Redefining Wealth and Tapping Into Universal Abundance with Mark Yegge

If you’re open and flexible and willing to get out of your own way, quit thinking, right? If you’re going to think about anything, think about your thinking. Don’t think about the result of your thing. Think about your thinking and how you think and why you think and step back and quit thinking. And let things unfold as they should.

And I think that’s going to, there’s a lot of answers in that when it comes to leadership, when it comes to managing, when it comes to people and organizations. Because so many times we try to just think our way through things and we don’t have all the answers. So maybe, maybe open yourself up to tapping into some of the answers that are out there already in the universe.

 

Carolyn: So today we are going to be talking to Mark Yegge and Mark calls himself the wealth architect. We’re going to dig into what that means and what he has done with his life in terms of wealth. how it has expanded. I’m really curious to learn about some of the principles that he has brought into his, his mastermind some of the work that he’s done to really expand this notion of what wealth means.

This is going to be the last podcast for 2023. And I think it’s a beautiful setup for heading into next year, 2024. I hope you enjoy our conversation. I’m really looking forward to it. We’ll see on the other side.

 

Carolyn: Hello, Evolve listeners and viewers. I’m Carolyn Swera, your host of Evolve, A New Era of Leadership. And today’s guest is Mark Yegge. Welcome, Mark.

Mark: Thank you, Carolyn. Great to be here.

Carolyn: It is. It’s great to have you on the show, and I know that you’re coming to us from a completely different time zone. You’ve got a beautiful background there.

So, you know, thank you for making the time. And. I was really intrigued. Here’s why I wanted to bring you on the show, this title of wealth architect. And, you know, I think people might think a few things when they hear wealth architect, but what I really appreciated about you, Mark, and what I’d love to talk about is really how expansive that word wealth can mean.

Mark: Yeah. Well, thanks. First of all, for having me. Great to be here. Yeah, you know, wealth architect is the title that I take very seriously, and I also take it in a lot of fun because that’s what my life is about is trying to, but wealth is more than money, right? Most people think you hear wealth and you think about, I got to be rich, you know, I’m going to have a Lamborghini and I got to have a Gucci Transcribed Huge house and all this stuff, especially in this day an age of, you know, tick tock and Instagram and everybody just being really flashy.

And so everybody thinks that’s what wealth means, but to me and to the people that, you know, are close to me, wealth means way more than that. I call it balanced abundance and balanced abundance is you have wealth in all the areas of your life. You have wealth in your health. You have wealth in your financial, you know, garden of your life.

You have wealth in your relationships, your spirituality, your travel, you have wealth in your freedom. And to me, that’s what wealth is all about is really, you know, creating, you know, more than just money. Money does help. There’s no question. Money makes the other ones work pretty well, 

but it’s, if, if, you don’t, and if you don’t have money, It’s not like you’re not wealthy, it’s just that you’re wealthy in a different way, potentially.

So that to me is, is what wealth is. So I try to help people architect a full holistic life around wealth. Balanced abundance is a, is a better way to look at it as well.

Carolyn: Yeah. Well, I, and, and let’s talk a little bit, like how you started, I know you have a very successful sort of business or businesses and was that sort of like your first entree into wealth, like more from a financial piece? Cause as you said, that makes all the other pieces easier. So I’m, I’m curious how this path kind of unfolded for you.

Mark: Yeah absolutely. I’m, I’m not a, I’m not unlike everybody else, right? Who’s probably listening and I’m a victim of programming that we have in our society, our culture, our education system. I’m a victim of programming from my parents and my educators and friends and, and the environment. And we’re all victims of that because we get bombarded every single day with tons and tons of messages on what to buy and how to spend and how to consume.

So that’s what I thought wealth was in the beginning as well. I used to watch this show called Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.

Carolyn: remember that.

Mark: You remember that one? 

And it was this this annoying guy named Robin Leach. And he had this really annoying voice. And he talked like this and and I was like, I didn’t care what he said, but I watched the show because I thought through the show that I was programming my unconscious mind to seek out these things that the wealthy people had.

People like, you know, way back then were, you know, Donald Trump and, gosh, you know, all the, I don’t even remember anymore the wealthy people back in the eighties, but I was following them. Right? And I was looking to see what they were building in their lives, and I was seeing what kind of stuff they had.

And so that was my programming. And so that was. And I’ve probably read 8, 000 personal development books in my life. And on that track, you know, tons of them have been, you know, evolving around and sort of revolving around wealth and how to make money and how to do this and how to, how to be financially successful and you know, how to invest in all these kinds of things.

But once I got to a level where I kind of looked around and I said, okay, I got all this stuff that all these other people had that I wanted to have. I kind of felt a bit empty 

and, you know, I didn’t have the people around me that I wanted to have around me. It was a little bit shallow. I didn’t have the experiences and the freedom that I wanted.

I had all the stuff. I had the really nice, you know, fast cars and I had an airplane and I had a house on the water in Florida. I had all the stuff, but I didn’t have that inner feeling that I was going for. 

And 

Carolyn: and Mark, sorry. And so like you, you hit that level of success. It sounds like pretty early in your life and, and that you didn’t really get like overwhelmed or consumed by it or let it define you. 

Was there some, I just would love to go back to that Mark in time were there certain things that you were Grounded in or like, what do you think kind of allowed you to not get lost in all of that material success?

Mark: well, I did get lost in it a little bit. You know, I did, I did, you know, I was, I remember one day getting off an airplane from a business trip and and it was the, it was, I was heading to the airport or something like that. It was, it was something like this and I was. I had my car left at the airport.

It was a really nice sports car, BMW. And I was like, wow, my life is great. I’m in a BMW driving to the airport to go fly my plane. I, you know, it’s like feeling really full of myself and in investing. And I’m a, I’m a hedge fund manager. Whenever you feel that bit of lack of humility, I guess I’ll call it.

That’s when you are at the top of the mountain and you’ll start falling down. And I’ve had that experience several times in my life where I was like, God, I can’t get any better than this life is great. Wow. And there is a point where you do need to celebrate and appreciate, but those weren’t the points.

And so those were the realizations where I was like, well, there’s, there’s got to be more. But yes, at that point, I was feeling like I had achieved what I wanted to achieve. I retired when I was 39 years old the first time. And, and I thought, well, that that’s great. But then I started to realize that there was way more depth to life.

And you know what? Everybody told me that on the way up, all the books that I read said, you know, there’s more to life than money. And I was like, yeah, sure, whatever. But once you got to that spot where you’re like, okay, I’ve achieved all the things that were, that I set out to achieve on my goals. Wait a minute.

They’re right. There is more to life. And so that’s where the real exploration and the depth and the questions began and, and and the search.

Carolyn: And so if you know, the people that are listening to this show wouldn’t necessarily be driving jets or driving, well, probably nice cars, but maybe not have their jets or something, but definitely this what’s the word I’d say, like stuck on the wheel of achieving and being ambitious and trying to get more, any sort of insight or a specific story from your life to help them maybe. Pull out of that tunnel vision or release themselves from the need to achieve in a material way.

Mark: Yeah. I mean, there’s, there’s a lot of things that I could talk about on that. But the first thing that comes to mind is the need to, to be still. 

And we rarely take the time to just be still even when we’re still and I find myself doing this, you know, I throw on the radio, I throw on a YouTube video or I throw on something to distract my mind or a podcast or whatever.

And there’s just sometimes that you need to kind of light a candle and put on some really soothing music and just be still and and allow your brain to. Focus on that. And I’ll go back to my left brain, my Western brain, and in the hedge fund world, there’s a guy named Ray Dalio, who’s probably one of the most successful hedge fund managers ever.

And he’s retired just in the last couple of years. But what he says is the number one key to his success is meditation. And I kept getting slapped around with this message of meditation. And I finally, you know, went and took some Deepak Chopra, you know, things and went to his events and started really focusing on, on that inner work and the inner meditations and the stillness.

And I recognize there’s a lot of power in discovering who you are in 

stillness. 

Carolyn: And, and

when you say stillness, do you mean physical stillness or mental stillness or both?

Mark: Yeah, I mean, it could be both for sure. But for me, it’s just, it’s doing what I just said. It’s, it’s sitting you know, staring at a little candle flame and just thinking, right? And you, you’d be surprised at how many ideas come up when you’re in this, like, Flow state where you don’t have to be thinking and whether it’s a meditative process or whether you’re in the shower.

You know how many people tell me that they have these great ideas in the shower? I don’t know if you do, but I do too. You know why that happens? I have a theory if you 

Carolyn: What’s your theory? 

Mark: It’s because water creates a frequency that allows your brain to kind of settle into kind of a theta frequency where you’re, you’re feeling really creative.

And and the same thing happens like when you’re on a walk, you get wind through your ears and you get, you get a rhythm going and those frequencies kind of drop you into states where you can feel more comfortable and you can’t feel more still and you can’t feel more aware. And then, you know, there’s something bigger than we are.

Right. I’ve been studying a lot of quantum physics lately and, and, and there’s something bigger than we are. And, and, and one of the stories I’ll tell you, and this is totally, but I was just thinking about it just before our call. And that was you know, I used to date somebody who she was a veterinarian

Carolyn: Hmm.

Mark: and she told me whenever they were about to put a dog to sleep, all the other barking dogs and cats and the animals in the, in the clinic.

When they were putting the dog to sleep, when the dog died, they would all be really quiet. Even if the dog was in the other room, they all knew,

Carolyn: knew. Wow.

Mark: right? So that’s proof to me. And there’s lots of other proof, but that one is really tangible proof that there’s an energy around us that we just need to tap into.

And there’s a lot of answers in that energy.

Carolyn: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I want to come back to the, the water. I, I agree. I think there is something about water that, that helps sort of elevate our frequency. I also find my greatest ideas come between 3 and 5 in the morning,

you know, that like half asleep, half awake. And I don’t know if that’s a theta state when I’m coming.

I don’t, I don’t know,

but a delta. Yeah. Like finding those moments and appreciating them. And I found the same thing for me is it. Like hustle, hustle, hustle. It became a game. It was like, Oh my gosh, how much more can I get done? And I can do this and I can do this. And I really, really got addicted to it. It was like, I guess a dopamine high. I don’t know what it was. But so lost in that quest to do more. So I really appreciate what you shared there, Mark around, around the stillness.

1. Where should we go from here? Were you going to take us to a certain place or did you have, I know I kind of cut

you off 

when 

Mark: want 

Carolyn: telling the story. Well, I cut you off. I felt kind of bad, but I wanted to dig into that a little bit.

 Well, why don’t we talk about some of the the other like abundance that you’ve talked about and how like you started to slow down and pause or find more stillness and where that led you beyond the monetary wealth.

Mark: I would say the next step there is is, so I, I have a mastermind group that I’ll, I’ll introduce you 

to 

here and it’s called light circle and light circle takes six fundamental principles and kind of brings them together. It’s you know, well, it’s the concept is around three things. It’s expert education.

So I believe that we have an education system that is flawed in our, in our culture now. And we have, we think, Okay. A better way to educate called hyper learning, and it’s basically learning from all of the experts at a much more rapid pace. And then there’s there’s an ecosystem, right? And that’s what I’ll talk about next.

And the third one is empowerment, and that’s mindset. But the ecosystem is really critical. So we start with magical self connections, one of our foundational principles. And I just talked about why that’s so important, because if you can’t love yourself. At a deep level, it’s going to be really hard for other people to love you or you to love other people at a deep level.

So you’ve got to really fall in love with who you are and the uniqueness and the wonderness, the wonderment that you have in your, in your own life. But then it’s other people around you. So you shift from a me state to a we state. And to me, that’s real abundance is when you can share, you know, how you see a really good movie and then you tell somebody about it and you want to share it with them and you’ll even go watch it with them again or you’ll go in the water and you’ll be like, come on in.

It’s great. Like we have this need for community in our lives and we’re not, we’re not solo creatures. And so when you can share magic moments, I call the magic moments in your life. with somebody else, it makes them even more magical, right? Because very rarely do we sit around and just look at pictures with ourselves by ourselves, but we like to share our pictures.

We like to share things. That’s why there’s share buttons on all the social media. So to me, that’s where the abundance state goes next. It’s like, okay, great. I’ve got all this stuff, or I’ve got all these things that I wanted. Who do I share these things with? And you know, what’s really important is. Is in sharing and having an ecosystem around you to support you to encourage you to give you tough love when you need it, we lose the element of celebration 

and I think it’s so hard sometimes for us to like achieve all this stuff or get something that we’ve wanted and turn to somebody next to us that may not be in the same situation that we are and we mute ourselves.

We’re like, I can’t really tell that person that because They’re not where I am. I’ll make them feel bad or they’ll, or if I do tell them, they’ll be, yeah, easy for you, mister. Right? You, you got lucky. And so who is it that we’re really resonating with around us? We have to have that empowering environment around us, that ecosystem, that community.

So relationships are where it goes next. Carolyn. That’s what I think

Carolyn: Yeah. Wow. And I know now you have a few other principles, but let’s kind of dig into self connection and, and peer relationships. And I know, I know, Mark, you’re trained in the Dale Carnegie leadership work as well. Correct?

Mark: I am. Yeah, I’m actually a Dale Carnegie instructor.

Carolyn: There you go. So, in that work. I’m going to guess, I haven’t done it, but I’m going to guess there’s content in there about knowing who you are and getting connected with that.

What are some of the things that can help people get to know themselves? Again, I’ll take me as an example. I thought I knew who I was but I was really Very focused on doing, doing and getting things done and really not able to connect, not able to find like any connection with myself, let alone a magical self connection. 

But what are some of the things that maybe come through the Dale Carnegie work or, or your own work with your, your mastermind to help stimulate this magical self connection.

Mark: Well, through through Dale Carnegie and through some of the other things, I mean, Dale Carnegie wrote a book called how to win friends and influence people. So it was quite outwardly focused. And so I go back to that community thing where you’re sharing and he gives you some incredible techniques, 30 of them actually principles on how to share.

How to live your life at a higher level how to stop worrying and start living, which is the title of another book that he wrote. And really, a lot of that is, you know, treat other people like you want, you want to be treated. Remember that the other person’s name is to that person. The most important sound in any language 

smile. Some of these outward things that we take for granted, but we’re never really taught them. So, yeah. You know, we teach those principles, but it’s really again, going back to to trying to find out who you are. And a lot of people just live their whole life and never find out who they are. And we have to really kind of ask some questions because if you think about the journey, the human journey, we are born into.

A set of parents that we have no control over and they do the best they can with the resources they have at the time. And then we’re, we’re bombarded by information and we’re like little human sponges where we’re absorbing that information and that’s all programming. And so by the time we’re five years old, 10 years old, 15, 20 years old, we have a direction in life.

We’ve, we’ve gotten our values set by the environment. We’ve, we’ve had some input in that along the way. We’ve, we’ve got our. Our choices in life that we think we’re going to go for by the time we’re 20 years old. They’re probably flawed. Like I know mine were all this program that we didn’t have any choice or very little choice in choosing, especially when we were under 8.

And so, but that’s our programming. We don’t we never sit back and go. Was that the programming that I really wanted? Do I really want to be the person that wants to be a lawyer? Like, that’s what my mom wanted, right? My dad wanted me to be a doctor. Do I really want to be a doctor? Like, I like drawing. I like doing this and that.

And so we have to kind of sit back and say, Alright, which is the program that we want to keep? And which are the programs that we want to remove and replace with better programming for ourselves that we finally get to choose? That’s an important prospect and get it in there, you know.

Carolyn: I never thought of it that way. I never thought of it that way. It’s sort of shifting out of like an unconscious or sort of victim mentality into more of a, a leader of your own sort of destiny.

Mark: I’ve studied a lot of hypnosis and NLP, NLP being Neuro Linguistic Programming. And all that means is the way you talk to yourself and the way the environment, the way you interact with the environment. And and a lot of that you can do yourself. This is, this is work that you can do. You can also have tools and mentors and coaches that can help you through it.

But the point is to actually sit down and think about who you are and what you really want to be and not just live into somebody else’s fantasy of you on an unconscious level like you.

Carolyn: Right. So in terms of like sitting down and thinking who you really are, is that something that can take, does it take a lot of time? So if you know people are listening and they, you know, maybe have younger kids or, or parents or other family members they’re caring for, sometimes that stuff can seem a little bit out of reach.

What, what suggestions do you have for that, that person who might be asking that question in their head right

Mark: Yeah, yeah. Well, you know what? My answer is going to be because the answer is the typical answer that all eastern philosophers give. And it’s from a western perspective. And people go, I just don’t have time to meditate. 

And the question is, if you don’t have time to meditate, meditate for 55 minutes. You need to meditate for an hour, right?

And so that’s an interesting perspective. It’s like, well, we really need it. So listen, standing in the shower for five minutes is meditation. Sitting in a hot tub for five minutes is meditation. Doing one minute is better than doing zero minutes. And I have so many people that go, Oh, I’ve tried it. Cause then I meditate a couple of times a day and they’re like, Oh, I’ve tried to do it, but I can’t, my mind just goes all over the place.

Yeah. That’s the point. 

Like you’re, that’s what your mind is built to do. 

Your job is to do it for 30 seconds, a minute at a time, and start to understand that there is a little window in there where things can kind of quiet down. And if you access that on a regular basis, your brain goes, Oh, it’s time to quiet down.

Carolyn: Exactly. Exactly. And I even, I was talking to someone the other day and they tell their clients or they talk to their clients about even washing dishes, right? Having,

having the water come onto your hands and that sort of like recognizing and feeling that. And it’s funny cause my, my family, my kids and my husband will laugh at me for the past several years.

They’re like, why do you love to do dishes? And I would get really angry. I’m like, I don’t love to do dishes. But now I’m realizing it was, it was a time to go into this, like, just sort of be present state. And, and I’d never really had thought of it that way.

Mark: Yeah. I was I was having dinner with my cousin last night and I was like, can we go do our, do your dishes? And my other cousin said the same thing. She’s like, no, I do my dishes in the morning. It’s my morning ritual. I connect with myself and I’m like, whoop, I get it. I get it. And 

that’s funny that you said the same 

Carolyn: It is. Well, it’s this whole, like doing the dishes versus like being with the dishes. And again, I can’t believe I’m saying that like several years ago. I’d be like, that is just out there, Carolyn. But we, it’s so important that we find these little moments to meditate, be present.

Choose whatever word I know for a while meditation didn’t really resonate with me because I didn’t feel I was good enough to, to be using that big word I would use still or, or, or presencing. So that’s a big piece of this. 

Mark, what else could you suggest to people to help them form this, what you call magical self connection,

Mark: Well, to me, it’s about growing as well. And so if you’re constantly filling your mind with things that are moving you forward, positive, empowering things, that’s where the self connection also starts to come is that you’re not stuck where you are. There’s always something else that you can learn, especially today, right?

If you want to learn how to wire a electrical panel, you can go to YouTube and figure it out. You don’t have to be a victim of, you know, when the electrician is going to come over, you can kind of figure that and figure that out. And I’ve done that. Wired a lot of panels in my life now. And at first it’s a daunting task, like anything like playing golf for the first time, or, you know, bowling for the first time or whatever.

It’s all daunting. Cause it’s all new, but the life that we live is, is all experienced. At the highest levels when we’re growing at the edges of our comfort zone, because that’s the edges where we start to learn and push and stress our neuroplasticity in our brain so that we can figure out how to learn and become better.

And when you learn to become better in one side of the circle, the whole circle expands. So all the other parts of your life expand as well. So I really believe in, you know, pushing your brain, pushing your soul to move to a different level by, you know, by learning.

Carolyn: right? And what are some, what are some ways that you’ve seen people in your mastermind push their learning,

Mark: Well, a lot of it is through through the events that we have. I also am a big believer in travel, which is another one of our foundational principles of Light Circle because I’m constantly learning when I’m traveling. Yesterday I was Showing some people, you know, the translate app and how that can, I can go to Thailand and have a conversation using the translate app without having to learn the language.

Now I want to learn some light, some of the language, but boy, there’s some, you know, I don’t even read those, those characters they have nor understand their language, but I can still get by. So I can learn about their culture and they are wonderful people in that culture.

Carolyn: Yeah.

Mark: So just things like that.

Carolyn: Yeah. Well, and I also, I find travel within your own environment, like even in your own community and looking at things and traveling to different areas. It doesn’t need to be world. Obviously world travel is nice, but again, if that’s not accessible for everybody, taking a new lens on the community that you live in.

You know, I remember when my boys were little, we go for walks through the forest and, and, you know, just all the things you can discover there.

Mark: Yeah, absolutely. And almost every place that we live, especially if we’re in the Western Hemisphere has some incredible accessible things that you can utilize to enhance that environment.

Carolyn: Yeah. 

So can you tell us a little bit more than about light circle? I know you’ve kind of touched on it here, you know, here and there, but sort of like a full, a more fulsome explanation of, of this group, this light circle,

Mark: Well, thanks for asking. Yeah. So, so I’ll give you a little history. I’ve. I ever since I went to I went to a Tony Robbins event at his house in in Fiji, like, I don’t know, 20 years ago or something like that. And I, and I never felt any better in my life than when I left that event. Part of it was because there was a, a cleanse going on.

Part of it was because there was a fast going on. Part of it was ’cause the people and the learning and where I was, it was just an a, just an awe-inspiring kind of an event for me. But when I left, I’m like, I wanna feel like this all the time. And so I started on a quest of putting people together and I’ve started several mastermind groups throughout the last 20 years for that purpose.

And to me, Light Circle is the culmination of all of that. It’s the best one. I think it’s, it’s the most holistic one. It’s not one that just focuses on money, but it focuses on six principles, including profound spirituality, magical self connection, which I mentioned, youthful health. And then 

Carolyn: balanced abundance.

Mark: yes, balance abundance, which I mentioned 

also 

Carolyn: about, yep.

Mark: and, and so, and, and then, and then that travel and when you put all that together, that for me, at least in my life makes a really cool life and I’ve seen it in other people I’ve gone to Mexico and I made it a point to have a videographer, be it do a closeup on people’s eyes that walked into the place in Mexico that we had, we had this multimillion dollar place in Mexico overlooking the, The crashing waves in Cabo San Lucas and some of these people were it not for the mastermind group that I’d set up would never have been have even thought of going to the place like this or that it was even within their grasp, but we made it within their grasp and we made it, you know, point to zoom in on their face so we could capture that first moment of when they walked into that place and said, wow, I’ve been able to create this in my life.

And so I want to help people create that in their lives in many different ways, not just by walking into some really nice place, but by having their eyes open in a lot of different ways in their life. That a lot of things that they thought weren’t possible are all within their grasp if they just learn how to take advantage of it.

Carolyn: And so that’s what your program, that Mastermind does, sort of takes them through that. And it sounds like kind of peel layers off, I’m guessing, so you can sort of start to, to vision, kind of get out of your shell or out of your own prison.

Mark: It’s a lot of that. It’s, it’s it’s a community of community, like I mentioned, of people that are like minded, that are all kind of moving in the same direction that are there to celebrate with you. But I want to just back up to that. Expert education part that we, we stress so much. That’s really the crux of what we do is we’re always focusing on learning things.

And so what we do is here’s the way I look at it. We imagine somebody like Robert Kiyosaki. He’s one of the authors that we focus on and we focus on many, but Robert Kiyosaki might have worked 40 or 50 years in his life. And wrote a book that probably took him two years. We get to take that book and take the best practices out of that book.

He wrote a book called rich dad, poor dad, about 20 years ago, and take the best practices of this man’s life and study it and put it into practice in our lives. That’s a pretty cool gift. 

And so that’s 50 years of a person’s life. We do that 50 times a year We do that once a week where we’re gonna you know, we delve into those books those best practices those experts And at the end of the year, you’ve got 2, 500 years of experience and expert training You don’t get that in a university you get four or five classes a semester.

You get them pretty deep If you go to class and take your notes and, you know, memorize all the things that you’re supposed to memorize, and then you get tested on them, and then you forget them, and then are they even the things that you really need to focus on? Because I don’t use the Pythagorean theorem anymore.

I don’t use isosceles triangles and algebra and Romeo and Juliet and Copernicus. I don’t use that stuff in my life. I use negotiation. I use how to manage my money. I use how to have human communication. Those are the things that we teach, those things that are basically electives in our lives now that really should be mandatory when Copernicus and Romeo and Juliet and the Peg and Ethereum, those should be the electives.

’cause we don’t use ’em every day. So we focus on education and that’s a big thing. And then we also put it into practice. I use a lot of the things that Dale Carnegie talked about and that is. Learning employing it in your life and then reporting on it, going back and telling people how you did it. And that drives thing and things into your subconscious and your and your unconscious mind at a deeper level, cellular level in a way that you never forget.

So that’s what we do at light circle. And it’s, it’s something that you know, it’s, it’s a little hard to describe, but it’s family. It’s education. It’s, it’s community. And then it’s empowering with mindset because we believe in having a positive, empowering mindset.

Carolyn: Let’s talk a little bit about profound spirituality.

so I want to come back to just to sort of ground this. I used to do some work with the Human Performance Institute years ago. It was based Tony Schwartz Jim Lohr. I don’t think Tony is involved with the HPI, but I know he did some work with Jim Lohr. I’m pretty sure he did. And there was a methodology that we taught that talked about different types of energy, physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual.

And that’s where I was really I really learned about these four quadrants and basically to have a fulfilling purpose led life, you really had to focus on those four quadrants. And what we would, what we would share with people is, you know, the foundation is physical. If you don’t have physical health or physical connection. It’s really hard to be spiritual. Emotional was the next one learning how you know, about your emotions, how to stay with them versus, you know, numbing or unhooking from them. Then there was mental and then there was spiritual. And to have the most transformative life, you work From the spiritual place. So I’d love to hear, you know, if there’s anything about your journey that you would like to share that helped you unlock that piece and sort of come from that place versus, you know, the place that we were talking about earlier, you know, when you were younger and sort of more wealth placed.

Mark: Let’s see here. I’ll admit something a few years ago. I run a hedge fund, right? And I was coming off this and I alluded to it earlier. I was coming off this period like it was a five year period where I was just absolutely killing it with 44 percent and 77 percent and 130 percent returns. And then I had a, a minus 6 percent return.

I can remember it was like, like it was yesterday. So I was like, wow, I’m, I’m, I’m doing really well. Like I’m, I’m good. And people were giving me money and everything was great. And then I had a really lousy year. and this was a real challenge for me because I’m normally a positive, everything is perfect kind of guy and everything in life is great.

And all of a sudden, you know, because I was managing my friends and family’s money. And my, I realized that my identity was tied to my performance because I had a bad year and all of a sudden I couldn’t sleep and my blood pressure went up and I’m starting to have some health problems. I’m like, what the heck is going on around here?

And it’s, it’s, you know, kept me awake at night. and so I, then I had to kind of sit back and be spiritual about it. I couldn’t, I couldn’t find the answers unless I was, In a spiritual place. And the answer started to come. And that was, you’re tying your identity to your performance. You have to separate those things.

And I thought, wow, if I’m doing this, how many other people are doing this? They tie their performance at work. They didn’t get the raise. They didn’t get the, promotion or they failed in a project or they got fired and all of a sudden they feel worthless. And for me, being able to, draw on the spiritual components which are really my own and everybody has their own.

But to me, it’s like knowing that there’s something there’s a bigger picture. There’s always a lesson, believe having certain empowering beliefs like. You know, this is really, this is really something I’m going to look back on and have all this wisdom about, even though right now it feels like crap, right?

And so I went through it knowing that on the other side of it, there were lots of lessons and here I am talking about it on your podcast, right? So that’s, I know. One of the, one of the things that was supposed to happen. And so that’s just my belief of, of how, you know, things happen in life. Because if you, if, if you don’t get the downside of things in life, the duality, you don’t get to appreciate the up things in life.

And you know what, in our Western society, and I mentioned earlier, the celebration, we don’t celebrate, we set a goal and we go, okay, cool. All right, check. What’s my next big goal. 2 million a 

year. Right? Check. And we don’t take the time to celebrate it and let ourselves and our body. No, we worked really hard for that.

We worked, you know, we, we set our goal. We achieved something that was amazing and magical. And it wasn’t just us doing it. 

Carolyn: Right. 

Mark: we have to tell ourselves that it’s okay to celebrate. It’s okay to stop and take a breath and, and understand that there’s other forces like those, like those dogs. There’s other energy out there that’s helping.

And I really 

believe that. 

Carolyn: I think there’s a really strong connection between the magical self connection and the profound spirituality that, that you have in your circle. Because it’s really hard to get connected to something bigger than yourself if you’re not connected to yourself. And that’s, I think, where maybe some of the, spiritual gurus or spiritual people who claim to be spiritual have kind of done a bit of a bypass. So,

I, I think that that’s, I think that’s just helpful to me that that’s, that’s been a really helpful connection is, I mean, I’ve, I’ve had this desire to be more spiritual and again, something bigger than myself.

I’ve always believed that, but it’s felt inaccessible for a long time.

Mark: and we all, I think we all innately know that. Something is bigger than we are running all this stuff or creating all this stuff or whatever. And it may just be time that did it, but something created the time, blah, blah, whatever, however, however you want to believe you want to believe in a God.

If you want to believe in a deity, if you want to believe in an energy, it doesn’t matter, but there’s something bigger. 

And so I think we have to recognize that, you know, I went to a talk. Several years ago in Estonia, and it was by this Italian physicist named Nassim Harriman. And I was, I’d seen some stuff on the, on the internet about him, and I started listening to his talk.

Now I listened to four hours of this quantum physics guy talking, you know, with an Italian accent. He was really funny, but, and easy to listen to, but, but it was like, some of the stuff was just way over my head, but I’ll save you the four hours. And people were mesmerized, but I’ll save you the 4 hours.

The 4 hours were he, first of all, he proved Einstein’s theory of relativity out like another 38 decimal places. So he’s, he’s on that level of mathematician. And then he did mathematically prove. That every single cell, every atom, every, uh, I guess atom has the imprint or the proton of every other proton in the universe.

So he basically was saying everything is connected, whether it’s the grain of sand on the beach, or the piece of dust on the moon, or the light beam coming out of the sun, or your eyeball, or your heart. Everything is connected and everything has an imprint of every other piece of energy in the universe.

And whether you can believe it or not, it’s really makes you think, because I can tell you there are things that have happened in my life. Simple things. Like I was thinking of somebody in the phone rang deeper things. That I can’t explain. And that’s one of our axioms is like, don’t worry. You’re not going to be able to explain everything in your life, but if you can just be open to even thinking about that, that is a part of spirituality to me.

That is like, wow, there is, if we are connected that way, then maybe there is something that’s bigger than we are. That’s, that’s better than we are, but, but it’s going in the right direction. You know?

Carolyn: Yeah. Well, and again, there’s a connection there. To the meditation practices. I’m thinking of a a CEO years ago that I worked with and I happened to be on the same flight as he, he was, we were going to a meeting and we met at the carousel and I was, I was younger. And I can’t remember how this came up, but he said to me this notion, he didn’t use the word spiritual, but definitely the importance of connecting into something bigger.

And he said, and this was like back in the nineties or early two thousands how important meditation was and sort of connecting to something bigger. And I was blown away. I thought that’s a little bit woo over somebody

who’s, you know, running this like big million, multimillion dollar international company. And so I think there’s a, I hope that there is some inspiration here for the listeners, wherever they are. Again, they might not be running a multi million dollar company, but they’re, they’re doing something that is bringing purpose into the world. And, and that’s usually through an organization.

 And so, Mark, any advice or suggestions beyond what we’ve talked about? Around this spirituality piece around this being connected to something bigger and how that can impact their leadership.

Mark: think so. I think it’s first of all, be open and flexible to understanding that you don’t have all the answers. And so if you’re open and flexible and willing to get out of your own way, quit thinking, right? If you’re going to think about anything, think about your thinking. Don’t think about the result of your thing.

Think about your thinking and how you think and why you think and step back and quit thinking and let things unfold as they should. And I think that’s going to, there’s a lot of answers in that when it comes to leadership, when it comes to managing, when it comes to people and organizations, because so many times we try to just think our way through things and we don’t have all the answers.

So maybe, maybe open yourself up to tapping into some of the answers that are out there already in the universe.

Carolyn: Yeah. Yeah. I love it. I love it. 

Mark, where could our audience find out more about you? We’ll include these links in the show notes, but what, can you just tell us where, where they can find you?

Mark: Well, sure, you can find out about lightcircle, at lightcircle. org. We’re having an event, you know, which kind of, it’s, it’s our kickoff kind of an event for January. You know how so many people talk about, I’m going to lose 10 pounds this year, and then January comes, and then by February 1st, they quit going to the gym, and they start eating cake again.

Well, that happens to everybody, including me. And so, I started to design a process. That holistically allows you to set your goal. So we, we created an event. It’s an online two day workshop called your greatest year and it’s, you know, got, we got some great speakers there that are going to take you through the different areas of your life, your health, your relationships, things like that.

And and you’ll walk away with a playbook. For your entire 2024. And I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody really do that. It’s usually, I’m going to set goals for 10 minutes, but if you’re intentional with setting your goals over a two day workshop, you’re probably going to get some results. So we’ve got a, we’ve got a thing that we’re putting together called your greatest year.

You can go to lightcircle. org forward slash. Your greatest year all in lower caps, lower, lower case, and you can find out about it. It’s 197 right now and we’d love to have you because I think if you just sit down and you’re intentional with your life, you can really make some serious changes and you can make 2024 your greatest year 

for 

Carolyn: Yeah. Well, we’ll make sure that that is in the show notes and what are the dates again in

January? 

Mark: thanks. Yeah. January 13th and 14th for five hours each day. I know it sounds like a lot, but isn’t your 2024 worth 10 hours, you know?

Carolyn: Exactly. 10 hours compared to how many, I can’t do the math that fast. However many hours in the rest of the year.

Mark: A lot. 

Carolyn: Well, Mark before we wrap up, I always ask our, our guests or my guests, cause there’s just me three questions. And I know we’ve sort of tapped into the concept of these but I want to get a little bit more specific in my questions for you.

Is that good?

Mark: Let’s do it.

Carolyn: All right. 

So my first question is around self awareness. Can you share a specific time where your self awareness just elevated to a new level.

Mark: it was when I was in, I think it was 3rd or 4th grade and I was getting beat up a lot. I was getting bullied and it’s probably because I was a wise guy. And and I turned to my dad’s bookshelf and I didn’t even know what. Personal development was, and I saw a book that was this old yellow tattered book called how to win friends and influence people.

And I started reading it and at the end it had these, I never forget it. It had these little things called in a nutshell, and it would take the Dale Carnegie principles and it would write them out. And so I got this old Smith Corona typewriter and cause we didn’t really have a copy machine at that time when I was that age and I typed out all these.

Things onto a typewriter and I printed them and I put them in my wallet. I carried with them with me to school. My life totally changed. So that was when I think I really understood that I had some control over some things that were happening in my life. And it was because of personal development. I’ve been on that track ever since.

So I think that’s, that’s, that’s probably my first answer to your question.

Carolyn: Yeah. Thank you. It’s amazing. Books on shelves. I’ve got a bajillion books around here. My kids can pick up books anywhere they go.

So second question a ritual or practice that you really turn to to help you stay calm or return to a regulated state or stay in a regulated state.

Mark: Well, I alluded to it earlier, but I do, I do create my own meditations. Around different things that I’m focusing on in my life, they’re, they’re just guided meditations that take me through a forest or on a cruise or getting on an airplane, just different little meditations that kind of keep my mind from wandering that monkey mind that we have, and we do the meditation.

So that’s my ritual. It’s a different kind of either guided or unguided meditations, but. Something usually in that realm combined with some breath work.

Carolyn: Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. 

And then last but not least this one is, as we were talking about being connected to something bigger than ourselves, I find music is a beautiful way to do that. And I was at a concert last night, which is not uncommon. I go to concerts several times throughout the year. What is a favorite song or genre of music that helps you feel connected to something bigger than yourself?

Mark: Well, I write a lot of music. I’ve been doing that for a long time. And one of my greatest inspirations in writing music is Yanni who writes a lot of new, who has written a lot of new age music. That’s my kind of stuff. It’s melodic. It’s got some electronics in it. It’s if you listen to it at a, in, you know, in high fidelity.

It’s actually really amazing stuff. So that’s, that’s my genre of music. And, and I, I, I do enjoy it 

Carolyn: You know, I’ve, I’ve asked, I mean, we’ve had several guests. I think we’re almost up to 50 episodes now, and I have not had a repeat answer

anytime. So no one has said Yachty yet. Well, Mark, thank you so much for coming on our show today. I really appreciate it. And I hope our audience. I’m sure they have taken some nuggets and I hope y’all have a look at that program that Mark’s offering in the new year, 13th and 14th.

I’m checking that out on my calendar, Mark. See if I could make it there as well.

Mark: Great. 

Carolyn: Yeah. 

Mark: so much for having me. It was a lot of fun.

Carolyn: All right. And thanks to all of you who are listening. If you liked this episode, if you didn’t like this episode, let us know. And as always, please rate, review, subscribe, share with your friends. And we really appreciate your support.

Have a 

great day.

 Oh, I had so much fun talking with Mark. He’s got such energy. It just seeps out of him. It’s it’s contagious. And I’m so glad that I had him on the show. And I’ll be honest when I first read the title, when it came through on my email, I thought, Oh, wealth architect. Like how did that land in my inbox?

That’s not what we’re about here on this podcast. But admittedly, I was thinking of wealth in only monetary terms. And what I really appreciated in this conversation with Mark is really helping me expand. My beliefs about what wealth is and my, that sort of initial reaction, you know, I learned from Mark really about the importance of abundance and wealth can include abundance on so many levels.

So many levels now, Mark is our last guest for the 2023. Year. I hope you give a look at that program, that offering that he has in the early new year on January 13th and 14th. What a way to set up 2024. Maybe I’ll see you there. Maybe I won’t. But I hope you’ve enjoyed this season of evolve. It was our first season and I’m really, really excited for.

Next year, we’ve got a whole bunch more guests lined up and thank you for being on this journey this year with us. It’s been, it’s been a wonderful, insightful, and really, really grateful that you have been part of it. With me this year, please, if you can like, and subscribe to the show follow us on whatever podcast platform that you choose to use.

And here’s to a wonderful holiday season. I’m wishing you all just health and happiness. Hopefully you have some time to wind down, maybe spend some time by yourself, maybe with family or friends, but whatever the holidays holiday season looks like for you. I wish you. All the best and again, so grateful for all the support that you’ve given the show this year.

Take care.