132: Aaron McCormick author of “Unbounded: Journey to Your Within”
Aaron McCormick the author of “Unbounded: Journey To Your Within” is Dr. Brad Miller’s guest on Episode 132 of the Beyond Adversity Podcast.
Aaron McCormick is an author, artist, entrepreneur and inspirational speaker whose path to success and fulfillment defies societal norms and expectations in nearly every way.
Raised by a single mom on the South Side of Chicago, McCormick, since the age of 23 was one of the world’s leading technology business transformation sales executives, earning millions and receiving numerous awards and distinctions. He has been honored as “Best of IBM,” an award bestowed upon the top 1% of 400,000 employees, founded several companies and earned an MBA from a top business school with the rare precedent of having no prior undergraduate college degree. McCormick courageously stood up to and escaped the fundamentalist Christian cult in which he was raised, resulting in loss of his universe of friends and family.
With the combination of deep empathy, wisdom, and self-made success in the face of adversity, McCormick ignites the innate ability we all have within to decode our own answers for maximum clarity and self-actualization. Aaron has helped countless people of all backgrounds realize greater fulfillment and success in areas of career, personal power, love & relationships, sales, entrepreneurship and leadership.
https://aaronmccormick.com/about
January 2021
Dr. Brad Miller
Transcript of the Interview (note that the transcript was generated by AI software and there may be some typos)
Brad Miller 0:00
Our author today, Aaron McCormick, he grew up in a very difficult circumstance which we will share, talk to him about in a minute. And he rose into success in the corporate ranks as a salesperson, without the benefits of some advantages some other folks had earning a great deal of money and rising up the corporate ranks. But he found it wasn’t quite enough for him to have true success and fulfillment in his life. And he knew that he had to break free of what was binding him up, and to move forward with something else. That is more fulfilling for him. That’s what we’re going to talk about today. The name of his book, his unbounded journey to your within or author guest today. Is there a McCormick Aaron, welcome to the podcast today.
Aaron McCormick 0:46
Thank you, Brad. Pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me.
Brad Miller 0:49
Awesome. Awesome. Well, Aaron, the name of your book is unbounded journey to your within. And so that tells me if you became unbounded, then prior to that something bound you up. So what was it some of the things that bound you up? Or what were some of the challenges that you face, I’d like to hear a little bit about your story.
Aaron McCormick 1:13
Sure, well, the title on bounded, a lot of people might assume that unbounded is the wrong form of unbound, but unbounded actually means to be limitless, or is unbounded is exactly as you mentioned, to lose a specific set of binding or a binding. And what I’ve realized throughout all of our lives is that we all absorb a bunch of binders, which I consider things that are foreign to our actual essence, if you will. In other words, if you think about when you were born, when I was born, all of us, we have a certain energy, a personality, a spirit, a disposition that nobody ever taught us. But then through the years, it’s it starts to morph a bit based upon the energy in our household, our family, heritage expectations of our sex or race, the area we live in, TV, pop culture, just all sorts of things. And we gradually suppress or divert from things that really are what we prefer what brings us joy, what makes us tick. And so we kind of become an offshoot of our original selves. So the concept of unbounded is where we conscientiously go through not just our, our life up to this point, various experiences, expectations, ideals, things that we think are ours, but they may not really be. And we also look at our presence, from relationships to career, you name it, and when we gradually be honest with ourselves, and we find our higher self by pursuing things that are actually not in conflict, we, we find our real joy. So that’s the premise of the book. And it covers everything from self, really connecting our own dots. It’s a book about the reader really takes you through your own life. And then also relationships, romantic, familial friends, and of course, career, which is where we spend most of our time. That’s, that’s the book. As far as me. I mean, I was raised in the Southside of Chicago, I’m one of four children, I’m black. My parents divorced when I was four. So I didn’t really have a father figure, although I had older brothers. And my life is just full of paradigm busting. I didn’t really try to do this, I just tended to recognize that conflict inside of myself was greater than appear not liking me or peers, not liking me or not, don’t get me wrong, I at one point, I was very much succumb to my environment, as we all do. And often we stay on that path. But I guess at some point, I gradually began to learn the voice in my head, the energy in my soul, energy, meaning the unspoken thing is not always a word or voice. It’s just a feeling you don’t agree with it’s not quite congruent, that kind of thing. That was a lot more painful to deal with, than appeasing these external forces, family environment, whatever the case may be. And then afterward dealing with that voice nagging or that thing saying that that’s not quite what you agree with, or what you feel or think. And so I began to live a lot more intrinsically. And, and it’s been an incredible journey to be a novel to follow this one too, because this book is not specifically about my life, although there’s some some things I talk about to jog other people’s own experiences. It’s really about the reader. Sure. Well, you
Brad Miller 4:48
mentioned about how this internal conflict that you had and how you had to make some sort of a transition from the external to the intrinsic somewhere along the line. I would imagine there may have been a seminal moment or a time when you hit a wall or you came to something that was was a life changing moment. Is there such a thing for you? And if so, let’s talk about a little bit.
Aaron McCormick 5:19
There were actually a few key ones. And I think for most of us, we will notice that sometimes there’s one big one that is the catalyst for everything else. I just think back to, for example, being in high school, where, you know, most of the people, the examples around me, were either blue collar workers, Southside Chicago, you had a great job as you are doing something blue collar, consistent pay, or you might have been insurance agents, or something like this, which some made really good money. It’s a great profession. But it didn’t require a college degree. And I didn’t have that option for several reasons. One of which is I was raised in a very high controlling Christian religious cult, if you will. And they applied the Bible to the extreme where Jesus just had a simple trade. As we know, as a carpenter, he focused on God’s kingdom, he wasn’t trying to become something prominent, although with a perfect mind and body, he could have been a richest man to ever live. So anyway, the point is I
Brad Miller 6:19
value system imposed upon you that was antithetical to having certain types of success and breakthroughs.
Aaron McCormick 6:27
Yeah, and in that situation, I had a love of cars. In fact, to date, I’ve had over 100 cars, but at the time, I’m thinking, Hey, you know, maybe I’ll be a mechanic. I started trying to work on cars with my uncle and cold winters in Chicago, bang my knuckles a few times, head, tilt the hands and realize, okay, maybe I’ll drive them and enjoy them, I’m not gonna quite work on them. And then I then I decided, Okay, I’ll do computer programming. I thought technology is the way the future. And I have a pretty analytical mind started trying to do that in high school, created some apps and stuff was very tedious. And as you can tell, I’m out of a book, and I’ve been in sales. I’m apparently a very interpersonal kind of human right, I like to interact with people. And I realized, you know, maybe as a sophomore or a junior, I either need to be teaching training, selling, or if I did go to college, a lawyer or a psychologist, people is my space. And so I adapted myself to that path. And I said, what, what if I marry selling or dealing with people with technology, because of my own macro decision was or expectation was that technology would eventually run the planet. And so unbeknownst to me, and also say, against everything else around me, but brothers, uncles, other male figures, I went down that path, and I was a bit ostracized at the thought of being in corporate America, trying to get into technic to technology. The thought was, oh, you’ll be, you’ll be kind of owned, you know, you look at us, we run, you know, financial markets, or we are insurance agents, we work we spend our own time, it’s all ours, and we make as much money as we want, you’ll have an eight to five. Little did I know that that decision, which was kind of frowned upon quite a bit and scuffed that would lead me down a path where my low 20s I worked from home, I kept my own schedule, had a six figure salary, plus benefits, I traveled the world, booked flights at my leisure, did power lunches created important presentations and proposals and transformed business in the process. So it was so far in the way beyond and on a different level than the types of problems that the people around me are solving. And both in terms of challenging myself in terms of income, freedom, global travel, all that. And that was purely from just an internal awareness that I don’t quite want to do something that’s so transactional, valuable, yeah, helping people insurance that’s very valuable. We all need it. It’s a good career. But I have a very complex mind. And I like to break things down and solve bigger problems. And so organizational behavior in psychology and the complexity of big enterprise software sales, somehow was a perfect fit. But at the time, I made that decision bread at 1617, I had no idea the world of complex software sales, or that this kind of income could be made or that it was, you know, ticked all these boxes for me, but that’s an example
Brad Miller 9:25
and it might be saved. Before you go too far. You had several barriers, I assume to get there. I mean, you said you didn’t have a college education. And I don’t know, I don’t know if there are racial barriers or whatever, or socio economic or whatever. But it seems like you had to overcome a few things to have success in that career.
Aaron McCormick 9:43
Without question, and the thing is, I didn’t I guess I didn’t overly internalize those barriers. I mean, I wasn’t clueless, that race is an issue in this country or that most people have a college degree to make a great deal of income. I knew that was the case. All Not all, but a lot of my peers in high school all had college plans and all the counselors were pushing that. And I just knew that was not in my, in my future. I guess deep down, I’ve always felt that everything was merit based, call it and evety call it a real connection to the soul. Because as I mentioned earlier, we actually are bigger than these bodies, and we are unlimited our higher selves are, the issue is what does our conscious mind believe? therein lies the barriers. And since I really felt that, whatever I wanted to do, I could be great at whatever it is, if I just say, that’s what I want. That’s what’s going to be where that came from. Not quite sure. But I know we all have that capacity. And so part of what I’ve done is booked for is to help people go through their own experiences, good and bad, their own attitudes, things that have been visible since they were infants, toddlers, there’s exercises that take you through talking to family members, and just understanding some of the essence of what you are in your original form, before binders were consumed, and then you go through all the different periods of life where those might have morphed and changed and circumstances where you suppress that sort of thing.
Brad Miller 11:12
Where you break up your book into the self actualization stuff, things we’re talking about here now and in your career, aspirations and then your personal relationships, but winding through the the themes that that wind through everything you’re talking about here are things that are of the soul, or of the of the intrinsic of the mind are things like joy and empathy. And I would just like for you to take talk a little bit about about this understanding of the power that comes from going to these places, a place greater than yourself, on top of either your spiritual life or your mindfulness, things of this nature, speak to the power beyond yourself how that’s part of your transformation.
Aaron McCormick 12:00
Yeah, the, you know, the, essentially how you say the power beyond yourself, and I know exactly what you mean. And ironically, it is the power of your true self. But to your precise point, it’s not consciously yourself, like we consciously view ourselves to be the physical stature, the educational level, the experiential, the all the things that we know, to be the case, but there’s so much that we don’t know, it’s, you know, I kind of like in the journey are the two options of what animates us, we’re either intrinsically animated, or extrinsically. And if we’re really far along the path, we begin to integrate the two and we do both very well. But usually, we have a very strong bias, almost every human, by the time they’re 12, or some somewhere around that age, are highly biased, one way or the other. They’re either actuated by the mind, primarily, or the heart. And the mind is a composition of things that we’ve learned since birth. And that has shaped us. That’s, that’s the, that’s the path that is usually less fulfilling, it may be extremely fulfilling, meaning you may become popular doing things that you didn’t agree with, or you may become rich, or you, whatever, those things, but those are not the real you. And at some point, a correction ends up getting made, whether you’re an elderly person, and you realize it, then after you’ve lost a lot of matters of the heart, family relationships, you know, you sold your soul, so to say, whatever. That’s one path, the other path. So the other way to be animated is more intrinsically, where you are in touch with what really feels right to you. And that is your higher self. I also think of it like this, Brett. And the moment we’re born. As I mentioned, that animation thing I think we have, who knows how many millennia that thing is, right? I mean, we don’t, we don’t know the real makeup of our connection with source, whether we get integrated directly into this infinite source of energy, and we actually are God but dispersed out whether we are part of his creation and part of you know, little individual cells that that reflect His infinite goodness, if you will. Who knows. But the point is, we are already more than what we started as. So to the extent that we are able to be aware of and catch the friction when it happens, friction, meaning to the external stimuli that chase at what’s already in us. If we overly train ourselves to fold each time that friction happens and follow the external stimuli. We have that many more things to learn to strip away, to get back to the original essence and some of us are wired very early on to to resist that friction. That internal conflict and stay congruent with ourselves. And those are the ones that happen to be very, very successful. Not in money, although that usually too, but super fulfilled, because it didn’t deviate too far. And none of there’s no better or worse because I believe we all have chosen our journey. And we all learn from everything. Again, if we’re actually infinite, this is one of many different learning this particular life that we’re in. So there is no better is just how do we connect our own dots, to understand, you know why and how we are as we are. And if we’re fulfilled where we are, then no adjustments needed. If there’s adjustments needed, you will know them from your own self from your own competence. But you know what I mean?
Brad Miller 15:46
Yeah, well, what I’m hearing you say here is that this is a process that, and it’s an ever changing process. And you mentioned in your writing, about human ascension. And I think that’s kind of where we’re touching on right here. Now, to me, that means trying to arise or get better, but integrate with me this term, you use human Ascension with what you’re talking about here about the about the intrinsic values being alignment with your external situation?
Aaron McCormick 16:15
That’s a great question. I think human attention is very widely misunderstood, especially by very by people who have chosen in this life to be more brain injured or more ego, not I don’t need that, as in I’m all that I mean, the minds of those that are very literal and physical. That’s all that matters. They tend to think of Ascension as some woowoo, esoteric, you know, fake, dreamy sort of stuff, but it’s extremely scientific. For example, if you were to wire us up to a biofeedback machine, think of it as an EKG, maybe they’re probes around the wrist, around the ankles, maybe around the head. And this machine is sending signals into the body and it’s measuring output coming back. Well, if they anyone were to show you images of your pet dog, or your child or your favorite hobby, your vibrational measurement or energy goes up and rises. On the other hand, they show you something that scares you. Something that you know, is depressing, as you mentioned earlier, it goes low. So we talked about ascension, that basically means your vibrational essence being as high as it can be. And the way for your energy to be high is for you to be fulfilled in areas of joy and lack of conflict, that sort of thing. So we’ve all entered lives, or creative lives where we’re full of their foot filled with things that actually do not raise our vibrational essence. We go to jobs we dread. We hang out with people that chafe at us, but we’re supposed to like them, because of some, you know, superimposed reason, we’re relationships that are misaligned. We don’t know how to get them on track. So we live these lower, vibrant, low lower vibe existences. And ascension is when we stopped being bullied by our own self absorbed requirements, and fears that stop us from adapting. And so when you finally start to connect, and just do use, so to speak, that’s the simplest way to put it. But you do it with full confidence knowing that even when the outsides physical things seem to be going to be, you know, going to go terribly because you’re living your truth. When life is really taught you that it only goes better when you live your truth. And so you do without the fear. The absence of fear causes you to attract the very things that you might have always wanted. But you have to really not have the fear anymore, because you’ve learned your lesson. That’s why connecting the dots I keep saying it’s so important, because it’s not just somebody blabbing off to you, motivational speech, do this, do this, do this. There’s some things you will learn from your soul. There’s, in fact most things we’re all just kind of stimuli for each other. But you got to find a way to break free by your own example by your own teachings of yourself because you you’ve seen how it’s all played out.
Brad Miller 19:31
You know this, what you’re speaking about here, you know, finding your truth finding your center is described throughout history, you know, people seeking to have a sense of peace and within themselves peace of mind is one no way of putting in. You know, when you seek out your truth that also impacts people around you. And also there are people who can influence you and I’d like to shift towards relationships a little bit here and how when you did this process, you’re so there and of seeking your truth. Ruth, how did it impact your relationships and also, were there relationships that influenced you to make a change. And let’s just talk about because you mentioned in your book several chapters about relationships good and bad, let’s just talk about how finding your truth impacts relationships.
Aaron McCormick 20:19
Well, all relationships serve us. Just like all of our experiences serve us, we tend to want to look back and say, Oh, I would have never done that, or I shouldn’t have been, and all these different things. And that’s another key point of the journey. And of the book, it sounds contradictory. But when you get it, you’ll get it. That there’s no accidents. Many of us have heard that before we grow, under duress, we expand under stress is true of everything from muscles to diamonds to every analogy you can think of that is the way to grow. Every influential, inspirational person you can think of, they are such because they’ve been through so much. And and we’re not just inspired because of what they’ve been through. That’s kind of sad, sometimes. In their present form. They’re hella inspiring. And then you come to find out, oh, crap, what they’ve been through, like, comedians, you name it, right? That seems to be the pattern. So I just want to make that point that it’s not so much of a bad relationship, although it may seem so in the physical experience, there are things about it makes up to your experiences like discipline from your parents suck, but it actually serves you. So all of this is really serving us. But an example of relationships that changed in my case by following my truth. Well, as I mentioned, I was raised in a very controlling religious cult, if you will, I say cold, because if you look up definition, it’ll match it. It’s just one of those things. And totalitarian form of government, if you will, where if you disagree at all, you lose everything. That’s, that’s kind of one of the basic formulas of what makes a cult a cult, right? People have seen Scientology and Leah Remini, all that kind of stuff on TV, but it wasn’t. Anyway. So the point is, when I started to accept the things that have been me, since since a child, and I remember being 12 years old, back when I made a choice to get baptized into that religion, I had all kinds of conflicts with not only things that were taught, but with with, with things that were over, I guess, articulated from the Bible, or stress that that didn’t jive with, with what my soul knew God to be kind of thing or all of us to be in terms of connection to each other and all that. And at 40, at 39 years old, I think it was I, I accepted my own internal conflict that’s been there for so long, and decided that I was not going to be one anymore, but that I loved everyone, I have nothing against the other people that were in the religion at all. Because all of us ended up where we are for our own personal journey. I just knew that that was not something that I could sleep well, knowing that I’m a part of, and the impact that the actual organization has on people’s lives and families and all that. And so where others might have also disagreed, but never leave, because they’re afraid of losing family members and friends and all that I, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t look at myself in the mirror, knowing that I’m apart. Remember, I’m an empath. And so once I fully realized the magnitude of what I was in, despite the fact that I was born into it. So usually, there’s no way to awaken and realize what you’re in because you’re just too far. Yeah, it’s
Brad Miller 23:45
ingrained. It’s part of who you are. Yeah.
Aaron McCormick 23:47
It’s too far in grains, right. So, you know, I made the decision, my wife was eight months pregnant. And when this stuff just hit me, of what it really was, I had to be out. And so I wrote a loving letter to everyone I love, so to speak, made it available, and let them know, I respect them all love them all, deeply. I understand that they can’t communicate with me because of their beliefs. And they think it’ll hurt God if they ever show me love, or I got it all. And I just and I left. So in that moment, I lost probably a couple 1000 people across states and wherever I’ve lived and just a whole lifetime of friends and family. They’ve never met my children just boom, gone. And, and I am back. And I’ve never been happier. Right? It’s like a lot of people say you can’t lose parents and siblings and your best friends and, you know, pseudo big brothers and sisters and all that and still be happy, can you I mean, who does that? Well?
Brad Miller 24:48
Well, that’s it you you you excluded in the toxic nature of some relationships and that are there and that was a tough decision, but you said you’re happier than ever, but have there been other relationships Now, if that had been fulfilling to you, or I’ve entered into your life that helped to support you in this process of discovery that you’ve been on?
Aaron McCormick 25:10
Well, yeah, and the processes have been very organic. So it wasn’t a lightbulb moment where, where I decided to be a certain way, and therefore, to change other relationships, and dating and women and all that kind of thing. But I will say that, as I talk about in the book, some of the reasons that we stay in relationships, for example, you know, in most cases, when we detect that there’s lack of compatibility and relationship, and it’s a struggle, we stay for reasons associated with fear of starting over insecurity, attracting someone else, and sometimes even, you know, what we think is love. We think I don’t want to hurt this person, I can’t leave them, you know, and what we don’t realize is, you can’t really love anyone, so you love yourself. And if you’re not fully in it, they’re not getting the kind of love that they could get from someone that is better aligned with them. So it really is, you really are killing two birds with one stone, by not addressing the things that you’re missing. So you have to make adjustments. I think
Brad Miller 26:19
this goes right into the theme in your book of empathy and joy, and seeking those as primary factors in life transformation. And I know you even say, talk about in your book about how these are the factors that are help you be successful in your career, you, you say empathy can make you millions, and not everybody would think that but say a bit about that about how things like join empathy, are factors in every aspect of success, where you build relationships, or your career.
Aaron McCormick 26:54
That’s a bit of a pet peeve of mine, Brad, I know, you might have noticed, or actually, I don’t know if you’ve noticed this or not. But there’s a lot of admonition coming at our young ones, especially young men. Because we tend to be a lot more visually stimulated money, cars, women will pick the category. And so all over Instagram, all over any social media there, these guys are telling men of all ages, for that matter how rich they can be. And here’s the way to do it. And the general mantra has something to do with a few things. It’s, you know, basically eat nails. Get up super early, go to bed late. Don’t take any shit from anybody be a killer. While your friends are enjoying themselves, you gotta grind it out, but then you’ll get the spoils later on. Well, I mean, listen to the most valuable thing we all have unequivocally over everything, including love, is time because no love can exist without time to exert it do it right.
Brad Miller 27:58
And that’s where that’s where the that’s how the container so to speak, that it comes in, you got to maintain, you got to nurture that that element. Yeah.
Aaron McCormick 28:06
Yes. And I mean, if you just, if that’s all it’s about, but you don’t love what you do, and you don’t do the things that are natural to what you are as a human, because we all are, we all are connected, and so many different levels. When we get bad treatment, there’s a part of our soul that’s asking for it. And I know that sounds harsh sometimes people go How could that have been through my stuff. And I know the worst thing, we can we learn from this stuff too. And the other soul, the other human, we are energy first. So where you have a person, so I’m black, right upheld a lot of friends in my life that have gone through a lot of terrible things associated with being black, I’ve had a couple, but nowhere near the gravity of some of my other friends and it stays top of mind for them. And so when they, when they’re in a situation, and it’s not just color thing, whether you are an immigrant, whether you’re overweight, whatever your insecurity is, when that’s Top of Mind, others that are also have the disposition to inflict it, or more likely to inflict it on you, because you have an expectation of it. It’s the old law of attraction, but it really is true. And so we tend to pull these things in Well, anyway, going back to, you know, this empathy thing. I see all this stressing of, of these sort of characteristics. And I’m sitting there going well, what’s intriguing to me is, I believe, and I’ve experienced that, if you first of all, focus on the things that you legitimately enjoy doing before the outcome of the huge money that comes with it. Number one, you’re rich, because every billionaire will give up all their billions for more time. If they knew the day that they were going to die to give it all away for a little more time. So first of all, by doing what you love you Rich first and foremost, and then by doing that your vibration is higher, your joy is higher your energy and energy attracts its own times. So you’d be surprised the kinds of doors that opened opportunities that come your way, when you are not caught up in the rhetoric, or the external binder of blindly just chasing money, just just whoever, whoever wants to coach me, coach me, please, or, you know, oh, that’s how you make a bunch. Fine, I’ll just do it, you go down that path. And it’s the opposite effect. you’re chasing your own tail, you don’t really get there. The last thing I’ll say on that, Brad is this. One interesting seminal moment on this point is the gender reveal for our daughter went viral about two years ago. And this was just in our backyard, just with cell phones, we think nothing of it. The wife wanted to get me involved in what is really a baby shower, just the girls and stuff. And so she had a girlfriend by the spine powder in either blue or pink, like baby powder that will be blow dry into the exhaust of my Lamborghini. And neither of us know what color neither of us knew the color of this of this powder. And we’re all in the backyard, I go to start at poof, outcomes. This exhaust spark is obsessed, right? And when that happens, it goes mega viral. It goes like 10s of millions on social ends up on Bob Saget, ABC funny videos show you that kind of viral stuff, right? And I’m getting inbox by young men, mature men, accountants, every race, you name it. What should I do for a living? What do you recommend I do for a living? Or because they’re seeing some traffic, they see a house and some cars is like, well, what can you tell me? And I’m thinking I’m going, Wow, we’re, we’re so asked backwards, so to speak for so backwards and thinking that does get the wealth and the money comes? And I’d have to advise a lot of even parents who were asking what their child to major in, in college, because I’m young ish, and I’m successful. And I go, right, right? Wouldn’t Wouldn’t you rather that that child love what they do with their time more than just have the money? Why don’t we focus on the essence of the child, and then back into careers that they would just love? And oh, by the way, the money would follow as well?
Brad Miller 32:19
Well, there’s plenty of evidence, Aaron, and you’re sharing it yourself here, there’s plenty, plenty, plenty of evidence that people who have a lot going on, money wise, and so on and stuff things and are incredibly unhappy. And in some cases, you know, hurting themselves or taking their life. You know, there’s all kinds of stories about that. And, and, you know, there’s the classic thing is someone who wins the lottery and, you know, goes nuts, and many of those people end up bankrupt, you know, not too long, you know, just a year or two later. And so, a part of this has to do with in how we apply joy and empathy to our life. And to kind of bring our conversation around to full circle here. What do you think are just two or three disciplines or habits or practices that you have, which help you keep on track with empathy and joy in order to have just fulfillment that you have sought this, as you say, your journey to your within?
Aaron McCormick 33:23
Interesting question. I am not very linear. In terms of strong regimented. I guess the better way to say that is I’m very fluid. But let me try and put that in a couple of things. When it comes to something you’re going to do, especially when it comes to things like career, for example, or relationship. Does this make me happy on the inside? Does this fulfill me? First question. Second thing is, how does it help someone else? Especially especially when it comes to a job or career? How am I helping the planet so to speak? How am I raising someone else’s vibration? Even when it’s, you know, you may think it’s a simple job. You’d be surprised how many of us are artists, and don’t know it, or how many of us need to be artists, but but won’t accept it because they don’t see some tangible output of it. In the book, I describe an artist as anyone that really feels great about other people’s joy and happiness. So some may do it via painting, you know, we always think of the cliche ways painting, singing, acting, performing, etc. But no, you’re doesn’t matter whether you you create anything. If you’re if you enjoy the feeling that others get as a result of something you’re doing, which quite frankly, that’s in the nature of all of us. It’s just been more suppressed. Yeah, some of us than others. So
Brad Miller 34:56
sorry, go ahead, go ahead and finish with it. Artists suck about artists.
Aaron McCormick 35:00
Yeah, no, I was just saying, tap into your artistry, meaning Be honest about what makes you feel really good inside. And then and then either as part of that, or completely separate from that. What are the things that you like to see others smile about? And should you not be doing something in that capacity?
Brad Miller 35:19
So what I was going to reflect with you on that one was that to be a contributor to the greater good, doesn’t necessarily always mean you know, the bottom line of the ledger sheet. It has to do with your feelings and emotions, and that, that, you know, that tingle in the spine, whatever it would be that you have helped to create in the world. And that’s a
Aaron McCormick 35:42
yes. Yeah, Brian, I want to ask him to that. Because there are people listening to your show that are also thinking, yeah, but you got to make money. That sounds a little too woowoo stuff. Let me just apply that you haven’t been before I was. I was in software. I mentioned. Anybody can make you millions. Why was I always the top producer? I mean, I’ve seven figures at IBM, that’s usually only the senior executives that do that not a salesperson. I mean, and before that hundreds of 1000s of dollars, half a million dollars at 23 years old, selling software, how does that help you have that artistry? Well, in the process, I am talking to people from your call center agents, to the CEO, and hundreds or 1000s, millions of using something that I sell them, these are three to three $5 million software applications. I’m thinking about the day to day experience of the users, the people, they’re going to do it, I get to know them, I understand how. And I’m excited about the drudgery that they do now. And how the day is going to feel so much easier as to where and I get off on that. And then of course, the senior executives, they’re there care about the money and the performance. So I’ve got the ROI stuff there too. But in every in the book goes into this, there are ways to apply joy, your joy, your passions, the things that naturally feel great to you your aptitudes directly to things that contribute elsewhere. So you converge the two. And huge money almost always follows. It’s like a law of the universe. So don’t let’s not get it twisted that you are either a broke loving Google person, or you’re this greedy, very physical person just knows how to make money. I’ve integrated the two and we all have that capacity.
Brad Miller 37:36
And we do and your book here is going to help us do just that unbound journey to your within Aaron McCormick is our author guests ironed out