055: Limiting Beliefs to Liberating Mindsets: Uncovering What We Can't See

Ever searched frantically for glasses perched on your head or keys clutched in your hand? These everyday moments reflect a deeper truth about human perception: scotomas—cognitive blind spots that hide crucial realities in plain sight.

In this eye-opening conversation, we explore how these blind spots create resistance and limit our potential. We share a humbling personal story—a moment when, despite being “the boss applesauce” with all the trappings of success, failing a simple perception exercise became a spine-straightening catalyst for transformation. It wasn’t a test of intelligence but of awareness—the ability to see what’s right in front of you.

These blind spots often appear where you’re working hard but not breaking through—where familiar efforts yield the same frustrating results. They're usually rooted in outdated beliefs drawn from past emotional experiences and misapplied to present challenges. The good news? You can overcome them—through appreciative inquiry, outside perspective, and targeted exercises that turn insight into action.

We dive deep into practical strategies for uncovering what you can’t yet see—especially in those areas that keep you up at night. By replacing limiting beliefs with liberating ones, goals that once felt impossible become attainable. Just like the story we share—of rising from commission-based sales to CEO—transformation comes incrementally, as you learn to run toward the roar instead of away from it.

Ready to uncover what’s been hiding in plain sight? Listen now and discover how shifting your perception might just be your greatest competitive edge—and the key to unlocking your next breakthrough.

Chapters

• 0:00 Appreciative Inquiry and Scotomas
• 2:20 Life-Changing Moment as Boss Applesauce
• 3:46 Breaking Through Limiting Beliefs
• 6:57 Final Thoughts and Sponsor Message

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

So we need to always practice appreciative inquiry, asking ourselves am I seeing everything that needs to be seen? Do I have all of the intel that I need? Now going back to my funeral service story, the organizational psychologist, dr Joe Pace, that came into our Funeral Home Grief Recovery Program from the Pacific Institute actually taught us about scotomas and he put us through a scotoma exercise and I failed, man.

Speaker 2: 0:32

Really.

Speaker 1: 0:32

And you went through that. Oh yes, sir, but that was my life-changing moment. That was the moment that straightened my spine.

Speaker 2: 0:42

When you talk about. You mentioned blind spots. In the past. You talked about blind spots and and can you talk to us more about the importance of eliminating those blind spots when it comes to resistance and mindset?

Speaker 1: 0:58

Yes, certainly that's a, that's a three-hour workshop.

Speaker 2: 1:02

A three-hour workshop. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1: 1:04

Buckle in, buckle up. So there's something that is actually a phenomenon that happens in our thinking process. It's called scotoma, a scotoma moment, and that is a cognitive blocking out of something that's right in front of you, something that's hidden in plain sight. For the audience's benefit, I'll just use glasses as an example for those of you that wear glasses. You know where are my glasses? Where are my glasses? You walk by a reflection of a mirror. They've been on your head the whole time. Or you know where are my car keys? Where are my car keys, especially nowadays with the fob? Well, they've been in the center console the whole time. Or they're in your pocket, or they're in your pocket or they're in your hand.

Speaker 1: 1:51

But it's something that is right in front of you. You just can't see it. So that's natural. So we need to always practice appreciative inquiry, asking ourselves am I seeing everything that needs to be seen? Do I have all of the? Do I have all of the, all of the intel that I need? Now, going back to my funeral service story, the organizational psychologist, dr Joe Pace, that came into our Funeral Home Grief Recovery Program from the Pacific Institute, actually taught us about scotomas and he put us through a scotoma exercise and I failed man.

Speaker 2: 2:19

I-.

Speaker 1: 2:19

Really. And you went through the oh yes, sir. But that was my life-changing moment. That was the moment that it straightened my spine because I was the boss applesauce. My name was on the building. You know I had the cars and all the watches and all the artifacts to prove it. You know I signed both the front and the back of the checks. That means you're the boss applesauce, all that. But I got the wrong answer in the exercise. But there were people around me that got the right answer.

Speaker 1: 2:45

And it's not a test in IQ, it's a test in perception. Are you seeing all that's out there to be seen? Tested perception? Are you seeing all that's out there to be seen? Now you step through that exercise with me in our events. What's interesting is that it works every time, because we all don't see the same thing, because of these cognitive blockages, if you will, in our line of sight, line of sight from seeing to perceiving and then believing. I'm going back to the belief thing in a moment. So it's vitally important to realize that we all have scotomas. Problem is we just don't know where they are. But where we typically have scotomas and where they can be uncovered, where we can be scotoma busters for one another is to look in the crevices or around the corner, where you're working really, really hard and you're just not creating breakthrough. It's like the same thing over and over again. What, what is it? Uh, einstein, uh, um, um, help me. Doing the same thing over and over again? Is is the definition?

Speaker 1: 3:53

expecting a different result is insanity, insanity, insanity, right. So where are you doing the same thing over and over again and you're just getting the same result. And you think that you should create breakthrough, or where you really believe you could be a, could be superlative, where you want to go from good to greater, great to greater, but you just, you're just missing that oregano, that secret sauce, that little added pixie dust, if you will. So that's where you usually have scotoma moments and oftentimes you can't see them on your own. So you want to use an advisor or a coach, or ask your significant other, or just ask yourself get reflective, what might I be missing? Because therein lies limiting beliefs, because you're going back in your emotional history tool box and you're using the same logic that you've used in the past, whether it served you there properly or not, and flicking up, as I mentioned before, into the current reality and, using that same logic, making decision, but expecting something different. So the intention is to go from those limiting beliefs when do I have my limiting beliefs? And then go through this process to basically hack your mind and affirm a liberating belief. And that is no. I can't find this answer because I've done it once before. I just need to stretch myself a bit more and look at places that I haven't looked. I need to look to a coach. I need to be more innovative. I need to be more open to opportunity, possibility thinking, more open to opportunity. You know possibility thinking.

Speaker 1: 5:33

Now, again, this sounds conceptual, but we make it very. We translate mindset into a skill set. There's exercises that you can go through and you began some of those with me in the workshop, mark to translate limiting beliefs, because you want to go to those places that you know that are causing you to lose sleep at night. You know what's keeping me up at night Business problems, family problems because that's where most of your limiting beliefs lie, where your scotomas lie, where your blind spots lie, and in turn, you want to look to the replacement picture, like I did with my funeral service career.

Speaker 1: 6:12

I want more than what I'm experiencing. Is it going to be easy to get there? No, but you've got to stretch yourself with a clear understanding of where you want to go and that's where your liberating beliefs will not only be uncovered but will release you, will unleash you, and over an incremental amount of time, like it did with me with the Pacific Institute, starting as a commission-based only sales guy to now being the CEO of the organization. I just kept running towards the roar because I wanted it, I like it, I love it, I want more. I want to bathe in this. That's how we go from blind spots and limiting beliefs to liberating ones and achieving our goals that we thought were never achievable in the past.

Speaker 2: 6:56

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