Manifest Without Guilt

Your mind can talk you out of your future while convincing you it is being “realistic”. Marc Hildebrand of Modern Leadership and Curtis Gray of Kaine Legacy Studios unpack what “manifest without guilt” actually looks like when you are trying to grow a business, lead a family, and build a life that feels aligned, not performative.

We dig into the psychology behind guilt, shame, and fear, and why the brain is built for safety and automation. That wiring helps you survive, but it also produces limiting beliefs that keep you quiet, scattered, and stuck. We share a practical example from entrepreneurship: the moment you want to reach out, sell, collaborate, or ask for help, your brain starts filling in rejection for you, and your message never gets a chance to land.

From there, we get personal. Marc shares pieces of his journey from LAPD through major health challenges into coaching and leadership work. Curtis shares the purpose behind building Kaine Legacy Studios, including the Moonheart land dream inspired by his late sister, and the coaching question that stripped away distractions and revealed his “one thing”. The big takeaway is simple and hard: clarity comes from focus, and focus beats busy work every time.

If this hits home, subscribe, share this with a friend who is building something, and leave a review. Then tell us: what is your one thing?

If you'd like to reach out to Marc or Curt, here are the links!

Marc: ModernLeadership.us 

Curt: CurtisGray.net 

If you would like to go deeper, join the KLS Inner Circle!

Transcript

Cold Open And Why This Show

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Welcome to Lux Manifest the Podcast, where we empower people and inspire things. I'm Mark Elder Brown. I'm the founder of Modern Leadership Coaching. And I'm Curtis Gray, founder of King Legacy Studios. And we are here to help you manifest without guilt. Let's go.

unknown 0:22

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Whoa, look at that.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

We got it done on the first take. I feel like, I feel like you maybe have done some audio before in the past in your life, maybe a little bit of DJing. I I don't know. I'm just saying.

SPEAKER_01 0:34

Well, see, now I feel like we're gonna keep that in to start the uh episode. I'm not gonna do a countdown. We're just gonna jump right in. So I think uh the first thing we want to do is to let people out there know why we even started the podcast in the first place. And I figured a good way to frame that would be to jump into our tagline, Manifest Without Guilt. It's something I live by, something you live by as well. And um I'd like to ask you first, what what does that mean to you?

SPEAKER_02 1:10

So manifest, some people love that word, some people don't necessarily love it. I've come to love it because what I feel like where is actually happening under the surface is um we're either heading in the direction of what we want or heading in the direction of what we don't want. And when I when I say manifest without guilt, when when we go out and we try to create things in our life, we're gonna have these voices that try to get us off track from actually going out and getting those things. And some of them are guilt or shame or blame or pointing fingers, forgetting to take control of the things we can control. And so when I put these two words together, manifest is has a lot to do with what we focus on, right? That's going on under the surface, that's guiding us either one direction or the other. And without guilt is is like all of these things that kind of like come up, some of the stories that that our brain focuses on that tries to get us to live small, to, to not do the thing that we were put here on this planet for when we know and start to figure out how to rewire that so that we're starting to head in the direction of what we want. And we can see those feelings of guilt and understand that they're there just to keep us safe. But in reality, there's something out on the other end, not only something for us and for our family, but like a gift that we have to give the world. We can start to actually put more of the energy into the things we can control and create

What Manifest Without Guilt Means

SPEAKER_02 2:30

what we want to create.

SPEAKER_01 2:31

Yeah. Yeah. See, bad or good, you get what you focus on. 100%. Yeah, absolutely. You you said something interesting. You said um the guilt, right? As an emotion is meant to keep us safe. See, now I've been working with you for years, and we'll do our our origin story in a minute, but I really wanted to jump into why we're doing the podcast first. I've been working with you for years, and I've heard you express this principle fairly often about how like the mind is set up to keep us safe. So it's interesting that you say that guilt is one of those emotions that's set up to keep us safe. Like, can you expand on that a little bit?

SPEAKER_02 3:09

Yeah. First off, I'm gonna call you coach, Kurt, because you love when I call you a coach, but like you're you're like you're the epitome of of being able to see things now from a new angle and asking powerful questions to bring out powerful answers, right? So Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 3:25

I learned I learned from the best. I learned from the best. In case you guys don't know out there before Mark answers the question, what he's referring to is the fact that not only do we work together and his is he my biggest client, Ken Legacy Studios, but I've also been through his certification. So I am a certified life coach in addition to being an entrepreneur. So that's what he's referring to. And I learned a lot from this man. Let me tell you guys, I learned a lot of valuable stuff. Uh, one of which is asking the right questions, which means I'm waiting for an ads.

SPEAKER_02 4:01

Uh well, first off, let me um let me just share this. Like, I've learned so much from you because of your willingness to answer those questions, right? There's the asking of the questions, but like some of the questions get kind of deep. And that's what we're going in here, right? Um, and I think one of the, by the way, before I answer your question, one of the main reasons why I felt compelled to put this together for you is because the level of conversations that we have, people just don't get to be in the room and hear these conversations. They're more along the lines of like whatever environment they're in in that moment, that's the conversations they have. And it could be with friends or other people who don't value similar things. But being in this room, every time we have a conversation, I'm like, Kurt, we should have recorded this. People need to hear this because they don't have a room like this. They don't have a room to share high-level strategy things, but also high-level mindset pieces that we're going to be able to help tackle for them. So this is our way of being able to give back, right? So getting to your brain tries to keep you safe, right? So when it comes to like understanding, I mean, even thinking about coaching and asking questions, when you understand what your brain is meant to do in its foundation, like it's two main things. It's to keep you safe, right? To protect you, because back in the day, you didn't want to walk out onto the savannah and get eaten by a tiger, right? But also at the same time, it's like meant to automate things so you don't have to think about things all the time, right? So if you're trying to brush your teeth, can you imagine what it would be like if you had to focus and think about every step that it took, right? And so when you think about these two things of, you know, trying to protect you and keep you safe and automating things, what accidentally happens is things based off of our environment, our experiences that we've been through, right? You've been through different experiences than I have, um, is we start to create these beliefs about certain things. And those beliefs are rooted in trying to keep us safe. So let me give you an example, right? Let's say you're starting a business, right? And you have somebody in mind that you want to reach out to and you want to either invite them to collaborate with you or invite them to work with you. And then your brain starts telling you about all of the reasons why maybe you're not good enough. Maybe you're not gonna have the answers for them. Maybe they're not the right person. What happens if they tell you no? And all of these things that your brain is asking you are the wrong questions that are getting you to focus on what's broken, wrong or missing and to keep you safe. Because if you agree with those and you go, yeah, you're right, I'm I'm not gonna do this, your message never gets out there. You never ask another human if they want your help. And the truth is, is they could be there thinking, I need this person's help. I need somebody to come along and help with this. But because you didn't verbalize it out loud, you never gave them the opportunity of saying yes or no, which means by default their answer is going to be no. And they never got the help that they needed. But it's because it's meant to keep us safe. It's like, how do I keep myself safe? Well, if I don't say anything to this person, that's gonna keep me safe. But in reality, it's safe right now, not safe in the future. Because if you keep doing that, you're never gonna have a business. You're never gonna be able to make that impact. So that's what I mean by making us safe. Is like there's these stories and perspectives that our brain tells us to keep living small based off of our current belief system, not creating or manifesting a new path, which is what we're gonna be talking about.

SPEAKER_01 7:00

Yeah, man. I mean, that's see, first of all, bars, that's bars. That's

How Guilt Keeps You Small

SPEAKER_01 7:05

exactly why this man is uh a master coach right there. Like these are the kind of conversations we have all the time.

unknown 7:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:17

Because the truth is, if we don't understand how our minds work, we can't strategize anything from a really effective set point. Because we're, like Mark said, instead of asking a potential client a question, we're already filling in the answers for them. And we don't even know that we're doing that. It's the subconscious that runs our routines without us thinking about it. So if we're not really super intentional about what we want to manifest and which way we want to go, the subconscious will run its routines, bad or good. It has no judgment, it will just run. So you really have to be intentional. And one of the ways of uh being intentional about manifesting what you want is to ask or have someone ask you the right questions. We're not always so good at asking those questions of ourselves, though, that's the thing. So when people ask me what value coaching has, a good coach will ask you the right questions to get you to analyze your beliefs. Then you have something to focus on and be intentional.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

Yep. Yep. I love that, man. I I do want to ask you what manifest guilt means to you because I know you started this movement and I love your answer behind this. But one thing I want to bring up before we do is like, is I talk to a lot of people in the space of business and growing their business. And what they're talking about is a lot of the technical aspects of growing their business, and that's what they're looking for the answer for. And what I have found is what actually keeps people stuck is what we're talking about today. So if you're in this space where you're like, I want to achieve this, I want to grow this, I want to become rich, I want to be able to do these things, take my family, do all this kind of stuff. The technical aspects will only take you a certain level. What we're talking about today is the thing that really shifts the game for you. Um, I was just talking to one of our clients. He um he just joined our certification. And one of the things he said is he's like, I was originally listening to you, Mark, and I was thinking, like, I don't need to become a coach. I don't want to become a quote unquote life or performance coach. Like, this isn't for me. And he said, I don't know. There was just something that made me want to jump on a call with you. And after I got off the call and then got and saw what was behind the scenes, I feel like this is the missing piece that I've been missing for the last 10 years, where I've been paying all of these coaches for like advice when in reality I didn't have this important life skill. He's like, I wish that we taught this to our kids in school of like how their brain works and how to use it for you instead of against you. And so it's these things where we think we know what the problem is and we have no idea because we're trapped in the box and you can't read the label from inside the box. So that's why like I need people like you in my life too, where you're like, Mark, have you did you see this? Did you notice this? And I'm like, man, I can't even I'm in the box too, right? It's such an important thing that we all need to have people like that in our life.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

We really do. And if we don't have these people in our personal lives, good life coaches are really, really good at that. And I'm a convert because I didn't always believe in which makes us perfect for this podcast. To say the least, I was a bit skeptical about life coaching as an industry. But a good life coach will ask you the right questions. See, the thing is, you know, what I find is a lot of time we have the answers within us already. Um, I do believe that the God, the universe, whatever it's you personally believe, it won't give you a dream, an ambition without giving you the tools that you you need to achieve that. So it's already within you. What a good life coach will do is ask you the right questions, help you find those answers that already exist within you. And that's an important point I want to stress. Life coaches are not here to solve your problems. What they are here to do is to help you achieve clarity. And because with clarity comes the ability to find those answers that already exist within you. And that's why life coaching is indeed valuable. And and on a future episode, I'd like to talk about how, as much as I love using AI for leverage, we're gonna get into that topic because AI cannot be a life coach.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

No. Unfortunately, like some people have come to realize that after it's planted some some limity beliefs in them. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

I want to really explore that in depth, how we use the leverage that it provides to grow our businesses, but how some people make mistakes when when when it comes to AI, as far as like the life coaching space. All right. I

Why Coaching Beats More Tactics

SPEAKER_01 11:45

think uh we have gone far enough into why we did this. Hopefully, people will see already, you know, the conversations we have that we wanted to share. Because, like you said, we're always having these conversations. We both say we wish we'd recorded them. Because this is, you know, a lot of this stuff is just pure gold because we're always asking the right questions of each other. And the people that are following us, I mean, we have a lot of reach at this point. We have the one reel that has over eight eight and a half million views and twenty thousand followers here and seventy thousand followers there on your side, and another forty thousand. So we have a lot of, you know, uh people that are following us and they trust us to a degree. And I wanted to just, you know, get a little deeper than just giving people just advice and inspiration. Because as important as that is, that's temporary stuff. You know, I really wanted to give them some of the nuts and bolts about what makes people like us tick, you know, what the conversations look like behind the scenes. So Mark, um what I do want to do now is I want to dive a little bit into like our stock points, where we started at.

Mark’s Origin Story And The Ceiling

SPEAKER_01 12:52

A lot of people don't know you. You started a beach body. It I always forget that's where you started from.

SPEAKER_00 12:58

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

So if you want to break that down for people, let them know. You know, like you started as a body coach before, before they were called body, they were beach body. Yep. And uh my man was killing it.

SPEAKER_02 13:10

I appreciate that, man. I appreciate yeah. The the I'll go through my story quick and I want I want you to hit on your story though, too. Your story is super powerful.

SPEAKER_01 13:17

Uh it's a full circle because my story, you're such a large part of that.

SPEAKER_02 13:21

So I appreciate that, man. You give me too much kudos, by the way. Um so once again, you had all the answers all inside of you. I just had to ask a question, right? Um, so so yeah, so I was a police um officer from LEPD, spent about 20 years on the department, and um I gotten very unhealthy through that process. I had a bunch of stories and perspectives I was telling myself that made me 100 pounds overweight. Uh so I got involved in Beach Body, got involved in P90X, loved it, started to go through some of the things that we talked about here. I didn't have a deep understanding of why I ended up losing 100 pounds and keeping it off, but that's what I was able to do. And so obviously, when you lose weight, people are like, what are you doing? Right. It's the results thing. You get results. They're like, how do you get those results? The crazy thing is people always used to ask me, like, how did you lose weight? They never would ask who I had to become to lose the weight. And that's really what the work was. It was a once I made that decision and I understood how my brain works, I lost 100 pounds and I've kept it off for like 13 years now. And and we'll talk about this probably as we go into the series, but I spent too much time in Beach Body. Like I didn't realize this. I didn't realize this, but the thing that I thought was my ceiling was actually just the step to the next level. And I made it my ceiling for a while. So I was in Beach Body for, I don't know, seven and a half, eight years. Um until I got into what I'm doing, yeah, until I'm what I got into what I'm doing right now. And and it was crazy because like I had been hitting this ceiling of $40,000 or $50,000 a year for like five years, and I was trying everything. And um, the moment that I made the switch and started to do what I do now, which by the way, I took all of the beautiful lessons that I learned from Beach Body with me and I moved it into the next piece, which was more of like life and performance coaching. Like I quadrupled my income just in that next year because of using that not as my ceiling, but like I said, like as my stepping stone, right? So, and I know we actually met while I was working through the Beach Body system, which I am so blessed. Like, I I can't believe how we met still on opposite sides of the United States, how connected we are, the conversations, even though we both grew up in different places, different times, all this kind of stuff. Like I just feel like really connected to you on a deep level. And it's crazy how we ended up connecting and then ultimately started working together in like a really, really deep capacity. But but that's kind of the the process that that I went through.

SPEAKER_01 15:40

Yeah. So just so people understand, like Mark, L-A-P-D, guys. L-A-P-D. And there are a lot of like my friends from back in the days that are listening to this podcast, like, Kurt, you work with a cop? I'm like, I am best friends with a cop. You know what I mean? Because at the end of the day, I have never been, nor will I ever be against the institution of police and of self. Can you imagine the world without law, without people to enforce that law? Yeah, I think you know what happens sometimes with some cops, just like with some people, if you give them too much authority and they don't have the responsibility to go with it or the right mindset to go with it, they can abuse that authority. Yeah, but to paint all police with that broad stroke is is a mistake. And I will say that. So I will say this though. We've hung out a few times in in real life. So I'm on the East Coast, born and raised in New York. I live in uh New England now, and Mark is from LA. So we've hung out a few times at a few retreats. Um, Phoenix, uh stale. Wasn't that the one where you broke your leg playing basketball?

SPEAKER_02 16:51

That was, yeah, the Utah was the one where I broke my leg. Utah, uh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

Yep. And he does have that thousand-yard stare.

SPEAKER_02 17:00

I can't get rid of that. I've tried to, man. I tried to. But but you know, nothing to say it, like you are the life of the party on all those places. People would start like crowding around you. I'm like, what's going on over there? Oh, it's Kurt. Kurt's talking. Kurt's talking again. Because you are that kind of person. I mean, I guess you did that for a living too, for your however long you were like at the DJ in the center of attention. But but dude, man, you uh you definitely light up those rooms, man, and everybody, everybody's attracted to you. But yeah, I um that thousand-yard stare, like I'm I don't know, it just it's ingrained in me. I can't.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

You can see you just picking out the details in the room or whatever. We do that to a lesser degree. So like way, way back in the days I was in the army and we were trained to be observant as well. I don't think it's as intense with us as it is with you guys. Like you're doing that. Yeah, it seems like you do it all the time, even when you don't notice.

SPEAKER_03 17:48

It's exhausting.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Constant input.

SPEAKER_03 17:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

So, yeah, so Mark, yeah, LAPD. Um, and what he didn't mention was that the stress during that time period of his transition brought about an immune autoimmune disease. Autoimmune, yeah, ulcerative colitis, yep. Yes, and then uh that developed into Crohn's, right? Is that the same thing or it's it's very similar.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

So I was originally um diagnosed with Crohn's, and recently they've said that it's actually ulcerative colitis. It's very, very similar, but yeah, it's basically my body, my immune system it attacks itself, right? And you're right. Like I left out a big part big part of my story. Like usually the struggling and the challenges. Like you would think like I didn't have all that. We have had all of that, right? But um, and I think that's that's what's gonna come up from the in these shows is hearing some things that maybe you never heard of from both of us.

SPEAKER_01 18:42

Yeah, we won't we won't cover everything in this episode to be three hours long. But um, I I really wanted to bring that up because I wanted to make sure that people understand like the struggle is real. When they say that, it's not just a phrase. Like we all have our individual struggles, and it's not just necessarily about pushing through because a lot of times you can use motivation, determination to push through, but it doesn't really help your mindset, it doesn't help your health. It can really be detrimental to you. So it's more important to get your body and your mind aligned. And that's what you asked me, and I I still haven't answered what manifest without guilt really means. You know, it means to be aligned with your goals. You know, you you find a purpose and you shoot for that purpose. There's a saying where you know, build a life where you're excited to get out of bed in the morning. Um that's that comes from a sense of purpose. So you manifest that purpose and you leave the guilt behind. And we have so many examples in this world of people who have achieved a certain level of success, monetary success, and then the behavior is just like reprehensible. Like nobody wants to be like some of these guys. And unfortunately, it's what we're seeing is like the evil that you know money does. Like they say that money is the root of all evil. It's people. Money is a tool. And I don't feel any more guilt associated with money than I do with a a hammer or a nail when I need to hang a picture. It's a tool. It's a tool to help you fulfill your purpose to the ultimate. That is nothing to feel guilty about. And that is one of the things that if you don't get past that guilt inside, well, I don't want to be like this person. No, your purpose is your purpose. And as long as you stay aligned with that, there's nothing to feel guilty about. You know, my purpose is to build security, safety, abundance for my family, my friends, the people I love. That purpose is my North Star. I have no guilt associated with that. So, yeah, manifest without guilt. You know, you have to find a purpose. I will say this though. If your purpose is just money, I'm not gonna judge you, but I don't foresee a lot of happiness in your future because money in and of itself is just a tool. Yeah, it's a means to an end. You have to figure out what that end is within you. What lights your soul off fire? What do you feel in your chest when you get up in the morning? You're looking forward to doing. That's your purpose. So that's what Manifest Without Guilt is

Curtis’s Purpose And Moonheart Dream

SPEAKER_01 21:17

all about. You already knew that, Mark.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Yeah, that's why I love when I hear it, because every time I hear it, it just fires me up. And um, I'm not sure if we're supposed to tell people about Colorado, but dude, I can't.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

No, no, we could Yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah, well, I mean, um, the ultimate goal with KLS building it up into a multimillion dollar company is to purchase track the land out in Colorado, uh, Moonheart. That's gonna be named after um i in in honor of my my um my sister who is now deceased. Uh rest in peace. We lost her a few years ago to uh breast cancer. But it was one of her biggest ambitions to have a family homestead where everybody could go. And it wasn't about like you have to be here or anything. Like that again, no guilt. It was just no matter what happens in your life, this tract of land, these houses, this this community, our loved ones, that's always gonna be home for us, no matter where we go. And that is, you know, um, that is my dream. And that's what I'm focused on building. And yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:21

Let's go. Like you always say, let's go.

The One Question That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_01 22:25

Um I guess since we're on the topic of me. Um before I met Mark, I was the kind of person that had a lot of talent and skills, but I didn't have the right mindset, which didn't enable me to set up the right structure or find the right vehicle for those talents and skills. So I was a DJ at nightclubs, really good at it, you know, DJ producer. Actually, that was one of the things that I did do right that did work out. But I would try, I was one of those people that had always tried a million different things. And I'd split my focus, I'd be all over the place. Not too long after I met Mark and started working with him. I just I almost felt I was gonna have a nervous breakdown that day. I'll tell you the truth. Like, I'll be honest. Like I'm trying, and I just felt like disconnected from the world around me. I didn't know what I was doing, where I was going, like, is this even life? You know. I expressed all that to you and you know, this is where I swear by coaching now is Mark didn't give me advice. He didn't tell me what he thought I should do, which as a friend I'm sure if I had asked, he would have. But he chose the right moment to go into what we call coach mode and he asked me the most powerful, the most impactful question of my life, and that was if you could strip away everything but one thing that you know you do well and that you love doing and that you can be successful at, what would that be? And it was like tumblers falling into place. As I stripped away all these things I was trying to do, I was left with just the one thing, and that was music. I had always been successful with it, always been good as a DJ producer, and so I started with that. I stopped thinking about well, how am I gonna scale this up and how is this gonna turn into a successful business and make me millions? I stripped all of that away. And we just got into how can I do music and bring music to the world, just focus on music first and how do I bring that to the world? And we came up with Overdrive Radio, which was my first Yeah, it's still running today, guys. Overdrive radio.net. It basically was me taking what I did in the club for a decade of of work in the clubs and bringing it to the internet podcast form. It's just like a party 20 minutes at a time.

SPEAKER_02 25:00

Love it, dude. I'm I'm your biggest fan. I probably downloaded every song like 32 times.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

Thank you, man. Yeah. So we did yeah, so it was great because I mean I could talk about overdrive radio for a whole episode, but I won't. But what it did was it gave me just a laser focus. And it was the thing that broke through everything for me because the radio deal happened. Uh we got the show on uh the radio here in uh New England, and then we started the podcast, which to this day is on Apple Podcasts and doing well. And from that, that was the seed that Kane Legacy Studios was born. Now we have multiple IPs and we're growing at a pretty quick rate, but it all started from that one question What's your one thing? Because everything we do with Kane Legacy Studios has that through line of music running through it. And it's still my one thing to this day. Whether I'm writing episodes of Division 13 or Damon or whatever else we're building, it always has that same central theme. Again, I thanked you for this a million times, man, but I do want to thank you for that. I feel like I'm getting choked up because it was that transformative for me. So I really do appreciate that. Asking me that question. It literally changed my life. I know people say that, but thanks for that, man.

SPEAKER_02 26:22

Thanks for that. Um two things kind of came up for me there. First off, uh, I talk about you when it comes to like the audio level of quality of stuff that you do. I don't know if like your ears ring every single time I'm on a call. Because if somebody's doing a podcast, if somebody has a I'm like, you need to talk to my buddy Kurt. Like, I swear he's gonna do things that nobody else on the planet has ever. And by the way, pretty soon you might be uh approached by uh Larry from the Dead Edge to take over his podcast. But anyway, cool.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

I am taking clients, but only by only by referral nowadays, Ricky. So don't send me a hundred million emails.

SPEAKER_03 26:58

I'm not taking on every client.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

New problems, new problems, right? So two things come up. First off, one thing that I've learned, you know, I've I've coached tens of thousands of people and I've teached people how to coach now. And one thing is is when you're working through clarity and working through these things, when you get off a session, if you feel good all the time, you probably need to change up the coach that you're working with. Because coaches who really want to help you are going to get to the root of what's going on in your mind, and that is painful AF. It is difficult to talk about. And one thing that I always want to say, hats off to you, Kurt, is like you're willing to look at it. You're willing to think about and process it. You don't need to have an answer that day, but it's beautiful the things you come back. Like the next day, like every time I've had a question like this for you, the next day I get like 13 voice memos and like, and then this, then this, and then this. And I'm like, yes, because here's the thing, not everybody takes to coaching like you do. Like, I wish we could bottle that up, like they probably saw it at Costco. Because it's like one of those things where it's like people don't take that. They don't take it and they don't run with it. So, so first off, when it comes to coaching, coaching is not a comfortable thing. Sometimes it's an uncomfortable thing, but you know the other person, at least if you're with the right coach, you know the other person just believes in you more than they believe in your excuses. And when you believe in somebody that much, there's nothing that's gonna stop you, right? Yeah. But the second thing, the second thing having to do with like, I'm getting laser focused, right? So I find this so often that people in business try to solve problems that they don't even have right now. Well, they're trying to solve problems for like 13 levels from right now, scaling and how they're gonna hire employees. And that is just what we were talking about at the beginning. Their brain trying to keep them safe. Because if they think all the problems you're gonna have, like, but when we're as big as Amazon, like we're gonna have to figure out this. It's like, we will deal with those problems when they come. You will always have problems. They will also be called opportunities because that's how you can grow. But like, you've got to think about what's like the next problem for you to solve. Not the next problem that your mentor is solving, not the next problem that this other person is solving that's on this. It's like, what is this next step? Right. And I can see it. And that's when I ask you a question like that like, hey, let's get laser focused. Like, what is the one thing? And it was funny because, like, when I saw that, I saw like a weight being lifted off of you. And it wasn't me. Like that answer lived inside of you before I even asked you the question. It's just we were just all over the place, which by the way, I do the same thing. My brain is sometimes all over the place, and I need you to ask me a question too. So it's it's really powerful in that respect to see that we do have the answers inside, but sometimes we need a little bit of help giving us that guidance to make sure that we are focusing on those answers. And then when they come out, it's like, oh man, that was the thing, right? But it's powerful when you can have a relationship like that, which is why I'm like, we need to bring this podcast up because people need to understand what's going on and have a place, an outlet to be able to do that, whether it's even just listening to us to maybe find some of those things inside of them, because they're sitting right now on like a gold mine, right?

Focus First Then Diversify

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Like I know I've used this analogy a lot, but it's like we're just in life climbing through mountains, climbing over mountains, right? We're climbing, we're climbing, we're climbing. And and my mentor used to always say this is like the reason why the mountain right now feels like the hardest ever, because it's the one that you're currently climbing. Like it's always the hardest when you're climbing it. But if you stop and you just turn around and you look at all the mountains that you have climbed, all the things that you've overcome, all the obstacles you've gone through, all the setbacks that you've had, but you've gotten up another time, you get to bring all of those things with you to the next mountain as long as you have somebody who can ask you some questions to remind you that you climbed those mountains before. And this really where the power is, man.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

Bars, that is definitely where the power is. Like I I felt that so deep because you're you're so right. I I I spent so much of my life trying to solve problems I wasn't even having yet.

SPEAKER_03 31:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

That's why I was laughing. You know, I'm trying to predict the future of this. Well, how do I build a multi-million dollar company from DJ? You don't, you don't need to worry about that. You know, now I have multiple IPs, but everything is totally aligned. And I still ask myself that question. I still ask myself, are you still focused on that one thing that you do best? Because yeah, we talk about investing in real estate, we talk about doing all these things, but you can do those things. But that's not what's gonna get you over the finish line. That's not gonna get you unstuck. If anything, trying to do too many things at once, dilute your focus, that's gonna be cause of you getting stuck. I think people take that advice too seriously when they say all millionaires have an average of seven streams of income.

SPEAKER_03 31:48

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

That is true, but they didn't start with seven streams of income.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

They become billionaires by having multiple streams of income. I was talking to some guy who uh just sold his business for 16 million. No way that he could have functioned if he had multiple streams. He had one stream. Now he has multiple, because now he has multiple teams and multiple organizations and stuff like that, but it didn't get him to that 16 million mark. It's like if he had tried to solve that problem in the beginning, he wouldn't have been able to sell for that amount.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

That's right. You know, I think uh yeah, the one stream, the one focus gets you to millionaire status. How you stay a millionaire is diversification. Diversification is a protection thing that's more like, oh, let me put some of this money I've made from Kane Legacy Studios over here into real estate because that's a sound investment. But you start with that one thing that's going to be the thing that you become known for. That is what your brand is. Professionally, your brand is your reputation, is what you are known for. Mark and I can have a million different things that we're involved in. But Mark is known for being a master coach. I am known for being a producer, and that is what we are known for. And that's how I get the referrals from Mark, and he may get the referrals from the show or whatever the case, because that is your professional reputation, your brand.

SPEAKER_02 33:12

Yeah, you're you're the best in the world at producing. I mean, and there's not even in my mind, like somebody says that I need something, I immediately know that because I know you as one thing, right? And if you if people are listening to this right now and you have a mentor, somebody that you look up to, what is that person's one thing? And by the way, it might be like they might be at the level right now where they're talking about multiple things, but they weren't talking about multiple things to get there. Yeah. Um, Gary V, Gary V, he wasn't talking about all of the things he's talking about right now to get there. He was talking about wine. That's how he started, right? Wine. Literally, started up talking about wine, and that is what helped built up his momentum. So now he gets to talk about all these things. Yeah. And if you're starting to talk about all these things in the beginning, like you're not going to be able to be the best of the world at talking about all those things because your reputation, like you said, your brand isn't at that point. It will be, but you have to lean into the thing that you can do better than anybody in the world.

SPEAKER_01 34:06

Yes. And I think that's the central lesson of this episode is clarity comes from focus. So that's related to manifesting without guilt. And definitely pick the one thing that you want to be known for. If you have nothing else, you at least have that mindset because you can develop tactics. But without a strategy, tactics is just busy work and you're just spinning your wheels, you're not going anywhere. I would ask you guys like whatever it is that you're trying to achieve, you want to be rich, you know, you want to be successful, whatever success means to you. It also doesn't have to mean monetary success. But if you want to achieve success in life, ask yourself what it is you want to be known for. Ask yourself what that one thing is. That's what's going to get you there.

SPEAKER_02 34:55

I love that, man. Let's put out a little call to action to everybody. So for everybody who is listening to this, whether you find us on social media, you you send an email to one of us, let us know what that one thing is. If there's a difference between just keeping it in your own mind and declaring to the world, this is my one thing. And it doesn't have to be perfect, it has to be your focus. So share that with us. We'd love to be able to lean in and help you.

SPEAKER_01 35:20

Absolutely. I love what you said there. It doesn't have to be perfect. So many people throw up so many excuses as to why they don't want to start, why they're not open to this, why the and all it is is they're trying to seek perfect conditions before they start. It's like trying to wait till you get warm before you start the fire. You know, you have to be ready to jump in, to be open-minded, and really ask yourself these serious questions. And if you're not willing to ask them of yourself, you're really not going to be willing to hear them from someone else.

SPEAKER_00 35:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:52

I ask myself tough questions all the time. Sometimes I just don't know the right questions to ask myself. That's why a professional coach is so valuable because they know the questions. Good life coaches have those reps and they have those skills. They can sit with you and ask you a question. I don't even think Mark was working that hard that day on he just immediately knew the right question to ask me. And that was because he's done it how many times before?

SPEAKER_02 36:17

Uh, 10,000. But also it's one of the reasons why I think we connect so much is because we we're very like wired similarly. Like when I talk about like me helping people get like unstuck, like that's my main thing. But it's not just people who are not taking action. It's the people who are taking so much action and nothing is changing. That's why I resonate with your story because I'm very similar to that. It's what happened when I went through my autoimmune issues at LAPD. Like I was just throwing more action at everything, thinking that was the solution. And it wasn't. I had to, I had to become somebody different. I had to really think differently, right? And so that's why I think I connect most with you is because that's our response. Our response is let's work harder. Let's put more action here, right? But if you're putting action into the wrong things, it doesn't really go anywhere, right?

SPEAKER_01 37:03

And when you when you're putting more action into that one focus thing, it doesn't feel like the same amount of work. Yeah. It is work. It is work. If we wanted time off, we definitely wouldn't have chosen to be entrepreneurs.

SPEAKER_02 37:19

We would not have. I would have stayed at LAPD, to be honest.

SPEAKER_01 37:22

Yeah. The truth is that once you find that one thing, it doesn't feel like work. You know, I'll forget to eat sometimes because I'm so focused on what I'm building.

SPEAKER_02 37:32

I don't know. Does that happen to you? It happens to me all the time. I looked up right now, we've already been on the podcast for like 45 minutes. I can stand here for another three hours. But but um, yeah, I I can't wait to keep going with this because this is the same thing. Like getting on and having a conversation with you, it just feels like a Tuesday, you know? Yeah. Um, but letting other people like listen to some of these things and having them pull just one thing that connected with them the most. They don't have to listen to every single thing we said, but like connecting to the one thing that called out to them in this episode and then going out and taking action on it, that's really what that looks like. And I love being able to do that for people.

SPEAKER_01 38:06

So okay. So what is your one thing? You say it again. You say you say it so much better than I do.

SPEAKER_02 38:13

So when you listen to this episode, I want you to think about what is your biggest takeaway from this? Like what is calling to you in terms of this is the action that I need to take or this is the way that I need to reframe this, right? And then go out, commit to doing something as a result of it, and take action on it. And we love to hear like how this goes for you. Like so many people listen to a podcast like this and they're like, I have 32 things. And I'm like, no, you're you didn't grab the focus of this episode. Focus on one thing that you can pull from this, take action on it. I promise you're gonna get some results from it.

SPEAKER_01 38:45

That's right. So, yeah, that's the question, right? For the episode. And uh, Mark, how can uh our listeners find you? More information about you and your company.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

Yeah, probably the best place is uh I also have a podcast, Modern Leadership Coaching Podcast, which is um edited and produced by my buddy Kurt. So it sounds completely legit. By the way, if Lux Manifest Podcast sounds better than the Modern Leadership Coaching podcast, we're gonna have a conversation. All right, bro. Right? But no, come find me over there. How about you? How how are people gonna connect with you?

SPEAKER_01 39:18

My website, I have my own personal brand website now. What's up, man? Yes, I do. It's Curtisgray.net. So that's C-U-R-T-I-S gray with an A G-R-A-Y.net. That link will be in the show notes as well. Yeah, reach out to either one of us and let us know what your one thing is. And we'll see you on the next episode. Yeah, man. This is really good. We'll see you guys next time.

SPEAKER_02 39:47

Oh, we didn't record it. No, I'm just kidding.