TrueLife - Aleana Kali - Intuition, Technique, & the Creative Process

Episode Date: August 15, 2023

One on One Video Call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_US🚨🚨Curious about the future of psychedelics? Imagine if Alan Watts started a secret society with Ram Dass and Hunter S. Thompson… now open the door. Use Promocode TRUELIFE for Get 25% off monthly or 30% off the annual plan For the first yearhttps://www.district216.com/https://www.brandsarealive.com/mojoIf you're a spiritual or creative person in business, you've probably learned to suppress some parts of yourself.You've been told (directly or indirectly) that you're not allowed to be who you really are.You had to choose:- Either do what you love.- Or fit in, make money, and be "successful."Maybe you've even achieved that "success", only to find out it wasn't all that.I've been there. I had a business that on paper, sounded perfect. But in reality, it drained my soul. And it started to affect other areas of my life too.In my heart, I knew that I was meant for something different.But I didn't know what it was, let alone how to make it into a profitable business.When you're ready to finally stop playing that game, to stop being caught up in that character, I'II be your guide, strategist, and collaborator.My mission is to support people like you bring your FULL self-expression and develop your brand around it.To turn up the volume on your truth and give a middle finger to anything that makes you feel like you have to dim your light.Think of my work as an intersection of branding and marketing strategy, with a spiritual-creative flow practice.I will show you how to attract aligned clients and make even more money while being true to yourself and doing what you love.I call it building a brand with your FULL self-expression.• Newsletter: https://www.brandsarealive.com/blogServices: https://www.brandsarealive.com/ services• Book a 15-minute discovery call with me:https://www.brandsarealive.com/call One on One Video call W/George https://tidycal.com/georgepmonty/60-minute-meetingSupport the show:https://www.paypal.me/Truelifepodcast?locale.x=en_USCheck out our YouTube:https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPzfOaFtA1hF8UhnuvOQnTgKcIYPI9Ni9&si=Jgg9ATGwzhzdmjkg

Darkness struck, a gut-punched theft, Sun ripped away, her health bereft. I roar at the void. This ain't just fate, a cosmic scam I spit my hate. The games rigged tight, shadows deal, blood on their hands, I'll never kneel. Yet in the rage, a crack ignites, occulted sparks cut through the nights. The scars my key, hermetic and stark. To see, to rise, I hunt in the dark, fumbling, fear. Fearers through ruins maze lights my war cry born from the blaze.

The poem is Angels with Rifles. The track, I Am Sorrow, I Am Lust by Codex Seraphini. Check out the entire song at the end of the cast. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the True Life podcast. I hope everybody is having a beautiful day. It's Tuesday. We've got an incredible guest for you today. The one and only,

Aliana Kali, founder of brands are alive, a full service, strategic communication, consulting and marketing firm that specializes in branding that underscores and highlights the spiritual, creative,

and so much more. Aliana, how are you today? I am doing wonderful and I should have hired you years ago to write me about because that was so crisp and clear and beautiful. You know, thank you so much for the introduction.

You've saved me a lot of, yeah, time and energy and all that good stuff. But I'm getting to be glibing about myself for a couple of hours. So, yeah, so excited. Yeah, it's easy because I think that you have a unique way of translating your vision into reality. And not only your vision, but helping other people see their vision. The first time when I was reading through some of your bio, it's the first time I've heard the term spiritual creative. Like, what does that mean?

So I didn't create that term. I found it on Google and another. For a long time, I didn't know what word I would feel comfortable using. But that word seemed to have the meaning, spot-on meaning, which is somebody who is creating something from a place of connection with their higher spirits. Period. It doesn't matter what you do. It's not a niche.

It's not a specific group of people. It's not whatever label. I mean, it is still a label. That's how our minds can kind of understand things. But it means anybody who recognizes that something wants to be created through them and they're ready to communicate their life's message, their life's work. But they know at some level that they have to get out of their own way and they have to put their ego aside in order for this connection with their higher spirit

to come through so that they can create this thing that they're meant to create in this lifetime. So the term was spot on. I was like, yep, I'm going to use that. And I mean, I flip flops up with a term all the time. I don't care, which is everything that marketers tell you not to do, I'm doing so. And I just, my life's work is to show how this stuff still works. If you're coming at it from the right energy and the right principles, you can do it in a way that's joyful to you, that's authentic to you, that's fun to you. And, yeah, I guess I'm a flow marketing practitioner and teacher now, so that's what I do.

I love it. In some ways, like it's fascinating for me to get to spend time with you and go through some of the classes you have online. Because I think that you're really, like, it's really autobiographical in so many ways. So many of the things you see in other people is the life that you're living. You know, and it makes me curious. Like, I think a lot of your style of branding and helping people is artistic in so many ways. And that brings me to my question. do you think that there's a spiritual essence within art itself?

I think God is the greatest artist, and I don't think I'm the first one who said it. I can't remember who it was, but somebody who sounds and looks more impressive than I am. So their quote has a lot more value today. But I think that art and creativity is the ultimate way to create union with what we call God. And I don't care at all for, you know, most people consider. consider spirituality a path of being a better human being or doing good in the world, making a difference. All these things are cool. But the most important thing to me is that self-expression and I think that's the ultimateist and highest expression when we recognize as a human being,

your nature as one with the creator and you create from that place with no attachment. And that's not just the stuff that you create. It's like just who you're being all the time. So like this live, I don't care if people watch it or don't. I mean, it's great. But I I send it to people who are my friends, people that I want to have around, that I want to talk to. There was no intention behind it that I hope that if somebody watches it, they see me as an impressive marketer and they reach out to me and book a discovery call. There's no strategizing or calculation in what I do. And I think, well, not always, of course, right?

Obviously, like, I'm still a human being and I'm still friends and things like that. but when we the more we can do that the more i think we are living in alignment with with our spirit with our higher self with our being or being of divinity yeah and i i think that there's something to be said about the idea of authenticity and how it can whether it's through branding or communications or even conversations there's something that reaches out and grabs somebody when you have the courage to be your authentic self right yeah because i think I think everybody can recognize when somebody is not putting on a mask or something, you know, no matter how, even if they themselves are struggling to show who they are.

We just have this innate ability to recognize it when somebody opens their heart to us. I think that at some, I need it more than most people. I really do. It's near impossible for me. I mean, I can talk to people who I feel are not showing me who they are. But I will flat out just say what I think is happening or, you know, talk to be vulnerable and not care that they may or may not reciprocate that vulnerability, but still within boundaries. Like I know what my boundaries are to protect myself and protect my emotions and protect my heart. Of course, I protect myself.

It's not like, you know, I'm an open field for anybody to hurt. No, like I recognize I'm a vulnerable person like everybody else and I know what my limits are. but I am not willing to have a conversation where I am not showing who I am because that's that's not a conversation to me. And I think most people, yeah, most people recognize that. And that's actually really the one thing that I'm doing in my marketing that's actually pulling people and coming in and like booking these calls and stuff. They're like, you strike me as someone who's not going to bullshit me.

I'm like, yeah, I'm not willing to, but I'm not telling them this. They recognize it. So yes, absolutely. no matter how we think we don't have intuition, you know, but anybody who thinks that they don't have this intuitive sense of sensing that about someone, they can remember times when they've had experiences that weren't so great. I'm willing to bet there was some, at some level, your intuition told you don't do that or something is not right and you ignored it. And that override is the mistake that we make. It's not that some people have an intuitive sense and some people don't. It's that some people are better listeners to their own intuitive voice.

It's really well said. And like, it's fascinating to me because I have like a list of questions. And like so many of the key words that you just said about like spirituality and intuition, they're like, all my questions are like, oh my God, how does she know that? I feel like we're already connecting in some ways. Before I get to that, you have a really intense spirituality about you. And I know that that's kind of a nebulous word spirituality. But you have like a really, a really attractive way at being authentic and living in a spiritual

nature, it seems to me. Like, how did you create that? Is it something you were born with or did you have some spiritual teachers or is it just maybe trying to listen to the world around you? Like, how did you create that, that aura about you? Wow. Thank you. I honestly, like, have no idea.

I have no idea because I don't know how to answer that question because I don't think I created this. I think it's something that we are innately born with. This is who we are. This is your spirit. Everybody here is a spirit and is light in their own way, in their own unique flavor. I have this phrase on my website. It's everywhere. It says there's a unique expression of the universe that can only come alive through you.

And I think this is what drives everything that I do in my work. It's that I see people as, I see the beauty and everything and I see the beauty in people and the uniqueness in every person. And it hurts me so much when somebody is suppressing that about themselves because they think that they're not lovable or they're not good enough or that there's some part of them that they have to reject or they can't show who they are or they have to keep working on themselves behind the scenes until they are ready to show up and be seenfully. it hurts me to see that. And at the same time, on the flip side, I don't think there's anything in life that brings me as much joy as seeing somebody in their full self-expression.

You know, and like they're dancing through life as if nobody is watching. I love that. I love that. I love that. I recognize that when I see a person and everybody has that moment every once in a while,

it just comes through you because that sense of aliveness never goes away. That spirit is always there. The inner child is always there. You know, it doesn't go away. It's eternal. It's there. You can try to suppress it throughout your life.

Nobody is winning. You don't get to express this unique version of the universe that can only come alive through this one version of the creator as this human being, as this one animal, as this tree, as this cup, everything. I'm not talking about just human beings or life and what we call. This is why my website is brands our life. I believe everything is alive. Everything is alive. Everything is one with that, what we call divine God, whatever it is, whatever you want to call it.

It's all one. And so as this unique expression, it's just such a waste that it doesn't get to be expressed fully. I think that's really it. It's just that I, you know, I open my heart and I'm, and I don't have an agenda or something with, like I don't have hidden intention. I don't have a calculation around how I want a relationship to end up. I don't have expectations. I'm not attached to how I hope something will perform or do. Or if I show up, do I impress people?

Do they like me? Do they not like me? Do they get me? Do they get me? Do they think I'm crazy? Do they think I'm stupid? Do they think I'm whatever? You know, did they sign up?

Do they wash? Do they drop off? Do you know Arumie is, the poet, the 13th century poet, who said, I want to be like birds that, you know, the way birds say, sing. They sing without caring if anybody is listening. And that's really it. I'm enjoying my existence. You know, and I'm just, I've just, I've seen so much shit in my life. I've seen so much things that I feel, I feel so much joy, I feel so much happiness. I feel, I'm happy. I'm content and I share that and I do, I just go around and try my best to find things

that are even more fun and talk to people that I like and talk about stuff that is exciting and meaningful and along the way, you know, find ways to help people and be helped because I also still need help. It's not like I'm on this like fucking mountain here and I'm levitating and I have no problem. I'm always super, you know, mindful and connected to my spirit. I'm always connected to that. No, like there have times. I have times where fuck up, you know. Of course. You know, and yeah, and just laugh it off, learn something from it and go on. I think that's that when people see that because they recognize that that's who that's the natural our natural state of being as human beings is to live life in complete bliss when they see that they recognize that oh i got to is jeff

here author of perfectia yeah it's not always here always here in spirit omnipresent i love it yeah but um yes perfect yeah that's what it is you know being in being in that state it's not always happiness Bliss is not always happiness. You know, joy is not pleasure. We have to make these distinctions. Yeah, it's like the, I often heard it said that when we listen to music, it's not so much the notes that we're hearing that bring us joy, but, you know, if you could focus on the silence between the notes,

you know, the peaks and the valleys and the ups and the downs. It's a beautiful way to look at your life and understand that, you know, maybe it's a test. Why wouldn't it be a test? challenging parts are here to help you create a better version of yourself. I've got to look up for a minute because I have some notes, but I don't want to look away, so I apologize if I look at the ceiling. I'll send everybody a picture of like my workspace.

It's kind of nuts, but yeah, I kind of almost do. Okay, so there's a balance between intuition and technique in the creative process. And it's an interesting one. You know, when we have these intuitions and you especially seem to have a really unique intuition. And I'm curious, like, how does that, how do you balance intuition and technique? Because you're helping people become more authentic and you're helping people maybe see the world in a way they haven't seen before. And that's an intricate balance. How do you, what's the relationship between intuition and technique in what you're doing?

I think it's a constant balance and on attachment to one side versus another. This is one of the biggest things that I think are important in existence in general, if you don't want to suffer, is to not be attached to one side or another. You talked earlier about that duality, right? Like, we have to experience something to understand its exact opposite. But you have to know wherever you are, what is the situation? Who does the situation require me to be next? Don't be attached to this is who I am.

I am a logical person or I'm a creative person. I'm technical. I'm somebody who's good at execution, I'm bad execution, let go of all these notions and attachments and just who do I need to be right here, right now in this moment? Maybe in this moment I need to get a little bit more technical because the task in front of me requires me to be a bit more technical. Okay, once I notice I'm getting a little too technical.

Maybe in the next moment I need to be less technical and more, less effort, a little bit more creative. Okay, that's who I'm going to be in the next minute because that's who I need to be in this moment and just constantly balancing out and not being attached to one side or another, you know, just understanding that everything has its place. And ultimately what we call virtues, in my opinion at least, it's just a sense of balance.

It's like anything taken to the extreme, one extreme or another, just isn't going to work. So not being attached, observing, asking yourself, who does the situation need me to be in this moment, being that without any resistance or through the resistance, rather. Yeah. That's how you create that balance where you can swing from masculine to feminine, from easygoing to serious, for lack of better words, to, yeah, being involved without being completely like stuck in the thing that you're doing and be like, oh my God, I can't get myself to,

you know, to pull out of this situation and do what I know I need to do. Because, yeah, like, People spend a lot of time and energy asking questions in their own heads and justifying why they can't and shouldn't and wouldn't and whatever because they are so attached to a character. They're so attached to a certain avatar. So do you think that your ability to speak multiple languages and the fact that you've traveled around the world helps you understand... How do you know all this?

I know. I know. I can tell my talking to you. How do you know all this? I mean, I know I probably have something on the about page about travel, maybe, some images, but I didn't even, okay. Well, I can, I've, I've listened to some of your podcasts, obviously. I'll listen to your YouTube channel. And then when you, that's something that's like I never shared. That's crazy. No, I'm listening to how do you know, it's like, see how after you leave the trail of videos,

then people can piece together your life. Not only that, too, but like, when I listen to the way you speak, sometimes I hear you slip into different languages in a way and I'm like, oh, she clearly has a different understanding of different languages. And that's what leads me to this question is that do you think that your ability to speak multiple languages and the fact that you've traveled around the world to play different roles and, you know, a woman in the West is different than a woman in the East? We play these different games and we have these different roles. But I think that someone who has traveled around the world that speaks multiple languages

has a very more robust understanding of symbolism. And when you understand symbolism, you can really communicate in ways that other people can. Like, have you given any thought to that? Like, what's your take on the world traveling languages and symbolism and the way to translate that to other people? I definitely have thought about that. That's an observation that took me a long time to put together.

So I'm impressed that you somehow are like, I see the connection right away. But you work on life. It takes one to no one. Right. Like you all sounds like an unconventional path. You all do, but like yours is also kind of creepy. Yeah, that definitely has something to do with it.

And also I think about this a lot. Growing up, I was not in a very conventional family situation. I kind of had like a crazy childhood and earlier life. And traveled a lot as a kid. and switched schools all the time. I think it was in like 11 homes by the time I was a teen where 11 schools or something. Yeah, we were like, we lived everywhere.

So I think that has something to do with it because I got to see that, oh, I can actually drop this persona and become this next persona tomorrow if I go to a new school. Nobody knows who I am and I can start fresh and it's so easy. And then I was like, oh, I need to travel away or separate myself from the people because my identity was connected to how people viewed me.

But then I got to a point where I was like, no, actually, I can do this anywhere at any time. I don't have to justify myself or be consistent with who I was yesterday. Every day, any day I can shed my skin and choose in this next moment who I'm being. It's a choice as I'm going through life. And I don't have to justify or explain that to anybody or the inconsistency to anybody because, you know, I don't have a sense of identity or self that's built around. how do other people perceive me?

It surely definitely affects how I view myself, of course. Like, I'm not going to lie to you and say, I'm completely immune to, like, being part of society. No, but it's not like how I was perceiving myself in my younger years with less experience and less sense of high old years, less of self, if that makes sense. But yes, it definitely had something to do with it. I think the travel actually, I had that by that time,

and the travel came more easily because I was okay with being in different. situations because I've seen how most of it really it's not so bad like you know being misunderstood being judged having to start over a being alone a lot of these I experienced yet pretty pretty pretty early on wow like I um it echoes it echoes so much of of people that I know and myself too where like I moved 17 times in 17 years. And sometimes I think that the the isolation breeds the ability to change your skin. You know what I mean by that? Like when you can change that much, and it sounds to me like in the travels and the in the family that you have, like it gives you such a unique perspective because

you have to do your own inner work. And once you begin doing that inner work, once you can shed your skin as fast as you can snap your fingers, once you can change your identity and see yourself as this person or that person or this person over there. It allows you to see those changes in other people. It sounds to me like that's one of the one of the many skills you have is being able to help people see the best versions of themselves when they haven't yet seen it for themselves. Absolutely. I just, I feel like when I look at a person, I'm already seeing their half yourself, no matter

what they are. Like somebody told me you have the capacity to love the unlover. It's kind of true. That's awesome. It's not that they're unlovable. It's just that I see that that person is doing something that seemingly unlikable because they are responding to their trauma. They're responding to their environment.

That's it. It's not who they are at their core is not that. Who they are at their core, their soul, their spirit, their oneness with God is always there. It's not going to go away. This is a mask. It's as simple as getting out of this. Getting out of this one mask to this one mask, it's this character also, it's also a character. So, yeah.

Is that like a, is that a worldview or is that a sort of strategy that you use sometimes to see the world as a story or to see the world as a cast of characters? I see the world as nothing, first of all. Like, it's just, it's just a stuff, you know, it's stuff. really it's like the story is happening in our on our own consciousness that's creating the meaning that's creating the story when i was a kid i remember looking at my father and saying something along the lines of you sure we exist i feel like we are characters in god's dreams and that's that was my way of explaining that i feel like this is a dream and it is it feels like like that you know it feels like i'm creating a story i'm giving meaning to things and if i don't give them meaning if i don't give this meaning it ceases to be a a bottle of water. What does it become? I have no idea. I need to give it meaning.

I need to give it label. And that sense of separation is what creates this experience of, you know, my interaction, my relationship with the bottle, if you will, but yeah.

So it's, I don't know if it's, I don't know. Is it a worldview? I don't know. It's good. You ask amazing questions, what can you think?

What does why? I think it can be whatever, like, The meaning. Yeah, the meaning. No, no, the meaning. I think, okay, so I see what you mean. I think that that is important that we understand that truth is paradoxical and it to choose what is true for you. I could look at my life and I can say, this is a truth I choose and this is a truth I choose and this is, but they're not helpful. They're true, but they're not helpful. So do I really want to accept that as my story? Because just like, that is true, there's also this other side of the truth. And this is, this is also, I am this. I am this, but I'm also this. Who do I choose to be? What do I choose to believe? You know, what do I put my faith in? Or what do I invest in? Do I invest in the story where I am someone who is strong and capable and powerful and able to own my life and able to find the answers and able to

whatever it is that I want to do, create, be, have, or do I want to open the story of disempowerment, of suffering, of pain, of being a victim, of identifying as a victim, of, you know, feeling sorry for myself. Those are all true. There's no, there's no right and wrong way. It's just like, what do you want to believe? And does it give you the results that you're looking for? And then based on that, I create the story. So I create the story that. most empowering. It's not fabricating facts. It is connecting the facts in such a way that it tells a story that helps me out. It's a yes and it's like yes that's true and this is also true, you know. Yeah, I do know. It's a it's a compelling way to create a life that you want

to live by looking at the facts in your life and deciding which one is true enough. what I mean? Like is it is it true enough? Because ultimately that's all we have, right? Like my truth may be different than your truths and this word truth is so nebulous but yeah yeah. Yeah, that's the thing is that people think that truth is like it's either or and we have a hard time understanding that or accepting that truth can not make sense sometimes. It's like it's it's it's paradoxical. It's like how can it be that this person going back to the examples of like the persona is like a person can be nasty and nice at the same time, nasty and kind at the same time. It's just like, who are they being in the next moment?

You are both. I am both. It's just like, who are you being? And then who do you choose to be and who are you becoming? That's the question to ask. Not keeping a tab of how many times in my life. For example, I procrastinated a lot. Let's say, for example, I procrastinated a lot.

Am I a procrastinator? Is that the truth I want to accept? Or do I want to accept the truth that I'm doing my best? and that the environment was in supporting me, and I was distracted, and being my own advocate in that situation and creating a story that empowers me that helps me see myself in a way that makes me more likely to behave in the way that I want to be.

Because once you understand that you're literally programming yourself as you go, you're literally programming this, you know? So that's what I mean by picking the stories. It's like the more you stack rocks on one side of this scale, the heavier it becomes. And it's not that we are either or we all recognize that we are a spectrum, right? So like, do I see myself more as this side or this side? That's really it.

And then which one do I want to believe more? Well, I want to look for the evidence or the truths that are supporting this side rather than this side. When you talk to somebody, Aliana, do you see a reflection of yourself and them? Is that how you begin to build a relationship with somebody? Do you notice yourself in that other person? or do you see them as like a completely different entity? I see them as literally the same spirit, literally the same being. The person here and the person there, they are one.

It's kind of like they're going through a screen or like this one has this filter and this one has this filter. It's the same stream and two separate filters. You know, that's how I see it. How do you use that to connect with people? Like is that, do you find it? I don't. The freaks most people. I am you and you are me and we are one. That's now I start most of the conversations.

Although if it happens, if it's like, if it wants to come out, I'll say it. I don't care. But it's not something that I think about, think about saying, unless it's in the context of the conversation. That's not what I lead with, no. So here's something that I think the world is thirsting for. And it's obviously this world of our spiritual nature. But I'm curious, with brands are alive or in marketing or just helping people or talking to people,

how do you translate abstract spiritual concepts into tangible business strategies? I don't talk to them about the concepts until they, unless they seem to be interested in my two sense, let's be real, about spiritual context, because I'm just another human being with a perspective. I don't want to make it sound like I'm some sort of spiritual guru who's here to educate the world about all spiritual nature. This is what I know from my sense of being ever since I was a child and it's been with me my whole life. This is what's true for me and I'll share it.

I focus on the strategies. I focus on the marketing. I focus on the business. I focus on the tangible things. I focus on the real world stuff. Spirituality is not in the speaking about it and talking about it and how we apply it when we are doing, the real battle is happening here in the physical world

where you're faced with this illusion and this story and how to go through life as a human being and people around you are not always going to show up from their highest self, and they're going to recognize so much trauma, so many behaviors and so much stuff, and so many dynamics that are not great and how you lead yourself

and you lead the people around you through that is what makes the difference. difference, not the talking about the spiritual cost. I talk about them for fun, basically, but I'm not going to have somebody hire me so that I can talk to them. Don't pay me money just to talk about spirituality. I actually get annoyed when people start speculating on and on and on and on and on and we can't get back to the practical terms. It's like business is not working, you're not doing what you love, you are working with clients that are draining you, you are not being your full self-expression and we're going to sit here and talk about galactic entities and stuff.

I don't care. I want to talk about, if you want to talk about them for fun. But when it comes to business, I'm very practical. I'm very practical. And I try not to use spiritual words too much whenever I can. Sometimes I just have to because there are some things that I just don't have the vocabulary for, honestly. Like, I don't know. What the heck am I supposed to call essence or true self?

It's like, I don't have a more specific word for it that's like, mechanical or scientific term for it. But I ask, yeah, so sometimes I'll talk about these things, I'll talk about sense of on this, but I try not to go too far on that end in my work, but still do it for fun. Yeah.

Sometimes I think that the most successful businesses and strategies are what you say is like a thorough expression of authenticity of the individual. It's almost like it's another form of language. And it's almost transcends business in a way.

Like if you can give something to somebody that you've created and create value for them, that's a whole other world than just business, isn't it? Yeah, of course. Can you imagine if we lived in a world where everybody was their full self-expression? And everybody is doing what they love. And they're doing it because, not because they need the money or because they're just, they're so much stress, but because what they desire to create. It's part of the vision that they have for the world, for life.

It's the lesson they wish they had when they were younger, when they were going through that thing. It's the guidance they couldn't find in the world that they decided to create. That's what I'd love for people. I'd love for everybody to be in their zone of genius, to do the work that they're meant to do, to be in alignment with themselves, to be joyful, to create for the sake of joy. to create, bless you, to create for the sake of creating because it's joyful, because it's meaningful to you, and then as a byproduct, make money by finding that sweet spot between being somebody's full self-expression and how that, how your unique self-expression solves a problem in the world or helps other people

achieve what they want, you know, get what they want. And it's like a win-win. there's this minister, and I'm not like a religious or Christian or whatever, but, you know, he said something along the lines of, you know, it's basically the place where your deepest gladness meets the world's hunger. And I found that phrase to be spot on. It's like your deepest gladness, what makes you feel alive, when you find that sweet spot where that thing helps satisfy the world, something the world is hungry. for, right? I think that's really the beautiful place that if we can all create from that place and operate from that place, can you imagine what kind of businesses we would have and what kind of, quote, quote, capitalism we would have and what kind of economy we would have. It would be a completely different world. And as a species, I think, we will

be in a completely different place. I am convinced that if people were happier, 99.9% of problems of the world will end. people people are we are broken in physical form and I don't mean that in a bad way like we're fine but also broken like there's just so much pain there's just so much freaking pain and misunderstanding and everything and we focus too much on fixing the systems and processes when in reality what really needs to happen is change within individually one-on-one it's not going to be a politician there's not going to be one type of business it's not going to be one type of leader it's not going to be policy change or 100 policy change, it's not going to be a complete upheaval and revolution.

What is going to change? Is this quiet change within? If we individually one-on-one change and have the courage to say, you know what, I have this one life in this one form as a human being, in this form, at least as Aliana, as this character. And I came here for a reason. That's the truth I'm going to choose, even though you may or may not have evidence for it. but that's the truth that helps me create a meaningful impactful life now from this place if i know i'm okay if i know i am safe if i've made peace with my mortality if i've made peace with reality if i've made peace with pain and i've forgiven myself and i've forgiven other people if everything is forgiven everything is love and from this place what do i create from this place what do i

I create? What do I desire to create? What would bring me joy every day that I would, I would just, it would add so much meaning and joy to my life just by itself and then money becomes a cherry on top. Oh, I make my, that's how I feel when I get like, oh, subscribers, oh, booked calls. Oh, surprise me. That's, you know, I don't have like, here's how many, and this is the percentage of people I'm going to get at the end of the week when this funnel is, no. I know how to do these things, and if it's joyful for somebody else and they want to do it, I can always teach them how to do it. And there's a place and time for that.

But, you know, I'd love for everybody to be able to be in that place where they feel comfortable really showing themselves. Because most of all, it's not just about people doing what they're. Because when people are not afraid, when you're not afraid of anything, right? Like, let's say you're so safe and you feel so secure that you can say yes to what you really want out of life. right, stop, stop playing small. You say, this is what I want, I'm going to go for it. And you start pursuing that, and you start getting momentum and confirmation from the universe that you are on the right path and that, yes, finally, you've finally gotten out

of your own freaking way, right? And you're going in that direction and you're making things happen. You know, that is really full self-expression. It's just being so free and uninhibited that you can be yourself, as a hence on clenching the butthole. It's like, you're just, I don't give a shit. Like, I am, I am happy and life is working as kind of, I want to say almost magical way, but I don't want to say magical because it makes it sound like, we're going to do manifestation work,

and we're going to file our nails and money is going to fly from, that's not how it works. There's actual work, there's practice, there's stuff to be done. But it feels very effortless. It feels peaceful. It feels joyful. And then people can be whoever the heck they want to be in that moment. They can be like kids. You know, they can, yeah, like, I think we all have so much joy when we see somebody just be, like I said, you know, earlier, dancing as if nobody's watching.

But like, imagine going through your life like that where you're like, like a bird singing, don't care, who's listening. I'm just having a good time. And, you know, I happen to have some services that help you out for somebody else that could be coaching. For somebody else that could be, I don't know, writing, copyrighting, design. therapy, whatever your work is, you know, it could be whatever it is that you're most, or a combination of a bunch of things, but it doesn't matter because you are being your full self-expression. Tomorrow I could switch maybe from marketing and branding and this stuff to selling something that's completely different. I'll still be happy. I'll still be fine. And I'll probably

still be able to convert people because they're not buying from me because I do marketing. Do you know how many people out there are doing marketing? They're working with me because I'm doing marketing this way that is aligned with them, that they feel like this is an alignment with me. I feel good about this. This is the vibe, the energy I want to surround myself with. They recognize there is resonance. That's it. It is a fascinating concept to think this idea of fear and scarcity that is somehow built into us from the very beginning. It seems that on some level we're conditioned to have this fear. but you know i think it was jfk who said the only thing you really have to fear is fear itself but

fear is kind of an epidemic right so many people live a life of fear and that's scarcity and then they they end up being in a job they don't want to be in or being in a relationship that they don't want to be in and they just kind of live a mediocre life that way it's what would you what advice would you give to somebody who is who is beginning to understand that they're not living a life that they want to live but they're a little bit scared to walk away from this paycheck and the mortgage and like, you know, it seems like things could just fall apart if you give up, right? If you let go, oh, no, I can lose everything.

You know what? It's interesting to think about, right? Sure. I'll say meditate on your mortality is the first step. Remember that you're going to die. We're all going to die. Yeah. Really like sit with that, you know, and let it sink in.

It's a very interesting concept. The mind trying to wrap its own head around its own end or, you know, Like, where does this begin and where does it end? Anyway, this is a different story. I mean, what can I say? Fear. I'm going to say, like, I'm not going to just tell them, like, don't be afraid because that's not helpful. Like, don't be afraid.

Be happy. I think the more you can sit with fear, the more you can make peace with it, the more you can see. If you can cultivate the sense of trust with yourself and this experience, with yourself that over and over you faced fear and you are fine, you start to build a track record of trusting yourself that I can be afraid and I can sit with a feeling of fear and that's going to be okay. And I can probably even sit with the worst case scenario and still be okay. Does that make sense? Yeah. The more it's, it's, Yeah, it's really not about our relationship with fear specifically,

as much as is our relationship with how we respond to our fear. Because people, myself included, of course, you know, it's what counts more than anything is not like, hey, do you feel happy, sad, angry, but how do you respond to yourself when you are in those moments? And sadness, for example, is one of those emotions that when people experience, if they don't want to deal with it, they can silence it. Fear is a little bit more difficult to silence. It's a little bit more difficult. A huge way that people try to deal with fears, hyperachievement,

wanting to be so big and appear so big and so powerful that somehow they're going to, you know, be okay, be safe. If somebody has fears around their life situation and how they're going to let go of it, my advice is don't. Don't have to like dump everything and make a drastic change tomorrow and change your life overnight because the way it works is gradual and you have to practice being the person. So that's not about quitting your job or ditching your business to start a new one or or leaving a relationship because it's not perfect or that's not what I invite people to do.

What I invite them to do is take the 1% better from where you are. You know, what's the tiny shift that you can make today, right here in the next 24 hours, that is going to put you in the right direction? And can you repeat that over and over and work through the things that are going to come up as you're making these changes? Because it's not about the situation. It's about who you are being. If I take you out of the current situation and put you in a completely different one today, that's not going to magically transform you into a better person or a more powerful person,

more patient person, more secure, safe person. No, that safety and security is a muscle, like you said, as a practice. So you have to keep making the choices every day in that direction and keep facing the fear. And you build enough track record with yourself that you know that you're going to be okay. And then you trust yourself. And then you know that, you know what, even if something happens and it's extremely terrifying, I can sit in the feeling of terror, of fear in my body. I know how to talk to my mind in that situation.

I know how to ground myself and come back to the body. I know how to breathe through it. They're like little skills that you have to learn along the way to help you deal with it. I love it. It brings up this idea of relationships. You know, and a lot of the times when we think about relationships, we think about the ones we have with our partners, the ones we have in business.

But there's also relationships. to fear like you explained. When you think about the word relationships, what comes to your mind? Separation and separation in the sense of like, you know, the sense of ego of I am not one with this. That's another thing, like if we want to talk a little bit more philosophically. We are fear and we are the thing that we are afraid of

and we are the outcome and the imagination and the thought and we are all of it. But I'm really glad you said it that way because that's one of the things that helped me tremendously in making sense of my own emotions, is seeing them as separate beings and entities. This came in a suicide, one of the suicide in the ceremonies. But then I found out about a book called IFS or Internal Family System, which is, yeah, I can send it after the... Yeah, yeah.

So we can put it in the notes as well. Thanks to my friend Sebastian, Sebastian, who shared it with me on one of the podcasts. And I read it and I was like, oh, this is amazing. And then my therapist told me that she's actually also practicing it. So I started like diving a little bit deeper into it. Then I found a spiritual teacher who teaches something called the step system. His name's Christopher Waitaki.

Anyway, long story short is here's the condensed version of this. I am none of these things. This is what I came to. I am none of these things. And I can very well talk to this part of myself that has this trauma or this fear. I can talk to this and give it love and give it loving awareness. And then it kind of almost melts back into my being and then it goes and then it's no longer there. Like I used to have this intense fear of infinity for whatever reason ever since I was a kid,

I would like wake up with massive panic attacks being like, oh my God, I don't die. I fucking keep reincarnating over and over and over. And it was like this terrifying thing that I was just, I was like, oh, I'm stuck with time. Like me and time are freaking stuck and I need like this. I don't know. my brain would just get to a point where it was like, error, 404, I can't find the explanation. What is infinity? I can't understand what infinity is.

I just remember being a kid and being terrified of it, especially when it got dark outside. Like, kids would be afraid of monsters, and I'm like, I'm afraid of infinity. So anyway, that lasted a long, long, long, long time. And I remember in my early 30s, one day, I just had this out of nowhere, this feeling like I was dying. And I mean, I had lots of panic attacks my whole life, but that stopped. You know, that stopped happening. But this was not a panic attack. This was a moment.

I was like, oh, my God. Like, I am dying. I'm dying. And I felt like my body and my, I was melting, essentially. Like, I don't know how to explain it. It was very interesting, very interesting experience. And how did I get here? Holy shit.

I went to. We were talking about. We're talking about fear. We're talking about fear. Right. Yeah, we were talking about fear. And eventually, after a life of running away from this, like, this is the biggest monster of all. This was my biggest fear, infinity.

Spend my whole life running away from it. Like, I would be sitting down doing something, and suddenly I would remember infinity. There's no end to end. And it was like, shit. And I would go into this panic. And I'd be like, oh, my God, I can't escape this infinite. Like, I just went through that over and over and over and over throughout my life. until I faced it and I sat with the fear.

And I kid you not, it was like, I felt the sphere in my body. It was pretty intense for like five minutes. And I felt it very, very strongly. And then it was like, gone. That's it. And then from that point, I don't think it happened again. And if I remembered it, it was never like terrifying.

I was like, yeah, that's kind of freaky. Oh, well, what am I doing next? and then I would just go about my day and my life. But once you sit with something, whether it's fear or a painful experience, anything that you think is just a gigantic knot in your stomach and your emotions, all you have to do is sit with it, literally sit with the emotion, just give it attention and breathe and feel it in your body. Don't let your mind take it and run away with it and add thoughts and add ideas to it

and create a story and a meaning around it, let go of the thought, just sit with the feeling. you can sit with a feeling it should not last more than 10 minutes i've never heard of anybody feeling an emotion in their body for more than 10 minutes if they allow themselves to feel it fully and that is your liberation you just it just wants to be felt not rejected just wants to be accepted like okay you are welcome here felt okay done that's it it reminds me there's like this there's like this african proverb that says something along the lines of the child who is thrown out of the village will we turn to burn it

down to feel its warmth. And it seems like, yeah, it seems like that's the same thing with our emotions. Like if we reject them, they're going to come back and burn us down just to feel the warmth of it, right? Yeah, absolutely. I had so much anger earlier in my life, hence Kali. I had so much anger earlier in my life. And it really just sadness.

Why? Well, the long story short, I can't believe I'm saying this on the live, but whatever, when here comes. So my father growing up was in and out of jail. He was actually involved with gangs. Well, white-collar gangs, right? So spent all of my childhood try not to get killed. I used to like sleep with it, knife under my pillow, would have people come in and try to kill us. Long story short, like kept running from one country to another, trying to take. A lot of physical and emotional and sexual abuse throughout my childhood, family relatives, people, blah, blah, blah, beating all of it. Like, you could just

mash it up together and like, no, try to marry me off at 12. For those who are wondering, I am from Africa, from North Africa. It's funny that you mentioned the program, so there comes. Then by the time I was like 17 after like running away and like traveling over and trying not to get killed and then eventually he was like, okay, let's go to the US, last place that's left. So we come here and then he was like, I'm going to go on a trip. I'll be right back and then he never took off.

And he calls me and I'm freaking teenager. He's like, okay, now you're responsible for your mom and brother, go figure shit out. I'm like, okay, now I have to learn how to speak English and get a job and get put myself through school. And I was all the trauma, all the fear, all the anger. And now I had a financial responsibility to make it in a foreign land with my mother and my brother who was sick at the time. And so I didn't even have the time to like understand what just fucking happened for the first 17 years of my life. I just went into go mode. Okay, got to make money.

So I go online. I start making money. Meanwhile, life is still happening. Mind you, I'm a human being. I still experience everything everybody else experiences, heartbreaks, disappointments, failures, et cetera, et cetera. So all of this on top of like a lifetime of trauma, sexual and physical and emotional abuse and serious like trauma and, oh, and mental illnesses. I don't think it's a secret if you look at me. It's pretty clear.

And like all of it accumulating over and over and over and over and over and over. And I was angry. I was serious. I was afraid and sad. The truth is what I was afraid and sad. When I didn't have like the security of having a father or having somebody provide for me and I was young, I was terrified. I was terrified of failing because I'd take care of other people too. I was terrified of.

I was wounded because my father constantly told me. me as a kid that I was such a burden for existing and then suddenly I had to make money. So I was like, I'm going to make more money than him. All like a combination of wanting to prove myself slash angry slash sad, slash why didn't he show up to my graduation slash put it all together into this amalgamation of anger. And I was hissed all day. I don't know how I'm not dead.

I used to smoke two packs of marlbrose a day. I was going to let myself see how. afraid and sad I was. I was like, I'm angry. I am happy. I'm excited. I enjoy life. That's it. So I just had two modes. Happy, no, three. Happy, okay, content, angry. Emotion, any other emotion was just not there. It was just not allowed, not allowed, especially sadness. So, you know, I just got to a point. I was like, oh, okay, so that actually was, yeah anger obviously like my boundaries were crossed a lot but mostly sadness and fear that's what it was so yeah it'll come back to

burn you for sure and burn other people around you no matter how much you try not to burn other people around you that's the worst part of it you know when I think of how many people I probably hurt you know yeah I know exactly nice person very sharp tongue very sarcastic very snarky very Not very pleasant, honestly. I love myself still. I have zero, like, anger about it or shame or whatever. But that's just the truth.

So, yeah, I know the story. I mean, I think that there's a lot of us who have learned at a young age that we have these really sharp tools that are very effective. And we're learning how to use them at a young age. And we're not, none of us are. None of us are allowed to choose our circumstances, but the tools you develop in those, like, I know, I was talking to a, when I was, when I was little, there was like some sexual abuse in my growing up as a kid, too. And I remember talking to a friend of mine that was at

my daughter's school, and her and I were talking about relationships and family. And I could tell that something happened to her in the language she was using and the way in which she was talking about her family. And anybody who's, anybody who's been through traumas in their life, you get this, when horrible things happen to you as a kid, you're given this gift of insight because now you can see it in other people. 100%. Right? And so when her and I were talking, I could see her start to tear up and I was kind of dancing around the subject of sexual trauma as a child. And I could see the tears well up in her eyes. And I said something to her like, you know, isn't it interesting that there's kids that pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to go to Ivy League schools to learn about

sexual trauma and you've got to learn about it for free. You know? She would want to hear that. How did she receive that? She just, she started crying and laughing at the same time. Like, I never thought about it like that. I'm like, yeah. And you're better at it.

And like you can help more people at it. And you got it for free. Congratulations. It's true. It's true. It is. Somebody might either. And that's one of those places where you get to choose the truth.

the truth you want to adopt. Do you want to adopt the story of I'm a victim? Or do you want to adopt the story and the truth of I have a gift, but not the thing that happened. But you have to go through the victim part. Like on some level, like that as a kid or something like that, like you, you don't have the tools as a kid to not understand how to not be a victim, at least for a little while. But I think it's important at some point.

I think that's where vulnerability comes in. Like, you trust, I trusted my dad. My dad and your dad should get together. They probably have a good time. But like they, there's something as a child or as a young person that you go through this period of vulnerability where you are chiseled out of stone and given the tools of character. And it's important to go through that and be vulnerable and have those mistakes and have that sharp tongue. Be sarcastic and lash out because that's when you can find, when you get to a certain age of life, you look back and look at that. Oh, I see the stuff that I made.

I don't, I feel like I couldn't have been any other way and I don't expect, I don't, this is why I feel shame or like, look back. I'm like, girl, you made it and I'm proud of you. You're here? That's what matters. Because it was so garbage and I didn't realize how bad it was even at the time. I just kept playing it down. Like it took me about 10 years to figure, oh, my life actually wasn't like, okay. That was not okay.

That happened. Sometimes when I told me, like, when I actually get a, you know, I'm like, when I actually get a lot, in the story and tell the details of all the things up because why I told you it really is 5% what actually happened. Sometimes I'm like this really doesn't feel real. Like this happened to me. How am I okay? I mean, I'm okay. I think. I'm okay. I seem to be okay. But how is this possible? No. Yeah, it's shit. Yeah. I think I think everybody goes through one version or another. It's not, I never, I remember what to be, I was a 13 year old when I decided I didn't want to be a victim anymore. And that was the best decision of my life.

You know, I was like, I'm not going to be a victim. I'm not going to be, you know. And, but it's not like it was a linear, linear from that stage onwards, right? Like I was in my teenagers and the thing happened with my father in the financial situation. And I kind of went another dip at that point. point and it was really hard again and I was not doing well. And it was like a fluctuation. So yeah, but yeah, I don't, I completely understand.

And honestly, let's let me just put it this way. Yeah. Imagine you're an 18 year old, four and a girl. I knew I was vulnerable. I didn't just think I was vulnerable. I knew I was vulnerable. I was like, hold on, I don't have money to pay rent food. I have a mother, I have a brother.

There's myself trying to put myself to school. I'm trying to make it in life. The only thing I can get is minimum wage. I can't even like study because I need a dictionary to explain like the things that are in a freaking book. I am not going to be okay if I don't develop this because if I go out there, there's going to be, as a young woman, there's going to be predators. I knew all of that and I was like, I have to be tough. I have to make money. I have to be very careful, you know, and I just.

just had like these very strong boundaries. It was self-protection, just being tough, a tough person because I didn't want anybody to take advantage of me because I knew that people, a lot of people unfortunately would want to take advantage of somebody who's in that situation. But I had been already like so, I had so much experience with people and like being on the actual street, like being out in the world. That was not shielded. I was not sheltered, not all my life at least, because when I was 13, I made that move when I was like, I need to get out of this situation. So, yeah, so I was like, nope, I have to be nasty. But maybe I didn't need to be that aggressive and angry.

And maybe just to be kind to myself, I should have worked on my own traumas. Oh, look at that. Hi, buddy. What's me? This is Freddie. Hi, Freddy. What's up, buddy? Yeah, he's a rascal.

I don't know. He looks like him. His name is Kashmir and Kala. Oh, nice. Yeah, they're very interesting animals to watch and understand how they navigate through life. I think you can learn a lot just by sometimes me, my daughter will sit back and watch them kind of like wrestle and fight and find ways to like put that into our lives and stuff like that. But it brings me to this idea of imagination.

And I think sometimes when I look at life as a story and as a gift and the problems that happen to children and childhood, I think on some level, it opens up new avenues to imagination. Because when you look back on a life that's like, oh, my dad is this. Or we did that. You know, like, as a child, too, like you open these doors to creative expression. It may have never been open to you. Like, you know, moving 13 times in 13 years and having people want to kill you. Like, on some level, you as a child have to create your own narrative around that.

You never lose that. Yeah, absolutely. That's such a beautiful. observation and I am aware that that had something to do with it because for sure, I mean, I remember creating stories in my head is going to pull through the situation, you know, and just imagining a better future. I think hope is what kept me going. Obviously, is what keeps us all going, but like just this hope for a better tomorrow and a better story. I don't know how, but I'm just going to, what if my life is going to turn out so much better

and it did, man, oh God, I'm going to get emotional. Well, like, so if we just take what you just said right there, like, it's, it makes it's so, it's so beautiful to think that, that the young Aliana who came up with these creative stories about tragedy is now able to find someone in the world that is lacking imagination and you're able to lend your power to see the most beautiful. thing in them. Or they have so much imagination and they're not sure how to make it or yell.

They have both and they have fears. There's so many, yeah, but you're so right. It's like I wouldn't have it any other way. I don't feel any regret, sadness, anger, anything at all towards any of the experiences I had, sexual, physical, emotional abuse or anything. I forgive my father fully 100%. I don't talk to him mostly to be safe, but I forgive him. I sent him love.

I have nothing but gratitude for the life that I had. I learned so much, so quickly also. I'm 46. Dude. No way.

Yeah, I'm 36. I'm 36. I feel like I've lived 360 lives in this one lifetime and it's been amazing and I'm grateful. I'm grateful. I've really...

This is why I love doing what I do. It just feels like I just took my whole life and made like, one coherent string. Oh, okay. Self-expression. Because when I was a kid, I was interested in art and creativity, right?

I was a painter. I loved that. I was interested in music and all these things. And then, you know, having to become someone that I am not in order to survive, to appear, tougher, to be safe, to make money. Achieving, right, the things that I thought would make me feel complete and realize, you know what, I can't run away from my humanity. I have to face that, doing that inner work.

and then actually being like, you know, I don't care what I do. It's who I am being while doing it. I could make marketing artistic and creative and spiritual. I could make washing dishes art. I could make anything I want into whatever the heck I want. And this is what I enjoy and this is what the world needs. And so this is what I'm going to create. And just feeling like everything I'm creating is in alignment with that. The story makes sense. And it's a beautiful feeling when you feel like your life story makes sense, you know. Because for a long time, it didn't. Really, for a long time, it did not. It's like, this does not make any sense.

Sometimes it feels that way. You know, sometimes it feels that way. In a good way, in a bad way, sometimes it feels that way. But most of the time, it feels like one beautiful, coherent story that I'm like, okay, I'm really grateful and privileged. I feel honored that I got to live the life that I lived. You know, I'm thankful that I ended up in those places. wouldn't have it any other way, honestly.

I wouldn't be having this conversation with you. I'd probably be a normal person. Normal thoughts and normal work and things like that. I would be like, yeah, just can't wait to finish my work today or be done with my business so I can go, I don't know, what do people, normal people do? Yeah. I don't wish anybody to be normal.

That's like the worst thing you could wish on someone. I hope you're normal. What don't know that means? I don't know. it's interesting too i love the way that you you speak from this point of reflection and it seems to me that as you get older in life you look back on these things that seem incoherent but then all of a sudden you see them as like road signs or you see them as like oh it had to be that way oh i get it now but it's very difficult before we came here almost yeah right it's it yeah it's it yeah it's

a beautiful way to look at it. Like there was this sort of contract that you made and, you know, everything that happened to you before you got here was somewhat agreed upon, you know, or at least the outcome was, it's like, okay, I'm going to get here. Okay, I'm going to get you there, but you have to go through all these trials and tribulations. What actually happens, you get to choose, yeah, you get to choose. But yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't know these things, by the way. I'm just saying this is one of those things that I'm like, this is, I have a sense of knowing about this, but I have thorough evidence. This is the amount of scientific or any other kind of evidence

that I have to provide for this perspective. Maybe you can share that perspective. I don't think we've fleshed it out. What's that? Maybe we could talk about that perspective. What do you think? Do you think that we come in? I know there's books and schools of thought

that talk about you come into this world as a contract, but maybe you can talk a little bit about that. Sure. The way I see it is, remember how I said we are all literally one? Yeah. So there's no life or death. there's only life or there's no birth and death there's this life there's this spirit this

consciousness this essence and then as you know everything is constantly recycling once i quote unquote die my body dies and decomposes it turns into something else but that consciousness it's one it's already there it just it's like changing filters it's like wearing a different colored hair of sunglasses basically but the sight is the same you know the consciousness is this same. So that's what I mean by reincarnation or whatever. It's nothing magical. It's just I am one. I think it scares a lot of people because like, oh my God, are you telling me that I don't exist? Yes. No, but yes. You're not who you think you are. You're not what you think you are. I think that's my perspective. Yeah. I think for a lot of people, it's difficult to let go.

You know, we're so busy trying to accumulate things and define ourselves by the things we do and the things we have. But maybe the best way to begin understanding who you really are is to try to let go of things, right? And that's hard to do. It's, I know when I left my job, like I really had a tough time because a lot of my identity was dressed up in what I did every day. And when I left there, I was like, oh, no, I'm not this person. And you realize it's like this, on some level, I see myself. as a pattern. And the beauty of that, it's both beautiful and kind of dangerous because it's really easy

to fall into a pattern you don't want to be. But it's also really beautiful to understand that you can become a new pattern. If you just wake up and start moving in the direction that you want to move it, what do you think? I think if people sat in meditation or just silence or presence more often and got to know themselves more often as an experience feeling rather than a state of mind or an image or an idea that they have up here, but who do you sense you are when you are present in that silence? If you sit with yourself more, you know your nature to be infinite and always there

and always present, and then you don't feel that fear of switching characters, as you said, because you know it's not who you are. And then you feel so much, what's the word, so much, it's not a sense of certainty that's similar to beliefs. This is not a This is just a sense of knowing, like when you experience something and you experience your infinite nature. You know, you know when you get to that place within yourself that you're like, oh, I know this is who I am and it's always there, it's always been there, and it will always be there. It's not something that started with birth and it's not going away with death. Yeah, that's, I guess. That's the true self, the spirit, who we are.

but it's not something that is easy to we can put labels on it but it's kind of like to use the example of the rock you know or stone can you can you explain what it is you know you can only describe it you can describe what it's like what is the material what is the color what is the texture but it's the actual rock it's not like it's it can only be experienced it's can only be experienced as an essence as something you know you just know it when you experience it. Yeah, I think that that speaks to the power of nature

because our language fails on so many levels. Like we have only words to try to describe something that is infinite. You know, and the language fails there. But being in nature, whether you're out on a hike or maybe you're laying by a waterfall or laying on a beach and listening to the waves crash onto the shore, like there's something that you're taking in there that's more than language.

It's something that surrounds you. And I like the word essence. It's much more descriptive in nature. But yeah, you really get a sense of wholeness when you're surrounded by nature. Is that something that you do? Sometimes go out in nature and just kind of be. Every day, of course. Yeah, absolutely.

Every day. And it's part of the practice that I do. But even if not, when I work in people marketing, I'm like, are you eating well? Are you walking in nature? Are you sleeping well? Are you drinking water? Because it makes a difference in how you think. A quick point about words, I think the thing about words is that they are great for the mind to understand.

We have to know that we understand on different levels. There's a mental understanding where you have a label for something, where I have a label for this and call it bottle of water, and it has an association for what I do with it. That's one level of understanding it. But then there's also understanding something as an energy, as a presence, as an experience. You know, and everything can be understood with different levels or states of awareness. You understand it with the mind, and then you understand it with your feelings.

You understand it with your body as you sense it. You understand it with your intuition. The more you can understand the same thing, this mic, with different states of awareness, the more deeply you can understand, truly understand the mind. But the keys to let go of any preconceived notions you have about the mic, to be pure in the way that you're looking at it. So you're not, if I stop seeing this as a bottle of water, it opens up infinite ways that this thing is. It's so many other things than a bottle of water, but that's the function that I see it as.

Anyway, so that was the tangent, but that's, you know, that's why I feel like words may fail us, because we're trying to use something that is designed the language of the mind. We're trying to use the language of the mind to explain to intuition, to the heart, to the emotion. And that's, they don't speak the same language. That's why children, you know, they absorb things and, you know, especially like at a younger age, they absorb the emotion. Or advertising uses this against people, like flashing images with sound and colors and things like that to tap into your emotion. Pro tip for anyone who's doing marketing, I can't help it. You know, that's how you create this kind of impact both on the rational and the logical side of marketing.

with words with copy you speak to the rational mind and then with the images and colors and the energy and like the subtle things is how you speak to the emotions and together is how you really make an impact. No, it's beautiful. Do you see this is, I just realized in this moment. Like everything that I said about explaining the different states of awareness, you speak to any business person, mainstream marketing,

they look at you like you have five heads. But then when you say, oh, we're appealing to the mind and to the emotion, sure, yeah, there's evidence that we have to appeal to both, we're just not going to call them states of awareness and we're not going to accept that they have their own language. That's too, woo-hoo.

But we will do the thing that we know works because we know from the historical experimentation and marketing that that's how it works and that's how you make money anyway. No, it's beautiful. I think it speaks to the separation of science and spirituality, you know, and it comes down to not being able

to measure like non-Euclidean space in a way. But, you know, the thing in the West at least seems to be, and especially when it comes to money in business, is that how can you manage what you can't measure? And people can't measure spirituality. And so they just throw it out. Okay, well, we don't need it then. We're just going to have science over here.

And the science says this. Statistics say that. Here's those poll that says this. And so we lean so heavy on language because that's what we use to describe stuff. But with language without the spiritual connotation behind it is empty. And like that's sometimes like I see that's the world we're in. Like it's so empty.

We're so full of production. We're so full of efficiency. But we're lacking the meaning. We're lacking the beauty. We're lacking the natural substance behind our language that really empowers people to become authentic and beautiful and loving and caring and embracing. I think that we're moving towards that. And I think a lot of what you're doing all on embraces that.

That's why people gravitate toward you so much as you really can draw those things together. It's beautiful. Thank you. Thank you. And that was music to my ears as you were talking about how it's so true. You know, I took a little break from creating content for like three weeks, I think. And I was like, I don't want to do anything, you know, with like, I'm just going to keep like the calls. And that said, I'm not doing anything in those three weeks.

And then I was like, you know what? I want to go back to basics. and let me see the word marketing on Wikipedia. And when I went down a rabbit hole, clicking through one word to another, to the origin, to the connections of philosophy. And I realized that, wow, like, I always knew that this was a great way

to kind of get a deeper understanding of something is to go to the dictionary, not just the dictionary, but the origin of the word. Because words are created when there is a social phenomenon where different people identify the same experience. At first, they might start creating memes. That's the original meaning of the word memes.

They start creating memes to identify the feeling or the situation, that feeling when X, and a person sees that, and ha-ha, I laugh because I recognize that I've had a similar experience to you. Once it gets to a certain point in society where enough people have identified it, there's usually a moment where a word is born. And when a word is born, it tells you something about that thing. So I went back to the word marketing and I'm like, what's the origin of this? And it turns out branding and marketing have been done since at least since 4 BC.

So like they've been done for a while. It's not something that just started yesterday. I found it fascinating to see how, you know, the reasons why these things were done and how they were being done, which tells you a lot more about the principles of the thing rather than trying to learn it from a book. So I encourage anyone listening to apply this to pretty much anything that they want to learn more about. It's just go to the word and try to find the meaning of the word, like you said, the spiritual meaning of the word, trying to find my charger.

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I think that there's so much, on some level, I think our language is evolving. You know, and I think that we're about to embark on a new way to model reality. And I think heightened states of awareness, for me, psychedelics, spirituality, or the combination of science and spirituality together, you know, we're really, anybody who's paying attention can notice that society, our world, humanity isn't a shift. And I think we're beginning a model reality in a way that's different than before. It's this new dimension that's evolving. And it's allowing us to see the world in a way that we've imagined it to be.

And I'm just, I'm so thankful to get to be here talking about it. Because I can, I know that it's like the one, the words on the tip of your tongue, so too is this new model of reality that's for us. You talking about language and the etymology of words and memes and them coming together with images. It's this new idea of marketing. Like I'm really excited for it all. It's really beautiful. Me too, me too. And I think it's coming to all industries and areas at all levels.

And this is what I love is that, you know, we're moving. away from talking about what we should be doing as a collective and how to be goody, goody and how to be good. And instead, we are becoming self-healers. And my friend Daniel said it best. He said, the world needs eight billion self-healers. And that is so true, you know, because when we heal ourselves and when we can see the darker side of ourselves and accept it, not as bad, but it's just part of the light,

the other side of the light. And we can integrate it. we can bring our full selves to everything we create. We can bring this spirituality to whatever it is that we do. We don't have to talk about it in such a spiritual way or, you know, spend our time. I mean, we can. Yeah. But we'll be too busy applying the principles of oneness and the principles of being, a being of love.

And applying that as a being of love, how would you be, if you are a marketer, if you're doing a live like this on LinkedIn, if you are an architect, if you are I don't care, a doctor, if you're a coach, I don't care what you're doing, right? Like, are you being that as you're doing it is the question. And I'm excited too. I can see it. It's becoming more and more clear. And I think that we are evolving also at an exponential rate.

Yeah. But like, you know, there's so much that has happened on a technological level so quickly that is definitely affecting our brains and our minds. So, you know, I'm probably not going to be around to see it. I don't know. But, yeah, I'd love to know what happens next. I think it's, yeah, it's just super exciting. I love the idea of the individual self-actualizing

and becoming the best version of themselves is actually what heals the world. Like, it's so fractal in a way. Like, there's this thing called the Mandelbrot set. And when you zone in on it, it expands. And like each, it's like fractals, right? So every image is in fact an image of the bigger picture. And in some ways, I think of all of us, like me, you, everybody listening, every human being as like a seed.

And we're beginning to crack open and like bloom, right? Like it's so beautiful to think about. Like I just thought about that when you were talking about. I'm like, yeah, like we're all seeds. And winter is almost over. It's like spring is here. And each individual is beginning to. bloom its own unique way like we're on the cusp of something so beautiful like i get goosebumps

when i think about it yes absolutely man it's like we're all born with this seed this essence and yeah we become in this lifetime and if we if we have if we cultivate the patients really and the awareness and willingness to learn about ourselves to get to know ourselves instead of being distracted all the time but to stick with all the cause and listen to the inner voice and work through these things and sit with the emotions, we do the inner work, then we can start to discover who we are meant to become in this lifetime. And it's just a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful trip. It's literally a trip. I mean, no psychedelics are needed, although they're cool, but it's literally a fucking trip. Yeah, no, absolutely, absolutely. And I think that's seed, that essence is what

I was talking about. And I said, I see that in a person is like, you all just their oneness, you know, as God, as the divine. There's also like this little spirit. It's like, another layer of the creation, right? It's like you're reincarnating as Monty, but also there's a spirit of Monty that is like this character that is full and fun and fun and smart and loves to have these kind of conversations. You know, those little things that we sense about people

that are very difficult usually to find the words to describe, but like you feel a sense of love for a person, you just love them. You know, like, I love this person's spirit. Yeah, yeah. I just fucking love them. Yeah, it's like that's when you, that's when you, uh, when you've touched or you've touched somebody else's spirit. Yeah.

Yeah. I don't think, I don't think that, I think that's the perfect spot to end right there. Like, I don't see how it possibly gets any better than someone who's a spirit right there. I don't think that we would stop even if we are not. Not all. This is too much fun. It's too much fun. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. If, if, if, if, if we weren't up against the heartbreak, I think we could, I think we're to scratch on the surface. But that's beautiful conversation. That's meaningful conversation. That's why I was so excited to talk to you today. I see it in the work you do. And more than seeing it in the work you do, I can see it in the smiles of the people that you have spoken to and the words they use to describe you. I think it's beautiful. But before I let you go, Aliana, where can people find you? What do you have coming up and what are you excited about?

Okay. I'm actually really excited because I'm working on something behind the scenes that I've been dreaming about for a while. So I think maybe I can share it. I've always not always, but years ago I had this dream to create some like marketing school for lack of better words where I help people who, you know, already the people I talk to, they're brilliant. They know what the fuck they're doing. They know how to do market, but they want to do marketing in their own way. They want to do in a way that's fun and exciting and alignment and it flow. Yay. So I'm just excited about it. Anyway, so far I've been doing it with people like one-on-one and calls and that sort thing, but I'm working on creating the, putting everything that's here into this, you know,

step-by-step framework that anybody can apply from any stage from beginning to end so they can build their own brand of full self-expression. So it's a project of a lifetime, but I'm working on the V1 of it, and I'm so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so freaking excited. Where can people find me?bondonelive.com forward slash mojo, subscribe to Mojo, newsletters, and send a video that I, that you were talking about. Thank you for these beautiful words. I appreciate it. I love creating those videos.

I'm working on one right now. Late, I should have shipped it on Saturday or Sunday, but I didn't because I'm enjoying it, so I'll ship it at some point. It's actually the next one, for anyone who's curious, the next video I'm dropping is going to be about how to figure out what exactly you need to be focusing on in your marketing right now, depending on your business stage, because people spread themselves too thin, trying to do everything at once, you know, and like if you only have an hour or two a day to focus on growing your business and you want to do it in alignment, what marketing activities should you focus on

based on where you are at this point? So that's the video that I'm drunk. Yeah, so brands arlive.com is the best place and LinkedIn. You know, I'm on LinkedIn, Aliana Kelly. Yeah. Fantastic. Well, hang on one second. I'm going to hang up with the people, but I wanted to talk to you briefly afterwards. All right. All right. Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for hanging out today. What a fantastic conversation. And please go into the show notes. Check out Aliana. Brilliant at what she does. Caring with the relationship she has and beautiful to be around. Thank you so much for being here today. Ladies and gentlemen, it's Tuesday. The week is just beginning and it's going to be a beautiful rest of the week. I love everybody. Aloha. I love you all.

Bye.