Leading Yourself First: The Seven Pillars of Priority Living | Bill Goodwin

What if leadership had nothing to do with your title and everything to do with how you show up? We sit down with leadership coach and author Bill Goodwin to reframe leadership as influence. Bill’s story of a near-death experience catalyzed his framework, Priority Living, and his practical take on purpose: give the best of what you have to help others.

We dig into the building blocks of purpose—your natural advantage, acquired skills, pull passions, and origin strengths—and why clarity precedes peace and success. Bill explains how purpose doesn’t flip, it evolves, shifting audiences and vehicles as your capacity grows. We connect that evolution to mindset and the body, from breathwork that widens your window of tolerance to small reps that expand what you believe is possible. Expect vivid stories: holding your breath longer than your mind thinks you can, breaking a board by aligning belief and form, and the power of simple phrases like “I believe in you” and “I’m proud of you.”

By the end, you’ll have a felt sense of alignment as calm, steady motion—not stillness—and a set of tools to lead yourself first: choose priorities, schedule around them, grow your lid, and serve others with your best. If you’re looking for leadership development, personal growth strategies, purpose clarity, and capacity-building practices you can apply today, this conversation delivers.

Enjoyed the conversation? Follow the show, share it with a friend who’s leveling up their leadership, and leave a quick review to help others find us. Then grab a free chapter of Bill’s book at prioritylivingbook.com and connect with him on Instagram @CoachBillSpeaks.

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be well, my friend
xx Hannah

Transcript

Redefining Leadership As Influence

SPEAKER_03 1:11

Hello. Welcome back to the podcast Journey to Well. My name is Hannah. I am chatting today with Bill Goodwin. He is such an amazing energy, Bill, I have to say. I really love your energy when we hopped on our connection call. And now that we're connected, so I'm very excited for the energy that we have to bring to today's podcast, which is talking mainly about the framework of your book, but it is talking about uh seven pillars of personal development, personal growth, how we can go on this self-discovery journey and obviously learn from your self-discovery journey and the burnout that you went through and experienced in your life and moving through that. So Bill is a leadership and personal development coach, a hope strategist. I love that lingo. I love people's creative titles for who they are and what they do. But if you've listened to the podcast before, you know that my favorite question is actually the first question, which is who is Bill? Who do we have the pleasure of learning from today? And anything that you'd like to share about Bill Goodwin.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Well, Hannah, it is so amazing to connect with you and to be with you today. Um, so who am I? Wow. Um, well, I am a hope strategist and I love to add value to individuals. Um, I really focus in on um adding value through leadership because everything rises and falls on leadership. And leadership isn't a position or title, it really is the way in which we influence others. And um, so I love uh helping people to develop themselves so that then they can influence and lead others better as well. So for me, uh I'm a speaker, an author, a coach. Um and yeah, I'm just I just try to live every day to to try to shine a little light into the dark world around us and uh and leave a little salt to make things a little bit better. So um yeah, that's who I am. And uh, I'm really glad to be with you today.

SPEAKER_03 3:29

Thank you for coming. That was an interesting thing you just said about leadership, that's not a position or a title. And that's actually right off the bat, such an interesting thing to dive into because when I think of leadership, I think of people that are in leadership positions, CEOs, CFOs, pastors, public speakers, people who are actively leading and guiding other people within their community or within their job, vocation, whatever. Um, so dive into that. What is all of that that you just said? How did you arrive at this standpoint of it's not just what you do, it's how you absolutely.

The Five Levels Of Leadership

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Well, you know, first of all, I'm very grateful that I have some incredible uh leadership people in my life as mentors and guides. And one of them is known as the number one uh best-selling author and leadership expert. John C. Maxwell is one of my personal mentors. And so John defines leadership as leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less. And um, and really leadership starts with ourselves, and that's where the personal development, personal growth comes in, because um it's it's one thing to think we're leading others by telling them what to do, so to speak. And that's not really leading, by the way, but we think that leading others is telling them what to do. But really, leadership starts with ourselves. It's how are we leading ourselves? How are we showing up to ourself? And oftentimes, at least for me, um, the hardest person to lead, Hannah, is myself. It's easy to guide others, to direct others, to, to, to rally others um towards a vision and a direction. But then I have to always come back to myself. How am I leading myself? I can't give away what I don't have. So, you know, most people accept their lives instead of leading their life. And so I have to lead my own life and I have to make, you know, the commitments to myself, whether it be about my health or whether it be about my mental health or whether it be about, you know, so many different areas of my life that I have to focus on for myself first, so that then I can be in a healthy place in order to lead and guide, lead and guide others. So um one of the aspects that that I teach is called the five levels of leadership. I won't go real deep in the weeds on it right now, but the first level of leadership is a positional level. And that's when somebody does get a position. Maybe they become a supervisor or they become, you know, uh they have a couple of people under them basically. And we we like to say at the positional level, the the level one leader, um, people follow you because they have to. You're their boss, you're their supervisor, and and that's an okay place to start, but that's not really where you want to lead from. You don't want people following you just because you they have to. You want to move at least up to level two. Level two is um is about relationships, it's about connecting with the people you're leading in such a way that now they don't follow you just because they have to, but they follow you because they want to. And they're like, wow, I really enjoy being around Hannah. And she's such an encouraging and she, you know, she she she has an interest in me as the person who's on her team. And uh, and then we move to level three, which is really all about um uh productivity. We got we we accomplished something together um in our in our leadership or or with our team. And now people like they rally together because, yes, it's not just because they have to or because they have a connection and a relationship, but it's about well, we are getting we're we're productive together and making a business happen or making something take place. And then um, and then we move to level four, which is the uh people development, um, where we as the leader are now not just having followers, but we're creating new leaders and we're and we're empowering people and we're raising them up into leadership of some sort of themselves. And uh, and so that gets us to level four. And then finally, level five, which I can go really deep in all of these, but just to touch on it, level five is really the is the pinnacle. It's the it's the spot where um it takes takes many, many years to get to the point to where we look up to this leader and we revere them for the way that they treat others, the way that they've produced, by the way they've developed others, um, and the and uh their the their life of integrity or what what all of the components that make up this really high capacity, um, high road leader. And uh and that takes many years that we begin to say, wow, I really, I really admire this person because of the difference they made in my life and in our organization. So um, so yeah, leadership really is is a lot more than a position. It really comes down to how we uh impact others positively.

SPEAKER_03 8:25

Yeah, and isn't it so much easier to to lead to lead others? I was thinking when you were saying it's easier to lead others than lead, or it's hardest to lead yourself, is really what you said. Uh the advice stuff that we say, it's so much easier to give advice than to take our own advice and actually learn our advice. And uh that's something that I definitely hold very high in value in my life, is if I'm going to tell my clients to do something or you know, invite my community to practice something that I am doing that as well, if not more, and that I have some experience in practicing that. And I think that's really what you're kind of getting at in the difference between level one and level two leadership, which also made me think of I think this was Tony Robbins that I first got this imagery from, but the difference between, you know, pushing yourself to do something versus being pulled to do something, that being pulled also creates magnetism. So when you're describing the difference between level one and level two, that's exactly what came to mind is we're really magnetizing our community to us, or we're magnetizing if even if it's even if it is a leadership role that you were put into, like you're saying, like you achieve, you know, you got promoted and you have a new leadership role, you can still be a magnetic leader, which would be kind of what I'm assuming level two is, versus you're just in this leadership role and not sure how how to lead. And is that is that also the difference between um, or is that kind of that secret sauce between going modulating between one and two? Is that learning how to lead yourself? Is that kind of the framework, or is it something that's also part of it?

SPEAKER_01 10:21

You know, when our teams or organization stalls, it's often because the leader stopped growing. So um, and we're wanting everybody else to produce or whatever, but we have to also again look in the mirror and say, How am I growing myself so that then I can, you know, the it's the law of the lid that the organization will only go uh a few degrees underneath the lid of the leader. So the leader always has to be growing their own lid so that the organization and the team underneath them can also be growing. You know, here's a couple other nuances since we're talking about five levels of leadership, is that when you're leading a team, let's say you got five people or 500, whatever on your team, you're not just whatever level of leadership with uh that you're on with everyone, you're actually on all different levels with each person. So if you got a brand new person on your team, you're at level one with them. You need to realize they're only following you because they have to. You have somebody that maybe you've been connecting with and you've been building a connection with uh relationally, now you're maybe on level two. Maybe someone's been there quite a while and you're developing them as a leader in your organization. You're on level four. So you're on different levels, or you're looking at your leadership differently from different level perspectives with each individual on your team, rather than saying, well, I'm a level four leader, I develop leaders. Well, you're not really with every person yet. Um, you're really at different levels depending upon the connection and the and the length of time, even that you have in relationship with the others on your team. So there's many different nuances when we kind of go into understanding more the principles of the levels of leadership. But um, really at the end of the day, it comes back to this whole personal development of growing and leading ourselves.

Priority Living And A Second Chance

SPEAKER_03 12:07

Amen. I like that. It's different levels with everyone. I think that's really cool to embody even in in different areas of our life, like the way that we're leading our families or our teammates or our work or our friends, or that's that's really cool. And so getting to how we lead ourselves, I think this is a beautiful segue into your book uh of the seven pillars of priority living. What does priority living mean to you?

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Thank you for asking. Yeah, priority living for me um really is about being intentional with our life. And it's first determining what are the three, you know, four priorities of your life, and then being able to schedule your life um really around those priorities. Um and for me, this came about, um, as you know from my book, from a backstory incident that took place in my life. Um, I often quote the date, November 23rd, 1999, when I had a severe asthma attack, which led to respiratory failure. And on that day, I literally coded. I died on that day before I was resuscitated. And um in the book, I share the full uh afterlife encounter where I where I when I died, my spirit did leave my body and I had an afterlife experience. Um, and I and I unpack all that in the book. Um, and from that time, Hannah, I realized I I want to make my life count. Like I've been given a second chance. I shouldn't be here anymore. And um, and you know, you don't have to die and be resuscitated to make your want to make your life count, right? Uh, we all do. We all want to make a difference, we all want to make an impact and and and and have our life be meaningful. Um, it was all the more prevalent and and you know on my mind uh after this incident. I'm so grateful that I've been given a second chance. Um, and so not right away. I never set out to write a book, I never set out to create a framework called priority living, but just over time, I really began to be thinking about what are the things that I find valuable that are priorities for me that I want to be able to um be intentional about. That's kind of that key word I keep using, be intentional about in my life. And so, you know, all these years later, it's really become this um this framework of priority living that I say it's the seven pillars of priority living that uh lead to having a meaningful life.

Purpose Versus Passion

SPEAKER_03 14:49

So interesting. Yeah, and and and what a wild experience. I've not had a near-death experience or coded before afterlife experience, but that is something that I share a lot about because often, well, what I share about is that we don't have to have these extremes. Oftentimes, that's what leads us to create change because there's a lot of psychology behind this and physiology behind this. Our bodies want to stay safe, and so it's doing what it's always done and being uncomfortable. And I'm sure, I mean, reading your book, I actually know this for a fact that you did get uncomfortable in quite a few areas of your life. And that's what leads to change. And oftentimes it is these large events. Maybe it's quitting your job or losing your job. Maybe it's something you were thrown into or something you chose. Uh, maybe it's moving, maybe it's a breakup, maybe it is a near-death experience or an injury, but it doesn't have to be this huge thing that we can choose right now to change our life. And I think this book is a really beautiful blend of sharing your lived experience of what you just shared and also the burnout that you went through and you're choosing to do it, uh, take a different path and take a break and step back. Um, and then also I really like the framework because it's kind of helping you decipher. Like we start with framework one is purpose, which is I think, isn't that like the most Googled question or something like that?

SPEAKER_01 16:24

Of like, yeah, what's my purpose?

SPEAKER_03 16:25

I believe is what is my purpose?

SPEAKER_01 16:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

Let's start there. I mean, how do you just how do you decipher what your purpose is? And in your experience, yeah, in my experience.

How Purpose Evolves With Growth

SPEAKER_01 16:36

So, you know, I I always lean on the quote, I believe it was Mark Twain, who said, the two greatest days in your life are the day you were born and the day you discover why. That's just so profound, isn't it? Um, and that's all about purpose. It's all about you, you are here for a reason. And it's not just to take up space or to get by until you die. It's it's really um something more meaningful than that is why you're here. So in the book, I I lay out 10 questions that help uh an individual look at their purpose. We talk about the difference between passion and purpose in that chapter. Um, but I always believe that we start with purpose, that that alignment, when you get purpose aligned, things start to fall into place in your life as far as your priorities go, because now you got clarity on purpose. And I always believe that clarity precedes peace. So, friend, if you're longing for peace, get some clarity because clarity always precedes peace. If you want to be more successful, clarity always precedes success. It's not, it's not, well, I hope someday I or or you know, I'm gonna work harder so someday. No, when we get clarity, um, we we can have peace. And when we get clarity, we're headed in the right direction um to be successful, however you define successful. So um we start with purpose, and I love the definition of purpose being uh purpose is the best of what you have to help others. So purpose is really outward focused. It's really um the best of what you have to help others. And there are some key elements, the research tells us that make up uh our our clarity on our purpose. So, one we would call your natural advantage. It's the way you were made, it's the way God created you. You're wired up for success. Um, you're wired up to be effective once you get in that zone and that lane of your designed purpose and you get purpose aligned. So um, so that's your natural advantage. We also know that you have acquired skills, we all do, and that's through education, through life experience. We've developed some acquired skills, and that lends itself towards our purpose. We also have a poll passion. It's interesting you're talking about polling versus pushing. Our poll passion are the types of problems that we are drawn to solve. So whether it's, you know, we want to help with uh trafficking or we want to we want to make a difference in the life of um, you know, um rescuing uh animals or or working with children or whatever it is, there's a there's a there's an there's an innate ability and desire in each of us to solve certain types of problems in the world. And that is called your pull passion. And that's that's pulling you, it's drawing you. And when you're in that zone, you're like, I am feeling so alive right now. And then the final element really, the research tells us with with our uh purpose discovery is uh having to do with what's called your origin strength. So in our upbringing, we have an origin story from the ages two to about 16. And in that time frame, all of us have different experiences, of course, but we all go through different things. We all go through some possibly some things like rejection, or you know, some of us may have trauma or or abuse or um or neglect. You know, there's different types of things that we and then varying degrees of that as well. But 80% of adults, research tells us 80% of adults experience some significant rejection between the ages of two and 16. So um it could be from one of our parents, it could be from a sibling, it could be from a close friend, and that puts a mark on us in a way, but it doesn't have to be a negative thing, it can be flipped towards a strength of how you overcame that in your adulthood, and that becomes your origin strength. Those elements that I just mentioned are all coming together to help wire us so that we can fulfill our purpose. So there's one other component here to purpose that I want to share, and that is that we're all looking for our purpose. It's a discovery process for us. Um, I'm gonna share how we can simplify that discovery process so we can get clarity on our purpose. But what we're ultimately longing for is the results of purpose. When we are living our purpose, Hannah, which is giving the best of what we have to others, we in return receive fulfillment. And that's that's when the endorphins go off in your brain. That's when you go, I love. Love what I get to do. I'm feeling so alive. Uh, I could do this all day long. That is the fulfillment that we're receiving as a result of living our purpose. And so I love to coach people on how to experience fulfillment on demand. Think about that. I can receive fulfillment on demand and living my purpose when I understand key indicators of how I how I experience that fulfillment. And then I'm looking for ways I can give the best of what I have to others so that on demand I can receive that uh that experience of fulfillment. And uh it's something that I'm very passionate about because I see how it's life-changing. And the research shows us that when we when we um uh are living our purpose, then we uh end up in in our work life, we end up having uh greater retention at work, there's greater fulfillment at work, um, there's more uh there's more productivity at work in our work life when we have uh a portion of our purpose is aligned with the type of work that we're doing. Your job is not your purpose. It's a it's it's one of the ways that you can fulfill your purpose, but your purpose is obviously much bigger than just your work.

SPEAKER_03 22:27

That's really true. And I think on a on a kind of basic level, a lot of times we do think when we maybe start this journey that our purpose is our job, which it which it can be parts of it, right? Like you're saying, like a big part of my purpose is this podcast. Uh I'm living out my purpose by doing this podcast, but not the only thing. My question is can your purpose, does your purpose change throughout your life?

SPEAKER_01 22:57

Yeah, I would say it a little different. Um, I love the question. Um, purpose doesn't change, but it does evolve. Uh so you may be in a similar uh direction, but it just evolves over time. So, so for me, you know, I I was passionate when I was in my 20s and early 30s. I was really passionate about um the next generation. So I was working with teenagers and I was and I was adding value to teenagers. Well, over time, I'm I'm still doing similar types of things of giving the best of what I have to others, but now my focus is more in the coaching lane. It's more with uh business people and and and people running organizations. Um, but so my purpose itself hasn't changed, the overarching purpose of the way that I give the best of what I have to others. But what it has done is it has evolved to where it might be a different segment of population. I do believe that um that that when we want to discover our destiny, which is kind of like our purpose, but um, I believe that our destiny is a people, it's a people group. So um, so oftentimes we we we can uh uh when we get clarity on like who is it that I'm to serve, who is it that I'm to add value to, then all of a sudden we're like, oh, this is part of my destiny. This is how I fulfill my purpose at this stage in my life, is with this person or type of people.

SPEAKER_03 24:25

I like that. That gives it a lot more of an outward kind of worldly approach than almost putting all that pressure on yourself of what is what is my purpose. I think that's a different perspective that you can take of how is this going to shape other people in in my community and in the world, people maybe that I don't even communicate with and touch upon in my daily life. I like that a lot. And I like the evolvement because it's kind of reminding me of maybe two and three, pillars two and three of growth and impact of I would assume that your purpose can evolve as you are growing and having that growth mindset of. I mean, for me, that's something that's just a core value. Um, I was listening to a podcast, I don't even remember what it was. And kind of even studying the psychology behind behind having a growth mindset might be interesting because I know that mine is probably very influenced by my mom, who is who is a lifelong learner. Like she's had so many lifetimes within this one lifetime, and that's been that way, you know, she's been this that way since I was born. And so really, I think having that model of constantly learning and growing and developing. And and this is also where you can get into human design because uh that's something that I do in my business. And and she and I have the same, one of the same kind of personality numbers is what it's called. So if you have that one line, you you are a lifelong learner. Um, but anyway, so the growth, the growth piece I'm interested in. Um you kind of talk about that, that need to really, again, going back to self, that need to understand yourself in order to grow and in order to then have an impact on your immediate world and the expanded world. Um what has that growth journey looked like and how has that felt for you and your life?

Capacity, Mindset, And Breathwork

SPEAKER_01 26:32

Yeah, well, I I'm so grateful. I love that you're talking about your mom and her influence on your life. Isn't it true? There are people that uh can make such a difference in our life. So yeah, we're, you know, we're sitting here having a podcast conversation. If we're like just sitting here having coffee together, Hannah would ask you, you know, what are you doing to grow yourself? And what are you doing to grow others? Those two great questions. And uh in my life, and then you you probably read this in the book that uh when I was a teenager, 16, 17, um, I have an uncle Tom, who was an entrepreneur with my aunt Carolyn and and a very successful small business owner, but uh very much a person of personal development and growth, and took me under his wing, saw potential in me, began to um began to share different books and and it back in the day, this is dating myself, cassette tapes that it that he wanted me to listen to from Zig Ziggler and and other great people, books from Ogmandino and and uh and Zig and others, and um because he wanted to teach me about growing myself. And uh it just was very, very influential because um I looked up to him so much and uh really respected the the person that he was. And so that's when my personal development journey started. And boy, did I need it. I was a teenager, like I don't know, like so many in adolescence. You're just trying to find your way, you're just trying to find your identity. Um, and it was through my uncle uh really pouring into me and and taking an interest in me that I began on this personal development journey, which obviously now I've been doing for decades and decades. And I've come to learn even from John Maxwell that it the answer isn't how uh, you know, how long will it take to achieve things? The the right question is um, how far can I go? And so we want to be focused on how far can I go, like you said with your mom, being a lifelong learner, that we can always learn, we can always grow. And so there are many different aspects that um I'm working on growing myself so that I can become better every day. And and that also goes back to what you were talking about with purpose that as I grow myself, now I have greater capacity. I'll probably look back at some point, Hannah. I'll look back at my first book and I'll go, oh my gosh, that book was awful. I've grown so much. I could add so much more to that book if I just rewrite it. And I think that's why some authors do a 10-year anniversary or 25-year anniversary of a book, because they're like, they have grown so beyond where they were when they wrote that book, that they're like, Oh, I'm embarrassed by that book now because I've grown so they see the they see the gap between where they were then, although they thought they were in a good place, but they've continued to grow themselves and now they're at a spot they're going, oh, I can do so much better now. And so our purpose does evolve. I mean, think about uh as our character evolves, as our as our integrity and and and as our uh consistency and and all of these things begin to to um grow over time as we're learning from others, mentors and and podcasts like yours and and books and so on, we we we're growing ourselves. And so we truly, the phrase is not just cliche, it's like we truly are a better version of ourselves as we're growing ourselves. And so um, yeah, so then our purpose can also evolve in that too, where we're now have the capacity to actually be more influential of connecting with more people because we've grown ourselves and we aren't where we once were.

SPEAKER_03 30:10

I really love that word. There's certain words that I just that really stand out and resonate with me, and capacity is one of them. We talk about capacity a lot, expanding your capacity in in breath work. When I I uh I'm a breathwork practitioner and when I lead breathwork classes, I and the breath is just a really great image, right? Of of even this, what we're talking about as we expand our breath, as we take a deeper breath, even as you're listening, see the next couple of breaths, how much deeper you can breathe, and then how much more you can breathe out. That's expanding. That's like if you're watching the video, you're kind of like ebbing and flowing, right? You're expanding out and then you're contracting and you're expanding out and contracting. And that to me is what growth is. And I love that extra added component of as we are expanding that capacity, then we're expanding our purpose, we're expanding our impact, we're really growing ourselves, our life. And I really I I do love that that lifelong, that lifelong learning. And I think that we all have a little bit about that. I've had other people, who was it? Somebody just came on the podcast and they said, like, if you stop when once you stop learning, once you stop growing, you die. Like that's the end.

SPEAKER_01 31:24

We are we're either growing or we're dying.

SPEAKER_03 31:26

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:27

So I know there are people who died at 25, but they just didn't bury them until they were 80. Um, I mean, it's just a matter of are we growing ourselves? Are we intentional about growing ourselves? I I love what you're talking about capacity. And see if I can share this quickly. It's a it's a story that I uh a true true thing that I learned. Um heard um Craig Rochelle share. Um, he was in a swimming pool um at a community event, and he met a guy there who said to him, Um, I bet you can't hold your breath underwater for a minute. And Craig's comment is, Why would one man say that to another man? Because he knows he's gonna take him up on that challenge. And so he took a deep breath. He went underwater, he's holding his breath, and the guy he could hear the guy counting because he pulled his watch out. He hears him counting, you're at 15 seconds, you're at 20 seconds, and by about 30 seconds, Craig's like, I think I'm gonna die. I'm not coming up though. Uh I'm gonna I'm gonna stay under here. And finally, he he burst up out of the water and he made it for a minute because he heard the guy talking, and he was so thrilled that he made it. And then the guy says to him, I bet you can't do two minutes. And he and he's like, Oh, he goes, he goes, That's pretty good for your first time. I bet you can't do two minutes. And Craig's thinking, there is no way, there's no way someone can do two minutes. And um, and uh so this gentleman begins to tell him he's uh executive coach and he coaches people because the reality is, and this is the great phrase why I'm telling you the story. Um, that the reality is our mind doesn't understand what our body, the capacity, what our body can do. Our mind has has we have we have um a belief system that doesn't think we can do what we're capable of doing. And so we have to do things to keep growing our mindset so that we can do it. Well, anyway, fast forward, uh he teaches Craig this is what you do. When you're gonna you're gonna you're gonna take in four deep breaths, in and out, in and out. You're gonna expand your lung capacity, then you're gonna go underwater, keep your eyes closed, and stay real still. Don't flail around like you just did. You look like a you know a fish. Just get real still. And then when you think you can't um uh stay any longer, just just just a little puff of air, just blow it out. It'll trick your brain. You'll think it's gonna get oxygen again. You'll be able to stay under there longer. Then open your eyes, focus on a little dot or something in the water, just focus on that, and uh, and you will do two minutes. And Craig's thinking, there's there's no way. I'll probably do a minute, five seconds, if that.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Yeah.

Borrowing Belief And Breaking Boards

SPEAKER_01 34:04

So he does what he said, he does the four breaths, he he goes underwater, he stays real still, and the guy starts telling him how long he's in there. You're you're doing great, don't come up. You you can you can do more, you can do more. You're at 20 seconds, you're at 30 seconds, you're at 40 seconds. He says, But what I didn't know was he was lying to me. When he said you're at 40 seconds, I was really at 50 seconds. And uh and and and so um he's like, so then at one point I felt like I my my lungs started to contract. So I breathed out a little bit, and then I focused on something floating in the water. And uh, and when he said uh two minutes, he goes, I burst up out of the water. Oh, he he he the guy was counting, and he says, and I didn't do two minutes. He said, I did two minutes and 45 seconds the second time. Is that a powerful story? I I I love I love hearing Craig share the story because it comes back to what what you and I are talking about. Our mind isn't aware of what our body is capable of, and so that's an encouragement for our friend that's listening, Hannah, that that that someone needs to know you have more in you. You have more in you. This is your year. Let 2026 be your year to get greater capacity. Um, uh sometimes people will say, as I'm a person of faith, they'll say, you know, how can I pray for you? Well, I don't often have a prayer request, so to speak, but I'll say, pray for wisdom and pray for greater capacity. Um, pray for wisdom and pray for greater capacity. And um, because when we have that wisdom and we have greater capacity, um, then we're able to accomplish more. And uh, and so anyway, I love that story from Craig Rochelle. And uh, and I hope that's an encouragement to you as well. That we we we don't we're not aware of what we're capable of.

SPEAKER_03 35:55

It's so true. And I think that's you know, we were talking ahead of time. Part of my audience is is people that are really interested in somatic work, which somatic work is just getting into the body, and that's something I love talking about is building that that felt sense of safety, of capacity, of proof. We have to prove to our brains oftentimes, and doing those little things, right? So, even you know, the best trainers in the world, they tell you like, do as many reps as you can and then do one more because you're showing your body that you can do one more than your mind thinks that you can do, or hold your breath for as long as you can and then do five more seconds or one more second, even because you're proving to your mind, I love that you're proving to your mind that your capacity is actually greater than you think in your mind, no matter what level that is, you know. Like in this example, maybe you're holding your breath for 30 seconds, or maybe you're holding your breath for five minutes. You're like, I can hold my breath for two minutes, whatever. Okay, then then do it longer, but do it longer than your capacity is. It's not necessarily so much about the specific number because everyone is gonna be so different. Uh, but thank you for sharing that. And what a really great. Obviously, we're recording this in in January. So what a great reminder for 2026 of how can I maybe that's your maybe that's your intention of how can I expand my capacity this year. Ugh, that'd be wild.

SPEAKER_01 37:29

That's powerful. That's really powerful. I attended a uh coaching blitz um that was all about training us to be better coaches and uh an area where I'm always desiring to grow so I can help other people better. And um, and uh at end of the end of one day, they they say, okay, tonight's we're gonna do an activity together. And um, this is something that we've done many, many times with different groups, and we're gonna expand your capacity uh here and uh so you know be open. So there's a little bit of teaching on mindset, it's all about mindset. And then they pulled out boards and they said, We're gonna we're gonna break these boards. And I'm like, Oh no. Now I'm not a I'm not a small guy, okay? And I'm thinking, oh no, well, that that's my limiting beliefs. Yeah, that's my limiting, and they said, You're not gonna break this board just by mere strength. Yeah, you're gonna break this board by your belief system, by, by, by, by your belief, I have the capacity to break through. So then they say, Everybody gets a sharpie, go select your board. So we all picked a board. Now there's there's men and women in this group, and quite honestly, there were some there were some tiny um uh gals from the Philippines that had flown in for this as well. And I I mean, I'm a big, I'm a pretty big guy, and I was like freaking out, like I'm gonna be so embarrassed if I can't break that board. And uh, but yet these gals, what were they thinking, right? So then we so then they give us a Sharpie and they say, Okay, I want you to write your biggest fear, not about breaking the board in life. What's your biggest fear? My biggest fear is write it on the board. And um, and then we had a couple other questions, and uh, we wrote our answers to that, uh, to those questions right on the back of the board or on the board. And then they said, We're gonna break through your biggest fear tonight. This is a mental exercise of breaking through your fears. And um, so uh so we went through a couple different repetitions of things to work on our subconscious mind that's telling us I can't do this, I'm afraid to do this. What if I can't do this? That's all in your subconscious mind. We got to retrain our subconscious mind, have the right mindset. So then the time comes and the music is pumping and and all that, and we get a partner, and our partner's holding the board, and they show you the they show you the the uh action that it actually takes to to thrust to do that board, but it's also your mindset. So man, I snapped that board like it's like bam, it was like it was just like paper. It was like it snapped so easy. I was and I and I was shocked. You're right. I was shocked. Well, I'm looking around the room and all these boards are getting snapped, but some of them weren't getting snapped. And so some of these younger or uh smaller gals were hitting the board and like slapping their hand and going, oh, you know. Well, then I realized the teaching earlier in the day. It's the power of positivity, it's the power of those that are around you. So, what did I do? I went over to one of the gals with her partner. I started to encourage her. I said, You got this, you can do it, you got the right mindset, you've got the right, you've got the power. Blah blah blah. I just started encouraging her. Well, then two, three, four others started to come around that had already broken their boards. We're all just speaking positive positivity into her, and she she gets ready again and she goes, BAM! And she snaps it right in half, and she's jumping up and down, and she comes over and she hugs me, and she's like, Oh my gosh. Here's the point to all this. Um, sometimes, with our mindset, if we don't believe it's possible, we need to borrow somebody else's belief until we believe. Believe ourselves. Somebody needed to hear that today, Hannah.

SPEAKER_02 41:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:13

Someone needs to borrow your belief in them until they believe it themselves. Or maybe you need to borrow somebody else's belief in you before you believe it yourself. I love the words to friends and family to say the words I love you. Those are powerful words. We don't hear those words enough. I don't think they need to just be romantic words. I think they need to be friend words as well as I think we need to hear the words I love you more. But I also believe with everything in me, we need to share with one another, I believe in you. Hannah, I believe in you. It just, it just, it just does something on the inside of us when someone else says, I believe in you. I believe you have what it takes. And that's what I was able, and others in my group were able to go over to those that were breaking the boards that they didn't have the belief in themselves yet. But when they heard that others believed in them, bam, they were snapping those boards. And uh and and that's just so life-changing uh for ourselves. And and there's times I need to tell myself um when I'm up against some difficult thing or something I've never done before, and I need my and I need to tell myself, I I believe in you, Bill. You can do this. And um a quick story, and then I'll I'll pause here. But um I have a I have a uh he's 10 now, he's nine at the time, uh, grandson who he doesn't have a phone, thankfully, but he does have an iPad, so we message each other. And and I have to take what I can get. He's usually there quick and then he's gone. Um, so I I said to him one day, he texted me something, and then I texted him back and messaged him back and I said, I said, Oscar, I believe in you. And I screenshotted his response because his response was, Papa, thank you for believing in me. We need to hear the words and we need to share the words, I believe in you. Um uh someone in our life needs to hear, yes, I love you, but they also need to hear I believe in you.

Resources, Book Details, And Alignment

SPEAKER_03 43:27

That's powerful, that's true. I'm gonna I'm gonna start saying that way more because yeah, I don't think that I I say I love you. I I love that conversation. I think that we should say I love you more. And I also think I'm gonna start petitioning. We need different words for love because I get that that that hooks people up, that catches people up because you know, love maybe their definition of love is is like reserved for their partner or for their parent or their sibling, and and there's so many different levels of love. Um, but I also I love that I believe in you. There's so many stories. I think it's like Steve Harvey is one of them, and um, there's another very successful person that said, I am where I am today because I I think actually it's Tony Robbins. Um, because somebody said that repeatedly. They believed in me. That and I mean there's so many people, those are just two people that I that I'm recalling right now, but there's so many people that uh you don't know. Like I well, you do know because you've had somebody hopefully listening, you've had somebody uh in one way or another say in in one small aspect, maybe it is breaking a board that has shown that belief uh for you. And that is just you can't, you can't change that. You can't like there even when you said it, you know, to me, like you feel it right in your heart. You just feel this expansion and you you puff up a little and you're like, you're right. Yeah, like I can do it, whatever it is. And you don't even have to know what that person is is wanting to accomplish in their life, just for you to say, I believe in you, and and to genuinely, genuinely mean it. Um, I believe in your potential. I believe in what your is on your heart, it's on your heart for a reason. So even if it's not on my heart, I believe that you you are capable of doing it because it's on your heart and because it's your your calling. Like it's it's it's your calling and it's on your heart for a reason. So thank you.

SPEAKER_01 45:36

One other phrase I'll just throw in there while we're talking about this is it's we don't hear it enough, we don't say it enough, and that is I'm proud of you.

SPEAKER_03 45:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 45:43

Um, you know, that's kind of a given one there too. But um, right along with that, it's to hear someone uh say to us, hey, I'm so proud of you. Yeah, and and when people go through difficult things, we all do to hear somebody say, I know it's been difficult for you, but I'm so proud of you.

SPEAKER_02 46:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:01

Uh wow. That's just it it you again, you feel that. Um, and it's and um it's another way that we bring encouragement to people.

SPEAKER_03 46:11

I do, I do do the I I'm proud of you a lot. I don't know why I don't do that. I believe in you, but you're right. But I mean, for the same reason, it's it's really one of the most beautiful things in in yoga is at the end, you know, there's a whole thing you can say, like uh the light in me sees the light in you, but whatever, however you want to say it, uh I see you. Though those are words, I believe in you, I'm proud of you. That's I I see you. Like I see what you went through, and I and I'm proud of you. I see you, or I see what's on your heart, and I believe in you. It's all really right. It's just witnessing someone on a deep level and oh gosh, it's all about presence, really. But yeah, such great reminders. Thank you. Thank you for all of that. What a conversation. Um, I have I have one last question, but before we wrap up, where can people I love I love your Instagram? So where can people connect with you? Specifically Instagram, but where else can people connect with you? Yeah, and and give us the whole title of your book. I think you already have, but if I and I can certainly link it down below. But if if somebody would love to get their hands on their your book, how can they do that?

SPEAKER_01 47:25

Yeah, so my book is Priority Living: Seven Pillars to Make Your Life Count by Bill Goodwin. Um, you can get it on Amazon, ebook, paperback, hardcover on on Amazon. Hopefully in 2026, I'm working towards an audio book as well. But um, those other ones are available. I want to give you a free chapter of my book. So if you'll go to priority livingbook.com uh or you can go to my business page, which is for Priority Living Consulting Group, that's simply prioritylivingc.com. Uh, take you to the same place as the book uh URL. And you can get a free um chapter of the book so you can have experience uh maybe if you want to do that before you uh purchase it on Amazon. And then I'm available, love to connect on social media at uh coach BillSpeaks at Coach BillSpeaks. Um, and then I'm on LinkedIn and Facebook just under my name, Bill Goodwin, and uh love to connect with people there. I I always have a uh a growing opportunities of coaching that's uh coaching collectives that are groups as well as one-on-one. And I have a new school community that I've started this year um where people can connect. And so um the links are there on my Instagram and and uh and uh LinkedIn and Facebook. You'll find uh access to my school community, S-K-O-O-L community. And uh yeah, I love connecting with people, and that's also one of the pillars is connecting. So or connect. So uh we'll talk about that another time, but uh Hannah, it's so great connecting with you. Thank you for the privilege to spend time with you and uh and and our listener friend that's joining us today.

SPEAKER_03 49:12

Absolutely. Thank you. Last question we've talked about alignment. So, what does living in alignment feel like to you in your body?

SPEAKER_01 49:24

What does living in alignment look feel like? Feel like feel like well, I think for me, um, what I when I sense that I'm living in alignment is I'm living in a level of peace. And I said earlier that um, you know, clarity precedes peace. And and for me, when I'm living my my best, it's when I'm living a life of peace. I don't feel agitated, I don't feel chaotic, I don't feel scattered in my in my in my mind or my body, but I I I feel centered and I feel and I feel a sense of of uh calm and peace. Um and and with me, I'm I'm I'm a go-getter, I'm a I'm a I'm driven, so uh I'm energetic, I'm not necessarily peaceful and and not moving, but I'm peaceful and and um and that's how I would say it feels for me. Um I often say that peace is my umpire. Uh I want to be able to make sure that I'm I'm I'm checking the balls and strikes in my in my life by based upon the level of of how how um peaceful um I I sense um I am at any given time.

SPEAKER_03 50:36

I like that distinction too. Peace doesn't have to be sitting, it doesn't have to be sedentary, it can be a moving thing, which is a really cool distinction that you made. So thank you. And thank you so much for coming on the podcast. This was such a fun conversation, Bill.

SPEAKER_01 50:51

What a pleasure. Thank you.