindset - 335: Releasing Your Brilliance with Simon T. Bailey, Bestselling Author & Keynote Speaker

Episode Date: May 9, 2020

Simon T. Bailey is a Breakthrough Strategist whose life's purpose is to teach 1 billion+ people how to be fearless and create their futures. He equips companies with the tools necessary to effect cultural transformation resulting in higher employee engagement and platinum customer service experiences. He challenges individuals to dig deep to find and release their inner brilliance. With more than 30 years' experience in the hospitality industry, including serving as sales director for Disney Institute, Simon knows how to engage and inspire leaders and team members through his keynotes, workshops, books and online courses. He has personally worked with more than 1,700 organizations in 46 countries. Simon has been named one of the top 25 people who will help you reach your business and life goals by SUCCESS magazine, joining a list that includes Brene Brown, Tony Robbins and Oprah Winfrey. He is the author of ten books including his most recent release, Be the SPARK: Five Platinum Service Principles for Creating Customers for Life. His courses on Lynda.com have been viewed by thousands of people worldwide. His Goalcast video has over 87+ million views. Simon holds a Master's degree from Faith Christian University. When he is not working, Simon spends quality time with his two active teenagers, roots for the Buffalo Bills, and serves as a board member for the U.S. Dream Academy, Orlando Health Foundation, and Worldmaker. In this podcast, Cindra and Simon talk: How you are not born to be small – you were born to be brilliant How to fully embrace your story Why it is important to ask, “What makes me come alive?” His acronym for ego How the future is created in the present

Hey, my name is Cindra Campoff and I'm a small-town Minnesota gal, Minnesota nice as we like to say it, who followed her big dreams. I spent the last four years working as a mental coach for the Minnesota Vikings, working one-on-one with the players. I wrote a best-selling book about the mindset of the world's best and I'm a keynote speaker and national leader in the field of sport and performance psychology. And I am obsessed with showing you exactly how to develop the mindset of the world's best so you can accomplish all your goals and dreams. So I'm over here following my big dreams and I'm here to inspire you and practically show you how to do the same. And you know, when I'm not working, you'll find me playing Ms. Pac-Man.

Yes, the 1980s game Ms. Pac-Man. So take your notepad out, buckle up, and let's go. This is the high performance mindset. So when I become clear in where I am, I honor my past. I understand my present in order to embrace my future. Welcome to episode 335 with Simon T. Bailey. This is your host, Dr. Cedric Ampoff, and I am grateful that you're here. If you know that mindset is essential to your success, then you are in the right place. And I hope that you're doing well during this time of shelter in place and COVID-19. You know, we're doing pretty good here in Minnesota. My sons, Carter and Blake, they are 10 and now 13. They haven't gone anywhere for five weeks, so not been with their friends, just stayed at home. So it's a little tough for us here. My son Carter just turned 13 yesterday

and it was tough for him not to be with his friends. But we're also finding so many other great things about this time period. We're using it to develop our relationships and I've enjoyed spending every single night with my family. But really trying to use this time to develop ourselves and our relationships. And I'm hopeful that you're using this time too to do the same. And Simon is going to help us today really think about how we can do that. We're talking today about releasing your brilliance and his energy is amazing, inspiring.

I read his book Release Your Brilliance several years ago and one of those beach books, those are the books that I bring on our vacations every February and I love reading On the Beach. And I read his book, Release Your Brilliance on the Beach in Putakana. He's also a fellow member of the National Speakers Association. And so I was really excited to have this conversation with Simon. And I know that you're going to love it.

So Simon T. Bailey is a breakthrough strategist whose life's purpose is to teach 1 billion people how to be fearless and create their futures. He equips companies with tools necessary to affect cultural transformation, resulting in higher employee engagement and platinum customer service experience. He challenges individuals to dig deep to find and release their inner brilliance, which we talk about today in this podcast. With more than 30 years experience in the hospitality industry, including serving as sales director for the Disney Institute, Simon knows how to engage and inspire leaders and team members through his keynotes, workshops, books, and online courses.

He has personally worked with more than 1700 organizations in 46 countries. Amazing. Simon also was named as one of the top 25 people who will help you reach your business and life goals by Success Magazine, joining a list that includes Brene Brown, Tony Robbins, and Oprah. He is the author of 10 books, including his most recent release, Be the Spark, five platinum service principles for creating customers for life his courses on lynda.com had been viewed by thousands of people worldwide and his gold cast video has been viewed

by over 87 million people amazing he holds a master's degree from faith christian university and when he's not working simon spends quality time with his two active teenagers and roots for the Buffalo Bills. Now in this interview, Simon and I talk about how you are not born to be small, but how you're born to be brilliant and what that means. We talk about how to fully embrace your story, why it's important to ask the question, what makes me come alive, his acronym for ego, which I think you're going to enjoy, and how the future is created in the present. My favorite quote during this interview is Simon said, what you think about, you bring

about. Now, if you enjoyed today's episode, wherever you're listening, subscribe and give us a five-star rating and review. This helps us reach more and more people each week, and it just helps us get more and more awesome guests. And I would love to read your review next week and here is the review of the week by Joshua. Joshua says truly inspirational love all the interviews and the mission of inspiring a positive mindset. I'm a huge fan of many of the people Cinder has brought on highly recommend. Thanks so much for your rating and review Joshua Joshua. Super appreciate it and look

forward to reading yours next week. Without further ado, let's bring on Simon. Simon T, I have been wanting to have you on the podcast for so long, so I am so grateful that you're here today to join us. It is so good to be with you. Thank you so much for having me. And you go by Simon T. What does the T stand for? here today to join us. It is so good to be with you. Thank you so much for having me. And you go by Simon T. What does the T stand for? Terrific! That's awesome. Before we hit record, I'm like, this is going to be an amazing interview. I love your energy, Simon T. And what I want to start with is just tell us a little bit about your passion and what you do right now. So my goal in life is very simple, to hug people with my words. So I wake up every single day to figure out how do we virtually, how do we do it in written form, how do we show up every single day just to let people

know that they matter and that they can create their future. And then I am the proud father of two amazing young adults. Daniel is 21, my son, and Madison, my baby girl, is 18. And we can talk business all day long, but my first most important job is to be a great dad, first, business person, second. Yeah, that's excellent. Good order of priorities, in my opinion. So give us a little sense in terms of like how you got to where you are, a writer, a speaker. I read about your background in the books that I have that you wrote,

but give us a little sense for those people who are unfamiliar. So let me just start with, first of all, I am flawed. I have failed more times than I can count on one hand, and I am perfectly imperfect. And the reason I want to start there is so many times you go to the dictionary and everybody's all about success, but I discovered that failure comes before success. To compress 30 years, 30 plus years, attempted suicide, college dropout, went back to college, took me 10 years to finish my undergrad degree, took me two years to get hired at Disney, 10 different interviews over a two-year period. Finally, Disney realized I wasn't going away. And when I left Disney, I was sales director and new business development director for the Disney Institute. Left Disney, launched out on my own, turned down four jobs, an internal move at

Disney, two vice presidents offers to work at other companies, and a senior director position ahead of customer care for all ownership owners of the world, turned that down, cashed in my entire 401k with significant Disney stock to launch into this thing called speaking. Fast forwarding from there, after being married for 25 years, got divorced because I was chasing money that had no meaning. After being divorced for 25 years, went through cancer, overcame it. I'm on the other side. I'm 100% whole and healed. And now just continuing to do my work in the world. So professionally, I've worked with about 1800 organizations in 49 countries. I've written 10 books, working on a few new books. I have three courses on LinkedIn learning. One of my courses before we updated it had been viewed over 1

million times by people in 100 countries. And what I'd like to say is I don't really work, I play. I get to do what I love every single day well what a cool way to answer that question Simon T like um I learned a lot about you really quickly but what I also appreciate is you just told us some times that you struggled and you were vulnerable there and uh I think that's so important because when we hear 10 books, courses on LinkedIn learning, right? Keynote speaker, it might be like, wow, Simon T's perfect. Before we talk about your work and brilliance, I always ask people about to tell us about

a time that they failed and what failure means to you. So maybe if you could dive into maybe one of those examples that you just gave that kind of show some vulnerability and also to teach us something about a time that didn't go so great for you. Yeah. So a few years ago, and this video has been posted, it's gone viral, has about 87 million views or so. It's just a little story of me talking about my daughter came in my home office one day and she wanted to talk, but I was emotionally unavailable to her because I was just busy. I was not effective. And I could sense she could talk, but I didn't really engage her in the way she needed to be. So the next day I fly out, I come back home and I'm like, oh, Madison, you wanted to talk to me. And she said, dad, it's OK. I said, no, it's not OK, because if I don't change your behavior, you're going to marry a joker just like me.

And what I recognize, I was modeling for her how to be emotionally unavailable like I was to her mother. And I was modeling for her brother as well. And her mother said to me, you give everybody the best of you, but you give us the rest of you. And I don't want the leftovers anymore. And what I realized is that I had built a house but lost a home. I was chasing power, but didn't know my purpose. And I was pursuing success, but didn't really understand significance. And so that is a moment that caused me to, after the divorce, I started to go and see a therapist and Anita my therapist she is the best she said to me whatever you don't deal with will eventually deal with you oh wow whatever you don't deal with will eventually deal with you yeah wow

how long ago was that? Three years ago. Three years ago, wow. Really, actually four years ago, four years ago. Four years ago. So I would sit on the sofa once or every other week for an hour and a half doing my work. And no guy that's an alpha male wants to go and see a therapist named Anita that has more degrees than a therapist at and has been doing therapy for 40 years. But you know what? It was the best thing because it helped me get out of my way. Yeah. I find that, I mean, if everyone could have a coach or a mentor, a therapist to really help them, I have one, Simon T, somebody that I've worked with for, I don't know, seven years. Wow.

Yeah. And she's really helped me push me in terms of like just being courageous and going after like some big goals. But like living in a way that's really aligned with my gifts and values and my purpose. And I think she helps me connect with my brilliance. So there we go. So as people are listening, therapy, coaching, mentorship, very powerful. So Simon T, what led you to study the topic of brilliance specifically? My mentor said to me one day, he asked me how I was doing. And I said to him, if I had blonde hair, blue eyes, and white skin, it would be easy for me to succeed here in America. And he said to me, you're stuck in your mind and your body thinking that the pigmentation of your skin limits you. You weren't born to fit in. You were born to be brilliant. And when he said it, it just

unlocked something in me. I was driving to Disney that day and I was just bawling. I mean, I was a weeping willow. And I was like, nobody had ever told me that. And then he went on to say, he's Caucasian. And he said to me, when he and his wife first got married, they adopted two young African American boys, and they began to tell them what they could be instead of what they couldn't be. And he said, pursue brilliance. And it just released something in me. So literally, that's the backstory. That's how it started. Because I recognize that it's not who you are that holds you back from being brilliant it's who you think you're not that holds you back and sometimes you focus more who you think you're not instead of who you are wow powerful was that a Disney executive that

told you that no no it's my mentor he's been been in my life for 21 years. And I sometimes call him the brilliance whisperer. His name is Dr. Mark Sharona. And he is 65 working on his second PhD and just one of the most brilliant people to be in my life. And he was the one. Wow. Awesome. What does brilliance mean to you, Simon T? Brilliance is really finding what I would call your it factor, your gift, your flow. And when you are in brilliance, you're in the zone. And when you're in the zone, everything is coming towards you as you move towards it, because it's not about the push it's about the pull and my brilliance is having this what I would almost say is internal alignment of head heart and hands which creates external execution

okay awesome let's dive into that um okay so uh my first question on that just what you just said is so people who are maybe like struggling they're not sure what their gifts are what do you think about that yeah so there was a book that I was reading years ago that really kind of started me on this path and can contribute to this whole discussion around brilliance and it's called Wild at Heart it's written by an author named John Elrich and in John's book he says don't ask what the world needs, ask what makes you come alive. Because what the world needs are people who come alive. And when I read that, it was just like the 4th of July fireworks went off in me. So when I was heading down this whole

path of brilliance, I said, what makes me come alive? And so everyone listening to us right now, what makes you come alive? Start there. Don't ask what the world needs. Don't ask, how do I make money? Right? No. What makes you come alive? Because when you honor that, you're holding space for the new you to emerge because you answered the question. Oh, and tell us a little bit about your journey working to find your brilliance. Like I, what I'm seeing in you, but what I'm hearing in you. And also, as I read your words is like, I know that you're connected with your gifts, right?

And your unique purpose and your authenticity. Tell us a little bit about what that journey has been like for you to untap that, but then to live it. And that's what I see in you right now. Yeah. So I think there are three questions that I had to answer. Number one, what would I do if I knew I couldn't fail? Question number two, what would I do if no one paid me to do it? And then obviously the third question, I just mentioned what makes me come alive. When I begin to answer those questions during my time at Disney, I remember specifically Disney had sent me to Paris to design a leadership program for a thousand leaders out of Barclays Bank out of London. And I'm there and I'm on the stage in Paris. And I say, remember who you are, you are more than what you have become. Literally because Lion King had just come out. And I had this moment. And I went back to my hotel room that night, and I asked myself these

three questions in Paris. And I said, I want to speak. I want to write. I want to train. I want to consult. I want to coach. And what I recognized, I was saying yes to my destiny, but I was also being invited to rehearse the future by embracing, I want to speak, I want to train, I want to consult, I want to do all these things. So when I came back from Paris, Disney promoted me to sales director at Walt Disney World for the Disney Institute. And I said, I will only take the job if I can still do some of the training programs, even though I'll lead a team and be responsible for profit and loss. But I had to do

that because I realized, oh my goodness, it may be time for me to leave one day. And so I started working on my exit strategy, which got accelerated a little bit quicker, but that's, that's really when I really honored what was in my heart. And here's the deal. They'll never become, there'll never be a perfect time to become the person you might've been. Got to say yes to you. Awesome. The three, say yes to you. I love that. And the three questions I'm going to repeat and let me know if I got them right. What would I do if I couldn't fail? What would I, what no one paid me? And what makes me come alive? Brilliant, brilliant.

Brilliant. So let's talk about your book, Release Your Brilliance. You've also written 10 books total, right? Wow. Amazing. So Simon T, I love reading books on the beach. And every February, my husband and I go sometimes by ourselves or sometimes with our family, not once in a while with our family, mostly with our friends. We go somewhere warm for several days. And I always pick out the books that I want to read. And several years ago in Putakana, I read your book On the Beach. So that's how I learned about you. And what that means to me is like when I read it on the beach, that means it's like I dive in, I really think about it, I reflect on it. So it's an honor. Like, you know, I only pick so many I can read that you're on the beach. Wow. Yeah.

So tell us about this idea of like, how do we release our brilliance? Yeah. So it first starts with coming to that place of clarity. You know, I talk about the four C's. So when I become clear in where I am, I honor my past. I understand my present in order to embrace my future, right? So coming to clarity, because as you know, so many people look through the rear view mirror of what didn't happen instead of the windshield of what can happen. So clarity is really honoring, what have I learned?

What have I unlearned? What do I relearn? Then the next step is how do I then begin to think about my direction that I want to go, my worldview? And you know, I use the diamond as a metaphor. So what's my clarity? What's the cut? What's the color? What's the carrot? So if we look at that, that second C of the diamond, the color, it's really understanding my worldview, what has shaped me to be where I am. So whoever has your ear has your life. Who are the relationships in your life? Because how do they relate to the cargo in your ship? I'm going to mix metaphors for a moment.

Because wherever you are going on the ocean of life, you are carrying these relationships with you. And people can never take you to a place that they have not been themselves. So when I really look at the color of the diamond, I'm mindful of who is speaking into my life that is shaping tomorrow. And then the cut of the diamond, and in the words of one of my dear friends willie jolly who says a setback is a set up for a comeback so one of the experiences that i've had in life that have been a marker have been a turning point that i can own right and then finally the fourth c and i'm kind of giving all to you right now because we can unpack them all, is the carrot.

And the carrot is really how do I create the future in the present? How do I begin to think from the future where I intend to be coming back to the present and assuring that my beliefs, behaviors, and habits are moving me towards the future that is unfolding. Wow. Which one should we dive into? You get to decide. Let's start with clarity because I think clarity is so important. Okay, perfect. Tell us a little bit more about that and how we can apply this to our lives. is that for many years as an entrepreneur, I was an annoying echo instead of an original voice. John Mason in his book, An Enemy Called Average, says most people are born originals, but die copies.

And what I recognized is that I had to own who I was in the skin that I was in and I had to fully embrace my story and not be like everyone else so so until I came to that place of clarity I was a carbon copy of the Zig Ziglar and the Les Frow that everybody else that went before me. And in my wake up call was clients started saying, you're, you're good, but you're not great. So then I said, okay, I've got to own my story. So clarity is how do I own the skin I'm in and love my narrative, even if it's super positive, right? Right. And when you come to that place of clarity, then the next step is now that I've owned the clarity, how do I bring it to speech to share it from a place of authenticity and not just a shtick, but it is who I am at the core.

So part of my heritage, my father was an immigrant from Jamaica some 60 plus years ago, came over a program that President Dwight Eisenhower had put in place. He picked oranges in Mount Dore, Florida, migrated up to Perry, Newark, where he picked apples. My father didn't learn how to read until he came to the United States. One of the things he told me is that the best hand that will feed you is the one at the end of your wrist. And for a long time, I was ashamed of this heritage. But the moment I embraced the story, my father did become literate. He was a hard worker. Who I am today is because of him. All of a sudden, I had clarity that I could not disconnect myself from yesterday, but I had a

choice to create a better tomorrow. And when I got clear that I stood on the shoulders of an amazing father and mother, when I embraced that, all of a sudden people started to embrace me because I was no longer incongruent. Incongruency split my soul. Energy is scattered. I was now congruent. And Rabbi Herod Kishner says that when you are incongruent, everything that you think, everything that you say, everything you feel is in alignment. Oh, good. So a couple of questions I have for you. So when you think about like embracing your story, right, your background, you think embracing means like accepting is embracing mean like accepting and owning, you know, like, how do we actually do

that in your thought, in your opinion? Yeah. Yeah. So great question. It's first of all, I think if you were to sit down and just take a sheet of paper and write your story down, that's the first step. And just understanding what it is. I think the second thing is now that I've written it down, what do I believe? What do I know? What do I accept? And when you get really clear after writing it out and having that reflection, then it begins to impact your speech and how you talk about yourself to others. So you've mentioned something about authenticity that that's also one of the things I really enjoyed about your book, Simon T. And I think it's also because like, I'm working to be my most authentic self, right? And so I'm on my journey to own my story, like you just said, and, and show up at Sindra camp off

in every possible opportunity. So in terms of the topic of authenticity, since we're talking about that now, how do you think that relates to like releasing your brilliance? Yeah. So when I released my brilliance and I show up in my authentic truth, three things happen. First of all, it's not about me. It's about we. When I make it about we and not me, what I'm understanding is when I'm in the ego area of my life, me, me, me, me, me, ego is edging greatness out. So when I am truly about we, I understand, let me put it to you this way. I listen, hearing is a courtesy, but listening is a compliment. And when I am listening to you, I am honoring you in the moment as you are the most important person in this moment, because I am honoring your humanness and what I'm supposed to learn

or serve in that moment. That's authenticity. So, so your brilliance is released, not about the doing it is about the being, because when I understand how to be in the moment with you, in that authenticity, I'm listening between the sentences for not what you're saying, but for what you mean. And together, we are releasing brilliance because I need you, you need me, and I'm learning

from you and you're learning from me. Yeah. Awesome. I love ego edging greatness out. Boom. High drop moment. So one of the also things I liked about your book, Simon T, is when you were talking about a Harvard study that suggests like, we always really have the brilliance in us. But I

think that the Harvard study says that, you know, that we have lost our brilliance. Tell us about that and your perspective on that and what you meant. Yes. So Dr. Howard Gardner, professor of education, he and his team of researchers did an interesting study over a 20 plus year period. And what they discovered is that children up until the age of four are operating at the genius level. The same group of children studied in their early twenties and only 10% were still operating at the genius level. And in their late twenties, early th 30s, only 2%, 2% to 3%. So the question is, where did the genius or brilliance go? It didn't go anywhere, but it became buried by a society that says,

color within the lines, sit down, give it back, you can't do this. And the more a person continues to hear what they can't do, where they can't go, and who they can't become, there is a neurological path that is created in the brain that causes individuals to shut down. So what happens is people have this brilliance, insight, energy, gifting, talent, ability, but they show up in an environment where they are tolerated rather than celebrated. And when you're in an environment that tolerates you rather than celebrates you, you never come into the fullness of who you are because your brilliance is blocked. So you have to go to an environment that sees you as a vitamin,

not just an aspirin. What advice would you give to leaders? I'm thinking about what you just said, and you know, how maybe leaders might just tolerate people instead of celebrate people. Yeah, so leaders, how they tolerate people right now is they communicate instead of connect. I just posted something on LinkedIn just a few hours ago that says, and it was just in a stream of conscious because I was on a webinar yesterday, and I simply said, connectedness is the new currency. So real leadership is when I connect, I am understanding how are you doing? And I'm making it about you, not just the work of work, because that's communication. And we get that that's there all day. But it's that leader, he or she who is intentional to really connect. I think the second thing is to understand that the job of a leader is to invite men and women on a journey to discover

the leader within themselves while following you. So a leader can never take a person to a place that he or she has not been themselves. That's number two. And I think the third thing is really understanding. If I'm going to lead, leading is not about telling, leading is about asking. Because if you believe in the Socratic method of learning, the answer is in the question. So how do I ask you to invite you on a journey to find the leader by finding the answer because you heard the question? Oh, awesome. Connection is the new currency, not just like communicating, right? So that personal relationship. I think right now it's so

important to ask people how they're doing and really like show care about them because we all need that absolutely yeah go ahead simon p yeah so when i say connectedness is the new currency to what you just said it's also letting them know that they matter. Yeah. As they are now dealing with changes of, you know, spouses back home, kids from school, and how we want each other to evolve. It's just taking a minute to say, it's okay if there's a barking dog or if the cat runs in or the child, it's okay. And we as an organization are not going to think differently about you because you're dealing with variables that can't be controlled. And it's that leader that is both empathetic and also authentic at the same time. And that's what people really need during this time.

Yeah. Isn't that true? And I also see those are the people that we want to get behind, the authentic leaders and then the empathetic leaders. So two qualities that are excellent. So Simon T, what do you think gets in the way of people like releasing their brilliance? So some of the brilliance blockers, number one is people stand in their own way because they never upgrade their verbal software. Language is the software of the mind. So if you want to see where a person is going, spend time listening to how they talk to themselves about themselves or how they talk about others. I think the second thing that blocks a person's brilliance is inconsistency. So as you know, at the beginning of the year, everyone sets a New Year's resolution.

Well, I think we need to debunk New Year's resolutions. And I think we need to focus on intentional outcomes. Because when I am intentional about an outcome, I don't do it with a gun held to my head. I do it because I want to. And I make incremental improvement every single day. So inconsistency blocks brilliance. Okay. Okay, excellent. I'm thinking about the diamond metaphor and the three C's you were talking about in your book. And you said, I'll quote you right now.

You said, diamond people understand the connection between thoughts, beliefs, actions, and outcomes. And I think that's a little bit about kind of what you're getting at right there. Tell us why that's important and how you see like people that are connected with their brilliance, how they do see that connection between the thoughts and the actions. Yeah. So what you think about, you bring about, right? So as I think, so I become. And the reason it connects to beliefs is the prefix for beliefs is to be, right?

So if I'm going to move from my thinking to my being, I have to be mindful of how am I showing up in what I'm releasing out of my mouth, because language carries energy. Then the reason it moves to action is because now I'm mindful of here's what I'm thinking, here's what I'm saying, here's what I'm feeling, and now let's put my feet in motion to go towards it. So it's the action step that increases my faith and my belief in my being that I'm moving in the right direction. Let me say to you a different way. So the moment you get in your car and you put the key in the ignition, you turn the car, depending on how the car is positioned, your goal is to drive forward until you actually put the key in the ignition and turn the car over or hit the button and it starts. The car has all the potential to move, but it won't move until you do it. So in

other words, some people just need to do the work and get in motion. And as you get in motion, you will figure it out. So I'm in the car, I'm heading to a destination, but sometimes GPS has to say reroute because you're going in the direction you don't want to go, but it would have never rerouted if you were not in motion. Yeah. Excellent. And there's something else you talk about in the book that I wanted to ask you about. And you talk about like brilliance through balance. And I just thought this was really powerful. And I wanted to for you to share it with those people who are listening. So tell us what you meant by that. Yeah, so in I want to I want to update my thinking. Because one of the things I realized when I wrote that,

I believed everything needs to be in balance. And here's the God's honest truth. Yeah. Here is no balance. I know. It's integration. How do I now integrate my brilliance into the core areas of my life? So for those that are listening to us right now, if you were to rate yourself on how are you doing spiritually, health-wise, family, financially, educationally, socially, and how do you integrate, instead of having balance, how do you integrate all the parts of your life to get the best outcomes? And that comes with reflection, feedback, and action. Nice, nice, excellent. Okay, I completely agree that I don't really like to use the word balance. I'm not really sure what that means.

And I think the word balance means like when I use it, that it's like, well, it's everything is perfect. But it adds some flows. Yeah. When you think about your books and either this book, Release Your Brilliance, or the other books that you have wrote, which one or which concept from the book do you think is most helpful right now for people who are dealing with uncertainty and change in COVID-19? Yeah, so the thing to think about as it relates to your brilliance is we do what we do until it doesn't work. And brilliance is shifted.

When I understand that my tomorrows are better than today and the future is created in the present. So if I am to move towards a future to a better tomorrow, how do I show up today in my brilliance, which means I'm going to have to let go of my ignorance. The root word for ignorance is what I, what have I been ignoring? Right? So if I move to brilliance right now, during this time, I've got to say, I've been ignoring things. Let me put it to you a different way. I was just on the phone with a medical doctor yesterday.

She is on the front line of COVID-19. She sees almost 3,000 patients a year, 100 patients a week, and has for the last few weeks is in the Boston area. And her and her medical team have had to move from hotel to hotel because some hotels are closing. Some hotels don't serve room service. I mean, you figure the whole nine hours. And she said to me, Simon, as a medical doctor,

she said, people are not dying just because of the virus. She said, they are being killed by fear. Fear is killing them. And she said, when the immune system is lowered, the immune system is lowered because of fear. So the virus, yes, virus happens, it's real, but it's the fear that's killing people. And when she said it, I said, there it is. So the most important thing, I think everyone listening to us is to decide that fear is evicted from your head, from your mind, from your thoughts. Fear can no longer live in the

household of your destiny. I think the next thing to realize that when you decide, and she said something very powerful. It's like, oh my goodness. She said, all of the resources the body needs to heal itself is inside of us. Think about that. So overcome COVID-19. I just decided I hear about COVID-19. I'm going to wash my hands. I'm going to do everything I'm told to do. But COVID-19, I choose not to participate because I need to create the future starting today. Wow. I'm so grateful that you shared that story. And from her perspective, like how fear is killing people, is she seeing that like maybe people are like overreacting to the symptoms or that they get them and then they believe that they're going to die. And so the belief that they're going to die ends up leading to that. Like give us a little more insight on what she was saying. So she's saying she sees 100

patients a week and has for the last three weeks. She said a person comes to a hospital where the entire hospital is COVID-19 patients, and they're gripped in the vice grip of fear that, oh my goodness, I'm going to die. Because the prevailing narrative that they have heard, right, coming to the hospital is, okay, you know the prognosis. But then what drives it even more is isolation because you're not connected to family. Family cannot come and see you. So if you are isolated as you now go through this, you are alone with your thoughts. And fear becomes more powerful than the belief that I will get through this. There is a cure.

I will breathe again. And so when we find that resolve within ourselves, as I was listening to her, is to not be overwhelmed by the fear all around you, but find your place of strength to say, I will get through this. I'm so grateful that you shared that, Simon T. And I think about your perspective on like, you know, that you're just not going to participate in COVID-19. Yes. You know what to do. You know, like how to care for yourself right now. Yep. Yep. Exactly. You're in Orlando, which there, you know, there's a lot of people who live in Orlando. Give us a sense of like, because I appreciate your positivity and just like using the opportunity. Tell us how your business has shifted because I want people to hear that too, that this time isn't easy, easy, you know, you have to pivot and transform. So, you know, and just, just as an

example for people who are listening on like how you can still stay proactive with your mindset, even though your business is shifting? Well, first of all, I lost six figures worth of revenue confirmed and contracted inside of a seven day period, less than seven days, six figures of revenue gone. That was supposed to be realized in 45 days. And after I had my moment, right. And, and anybody who says that they never have moments, they will sell you a piece of swamp land later. Okay. So don't believe them. Yeah. I had my moment and I honored it. I said, okay, here's where we are. But I went to bed that night and I got up the next day and I took a shower and I shaved and I got in motion as if I had some place to go.

If it was only from my bedroom to my home office. And I got into the motion of now I must transcend. I must transform and I must embrace the reality of what is happening. Own it. Own it, let it move through me, but I don't have to park there. So many people will hear about crisis and they will park there. And here's the deal. Life is not a remote control. You can change the channel on your tell, tell, T-E-L-L, a vision. Life is not a remote control. Change the channel on your television. And that's what I decided to do. So number one, I limited my media intake. I have not watched the news in 24 hours. I don't even look at it on my

phone because I'm so locked into my mindset of this COVID-19 is a gift. Second thing, I time block and I talk to people specific times, but if they want to go into all the crisis and people are like, ah, you know what? I am so sorry. I got to go. Have a nice day because I don't want that thinking to jump on me. And then the third thing is I reach out and I encourage people via text, via video. I do a daily spark that is uploaded to LinkedIn and have for about the last 45 days, hugging people with my words, letting people know that they matter and that we will get through this together. Connectedness is the new currency. Awesome. Boom. There we go. And just for people to wrap that, your brain around like that COVID-19 is a gift, you know, and I realized people are

coming, they're experiencing so many different things during this time period. But if you can shift it to how can I learn? How can I grow? How is this happening I think about I use this Byron Katie quote is like how is this happening um for me not to me you know just that same idea of just seeing it as like and just your great role model for how you're using this time to be the best version of yourself when I was looking at your website T, I saw that you have a course that people can enroll in, Release Your Brilliance. And I was like, I'm going to sign up. So tell us about that course and then we'll wrap up. Yes. So the whole take control of your life, shift your brilliance course is all around how do you grab hold to the steering wheel of your future and be equipped with the

directions to drive into your future instead of being controlled by the backseat passengers of worry and fear. So I really begin to walk you through specific steps. There's a workbook that you download, 100 plus page workbook. There are videos of me teaching in micro content, bite-sized chunks, but then you were invited to do the deeper work to understand what's that shift I need to make so that I can take control. Excellent. And tell us where else, Simon T. Bailey, I know is your website, but where else can we find you? LinkedIn. I love the idea of like the daily spark where we can follow you there. Where is the best place to like buy your books and then follow you?

Yeah, certainly you can go on Amazon. All of my books are there. I do have three books available in audible.com. So if people like to listen and certainly all of my books are in ebook form as well. And is there, are you on LinkedIn? Is that your best social or is there another way? LinkedIn is my number one platform that I love. I love LinkedIn, Instagram, and it's all my name, Simon T Bailey, T like terrific. T like terrific. So Simon, I wrote down some things that I thought were most powerful today as a way to wrap up. So people, if you haven't been taking notes, get your notepad out, write these things down. So these were my nuggets that I took from you today. We are not born to be small or to play small, but we are born to be brilliant and to really

tap into our brilliance. The three questions that you suggested we ask ourselves, like to help us really connect with our brilliance. You said, um, what would I do if I, if I couldn't fail, what would I do if people didn't pay me? Uh,

what makes me come alive? Yes. And I loved our conversation about like authenticity, embracing your story, owning your story. Uh, we talked about ego is edging greatness out and just like right now what people need in terms of leadership is like empathetic uh connected leadership that is

authentic um and then the end about fear i think just this idea that we don't want let we don't want to let fear kill us um so making sure that we're staying in the present and connecting to our gifts and our brilliance at this time. Wow, that's awesome. I want your notes. I can't hardly read them. Kind of messy, but it doesn't matter. So Simon, thank you so much for joining us today. I know everybody is so grateful that you are on the podcast today. Thank you so much. Pleasure to serve you. pump. Holy cow, did that go by way too fast for anyone else? If you want more, remember to subscribe and you can head over to Dr. Sindra for show notes and to join my exclusive community for

high performers where you get access to videos about mindset each week. So again, you can head over to Dr. Sindra. That's D-R-I-C-I-N-D-R-A.com. See you next week.