The Mindset Mentor - Keeping Positive & Beating Cancer w/ Hal Elrod

Episode Date: October 27, 2017

Episode 342 - Hal Elrod has died once. Now he can say he beat cancer. Recently cancer free, Hal takes us through what it was like to be diagnosed with cancer and how he only accepted that he had cancer but also remained extremely positive while fighting it. This is my favorite interview I have done to date, I can't wait for you to listen to it! Want to learn more about Mindset Mentor+? For nearly nine years, the Mindset Mentor Podcast has guided you through life's ups and downs. Now, you can dive even deeper with Mindset Mentor Plus. Turn every podcast lesson into real-world results with detailed worksheets, journaling prompts, and a supportive community of like-minded people. Enjoy monthly live Q&A sessions with me, and all this for less than a dollar a day. If you’re committed to real, lasting change, this is for you.Join here 👉 www.mindsetmentor.com My first book that I’ve ever written is now available. It’s called LEVEL UP and It’s a step-by-step guide to go from where you are now, to where you want to be as fast as possible.📚If you want to order yours today, you can just head over to robdial.com/bookHere are some useful links for you… If you want access to a multitude of life advice, self development tips, and exclusive content daily that will help you improve your life, then you can follow me around the web at these links here:Instagram TikTokFacebookYoutube

When you go on holiday, there is no finer achievement than doing absolutely nothing. Nothing on the beach, nothing by the pool, walking kind of nowhere and chatting about nothing. As an Expedia member, you can save up to 30% when you add a hotel to your flight. So you can have a bit more money to go out there with great ambition to do absolutely nothing. Expedia, made to travel. Welcome to the MWF Motivation Podcast, one of the top rated motivational podcasts in the world. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I come out with a short, to the point, no BS podcast designed to transform you from who you are today into who you want to be. There's no fluff here, just life-changing content. My name is Rob Dial, and the podcast starts now.

Welcome to today's episode. If you have not yet done so, please subscribe to us, however you listen to us. And let's just dive in. Today is an amazing, amazing episode. So Hal Elrod, if you guys don't know, was actually one of my very first mentors. And he was in a car accident where he was hit head on by a drunk driver when he was 20 years old, pronounced dead, was in a coma for six days after that, and was told he would never walk again and was able to walk again. Now he's an amazing coach, amazing speaker. And he was actually diagnosed last year, just over a year ago with cancer. And glad to say he was able to tell me today on the podcast that he is now cancer free. But it's an amazing episode that I have here for you. And this is one of his very first episodes talking, first interviews talking about having cancer in his mindset through it. I love a lot

of the guests we've had on, but I would say this is my favorite interview that I've ever done on the podcast. It is amazing to hear somebody who is completely selfless and helping other people while still going through his own situation with cancer. But this is just an amazing, amazing episode. We talk about a lot of different stuff. We talk about his mindset during it, how affirmations helped him, how he believes your mind actually deals, you know, whatever you think goes completely into biology and the way that your body is going to be. So he was constantly telling himself that he was getting healthier. Just there's so many different great aspects of this. And now that he's cancer free, he talks about his new foundation that he has for me.

It's an amazing episode. I don't even want to speak anymore. I just want you guys to dive in and be able to listen to it. I apologize for the audio quality. I thought my mic was plugged in, but it actually wasn't. So my mic that I was being used, it's not terrible. It's actually a mic for my headphones. So without further ado, this is the episode with Hal Elrod.

Welcome to the MWF Motivation Podcast. I am excited. I'm coming to you live from Florence, Italy. And I have Hal Elrod, who, if you don't know, was actually one of my very first mentors with his best friend, John Berghoff, when I was 19 years old. I hired them to be my mentors. And I paid more to have them my mentors every single month than I actually paid in rent at 19 years old. And it was the best investment that I ever made in my entire life because I feel like my life was, I was at the point in my life where I was, I could have gone two different ways.

I could have gone the crazy party route of being in college, which I did do for a little while. But I was at that fork and I forked and went a different way once I started in Cutco and once I had them as mentors. And when I actually started investing myself in a substantial amount of money is when I started really taking my life seriously. And so that's one way that Hal changed my life. The second way that Hal changed my life was actually at his Best Year Ever Blueprint event, the very first one. I was sitting in the crowd and I remember I told John this, the specific moment that this happened when I decided to start the podcast because I

decided to start the podcast in that moment. And I was sitting there and I was working for someone else for a while and I thought, I really don't feel like I'm living up to my potential and I was sitting there and I was working for someone else for a while and I thought, I really don't feel like I'm living up to my potential and I just want to do something that helps people and I need to figure out how to do it. And so a couple million downloads of a podcast later, a few hundred thousand people and following me on Facebook and all those things and the Best Year Ever Blueprint was something that was the catalyst for that. So I want to tell you, I appreciate that, Hal. Rob, I am so proud of what you've done, man. It's, you know, it almost is like a proud father when I see your videos on, you know,

on Facebook or YouTube with a million views. I'm like, ah, Rob is killing it and adding so much value. And dude, I'm proud of you, man. Really, really cool to see it. I'm grateful that the best year ever could be a catalyst for that, which obviously the next one's coming up in a couple of weeks here, November 17th through the 19th. I would, and I'd love to talk about that, but I want to talk about, so first off, what

I want to talk about is how your life has changed a lot in the past, what, year and a half, 13 months? How long has it been? A year. It's been a year. I was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, a very aggressive and potentially fatal form of cancer about a year ago. It was right before, either right before or right after Halloween 2016. So yeah, it was right around

a year ago. So I'm curious. Well, number one, if anybody's watching the video on YouTube or Facebook, they could see that there's a camera guy walking around in the background. So was Nick actually recording before that started? Were you recording the Miracle Morning book before, or that video before that happened? The diagnosis and everything? The Miracle Morning movie, which is a documentary about morning rituals that kind of goes beyond the book, we started recording that two years ago. In fact, the other day, I got a Facebook memory that popped up. That was the day I was with Robert Kiyosaki and his wife, Kim. Nick and I were at his office in Phoenix filming him for the movie. And the other day, a memory came up on Facebook and it

said, it's been two years. And I'm like, it's been two years since we started filming the movie. So yeah, we were filming the movie and we had a whole plan and vision. You know, Nick is the director. Nick Conadera had this vision of what the movie was going to be. And and then all of a sudden I got cancer. There were a lot of shots, by the way, that we had to film where we planned on filming later, going back and filming some earlier shots. But then I lost 40 pounds. I was six feet tall, 127 pounds, lost every hair on my body, no eyelashes, no eyebrows, no armpit hair, nothing. And we're like, well, we can't go back and do reshoots. So then we went, well, let's we and this is also such an extraordinary part of this miracle morning mission that, you know, the founder, if you will, I was sidelined with cancer and potentially could die. And so now the film just took a turn and we're editing in the final stages. And we're actually going to debut it at the Best Year Ever Blueprint. That's the plan.

Oh, man. That's so exciting. So, okay. So I'm curious. That's like the perfect, you know, it's kind of like an actual movie would be where there's just this huge plot twist, right? Yeah, totally. But it's real life, which is the craziest part about it. So you were in a car crash when you were younger, which is a whole other crazy story. Someone can go back and listen to the first episode that we did about two years ago now. And you were in a car crash and were actually dead for about six minutes. now. And you were in a car crash and were actually dead for about six minutes. And so I'm assuming that made you take a whole different turn on what you thought about life, what you appreciated.

I'm curious to find out with this happening and possibly something being fatal coming up in your future now, you know, not being 21 years old, you have a wife, you have two kids, all of that stuff. What was that like? What was that whole experience like? And then what, what was the, how do you think you've come out on the other end? Yeah, it's something that, you know, you never think like when I was 20, I would sit head on by a drunk driver, you know, died for six minutes, broke 11 bones, I believe it was. And, and you think that's something that doesn't happen to you, right? Like we all think, you know, you want, you see that stuff on the news, those crazy tragedies. And you're like, oh my gosh, you feel your heart goes out for those people, but then you can change the channel and you're back to normal.

And, you know, and, and when I had the car accident, I was like, there was no changing the channel. It's like, wait, I'm really being told by doctors. I'm never going to walk again. You know, I'm only 20 years old. I have a lot of plans that involve walking. Um, but, but obviously that taught me the greatest lesson that it taught me, which I'll share in a second how I brought it back in these current circumstances. I woke up last year, and I couldn't breathe. I was gasping for air in the middle of the night. And this went on for a couple of days, and it was not getting better. So I went to urgent care, and they diagnosed me with pneumonia, gave me antibiotics. I went home. They said, if it doesn't get better, go see your

regular doctor because, you know, we're not sure, but we think it's pneumonia. There's a mass on your lung. And so I went home a couple of days later. I'm still I can't breathe. I'm sleeping, you know, in the guest room because I'm wheezing at night. My wife can't stay asleep. And and I go see my regular doctor and he calls me to come in the next day and he sits me down and he's very serious. And I go – it's almost like he doesn't want to tell me. And I go, Doc, just so you know, I accept all things that I can't change before they even happen. So whatever you're going to tell me right now, whatever the diagnosis is, I'm at peace with it, my friend. Let me have it.

And so he says, well, there's definitely something going on, and it could be some sort of viral infection. But he said it could be cancer. You're showing the signs of a lymphoma with these masses in your chest. And I go, I'm thinking, I'm like the healthiest person I know. I eat super healthy. I have no chemicals in my house. I'm like, there's no, I don't think it's cancer. I'm like, so I go, I call my wife who was visiting my grandmother with our kids, and I couldn't go on the trip because I couldn't breathe.

So I stayed back, and I called her to tell her the news, and I was at peace with it. I was okay, but telling her news that in her mind could be interpreted as you're facing a potentially fatal disease that could take you away from me and our kids forever. Facing a potentially fatal disease that could take you away from me and our kids forever. And so facing – knowing that that's how she would receive it, I started crying. I got really emotional, and it wasn't the emotion that I was experiencing for my own interpretation of the cancer. It was how hard it would be for her to hear that. So I was crying. She was crying. And then I got off the phone with her, and then I got know, I really I went back into my own processing and which I was OK with.

And I called and here's here's how I took it. I called John Berghoff, our good friend and the co-creator of the best ever blueprint. And I and I told him, I said, John, hey, best case scenario, I've got some sort of crazy viral infection. And he knew that I was having trouble breathing. So he knew there was something going on. I said, but worst case scenario, doctors said it could be this really rare form of cancer and you know he I think I think when someone tells you that you you don't like you don't know how to like how do you respond like right that sucks or right and I and I just you know and I said John I said but look I said if it's cancer um everything happens for a reason but we have to choose the reasons and I'm going to choose that this is something that this is the next adversity in my life that I'm meant to learn from.

And then whatever I learn, pay forward that lesson by sharing it with other people. I said, so if there's anything I learned in my car accident, it's that it's not what happens to you. It really is how you interpret it, how you respond. And I said, and the same thing when I was told by doctors that I would never walk again. And I came back and said, well, if that's the case, I promise you, doc, I'll be the happiest person you've ever seen in a wheelchair. Because if I'm in a wheelchair, I'm going to be grateful and happy because I can't change it, but I can choose my mindset. And so for the cancer, I go, look, there's obviously another book I need to write. There's something that I have left to learn and I'm going to go through this cancer journey as positive, happy and grateful as I could possibly be. And I was

able to stay true to that, except for the instances where I was in extraordinary physical pain. And being in extraordinary physical pain, I don't care who you are, you know, in those moments, the fear, you know, your attitude tends to waver. And I definitely thought about, you know, I went from being the I'm the ultimate optimist, but I think there's a fine line between, you know, optimism and delusion. Right. And so I tried to walk that and I would go, wait a minute, I could literally die. Like technically, statistically, I could die. There are people with positive attitudes that get cancer and die, you know, that think they're not going to. attitudes that get cancer and die, you know, that think they're not going to. So, I mean,

there was that, like, I'm like, man, where is the gap between being positive and being realistic? And I also believe in the mind-body connection. So, it was just a real mind, you know, trip going, well, how positive should I be and how realistic should I be? You know what I mean? And where is that fine balance? And so, I believe that our mindset does manifest itself in our biology. And so I did use affirmations every day saying that I will never again have cancer or any deadly disease because I deserve to be happy, healthy, and successful now and for the rest of my life. And I affirm that every single day over and over and over again because creeping in my head was maybe I don't deserve the success I've achieved. Maybe I got lucky. Maybe I meant to die. And there's a lesson there for people. I don't know. You know,

so I really, really had to use affirmations every day to stay focused on what I wanted to believe in order to create the life that I was that I wanted to be destined for, not the one that I was afraid might show up for me. Man, so there's a couple things that you said. The first thing was what you just talked about with affirmations because I think that's really powerful in the way you're actual, you believe and I believe the same thing, that your thoughts can actually affect your biology. And so for people that are out there that aren't going

through cancer, but they have something else that's happening in their life and they listen to the story, they're like, man, if this guy can stay positive and he can continue his affirmations when something like this is going on, maybe I can figure out a way to stay consistent as well. So can you take me through your thoughts of how affirmations actually affect you physically? And if you noticed also a cycle of when you did them, you mentally also started to feel better as well as you're doing them. Absolutely. And I'll go back again to the car accident, which is doctors that I would never walk again. And I told them, I told my parents and I, you know, and I just, it was my decision.

I said, I accept that as the worst case scenario. You know, I accept if that know, and I just, it was my decision. I said, I accept that as the worst case scenario. You know, I accept if that's, like I said, I'll be the happiest person you've ever seen in a wheelchair. If I am in a wheelchair the rest of my life, I said, but I'm not willing to accept that as my fate until I'm proven that that's the only option. I said, so, you know, I just was in this car accident. I broke my femur in half. I broke my pelvis in three places. I thought, you know, the healing is not even – I mean it's just barely even begun. So I decided I'm going to visualize walking again every single day. I'm going to affirm it.

I'm going to pray about it. I'm going to obsess about it, think about it, dwell on it. I'm going to – in other words, and this is for everybody. I'm going to put all of my energy into what I want, not what I don't want, but into what I want while I simultaneously, unconditionally, and fully accept the worst case scenario as a possibility. So therefore, if I never walk again, I already decided that I could accept that. But I didn't decide that I would accept that as my fate. I decided I was willing to accept it if that was the only option. But I chose that I would focus on what I want. And I

think that for all of us, that is a line that we must walk. And affirmations helps us do it. And I'll get into the specifics of that. But the line we must walk is we've got to focus on what we want consciously and unconsciously and intentionally and daily consistently so that it's our reality where it's all we see is what we want. Right. But we take the time before we go into that every day. You've taken the time to. OK, well, what's the worst case scenario? This could happen. That could happen. And just the general decision that I'm going to accept life. I'm going to accept all things out of my control unconditionally. Because here's what we're taught in school,

and it's the lesson that I learned during that car accident, is that emotional pain is self-created. I might have said this on our first interview, but every negative emotion that we've ever felt, so if you're watching this or you're listening, consider that every negative emotion that you've ever felt in your life, anger, sadness, regret, fear, depression, you name it, is a result. And I'm not talking about chemical imbalances, by the way.

It's a disclaimer. I don't want someone to say, whoa, whoa, I'm deeply depressed, and it doesn't matter what I think of. That's a different story. I'm just talking in general. And this applies to going through depression as well. I've been through that. But it is that – where was I going with that? Rob, help me out you were okay every

negative emotion is self-created yeah right so so consider that to the degree that we resist our reality that's the degree that we create emotional pain for ourselves so something bad happens and you go no no no no no I didn't know it was supposed to be different she was supposed to do this or he was supposed to do that or I was supposed to achieve this thing and I worked so hard for it. I didn't get it. No. Or I lost this person I love.

And it's to the degree that we resist it and wish it were different that we create pain. And the moment that we go, you know what? That sucks. I would never have asked for that. I would never have asked for cancer. I would never have asked for losing my job. I would never have asked for whatever. But I can't change it. It is what it is. I can't go back in time. I'm not Marty McFly. I would never have asked for losing my job. I would never have asked for whatever. But I can't change it.

It is what it is. I can't go back in time. I'm not Marty McFly. I don't have a DeLorean. I can't go back in time and change it. The only logical decision that I have if I want to be free from emotional pain is to accept it. And that doesn't mean you're happy with it, but it means you can be at peace with it. And affirmations, in the simplest form, Rob, I believe that affirmations have either a

bad rap. People think they're cheesy because the way they've been taught for decades. I'm a millionaire. I'm smart. I don't think that's the way that affirmations are effective. The way that affirmations are effective in the simplest form is as a reminder. So let me demystify affirmations for everybody. And I've never talked about them this way on a podcast. This is something I learned during the cancer is that in the simplest form affirmations, they're not hocus pocus. They're not even, it doesn't have to be the law of attraction. Affirmations are simply daily reminders of what you want, why you want it and what you're committed to doing to create whatever it is for your life. And you think about it, when you set a goal or whatever, it's so easy to forget.

And months go by and you go, oh, I forgot that I wanted to do that thing. Well, affirmations ensure that every day, I have an affirmation, for example, that says, make my wife's life amazing every single day. Do something simple, whether it's doing the dishes, putting the kids to bed, buying her flowers, listening to her without giving her advice, because that's not what she wants from me. She just wants me to listen. Right. So I have an affirmation that reminds me to do that. And guess what, Rob? I want to make my wife's life amazing. But if I didn't read that every day, I would forget to do it. And what happens is that affirmation is simply a reminder. And that reminder, it plants a seed that grows into an action or a behavior that day that, guess what? Actually, that behavior, doing the thing, is what makes my wife's life amazing.

And every single day, I do something to make my wife's life amazing. And I would probably not if it wasn't for that simple affirmation that becomes that daily reminder so that every day I'm prompted to do that thing. And I have affirmations for me being the best parent I can be, my health, my fitness, my business, you name it, my happiness. I have affirmations that remind me what I need to think, feel, and do to optimize every single area of my life. And affirmations are, I believe, they're the most powerful form of personal development that I've ever discovered. It's amazing.

I feel like I want to be the person in the crowd that's like, preach! Like just scream it from the front. Because I was like, so much of that was amazing. And I completely agree with you because what I've said to people is I love the book and the movie The Secret, but I feel like there's a lot. It's like instead of saying money flows freely to me from all different areas of life, I kind of made up one thing when I was speaking with a coaching client. And I said that affirmations in my mind have to have three things. Number one, they have to be present tense. Number two, they actually have to be true. And then number three is they need to be something that's

empowering to you. It doesn't have to be something because we know if we sit there and we're like, money's flowing freely to me from all different areas of life, immediately you're going, ah, that's BS. And then it just doesn't even work. So that's amazing. I love that. Another thing that you said before then, that when you were about to to be diagnosed that I really want to dive into, and I'm curious to see how it actually helped you as well, was you said – before the doctor said it, you said, before you tell me, I accept everything in my life before it happens. And so I know we say a lot of those things. Do you feel like – there's some times where I'm like, oh, this is what I this is what I feel.

But then when the actual situation happens, you're like, oh, wow, that's a lot worse than I thought it was. So how do you feel that doing that, having that mindset helped you, number one? And then number two, do you feel like when you finally got the news of cancer that it still was I fully accepted? Or was there a part of you that was kind of at ends of, this is really hard to accept? Yeah. So great question. So here's the evolution of that mindset. So in my Cutco sales training, when I was 19 years old, I learned the five-minute rule.

And the five-minute rule was the start of all of this. And my manager, Jesse Levine, said, when things go wrong out there, out there in the field, when, you know, if you have a customer, you're going to have you're going to set goals and you're going to fail to reach them. You're going to you're going to go into a customer's house that you think is going to buy from you because they're they told you they were. And then they're going to change their mind and not buy. And you're going to be disappointed. And you're going to you know, you're going to have customers that you're excited for the appointment or you're almost your goal. Then they don't even show up and you're like devastated. He goes, so the five minute rule is where it's okay to be negative when things go wrong, but not for more than five minutes. And he, and he basically, it was, it was a simple form of what I taught earlier, which is, he goes, there's just no point in dwelling on it because dwelling on it,

you know, Oh, I can't believe she canceled her order. Why did that happen? I, Oh, I was so close to my goal, that resistance that creates the emotional pain. He basically said, give yourself five minutes to feel what you feel. It's okay. You know, you're allowed to be, you know, if you're angry or you're upset or you're afraid or you're whatever he goes, just feel it, punch a wall, cry, kick something like whatever, give yourself five minutes. And he literally would teach us to set our timer on our phone for five minutes and then put it down and then get whatever. And when I first heard that, now, if you're like me and I think most people, you go, dude, five minutes is not long enough. Like, can I get like the five day rule? Like, give me a few days pissed off. Right.

But here's what I found happened is by doing the five minute rule and implementing it, I became simply conscious first and foremost that, oh, wait, I'm in control of what I feel right now. Like, and I'm going to give myself five minutes to actually feel upset. And after five minutes, I've got to accept it. And he taught us three powerful words. He said, when the timer goes off after five minutes, repeat to yourself, can't change it. Can't change it. And the can't change it is simply the reminder that, okay, I can't change what happened five minutes ago. So the only intelligent choice that I have is to accept it and therefore be at peace with it. And it doesn't mean I'm happy, by the way. Let me give a quick distinction. If you're watching the video, you see I'm holding up my

right and my left hand spread apart. My right hand represents positive emotions, happiness, excitement, gratitude, you name it. My left hand represents negative emotions, happiness, excitement, gratitude, you name it. My left hand represents negative emotions, fear, anxiety, anger, sadness, depression, you name it. And here's the thing is this isn't about emotions because emotions are fleeting. You could be happy one minute and a phone call changes that, right? You get some bad news like, no, right? You're devastated now. So accepting things you can't change is not about happiness or sadness. It's in between happiness and sadness. And again, if you're listening to the podcast, picture me putting my hands into the prayer position. There's a place in between your

positive and negative emotions that is called peace. And peace is a state of being. It is an ever-present, unwavering state of being. And it's not an emotion. It's this just, it's you're at peace. And then you get to choose the emotion that you feel. So when you're at peace, you go, okay, well, what emotion would serve me right now? And if I was just, if I had a disappointment and now I need to get motivated to create some results that will improve my situation because the negative, whatever just happened wasn't a good thing. Now I need to change things. I can't go back in time and change it.

I can't change it in the past, but I can change everything moving forward. So I would ask, what emotion do I need to feel? And it's I need to be optimistic or I need to be grateful or I need to be resourceful or I need to be creative. And then I'll use questions to get myself in that state. So peace, acceptance allows me to be at peace, which is this neutral state of being. And then there I ask what emotion would serve me. Yeah. So, so that's the, and then, and then the evolution of that, I mentioned that five minutes, most people go, that's not long enough. I need longer. You mean five hours to be upset? Right. Well, here's what happened, Rob. After a few weeks of doing the five minute rule,

I'd set the timer for five minutes and I would go, all right, five minutes. Oh, I can't believe that happened. I'm so upset. And then I'd pick up my phone and I'd go, okay, I've got four minutes and 32 seconds left. And I'd go, I don't want it. What's the point in sitting here and resisting reality and stewing for – I'd rather just focus on the solution now. So five minutes went from I thought it wasn't long enough to going why would I sit here for five minutes and dwell? I need five seconds. I just need time to go son of a – I just need to curse or something. I need a release, but then I'm not going to dwell for even minutes.

I'm going to go focus. And then accepting life before it happens was kind of the ultimate evolution where it was the conscious decision that, you know what, I'm not even, I don't even need five minutes, five seconds. And that's okay if you, you know, take five minutes by all means. But I got to the point where I went, I'm just going to accept everything that ever happens to me before it happens so that nothing has control over my emotional state. And so when I got the cancer, it it was I had lived that for ten years and they're locked longer than ten years eighteen years and so so it was it was just part of who I was you know so pretty listening I always say you know if the whole like if you think you can just accept something like cancer in a moment that sounds overwhelming to you that it should this

doesn't this isn't an over it isn't a snap your fingers. I learned this and it was became who I was. It was the five minute rule implemented for, you know, years into the five second rule implemented for a decade into the accept life before it happens implemented for, you know, years. Right. So, I mean, it was 18 years to get to that place, but I believe if I hadn't started with the five minute rule, I wouldn't have had that evolution to get to the place where I could have this deadly cancer and go, well, I'm not going to be upset over it. You know, and it was absolutely authentically who I was and how I showed up for the cancer. Yeah. And I and I and by the way, anybody watching you can if you Google how Elrod

cancer on YouTube or go to how or the cancer on YouTube. I've recorded four video blogs that kind of took people through the journey. So that's, you know, you can see how I was from the diagnosis to shaving my head to, you know, being diagnosed a few weeks ago as cancer free. So that's awesome. So, and that's actually perfect because I remember the whole journey and I saw, I think the first two or three had popped up and there were two moments where I actually was watching it. And what you're saying is not BS, which And I pulled her over and I was like, I've never seen somebody say that and have this type of situation, but still be so happy and positive in a true sense that you could tell. That was the first time that I had seen one of the videos. And the second time I remember you were talking about, and I think your hair had already

fallen out at this point, but you had a video and you said that you were in this situation, but you felt bad because, and you wanted to raise money for other people because you felt bad that there were some people that didn't have as good of a situation as you that were inside of the cancer treatment centers and all of this thing. And it was amazing and inspiring for me to see you have that mindset when you're still going through terrible things to want to help other people. So walk me through kind of that mindset and also what you did and the feeling of realizing that you have it bad, but you also felt like you still had it better than a lot of others too.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. I was a few weeks in, weeks in and I think I just like my hair was coming out in mats in the shower. So I'm like, oh, crap. You know, wow. I didn't know it would be this fast. You know, I think I'd done my first chemo treatment. And and and so, yes, I shaved my I was like, I might as well shave the head. There's no denying it now, you know, no postponing. And I recorded that video. And what happened was after I recorded my second cancer video blog, somebody commented on YouTube. It's amazing. I mean, I read and what happened was after I recorded my second cancer video blog, somebody commented on YouTube. It's amazing. I mean I read hundreds of comments.

I read every single one, and one of the comments, she said, wow, it's amazing that you have this much support. I hope you'll pay it forward and support – offer support for someone else. And that comment was a – in fact, I need to go back and find that woman and reach out to her. I mean, it was a game changer and it's actually going to, well, you'll hear why, but it's going to make a huge difference in the world. Um, that one comment, you know, I mean, it's amazing, but I, so I immediately realized, wow, she's right. I am so blessed with so much support. You know, I've got this, you know, miracle morning community, which is 120,000-plus person Facebook group. And when I posted the first cancer video blog, I got 3,000 comments from people encouraging me.

And so between that and the YouTube, I went – and my dad, he dropped everything. He's an executive for an oil company. He dropped his life and just came and became my full-time caretaker. We got an apartment near the hospital. He lived with me for like six months. He just told his work, hey, I hope you'll keep my job for me when I come back, but I'm here until my, I'm going to cry. He said, I'm here until my son is better. And so having that support from my dad, and then I also had the financial resources because I had built a couple of businesses and written my books. And so I, so I realized I have so much support. I have financial support. I have, I have friends and family support. I have community

support. I have resources to, I have educational resources where I understand, I know more than most cancer patients because I've looked outside of the, the normal, just the, what your doctors tell you. And I thought most people don't have this support on either one of the levels, if not all of the levels, they don't have the family, the resources, the finances, the education, the community that, you know, and I thought I feel responsible to, to, to help others. And so my next video blog, uh, I guess it was, I went from the second to the third one. I basically now explain that to people. I said, Hey, I guess I went from the second to the third one. I basically now explained that to people.

I said, hey, I realize you guys, other people don't have the support. And I said, I don't know what this is going to look like, but my attention now is turned from while I'm healing myself, focusing on how can I heal others? How can I support others? How can I help others? And so in that video, I said, I'm inviting everybody to volunteer. Let's start simple. Everyone in the next few weeks, will you commit to go volunteer 30 minutes of your time at a children's hospital, you know, something. And I gave a few different resources of, you know, organizations that they could just tap into that would connect them with opportunities to volunteer. And, and a bunch of, you know, hundreds of people

were like, I'm volunteering this week, Hal, you know, so that was cool. But what it led to is I started a nonprofit called Support the Unsupported. And we just filed for 501c3 nonprofit status. And so it'll probably be, you know, six months before it's official. And I don't even know exactly what we're going to do, but we're going to offer support to people that don't have support. And I'm going to figure that out. And what's really cool is one of my close friends, Rulon who you're you know friends with as well our friends John Rulon he went to an event this entrepreneur event called mastermind talks and he approached Jason Gagnard who puts on the event he said hey I have this wild idea I've started asking people in the

audience that have events and in coaching programs and books and all these different things if they would be willing to donate some of their their services and we could do an auction to raise money for hal elrod who's going through wow cancer and uh i need to get better at talking about this without crying because it's hard to just it's it's it's it's true like it truth. Like it's better this way. It's coming from the heart. You're right. It's authentic. But I also – I like being able to keep talking.

And I lose it. But so crazy. So John does this impromptu auction and raises over $100,000 for me. Oh my gosh. No way. And I got a check in the mail a few weeks ago from Jason Gagnard for a hundred thousand dollars to pay for my medical bills. Um, and here's the beauty of it. This is the exciting part. I went, you know what? I found a way to pay for medical bills. I paid for them out of my own money or whatever, and insurance covered them. Um, so that a hundred thousand

dollars, I made a public announcement that that is starting Support the Unsupported charity. So that I'm not keeping and I'm not bragging or I'll look at me or anything, but it's a beautiful to me thing how it all came. You know, this one woman who commented that changed my thinking. I look at video. John sees it does this fundraiser. Right. And now Support the Unsupported has $100,000 to start the charity, uh, when it, when it's officially ready to launch next year. So, yeah, so that's the evolution. And, you know, and I think that the more people that we help,

the more we become fulfilled and opportunities become abundant in our lives. And I feel like that, you know, whether you're, you know, it doesn't just the, to me, the most important philosophy in life is to always look to add as much value to the lives of other people as you possibly can. And like I said, when you do, that's how I believe we become fulfilled and that opportunities become abundant because the more value you add to the lives of others, the more valuable you become to them. And if you do it in a professional setting, it takes time, but you keep adding value to your company, your clients, your organization, the world. And all of a sudden people start to look to you to, you know, because you become valuable to them. And that's part of the reason for the, I started podcasting was that was a way for me to add value at no cost to every person

that wanted to listen to my, my, you know, my words, my podcast, you know, and you're doing the same thing. Yeah, man. Oh, that's so amazing. That's it's, it's crazy that like just that tiny little, it's like the tiny little stone that's thrown is the ripples that it causes across the world just from one comment. That's amazing. Um, so well, you got a couple minutes left. I want to talk about the best year ever blueprint, which is coming up, um, which is the event that I was talking about that changed my life, which the small little ripple is the idea that popped into my head. And then, you know, a small little stone and then cause ripples was now it's a podcast. It's a Facebook. It's all of these things that I've created just from that one idea that was created there. So, um, tell us about the, the event when it's coming up and, and you're going to be there this

year, this time, right? Yeah, last year, the morning of, I waited until the last possible minute. I had this crazy eye infection. My face was swollen, and I had to cancel my flight. I missed the event last year, but my business partner, John Berghoff, he's the main facilitator anyway, so he picked up the slack, and we ran an amazing event. So this will be our fourth year. So let me give the important facts before I forget. I always forget something. So fourth year, it's in San Diego, California, because November 17th through 19th, which is when the event is, that's the best place to guarantee good weather. Almost guaranteed. There's no guarantees, but the average temperature is 76 degrees or something that weekend, you know, whereas the rest of the world,

it's like 40 degrees. So San Diego, California, the URL, the website for anybody listening, go to bestyeareverlive.com, bestyearever, L-I-V-E, bestyeareverlive.com. And I always tell people, Rob, watch the video and read the testimonials. That's it. Just spend like five minutes there. Watch the video. It's on the homepage. Read the testimonials. That's it. Just spend like five minutes there. Watch the video. It's on the homepage. Read the testimonials, and you'll see the difference. What makes the event different is unlike most events that you go to where you just take page after page of notes, you listen to speaker after speaker, our event is extraordinarily experiential. We don't – anything that we teach you, we actually have you experience, do it, share it, engage with it, do it with other people in the room immediately so that you get it at a deep level. Every fiber of your being gets to experience the thing rather than take 10 pages of notes, overwhelmed, go home, try to raffle through all your notes and somehow implement the 17 ideas that you learned. And I'll give you an example. If you were, for example, let's say you were to go to an

event and you learned about the power of a mastermind, which we talk about. I'm a huge believer in the power of putting together multiple like-minded people in the same room or the same time or the same space to share ideas, help each other with problems, which is part of the event is really just a big mastermind in a lot of ways. But instead of teaching you how to form a mastermind and then that being on page seven of your notes from the event, then you go home and you're supposed to remember, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That one thing of the 20 things I learned on the mastermind, that's page seven of my notes. How do I do that again? Oh yeah, yeah. Okay. I call people and I, no, no, no. We teach you how to do it, but then we actually spend mastermind that that's page seven of my notes how do i do that again oh yeah yeah okay i i i call

people then i no no no we teach you how to do it but then we actually spend 20 minutes breaking into teams forming your mastermind based on the surveys that were created before the event so we know who's your ideal people that you need in your mastermind then you guys actually mastermind there yeah teach how to do it you do it you now know what it feels like to mastermind and. You teach them how to do it. You do it. You now know what it feels like to mastermind. And then we have you schedule your first mastermind after the event. So now you go home, not with masterminding on page seven of your notes. You actually have already mastermind and you've got your next mastermind scheduled. The entire event is like that so that you don't just learn how to have your best year ever. You actually become the person

that has experienced the things that are going to create your best year ever. You've already done it. And then you have an entire group of 300 like-minded best year ever blueprint attendees in a private Facebook group that support each other the entire year long. And so that's much of what makes the event amazing. And then beyond that, we incorporate yoga. You get to do yoga. We have live music from Brother James. I mean, it's just unlike any – it's such a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And yeah, man, we'd love to have all of you listening.

Any fan of Rob, I'm a fan of. So come check it out at bestyearofalive.com. Well, thanks, man. Well, I appreciate this. This is great. I'm glad that we got the time to do this. And I want to honor you in the fact of saying it's been amazing to watch your journey and to watch how selfless you've been throughout this process. Everybody would have given you the okay and the green light to, okay, he can be selfish.

He can stop being the positive guy. He can stop thinking about other people. He can stop doing all of that. But it seems like not only did you prove that that's actually who you truly are, but you actually became more selfless and cared more about people and not just about yourself. So I want to honor you and say it's been great to watch the journey, to go along. It's been great to see that you've been able to create your own foundation from it. And it's been amazing to – it's actually amazing to congratulate you for being cancer-free as well. Thank you.

Thank you, Rob. I love and appreciate you, my friend. Thank you so much for the acknowledgement. And thank you for what you're doing. And thank you for having me on today and allowing me to share some value and send this video to me because I, um, I think the miracle morning community, this would be a cool one to share in there. So I definitely will. All right, man. Have a great day. All right, brother. Take care. See ya. Well, that's it for today's podcast. If you want the show notes for

this episode, they can be found at MWF motivation.com. Also, if you liked this episode, they can be found at mwfmotivation.com. Also, if you liked this episode, please spread the love and share it with a friend because it's our mission to help as many people as we can. And to keep in touch, you can follow us on Instagram and Facebook. Both handles are at mwfmotivation with no spaces. Now you know what time it is. So go out and make your dreams a reality.