The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – The Magic of Art: How Creativity Heals and Inspires with Artist and Life Coach Inam

Episode Date: September 15, 2024

The Magic of Art: How Creativity Heals and Inspires with Artist and Life Coach Inam Whispersoftheflight.com About the Guest(s): Inam is a celebrated artist, prolific poet, and playwright with international acclaim. Born in Pakistan and affected by polio at a young age, Inam found solace in art. With the guidance of an influential teacher, he turned his pain into beauty and has become renowned for his textured landscapes. Besides his art, Inam is also a staunch advocate for polio eradication and an empathetic life coach. He combines traditional techniques with holistic methods, inspired by Sufi wisdom, to help his clients achieve personal transformation. Episode Summary: In this episode of "The Chris Voss Show," we dive deep into the inspiring journey of Inam, a world-renowned artist, and committed life coach. Despite being born into hardship and affected by polio, Inam's incredible resilience has led him to find solace and success in art. He discusses his coaching techniques, the profound influence of Sufi wisdom, and his dedication to helping others through holistic practices. Inam explains how his early experiences shaped his artistic journey and life philosophy. After finding his purpose through art, guided by a compassionate teacher, he has been using his skills to transform his own and others' lives. His new book, "Whispers of the Flight," encapsulates Sufi teachings and aims to spark personal transformation in its readers. Tune in to learn more about his unique coaching methods, which include spirituality, art therapy, and even the use of aroma therapy and weighted blankets to ease anxiety. Key Takeaways: Art as Transformation: Inam's journey from a child affected by polio to a world-renowned artist exemplifies the transformative power of art. Holistic Life Coaching: Inam uses a blend of traditional and unique methods, including spirituality and Sufi wisdom, to help his clients achieve personal growth. Importance of Self-Awareness: Discovering oneself is crucial for wisdom and personal development, a theme deeply embedded in Inam's coaching and literary work. Message of Unity: Inam's work emphasizes the importance of seeing oneself as part of the larger universe, fostering a sense of belonging and harmony. Success and Continuity: Despite the challenges, Inam continues to create, write, and inspire others through his books and coaching, always spreading a message of resilience and inner peace. Notable Quotes: "The universe works with you, feels you out, and provides an opportunity that changes your life." "Life is all about the journey and not the destination." "Spirituality is something that I would say 90% of the people believe in and they can relate to it." "I'm proud to put nature back in the nature." "Understanding yourself is the key to all wisdom."

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast. The hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show. The preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready. Get ready. Strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times, because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. This is Voss here from the chrisvossshow.com. Ladies and gentlemen, the Iron Lady sings, and that makes it official. 16 years, 2,000 episodes. In August of 2024, we have been bringing you the Chris Voss Show,

and we continue to bring you even more. We'll probably be, what, 3,000 episodes by the end of next year. If not more, we're accelerating at a pace where we do so much more than we used to. Anyway, guys, for the first 10 years that we did. But anyway, guys, for further sure, your family, friends, and relatives, go to goodreads.com fortress chris voss linkedin.com fortress chris voss chris voss one on the tiktokity and all those crazy places you can find us on the internet there's just crazy places out there which is kind of weird because there's probably some crazy places we shouldn't claim there's a lot of crazy on the internet but that's another thing

today we have a return of a guest that we just had, I believe, last month. Enam joins us. His book we covered called Whispers of the Flight, A Voyage to Cosmic Unity. We featured on the podcast, so make sure you go back and listen to that episode, if you will. We'll be building some more on his amazing book, his amazing artwork, and his amazing coaching that he takes and does. So be sure to pick that up in his book wherever you can wherever fine books are sold Enon the author was born into hardship and affected by polio but found solace in art turning pain into beauty despite numerous obstacles he became a

celebrated artist through resilience and creativity his appreciation for Sufi wisdom revealed the universe's mysteries to him. He's also a prolific poet and playwright with international acclaim. He believes that Sufism is an advanced and more comprehensive version of manifesting self-awareness techniques. Self-awareness, who knew? We need more of that in this world. No more victimhood, folks. Let's stop there. One does not need to follow a specific religion to understand and apply the methods and tools described in his book to embark on the path of Sufi personal transformation. All the methods outlined in the book are non- non-nominational. And if you're a fan of Rumi's wisdom, you'll love Whispers of the Flight. We'll

get into what that means. Inam, welcome to the show. How are you? Thank you so much for inviting me again, Chris. I'm really grateful, honored to be on your show, and I'm really doing great. We're honored to have you, and I'm glad you're doing great. Give us your dot coms. Where can people find you on the interwebs? I'm going to give you maybe three dot coms. One is my art website, which is mostly used by everybody all around the world, which is inamgallery.com. I-N-A-M-G-A-L-L-E-R-Y.com. The website for the book is whispersoftheflight, as the name of the

book,.com. And my life coaching website is elevatelife.guru, G-U-R-U. Your book was released on August 16th. It's been a few weeks since. How's things been going? Things are better than I expected. The book has been selling at one of the top 2% of Amazon list. First week, it was the top number one book on Amazon in three categories. So I'm very excited.

I was not expecting this kind of a success. It's doing extremely well. I'm very happy about it. And it's continuing to do well. And I think some success you can claim, Chris, because your first release of the show definitely had something to do with it too. I'll claim all of it.

No, I'm just it no i'm just kidding i'm sure that there's other people out there so yeah it's people should go back and listen that episode from last month just put in inam you should be able to pick an enum's name up and in the search bar of the chris voss show and of course most of you listen to the show 96 of the people listen to the show all the way through. So you probably may have heard it, but go back and listen to it again. That or don't read the damn book already. So one thing we talked about last time was your life coaching. And tell us more about what you do, what specific methods you use, and what's unique to your practice versus others. I'm going to start with a little history, okay? I'm very much involved

with the local communities here in atlanta area primarily involved with helping out single moms uh orphanages you know kids needing help the teenagers who you know get into trouble and needing help advisors and keeping them on the path you know i've been doing it for the last 20 some years on a just private basis, just going and volunteering myself with different organizations. And so that's that accumulated that gave me the knowledge base, you know, the database of common problems that people face and issues that people face. And I'm talking about all sorts of issues from childhood to people that even at 90 years of age. So I've dealt all of them in the last 20 years or so. And since I used to do a radio program like yourself and a TV program, people knew me and they used to call me for advice online and then started happening on

the phone. They started happening face to face. So I gathered a lot of experience myself. Then I decided recently to, you know, maybe I should go back and get certified as a life coach and do this professionally and offering my services to the people because of all the knowledge that I have gained. And my practices are a little traditional. You know, I'm not a medical professional, so I don't get involved in any of the medical stuff. I'm not a certified therapist. I'm not a psychologist. I'm not a PhD in the field, so I don't get involved with that kind of a service. But what I do get involved is pure life coaching. And that involves common sense coaching to begin with, to give people the level of comfort that they open up with me and

talk to me. And then, you know, based on my experience and experiences of multiple people that I have interacted with in the past 20 years, I share with them what has been successful and what has not been successful. So everybody's unique, you know, and their own issues are, you know, they have their own issues to deal with. But in majority of the cases, there are similarities, there are patterns, and they do work out very well. But I even go beyond that and apply certain techniques that I have learned through different people, certain masters, reading books, reading, going to seminars, you know, gaining my own insight is to go a little bit holistic in my approach

in the life coaching side of the business. For example, I definitely use spiritual healing, you know, as my book is nothing but a spiritual inner cleansing. So there are methods that help people out. And regardless of what religion you follow or you don't follow a religion, spirituality is something that I would say 90% of the people believe in and they can relate to it. So I definitely use spirituality as a tool because I have tremendous amount of experience in that field following the Sufi methodologies and I'm trained in different

other techniques also coming from South Asia like India and all that too. And I'm trained in different other techniques also coming from South Asia like India and all that too. So I combined that, I even combined aroma therapy into my teachings. I even combined techniques that work with me by the way, was like weighted blanket. People who sometimes go through anxiety in such a way that they are not there they're kind of afraid of the world for example and I went through that process myself one part of my life and the weighted blanket technique helped me tremendously well I've been a student of Jose Silva I have been certified in silver thing I'm a true believer in his teachings and certain techniques, very small techniques that he has taught do work very well.

For example, the water glass technique, you know, you drink a glass or a couple of sips of water before you go to bed at night with an intention. And in many cases, you'll be surprised at how easily those intentions become a reality in your life. Really? If you apply those techniques. So I apply, you know, all those things. You know, of course, meditation, generic meditation helps. I always tell my clients that I'm not a medical profession, that exercise on a regular basis helps a whole lot.

And that takes care of a lot of anxiety and a lot of other issues that people can't control depression and it helps out so i always tell and exercise myself too as a result of that because it helps me out you know even cross boundaries and if if i see a person having interest in art so i suggest go take dancing lessons and even dance at home alone listen to the music alone and that has helped tremendously to you know many people and of course we do overall visualization techniques also so these are all the different techniques that I utilize in my holistic life coaching experience in addition to creating a foundation first,

making sure that I understand to the best of my knowledge what the issue is on the table and how we can resolve these issues. And some of the techniques work in some cases and some techniques work in some other cases. Definitely, definitely good stuff there to make everything work. Now, your origin story, let's go to that and talk about how you grew up. I think what really struck me from our last interview was, you know, how you discovered art that changed your life and has made your life, I think, great through adversity. So tell us a little bit about how you grew up and how you went down that journey. Absolutely, Chris.

I was born in South Asia, in Pakistan. And before I became one year old, I was infected with polio. And of course, it affected heavily on my right leg. And when I was at the age of walking, like two years old, my right foot was 45 degrees angle. And my knee was about 15 degrees twisted. So I was able to walk, but with a lot of difficulty. And that's how I grew up.

And when I turned five years old, of course, I was mentally all fine. So I had to go and get admitted to a normal average school. And, you know, kids can be brutal. And so I was facing all the adversity, all the issues going to the school and being called so many different names. And above all, it was all boys' school. And above all, I was not able to play or take part in any of the sports activities because of my drawback. And that was a huge issue for a five-year-old child.

And you felt inferior. You felt you lose your confidence. And you start building a personality which is not very positive. You can't build something positive on that kind of a foundation. But my good luck that my art teacher identified me as someone who's sitting in the corner and not being very happy with life. But she took me to the art room one day. And she said, Would you spend the time when the kids are outside playing, learning how to draw and paint? And I said, I would love to do that. And that was I had no option. I mean, I have to say yes. So I had no idea that I was able to draw or paint.

I was five years old. And she started teaching me on a daily basis, five days a week, and lasted Chris for five years. Wow. So by the time I was 10, I was drawing portraits with pencils on a piece of paper like any other professional artist would do. Wow. So that gave me the foundation of the art on a daily basis that I actually needed to gain confidence, to face the adversity,

to find a solace, to find a spot where I excelled, where others didn't. And all the credit goes to that teacher. And I can never repay her. Have you ever seen her since? Did she see you become a successful artist? Or did you ever follow up or bump into her again? I was always in touch with her. I was always in touch when I went to high school. I was always in touch with college.

I came to the U.S. in 1984 as a student for my master's. And I was in touch with her at that time too. She was the first one to receive my phone call when I finished my MBA and all that. And three years after that, she passed away. And I did attend. I was able to fly back and attend her funeral because she was like my second mother who really gave me all the confidence in the world that that I needed basically to to proceed further so that's something that I I just

I just can't I'm still in connection in contact with her family members her kids and they're like my brothers and sisters and so after that I didn't do professional art you know never did professional art until then I was first exposed to oils and canvases for the first time in the U.S. and frankly speaking I was not able to afford canvases and oils growing up in Pakistan. Oh wow. And I And I found my job after I finished my MBA, required travel primarily to Eastern Europe. And that's where I saw the prettiest birch trees in the world. And I fell in love with those trees. I started painting those trees. I started as a portrait artist.

I did all sorts of art. I did seascapes. I did abstract work. I did landscape. I did everything. And I still do. I mean, whenever there is a need. But now I'm known throughout the world as a landscape artist who uses a lot of texture on a very thick canvas.

If you see my painting from the side, because it's at minimum half an inch thick or sometimes an inch thick with paint. Holy crap, that's a lot of paint. That's a lot of paint. And that's my forte. There's a lot of Bob Roth going on there. That's my forte.

And you're going to laugh at this, that oil paint is not easy to play with. You know, it takes a couple of months to dry. Oh, really? Since 80% of what I do goes to Europe, I had to fold the cannabis to ships and it will break in shipment too. I was looking for a medium that I can mix with oil to make it thicker and harder and stronger. I tried everything in the world that they manufactured in the industry. Nothing worked perfectly for me. One day I was at Home Depot and I saw a lot of sawdust on the ground. And I said, you know, let me try sawdust mixing it with oils.

Really? Yeah. I mixed it up with oil at 40-60 ratio. And I cannot tell you how that day, how happy I was. Why? Because A, the painting dried in two days. days and b I was able to roll it up in one week and ship it to Europe and I've been doing it for 20 years and not a single piece has been returned as a cracked piece since wow and it probably creates some unique textures it does

it it sure does it creates a thicker texture and I very proud to say, and I use this line all the time in my exhibitions, that I'm proud to put nature back in the nature. Ah, I like that. Nature back in the nature. And your paintings are usually of nature. That's correct. It's all landscapes. It's primarily all landscapes.

I take commission work for all of those, you know, landscapes too, portraits too, but it's maybe less than 5% of my work. But 95% is all landscapes basically nature work. But I love your story, your origin story, your hero's journey. And that's just so great. And I think we highlighted this a little bit last time you were on, but talking about how important it was that someone, you know, took interest in you and cared about your potential and your journey, you know, and changed your life. where people people help each other out and they don't realize that sometimes that can be you know one of the greatest things that you can change someone's life i you know i cited in my book two or three stories where someone changed my life and they changed it i mean i i shudder to think what my life would be like if it had not been for these just moments, these blips of influence that were, I mean,

they literally took my life and turned it at 180 around, and I can't imagine what my life would be like without their influence. And so I think I just love your story that that woman took interest in you, taught you art, and here you found this great outlet for yourself that inspires and helps other people that's true and and the moment that you are referring to chris i believe in there are no coincidences i believe in the fact that the universe works with you feels you out and provides an opportunity people conditions environment timing where you basically meet with the resolution or the solution that changes your life and that's my moment was that

moment when i was sitting in the corner of that classroom very sad not being able to do anything i used to wear those shoes if you remember remember, like in Forrest Gump. Like Forrest Gump, the ones with the rails on the legs and stuff. My sister used to wear those. Yeah. They're not fun to deal with. They are not fun to deal with.

They clank and they're heavy. Back then, they were probably all steel, too. They were steel. I think now they probably can make them with something lighter. That's true. Yeah, it's a challenge. You come through this, and now you can inspire other people. You can influence other people through the help that someone else gave to you.

And off you go. That's true. I'm sure that I was probably not born like this, you know, with all these feelings and, you know, whatever I do for others. It was her teachings and it was not that she was teaching art only. She was implanting certain seeds, you know, in my heart. And my parents were like that too too like my parents also promoted certain feelings in me that you know we used to buy lunches at the cafeteria in the school and they would give me twice the money because they were able to afford that to buy lunch and they would always say that

you find a kid who cannot afford buy the lunch for him too your parents did that wow yeah from the beginning and amazing you amazing. You know, you build these things in your heart and your mind that you're not alone in here. You're part of, you know, it's one thing that you're part of. And if you're taking care of someone else, it's actually taking care of yourself. So these experiences changed my life totally. Now I'm part of UNICEF. I'm part of Bill and Linda Gates Foundation, Rotary Club. I go out and speak on behalf of these organizations for the polio eradication programs all throughout. And there are only two or three countries left where this polio exists now and still exists.

And hopefully it will go away in the next five years with all the efforts. So I actively work in the local communities also. All this is not me. It's all this is the teachings of my teachers and my parents who implanted these seeds in my heart, which is producing fruits today. And now you coach people with your work and help them achieve their goals and stuff. How can people onboard with you on your website or interact with you? How do they onboard to see if they're a fit for you and some of your programs that they can review? Sure.

We go through an onboarding and making sure that I'm a fit for them, you know. And that process, the best thing is to go on my website, which is elevatelife.guru dot g-u-r-u is the website and people go on and be clicking you can go on that website there's a form a detailed form unfortunately i have to see just to make sure that if i'm the right fit for them or not so i go through all that and I don't entertain two clients per day. That's all. I don't take more. It's not, my purpose is not to make money out of it. My purpose is to give proper, dedicated, focused time to everyone. We say an hour long session, but a lot of times it ends up in two hours and two and a half hours. So that's okay with me, but I want to make sure that I find the person that I can bring some value to. And if I don't, then I do recommend that person to other people who can actually benefit

them. So again, the website is elevatelife.guru, G-U-R-U. And your listeners are more than welcome to go on there if they have a need. I'll be more than happy to evaluate. And looking over the website, you've got several, you've got your life coach, you've got the process there. They can schedule an appointment. And I just love how you're paying it forward, helping people where they need the inspiration like you did. They can sign up for a free consultation, I guess, a 30-minute Zoom. Absolutely. There's a free consultation first. And that happens after I read the form, make sure they're a good fit. And then I call up and say, okay, let's have a free consultation

first. Because then they'll have to be happy with me too. You know, there has to be a match of chemistry between me and them. And it's not from my side only. It has to be from their side also. If that happens, then that produces better results. Did you write the book to promote your life coaching business? Or is it just kind of an add-on? No, no, absolutely not.

I mean, it's a funny story also there is that i had my because of polio my whole structure of the body is you know it is it has a lot of issues it's not only the age chris it's a lot of mileage too i had my on that one i had my left knee replaced and unfortunately i, I developed what they call DVT, the blood clots in my arteries or veins in my left leg. And it was a very painful process for me for about two months. And I was kind of bedridden. And I read my books a lot. But I was looking for a good reader, a good read, something different.

And my youngest son, who was also a good reader or regular reader, brought me a very thick, heavy, but beautifully illustrated book because I like art. I'm an artist. For me to have a look at it. And it was an English translation of a Persian poem written 900 years ago by a Sufi philosopher known as Fariduddin Attar. Rumi actually spent some days with him, learning a few things from him as a child when Rumi was only 10, 12 years old. And that original poem is 4,600 verses long. Oh, wow. Yeah. So this book, English Translation, was a summary of that poem. When I read that book, I was completely blown away with the concepts, the theories behind the book. And I clearly saw a path for me and for others that if I follow the teachings in the book, then I can have a much

happier and healthier life. So I started to learn more and to study more because I don't speak Persian language. I don't understand. So I retained a professor of Persian language and learned from her for six months, understand all the details of it. And then I said, you know, if I write another translation, it has been translated into 80 different languages. It's not going to hold any value and nobody's going to read. So I wanted to write a book that everybody can read, a novel with a story attached to it, bringing the story to America for the people like my own kids can read. So I ended up writing a simple novel but inserting all the teachings of Attar as written in this poem into the novel. So as the readers read the novel they enjoy the novel,

the story, the characters. At the same time, they get the messages embedded in the book so that they can go through an inner cleansing process and hopefully become a better person or a transformed person when they finish off the novel. And you painted the book cover yourself. Yes, I did, sir. It has your artwork right on there. That's true, as you can see behind me, too. I'm very proud of it. It came out extremely well.

I wanted to stay true to the subject because the original poem is about the birds. It's a journey of the birds. The 30 birds reach the destination. I don't want to go into the details of all that. But it's a story of the birds, basically. And the English version of the poetry is called The Conference of the Birds, and that's why it's known in the, if you may, in the book industry, the poem. I wanted to stay true to the concept, to the poem,

and that's why I ended up drawing or painting. It's oil, actually, on canvas, the painting which I use as the cover, and I've received enormous amount of compliments of the book cover because if you go back and read even the comments people have written on Amazon after purchasing the book and reading the book, they have mentioned about the book, of course, but at the same time, they have mentioned that they have not seen a prettier book cover than this before. So I'm honored.

It's a great story, a great lesson, et, etc. All that sort of good stuff. What's the future hold for you? Is there more books coming on the horizon? Are you going to focus on the coaching? Anything new coming up you want to plug? I'm definitely focusing on coaching. There is no doubt about that. I would like to, because this professional coaching is new to me, just a few months old. Before that, I was doing all ad hoc, you know, on the pro bono basis. And I'm not charging a whole lot, even when I'm doing it professionally. But I would like to focus on that. I already have ideas for the next four books, but I have not started writing. Just for the second book, I have done the basics,

which is about 20 pages or so, the table of contents, what I have in my mind, an intro and stuff like that. But hopefully, maybe in the next 12 months or so, I might be able to finish up that book also. And hopefully, I'll be back on your show again then. Yeah, we'll have you on for the other book and we'll just keep rocking. So this has been fun to have you on. Your story is inspiring, Enum. People just love it and they'll love the book. Give people the dot coms you want them to check out as we go out and where they can pick up the book.

Sure. I mean, the best thing is you can go on Amazon and just type in Enum, which is I-N-A-M. You can type in the name of the book, Whispers of the Flight. You can type in the category, which is Spiritual Self-Help, and you will get to this book. There are three versions of the book available on Amazon right now, which is eKindle version, paperback, and hardcover. I'm hopeful my publisher is a bit late on the audible

version but we should be able to upload that within two weeks from today so by the time hopefully your show is up that fourth version will also be available on it. But quickly if you give me a minute I want to add one more thing to it regarding the book is that you know the book is book and I've mentioned that it's a novel based on what, but I really want your audience to know that if they end up reading the book, what will they take home as a message or what, you know, what kind of transformation they might actually go through this. So there are multiple messages in the book, but there are four distinct messages, if you allow me to end with that. The number one is that the book tries to teach that life is all about the journey and not the destination.

That we always forget. We try to hit so hard on the destination that we lose the flavor or the enjoyment of the journey. Sometimes, like the story of Lord of the Rings, for example, right? The hero is the whole story. So successful, so beautifully written is about the journey of the hero. It's not about the destination. So that's the number one message that people will take, but we'll take it in a different way.

The Sufi way, the Sufi approach, how the Sufi methodology teaches that. The number one is that the book teaches you how to stay calm in life, when we give too much focus on outward world, on the toys, and spending 16 to 18 hours of work and making as much money as possible, which is not a bad thing to do against making money. But what happens is that we at the same time, we have to go through an inner cleansing process. Also, we I mean, for example, there is a level of physics, Newtonian physics, you know, all the all the laws we are aware of their work. But there is a new form of physics that people discovered in the last few decades, which is the quantum physics, which looks inside subatomic level. It has its own world.

And that world apparently is much larger than the world that we see. Similarly, the book also teaches you how to look inside at the subatomic level and discover yourself to reach to the level of satisfaction that the outer world cannot provide you and you will experience that if you read that book number third goal is that they it also teaches the importance of self-awareness and as the socrates once said that know yourself you know that's the first step life. The same person an adult should do is to know yourself, who you are. And he believed that understanding yourself is the key to all wisdom. And the book teaches that also that, you know, how you can go about and find a method that will help you to discover yourself, your reason for your existence in this universe, not only in this

world, in this universe. And lastly, the most important message that the book tries to give you is the importance that we are all part of the same universe and this cosmic unity. And it can influence the sense of belonging, sense of harmony, and a strong belief that you're not alone in this world. And that's a huge thing, especially in the Western world, that why Rumi is the most read writer in the West is because he provides you a spiritual help in such a way that you don't feel alone. And the book also provides you the same thing, basically, to find the unity with the universe and how you can go and find yourself entangled with the universe and aligned to the others. So these are the four distinct messages that the book gives you. And hopefully at the end of this, it transforms a person and hopefully some of the people, if not all.

Well, it's been fun to have you on, Enam. Thank you very much for coming on and sharing your wisdom on the show. Thank you, Chris. Thanks so much for tuning in. Order up his book wherever fine books are sold. Give me the title. I've closed that. Oh, there it is.

The title of the book is called? Whispers of the Flight. Whispers of the Flight. Whispers of the Flight. Too many tabs on the Chris Foster browser. I'm one of those people that I have a tab addiction. Like yesterday, I started running out of tabs. I'm like, where's that tab I just opened? And because I had too many on Chrome, it was like overflowing, I guess, to space.

So, you know, thanks for coming on the show. Check out the book, folks, Whispers of the Flight, wherever fine books are sold out August 16th. And be sure to refer the shorty family, friends, and relatives. Go to goodreads.com and all those crazy places on the internet. Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe. We'll see you guys next time.