Welcome to Dare to Dream. This is Debbie Daschinger, and I taught a class today for a popular podcast platform about how to get interviewed.  And it's really important that you control your own story. Then definitely look into the ultimate visibility formula and we've got a new one that's opening up. Go to dibbyd.net, d-e-b-b-i-d.net slash visibility. And you never know where the show's gonna show up. You never know who's listening. I think it's fantastic. I'm gonna be taking a course and flying to the East Coast, Florida. And I'm doing a VRO, right? So I'm looking into this really groovy condo space. And the gentleman that I am working with, literally. Like, I don't even know the guy. We're on a platform where you're supposed to be anonymous. And he says, oh, do you have a podcast? And it's like busted. Yeah, I do. So he knew exactly who I was. Didn't get me a better deal, but he was a really cool dude. And it's kind of like amazing, more than anything to be popping up in places that you don't expect having people know of you. In fact, I had to do something with carbonite because I had an external hard drive go bad. And I'm just gonna, I'm not getting a penny from carbonite, but I'll tell you, their service is worth every penny because their most expensive package I think is 149. And in that, if anything goes wrong with an external hard drive, they literally send you your entire backup in an external hard drive. You do the transfer to a new one, send it back to them, done, ta-da. It is so worth it. I've had to do it twice. Calling the carbonite company like, here I am again, you know, happen again.  Do you have a show that's really inspiring? Do you do very motivational things? I'm like, I suppose you could say that. And he said, well, I think I'm one of the people who subscribes to your YouTube channel at youtube.com slash debbie dashinger. I was like, oh, I'm so glad I was nice to the carbonite man because I want to keep my reputation pure out there. But it really is a very, very small world. So thanks for joining this show. It's been nominated for the Webby Award, two People's Choice podcast awards, and it's available on over 40 syndicated outlets. You can subscribe on Apple podcast, on Google Play, on Spreaker, on BBS Radio, iHeart, Spotify, Pandora, and YouTube, and way, way more. So join us in the show. And when you do leave a review, really matters because people find the reviews, of course, can find the kind of conversation they like. And this is, of course, your number one transformation conversation. This show has been ranked number 200 in all of self-improvement on Apple podcast, as well as the top 10 in South Africa, 20 in Vietnam, 21 in Slovakia, and on and on. I love that people worldwide are hungry for the message, how to dream, how to dream big. And to that end, I really want to talk today about creativity. And I think honestly, it's because of the amazing guest I have later who's Uber creative and has been an actor before, like I've been an actress before. And so the idea of creativity was really popping for me. And I think it's important today more than ever in whatever realm speaks to you for us to live creative, to have expression creative, it's so easy to get so busy that we forget that aspect of us. Is it painting? Is it poetry? Is it art? Is it making jewelry? Is it doing something with nature? There's so many ways to be creative, to sing, to dance, yes? So explore your creative spirit. What is that? What is longing to be expressed? Because as long as we remain open to possibilities that are new, new possibilities, and have a willingness to explore them, we very easily escape these mundane and heavy routines. I think that we can actually enjoy lifelong creativity. And if you're anything like me, it's not static. I've been a singer my whole life that much as so. And there's a few other things I've always been, but things change for me, new interests come along, and I just have to explore them. So I think letting go is really important. And it opens the doors to these new discoveries. And ultimately what it really does is, it enables us to feel really, truly alive. And you know, they say the coolest thing about a kid who's being creative, maybe they're drawing with crayons or something is, they don't know what time it is, right? They're in a zone. It is the most joyful zone. And that's what we get into when we also are creative. Creativity looks like following energy. It looks like allowing opportunities to explore a life. It looks like being free of other people's opinions. And it looks like letting go of artificial boundaries. Cool to have your own badass boundaries, but something that's not yours, let it go. Doesn't belong to you. Being and living creatively is really a very happy thing to do, because the things that make time disappear, oh, it's everything, right?  Today, I was in yoga class earlier this morning, and at the very end, you know, we did some Shavasana, and then we were just sitting in a quiet meditation. And it just came to me. And I love those divine moments, so much going on in life, so fast. And all of a sudden, just this incredible potency came from within reminding me. And I remind you too, you're magnificent. You are so powerful. Like, what is the joke that you're telling yourself about limitation? You are so powerful.  Wah, and operating from that position. So I recommend that through rest and through play, we can each open our creative channel. And what a gift that is to us, to those we love and to the world. It was Plato who said, you can discover more about a person in an hour of play than a year of conversation. This show is sponsored by Dr. Dane here in Access Consciousness. If you're interested in doing some really potent energy work out into the world, if you're into like changing things like that, check out their courses. They are worldwide. They've got books, they've got online programs, and literally in almost every country in the world, you can take a class or become a facilitator of Access Consciousness. Go to Dr. Dane here, H-E-E-R.com or AccessConsciousness.com.  My guest is Michael Neely. He's a mentor. He's a business strategist for visionary solopreneurs. He's a former professional actor and medieval knight. He's an author and a speaker and he hosts several podcasts, namely, Consciously Speaking by This, Not That, Something to Wine About and The PodQuest Show. He's the founder of the Authority Academy and Michael trains and supports heart-centered entrepreneurs in professional speaking, virtual summits getting published and designing and hosting their own podcast to massively grow their business and expand their audience. That's what I'm talking about. Michael is also a mindset master with a gift for helping people to get out of their own way. And if you would like to learn more about him, go to MichaelNeely.com. It's N-E-E-L-E-Y.com. My friend, Michael, welcome to the show. Hey, Debbie, thank you so much for having me here. I'm excited to be a part of what you're up to in the world and sharing this with your tribe. So thank you. Great to talk with you. Oh, my God. Yes, there's so much to explore. You know, I'm so of the mindset of you. I love what you teach. I think it's everything today. I think it's so important to get these media pieces down. So I want to just start there so we can have a better understanding other than your bio, like what you really do and be out in the world, how you help people become an influencer and build their authority. Yeah. You know, it all started for me, Debbie, back in 2015 when I started my podcast, Consciously Speaking. And at that time, I didn't even really know fully what a podcast could be. I barely knew what a podcast was. And when I started it- Had you still been an actor then? Were you an actor? No, I had kind of phased out my acting career when my son was born in LA in 2002. And I decided I didn't really want to raise him in the LA smog. So in 04, I left my acting career, left LA, moved up to Santa Cruz. And, but even then, I floundered for a while. I'm like, well, what am I going to do now that I'm not an actor anymore? And I dabbled. I was in the pharmaceutical industry for a while. I did advertising sales for a while. And then I got into the high-tech startup company world for a bit before I finally landed in podcasting, which was much more a passion for me. That is so interesting. And do you feel like those things you did, which were not you, pharmaceuticals and all of that tech, but still, do you feel like they contributed to you learning how to be the businessman you are today? Oh, absolutely. As a matter of fact, it was in the pharmaceutical industry working there when I started to develop a lot of the concepts for my book, The Art of Forgetting. Really? And yeah, and that really spurred on stuff. Well, one of the key ones that the whole book is about, and I'm sure you can really appreciate this, is that in the pharma world, they do what's known as a double-blind study. And the double-blind means, of course, a blind study means, if I'm, let's just even use like a Coca-Cola test, Coke or Pepsi, you know, I don't get to know which one I'm tasting. Is it Coca-Cola or is it Pepsi? I don't know, it's a blind study. A double-blind study would mean that the person who's administering the test doesn't get to know either. Now think about this in the world of pharma. Well, what does it matter whether the doctor knows if they're giving me a placebo or the real drug? I'm the one taking the drug. However, and this was key for me, was that they proved statistically, significantly proved that the doctor's knowledge of whether you were taking the placebo or the drug or not impacted your results. In other words, when we think about this, if I think you're gonna get better, you actually have a better chance of getting better. Wow, isn't that wild? And so as I really started to look at that, I'm like, oh, wait a minute, this doesn't just occur in the world of pharmaceuticals or taking drugs. This occurs in everything, in our relationships. If we have an expectation of someone to show up a particular way in our life, we've increased the statistics of them showing up that way.  However, statistically it will increase the odds of you showing up the way that I think you're gonna. Isn't that wild? It is wild and I love that because I think that really shows how much is incumbent on a coach. When you have good skills, how you can really up level your clients or not. Oh yeah. And so then common myths about influencers and authority. What are some of the myths that we don't know, but we may be living under? Yeah, I think one of the things that people still kind of, I don't know how much of a myth this is, but you know, when you look at the word authority, okay, when someone is an authority on a subject, well, the word author is right there, okay? And you probably heard the expression, well, yeah, so-and-so, they wrote the book on that topic or whatever. That was because back in the day when books were really the only way to publish and disseminate your wisdom and information, that was where this terminology came about, becoming an authority, right, in the book on something. Well, nowadays in this modern age, book reading is dropped. People are consuming their content via a lot of different ways. YouTube channels, podcasts, and blogging, and other methods. And so that's why I think podcasting is such a key because it is a way of authoring your material and building that. And so I guess the myth around it would be that someone thinks that they have to have the book. No, you don't. There are other ways to really get your influence and authority out there. It's interesting influence and authority because one of the ways that people become an authority is to have their own podcast. And there's 760,000 podcasts right now, 3,000 new ones every week, which is kind of striking statistics. On top of it though, there's 80% pod fade. It's a real thing, right? People jump into our business and say, ah, this would be great, another leg of visibility. And they don't realize all the pieces that go into, which makes me realize how important you are to teach people so they can get there easily and with grace. But most people don't realize how much work it is and they end up abandoning their own show. So tell me about you because here you are with four shows and at least one or two kitties. Oh my God, that's so cute. So you have to watch us on YouTube to see his beautiful cat. Oh, so maybe she could give us the answer. He could give us the answer, but I wanna know, have you found ways to make money, make it a business to have a podcast and be a host? Yeah, and as a matter of fact, I teach seven different ways to monetize a podcast. And I think it's so important as you're starting and embarking on this adventure, you mentioned the whole pod fade statistics there Debbie, it's really incredible. I think the last stat I heard was that something like 93% of shows don't even make it past seven episodes. And that really blew me away. I'm like, what? It's crazy. And so I think the big reason is that people start a podcast saying, you know, well, I know this topic, I'm just gonna talk about this. But what they don't get is how do you monetize that? Because getting in there, you said, this is well, it's work. You know, after a while, I mean, you're having to be consistent and create new flowing content and you've gotta post it. And there are some expenses involved, not a lot. It's easy in that realm, but it's still it's an ongoing thing. And if you have not figured out how you're gonna monetize that, people get burned out and their shows fade. So can I pry one money making tip out of you that might be a surprise for people to learn? Yeah, actually, and it's real funny because you've been on my show for this as well. And that is on the something to whine about show. And, you know, I grew up learning that a penny saved was a penny earned. And so one of the ways that you can make money from a podcast is through freebies, getting stuff for free and writing off on your taxes. And so as an example in the world of wine because I love wine as you know and something to whine about WINE, with that show when I go to wine country, I don't pay for tastings anywhere because I'm considered industry. So I just go in with my car to say, here's my car and I host a wine podcast. And even a lot of the time we'll interview the people right there in the room as part of the show but I taste for free. So that alone saves me, you know, potentially even just in one weekend could save me a couple hundred bucks. And then in addition, because I'm considered industry, I'll typically get a 30% discount on wines. So that is a way to monetize really what you're doing that you may not have otherwise thought about or writing it off too. So I make a trip to wine country, I buy a bunch of wine, I write that off as research for the show and efforts for the production. So it's a, and by the way, I'm not a CPA, so I've played one on TV, but this is not accounting advice, but I write off so much of what I do. And when you say your card or industry, do you meet a Somalia card or what kind of card? It is my business card for my show. As a matter of fact, I think I have one right here. I can just pop up for those people who are looking, but this is my something to wine about business card for my podcast. I love it, the wine. And so I just show, yeah, I've got a podcast. Here's my card and boom, and it just goes from there and I never pay for tastings anymore. That's brilliant, oh my God. And then here's a cool one that you are familiar with now as well because of having had the Rhythmia experience. So with my show consciously speaking, I went down to Rhythmia on a media agreement and was able to have a whole week of this luxurious retreat experience for free. And so that alone, that's a $6,000 value right there. Right, and the thing is, it's almost amazing to wrap your brain around the ripple when that pebble goes. So there's Michael and he's the pebble. We're releasing Michael into the pond of let's say Rhythmia in this case and the ripples go out. Michael tells me last year, he's going to Rhythmia and I think you're going what? You're gonna take what? And I was so straight about it. And then two months later, of course, if he hadn't of said it, I never would have known, right? And he followed up and was saying how amazing the trip was and I was like, oh, that's really interesting but something got ahold of me. And two months later, I can't stop thinking about Rhythmia, I have to go. And as you guys know now, I've interviewed five of them on the show and I would actually like to do another series with them, they were amazing interviews. So if you wanna go back through the archives, listen and just know it actually before me, the grandfather was Michael. It wouldn't have happened without him. So the interesting thing is even with these trades and monetizing of your podcast, your influence for sure struck me. I have now struck so many people around the same subject and just think Michael, every time you talk about it on a podcast, even if you went for free or trade, who are you influencing out there? Whose life are you changing? Yeah, yeah, very true Debbie. Thank you for mentioning that because it is one of those elements that we don't often think about is the ripple effect. And I know when I created Consciously Speaking, that was part of my intention was to wake people up and then how it evolved into me teaching podcasting was that more and more people then were asking me, well, how did you do this? How did you create your authority and all this? And I thought, well, you know what?  And so that's why I like to keep rippling out. That's beautiful. And so seven different ways. So we've heard two here and they're good ways. So I think any industry you're in, if you're gonna do podcasting, just go see Michael so you could do it quickly and easily, of course. And that leads me to wanna open up even though the show will be evergreen and it will be out there forevermore. I know you do your event at least once a year. So why don't you tell people about that so they know that's available? Yeah, so actually I'm doing it now twice a year because of the popularity of it. And I've just recently changed the name. It's now called Podcast Live, podcast based on my new podcast, which is all about podcasting. And it's a three day intensive training where you will learn all of the ways to monetize a podcast. You'll learn the ease of getting a show out there. You'll learn launch strategies that will help you to become more discoverable and build a growing audience of people that you don't yet know. And another key element of it as well though Debbie is that beyond getting the show launched is how do you grow it? How do you grow the audience? And so we'll have 10 podcast professionals there. Hopefully you'll be one of those who will be able to share your wisdom with the people attending as well. So they're also gonna get that wisdom and then also get booked on a lot of these shows because even as much as podcasting is growing and we talked about this on my episode recently where I interviewed you is that, yes it is really on a big grow but still only about 25% of Americans are listening right now. That leaves a lot still for us to grow into but at the same time it's easier to find a new podcast listener for your show from someone who's already listening to podcasts. And so getting on these other shows could be really helpful for people to expand and grow their influence and network as well. Oh, powerful. So this is the year of creating big dreams. People wanna do a podcast, can come to you and create that big dream. And it is a big dream but this is literally numerology, everything, the year of creating big dreams. And boy have people had things coming up to get out of the way in order to go after their dream. It's been interesting. And I know that one of the things that you are really amazing at is a mindset. How we can look at what stops us or what can create that flow. So can you talk a little bit about what creates a mindset in order to achieve the kind of things we can conceive? Yeah, I really appreciate that question Debbie because it's one of the things that we really don't get about our own inner programming but we actually have, imagine our mind is this computer bank and we've got these recordings playing in the background that are actually our belief systems. And sometimes they're playing just low level deep, what do they call that in the computer world? That's like your operating structure underneath that you hardly ever notice but it's there running the show. And a lot of times those are the things that stop us, those little beliefs that say, well, who are you to be doing this?  You may have heard of the tall poppy syndrome thing where the tall poppies, they get cut off.  And these are stories that we have running us that sabotage our success frequently. And we for one, often don't have any awareness of it. And so part of it is almost like doing an archeological dig to find out what are these elements that are stopping me and then to dismantle those. And that's where I did a lot of work with my book, The Art of Forgetting because it's about, typically these are stories that we've started to believe based on facts, certain elements that happened, but then we made up all the story around them. And so the Art of Forgetting is about how do we erase the part of the story that was fiction, stick to the facts, and then how do we rewrite a story that actually supports us? And so that's a lot of the work that I do in helping people get beyond their mindset blocks. How can we? I think it's pretty easy to detach from one's life, right? If you just look at it sort of like a movie or a script and you go, okay, that's really interesting. I see, I'm gonna just use relationships but it could be any example. I keep getting into a relationship where a year, 10 years down the road, I end up feeling abandoned and rejected even if it started out like the greatest thing on the planet. But somehow there's that ultimate disappointment betrayal. Okay, so if we're replicating over and over, it's a groove and a record. We're reliving something, some kind of original core wound trauma. Understanding it is one thing, but how do you actually excavate it so that you could even pull out the roots and the threads and everything and never have to revisit that experience again? Yeah, yeah, boy, that is the challenge there, isn't it? Million dollar question. Yeah, for me, and it's interesting that you use relationship as an example, I mean, I had that story running for me. I got into a string of relationships where my girlfriend cheated on me. And this first started like in high school. I'm 17 years old and a junior in high school when this first experience of this happened and then it happened again, my freshman year of college and then it happened again in my first marriage. And what happened is the fact is my girlfriend did this thing, whatever it was. And in the first case it was, she told me she was not feeling well, I took her home, I went out with some friends, she showed up there with another guy, same place. Yeah, but that's 17, it's high school life. But those were the facts, but the story I made up about it was multi-layered and I didn't even realize this until later, but I made up a story that I wasn't lovable and then an even deeper underlying one was that women cheat. And I didn't make it up necessarily in that first time, but by the third time this happened, then this story is starting to get solidified as fact. And when I realized that years later and had to dismantle it, this was basically to answer your question there, I really had to look at, okay, well, what were the facts and what was the story that I made up? And then as I replayed the story over and over in my mind, I realized that's just made up. The part that I'm not lovable or that women cheat, that's all made up. There's no real fact that supported that. These were instances. And by the way, the other thing that I had to look at was what's the common denominator in all these relationships? Me, and that's why then I had to start looking over here for why was I recreating that? And so once I dismantled that story, then I've been in great relationships ever since. I haven't been in a relationship where a woman's cheated on me since then. So you dismantled, that's big. It's so big. And I love how you separate. These are the facts. And then there's the story I built around the facts that start getting really solid, right? So that's fantastic. So what was the method that you used to extricate yourself to say, no, no more. I'm unearthing this. So this doesn't even have to be a thought form anymore. Yeah, yeah. What I did was I actually wrote it out as though it were a script of my life. Every instance, like the details of what happened from the first time I got cheated on, then I remember, oh, and then this time I got cheated on. I wrote out all the details. And I mean, literally like almost reliving it. And then as I wrote it all out, then I went back through with a highlighter and I highlighted all the part that was just the fact. And then I could see all the rest, how much of the bulk of this was story. And through doing this and then reading it over and over again and playing with it, it just almost became laughable to the point where I'm literally going, oh my God, look at this stuff I made up. And once I let go of that, then it was like, oh, it was literally, it was like a weight lifted that I could go, wow, what a crazy story I've written here. And knowing that, of course, and I've done a lot of other personal work to really help me to reclaim my power, the power that I am the author of my life. Well, then I'm going, okay, if I'm gonna erase all of the made up crap, what else could I write if I were to rewrite this story? I could be like, hey, this person just opened up space for me to move on to a better relationship. And actually, and by the way, when you do this, you will find facts to support it. You know, it's like, whatever we believe, we will find the facts to support it, we'll find the evidence. And so when I rewrote it to like, this opened me up for a better relationship, boom, the facts are right there. I was like, oh, wow, yeah, I did get in a better relationship after that.  Yeah, so I have a feeling a lot of people needed to hear that example. And that story, thank you. Yeah, you're very welcome. That's really great. Highlighting just the facts. I'm thinking of like a redacted document. Right, exactly. I mean, if it was the reverse, if I just blacked out all the other stuff that was story, there would be like three lines and this whole page, it would be legible. Yeah, oh, how empowering. Well, we're gonna come back with more with Michael and we'll be talking more about podcasting and some other realms of healing and we'll go a little deeper with Michael. So for now, for those of you who have been writing and thank you for those of you who have even joined in the past, you know, I love my clients so much. Ultimate Visibility Formula is starting up again. Go to debbyd.net slash visibility. I also have an amazing video there for you that teaches you how to be interviewed on radio podcast media and you can do it in just a couple of weeks, get your entire system down and become your own publicist. You don't have to know where the shows are. You don't have to have any prior knowledge. I handle all of that, you get templates, you find out there's like a 37 page list of shows and contacts and your media kit, your pitch letter, your speaking points, how to be very confident and what to do, what if you should freeze? We've got an antidote for everything because we've all been there at some point but you can actually create amazing interviews on media and start getting great results, filling workshops, selling books, launching your product, getting your message out there and becoming very viral about who you are and what you do. You should be known in your field as the go-to expert and this is the way how. Go to debbyd.net slash visibility. And if you're just tuning in, welcome. This is Debbie Daschinger on Dare to Dream. I'm interviewing Michael Neely. And if you'd like to find out more about Michael or doing your own podcast or one of his events, go to michaelneely.com, it's N-E-E-L-E-Y.com. So I'm gonna foray a little bit into something we mentioned earlier when you were talking about ways you monetize your podcast and one of them you were talking about media trades and you brought up Rhythmia. So I would like to just open this conversation. It's really so prevalent right now, but psychedelics, consciousness, places and spaces I know you've been in and I'm certainly fascinated that they can create really new and powerful possibilities. So talk about you can go as deep in your experience or not, but just like start to open up that conversation about the positive impact that psychedelics and consciousness can have on mindfulness and our everyday being. Yeah, beautiful. I love this topic, Debbie. And it's really cool that we have this shared experience of the ayahuasca medicine journeys as well. And one of the really interesting things for me was I first started to look into the psychedelic experience of what I call medicine journeys because you're using a substance that we can call it a medicine and I call it medicine specifically in this case because it is about healing. It is about a spiritual healing journey. And so my first experience with it was actually with MDMA and in a controlled setting. And if you're familiar with anything at all about doing these types of medicines for a specific purpose, let's say, you know, that's all about set and setting. It's not about doing MDMA, it's some rave or anything. And for those who don't know MDMA, it's ecstasy that you do it in a set and setting. And in my particular case, it's with a guide who is sitting there with you. You don't do this at night. I would do it at 10 in the morning on a weekend. And it's just me doing it, nobody else. And then the guide who is there is there to support you in the process and to help you to go deeper into your experience and into your exploration of our inner world. And what's interesting too, and I say inner world, and even as I said that I go, but yes, but it's also the outer world because in going in, you also feel more connected to the universe. And so my first experiences were with MDMA and then later I did some work with ayahuasca even before going to Rhythmia. I had had a couple of ayahuasca medicine journeys. And Rhythmia was really cool for me because it was four days straight of doing the medicine, which was just, I mean, there were just so many, I mean, we could do episode upon episode about it. You know, you've been through it each night having its own energy of the young woman, the young man, then the father, the mother. I mean, it's just that process also was super helpful and just with the shamanic guides there, it was really an incredible experience. And do you feel like since you began this kind of exploration, can you see a market difference in who you are and how you are? Absolutely. And even though I was answering that, I realized as well that it's probably more than just the medicine journeys. It's probably a combination because I've done so much spiritual work both with the medicine and without. And when I'm talking about that, I'm talking about things like, you know, doing ontological studies like landmark education or studying with someone like David Data or gang Katie Hendricks who've been mentors of mine. So I've done so much of this personal work or Tony Robbins even. All of this work in accumulative effect on me has really kind of brought me to the point where my girlfriend says this about me all the time. She's like, you are so grounding for me. And I think it's because I just, I'm not deluded by the mask of the world as much as I once was, if that makes any sense. And I think it probably will to you. You know, and I feel like what you just said of what Sage, your girlfriend said to you is actually so important. This is like the third time I'm hearing this. So I know the universe is like wink, wink, nudge, nudge because that is a huge compliment. I just had, oh, you know, Mona, my best friend, Sidiki was saying how her boyfriend, how he calms her nervous system down. And somebody else was saying the same thing about her boyfriend, just like what that means. And I'm realizing as I'm listening to this and now it's you, that's huge.  I'm a big, you know, I know what I am in human design. I know what I am in the cards of destiny.   And I think to have someone be, talk about being an influencer, that's a beautiful influence to be, to be a grounder, to be a calmer, to have a worldview that has a realistic and, you know, calm and flow to it. So I think when she says this to you, that's pretty big. That's a great compliment. Yeah, and I take it as such because it hasn't always been this way for me. It's been a journey to get here. And it's important for me to just, that's part of my practice, part of my meditation, you know, as I, and I'm a Buddhist practitioner, I'm a certified Dharma teacher and meditation guide, and all of that as part of that practice is to be here now. And yeah, I just get really real with what the world is and what I, and my experience in it. I'm fascinated too by the MDMA. I've also done exploration there and I like it very much.  So she utilizes it to help patients with amazing results. I listened to all her stories and she was talking about the man who created MDMA and when he created it, he made it very clear that this was a heart opener, that this drug was for empathy. And somebody said, well, why didn't you call it empathy? And he said, you tell me, what would sell? Ecstasy or empathy? Right. So he named it ecstasy and here we are. But I know like, you know, MDMA, the FDA is about to approve it for therapy. It's this close, I mean like a hair close. And I became so enamored with the studies that MAPS is doing and years ago, I was trying desperately to get into their studies as a potential volunteer client, but I didn't have, I think they were really looking for people who've been through war and PTSD that they would work with, but the turnaround, the rate at which people, often in one session, as you're saying with a guide or a therapist, the chain, it's so riveting that the FDA has taken notice and said, okay, we're gonna legitimize this. Yeah, one, and it's really sad that a whole lot of what went wrong, let's call it, in the world of psychedelics, what that happened in the 60s was that we, as a country, our leadership, created this whole war on drugs. And what they did in order to back this war, and by the way, it's not uncommon to other stuff that we're doing today, but through propaganda, they demonized these medicines, which had great value and did not have the harming side effects that they were claiming that scared everybody the hell out of them. So there's so much that just happened there that really made it tough, and now we're maybe a little bit more open-minded and we're going, hey, wait a minute, these things are actually really, really helpful. And so we've come in full circle and really getting back on board with them, I think it's great. Yeah, I was a victim of that as well, because I remember, once upon a time, Oprah did a whole series on MDMA, and she had, this is years and years ago, but she had doctors on, and they were showing you brain scans, and this is before ecstasy and after ecstasy, and look how much of the brain was eaten, and I'm like, oh my God, it eats the brain. You know, this is terrible stuff. It took me so long. I mean, I really just had a, you know, you get to places and spaces when you're ready for it, but it influenced me as well, but I can tell you having done it, I agree, I think it's great equalizer. And so what about you? Like what, you've shared some of your personal journey and it's been really fascinating. What kind of personal hurdles have you had to personally overcome? What has been in your way or what was in your way that you took on as a project or as pain as a great motivator to say, I think I'm not gonna do this anymore? And how are you now? I feel pretty good now, and I also just have to say that I have not had a ton of trauma in my life. Like there are a lot of people I know who've had it much worse than me. So, you know, in comparison, I guess you could call my issues first world problems.  But one thing that I can say that is the value of doing this type of work is the more subtle things that we don't even realize are there. And what I mean by that is that, you know, the bigger issues, if you've got childhood trauma from maybe you were molested by an uncle or a neighbor or whatever, that, you know, could really cause some serious trauma, but you probably have an awareness of it. There are a lot of other things that we don't even have any inkling that are underlying the surface there that cause issues for us. And as an example for one of mine that I got to break through at Rhythmia was grief over my mother's passing. And I realized in one night on the medicine that I hadn't fully experienced all of my grief because, and she's been dead for three years, but I was grieving the whole sadness around the process of our relationship over years, the fact that I was, you know, one of the children who went away to college. And every time I broke my mom's heart, you know, when I would leave to go to college and she would be there crying. And I did not grasp this as a young man, you know, 18, 19 years old, this element of our relationship. And I never really felt my full feelings and sadness about that. And so with the medicine, I was able to process so much of this and really feel my full feeling around all of it. We're often going so fast that we gloss over something that is begging to be healed and hitting the pause button on the remote control of our life to do a Rhythmia, to take ourselves out long enough to be still and notice and feel is a game changer. And I'm so grateful for you letting us in like that.  And were you able to forgive yourself and recognize, you know, as much as that paradigm was happening that the real, the onus really wasn't on you, although clearly very sad for you both to separate. Yeah, and with the medicine there, you know, Mother Ayahuasca showed me some wonderful things and I got to be cradled in my mother's arms. Again, and it was just very powerful. And she's always with me and that was the other thing too is that she's still with me and always will be. That's so beautiful. And you're from Missouri originally, is this correct? Yeah. Jackson, is it Jackson, Missouri? Jacksonville. No, Jefferson City, Missouri. Jefferson City, I knew it was a J. Oh, thank you for your beautiful heart and your sensitivity, Michael. Thank you. You really are. So, and yeah, this is what's possible. I just wanna say, you know, and I had my own deeply moving, life-altering experiences. And no matter what my intentions were, I was so surprised at some of the things that happened. And I was told even directions, which I know enough not to question. I was told them so many times because they didn't want me to forget or pretend I hadn't heard. And I'm actually making them all come true. You know, I'm very much going to be looking at my own healing abilities. And I have lived a life where my circle of friends, close and also extensive, are all brilliant, powerful, powerful exquisite healers. I've just always accepted that's the conversation that's my life, how am I so lucky? And I thrive, right? And I feel like they get as much from me in different ways. But, and I knew I had my own gifts. I've always known I'm clear sentient, I'm clear cognizant. But I was being shown something quite different, way deeper. And it's like, no, you're actually one of them. You're one of those people you love so much in our friends with, but it's time. And I'm like, wow. You know, and there was a lot of resistance for a while. I don't want to explore and I love what I do. And that's silly, that's total head trash because the truth is, I don't know. I could learn that and incorporate it. I could learn that and it could just be something I do for myself and my friends. I could learn that and have a whole life change and go around the world and heal people. I could go live in a jungle. I don't know. But if I don't start the process and the journey, I will never know. And my soul will never be happy. And I got to tell you I spent a weekend with URLs just sitting there and clicking one after another, shaman class, energy medicine. I signed up. I am so booked this year. I'm traveling so much. And the feeling I got the moment I did it was relief. I am so excited for this year, following my path. So we don't know what's gonna open up or be healed or looked at when we are willing to take this trip and this journey in life. I love that. I'm excited for your journey. And I want to definitely follow along. So you got to keep me posted as to what's happening. I promise, I will. I will and I hope you'll join me at some point. Yeah, I'm sure I will. Maybe even with me again. But certainly, yeah. I mean, it's a beautiful time to be exploring the light right now and that excites me. And so I want to switch back a little bit to the media part, the authority part and the podcasters because one of the things if you teach people these seven genius ways, I already love the two we learn, but if you teach people how they can make a living, doing a show and how they can make their show bigger, right? You were talking about the audience. It's super important if you don't have a listener and a big listener that wants to take action, you don't really have a show. You don't have something viable. So what are the mistakes that podcasters make? Like you see these patterns of what people do that you just wish you could step in and say, excuse me, stop doing X, Y and Z and your life will change. What is that? Gosh, there are so many that I see. It's really kind of funny. Let me see if I can nail one of the biggest ones. I think a big challenge that podcasters face, especially the newbies is they look at their show only from the perspective of their end, like what they want to talk about and then they're talking at somebody. And I think a podcast needs to be much more intimate than that. It needs to be more of a conversation. And so what a lot of podcasters don't do is they don't engage their audience. They don't put stuff out there for the audience to be able to engage back. One of those ways, of course, is to make some form of an offer of some type of a gift that you can then get somebody's email and then you can start to communicate via email as well and share more of your messaging directly and people can correspond. And so I think that's a big piece that is missed. And probably the other one is that, and this is just a silly one, but it kind of piggybacks on that a little bit, is that I see a lot of podcasters go, hey you all, what's going on out there with all of you and all this? And it's like they're talking to an auditorium and people aren't listening in an auditorium. They're listening through headsets usually or they're in their car. It's usually just one person and they forget that. I'm like, just talk to one person like you're talking to a friend. So those are the things that are cool on your show having been on your show that I thought were really interesting and I'd like to know how they work out for you. So for instance, you do a contest. I thought that was so fun, like a word of the day. Talk about that. Yeah, so I call that our PQ token, podcast token. It's a word or phrase in each episode. And then when people play the podcast rewards program, it's to kind of incentivize people to listen more and pay attention. And so they collect those words and then within the rewards program, they can sign in and then they can enter those words and they actually it's, you know how a lot of these prizes are entered to win and then it's a drawing. This isn't like that. This is literally trade those words in and get a prize. And so everybody can win and it's pretty fun game and we're just exploring how to build it up and make it even more fun as we go. And what kind of swag are you giving away? It'll be a variety of stuff, but probably on the high end, I mean, I'll even be giving away my $1,000 podcast training course is one of the high end prizes. There'll be other stuff like a microphone, you know, someone, so there are some physical like prizes like that as well, an HDR 2100 microphone and some other stuff. So yeah, it's a variety. That's good for a word. I know, I know. And then you also have, I know you had me make a 20 minute blurb about your show, but also about my show. I thought that was really cool and kind. And it actually made me realize, Michael, how many opportunities I've missed. I mean, I generally have pretty big names on this show. I have a lot of celebrities and I realized, and I've thought about it before, but I've never harnessed my attention long enough. But for it to have them, after we end the show, just do a recording and say, you know, hey, fill in the blank. I'm having Sean Stone, come on, Oliver Stone's son. You know, he's got a TV show and his own podcast and he's on Gaia and he's, the guy's all over the place. He's amazing. He's really brilliant. He's been on before. And so let's say when Sean and I are done, I say, hey, hang out for 30 minutes and just do a plug for the show. This is Sean Stone, you know, watch Dare to Dream, listen to Dare to Dream, da-da-da, whatever you want to say. I could run all of those, just the celeb ones. And I think that would go over really well. Yeah, I agree. And you mean you've got bigger celebrities than me on your show? Yeah, but- I don't think so. Just as big. Just as big, huh? You're at the zenith. Right. So we'll have Michael Neely do a plug because I think that's a really nice idea. It's also, I like because I've got a background of music. What I appreciate about how you do your show is you break up the musicality. It's not one note all the time. There's these different pieces. So the show really flows, it goes fast, it's easy to listen to.   So anyway, for people who want to do a podcast, I would recommend also listen to Michael's show because you'll hear, you know, you can pick and choose. You don't have to replicate what he's doing, but find ways to make what you do yours and unique and fun for the audience. Yeah, thank you, I appreciate that. Especially coming from a season to podcast host like yourself, that's awesome. Right, yeah, well, it's really easy to appreciate a good show. So we're gonna take a very quick break and we'll be back with our final thoughts with Michael Neely. And I'll tell you again, if you wanna find out more about him, go to michaelneely.com n as a Nancy, E-E-L-E-Y.com And here on this show, Dare to Dream, Transformation Conversation, I really do feature very successful guests, amazing leaders out in the world who have created big dreams, who are living La Vida Loca. And they are actually, didn't just dream it, but they knew they wouldn't fail. And if they even thought they would fail, they still did it anyway. So what would it take for you to be like that, to live really bold and free and go after what it is that bubbles up in your belly? You can become part of the Dare to Dream podcast. We love having you be part of this conversation. And you can help the show by donating a dollar or more. Go to patreon.com slash dare to dream. I post the shows there and consider supporting this show if you appreciate the program and enjoy the insights that are offered here to help you fulfill your big purpose or just entertain the heck out of you.  Help us out at patreon.com slash dare to dream. And I'm back now with Michael Neely. And Michael, this is Dare to Dream. So of all the amazingness you've created and are being today, what are you next Dare to Dream? What are your future dreams and goals? That's a great question. Partially because I was having this conversation with someone just the other day. If I were to die tomorrow, I feel like I've lived a pretty fulfilling life. Now have I left this big legacy or anything? No. And my son is only 17 and I definitely don't want to go.  But I think for me to have any like bigger dream that I want to do before I go, I would love to wake up more of the planet basically. And I feel like I can leave some legacy around that. I feel like in my work with my show consciously speaking, it's geared towards that, but also in helping other people get their message out to the world. People who have a heartfelt, that's why I say I work with visionary entrepreneurs. Not people who are just all about the money, but more about what can I do to impact the planet for good? And so that's kind of what I would like to do is help to launch more of those types of shows and help people spread the message in the mail. Let's wake up. We're all inhabiting our home. Our home is a little blue dot flying through space at thousands, millions of miles per hour, however fast we're flying through space. And it's our only home. Let's take care of it. And let's all treat it like the home and we're all brothers and sisters on the same house. And my final question, I would love to know what do you do every day, Michael? What is your daily practice or ritual that allows you to be grounded like the compliment you received and operate from your best self? Yeah.  I actually meditate throughout the day. I meditate when I'm doing dishes.  And that's a meditation for me because I'm focused on just quieting the mind and tuning into what I'm doing. And then often the next part of my routine is I'll pick up my guitar and I'll play a few songs and just have that relaxed music feeling starting my day. And those are just a couple of the cool things I think just helped me to stay grounded and realize, hey, we're passing through in a very short little bit of time and let's enjoy ourselves while we're here. I have enjoyed you so much. Thank you, Michael, for coming on and sharing your brilliance today. Thank you, Debbie. It's such a pleasure. I'm so excited to be a part of your show and I love what you're up to in the world and I'm thrilled to see where you take it to the next level. So keep me posted. I will, I promise, I promise. And for those of you who have so enjoyed this show, I'm gonna end with this quote from Tara Brock, which is, there is something wonderfully bold and liberating about saying yes to our entire imperfect and messy life. Join us in the upcoming interviews. You will wanna subscribe, so this comes right into your inbox. Dare to Dream podcast, weekly number one transformation conversation and upcoming will be James Redfield, Paul Selleig and her third time on the show, so excited, Dr. Sue Morter. You can subscribe, as I said, and if you're listening to the podcast but want to watch myself and Michael and see what we look like, his cat, anything, right? And it's so worth it. I think the animation, I've had people come back and say, you know, you recommended I go to your YouTube channel, you're right. Makes a big difference to see. So go to youtube.com slash Debbie Daschinger. Thank you for joining us today on Dare to Dream and remember the secret of success is having the courage to begin in the first place.