The Swedish Wealth Institute Podcast

Ep 28: Why You Self-Sabotage Success (Even When You Know Better) | Ceil Stanford

• Daniel Wood • Season 1 • Episode 28

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Why do people sabotage their own success — even when they know exactly what to do?

In this episode of the Swedish Wealth Institute Podcast, Daniel Wood sits down with Ceil Stanford, a high-performance coach who has worked with Robert Kiyosaki and Blair Singer.

Ceil breaks down the real reason behind self-sabotage — and why it has nothing to do with intelligence, effort, or opportunity.

Most people don’t fail because they lack capability.
 They fail because of hidden mental patterns that drain energy, create overwhelm, and block consistent progress.

This episode shows you how those patterns form, how they show up in your life, and how to break them.

If you’ve ever felt stuck, inconsistent, or like you’re capable of more but not reaching it — this conversation will hit home.

Inside This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why self-sabotage happens (and how to recognize it)
 • How past experiences trap your attention and energy
 • Why success feels harder as your life expands
 • What happens when you enter a “bigger game”
 • The real reason overwhelm shows up
 • Why clarity matters more than motivation
 • How to identify your last “winning phase” and reuse it
 • What top performers do differently to stay consistent
 • How to rebuild momentum when you feel stuck

🎁 Free Gifts & Resources Mentioned:

Wealth Blueprint (Free)
 Your step-by-step roadmap to building wealth
 👉 https://swedishwealthinstitute.com/

Success Sabotage Guide
 Identify and break hidden patterns holding you back
 https://cart.knowledgism.com/financial-profile-le/

1:1 Coaching + Financial Analysis
 Personalized breakdown + strategy session
 https://cart.knowledgism.com/financial-profile-le/

🎙 Guest:

Ceil Stanford
 High Performance Coach | Success & Mindset Specialist



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SPEAKER_03

By the time we're in our 30s and 40s, what used to seem like maybe the world was your oyster, it doesn't seem that way anymore because we've had these things. They trap our energy because they were unpleasant things. So then when you've got big dreams and goals out in front of you, but you wonder why am I exhausted? It's because some of those things in the past, some of the decisions we've made trapped our attention. When you expand your game, you actually are like in the red zone. You don't know a lot. If I'm used to operating a company that's worth$2 million and all of a sudden I come in and I have 20 million, different set of problems.

SPEAKER_01

Welcome to the Swedish 12th Institute podcast. I'm your host, Daniel Wood. If you've ever felt like you know exactly what you should be doing, but somehow you're still getting it your own way. This episode is for you. Most people don't fail because they lack talent or opportunity. They fail because their mindset is sabotaging their very success. They don't even realize that it's happening. Today I'm sitting down with Steel Stanford. She is a coach for high-achieving entrepreneurs, including Robert Kiyosaki and Blair Singer. In this episode, we break down why people sabotage their own progress, how hidden patterns from your past drain your energy every single day, and how to get back in the zone so you can create more success, wealth, and momentum. What Steel says about success and self-sabotage might completely change how you think about your own potential. Let's get into it. So I've sat down now and been setting my goals very much in more of a shopping list format. And like I'm asking for way too much. Like I can't do all this in a day. And I'm kind of going, like, I'll figure that out later. Let me just wish for everything I want. And then we'll figure out the logistics of it later.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

But I'd love to hear your thoughts like on that process I've gone through. What does that, what does what happens in you when I say that?

SPEAKER_03

Well, when you said that you got overwhelmed as a coach, I would because I see you being really successful and winning until you hit that overwhelm, right?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

So I'm just curious because there's two things that come to mind. I'm curious what was happening right before you hit the overwhelm. What was happening? Tell me about it. What was happening?

SPEAKER_01

All right. So this was this was really this this became this powerful experience. We have so I live on an island now outside of the Swedish coast. Yeah, called Gulfland.

SPEAKER_03

I'm coming to visit you now.

SPEAKER_01

You have to. It's beautiful. There are 60,000 people that live here in the winter. And then over the eight weeks of summer, over a million tourists show up. Really? Because it's like it's this ancient city, is the main city with you know a medieval wall. And it's absolutely amazing. Let's I'm sitting down with you. So let me do some trauma work myself now. No, because that it was very interesting because I've been going through a process personally now over the last couple of years. So I've mentioned before we got on the call that we were able to 10x the company last year, which was absolutely amazing. It's so cool because I I always set goals for where we're going as the business. And so I set a goal which was really optimistic and like, all right, this would be really cool. And then I kind of had a dream goal like if we double that and hit this level, that would be ridiculous. It's not going to happen, but it would be ridiculous. And we actually beat that goal by 10%. And I was kind of looking at it, going like, this is this is incredible. Like our team scaled. And what that did coming into this year, it too, I did two things differently than I've done in the past. The first is I I wouldn't, I didn't want to set a really clear goal because I don't really know how high we could go. So I did it's almost like capping it. So I kind of just said, all right, let's just do the work right, let's process orient it. We'll do everything perfectly, and then the results will will take care of themselves. And that there were two reasons why I wanted to do that. First was I have a feeling whatever goal I set, we could very well blow through it. So it's it's it's it's an exciting time. Yeah. The other is as a leader, I've had an I'm I'm a very good storyteller. So I've been very good at like creating that picture of where we're going. And I can do that for myself and I've done that for the team. But one of the problems with doing that is it almost becomes a promise for the team when you say, well, if we do these things right, we'll be over here. And if we then don't execute, we won't be there. And but it becomes me breaking the promise because I kind of created that future view. So I wanted to step back and not give that clear, that full-scale clarity for the team. I wanted more to kind of share with them the next step and motivate them on the next step and you know, keep them core to our values. And and so that meant that for the first time in my life, I kind of went into the year without real clear goals. And uh, first in the business, but because of this as well, like with everything changing, I think we're gonna probably 5X the company again this year after 10Xing last year, yeah. Which means I I can't really grab like how different my life will be. So for the past three months, I've kind of just been in a relaxed mode, just let things flow and just doing the work. But with all this, there's increasing pressure. And I had an experience just last week where I kind of felt all that pressure come down on me. And it was uh it was overwhelming. And I had to kind of sit down with myself and kind of go and look at that and look at why I'm feeling that pressure. And the question, what do I want, came into my mind. And because I realized that, you know, the the company has gotten to a level now where it's kind of like its own entity at this point.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And if you don't control it, it it will just take and take and take and just go, I want more, right? It's like a beast that just wants to expand.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And so I had to go back and sit down and kind of say, all right, what do I want? But still feeling this, you know, with the growth, there is this lack of it's like there's this lack of limitation, which is kind of an interesting problem, right?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's a new problem. It's great.

SPEAKER_01

Exactly. A quick note here from us at the Swedish Wealth Institute podcast. If you are enjoying this episode and want to make sure you never miss a coming episode with other entrepreneurs, business leaders, athletes, and other successful people, please do as thousands of people all over the world already have done. And make sure you subscribe or follow the podcast on whatever platform you're listening to this episode now. Thank you so much for being a listener. All right, let's continue the episode. How do we, because I find a lot of this is kind of subconscious, right? We don't actively think about these traumas. So if if I have that worry, if I'm listening to this episode now and go, well, wait a sec, maybe that's why things are tough, how do we get into it? How do we start exploring these these hidden pockets of energy that are stolen from us?

SPEAKER_03

So one of the things you can do is, and I just kind of had an appointment with someone this morning. I told her the same thing. It's like when were you last? And I would ask each one of you, when were you last doing well? Like really succeeding and winning. Life was going well. It could be something five years ago in your perfect job. Just when were you last doing your very best? What were you doing? What was your job? You know what I'm saying? Who are you connected to? What was the environment like? And then that's your starting point. Go back and look at your future and like start to position yourself to recreate that. Meaning doing what you really like to do or love to do, succeeding in that same type of environment.

unknown

Right.

SPEAKER_03

You can look at the negative all day long, but that's just gonna create more negative. So, you know, when's the last time you were doing something really well? Winning.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's cool. And how do we do that like in practice? Because obviously the world changes all the time. If I'm looking back and going, well, I was crushing it 20 years ago. And uh, you know, how do I get back into that? Or say that, you know, maybe it was a superstar college athlete, and you know, they didn't get drafted or they got hurt, and you know, that version of themselves is impossible, you know, they can't go back to being a college athlete now 20 years later. So, how do they use that energy to still be able to live that passion today?

SPEAKER_03

So, what I would do in that situation, I mean, I'm thinking about a superstar, right? Write down all go back to when you were super successful as a superstar athlete, right? It's kind of what I did in my corporate career because I had a lull of a time where there was four months there that I just said, I'm not taking another crap job. And I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do. And so I would say the same team thing to the superstar athlete, I would say, write down all the successful actions that you took when you were being the superstar athlete. Because the actions and the disciplines that you did still apply to the new place that you want to go, right? So what I did in corporate when I was in that four-month law, I looked at what is the thing that I have done in my life that I love the most. And it went back to a previous job that had 11 years. And I looked at the components of the things that I love, which is going out and seeing people, and I had like nine million dollars worth of business on the books, and so I was like, I love that job. There was pieces I didn't like, but I loved it. So then I just sat down and wrote out the perfect job, if you will, from the type of people I would be connected to, the type of environment I would work with. I mean, like what would the atmosphere be like in the office, who would the boss be? All these things, all those things I had done successfully and I waited four months. I mean, I was making$12 an hour at a dump agency. Can you imagine? You can hardly pay your bills on$12 an hour. And so, but I did that, and then this new job was created at this mega medical insurance company, and I got it. But I wrote it out first. What was I doing? And then kind of held that in the space. That's what I want to, that's what I want to attract, that's what I want to get.

SPEAKER_01

You talk a lot, and we've spoken a lot in the past about how people sabotage the very success they want. Like, why does that happen?

SPEAKER_03

Well, basically, it's based on their mindset. And when I say mindset, that just simply means it's the way you think about something. So they don't mean to, but we all have thoughts that sabotage us, right? So it's basically their mindset.

SPEAKER_01

Right. And because I remember reading, and I love love this book that you shared with me the first time we met, the one with by LNC Walter, which obviously you wrote the foreword for, and that talked so much about basically like the traumas that we've been through in our lives, stealing the the energy and ability that we have today. Talk a little about that. What does that mean for us in day-to-day practice?

SPEAKER_03

So in real life, basically look at it as think about a baby, because you've got kids. I've got a daughter. So think about when they're born, they start to crawl, then they start to walk, and they have a lot of energy. And when they start to walk, oh my gosh, they're very curious, they can't get into anything. So as we live life, obviously pleasant experiences and positive experiences with our parents, they're fantastic. But as we run into things that happen that we really didn't want to experience, it can be as simple as the first day you were dropped off at school, or maybe when you tried out for the football team and you didn't make it, or maybe when you tried out for cheerleader like me, I didn't make it, and was so humiliated. So and then maybe when you go to college, you flunked a course, or you lost your first love. All those things tie up our energy, if you will. So by the time we're in our 30s or 40s, what used to seem like maybe the world was your oyster, it doesn't seem that way anymore because we've had these things they're in the past. We don't go looking for 'em, but they trap our energy because they were unpleasant things. Does that make sense? So then when you've got big dreams and goals out in front of you, but you wonder why am I exhausted and trying to achieve this, it's because some of those things in the past, some of the decisions we've made, it's trapped our attention.

SPEAKER_01

One question that comes to me there, because it's been really interesting for people like you and me, we're obviously very goal-oriented and have that kind of clarity on where we're going. But these last couple of weeks, it's been coming up to me multiple times, people that are struggling to answer the question, what do I want? And how would you help someone who doesn't have that clarity of where they're going? Like, what do what do you want? How do you answer that?

SPEAKER_03

So if somebody was sitting down with me and I was doing a one-on-one and and they said, I don't know what I want, what would I ask them? I'd ask them a question. I would say, um it's kind of a statement. I would give them this question. I literally would. If they were one-on-one with me, I'd say, get the idea of you finding what you really, really want. It seems simple enough, but you're I'm talking to someone that doesn't know.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_03

And once they the first thing they have to do is they have to inspect is okay, what are their thoughts around that? Do you know what I'm saying? They've got because that's blocking them. And then I would ask them, have you ever had the idea of what you really wanted? Because I know they have but they've probably lost it, failed at it, or not gotten it, so there's gonna be a lot of emotions around it. And as soon as they get that, I would ask them, tell me about it. Because it's hard to reach and get what you want when you don't know. You really do. It's just a lot of stuff inside blocking it, right? Covering the pain. Maybe they've wanted stuff their whole entire life, but because of a crash, maybe they've had, or maybe the environment they were raised in, they've never felt like they could ever ask for anything. But still, just telling letting them tell me about it helps me pinpoint and move all those emotions out of the way. So then when you ask them, get the idea of finding what you really want, they can inspect it with a different mindset.

SPEAKER_01

That's cool. And uh and we have this little community here, which is like uh we do like tantric style workshops, but more like it's meditation, it's breath work, it's different uh sounding experience.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And so two of the my friends there in the group were Thursday last week leading like a sounding exercise.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_01

And so first, you know, we're just going through, we're just relaxing the body, just moving through, and everything is feeling great. And then we're, you know, we're elevating that to letting the body sound out, which again, really nice. Yeah. And then they had us pair up two and two, yeah, and kind of and sound to each other, just whatever's going through the body, yeah. Just let that out to each other. And then that expanded to identifying like what is the the color of the energy you're feeling from the other person, and letting that flow through you, and then going into identifying what is the color you're seeing in yourself. And at this point, I was getting this really cool vision. I'm basically seeing it's not, it's not just a color, right? It's bit it's it's the color of a sunrise over the ocean slash savannah going on at the same time, that kind of orange glow with the lion roaring in front of it. So it's a it's a very powerful experience. And then we get back into a circle and we start sounding up through the chakras.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And so we start at the root chakra, and you know, I'm getting, I'm really, you know, feeling that powerful red color coming out of there, and it's, you know, so connected to the room. Like I can feel them, like I can feel my arms getting lifted just by the intense energy. We move up to to the one just under the navel.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And I see this orange energy coming out, and it was crazy. I felt this incredible connection with people. Like I had to open my eyes it a couple times to see who's standing right here in front of me. And I realized, no, wait, they're still on the other side of the room. So you know how you can feel like when if you have your eyes shut and someone's right here in your face, yeah, and I open my eyes and they're not there. It was, it was really cool. And then we came up to the pseudoplexus, the solar plexus chakra, and I see this like yellow color just shooting out of my chest, and I can basically, you know, catch it with my hands, and it's it's really great until I just suddenly it all locked up. It was like that, the the whole solar plexus region just cramped and I got stuck. And I had to step out and I laid down and I was trying to breathe through it. But obviously, they're still doing the exercise, and so they go up even further into the heart chakra, and that's where it just kind of like blew up into overwhelm. And I actually had to step out. I was like, all right, this was enough for me today. I do not want to know what happens if I keep going at this point. And uh, and so that was what then started this process for me.

SPEAKER_03

So thank you so much for sharing your story. Sounds like you that was like an ascension. You ascend and feel rise up and feel bigger than.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I mean, it was the whole way through, it was really, really cool, but but then it just locked, locked down at that point.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So um, and that's when the over the overwhelm turned on, right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, well, that's where I think, you know, I've had the pressure because there are so many, you know, we have a lot of stakeholders in the business and and the team, and I've been holding that space. Yeah, but it really kind of came to came to me that wow, like I'm overwhelmed right now.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah. So and so go back to your original question. What's your question to me? How would I handle that? Or what would I tell you?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, what what would you do if you were coaching me now? What would you do with with that? How would you help me move forward?

SPEAKER_03

Well, I would actually go in and handle the overwhelm.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And how would you do that?

SPEAKER_03

The way I would do that is I would run a process on it because it's just stuck energy. There's about twelve questions on a specific process that we have to break that down. Like one of the questions is where is it? What's its size? What's its weight? What's its color? What are the some of the moods in the overwhelm? Right? You would probably say overwhelm and you would give me some more moods, right? And then um to complete that process, that energy should be dissipated. I would also ask you um to basically write down a list of all the things you know.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Usually a person gets overwhelmed if there's too many things they don't know, and you've just expanded your company 10x, right?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And you're looking at probably gonna go 5x. That's that's a huge expansion, probably bigger than you ever dreamed possible. Am I right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, well, I mean, it's 50x over two years if we hit our targets.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, that's huge. That's a different size game. So when you expand your game, here we go. Here's the answer. I knew it was there somewhere. So when you expand your game, it's a different game, right? Different size.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah, definitely.

SPEAKER_03

Different size. So when you and everybody follow me on this, very important. When you expand your game, you actually are like in the red zone, if you will. Red zone is you don't know a lot. Why? Because the game, the size of the game is change. If I'm used to operating a company that's worth two million dollars, and all of a sudden I come in and I have 20 million, oh my goodness, different set of problems, right? Don't have the knowledge to handle those. I have to think differently. Investments, you said the people. So I would start off with what is it I know all my successful actions that I did to get me there. And then look at then by looking at all the positive, all the things you do know, then that narrows it down to the things you don't know. But also realize that when you start out in a brand brand new game, you're in the red zone, meaning you're figuring it out. You don't have a lot of knowledge, but you do because you did certain things to get you to the level you're at. Does that help you?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and that makes perfect, perfect sense. I think that's the that's the stress, too, is the fact. That, you know, you always say that a company can't grow faster than its founder or than its leaders, right? Yeah. And so it's that pressure as well of am I going to be this choking point? So I'm having to grow at such a ridiculous rate at the moment to keep up with how we're growing.

SPEAKER_03

And so there's more pressure. More pressure. Yes. So one of the things that I see successful people, one of the biggest things I see successful people, really successful people that they don't do. And I also see the ones that are super successful, like Robert Kiyosaki, Blair Singer. You know, somebody asked me, what do those guys have in common? And I thought, oh my gosh, that's a hard question. Because they're both, you know them, they're both very different on stage, right? But they're best friends. But I I mean, after 10 seconds, I thought, oh, that's so easy. So Robert's 79, Blair's in his early 70s, and they still work on themselves. They still do coaching. They still work with me. They still are getting knowledge and they continue to grow as a person. Those that hit this level and think they don't need any more knowledge or it's just a one-off course, that's the wrong mindset. As you see, you 10x a company, good Lord. I'd have to reevaluate everything I've learned up until this time. If I 10x my company in one year, that's a major, major positive change.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, you're scaling when you do you know how many people I hear clients that are like wanting to scale and investing several thousands, but like tens of thousands of dollars to scale. You've just done it one year. So continue to develop yourself.

SPEAKER_01

That's really good advice, and I appreciate it. I just hijacked the whole interview a little bit for myself, but I appreciate us going down that rabbit hole.

SPEAKER_02

No, that'll make it good because it's real love, right? It's life.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, it's what we're going through, right?

SPEAKER_02

That's right.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. And well, I want I want to hear more about your journey as well because you're doing some really, really cool stuff. So walk us through how you became, you know, an entrepreneur and the kind of the custodian of what Alan does and and who Alan is. And yeah, kind of walk us through the history a little bit.

SPEAKER_03

So I'll try to keep it really short because there's a lot of history there. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

So okay there's a couple of years that's gone by things.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, that's a couple of years. So um, I still remember, I have to say, I still remember when you picked four women up at an airport at an airport, Kim Kiyosaki and Lisa Lana and Rhonda Jaggers and me, and we had 10 suitcases. And I'm like, oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01

I hope it was absolutely insane seeing how much packing you guys had.

SPEAKER_03

I know, I know. But your city's beautiful, your country's beautiful. But so basically, I don't have a college degree, so that was always like I just felt really stupid. I did horrible in school. But I got a job in the insurance industry strictly because employee benefits. I knew that their companies would always have benefits for their employees, so I knew that would give me security. So that's why I chose that industry. Right, if you will. And so um I worked my way up to a position that only 5% of the people in the country could get without a college degree for this particular company because they were very Ivy League type of school. They would recruit from those, but anyway, so I got that job. But I the in my heart, I always asked myself, why do people act the way they do? Why do I act the way I do? So I always took courses, like I did a Steve Covey course, did attended a seminar, Anthony Robbins, one day. I took some courses in college, like family relationships, uh, psychology, sociology, just to try to figure out that question. Why don't people ask the way they do? And then someone turned me on to a course at the company which I own now, and drastically changed my life. But I have to say one thing. The biggest thing, the biggest decision I ever, ever, ever made was three days before my 40th birthday. And I looked at the future, and then I looked at from the time I was born all the way up to 39 years old, and I was like, oh, I'm not gonna live another year like the first 39. I'm gonna I'm gonna change something. I didn't know how that would profoundly affect my life. Thank God it was positive. At the age of 40, I signed up for the first course, and then I make a long story short, from 99 to 2004, I continued to work on myself. I ended up getting the highest paid job I'd ever landed in the insurance industry. Um, I won account manager of the year, an award of the whole United States, just working on me, but actually being in corporate. And then my income one year increased 30%. And I'm like, I didn't go in there to work on money, I just went in there to do some personal development on me. And so then I got the chance to work with Allen 101 until he passed in 2009. I was his caretaker at the inn and then um, you know, inherited the intellectual property and had been carried his move um his technology forward. And fortunately, Blair and Robert Kiyosaki already knew me because they worked directly with Alan, but they knew me because I was his executive communicator and I already had that relationship, and so they continued working with me. I became their coach. Right. And that's kind of the short and skinny of how I got into this.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Oh, that's amazing. I think for so many people listening, you know, if you're listening to the Swedish Wealth Institute podcast, you're in personal development, right? That's that's right, you know, that's why you're here. So I think it it's got to be so inspiring for a lot of us to hear, like, you know, you went to a training with a company, was absolutely blown away, and you know, what 10 years later, you all of a sudden own that company and are in charge of its heritage.

SPEAKER_03

I know. And Daniel, if you would have told me that 99, I would say, what kind of drugs are you taking? What planet did you just arrive off of? You know, I would think you're loony.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Oh, I get that. Tell me about the relationship there with Robert Kiyosaki and Blair Singer. Obviously, our listeners know Robert Kiyosaki very well from the episode with him, but how did how was that, you know, coaching someone that is so incredibly successful? How do you coach someone who's, you know, obviously, I mean, you're you're amazing, but like, you know, Robert is is at another level from us normal human beings when it comes to success, right? It's a different level. So how do you coach someone who's written the most iconic personal finance book of all time, among other things?

SPEAKER_03

So I I would tell you, and this can be applied in anything you want to do. So in 2002, I'm still a student, okay? Here. And I'm working down in Dallas in that insurance company, one of the top medical companies, either one or two. Um, and I knew that I wanted to work with wealthy people, rich people. And you have to realize I had never been around wealthy people in my life until I moved to Dallas and I worked in an insurance company with sales reps that made really good money. You're talking 1985 all the way to 99. So I knew that I was gonna be leaving that job and starting here, and would have to start all over getting trained and get masterful in being a great coach.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

And I knew I wanted to work with wealthy people, I was terrified of them. So one of my coaches said, Okay, I want you to go sit down in the richest, most expensive hotel in Dallas, sit in the lobby for an hour and just watch, observe. So I did that because I was getting ready, I was getting used to watching how rich people behaved and how they communicated with others. And I was like, oh my gosh, they're just like you and me. Yeah, you know what I mean? I mean, so I had a lot of preconceived ideas on how do wealthy people act, because I didn't know any. And so then I went, then they assigned me to go to the sister hotel of that hotel and go sit in that lobby. So I did that. You have to you have to realize I was so embarrassed, I thought, what if the concierge comes up to me and asks me, ma'am, do you need help? What do you got? What are you doing here? You know, do you realize that you do not sit in here?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, so that didn't happen, but well, they did ask me, did I need help? I just said no, I'm just you know, hanging out here. So, but anyway, so I did that to kind of like open my mindset to being around wealthy people. And then one weekend, Robert and Kim came to the ranch. Alan was still alive this 2002. Yeah, I was up here as a student, and um they asked me, um, Robert was on course, Robert and Kim were on course, and I was on this course, and so I actually ended up sitting down with Robert as a student, and we kind of read some stuff, and I ran a process on him, and um I was just like, oh my God, I can't believe I sit down and work with Robert Kiyosaki.

SPEAKER_01

It's just and he was humble enough to just be a student in the room, too.

SPEAKER_03

Yes, and then we all ended up having dinner that night, and it was cold, and I will never forget this. There was a guy by the name of Joel here, and he needed to go out and get more firewood, and Robert went out and helped him. I don't know if they had to chop some firewood or it was already chopped, but they had to get the SUV and go over and put some stuff in there, and he went over there with him and helped him load that up and put that back in the lodge. And I was like, this guy could probably hire 10 people to do that if he was at his house. And I was like, oh my god, I was so impressed with that. So I just I got really good at what I do, if you will, and then I worked on my mindset about rich people, and I observed, and I'm like, oh my gosh, my mindset was so wrong about rich people. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01

That makes perfect sense, and obviously that's what then led uh led to the relationships that finally brought you to Sweden, and so we met up.

SPEAKER_03

I mean, Kim is so Kim Kiyosaki is so empowering, one of the most empowering women I've ever been around. And so I when she was here at the ranch, I, you know, one of my colleagues said that one of her dreams is to be on stage with you, and I was mortified. I thought, oh my God, what is she gonna think? And she said, really? And she took a look at it, and so she's open to it. And so four of us went to Canada, or maybe two or three of us went to Canada. That was the first gig. So I went from speaking to 50 people in the audience to 200. I would tell you, I thought I was gonna get sick. I mean, I would have been happy if a snowstorm would have hit and we couldn't go. I was so terrified, but that's when I got the comp. I mean, Kim is so supportive. I just knew she had my back.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You know, when I got on stage and it just flowed. So empowering, no matter who you are, to be the best you can be and to just be yourself on stage. So she's I really, really contribute a lot of my success to her because she gave me I may travel to 14 countries, Sweden, one of them, with Kim and Lisa and Rhonda, and I just got over it. Now I can speak to two or three thousand people.

SPEAKER_01

So you guys crushed it. That was back, that was so long ago now, but it was one of our empowered women events that we did in Stockholm, and I think we had what 600 or so people in the room, and it was absolutely amazing.

SPEAKER_03

I loved it, and that's where I met Marella. Remember, who's now a star over in London? And it was beautiful, beautiful. Just I'm so grateful for that opportunity. I mean, talk about being in the right place at the right time with the right people. That's it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, right back at you. And so, what what are your focuses right now? Like, what are you building currently?

SPEAKER_03

So, right now, what I am building is expansion on my company, getting this Allen's work out so that more people can get what they want, real simply. Get the technology. It's like that's why I wrote the book, Holding This Up, The Fire Within. I co-authored this with Dr. Jeff Crippen, who is my CEO.

SPEAKER_01

And what I love about this book is And we'll link to that in the show notes, guys, so you can find it.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you. And what I like about this book is Jeff and I take a chapter and we each talk about it and it's stories, but it's what I love the most is eight processes in here that I use in my one-on-one sessions that people pay me money to pro to to coach and process them on, okay, to help them get what they want. The reason why I love it is because the PDF version on the internet, I mean, there's a story to this, is only five dollars. And so my thought process, Dr. Jeff and I thought, you know, English is a primary language for the whole world, right? Number one. It's also in Spanish, but if that's all a person ever does, even in a third world country, spend five dollars and they can get access to that book with those eight processes, I know that if they read it and just reading through the processes, their mindset will shift and that will cause them to start to trend up. So that was the reason this book was written. And then fortunately, Robert endorsed the front of yes, wrote a beautiful endorsement. Kim vote a wrote a beautiful endorsement on the back, and so did Blair Singer. So but expansion, growing. How can we best help people with the knowledge that we've learned with their own processes so they can get what they want? And big.

SPEAKER_01

I think everyone listening to this episode is probably thinking you went to trainings with Tony Robbins, you went to trainings with Stephen Covey, you've worked with Robert Kiyosaki. Out of all these, you chose to partner with with Alan Walter. Like, what make what made him so special? Like, what's why did you choose him when you had access to all these absolutely amazing people?

SPEAKER_03

So, and I only did one day at with Tony. I was in corporate, that was down in Dallas, and I did that seven habits, just so you know, of highly effective people. But that was one of the first. I know, I know. So it really, I mean, it's pretty simple. So I had eight years of one-on-one and also family counseling with a psychologist in Dallas, trying to get answers to some questions. It goes back to that why do I act the way I do? Is there something I can do about it? Why why do people act the way they do? Is it something I'm doing or is it something I can help them with? So I got I had a really great psychologist. It kept me sane during the eight years, if you will, to have somebody listen to me and also help me with my career. But I was still asking those questions that I didn't have answers to. So when I had a good friend who took a course there, and I had seen such remarkable results just from what had happened in her life, because she worked in the insurance industry with me too. And she said, you might want to go in and check these people out. And it just, I got answers to things I'd always been asking myself, those questions. And so I found that based on the way the methodology and the the is set up with helping you find right answers, helping you get in the zone, right place, right time, doing the right things. And when your life starts to uptrending, you have to look at what have I learned here? Do you know what I mean? I always thought it was somebody out there. Look at what they're doing, or I don't like the way they're behaving, but you really can't control that. But it really has to do with you because when you can when you change you, everything else changes. I never understood that, but I do now.

SPEAKER_01

I can imagine. All right, we wrap up every episode with a quick, rapid fire round. So I'm gonna ask you five questions and you just answer every the first thing that comes to mind.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

All right, you ready? Yeah, all right. Yeah, this is where the pressure mounts. This is the fun part.

SPEAKER_03

I'm gonna have to have you coach me. I'm gonna be overwhelmed. I'm kidding. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_01

Turnaround is fair play. Okay. First question.

SPEAKER_03

Okay.

SPEAKER_01

One what is one common form of self-sobotage?

SPEAKER_03

Uh, not writing down your successful actions of what you did to get you to that level of success so you can go back and repeat it. So many times I ask people, what'd you do? They're like, I don't know. They tell me one thing. I'm like, no, it was more things than that. So that's a self-sabotage, not knowing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, very good. What is one mindset that kills momentum?

SPEAKER_03

That now that you've made it, this is heartbreaking for me. Now that you've made it, you know, to that level, you don't need to do any more personal development. You don't need to do anything.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Well, that that's why I thought when I graduated school, right? Now I'm done. I can start, you know, it's time to start working now.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And it wasn't until I saw Brian Tracy speak that I realized, hey, wait a sec, there is something more to do here.

SPEAKER_03

Yes. Yes.

SPEAKER_01

All right. What is one habit that you use to restore your focus?

SPEAKER_03

I get back on my purpose. I keep in mind my purpose, but there's another one that people do that I do, a form of writing your wins every day. No matter how much you do that at the end of the day? Just uh there's a gratitude process where you do five questions in the morning and you do three in the evening, or you can just write your wins. I try to do it every day. I'm not perfect. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

That's okay.

SPEAKER_01

Just telling you guys to be perfect.

SPEAKER_03

That's right. Thank God.

SPEAKER_01

All right. What is one myth about success that you'd retire today?

SPEAKER_03

That it's so easy.

SPEAKER_02

Hey, masters make it look easy, right?

SPEAKER_03

I mean, being around Alan, I would just like look at him and it's like, you know, I'd say, this person's got this going on, and take a look at their results on their analysis. What do you see? And he could tell you like in three seconds what's wrong in their life. And I'm like, how do you know that? And he's like, because I know basically, I know my technology like the back of my hand. So you just spot it right off. So that success is easy. He studied for that, but they make it look easy.

SPEAKER_01

That one's good. All right. What is one word that you feel defines living in the zone?

SPEAKER_02

One word?

SPEAKER_03

Gosh, I was gonna give you three. You're gonna have to give me a second. Okay. This is I'm probably using the wrong word. I hope none of the listeners get freaked out of this, but magic. You said one word.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, one word. I will allow you to explain the word though.

SPEAKER_03

Okay, good. Thank you. So magical. I'd say magical, not magic. Magical. Okay, so here's my explanation. It's being in the right place at the right time with the right people, and there's an ease to it. Things just magically start to it seems magical, but what's happened is you've gotten yourself in the zone. It's like the football guy that is throwing a 60-yard pass down the field. If you think about if that guy that's catching it is a half of a nano, a fourth of a nanosecond off, he'll miss the ball.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Now that's magic. Right place, right time. I mean, come on, working with Robert Kiyosaki, is that not in the zone? That's so in the zone. Working with Kim, having her as one of my best friends, that's so in the zone.

SPEAKER_01

Perfect. Well, as you know, we love spoiling our listeners. So you've prepared something fun for them. What do you have?

SPEAKER_03

So, what I have is for everyone who listens to this podcast, you will get the success sabotage bulletin that is written on what causes people to sabotage themselves, sabotage themselves and the actual formula so that when you're succeeding, how to repeat your successful actions, the actual formula for staying in the zone, if you will. So everybody that listens, get this.

SPEAKER_01

So that is we will link that in the show notes so you guys can claim that and get in contact with Seal as well, which will be really, really cool. Seal, thank you so much for joining us today. Do you have any final words of wisdom before we let you go?

SPEAKER_03

Yeah, it's um, you know, for all the entrepreneurs over. Which is anybody who wants to be able to create wealth and really really game. I prepared this offer as well. It is the financial analysis. And it basically there are probabilities that you need to have in the zone, if you will. And because if you those probabilities that are innately part of you, your natural state, or green zone, if you will, it is based on your mindset and your ability to create will is really, really high. And so what I've included with that analysis, it comes with a 45-minute 101 with me or one of my staff. It depends on how many people buy it. I mean, uh, if there's a lot, I won't be able to deliver everybody, but I will do my best to deliver as many as I can to those who sign up, but it also comes with my book as well. Because in the PDF format, I want you guys to have the processes that will help you right now use those and go forward and start winning even bigger in life. So that offer is$97. Um, but what I love about the analysis, and you've done it before, is it's a hundred questions, yes or maybe, and it identifies your mindset on paper, and then I sit down with you and go over why something is in the zone that you're using all your abilities to your is you know, to your potential, or if not, the questions on a help you pinpoint what's dragging that down. So I would love to see people do that because you do have to do that.

SPEAKER_01

That is a powerful process that really helped me a few years back when I needed it. So I can definitely strongly recommend. And they'll we'll add the link down there, and it'll be really clear all the things that are included in that. So make sure you go take a look. And if you're in that space, make sure you take action. Seal, I appreciate you so much. Thank you for joining us, and I'll speak to you soon.

SPEAKER_03

Thank you so much. It was so fun, it's such an honor to be with you again. Thank you, and congratulations on 10x in your business.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you so much for joining us for this interview with Seal Stanford. It is time for my favorite segment of the show where me and the Swedish Wealth Institute team have broken down the episode into clear lessons that you can implement in your life. Because here at the Swedish Wealth Institute, we're always looking for the answer to one simple question. What is the difference that makes the difference? In this episode, we found five big takeaways that you could take with you. Number one, success sabotage is usually internal, not external. Most people think they're stuck because of circumstance. CEO's point is deeper. The real block is often our mindset. The way we think about success, pressure, risk, and even yourself can stop you from reaching what you actually want. Insight number two, your past wins leave clues. Make sure you study them. One of the most practical ideas from this episode was go back to the last time you were truly winning. What were you doing? What were you thinking? What were the actions you were taking consistently? Success is not random. It leaves a trail. Study the actions that worked and repeat them. Number three, when the game gets bigger, discomfort is normal. So for me, this was really, really powerful because as our business expands, you enter what Seal calls a new zone where you really don't know everything yet. The pressure does not mean you're failing, it means you're growing. A bigger game means you gotta grow as well. Number four, winners never stop developing themselves. This was really cool to hear from Seal about how you know Robert Kiyosaki, Blair Singer, other successful people are still learning into their late 70s. They keep growing, they keep coaching, they they just keep working forward because if you don't, you start going backwards. Number five, clarity matters more than motivation. If you don't know what you want, it's very hard to build it. Motivation comes and goes. Clarity creates direction. And once you know what you want, discipline is what carries you there. So this is the really real formula right there: clarity, action, and repeat. So before I let you go, I'd love to spoil you as a listener. We really appreciate you taking the time to join us. So we want to give you a free ticket to one of our upcoming financial freedom summits in April. Now, we have one for North America and one for Europe. So you're going to be able to pick which one fits your time zone best. We eat both of them include Robert Kiyosaki, Les Brown, Nick Vojacich, Marcy Shimoff, Brian Tracy, Jack Canfield, Janet Atwood, and more speakers. So you are in for a treat. So to claim your free ticket, go to the show notes. We'll link to the events page where you can claim your ticket. And of course, if you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you follow and subscribe, just like thousands of people all over the world already have done, so you don't miss what's coming next. If you know someone that is looking to grow, that breakthrough, or someone you see that keeps self-sabotaging themselves, please share this episode with them. And of course, we always appreciate if you give us a five-star review. It really, really means a lot. Or commenting if you're listening to this on YouTube. Next week, we've got another powerful episode. I have the pleasure of interviewing Petra Brunbauer from The Journey. She will dive into chronic stress, well-being, and what she calls functional freeze and how to start moving forward again, even when the nervous system says no. I'm Daniel Wood, this is the Swedish Wealth Institute Podcast, and thank you again for joining us. Thank you for being a subscriber and listener, and I'll see you soon.

SPEAKER_00

I was becoming really disconnected and overwhelmed at the smallest things. I put my headphones on, I got all settled in, I had a little blanket, I was laying down, and I had a panic attack. You all of a sudden tell your nervous system, well, you have to be quiet now, you can't have any thoughts floating around. That feels unsafe. We've purposely activated the amygdala, increase that threat detection system, shifted purposely towards urgency and risk management, creative problem solving, all of those become very limited when we're very stressed.