E139 - Lewis Howes: The Secret to Unlocking Real Abundance (It’s Not What You Think)

Lewis Howes delves into the concept of prosperity, exploring the deeper meanings behind real abundance. He emphasizes that gratitude and generosity serve as powerful gateways to a more fulfilling life, while also addressing the importance of transcending a scarcity mindset. He encourages us to discover our unique definitions of a rich life, alongside practical strategies for investing in ourselves and our futures. The episode also highlights the significance of planting seeds for a brighter tomorrow and cultivating the skills necessary for success. Andrés Book Recs: https://www.knowthyself.one/books ___________ 0:00 Intro 1:06 What It Mean to Prosper 5:00 Gratitude and Generosity as a Gateway to Abundance 12:03 Transcending Scarcity Mindset 15:30 Balancing Boundaries and Generosity 19:02 Giving Through Charity & Service 29:35 Finding Your Version of a Rich Life 44:00 Best Ways to Invest In Yourself & Your Future 52:03 Planting Seeds for a Brighter Future 58:13 Cultivating the Skills to Succeed 1:04:32 The Mastermind Habit: Making Meaningful Connections 1:09:42 When to Say “No” to Money 1:14:03 The Biggest Money Blocks 1:28:42 Making Money as a Spiritual Person 1:35:35 Mastering Your Money Mindset 1:40:00 Detachment & Holding It All Loosely 1:43:57 Conclusion ___________ Episode Resources: https://www.instagram.com/lewishowes/ New Book: https://a.co/d/1CSfKaK https://www.youtube.com/@lewishowes https://www.instagram.com/andreduqum/ https://www.instagram.com/knowthyself/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ4wglCWTJeWQC0exBalgKg https://www.knowthyself.one Listen to the show: Spotify: https://spoti.fi/4bZMq9l Apple: https://apple.co/4iATICX

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Your relationship with money is one of the most powerful relationships you have. Gratitude and generosity is the gateway to abundance. The biggest blocks of abundance is people's money wounds. Our beliefs influence our behaviors. How we think and feel influences the way we act and react to certain things in life. And a lot of our beliefs are just shaped by our story around what we heard, saw, or learned growing up. I think everyone should ask themselves, what is a definition of a rich life? And what does abundance look like for them? What does wealth look like for them? I've asked this to a lot of wealthy individuals. Like, what do you think is the secret to earning and making more financially? And also feeling good? And they always say, the best skills you can cultivate are the things you're most afraid of. You gain a superpower when you overcome a fear and you develop a skill around it.

• 0:45Speaker 00

  And I think the goal is to figure out, how can we be peaceful, harmonious, and feel whole? No matter where we are financially.

• 1:00André Duqum?

  Louis, my man, welcome back.

• 1:02Speaker 00

  Thanks for having me, man.

• 1:03André Duqum?

  Yeah, it's my pleasure. What does it mean and what does it look like for you? What does it feel like to live a rich, prosperous, and abundant life?

• 1:12Speaker 00

  Wholeness, peace, and abundance. The feeling of abundance. I think a lot of times in my life, I didn't feel like I was living a prosperous life because I felt wounded. I felt scarce, I felt insecure, I felt like I was doubting myself. And those doubts made me feel like I was living in scarcity versus living in an abundance of possibilities, of freedom, of peace. And so, for me, the rich life is living a peaceful, abundant life.

• 1:47André Duqum?

  It's so important to define what that is for us, right? Because we're fed with so many notions of what it means to be rich or wealthy, but... We all have a different psychological makeup and what's going to make us uniquely fulfilled. And so how important do you feel like that question from a why perspective is to ask?

• 2:03Speaker 00

  I think everyone should ask themselves, what is a definition of a rich life? And what does abundance look like for them? What does wealth look like for them? If you'd have asked me when I was in my twenties, I'd have been like, have a millions of dollars in the bank and being able to do whatever I want, whenever I want. And that's an element maybe to feeling rich for me. But there are a lot of millionaires and billionaires that I've met or interviewed or know who don't have that inner peace. They have a lot of net worth, but they don't have self-worth. They have a lot of money, but they're almost trapped from their money. And it's making them more stressed out and more anxious and more insecure than secure feeling.

• 2:46Speaker 00

  And there's almost like never enough money will give them that peace they're looking for. So I would rather not have that, but feel rich and abundant in the inside of me and my heart and my mind than have all the money in the world and feel trapped.

• 3:03André Duqum?

  I think about the qualities that we can cultivate as a human being that then attracts and magnetizes to us what's meant for us in so many ways and the right amounts of finances. So we're not too stressed, but it covers our needs and allows us to creatively express to all the different areas of life. And we're really, we have it backwards. And most people are familiar with this notion of have, do, be. You know, once I have X, Y, and Z, then I'll be able to do X, Y, and Z. And then I can be happy, fulfilled, et cetera. And I guess this conversation is really inviting us to flip it in reverse and seeing how we can cultivate the qualities of who I want to be for life, for others, the universe, my work, my relationships. And then I'll be able to do, and then the things I have will be a byproduct of those efforts.

• 3:48Speaker 00

  So amplify the energy, the feelings that I already have. If I'm being joyful, grateful, present, curious, passionate. If I'm being those things, I'll be a magnet to be able to create more and I'll have more of the things that I want. I'm creating, but it'll be a byproduct of the energy that I'm putting out there. So I love that. It's such a simple concept and I feel like everyone in our industry are watching. You've probably heard that, but sometimes we need that reminder that it's not about to have, uh, do, and then I'll be, you know, grateful, or then I'll be more generous, or then I'll, I'll be more giving. It's like, we need to be more giving and generous first, then I can have more of the results.

• 4:29André Duqum?

  It's easy for us to slip back into that, oh, happiness is just around the corner after that one little thing, or new milestone, or number. And yeah, it's so important to get advice from people who live a, your definition of a rich life, who have those meaningful connections and are contributing to a more beautiful world and are financially abundant and are physically vital and like these things. And those individuals that I've talked to, and I'm sure that you've talked to, have really put emphasis on the beginning part of, of who you're being. And, and so I would love for us to kind of break down and, and get your perspective on all the qualities of that abundant person, like the qualities we cultivate internally.

• 5:10André Duqum?

  And then we can go and talk about the money, the relationships, the things that kind of come, you know, uh, on the journey after that.

• 5:17Speaker 00

  I just believe that gratitude and generosity is the gateway to abundance. And so we, if we aren't living in gratitude in a consistent basis in our lives, and we aren't thinking generously. This doesn't have to be, I have to give my money to people freely, but how can I be generous with time, resources, information, generous with my presence again, generous with my paying attention and looking people in the eyes, generous with listening, with an open heart, generous with being passionate about someone else's success and not just needing something for myself. Generous as a giver, not a taker. If I can be grateful for where I'm at and really appreciate the things that I'm, that I'm grateful for.

• 5:59Speaker 00

  That appreciation will continue to appreciate in value. It will grow and expand in value what you're grateful for. Therefore, you'll have more of it externally, but definitely more gratitude internally. And my whole business and career really started. From a place of depression and sadness because I didn't have what I wanted. So I was sleeping on my sister's couch for a year and a half in my early mid twenties. And I had this taker energy, taking mentality. Why am I stuck? Why did this happen to me? Why can't I get out of this? Why am I broke? Why do my dreams just crash down? Why am I injured? You know, this kind of sadness, have pity on me energy. And nothing good came from that.

• 6:45Speaker 00

  Some people had pity on me and they gave me some 20 bucks here and there, but it didn't generate something externally or internally that felt good. And it wasn't until I realized and started listening and started learning that I have to be more grateful and I've got to be a giver. That's when everything started to shift for me internally. I started to feel more abundant, even when I was broke. And there's kind of four things that we can all be. We can either be broke and miserable. We can be broke and happy. We can be financially successful and miserable. Or we can be financially successful and happy. And we get to choose where we're at in terms of the energy we are

• 7:29Speaker 00

  on either being broke or having money. And when I was broke and miserable, it's not a good place to be. It's just not enjoyable. Broke and happy was an incredible place to be. I didn't enjoy living on my sister's couch, not being able to pay for things. I didn't enjoy that. But I felt like, man, I can take on the world with this energy. I can learn anything. I can meet anyone. It was like possibilities were all around me because I started shifting that energy on the inside by being grateful and being generous with the hidden gifts that were inside of me. And I didn't even know I had talents, but those talents turned into prosperity for me. And then I've also been, you know, I've also had financial success and been miserable.

• 8:14Speaker 00

  And that's almost worse than being broke and being miserable. It's almost as bad because you have everything you think you're supposed to have, but you don't feel good enough. You still don't feel enough or you're missing something still.

• 8:28André Duqum?

  Yeah, if you're, if you're broke and miserable, at least you have the illusion of one day I won't be.

• 8:33Speaker 00

  Exactly. Yeah. Or it's like you're at the bottom. Okay, I can't get any worse than this. But when you have money. And you have financial security and you have options. But you don't love yourself, but you can't look in the mirror and forgive yourself. But every relationship around you is broken. Or you feel like everyone's out to get you, or you can't really understand the purpose of your life still. It is terrifying. It's like, oh, I have this money and I feel like I'm supposed to feel happy. I got the thing, have, then I'll be, but I'm not being happy. Now what? It's terrifying. It's terrifying being broke and miserable also, but this is also terrifying.

• 9:14Speaker 00

  And I think the goal is to figure out how can we be peaceful, harmonious and feel whole? No matter where we are financially or where we are opportunity wise. And it's very tricky and hard to do. I'm not saying this is easy. And it's a constant journey of appreciating your own value and your own process. We were just talking before about changes in podcasting and how sometimes it's harder and how it's like more tiring at times. And how other people could be popping off and you're like, man, what are they doing that I'm not doing? It's like the comparison game at any level can be daunting. And that's why being grateful and being generous will unlock more abundance, no matter how much you have.

• 9:57Speaker 00

  And I think if you can continue to remind yourself to live on that moment by moment, one day at a time gratitude and generosity, that is richness, that is wealth, that is prosperity. And it's so hard to not think about the goals and the results you want to create. Um, but I have found that I have way less stress and much more peace. When I live in that day to day, sure, I have big goals and dreams. But letting go of the results, letting go of what will happen. And knowing that I'll be okay, no matter what results happen in my life, for me, that's a richer life.

• 10:37André Duqum?

  There's nothing quite as valuable as finding peace inherent, I guess, outside of any circumstance when you're broke. Like, I look back at times when I was splitting an $800 apartment with four people and had, you know, and it was very struggling, didn't feel on purpose, or like, like I had a direction really fully, wasn't living as fulfilled as I knew I could, and those, like, there's that saying, "Don't let a crisis go to waste." Those are valuable moments, when you're not sure, you don't have the prosperity, but you still choose to feel prosperous. And, you know, there is that Buddhist context that I really like, he said that there's four types of people.

• 11:18André Duqum?

  There's people that are going from darkness to darkness. We're familiar with those people. There's people that are going from darkness to brightness, those that are choosing irrespective of the external circumstances, to move in the direction of generosity, these qualities of being abundant instead of scarce. There's people that are going from brightness to darkness, where you might, you know, have, through whatever past actions, karmas, whatever belief you want to have, a good, you know, good life, but you're continuing to make decisions that are bringing you towards ignorance. And there's people that are going from brightness to brightness. And of course, we all want to be in that camp.

• 11:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:54André Duqum?

  But at times, you know, we're, we're a little bit more lost, it's a little bit more hazy and more foggy. And cultivating that mindset of generosity is how we move towards brightness. And I look at the people that are truly successful in life, not just from a monetary standpoint, but from an internal riches standpoint, and they're very generous people.

• 12:14Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 12:14André Duqum?

  Generous with their time, generous with their energy. And, and yeah, I think that that's something I really want to focus on, cultivating that generous mindset and abundant mindset, as opposed to a fear-based scarce mindset.

• 12:27Speaker 00

  It's so hard to do when you have nothing. When you have nothing, you feel scarce. If you don't learn the tools of gratitude and generosity. And these are two very simple, basic tools that you've talked about a bunch on this show, that everyone talks about. And it can be easily forgotten when you get stressed or overwhelmed or busy. And that's why it's just got to be built into your makeup. It's got to be built into, you know, I asked you when I came in, I go, what are you grateful for today? I say it all the time to people, just in conversation, what are you grateful for today? If you call my cell phone right now and you left a message on my answering machine, I say, thanks for calling, tell me what you're grateful for first and then leave your message.

• 13:08Speaker 00

  I try to bake it into like all throughout my day to be grateful and to become more grateful because I could easily get frustrated of an employee doing something I didn't like, or someone trying to take advantage of me, or the idea of that, I could easily go back into a dark place. Because I have that in me as well. So I need to remind myself to live in gratitude throughout the entire day. My wife, this morning, we wake up, what are you grateful for? What are you excited about? I try to step into excitement, joy and passion because I know that energy attracts more good things in my life. And even if nothing comes to me in the external world, I feel better. So it's how can I create a feeling of goodness, a feeling of brightness, a feeling of

• 13:52Speaker 00

  of infecting people with love and positivity and getting others to think about what they're grateful for. I think that virus is a powerful virus that spreads positivity and spreads the the idea of abundance within people and gets them off of their maybe limiting mindset or their or their stressed out moment. And I think when we can infect people with that positivity around gratitude, you are being generous. You're doing a two for one gratitude and generosity by spreading that to someone else. And I'm always looking for ways to be generous as well. And I just think that's the the key and the pathway to creating internal abundance and external abundance.

• 14:35André Duqum?

  You mentioned how it can be and often is harder to be generous when you feel broke, you don't feel as fulfilled. And there's almost great use in that, like that. When the resistance is harder, the opportunity for growth and embodying those qualities are that much more possible. So it's a really good opportunity when you're in those moments. Because as you're speaking to this, I'm really reminded of how connected generosity is with reciprocity. And they're like inextricably connected. And we have this perception that when you give, there's a giver, there's a receiver. But really, it's one flow, it's one cycle. And when you give,

• 15:17André Duqum?

  you both are receiving. And the person who's receiving is receiving. And anyone who witnesses that act of generosity is also receiving. It is a multiplication of that effect.

• 15:30Speaker 00

  The only challenge with it is I've had to learn, and there's probably a lot of empaths who watch and listen to the show, people that are very compassionate, big hearts, that want to give all the time. And I would say that I'm a very giving, generous person, or at least I try to think I am. And you have to let go of the expectation of someone giving in return to you. Because that can make you feel resentment, make you feel frustration, which is a lower frequency energy that's going to make you not feel abundant. So if you give, where I used to give generously all the time, and then I almost felt like people would take and take and take, but there would be no reciprocity. Not everyone, but some people. Usually, people say, how can I help you in return? You have to be willing to receive as well, because that's where the abundance

• 16:14Speaker 00

  comes, when you're able to receive. And I think boundaries are also a key for someone who is an over-giver, where they maybe are, I felt like I was wounded a lot for a long time. And I had to learn how to create boundaries and heal those wounds so that I could give. And if I never received anything, I'd be okay. But I could also create boundaries if I felt like someone was only trying to take from me and constantly reaching out to ask to help them. But they weren't engaging in my life in any other way. They weren't being a giver of just like their spirit or their generosity or their gratitude in some way. And so if you ever feel that way, if you're an over-giver, because you're people pleasing and you're wounded, learn to heal that within you so you can give

• 16:57Speaker 00

  from an abundant heart, not expect anything from that person, but also learn to create boundaries if necessary, if you feel like they're overtaking.

• 17:05André Duqum?

  I think this is a really important moment to make a distinction in those types of generosity, because what we think might be generous might be something else. It might be transactional, it might be really just commerce.

• 17:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 17:17André Duqum?

  And you can be generous in many ways, even giving somebody a compliment, that's a generous act, right? And if it's coming from a place where there's no attachment to how it's received, to the self that's giving it, then it can be pure. There's so many aspects here where it's easy to fall into the trap of having a string attached to what we're giving, and it actually tainting the experience. And that's why there's so much emphasis on the mental volition in the eastern wisdom traditions. When you're doing any act, it's like the intention's intention. Like, really, why are you doing it? Where is it coming from energetically within you? And if I give you a compliment about how I love your podcast or whatever, and I'm like expecting for you to ask me about mine,

• 18:01André Duqum?

  or like give me a compliment in return, or build a relationship for some reason so it benefits me, it's just not pure generosity.

• 18:10Speaker 00

  It's not, and it's more like wounded energy. It's more energy that's a, I wouldn't say taker, but it's like a false giving, right? It's like, okay, you're giving because you're hoping to receive something in return with an expectation. And that expectation is going to lead to letdown because you'll never reach that expectation. And unless you're like in a business deal that you're saying, hey, I would like to do this for you, but I want you to do this for me, can we do this? That's more commerce, commerce trading.

• 18:36André Duqum?

  Yeah, which is totally fine.

• 18:37Speaker 00

  That's cool, but don't be a generous giver. And that could be giving also, like we're trying to do this for mutual gain, and I won't give this to you unless you're going to give me something in return. Okay, cool. But if you're just simply, you know, walking around the street or going about your day, and you're asking, and you're being generous with your compliments to people, don't expect them to give it back in return. Just be a giver, be kind because you want to spread that love to others.

• 19:03André Duqum?

  It also makes me think of tithing and giving to charity, you know? And there's that quote in the Bible of don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

• 19:12Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 19:12André Duqum?

  It's, it's good. It stood the test of time, you know, because even the act of giving in that aspect. And if, and I just want to breathe some compassion into this whole process. Cause like, we're not perfect beings, you know? It sometimes gets a little bit muddy and we're doing the best with the current level of awareness we have.

• 19:31André Duqum?

  But what is your perspective on tithing, giving as it's an essential aspect of being a prosperous individual with that quality?

• 19:37Speaker 00

  I've asked this to a lot of wealthy individuals, those that have, you know, made hundreds of millions or billions of dollars. I'm like, what do you think is the secret to earning and making more financially and also feeling good? And probably 80 to 90% of the people that I've interviewed who talk about this is say, the more that I give financially, the more I make of that year or the next year. And it just makes me, expands my heart as well. And they always say, kind of what you just said. You know, and I always think about how can I give that's kind of uncomfortable? Even though I have a lot of money, like writing a million dollar check or five million dollar check is still like, I'm just giving this to some charity or giving this to my church or giving this to a cause that I care about.

• 20:20Speaker 00

  But 80, 90% of those individuals say I always, it always comes back to me. And, and I feel better by being able to do that. I've definitely tried to practice that more in the last like seven, eight years. But how can I give where it's uncomfortable? And not every year it's like comeback 10x or whatever. But I think the impact that you're creating and the ripple effect that you're creating when you give generously, when you have financial means, I think it's powerful. And you're also stretching your, your spirit and your soul's capacity to, to expand more and to, to kind of like, see how far can I go and how far can I expand my inner world of giving generously?

• 21:01Speaker 00

  And trusting that by continuing to add value in the world, by continuing to be a good person, good's going to come back to me. Do you give financially and do you expand it where you're like, oh, this, here's, here's what I feel comfortable with. Ah, let me double that up and let me just give this in there. Yeah, that's kind of hurting me, but.

• 21:22André Duqum?

  I do. I feel like I have room to grow. And I want to give more and it's also why I'm driven to grow my businesses and all the stuff because it expands my container and capacity to give to charities and organizations that I really believe in and people that I love and just like I love celebrating with money and just giving it to people unexpectedly and like people that I believe in and

• 21:46André Duqum?

  and I think it's important to also do it in private and like not not share necessarily online and you know.

• 21:52Speaker 00

  I think there's a both there. It's interesting. I had a friend of mine say, you know, I like to share. I like to give half in private and half in public to persuade my rich friends to give more.

• 22:02André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 22:03Speaker 00

  And I like that idea. It's like you don't have to show off. Here I am like with these kids every day, like giving to them.

• 22:08André Duqum?

  That's the place it's coming from.

• 22:09Speaker 00

  Yeah, it's like, it's more of like, hey, calling up your rich friends or anyone to say if there's any charities that you want to give to, like now's the time, I encourage you to do it, not needing the validation of, look at me, I've I've given. And I've been building schools for, I don't know, 13, 14 years now, all around the world through Pencil Promise and other charities. And I try to share from a giving nature and I bring my rich friends on these trips. I brought a friend of mine, Tim Sykes, one time because he made ton of money through stocks. I don't know if you know who Tim Sykes is.

• 22:43André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 22:43Speaker 00

  He's made a ton of money over his career through stocks. He had every.

• 22:46André Duqum?

  We went to Nigeria with him to do a give back mission.

• 22:49Speaker 00

  I love that. So this is an interesting story. Tim Sykes is every Lamborghini and, you know, Miami mansion or whatever he had, he had all the money in the world. And we'd been friends since 2008, 2009. And I just saw him kind of emotionally go through roller coaster, kind of spiritually and through like the girl phase and the car phase and like every expensive watch and the nightclubs and just like going chaos, make money and go crazy.

• 23:16Speaker 00

  And I invited Tim, I'm sure he'd be open to me sharing this story. I said to him, like, I think you should come on this trip with me and we'll go to Guatemala and just, it's not going to be a fun trip in terms of like, we're living in like a motel. You know, this is not high life. We're taking vans through the jungles. It's like kind of nauseating, six hour drives. This is not like luxury. Um, but I want you to come with me. He came and we went to our first, uh, like school location we're going to this little village in the jungle in Guatemala. And this is still one of the like, probably the most inspiring moments of like the last 14 years for me is he, we get off the van and we're kind of nauseous, like someone threw up a couple hours prior. It's like, it's not an enjoyable trip necessarily.

• 24:02Speaker 00

  But we get off the van and like a hundred kids run to us and they grab me and Tim's hands and they start screaming in Spanish and they pull us to go into this empty field that is supposedly a soccer field, but it's just like rocks and dirt. It's not like a field. They have a ball made out of like plastic bottles that they're kicking around and like some wood posts with no net. And they're running around us, they're playing soccer and they're circling me and Tim. And after a few moments, Tim gives me a hug, he looks me in the eyes and he goes, this is the greatest moment of my life. He goes, thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to experience life at this level.

• 24:46Speaker 00

  After the weekend was done, he made a million dollar donation right then for the charity and he was like, and since then, he's gone on to build like 150 schools or 300 schools around the world. You went on a trip with him. He became a maniac to give. And he's the type of guy who's promoting his giving a lot because he wants to encourage people to give as well. Not everything, but he's promoting it a lot. And he lives a rich life. Before he was financially rich. Now he's more emotionally, spiritually heart rich. And I think he's learned the two different dimensions of like, okay, I'm going to go for all money. And I'm going to go for money and just give as much as I can away and feel great about my life.

• 25:28Speaker 00

  I'm not saying everyone has to give all their money away to feel that, but for him, that's worked for him.

• 25:34André Duqum?

  Really, we often so underestimate the simple act of like inviting somebody on a trip like that, because you think of how full circle that moment is, and I'm not, you know, saying you're the sole inspiration, but I know probably a big part of when he went to go on and do Karma Gawa and then invited me to go on that Nigeria trip with him and Matt. And that was a very impactful trip for me. Like, we went to the rural city of Makoko and like real true poverty and giving back to the kids and seeing the joy that was on their face, even in very poverty.

• 26:05Speaker 00

  Yeah, they have nothing. They have nothing and yet, I'm not saying everyone with nothing can be happy, but these kids had nothing. They would get one meal a day that the community would give them every day, and they were just happy. They were happy with their one meal. They were happy they had community. They were happy they had a plastic water bottle, soccer ball. You know, they were just happy that we were there being generous and coming to just visit them. And I think, you know, you had a similar experience in Nigeria, it sounds like, where these kids were happy even though they were living in poverty. What was your biggest takeaway from that experience? From seeing people in extreme poverty, that maybe they weren't always happy, but it seemed like for those moments, they had some joy.

• 26:48André Duqum?

  Man, I think I just, you just grow up in the States, you're just in a bubble. And especially like even middle class is so affluent compared to the rest of the world.

• 26:57Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 26:57André Duqum?

  So getting to really see, you know, people that walk miles for water and might go full day without eating food or, you know, doing whatever they can to provide for their family and...

• 27:09Speaker 00

  No toilets. Yeah, it's like...

• 27:11André Duqum?

  And I went as kind of like supporting with the media when I went, and it was really beautiful to connect with even just the drivers there. And then this one lady I took a photo of, I'll throw it up on screen, with her children. And yeah, just seeing the heart of that all in action. And I think it just expanded my container for the context of what's happening on planet Earth, and also how resilient people are, and my desire to give and really support.

• 27:41Speaker 00

  Interesting.

• 27:42André Duqum?

  So it definitely shifted a lot.

• 27:43Speaker 00

  When was that trip?

• 27:44André Duqum?

  Probably six, seven years ago.

• 27:46Speaker 00

  Uh huh, yeah. It's interesting because every time I go on one of these trips, and I try to go once a year at least on a trip like this. And you know, you talk about living in the States. I fly back through LAX and I would drive to like West Hollywood or through Beverly Hills. And you just see, you went literally that morning for like the poorest of poor. And then you're in one of the most expensive areas in the world, driving through Beverly Hills. And you just see people complaining for like the dumbest things who are driving Bentleys or whatever. They're just frustrated about life, not everyone, but you see people who are frustrated, who seemingly have everything. And you go from a place where people have nothing, but they have everything inside of them.

• 28:30Speaker 00

  And you're like, man, that's just such a difference. And how can we live a richer, abundant life with the money we have, with the material possessions we have? How can we still be grateful for where we're at? And if we want to create more, cool, but not lose ourselves in going into darkness when we've got that financial abundance?

• 28:48André Duqum?

  I was talking with this guy at the end of my last silent retreat and he was just worried about not getting his screen card. He's going to go back to India and I was asking him kind of about the process of that and how it might be a bummer, he might not be able to stay here and work. And he's like, actually like, not really. Like there is, while it's a lot different, you know, being in different parts of India and it's very crowded and all these different, you know, aspects of the economy. There is more of a spiritual poverty here in the States comparatively. And, and so it's like, there is a balance scale. And you know, there's a lot of inner rich life in, in India. It's just bursting in the, at the seams with all of it. So it's, it's really, yeah, it's definitely expanded my container of what it means to, to have a rich,

• 29:33André Duqum?

  like a truly rich, prosperous.

• 29:35Speaker 00

  What does a rich life mean to you then? What's your definition of a rich life?

• 29:38André Duqum?

  I would say like chosen soul tribe, community, family around me that are aligned with my values. So community is definitely a big one. Contributing meaningfully, how I uniquely have the capacity to, towards a more beautiful world. So, you know, really giving, but like in the active expression of my unique skills and.

• 29:58Speaker 00

  Maybe that's music or that's events or that's whatever.

• 30:01André Duqum?

  Yeah, my, my capacity for podcasting and media and, and questioning and all these things.

• 30:08André Duqum?

  Physical vitality, so like eating whole foods from the earth, drinking clean water, exercising and just having a healthy, you know, muscular system where I can move and run and all the things. Definitely giving, like giving more directly. I think it can get quite philosophical the more I do podcasts and I like, I want to make it more direct.

• 30:31Speaker 00

  I'm giving, yeah, yeah. How much money would you like to give a year? If you could just write a check to go to all the places you want to give, what's a number that is a dream number for you that you would love to give one day?

• 30:41André Duqum?

  I would love to at least give a couple million dollars a year.

• 30:44Speaker 00

  What does that mean? Two, three, four million?

• 30:46André Duqum?

  Like one or two right now. I think I want to continue expanding it as I grow.

• 30:51Speaker 00

  So let's, let's go down this thought then. If you wanted to give $2 million, when would you love to give that by? Just hypothetically. In one year, boom, $2 million check to all the places.

• 31:03André Duqum?

  I would love to do that by 2030, maybe 2030, 2032, somewhere around.

• 31:07Speaker 00

  Five years from now. So how much would you need to make in order to give that where you felt like you still had enough for you and everything you wanted to live with your life?

• 31:16André Duqum?

  I think realistically as scaling, probably 10% of tithing for like an annual year is probably a good goal. So like 10, 10 million bucks in a year.

• 31:26Speaker 00

  20 million bucks for 10, 10% of, it would be a million bucks, right? Okay. So you need 20 million for 2 million, right? That'd be 10%. So you need 20, so look at your energy though shifting. Why, why is your energy shifting there?

• 31:37André Duqum?

  Well, I love these thought experiments because it stretches you into your potential.

• 31:42Speaker 00

  So 20 million would be, you know, if you're going to do 2 million, but 10 million for 1 million, right? So what would it take for you to get 10 million in the next two years? Instead of five, yeah. And what would it take for you to get there in two years instead of five or six years? What would it take from you internally and externally?

• 32:01André Duqum?

  It would take more of me, you know, just take, uh, I think clarification of the why, I think first and foremost. Um, like when you know why you're giving, where you're giving, it drives you and would drive me. Um, so clarifying that, I think doubling down on delegating and growing a team that can support me, doing what my irreplaceable kind of zone is. And just, you know, continuing to scale what I'm currently doing, I think, and make space for the unknown to support me in that process. Um, so I like that thought exercise. And I think it's really useful for anybody who's listening right now to also think of, you know, not just because,

• 32:42André Duqum?

  for the sake of, of trying to do as much as you can in your lifetime by tomorrow, but, but it does, um, there is that saying that like 10x is easier than 2x and, and like being able to stretch yourself and think in ways that are kind of quantum jumps from your,

• 32:57Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:58André Duqum?

  you know, typical linear way of thinking.

• 33:00Speaker 00

  What's inside of you that you think is holding you back emotionally or spiritually or blocking you from creating the 10x financial wealth that you have right now?

• 33:11André Duqum?

  The honest answer is I don't know because it's kind of an outside of the realm of my current awareness.

• 33:17Speaker 00

  And I'm not saying you ever have to get there. It's not like you have to make 10, 20 million dollars a year to, to live more rich.

• 33:23André Duqum?

  Yeah, no, I mean, I, I love these thought experiments, just to-

• 33:25Speaker 00

  And I don't think it's worth having the money if it's going to cause you to, if you think I have to be more of me or create more and I'm going to spend a hundred hours a week and exhaust myself. Like that's not a rich life either. So it's gotta be in a way that's sustainable to you, having vitality, your physical health, being able to still eat the way you want. Have the community want this free space and time to be able to write music and do things. So you have to be able to be more internally. And sure, do more externally, but also think in a different way and execute in a different way that allows you to expand without sacrificing all the richness of your life.

• 34:01André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 34:02Speaker 00

  And I think I went down a path for many years where I was like, I'm just, oh, I know how to do this, so I just need to do more of that thing until it burns me out. I didn't think it's gonna burn me out. I was like, I can handle it. But working all day and night to create more got me more money, but made me less healthy, made me less abundant, made me less rich inside of me. And I would love for you to figure out, do I really wanna make 10 million or 20 million a year to give in this way? If so, cool. If not, no worries either. And if so, how could I do it to where it expands my vessel spiritually, expands my heart and soul to be more abundant thinking and generous thinking, but also I still have

• 34:45Speaker 00

  the life that I want within this vision of my values? That would be a rich life and be powerful. That's the, that's the quantum leap is how do I still live this vibrant life that I'm living today? And sure, maybe you're putting more hours in, but it's not like killing you to do this just so you can give more. It can't be that way, cuz then you're not giving to yourself.

• 35:07André Duqum?

  Yeah, and I also think, of course, yeah, like having giving to yourself and making sure, you know, cuz I feel I live a very abundant prosperous life right now.

• 35:14Speaker 00

  You do.

• 35:14André Duqum?

  And there's the levels, of course, to this. But in terms of my own needs, like I don't, I don't need a nicer car really.

• 35:21Speaker 00

  No.

• 35:22André Duqum?

  You know, I don't need a bigger house, even though I will, you know, probably in the next few years.

• 35:26Speaker 00

  Yeah, of course.

• 35:26André Duqum?

  But like, I don't need it. What I am driven by is even not just donating that money strictly to another organization, but also investing it into spiritual infrastructure in ways that I feel like really give towards the evolution of consciousness on human, on, on, on earth, you know? And so, giving in ways that look like a real transformation in the lives of people and figuring out how to support other people that are doing that, and then my own way of doing that as well, so.

• 35:53Speaker 00

  And I would also, you know, even just give another thought experiment for you. Maybe it's not you having to give that million or two million dollars for you to feel like, oh, I've accomplished this goal. But maybe it's with all my talents, with all my community, I'm gonna put together a million dollars this year. And get everyone to support in this giving nature to inspire it. And therefore collectively, we give a million dollars. And I put in a hundred thousand or whatever it is, you know, or 300,000. It's figuring out, it's like what I do at 10. I brought him there. I didn't think he was going to donate, but he gave a million dollars. So it was a part of a contribution of me influencing the giving. Wasn't my money, but it was my enrollment skills. It was my curation of people, kind of like what Tim did with you to share the media.

• 36:35André Duqum?

  Yep.

• 36:36Speaker 00

  So thinking of that as well.

• 36:37André Duqum?

  Yeah. It is important to, I guess, reflect on how money is all intertwined with this. And yet I also really, I see how that can scale the impact of what I'm really here. And I know what you're really here to, you know, to do and be about, which is the actual healing and supporting of, of humans out there. And that to me is like what I truly wish to scale. And so money in that aspect as it doesn't, you know, doesn't have a negative or positive charge inherently is, is a tool, is a resource to be able to scale transformation and healing. Yeah. So, yeah, that's, that's all great.

• 37:13Speaker 00

  Something to think about there, yeah. But we want, you know, we want, we want to feel whole, me and you. We want to feel healed, whole, full of life, vibrant, on purpose, on mission, connected to people in our lives, loved, all these different things. And I think that's what we want everyone else to feel as well. That's why I love a lot that what you're doing here is that you're trying to share valuable insights and information to serve people towards growth, healing and transformation. And that's what I'm on as well.

• 37:42André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 37:43Speaker 00

  And it's because I felt broken and not whole for a lot, lot of my life. Internally, spiritually, sexually, financially, I felt broken in all these areas. And then I was seeking tools to create wholeness within me. And it's been a journey. And that's why I constantly try to influence people around me by asking these questions the same way you do. So we're on the same path.

• 38:10André Duqum?

  Yeah. Yeah, I know. And that contrast of experience, when you have the history of being, feeling broken and, you know, all those things that I feel like it just gives you so much. Empathy for building on the path to really support people in a way that can truly be supported because you know what supported you.

• 38:31Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 38:31André Duqum?

  And so, yeah, I've for sure had many moments of that in my life. And I know you've had many moments in yours.

• 38:38Speaker 00

  When was the moment you felt the most rich?

• 38:41André Duqum?

  Right now.

• 38:41Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 38:42André Duqum?

  Yeah, just in my life right now. I've had moments like if we're talking about kind of from like a period of life, I feel the most rich right now. If we're talking about like specific moments, I would say trips like that in Nigeria or trips with my men's group to like a new location, deep in nature, where we're really connecting, connected to the elements and diving deep together.

• 39:04André Duqum?

  I would say those, you know, and then also like the simple joys of like having Christmas with my family. Or like, you know, just I feel like I can find those really meaningful moments more and more these days.

• 39:15Speaker 00

  That's beautiful.

• 39:16André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 39:16Speaker 00

  So the rich life for you is with other people that you care about.

• 39:19André Duqum?

  Yeah, I mean, I definitely say I thrive alone. I love to spend a lot of time alone.

• 39:23Speaker 00

  But you just said the richest moments are with people.

• 39:26André Duqum?

  They are, yeah. And so I can, I can be a, I can be a homebody to a fault sometimes.

• 39:32Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah.

• 39:33André Duqum?

  What would you say for you is the most richest?

• 39:36Speaker 00

  I mean, just thinking about this last month.

• 39:41Speaker 00

  Well, getting married is on my heart because it just happened a month ago.

• 39:46André Duqum?

  Yeah, congrats.

• 39:47Speaker 00

  Thank you. And the experience, and I never thought I was going to get married growing up because my parents always fought and they were always kind of arguing and slamming doors or silent treatment. They never loved each other. Maybe they did a little bit, but they never showed it. So it always felt unsafe at home. That's why I left home at 13 to go to a private boarding school. My parents did not want me to leave home. I begged them for a whole summer to send me away because I didn't feel emotionally safe. My nervous system was out of whack, it was broken. And they did the best they could with the tools they had and I loved them, but it, I didn't feel safe at home. My brother also just got out of prison. He went to prison for selling drugs to an undercover cop. Four and a half years he was in jail. And it was just kind of a dark time in my hometown during that time and the family life was stressful.

• 40:33Speaker 00

  So I didn't feel rich. I didn't feel whole. I didn't feel complete. I felt very insecure. The journey of healing when I turned 30 and starting transformation work is when I've felt the most rich. And actually, when I see others go through transformational workshops or meditation workshops that I've been to and I recommend them to them, I'm like, hey, I think this could be really helpful. And then they come out on the other side and they text me glowing about what they learned about the things that were holding them back, their traumas, their blocks, how they feel more free. That for me is rich. It's like me going through, knowing what darkness felt like inside of me, finding the journey

• 41:14Speaker 00

  towards healing, feeling more whole, and then empowering others to go through experiences that are supportive for them and seeing them transform is like the greatest gift that I can receive. And it's, that's rich for me. It's like seeing the impact in others, and I'm sure you have that similar feeling. And I think that's why your Nigeria trip of like, you could see the impact first hands of the impact you have on these communities and these kids. It's like, wow, you're able to give something where someone is transformed in a moment, in a weekend, in a month. That's richness for me and it's addictive. Giving can be extremely addictive if you can help people overcome challenge because I don't want anyone to suffer.

• 41:59Speaker 00

  I suffer for a long time internally and I don't want anyone to have that feeling. But I also know, once you learn the tools and you can get on the other side of it, it's like, man, you just feel like, wow, there's a whole new world that I can live with peace and not sadness. And so that's when I feel the most rich. I feel very rich right now, being married, because I never thought I would be married. I never felt safe with the women I was with in the past to actually go that far. And I feel extremely emotionally safe in this relationship, in the marriage. And I just never felt that. And so I never thought I could be intimate with a woman and feel safe and feel accepted

• 42:40Speaker 00

  to be me and be seen to be who I am and all the crap that I've experienced and been through and thought and all these different things. And I feel extremely, I feel at home, in my home.

• 42:53Speaker 00

  For the first time, and I feel at home within myself. And most people don't have that feeling. So that's a very rich life for me right now.

• 43:01André Duqum?

  I'm so happy for you.

• 43:02Speaker 00

  Thanks, man.

• 43:02André Duqum?

  It's it's beautiful to, I guess, witness the fruits of the of doing the work for for a long period of time and the sincere devotion towards healing those parts of yourself. And it's just a really exciting new chapter. I'm excited to see.

• 43:16Speaker 00

  I'm excited, man.

• 43:16André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 43:17Speaker 00

  I felt like it was the right timing. You know, I'm turning forty two this weekend. I never celebrate my birthday, really, because my dad never celebrated my birthday when we were growing up, because he didn't want, he didn't believe in time, and he didn't want age to be a limiter for us. So he'd never celebrate it. But I was always like, ah, it'd be nice if you still give me a cake or presents or something, you know, when everyone else is getting it. But I really appreciate that now at this age, because I don't put emphasis on my age, even though I just said it. But I'm not like, oh, it's forty two, or you're like, it's forty three. I'm not thinking about that. I feel like I'm almost aging reverse.

• 43:50André Duqum?

  Yeah. Very young in spirit.

• 43:52Speaker 00

  Yeah, and I think that's having that childlike curiosity just makes me feel rich as well.

• 43:58André Duqum?

  Yeah. I think getting to that point where you really do feel youthful in spirit and you get life by what you're doing and you're rewarded abundantly financially and all these things is is discovering those qualities within you. And part of the revealing of that is investing in yourself, truly. And for getting to the point to where you're at now, what have been the most important ways you've invested in yourself over the years that have cultivated to this point?

• 44:28Speaker 00

  I've invested in great coaches and mentors, therapists. I think having the right mentors in your life are essential and choosing the people in your life who have the experiences, the lessons, and are living in accordance and in alignment with the values you want to live with. Having those kind of teachers in your life is really important. So I I have physical coaches for my body that I trust with my physical health, nutritional coaches, therapist coach, business coaches. I try to find kind of the people that I look up to. I have a relationship coaches. Me and Martha have people we lean on who've been married thirty, forty, fifty years.

• 45:09Speaker 00

  Then I'm like, OK, I'm trying to prevent things from happening poorly, and I'm trying to do things now that my future self will appreciate and say, thank you for investing in that time. Um, so I try to have that as a baseline in terms of like actual investments. My sanctuary of my home, Martha and I's home is like a dream for me. And I, I wanted to imagine, we bought this home two years ago and I'd always lived in one or two bedroom apartments until I was 40. So I was like, I never need a home. I'm fine in like a small place. And I'm fine renting all these different things. But I finally felt safe in a relationship where I was like, okay, I'm happy to get a home now.

• 45:53Speaker 00

  And when I was looking at homes, I was really thinking about myself at 50. And I'm always having these experiences about what do I want in the future? And am I investing or am I buying something or investing in something that feels comfortable right now? But my future self is gonna say, ah, you should have just done it a little bit more to have exactly what you wanted. And so I bought a home with Martha where I was like, I want everything that I'm gonna love in 10 years. If I want to stay there, I'm still gonna love it. Not like some starter home that I move in two or three years that I have to do this all over again and keep moving. I want to invest in a place that feels home. Where if we have kids, we can raise these kids there. We don't have to move to have more space.

• 46:35Speaker 00

  And so the space we got is way bigger than what we need, but it has everything we need for the next 10 years. And that investment stretched me financially. It was like, oh, I'm down to zero in the bank. And it was really scary, but I had a conversation with my future self. And my future self said, this is gonna be a tight time for six months. It's gonna feel like a stretch. But you're gonna look back and you're gonna think about paying these payments and it's gonna be nothing for you because we're gonna be so rich and abundant beyond your wildest dreams. So I had a conversation with my future self and he gave me that advice.

• 47:10André Duqum?

  I love that. I have this very similar story. Yeah.

• 47:15Speaker 00

  Cause you used to live in like a smaller home and now you've got a bigger home and you're in like the canyon and

• 47:19André Duqum?

  Yeah, there is, there's an art to biting off more than you can chew and figuring out how to swallow it.

• 47:24Speaker 00

  Exactly.

• 47:24André Duqum?

  And you really grow to the size of the pot you're in. And so like when I moved in here, it was way stretching me beyond my financial capacity at the time. And I made that decision to like, okay, the next 12 months are gonna be hard. But I want to see the version of me that becomes that, that is a match to that on the other side of it. So

• 47:40Speaker 00

  What did you create in the last year?

• 47:42André Duqum?

  A lot of abundance that like now it's easy. Now it's the new normal, you know?

• 47:45Speaker 00

  Do you think if you stayed in that old place? In Venice, that you'd be creating the financial wealth you have now if you stayed in that container.

• 47:53André Duqum?

  Thing is, I don't think, like, there, a certain amount of space equates to a certain amount of possibility, you know, so I think you can do a lot with a little.

• 48:02Speaker 00

  Of course.

• 48:03André Duqum?

  But the more space you have to grow in, like, the studio is now twice as big. We have more cameras, we have room for a building out of music studio section and a photo shoot area.

• 48:13Speaker 00

  Stretching lab.

• 48:14André Duqum?

  Yeah, we were stretching for 15 minutes before it. And so, and so there's been more possibility as the spaces increase and it's, like you said, you're, you create your environment and then your environment informs who you are and it really affects you. And so, you think about all the signals you're getting from, imagine having a dirty place that's not organized, that is stuff bought, that's like, you know, really, like, poorly made things. I decided when I was getting this place to, like, any purchase I'm going to make, whether it's a piece of furniture, a piece of equipment, or technology, going to find the absolute best thing I can purchase.

• 48:51Speaker 00

  Beautiful.

• 48:51André Duqum?

  I'm gonna have it for the rest of my life, it's going to be a reflection of abundant and it's gonna be quality. And I think that feedback loop, it creates almost like what you expect more of and what you become a match to, which is really valuable.

• 49:04Speaker 00

  That's beautiful, man, yeah. It's, you know, I was thinking to myself, what do I want to create for the next 10 years? I want to be creating an environment of fun, of family, and where friends can come and, and connect and hang. And I couldn't do that in a two-bedroom apartment. I could only have so many people over, it was very cramped. You could do a limited amount, but now we have this space where it's like, we have rooms where kids can be in, we have, you know, rooms where our parents can come and stay and it's not gonna feel like too cramped. We have a podcast studio, we have a, I was like, I really want a pickleball court with a basketball court, but there's not enough space in Studio City. So I found the one lot that had enough space, that already had a pickleball court and a basketball court.

• 49:48Speaker 00

  And I was like, this is way out of my budget. But I was like, my future self just said, just imagine the next 10 years of all your friends coming over, family coming over, and being able to play in the backyard safely and abundantly. And a couple nights ago, I had three buddies over and we have lights, we were playing pickleball for three and a half hours at night in a private sanctuary. We didn't have to go rent some courts out at some park, it's like, everyone was in my home. And Martha was in the living room. She's like, I could hear you guys laughing for hours. Like, that's a rich life for me. It's like, everyone's able to come over and have fun together. That is where my money should go, having fun.

• 50:28André Duqum?

  Yeah, it's so valuable and rewarding when you get to that place and invest into your environment. I probably even more so than it would have been wise to, at different points, really invest into the environment that I live in my home.

• 50:42Speaker 00

  How old are you now?

• 50:43André Duqum?

  I'm 28.

• 50:44Speaker 00

  Yeah, I mean, I wasn't doing any of this until like five years ago, you know, so it's like, I think you're expanding

• 50:52Speaker 00

  in your late twenties. That's amazing. Most people would never do this at 28. Most people can't even hold a job at 28, you know, without being breakdown constantly, let alone build their business and expand from a cautious place.

• 51:03André Duqum?

  I think I'm just really grateful to have like, had great teachers and been exposed to important, you know, valuable information earlier on. And so I kind of started this journey like closer to 15, 16 years old. But, you know, when I moved out of my house at 18 and I went again, was living, splitting an $800 crappy apartment with four other, or three other dorm roommates.

• 51:26André Duqum?

  You make up for, I guess, what your environment is feeding you in terms of imagination and inspiration and that like, it's cool to like, have a vision that is completely imaginative in your mind and then to bring it forth into the physical is the creative act of what it means to be human.

• 51:45Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 51:45André Duqum?

  You know, and it's so exciting to be on that journey. It's like one big, it's a big video game, you know? And, um, and I want to focus a little bit more on that aspect of bringing kind of the immaterial visions that we have in life into the physical, because you've done it very well.

• 51:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 52:00André Duqum?

  And there's a lot of insights around it. So when it comes to investing in yourself, we talked about generosity earlier. I'm just curious, what are the most prominent value you've given to others that was non-monetary? Because so much of this path is like, who you know, building relationships and giving to people. And I'm just curious, like, how you've given to people?

• 52:22Speaker 00

  Where I didn't get money in return, you mean?

• 52:24André Duqum?

  Yeah, maybe like where you weren't expecting any money in return, but you're providing value still.

• 52:32Speaker 00

  You know, the thing that's coming to me is

• 52:37Speaker 00

  the idea of planting seeds that you'll never see the trees of, like the shade of later, that old kind of parable or whatever. And I did that as a kid one time. We were, uh, my dad took me to this, we used to go to this like family camp, YMCA camp in Ohio. And every like Memorial Day weekend, we'd go for three days as a family. And one summer, he took me and my siblings to this campgrounds that we used to go to. But, and they have games and activities and a lake and it's like fun, usually, right? But he took us there and he said, okay, we're just gonna go for a whole day and you're literally gonna plant these little, these little trees. Because there was a big kind of field and they were looking for volunteers to come help.

• 53:23Speaker 00

  My dad was always into giving back to communities and giving back to people in our community in any way he could. So he always wanted to teach us this lesson and he would, he would have us involved in cleaning up trash or whatever it might be. And he brought us one day and it was so hot out and there was a truckload of these like seedlings, these little like pine trees. And he gave us a shovel and he just said, you gotta plant these until they're done. And there was thousands of them. And there was a few other kids there too, from other families, but it was mostly just us planting for like eight to 10 hours. And as an eight or nine year old, you're like, I just wanna play. This is exhausting. It's hot out. It was not enjoyable. Three years ago, I went back because my dad passed away. And I went back to this campground because it was a place that he loved.

• 54:08Speaker 00

  And I went back and these trees were 30, 40 feet high. And it was like you enter the campground, seeing the forest that we built. I get chills thinking about it because it's like my father instilled in giving and being of service, even though when we may not benefit from it. But now there's a whole ecosystem there and the people and the, and the kids and the parents and the families that go there can be in this kind of shaded environment and be in nature more. And that'll be there for hundreds of years. Me... You know, being a part of charities where we're building schools for kids around the world, maybe sometimes I get to go and see the school, but a lot of times I never know what's gonna happen with those kids later in life.

• 54:50Speaker 00

  Where they're gonna go, how they're gonna impact their families, all these different things. So it's the things I don't get to see that also like make me wonder like, I wonder whatever happened to this thing, but just knowing good things are happening. That's a beautiful feeling, even though in the moment when you give or when you're being in service with your time or your your effort. And you're like, why am I doing this? It's just knowing that someone else has done this for you. Like you got to experience this nature, this home that someone built or some campground you go to or a park that someone invested in. And it could be one of your most favorite spots or you get to have memories. And it's like someone built this whole world before us that we get to experience. So I feel like that's something that's just I live with as well, but

• 55:36Speaker 00

  I think the simplest acts of calling a friend or texting someone and just saying, hey, I see what you're doing. You're doing amazing. That simple act where I'm not expecting money in return. But someone just saying, man, you've really made my day. I really appreciate you for that. And creating that connection, that bond is is just such an abundant feeling and there's no money there. And it could be like a compliment, but I really call it an acknowledgement. And it's something I do on my show as well. It's like I acknowledge my guests at the end of every show. And most people want to feel seen, heard and acknowledged, but it's the thing we never get the most. And so I try to instill that acknowledgement as much as I can, and it can be just a small thing.

• 56:18Speaker 00

  Hey, I really acknowledge you for how you live an intentional life and how you've invested in this sanctuary for you. And being an example, when you show your content online to show people it's possible to do the same for them as well. And being acknowledging people in their gifts, their talents is an incredible abundant thing.

• 56:39André Duqum?

  There is that saying that people don't remember what you do, or what you say, but how you make them feel. And it's so true. Like, you think back to, I'm sure you've had so many meaningful moments when people come up to you, sharing about how the show has been impactful to them, and how it saved their life, or impacted, or met their partner, or like, whatever it might be. And those moments, you feel the impact of what you're doing, and it really resonates, and is so helpful to continue helping you drive what you're gonna do. And we can afford that to other people, in so many different ways.

• 57:13Speaker 00

  Another example, I mean, here's a great, I guess, example. I've done this event every year, called the Summit of Greatness, and I lose money every year. So this is like a tactical example. I lose money every year, and every year, I'm like, this is so much time, so much energy, why am I doing this? And we think about canceling it every year, because it doesn't make money. Our team, I'm investing in my team to put this thing together. It's not our best at, because we do it once a year. And the weekend comes around, and people are like, on fire. They love it, and they're like, this is amazing. People have met each other, and got married, and had babies from this event. Like, people start business, all these things that you're talking about, like, you're like, it's not always gonna be this monetary return for you,

• 57:56Speaker 00

  by how you invest in people, and how you give to others, or your community. But the impact you can make is expansive. And I keep doing it, because I'm like, maybe one day we'll make money, you know, who knows? But it's like, the community flourishes, and I think that's still a good thing to do.

• 58:12André Duqum?

  For people that wanna, again, bridge the vision of what they have, they imagine this on their vision board, or whatever it might be, into the physical reality. I learned this framework many years ago, about the law of compensation, which says that you'll be compensated in direct proportion to the need for what you do, your ability to do it, and the difficulty in replacing you. And a part of building value in the world is building ancillary skillsets that really supports you. And that's why I've always thought it's really important, even if you're not living in what you feel like is your Dharma, or your North Node, which, again, we're always, even not being on our path is being on our path. You know, like, working in an industry that you want to one day be a pioneer in,

• 58:56André Duqum?

  I think is really valuable, like, being a videographer, which helps you, you know, in production, if you want to make movies, or become a producer, or start a podcast, where they're very visual now, like, there's so many things that I think really help, if you focus on those ancillary skillsets. And so when you-

• 59:12Speaker 00

  That's what you did, before you came here.

• 59:14André Duqum?

  Yeah, for sure, and I think it's also what you did, like, it's what we all do, and, and, on the journey, like, you, in your efforts through LinkedIn, and networking, and building value, really informed and supported you.

• 59:30Speaker 00

  Yeah, it wasn't what my dream was, like, "Ah, I want to do this forever", but it was like, the starting steps of developing skills.

• 59:35André Duqum?

  Yeah. So, how important do you feel like are cultivating skills?

• 59:42Speaker 00

  I mean, I think it's everything, and I think it's, the best skills you can cultivate are the things you're most afraid of. And what I mean around that is, I think you gain a superpower when you overcome a fear, and you develop a skill around it. One of my biggest fears was public speaking, and it terrified me. I couldn't get up in front of the class and speak aloud, I couldn't read aloud in front of the class without stuttering and feeling insignificant. And, after I was done playing arena football, and I was living on my sister's couch, I had all the fears and all the doubts in the world, and no clue which direction to go. I knew I didn't want to be in this couch and have no money, so I knew I wanted to be on my own and making money, but I didn't know how I was gonna get there.

• 1:00:26Speaker 00

  And I had so many fears that were holding me back. So these fears were limiting me from creating the physical manifestations in the real world. And, the three things that I did, early on, was, well, there was three fears that I started to overcome. The first thing I did was, where I wrote down a list of all the things that were holding me back. After about six months of feeling depressed and anxious, I was like, "Okay, what are my main fears?"

• 1:00:54Speaker 00

  Public speaking was one, and it was really the fear of being laughed at and humiliated by not looking smart or looking good. And so the first thing I did is I met someone who was a public speaking professional. They made money a full time being a public speaker. And I convinced him to give me some coaching. And he's like, if you want to overcome this fear, if you want to, if you want to impact anyone and create anything in life, you need to be able to communicate, whether it's in a boardroom, a conference room, at a job, or on stage. So you don't have to be a professional speaker, but you need to learn the skills and the tools of professional speaking to communicate anywhere. And the best thing you should do is go to Toastmasters. It's a, it's a, it's a organization that allows you to practice public speaking in

• 1:01:39Speaker 00

  a confined space with feedback. And I joined a club and I was terrified. I found a group, I started doing it every single week for a year. And over that year, not only did I overcome my fear of public speaking, I developed a skill which allowed me to generate income around public speaking in certain different ways, whether it be podcasting and speaking on stage and workshops. And that skill of overcoming the fear gave me incredible courage and confidence to say, okay, I can do this for the next thing. The next thing was writing a book. I was developing skills on LinkedIn at the time by networking with people. But I was like, who's gonna listen to me? I almost flunked out of English in high school. So I found another mentor who had written books and convinced him to coach me on writing

• 1:02:24Speaker 00

  a book. And that was my first book. And through that process, it wasn't perfect and I wasn't amazing as a writer, but completing that work gave me courage and confidence and gave me another skill set that was once a fear that seemed impossible. That allowed me to manifest now my fifth book over the last 10 years, where it's allowed to monetize something in the physical world. The third one that I was terrified of, believe it or not, was salsa dancing, because I would watch salsa dancing. I used to live above a, above a jazz club, and once a week they would have salsa dancing downstairs. And I would go down there and just watch for months and I was terrified. I was like, this thing terrifies me more than anything.

• 1:03:08Speaker 00

  Like dancing alone, I can't do. Salsa dancing is a whole nother level of dance. It's like a different language, a different music, a different rhythm, a different culture. I do not belong. And I was just like, I am terrified of this and therefore I need to go all in on it. And that was one of the skills that I haven't monetized necessarily, but it's given me so much courage and confidence and belief in myself that I can go anywhere in the world

• 1:03:39Speaker 00

  and speak zero of the language where I'm at and no zero person there. I can go into any social nightclub where there's salsa dancing and I can ask the best person to dance and have an incredible night. And I've met so many people just having these experiences, being able to salsa dance anywhere in the world over the last 20 years. And I wouldn't have been able to have that richness of life without overcoming that fear and developing that skill. So this is just a few things that I did early on, which was creating that list of fears, overcoming it by developing the skills and creating way more confidence in my abilities to go monetize in the future.

• 1:04:20André Duqum?

  I'm sure that courageousness and fearlessness translates to your career and work and taking risks for your purpose and whatnot. I know for sure for me, and I would love for you to share what you did in your new book, Make Money Easy, about the mastermind habit and the power and importance of relationships and being around people that you're inspired by. You know, I think earlier on, especially in my journey, you know, none of us were wealthy or rich, but we all had the desire to become and become rich and prosperous individual. And being able to kind of have that iron sharpens irons, I think is really important.

• 1:05:02André Duqum?

  And then you can afford mentors and coaches or, you know, whatever. And of course, they don't have to be alive. You don't have to pay for them. There's so many resources online now and through podcasting and books and all the things. But what is the mastermind habit and the importance of it?

• 1:05:16Speaker 00

  You spoke about it already in terms of like the things that have helped you get here at 28. We're having these kind of mentors early on when you're 15, 16, kind of getting started in your transformational journey. You talked about the richness of like your men's group and going out in nature and developing those bonds and transforming in these men's groups. And also just having a high vibrational tribe, I think you said, within kind of the community of transformation and consciousness. You've been developing a mastermind moments for the last 10 plus years where the things you're inspired to become more of. And the mastermind habit is really developing community or finding the communities and the mentors to give you the tools or the industry knowledge to help accelerate your growth.

• 1:06:00Speaker 00

  So if you got into a mastermind with people that are making $20 million a year, maybe in transformation, and you get you around them once a month or once a quarter for a weekend at a time, I guarantee you would accelerate your financial success to be able to make a big impact of transformation and make money around it while being able to scale effortlessly or with more ease. And it's about being around the right people who have already done it. So for me, just a quick story, the first mastermind I went to, I was working hard, building my kind of online marketing business around LinkedIn.

• 1:06:39Speaker 00

  And for the first kind of year and a half, I think I did like 250,000 in sales total, like really working hard for a year and a half, creating content, selling courses, doing webinars, kind of doing the online marketing thing. I went to my first mastermind, there's probably 25 people in the group, they were all doing seven plus figures. All I did throughout this entire weekend was see how I could help these individuals. And there was about five or six guys who I was kind of helping them on LinkedIn live in the moment, showing them how I could help them grow their business through their LinkedIn profile, not asking for anything in return. The week later, five of those six guys said, hey, I've got a community of people.

• 1:07:23Speaker 00

  Can you teach what you taught me just for them for free? And then offer a program you have afterwards? I said, sure. So I did five webinars in 30 days after that. And I did a half a million dollars in sales in those five webinars. And that was from one mastermind weekend. And I was just like, it blew my mind, the possibilities. And I'm not saying by being at a mastermind, you're automatically going to make more money or more is going to come to you. But it's because I came with a generous heart and was like, how can I help you? Help you, help you. That was all I was trying to do. And certain people were wanting to help me in return. And that created the financial prosperity in that moment.

• 1:08:04Speaker 00

  And I've been a part of, I've created masterminds since then for the last 15 years. And it has just accelerated my problem solving, helped me get out of pain, find solutions. Us being here right now as a mastermind. Even before this conversation, I was like, oh, what are you doing with these cameras? Oh, you got this AI thing to solve this problem? That's going to save me hours of editing time just from one conversation we had that's going to help accelerate the growth of my processes. That is a mastermind right here, me and you, having a conversation. It doesn't have to be a formal thing, but being around people that are doing what you want to do, they might have wisdom, tools, knowledge, lessons that could empower you to accelerate your growth. And that's abundance. It doesn't have to be money.

• 1:08:49Speaker 00

  It can just feel rich by saving you time and helping you get out of pain.

• 1:08:57André Duqum?

  You know, I think that is in so many ways is one of the biggest supporting factors in us feeling supported and in our meaningful mission in life. And when I say meaningful mission and when you use that verbiage, it's really, it feels like the difference between forcing your way through the world and having money and abundance and prosperity be magnetized to you because of your alignment with what you're here uniquely to do and have the capacity to do. I think we can do many things and support in many ways, but. We are unique individuals with unique skillsets and knowledge and experience. And the more that we're, I guess, leveraging that and living in alignment with that, it feels like we can make money by mistake often. You know, it just kind of, it comes to us.

• 1:09:41André Duqum?

  And so, how important is discovering your meaningful mission on the pursuit of that?

• 1:09:46Speaker 00

  I think it's key. And it's also, it's interesting because I've learned how to say no to a lot of money in the last five to seven years. And I think this may be a counterintuitive approach to people, but, you know, I'm, I don't drink, I don't smoke, I've never been drunk in my life, I don't do drugs, none of that stuff. And I think when we're in this space of transformation, you're almost out of alignment if you're doing certain, you're preaching one thing, but you're not doing that thing.

• 1:10:10André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:10Speaker 00

  And never am I like preaching, I have all the answers or something, but I'm trying to live in alignment with the values that I'm talking about or the people that I'm talking about and learning from. And so, I've turned down so much money around alcohol brands or just like, I don't know, freaking, just weird, fringy, like CBD-type drugs or whatever, that I'm just like, okay, I'm not against it, but I just don't know if it's right for me right now. It's just not in the alignment, right? And so, what do I want to be selling or promoting or encouraging? And making sure that the brands are in alignment with me or the speaking gigs? Like, some people, I'm like, you want to pay me $250,000 to speak in this place? I don't really just vibe with your energy.

• 1:10:54Speaker 00

  And I think it's okay to say no to money if it's not in alignment with your meaningful mission. You know, when you're starting out and you're broke, you might have to say money everywhere. You know, I was driving a truck for three months, and I didn't want to be driving a truck to make money. I was like, this is where I'm at right now to get me to the next stage. And it's figuring out, okay, how can I be as meaningful as possible with my mission and be in alignment around receiving the money that's attached to that, to that mission as well? You and I could start a freaking clothing line tomorrow. You could create camera bags and say, I love cameras and I love gear and I love videos. So let me make a bag. We can make a toothbrush company. Because we'd like to have clean teeth, but it's not our mission to make.

• 1:11:39Speaker 00

  It's not a meaningful mission for us. Just because you can make money on something doesn't mean you should make money on something. And it's hard at times to say no to money, but you want to make sure the right money's coming to you.

• 1:11:51André Duqum?

  It feels like it can actually be a test and in many ways, your yes doesn't have value until you use your leverage or no.

• 1:11:58Speaker 00

  A hundred percent, man. And I'm not saying you should block abundance coming to you and say no to money. Like, and there's some gray areas in life and it's like, but it's just-

• 1:12:07André Duqum?

  But there is so much value in the courage of saying no to even at times money that would be very useful to you. And you could make, you know, you could support your team and do things with it. But the place it's coming from isn't in full alignment. And when you say no to that, I feel like it opens up more of what's a full yes.

• 1:12:23Speaker 00

  It does. And I also think it's figuring out your time. You know, I'm on a, I'm on a book tour right now. I'm launching a book. And I'm also like, I'm saying no to so many opportunities that could help me sell. That could help me get my message out to more people. But if I'm saying yes to all this time with everyone, then I have no time for my health right now. And that's not rich to me. So it's like, learning to say no. So that I can still feel rich and abundant within me and feel good about all the decisions I make is key.

• 1:12:54André Duqum?

  So important, so important and really helps us refine our North Star and-

• 1:12:58Speaker 00

  I think so. Have you said no to money in the last few years? That could have been great money.

• 1:13:02André Duqum?

  So much.

• 1:13:03Speaker 00

  Someone wanted you to build out a studio. They're like, oh, they're going to pay me all this money to build this out. But you were like, I don't need to do that anymore.

• 1:13:09André Duqum?

  Totally, yeah.

• 1:13:10Speaker 00

  I did that for a season and it worked, but now I'm-

• 1:13:12André Duqum?

  Yeah, I'd rather just do it for free for people that, you know, I really believe in and want to support now that it's not, now that it's not a need.

• 1:13:18Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:13:20André Duqum?

  But, uh, yeah, it's such an interesting trap and like having the lack of boundaries for that just, um-

• 1:13:30André Duqum?

  It's not a good recipe for success.

• 1:13:32Speaker 00

  It's not, man.

• 1:13:33André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:34Speaker 00

  And when you live in scarcity, you say yes to everything. I used to do that.

• 1:13:39André Duqum?

  Yeah, yeah, for sure. And now I for sure, I've turned on hundreds of thousands of dollars from brands and from people and from opportunities that I just, I don't see myself being a part of. And I think there's, there's freedom in that when you're not a slave to just making more money, just to make more money. It's like, no, your time is so valuable.

• 1:14:00Speaker 00

  Well, you're putting value on yourself in other ways.

• 1:14:03André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:03Speaker 00

  As opposed to saying, I'll just give it freely to whoever's gonna pay the most money. You're saying, no, I value this within me and that that appreciates in value.

• 1:14:12André Duqum?

  I want to expand on this. So like, the biggest money blocks, a bigger one is what we're talking about right now. We often don't put value on our worth. And, you know, as you start to develop these skillsets, it's important for you to like, charge your price. Even if you're in a spiritual space, some people put that in a taboo and think that you shouldn't be able to make a living and that you should be in poverty or something, you know? There's all these stories we have around money. And so I'm just curious, what you think are the most disempowering ones? And, uh, and the importance of knowing your value and charging it?

• 1:14:44Speaker 00

  I think one of the biggest blocks about, um, the biggest blocks of abundance is people's money wounds. And this could be just spiritual, psychological wounds as well, but,

• 1:14:55Speaker 00

  you know, you mentioned it earlier, um, something around like our beliefs influence our behaviors. How we think and feel influences the way we act and react to certain things in life. And a lot of our beliefs are just shaped by our story around what we heard, saw, or learned growing up. And the wounds that are still within us. For me, I had very many money wounds. I had times where my parents were fighting and arguing around money, and it made me feel unsafe in my nervous system. My brother went to prison and they had to use all their money on legal fees. And it was just like this sad, dark time. Uh, I used to steal money. People steal from me. Um, and just the, the shame associated with those things as a kid.

• 1:15:38Speaker 00

  That became my makeup, my belief system around money. Where I had scarcity, I had anxiety, I didn't feel safe with it, but I wanted it. I felt insecure, like I needed more, the more I had, it still didn't feel good. That was my belief system and my beliefs dictated and influenced the way I acted and behaved. And I think until we can really reflect on our money wounds and understand what our current money story is, we're just going to continue to react and respond because that's how our nervous system is. So we have to first take an inventory of our money wounds to understand our money story. Or just, this doesn't have to be associated with money, it could be love, our love story,

• 1:16:21Speaker 00

  our health story, whatever it might be, but our story. And then we have to see, what is our money personality style if we're talking about money? How do I think and feel when I see money? When I receive money, when I spend money? So let me ask you a question. Here's an exercise for everyone watching as well, and I'd love people to share in the comments what their response would be. Imagine money as a person and money walks through the door right now and stands right in front of us three. What is your first thought, feeling and response to money being in this room?

• 1:16:57André Duqum?

  Uh, let's hang out, let's spend time together, invite your friends over, and let's, uh, let's build something.

• 1:17:06Speaker 00

  That's cool. If money said, "I'm gonna give you a million dollars right now," how would it make you feel?

• 1:17:12André Duqum?

  Feel like a full yeah.

• 1:17:14Speaker 00

  Okay. If, uh, if, if money said, "Here's a penny," how would you feel?

• 1:17:22André Duqum?

  I would, that would be, I would say, "Thank you."

• 1:17:25Speaker 00

  If money said, "Um, all your money in your bank account, I'm taking it from you," how would you feel?

• 1:17:31André Duqum?

  I'd ask, "Why are you doing that?" It would not feel great.

• 1:17:35Speaker 00

  If money said, "You know, the more you're gonna make this year, you're gonna have to spend millions in taxes to the government, to California, to all these things that maybe you don't agree with. How does that make you feel?

• 1:17:45André Duqum?

  Probably a little bit less stoked. I would say, don't love having to do that. But also, that is a reflection of making a lot more money too. So I would say ultimately, it's worth it.

• 1:17:55Speaker 00

  If you give someone a gift of thousands of dollars of value gift, whether it be cash or a physical material thing, and they don't say thank you, and they're not appreciative, and they're not grateful, they're expecting someone close to you, someone you don't know, anyone in between, how would that make you feel?

• 1:18:14André Duqum?

  Not great.

• 1:18:15Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:18:17Speaker 00

  If someone gave you a gift, it was a friend, but they expected you to react in a different way around that money, how would that make you feel?

• 1:18:26André Duqum?

  Not great.

• 1:18:26Speaker 00

  Okay.

• 1:18:27André Duqum?

  That's interesting.

• 1:18:27Speaker 00

  So this is just an experiment to notice. And I want everyone to respond in the comments. If money walked into your room right now while you're watching this, how would it make you feel? I'll give you an example of someone that I talked to, that I know who's close to me, who's about your age, 27, 28. And I said, "You're at a restaurant, and money walks in. What do you do? What's your first reaction?" And they said, "I would run to the bar and hide. And then I would start gossiping about money behind his back. Then if money came up to me, I would act like I was his friend. And then I would use and abuse money to get what I needed in life. And then I would ghost money if it ever reached out to me." And I just said, "Wow, that's an honest response."

• 1:19:10Speaker 00

  And imagine if that was a friend in your life. How do you think that friend would feel? If it was a person?

• 1:19:16André Duqum?

  Yeah, externalizing it into a person really helps.

• 1:19:18Speaker 00

  If it was a person?

• 1:19:19André Duqum?

  It is a relationship, yeah.

• 1:19:21Speaker 00

  Your relationship with money is one of the most powerful relationships you have. And if it is an unhealthy relationship, you're gonna have stress and chaos at different seasons of life, different moments of life. Anytime you're thinking about money, handling money, receiving money, spending money, anything, paying taxes, all these interactions are gonna have an emotional charge tied to that relationship, based on your belief system, based on your story, and the wounds we have. And if we're unable to first look at our story and then see how our current personality style is with money today, then it's hard to start mending those things and having a healthier relationship with it. You sound like you have a very healthy relationship with money.

• 1:20:05Speaker 00

  Sure, there's certain things that I don't think anyone would like if someone stole all their money, or this and this. And you don't wanna get walked on by people, and you wanna have healthy boundaries and all these things, but there was nothing like wrong with what you said necessarily, or it didn't seem unhealthy, right? It seems like you have a very healthy relationship with money, that you're like welcoming into your life, like, hey, thanks for being here. You're grateful that it's around. You also say, let's build something together. Let's invest in something together and add value in the world. If it gave you a bunch of money, you'd be thankful and appreciative. And therefore, money would probably wanna keep giving you more, cuz you're grateful. You have this like generous appreciation. And the more you appreciate it, it appreciates in value. And if someone took it from you, you'd probably be like, why are you taking this?

• 1:20:50Speaker 00

  Like, why are you taking this from me without a reason, right? You're questioning why you spend it on certain taxes, and that's a whole nother conversation. But overall, your relationship seems pretty conscious and pretty healthy. So I love everyone watching or listening to leave a comment on your channel of what your relationship is if money walked in the door, just as an experiment to see, do I have a healthy relationship with this? Is it supporting and serving me in my life right now? Does my nervous system feel anxious when I have money conversations with friends or family? Can I talk about money in a comfortable way? Or do I feel scarce when I talk about it? Do I hoard my money and save it? And I never spend it on anything? Or do I have no clue where my money is?

• 1:21:34Speaker 00

  Cuz I never, I avoid it and I don't wanna look. Look at it in the bank account and I just have credit cards all over the place. It's just notice where I'm at. And I think people's the lack of attention on it, it doesn't mean obsession, but lack of awareness and attention is a block for them. Someone's lack of awareness around their money story and their money wounds is a block for them because they're going to keep repeating patterns based on their past story. So until you can start to heal and take yourself to money therapy in a sense, and heal those financial money story wounds that are in your nervous system and create integrating patterns that feel more safe having conversations around money,

• 1:22:14Speaker 00

  safe around giving money, spending money on bills, spending it on friends, receiving money from friends, receiving money. You're going to feel blocked. You're going to feel emotionally scarce, avoidant, or anxious. And we want to have a secure relationship style with money, just like we would with a partner, an intimate partner. And it's interesting because people tend to have a similar

• 1:22:39Speaker 00

  anxious, avoidant, or secure relationship style with a person as they would with money. So just notice, have you had chaotic relationships in the past? Maybe you don't have the healthiest, most calm, peaceful relationship with money. Just notice.

• 1:22:54André Duqum?

  And I feel like so many of us to degrees we're unaware of have a relationship with money that is very avoidant, very anxious, like that attachment style is so real. And we treat it sort of as this like ugly stepchild that we don't want to have to focus, but we need.

• 1:23:11Speaker 00

  Yeah. And also, I mean, you probably know this more than me, but being in this spiritual world

• 1:23:18Speaker 00

  of content and communities. You mentioned it earlier, it's like people don't really talk about money in the spiritual world as much. Taboo, they don't charge for what they want, or maybe they're like extreme charging and then people look down at them, who knows what the things are.

• 1:23:33Speaker 00

  But the challenge is, people don't talk about it, period. Yeah. You know, or they feel afraid to talk about it, or they feel self-conscious talking about it, or they feel insecure, or shameful if they have it, whatever it might be. And I think the ability to express about it in a comfortable way makes you feel more comfortable with money. And then you can receive and give it more freely. And the more clinched we are around anything, you can't receive anything if you're holding on to it so tightly. So we have to be willing to receive it and say, "Thank you. Where do you want to go?" Something I learned from Ken Honda. He wrote a book called Happy Money. And he said every time money comes to him, whether it's a penny or a million dollars, he says, "Thank you, money. Where would you like to go? Would you like to go in my bank account? Would you like to go and do investments?

• 1:24:17Speaker 00

  Would you like me to give you to someone right now? Would you like me to invest in yoga class?" Whatever it is, like, where do you want to go? He's giving it a direction. And he's just noticing it and saying, "Thank you," and appreciating it for being here. That's what you said. First, money walks in, you said, "Thanks for being here. I'm stoked. Let's do something together." That attitude allows you to not be scared of it. And anytime you're scared of something, that's blocking you from creating more of it. The belief of also, "Oh, I'm spiritual. I can live on nothing. Only people that make a lot of money are bad, or doing something wrong, or hurting people." That belief is also blocking you, because you don't want to become a bad person if people with money do bad shady things.

• 1:24:59Speaker 00

  So you have to just learn about your wounds, your money story, and start changing these beliefs. And that's what I did a little bit with you. Not that you had an unhealthy relationship with it, but I was like, "What would it look like with 10, 20 million dollars in the bank? You could give more in certain ways. How empowering could that feel?" And it's getting back to the emotions and the feelings around how to use money as a tool to be of service towards your meaningful mission, not only to just serve you in having more things.

• 1:25:28André Duqum?

  So important, man. Thank you for sharing that reminder. And for anybody that's listening and has resistance to when the money conversation comes up repeatedly, it's important to ask yourself why, you know? If becoming a prosperous individual is, yes, a mental, physical, relational, but also financial journey, like there's, money is an aspect in the, in the modern world, in the capitalistic society, that we can't just ignore. It's a tool, and I think we do have so much charge around it, in our story of it. And we don't really see it as a resource, and as a tool, and something that just amplifies more of who you are. But we see it as this sort of thing that is causing so many issues in the world. And, you know, it is a complicated subject.

• 1:26:12André Duqum?

  But if you really believe you're doing important work here, then more money is just a means for amplifying important work in the world.

• 1:26:18Speaker 00

  Exactly. And again, I think anytime you have an emotional charge in your nervous system around any topic, a past relationship that hurts you, your parents, your siblings that bullied you, you know, whatever it might be, something that hurts you in any way, or something you have shame around, if you are emotionally charged when you talk about it, that thing still has some type of power or influence over you that's blocking you from feeling free. And you and I are here to continue to learn the tools to become free ourselves, and encourage people to break free of those emotional blocks that hold us back in any relationship in life, not just talking about money. That's why for 25 years, I was unable to talk about being sexually abused when I was

• 1:27:02Speaker 00

  a kid by a man that I didn't know, because I had such an emotional charge, and I felt so unsafe by thinking about it, thinking, what if anyone knew, no one would love me, no one would accept me, I'll be outcasted from society if people knew this about me? There was so much shame in my nervous system and fear. And it wasn't until I was able to process and heal that shame, and start talking about it, where I was like, okay, I can say this and not feel pain anymore, not feel shame anymore. I've done the healing journey, and therefore I'm free from that memory or that wound. And if people in the spiritual communities, listening or watching, cannot speak about money...

• 1:27:46Speaker 00

  Because they're ashamed of it, or they're afraid of it, or whatever. It's just saying that you are not free from that conversation or that feeling. And is that making you more spiritual? Is that making you more abundant? Is that making you feel free? I don't think so. And I'm not saying you're bad and wrong about this. It's just there's something to work on for you to set you more free. And when you can get comfortable in your nervous system, talking about it, looking at your bank account and not feeling bad or feeling shameful, and start just working within your life around this energy, I think it's going to be more helpful than hurtful.

• 1:28:23André Duqum?

  So good, man, because we can view money as a means to empower us to amplify our freedom or perpetuate our own prison.

• 1:28:35Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:28:35André Duqum?

  Like, the relationship we have to it, again, is just so insidious in so many ways. And, and so, yeah, these are, these are really important.

• 1:28:42Speaker 00

  Is there anyone you know? You don't have to say their name, but maybe one or two people you know in the spiritual communities, consciousness communities, who are incredible human beings, who have incredible gifts and talents that really help heal people. They have a presence, a love, a connection that you're like, man, this person really influences so many people in the communities. But they are just blocked around money. They either don't charge money, they give it all away for free. They, they feel guilty when someone tries to give them money. They, they say, no, I can't take your money. They're rejecting it. And can you see how that could be hurting them from amplifying their own life's, life's fulfillment, but also the fulfillment of impacting others? Do you know anyone like that?

• 1:29:24André Duqum?

  So many.

• 1:29:25Speaker 00

  Really?

• 1:29:25André Duqum?

  A lot of people.

• 1:29:26Speaker 00

  What would you say to those individuals, based on your money healing journey or your relationship with money? And what it seems to be, you know, at 28, you have a sanctuary, you have a growing business, but you also feel free with your money. You don't feel trapped by it or feel wronged by it.

• 1:29:47Speaker 00

  What advice would you give to the spiritual community who has struggles around creating financial prosperity?

• 1:29:53André Duqum?

  Yeah, it's a great question. I would say that what it means to be human is to have the capacity to move beyond any boundaries and limitations that are set on us. And being a slave to money is a limitation and boundary of expressing our true nature as a creative being. And so, no matter what area, what topic of life it is, if we have stuck energy around it, if we don't feel safe around it, if we don't have the capacity to own it, then it's limiting us and we are limitless. And so, whether it's money, or sexual energy, or business, or creativity, wherever there's a block, there's an opportunity to expand beyond that block. And so, when it comes to money, it becomes a taboo.

• 1:30:37André Duqum?

  You can get comfortable in the environment that you're in and the people that are around you that share similar beliefs around money that are sort of unspoken. Hmm. And so, what I would say is to first spend time with people who don't have that same money story. Spend time around people that think much more expansively and don't have blocks around money. And then start to challenge your own notion. And write down a lot of the questions we had in this conversation. What does it mean to live a rich life? What are my stories about money? And then, I think that starts to shift the direction of your focus around it. And then you're given the opportunity, I feel like in life so often you're given the same lesson until you pass the test. And when, let's say, you're an artist and you sell paintings and you sell them for

• 1:31:22André Duqum?

  a couple hundred bucks, but you feel like the values there are $1,000, so $2,000. You're given an opportunity, next time somebody wants to buy your painting and asks for a discount, to say, no, this is what it's worth. And that's uncomfortable, but it is an opportunity for you to really refine what your value is. And you'll be shocked at the level of abundance that comes in as a byproduct of you standing for what your value and worth is. Yeah, man, that's powerful. Yeah. What would you add to that?

• 1:31:50Speaker 00

  That's great. Well, I would say that, uh, you know, everyone watching or listening, they should, you should create your own mastermind. And so people can learn from you in the spiritual community about how to expand their message and charge properly for their message. That's what I, you should start a mastermind. That's what I think. And it goes back to, you said it's like the mastermind habit of being around people that don't think the same way as you. And that's being uncomfortable. That might be investing in a mastermind or investing in a coach or a mentor, just saying, how can I be around someone like you who has figured out how to create money around this, this knowledge or this skillset. Um, but be willing to invest. I, there's a great story from Jen Sincero. I don't know if you know her

• 1:32:30Speaker 00

  book, You Are a Badass. I think it sold like, I don't know, five or 10 million copies. And she's done a lot of the deep spiritual work, but she was a writer in her early 40s, like living in a garage, you know, at some, paying like 500 bucks a month or something in LA, like being the broke artist vibe, not a sellout. I'm going to be like the creative artist. I'm going to make arts. I'm going to write and I'm going to charge minimum because I'm not going to sell out. And she talked about how she was sick and tired of being broke and having this limiting like artist lifestyle. And she ended up hiring a coach that changed her life forever. And this wasn't like the best coach in the world

• 1:33:13Speaker 00

  who is like a multimillionaire, but she hired a coach that knew more than her and had more courage to charge more. And she spent like, I can't remember, like a thousand bucks a month on this coach, but it was like all of her money, it felt like it was so uncomfortable to invest in this coach. And this coach pushed her to charge more for her writing and to go write the book that she really wanted to write. And then she wrote, You Are a Badass. And it made her financially free for the rest of her life. And she was like, if I didn't have the courage to invest, I want to know then said, I need to figure out how to make this money back. So is that kind of stretching myself to invest in something, knowledge, a person, a mastermind, coaching, to then say, okay, I need to now expand myself

• 1:33:58Speaker 00

  to go be able to generate more. You did that when you got this house. You stretched yourself financially to create a sanctuary and you expanded your ability to create abundance. And, um, that's what I would say. Like you gave the answer. Surround yourself with people that think different about money and you'll start to take on those beliefs as well, or at least challenge those beliefs.

• 1:34:18André Duqum?

  It's so valuable because when you see how money really is just a story beyond taking care of your own needs, whether a hundred grand or a million or a hundred million, it becomes kind of your norm way of like annual revenue, it is a story.

• 1:34:32Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:34:33André Duqum?

  And you learn that when you talk to really abundant people who are extremely wealthy financially and how it's the norm, you almost expect it.

• 1:34:42Speaker 00

  Yes.

• 1:34:43André Duqum?

  And so obviously you create what you expect more of and what you believe your value is worth.

• 1:34:48Speaker 00

  And I also start, you know, in the spiritual community, I would just say, don't stick in the spiritual community where people are not giving money away, you know, are not like investing in things based on what you're worth.

• 1:34:59André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:00Speaker 00

  Go find wealthy people who are broken and solve their problems.

• 1:35:03André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:03Speaker 00

  They'll pay you a thousand times more than a spiritual person and just trading sessions with each other. Like go find wealthier people or people that are in a demographic that have money and solve their problems.

• 1:35:16André Duqum?

  Yeah, the spiritual community is called Planet Earth and there's 7.8 billion people.

• 1:35:19Speaker 00

  Exactly. Go find people with money.

• 1:35:22André Duqum?

  Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Man, that's so good and I think really valuable and something that I would have loved to get advice on, you know, 10 years ago would have been really valuable for me. And yeah, what do you think? Cause I'm still on my money mastery journey. Do you feel like you're similarly like you still have a lot to learn or?

• 1:35:40Speaker 00

  I mean, there's seven habits in the book and the last one is the mastery habit. It's just like, okay, once you've broken through the ceiling of where you're at or you're start to feel like you've gotten to a place financially and emotionally at the same time where you feel healthy, there's going to be a new level. Like you just said, the thing you were like, I'm not going to be stoked about having to pay millions of dollars in taxes once I get there. But that's like, okay, now you have to break through a new emotional feeling. This doesn't feel good. I mean, this feels good to make $10 million, but now I'm going to pay three and a half million dollars in taxes to this thing that I don't believe in for these things at the government? Where's this money even going? Why are these roads broken? Why is this all messed up? All these things. And you're gonna have to say, okay, here's a new lesson for me. I haven't mastered this yet.

• 1:36:25Speaker 00

  So every time we hit new financial levels, there's gonna be new things that come up for us emotionally that we're gonna have to reprocess and get through. There's also new knowledge we're gonna need to learn. You're gonna say, how can I steward this money better? How can I contain this money better? Invest this money better? So I'm not feeling bad by spending it on taxes or feeling bad by this. You're gonna be giving more of it away. That's gonna create new uncomfortable feelings. So we're gonna learn how to master our emotions at different levels of financial abundance. And I haven't mastered it. It's like, okay, you go back to the habit one. Habit one is the mindset habit. Am I living in gratitude and generosity?

• 1:37:07Speaker 00

  Or have I gotten stingy and cold and like hoarding my money? Because I feel like, ah, everyone's trying to grab it from me now. Once you start making more money, people are gonna start asking you for that money. And there's a whole new relationship when you have money and the weight or the pressure of having it from friends and family and everyone asking, can you help me? There's a different emotional weight that you don't have when you're poor. When I was poor on my sister's couch, no one asked me for money because I didn't have any. Once I started making money and people knew, or they assumed I had money, kids were hitting me up from middle school that I hadn't talked to in 20 years. Being like, hey, man, I got this project. Can you help me? I'm like, that, we don't have a relationship.

• 1:37:49Speaker 00

  And now you're just jumping in and expecting me to give you something. That doesn't feel good. So you have to learn how to say no, create boundaries, learn how to disappoint people and feel okay with yourself in that process. And it's just a different level and journey of emotional healing when you have more money. And some people may say, I don't want to deal with those problems. And then I'm comfortable at $50,000 a year because no one bothers me for money. You know, when we go out to dinner, everyone Venmos each other the same amount, that splits the check, and I'm comfortable with that. Then you're only gonna create that type of financial abundance in your life. And that's okay, too. It's just, is that the life you want?

• 1:38:29André Duqum?

  That's the important thing to, as we start to wrap up here, too, is again, just clarify, is that the life you want? There's no right or wrong amount of money to be making. It's, is it an amount that you actually desire? That you feel good with?

• 1:38:42Speaker 00

  And is it a rich life for you?

• 1:38:43André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:44Speaker 00

  Do you feel rich?

• 1:38:45André Duqum?

  And that's a different amount for everyone.

• 1:38:46Speaker 00

  Different amount for everyone.

• 1:38:47André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:48Speaker 00

  And for me, you know, sure, maybe there's numbers in my account that would be like, oh, that's cool. Maybe it makes me feel a little bit more safe or secure for the level of life I have now. But if I can't emotionally feel rich with any of the amount of the money I have, then it kind of doesn't matter because I'm spiritually poor, but financially rich. And I'd rather be, have the money that I have and feel like I'm living a beautiful life and feel emotionally safe with me and safe with the money and safe on how I can navigate all of the challenges of life with the amount of money that I've been given and stewarding. And know that this money is not mine. When I die, I don't keep it with me.

• 1:39:30Speaker 00

  It's given to me on loan for a period of time. And as a spiritual conduit in life, it's my duty to respect it and be of service in using it in the best way for me and my life, my dreams, the people around me, the charities, my team. And if I don't respect it, then I'm probably going to lose it. And it's going to go to other people's hands and it's going to be rented to them until they die or until they spend it. So we have to learn that principle.

• 1:40:01André Duqum?

  Yeah, it's again, living in harmony with, in relationship to money because it can easily tip over to the other side where maybe we're not giving enough awareness or attention to that money conversation. But then it can very quickly to becoming possessed by possessions and focusing so much on money.

• 1:40:17Speaker 00

  You can't make it your god either.

• 1:40:19André Duqum?

  Right.

• 1:40:19Speaker 00

  Can't make gold and money your god, otherwise that'll, that'll trap you.

• 1:40:24André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:25Speaker 00

  And it's also, you probably experienced this, you know, I had, I think 11 or 12 different friends or people I know who lost their homes in the last few months, the fires. You're in the community that people lost their homes. People lost everything financially or materially, potentially.

• 1:40:41Speaker 00

  And there's a lesson of just being detached to it as well and learning how to be okay with like, if you lost everything, sure, there's going to be some grief and sadness. And we're not here to spiritually bypass our emotions and say, I'll be fine no matter what. But if you're a slave to it or you're, it's your god, man, it's going to be very painful when that goes away.

• 1:41:01André Duqum?

  As it can and has for so many, like, like you just said, you know. I like things. I like having a nice place and a nice equipment and all this. But it can, and I thought it almost did at one of the nights, disappear in a moment.

• 1:41:15Speaker 00

  Wow. How did that make you feel when you thought everything I've created and worked hard for is gonna be gone?

• 1:41:21André Duqum?

  Uh, it was a, yeah, it was a lot. There was a lot of emotions. It was full spectrum. Um, there was on one end, sort of total freedom from like the unknown and just like, I don't know what's gonna happen. And I trust, um, to like, damn, I poured so much time and energy and money into all of the stuff.

• 1:41:40Speaker 00

  And time is money.

• 1:41:41André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:42Speaker 00

  All that time and earning money to build this studio and this home and buy this home. And you probably didn't have insurance because all the insurance companies cut it out, right? It's like, you're like, all those years that I invested in making money to invest in this place where there's no insurance.

• 1:41:56André Duqum?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:57Speaker 00

  That's seven years of my life gone. You're probably having that like, ah, I can't hold on to this feeling.

• 1:42:04André Duqum?

  It, what it did inspire was that like the gratitude of really what the studio is, which is really just a radio signal, an antenna for building a community throughout the world, which is actually what I'm, what I love and what I'm passionate about. Like this studio, while it's nice, I enjoy being in it, is really just a means for what my purpose is, you know? And so it also, I had a shift coming back too of like, okay, I wanna continue to spend more money on experiences, on, you know, building community, like a lot of those things that build spiritual richness, you know? Um, now that I've gotten like a lot of the material stuff in place as well, continue to pour into those buckets. Um, because those don't go away. Those can't be burned away.

• 1:42:46Speaker 00

  Yeah, and that, that, that memory dividend lasts forever.

• 1:42:49André Duqum?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:42:50Speaker 00

  You know, those are dividends that pay forever. That trip you took with your friends in nature and the, the healing that happened, like you'll think about that and that'll be a rich memory dividend for the rest of your life. And that- Probably wasn't that expensive of a trip, you know, or whatever it might be, or going to Nigeria, or doing these different things. These are memory dividends. Bill Perkins talks about this in his book, Die with Zero, which is like, you shouldn't have all this money in your bank account when you die. You should have rich life experiences and die with nothing in the bank. Cause you'll have dividends that pay forever from those memories when you were 28, on that trip that you went to Egypt, or whatever it might be.

• 1:43:33Speaker 00

  And those are the things that will last and create spiritual abundance.

• 1:43:37André Duqum?

  It's, it's so true. I look back at, anytime I've done like a meditation retreat or spend prolonged periods of silence, always what comes up is memories of just extreme joy and play and excitement and adventure. That stuff is really what creates a true life. And again, money is just a means to support that.

• 1:43:55Speaker 00

  Absolutely.

• 1:43:55André Duqum?

  Yeah. This was an awesome conversation.

• 1:43:58Speaker 00

  Thanks for having me, man. Appreciate it.

• 1:44:00André Duqum?

  It was fun. I loved it. I think it's really important to, to talk about. And it's such an empowering conversation. And yeah, I really want to invite people to, whether you're listening on Spotify or YouTube, and you have a comment section to like drop down below what your takeaways are in terms of your money story. What does a rich life mean to you? I pay attention. I read the comments. I, I really think it's important to reflect on that as a community. And if you want to dive deeper and, and Lewis's teachings and thoughts around all this as well, Make Money Easy is the book, which you can find linked down below. And any other last words, bro?

• 1:44:38Speaker 00

  Nah, I mean, I think we talked about a lot here, but I, I just really believe that the richest life you can live is one of gratitude and generosity. That's the gateway to abundance. So keep being grateful, keep being generous, don't block your heart, and you're going to live a richer life.

• 1:44:56André Duqum?

  I think your life and how you decided to live is an example of that, man. So I see you as somebody who lives a very rich life. And it, you know, any advice or thoughts or shared conversation, it hits different when it's coming from somebody who lives what they practice and what they preach.

• 1:45:14Speaker 00

  Thanks, man. I've also just been at the bottom in so many different areas where it's like, I know how painful it is when you feel like you have no clue what you're supposed to do in your life. You're relying on everyone else in your mid twenties and you're broke. And you don't feel worthy and you don't feel deserving of love, of money, and you're just scared. I know that feeling. And so anyone watching or listening, like, there is a way out. And I'm glad that people are watching your show because you're giving them tools constantly to support their spiritual growth and hopefully give them a courage to push them a little bit to start taking these action steps. So I just know it's not an enjoyable life when you live in scarcity. And there's so much beauty on the other side.

• 1:45:59Speaker 00

  It might take a lot of work and courage, but it's worth it.

• 1:46:02André Duqum?

  Absolutely. 10 out of 10. It is.

• 1:46:07André Duqum?

  Yeah. Well, I loved all these reminders, everybody. Thank you for tuning into this episode, Louis. Appreciate you, man, so much. And yeah, excited to hang out, man.

• 1:46:16Speaker 00

  It's good, man. Appreciate you. Thanks.

• 1:46:18André Duqum?

  Take it easy, guys. Peace.