"You have 10,000 New Messages!" (w/Brendan Fitzgibbons)

Brendan is back and still buzzing from this seven-day meditation bender. SPRING BREAK 2025!! This week he talks about all something we're way too familiar with: unwanted messages. 

He goes all in about: 

• How the average person sees 4,000 - 10,000 ads a day. 
• The two subtle messages of these ads, and what it's doing to your psyche and nervous system. 
• The NUMBER ONE way to create your own reality. 
• Key practices to bringing more mental clarity in your life. 
• And whether or not your dog can actually talk to you when no one's around. The answer is yes. 

RESOURCES
Brendan Fitzgibbons
Number of Ads You See a Day
Brain/Heart Coherence Meditation
You Know These Better Than Your Children 

Transcript

You have 10,000 new voice messages. Message one. Hi Brendan, it's Kelly. Just calling to say you're not enough. Message two. Uh, yeah. What's up Brendan? This is Dave. Uh, me and a bunch of guys were hanging out and we were just like, yeah, you're not the answer. Message three. Hi Brendan. I don't know if you remember me, but I am your first grade teacher, Mrs.

Backer, I was going over some of your early homework from 25 years ago, and I just wanted to tell you that I think you should be on medication. Message four, dude. Is that your [00:01:00] haircut? Why? You should totally try Hys. Message five. Fuck. Message six. Oh yeah. Just calling to say you'd be a lot happier if you were rich.

Bye bitch. Message seven. Hey, dude, just like a reminder, there's like 20,000 more of these. Now, if that felt weird or unusual to any of you, I just want you guys to know that today I read that the average person sees between 6,000. And 10,000 ads per day. And yes, those ads are not coming from your friends or your loved ones, but they are still targeted exactly at you with the exact same intentionality.

And that is to tell you one of two messages. . And sometimes it's both. Number one, you're not enough. Number two, something else is well buckle up everybody. I have good news for you. You're in a safe place right now where I'm gonna tell you a third message, and that is you are actually completely perfect and even better than you realize.

As is. Welcome everybody to a brand new episode of Spiritual Asshole. I'm so excited today to be joined, as [00:02:00] always by Willa bt Fitz Gibbons switching his dog food to Farmer's Dog. He's looking six years younger. Please never die. You're my best friend. Do I have a healthy relationship with my dog or am I secretly treating him like my son?

Okay. Question. Just really quick, between you and I, let's talk about it. Everybody out there who owns a pet and listens to this podcast. Do you guys do this too? Do you guys have a moment when you're alone with your pet and you're just like, it's just you and them?

Let's say you have a cat, dog, whatever it is, raccoon. Do you ever have that moment when you're like, okay, buddy, like I'll just tell you what I do. Will it be, listen man, it's just you and me. No one else is here. Okay. You can stop the whole dog act. Okay. You could stop pretending you're a dog. I know. You can talk to me.

Just go ahead and speak, okay. This is a safe place. I'm not gonna tell anyone. There's no cameras here. We're not recording. This isn't a podcast. Okay. Just talk to me. Just speak. Okay. It's fine. Just tell, and then he doesn't [00:03:00] say anything for a while and you're like, Hey Brandon, it's me, Willowby.

I'm so glad you're here. I love you so much, man. Just make 'em up to sound like a southern gentleman. I'm so excited you guys are here. I'm glad that you liked the last episode where I talked about my experience with Joe Dispenza, and please continue to follow us and follow me on Instagram at the Brenda Fitzgibbons.

Look us up on spiritual asshole.com. Message me. I love to hear from you. I love to hear what's going on in your lives in any way that I could be of service to you. I would like to help you because that's why we're here. Okay, so today's special guest is me. I have some followup thoughts y'all, and I also have some good things I wanna talk to you guys about.

I record. I started recording a video today when I was hiking, and then I was like, this is a lot of rocks. I gotta be careful. Okay? This Is a video I've been wanting to do for a while, but we're gonna do it as an audio. Let's talk about programming and let's talk about programming in a new way, okay?

Because you've heard me talk about this before, and I'm gonna reference some Dispenza stuff, but I'm also gonna [00:04:00] reference some life stuff and some facts, okay? And then I'm gonna give you guys some tips as how to combat this. All right? So today I decided to look up the amount of advertisements you see in a given day, and it's drastically jumped.

I think it's like doubled in 10 years and you have to figure like it's the internet and these are some things that yo, like, it's subtle. I, I, I, I still can't believe it's six to 10,000, but if you're online scrolling, a lot of that shit is just ads. Also, did I tell you guys the craziest targeted ad I've ever gotten in my life?

This is totally true. Okay. This was a targeted ad. I got you guys know my name is Brendan. You better know. You better fucking know. Okay. Targeted ad I got, I go on YouTube 'cause I look at, I watch YouTube and as soon as I log on YouTube, I see a group of guys sitting at a table, okay? All kind of my age. And I recently bought some true classic shirts and my cousin got me some, 'cause I love that company.

I love how tight, how they fit on my body, right? So [00:05:00] it's two guys sitting at brunch across from another guy, okay? One of the guys reaches across the table. Slaps the dude in the face and says the following, Brendan, you're not that fat. It's your t-shirt. And I was like, oh my God, AI is too good. They're in my brain.

They could see my thoughts. Okay, so a fact that it gets thrown around a lot in self-help and in the spiritual world, as you guys know, is that 95%. Your thoughts are on autopilot through the subconscious mind. Okay? Specifically by the time that you're 35, for those of you younger than 35 right now, go to Las Vegas, get blacked out and start over.

Okay? So why I love Dispenza so much and why I love. The meditation that he talks about is that it gets you to bypass the subconscious mind. So much of what he talked about in the week long that I had at Dallas was how you are [00:06:00] often running on what he called a program, and where does the program come from?

It comes from your culture, it comes from your childhood, and it comes from your interactions with the world and your life. Right? Okay. Okay, so we know this right? And then that program becomes your personality, and then it's then you go, this is who I am. Okay? But what I learned in the week long and what I want to hammer home now even more is that if you take all of the distractions of modern life away, okay, so you take away the 10,000 ads a day you take away.

the input of people around you reinforcing you to you who you think you are, okay. You start to realize that underneath all of, all of this is just love and blank slate. Okay. Why is this so important? Anybody who's listening and anybody who's interested in PERS personal transformation has to operate [00:07:00] from the assumption that we can change.

Otherwise, why are we doing any of this? Okay, other than me shouting in a fucking closet. Why are we here? Right? We are here because all of us know deep down, we're capable of immense change. However, if we, as Dispenza says, default. To our old programming change becomes a lot harder. Okay, so I just wanna take a brief second and just reiterate how powerful and how much we've been bombarded by very specific messages that tell you one of the two things.

Okay. Number one again. , you are not enough. That is the subtext of almost every single message we get specifically in advertising. It's literally their entire business model is built on the foundation of you are not enough. Okay, number two, something else is this product, this lifestyle, this [00:08:00] choice.

And I know that it might seem like this isn't that big of a deal, but let's just do some simple math, let's say on the low end. You're seeing 2000 advertisements a day that have those messages. Now times that by 365 and times that by 40, let's do the math. Who got it? Okay. Again, this is low end, and obviously when you're a kid, I don't know how many messages you're seeing unless you grew up in an off track betting site, then you're fucked.

Okay. The number is 292 million advertisements, and if you're still doubting this impact, just think about how quickly you can recite advertisements and jingles, how quickly they come back to you. I would venture to guess. You might know some advertisements jingles better than you know people you're dating.

Or have dated or memories of exes. Okay? And by the way, we're gonna start bleak. This is gonna get hopeful, but we gotta just get into it. Alright? Okay. [00:09:00] So 292 million advertisements, mostly all telling you that you're not enough. Okay? So this goes on, and then what happens is from this place, you make decisions based.

On this information. Right. And it's really not fair 'cause this is not a culture we created. Like I highly doubt that if we all got together as a community, we would be like, I know what we should do. Budweiser frogs. That's what's gonna help the world. Talking frogs that talk about how we should have beer.

All right. Okay. And it's, it's not our fault. Like this is often kind of an instruction manual that was handed to us. Imagine you were born. All of a sudden someone came up to you and was like, Hey, you're now a Toyota Yaris, and you're like, I want to be a Ferrari. And they're like, nah, you're a Yaris. Good luck out there.

. Okay. And then so from this place of this programming, you make choices and you decide, well, I'm not enough. So in order for me to be enough, I need to make a lot of money, [00:10:00] right? In order for me to be enough, I need to get married. In order for me to be enough, I need to. Buy this boat, which if you do call me, I want to go on it.

And by the way, none of these things are bad at all. But if you're doing it from a place of not enoughness, then not enoughness often doesn't get filled up. Right. So I just to reiterate, and especially for parents out there, programming is everything. It has such a profound effect. Why do sons of athletes always usually end up to be athletes?

Yes, you could say, I'm sure there's some element of genetics, but I don't fully, sorry. Don't fully believe that. there's also the same thing with wealth. It just gets passed on and passed on. Yes. It, it's generational. It's an, it's an objective thing, but also it's a mindset that gets passed on. Right.

Okay. So programming is everything. Okay. So you get all these [00:11:00] messages, you make all these choices, and then you decide, then I will be filled up. Okay? Then you start to get those things and you realize, wait a minute, I'm still, there's still a deep longing. I still am a human, right? This is where traveling.

Becomes very important to everyone, okay? Because when you leave the United States of America, you realize other countries programming is different than ours. Other countries value different things than we do. Okay? And you see, they are able to successfully live on a programming that would be considered borderline, filthy, dirty, hippie.

I was in Costa Rica. Yeah, every single person I met in Costa Rica loved their job, loved what they did, and was super proud of it. Okay. Drivers, waiters. I met a waiter. We went to a restaurant. We waited for like an hour just to, just to talk to someone. And of course the American part of us was like, what the fuck is a server?

[00:12:00] Like, oh God, all day. Meanwhile, I did have all day, so he comes over, we're like, Hey, so do you like working here? He goes, of course. This is my office. He points to the ocean. Drivers in Ireland. People are so happy to sit around and just talk at a pub all day. Is that a recipe for brooding alcoholism?

Maybe. But now's not the time for judgment. Okay. But what I think, I'm not saying this to necessarily say that they're better than us. They are. But what I'm saying is that. Programming drives everything okay in these countries. It's acceptable to feel this way in our country. I mean, literally like.

I remember I was in Ireland and I, it was just like watching a travel channel of a band going around, just playing for people in pubs. I was like, this is beautiful in Ireland. I'm like, I love this. And then all of a sudden I went on YouTube and I still was [00:13:00] getting American ads, and I see this Nike ad that's like, why aren't you up yet, motherfucker, you should be running.

Are you serious? Do you not want it bad enough? Do you not want it bad enough? Apparently you don't want it. People are just sprinting, popping acls. It's like, what? It's seven. It's 7:00 AM. What's wrong with you?

These things have consequences, guys. Okay? These things have profound consequences and profound impacts on your psyche, but here is, what's the great news? Okay? The absolute great news. Your soul doesn't care. Amazing news. The pure love that is you, doesn't care about. Programming does not. It will just continue on the track of pure love and expansion, regardless of what you put in it.

However, if you continue to ignore that part of you, that [00:14:00] amazing part of you that's actually like, I'm really good as is, and you. Don't ever tune into that and you spend more time on social media or more time watching the news or more time engaging and fighting with people or more times just looking for ways to be upset or offended or victimized, then that's a choice you're making with your human brain.

That is a program and that's okay. 'cause that's part of what it is to be human like. I did this week long. It was a tremendous, I felt, I've never felt so good in my life, right? And to be honest, it sometimes makes coming back to life, quote, life even harder now because I know how good it could be. And I'm like, why do I care about this parking ticket?

But that's what it is to be human and that's all good. But I'm here because I want you guys to know, and I want to give you tactical things you can do. To know how much you have [00:15:00] options and what you put into your attention, and also really why it is the most important choice you could be doing every day is regulating what you are seeing and what you are giving your attention to.

Literally see it like eating junk food. Okay. 'cause that's what you're doing when you're watching the news or social media is basically you're just pouring milk duds in your eyes, and it's okay. It is all good. I'm working on this too, but what I saw with this week long when we meditated for, you know, ungodly 36 amount of hours, is you see that the more you tune into the present moment, moment and the more that you tune into your higher self, your soul, even for a little bit, you start to realize, wow.

I'm okay. I'm actually more than okay. Actually everything that I want is right now. So [00:16:00] isn't that kind of exciting? Isn't that really the good news? And that through your connection to your higher self, through your connection to the quantum field, which is we're all creation exists, we're all, everything good comes from, it's just pure infinite frequency.

Love everything good, right? Isn't it awesome to know? You could go there anytime. So when you're feeling overwhelmed, you know, and you don't necessarily just have to go there through meditating, but I would just say like in a given day, let's say that you're spiraling out and you're just getting your ass kicked by life significantly.

Okay, here's some really good immediate tips. Number one, turn your phone off. You can do it, turn it off, throw it across the room. Don't hit your dog. Okay? Number two, if you can do that, then you could potentially sit there in silence. For longer than a minute. And if you could do that, you could probably do five.

And if you could do five, you could probably do 10 and see it like you are literally recharging your batteries. You are [00:17:00] going back home. Okay? Home base is your infinite self that is always there with you. Always, always, always. And if you're really triggered by something or if you're like wanna fight with someone that you care about or you're upset 'cause someone hasn't texted you back, you're upset because someone.

Won't go on a second date with you. You get in a fight with your boss, whatever it is. I would highly, highly suggest you returning home to you for a second before you react and just watch how different your reactions would be. Okay if you just came back for a little bit, come back to you. Also could not tell you guys enough how much I also think breath work is so transformative.

I've been scared of breath work because I had asthma pretty bad as a kid. And aggressive wheezing. A lot of aggressive wheezing. A lot of inhalers. So serious fear of passing out. But I do like a one round of Wim Hof. It's very easy. You could go [00:18:00] on YouTube and it's three, like I do three minutes Wim Hof.

And what that does is it like signals to my body that I'm going to be in the present moment now. ' cause you're like, your body has no choice but to pay attention and be super heightened and aware to right now. If you are like, you're basically kind of suffocating it, but in a good way. Plus, his videos are hilarious.

He's like, okay, thanks for coming by. If you guys like this, check out to my app. It's good stuff. So you connect to the present moment. Ideally, you start to feel this very warm, familiar feeling of, oh yeah, I'm okay. And you'll start to feel a deep connection. And what you're doing when you do this is you're returning to oneness.

You're literally returning to where you came from. Okay? Your soul's on a journey fucking around out here, and wild, wild 3D reality. But your soul came from oneness. So when you're doing that, you're literally returning to home base. You're returning to home. Okay? So you should feel a calm reset. [00:19:00] Have you ever like meditated or Ben had a really nice quiet moment, and what did you usually want to do right after Hug someone?

You feel appreciation for your surroundings, your animals, your partners. Okay? Very rarely after somebody meditates do they stand up and say, I gotta go punch that guy. I gotta go kick that guy in the dick. So by doing this, you're actually see it as a tremendous unselfish act 'cause we're all benefiting from you doing that.

Okay, now.

How do we combat all these messages? The question is not combating it because it's like the more you fight against something, usually the harder it gets, but it just being like hyper aware of what things are telling you and turning stuff off when it gets to be too much. Okay. Especially if it starts hurting your self-confidence or hurting your own opinion of yourself.

Like how much scrolling is worth making you feel like shit. Like, is it really worth it to see [00:20:00] what Allie's last post was about her vacation? If it's making you feel like your life sucks 'cause you're not on vacation, that's not you being kind to you. You know, other amazing things you could do. And I cannot stress this enough nature.

Okay. If you wanna go someplace to see what it would be like to think I am enough, I am abundant and life is pretty amazing. Go look at nature anywhere. Nature is not striving. Nature's not trying, nature's not bragging, and nature's just thriving. And in fact, the only reason why nature doesn't thrive is if it's because us dumb dumbs do something to fuck it up.

Okay? Yes, of course there are some droughts and some. Hurricanes and tornadoes, but one could argue we kind of caused that. So go look at the ocean and go look at a go for a hike. Like the hikes I've been going on have been insane. I just see fields of [00:21:00] flowers just fine, you know, just fine. They're not on LinkedIn, they're not on to, okay.

They're just like, I'm a flower. I got some sun. I'm doing good. And guys, it's, it's a habit. Like it's something you have to build up to. Like if you do it once and then you go back to immediately feeling like shit, that's okay. You've been listening to messages that are inherently pretty vapid. 292 million times.

So you gotta do some rewiring and some unplugging, and it's a process, and I'm still absolutely in the middle of that process. So see these moments, guys. See the moments that you take back for yourself. See these moments when you turn the messaging off, when you reconnect with yourself, when you reconnect with nature, when you reconnect with who you really are as you building your own culture.

Now you get to decide what messages you hear. Now you get to decide your own value. Now you get to decide what you're really worth, like. [00:22:00] I'm up to now meditating almost an hour and a half, and I say that not because I'm a tool. I say that because that hour and a half is where I get to tell myself the most truth.

I don't get to form my own opinion of myself based on Pfizer. Or based on CNN or based on my friend's social media that seemed to be doing better than me. I get to decide who I am. I get to create my own culture. I get to create my own identity based off of deep truth. And guess what?

Everybody, everyone, everyone comes from the same place. I'm not special. You're not special. And actually, yes, we are special, but we all come from that place. So when you reconnect to that. All you're doing is stepping into you. And then from there, isn't it amazing? All you have to do is you just get to get, get to know you more, and you get to expand on that, and there's no end.

There's no bottom to that. It's [00:23:00] just love. And you realize like, whoa. It's like you're tuning to a radio station. That's just nice to you. That sounds kind of great. And for those people who are like no TikTok kids, the, they're so spoiled. They need to know struggle, they need to be smacked around a little.

I agree. But for those of, uh, out there who struggle with self-doubt, criticism, judgment, worrying, this is the ticket out guys. This is the freedom. And the more you tap into this, and the more you tap into yourself and the more you tap into on doing things that are unknown. I, I'll tell you guys a quick story.

Like I signed up to do a tennis class a couple days ago, and I don't play hardly at all. Okay guys. But I like it a lot and I see on my class pass it says Tennis beginner two, and I'm like, yeah, I'm probably a level two beginner sign up. I'm about to go. I reread the post. It's like, okay. This class is for somebody who plays tennis once a week for the last three years.

I was like, oh [00:24:00] shit. And I was like, oh. My brain started being like, you shouldn't go, don't go. Like you're gonna embarrass yourself. Don't go. Don't go, don't go. And I just did this with a salsa class too, and I was like, no, I'm going. And I'll just tell the instructor and be honest with him. And the instructor was like, how often do you play?

I was like, uh, I've been playing for like, you know, the last couple years. He's like, okay, you're fine. That was a lie. I've played twice in the last. T two years, probably 12 times in my whole life. But you know what? I hung guys. I hung with the class and I ended up feeling incredible the whole class. And yeah, I made some mistakes and yeah, I smashed some balls outta the court.

It was funny, but I hung. So just like, don't let your mind, and that's just a program for me, telling me not to do stuff, telling me that I should just play it safe. Don't let your mind tell you that you should play it safe. Okay. Step outside of yourself and remember who you really are. That true, you deep down, and I'm telling you, amazing things are gonna happen, all right?

I'm telling you that when you strip away [00:25:00] all of the 10,000 messages, all there is is love. There is nothing else there. How cool is that? All right. I hope you have the best week ever. I believe all your dreams can come true. I believe there's so much love here for you. I believe underneath the noise. It's just bliss.

Yo have the best week ever and I can't wait to see you guys next week.