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Hi and welcome to the Dream Big And Bloom Podcast Episode #25 

I’m Mardi Lynn, certified DreamBuilder Coach and I help women over 60, who are disappointed and frustrated because this season of their lives is disappointing.  They’re tempted to settle for just good enough but there’s a deep longing within them for more fulfillment, financial freedom and fun.

The DreamBuilder Program that I teach, is a proven, reliable system for creating vibrant health, loving relationships, sharing your wisdom and experience through work, or volunteering, and having time and money freedom, to feeling happy, rich and free.

Three weeks ago, in Episode #23, we talked about time and money freedom and as the synchronicities of The Universe would have it, I discovered a new book by the same title. 

The author was a guest on Hal Elrod’s podcast. https://halelrod.com/ray-higdon/

(Hal is the author of The Miracle Morning: The Not-So-Obvious Secret Guaranteed to Transform Your Life (Before 8AM) a book I recommend to all my coaching clients).

Hal was interviewing Ray Higdon. Ray his wife Jessica, have just published, Time, Money, Freedom: 10 Simple Rules to Redefine What’s Possible and Radically Reshape Your Life.  

Time, Money, Freedom: 10 Rules To Redefine What’s Possible And Radically Reshape Your Life

That title certainly grabs your attention doesn’t it?!  It sounded very similar to what I help people with, “redefining what’s possible and radically reshaping lives” and I was eager to see what he had to say.

It turns out that their approach to time and money freedom is to build a lucrative home based business and many of you may be interested in doing that also.  

Ray and Jessica, have been very successful and I wanted to share their stories because they demonstrate the rewards of

1. overcoming the paradigms from your past,
2. having the courage to take risks, 
3. using failure as feedback, and 
4. managing fear. 

I hope this will inspire you to “dream big and bloom.” 

Ray Higdon’s personal story of how he overcame a childhood of abuse and became a multi-millionaire, is amazing and demonstrates that anyone from any kind of a background can be a success.  It’s stories like this that inspire people to transform their lives and help them keep going when the going gets tough and I love sharing them with you.

I thought it so interesting that Ray Higgins was inspired by Viktor Frankl.  He credits Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning as a major influence in his being able to turn his life around.  Frankl’s book is one of my favorites too. (For those of you who may not know, Frankl was a psychologist and a survivor of the Holocaust and his book is the classic work on overcoming adversity. It’s a must read in my opinion.) 

The Higdon’s approach to time and money freedom is to create your own businesses and have multiple streams of income. They have made millions of dollars as successful Network marketers.  Jessica pioneered using Facebook for promoting her Multi Level Marketing business.  People wanted to learn how she did it so she and Ray created courses and coaching programs.  

Another important aspect of having time, money and freedom is being able to fund charity work and make a difference in the world. The Higdons donate to charities, build schools and serve on the Board of several large charitable organizations.  Their description of the joy and fulfillment they experience as a result of being able to give back in big ways really inspired me to dream bigger.

Rule #10: Make An Impact

Rule #10: in their book, Make an Impact describes the joy of being wealthy enough to support charities and make a difference for others. It inspired me to add that to my personal vision statement.  It made me realize how often I comment that I’d love to be able to change something in the world but I don’t include it in my vision.  That’s the same limited thinking as saying “I wish my life could be better.” It’s wishing without commitment or action.  I have to laugh because I know better.  It just wasn’t really on my radar.  However, the universe is always urging us to grow, expand, to have more and to be more, so now I have a  grander vision for my life — to be able to give back in a bigger way.

Time and money freedom means creating more income so you can do what you desire, when you desire and that’s really important.  As Higdon says, “money is freedom.” However, there is even a bigger benefit. Wealth empowers you to make a bigger difference in the world and experience even more joy and fulfillment.  Ray and Jessica are perfect examples of this. 

The Higdon’s stories of tragedy in their lives growing up and how they managed to overcome and create the amazing lives they have today will really inspire you.

Their book illustrates the power of

• overcoming fear and procrastination;
• having a clear vision and a powerful why, and the
• personal transformation that occurs during the process of achieving time and money freedom.

Ray’s parents divorced when he was very young and he lived with his dad and a very abusive stepmother. He describes going to kindergarten with a bloody nose and having to say he “ran into a door,” wearing a turtleneck sweater to hide scratches on his neck, and being awakened almost every morning by being thrown against a closet and kicked.  That was his reality until he left that house to live with his mother at the age of 12. 

And then he moved out of his parents home in his junior year of high school, lived in a party house, and didn’t finish high school on time. He says that he was doing anything and everything to escape his childhood and that meant rebelling against everyone who represented Authority. He even had a few years dealing drugs which led to depression. 

“You Are Better Than That!”

And then one night when he’d taken a lot of drugs, and hadn’t seen his mom in months, he looked in the mirror and realized and hated what he saw and realized that he was better than that. 

He decided that earning a steady paycheck would keep him from bad influences in his life so he tried several jobs and one of them was at a Winn-Dixie. He was 18 years old and he asked his manager how long he been at Winn-Dixie and the manager said he was 32 years old and he been there 12 years and when Ray asked him about his career plan because he was looking for ideas, the manager pause for a minute and said, “I probably can’t leave here and make the same amount of money anywhere else, so I’m probably just going to stick it out here.” And Ray said,  “So you like it here?” and he said, No, I hate it.” 

Ray said he was so shocked that this man was 32 years of age and had already “cashed in his career chips.” He looked around and said to himself, “This is the best I can do?!” Ray says he would never forget that moment as long as he lived.  That’s when he realized that there wasn’t really a risk in trying something new and putting yourself out there. The risk was in staying exactly where you are and never knowing what could have been. The ultimate risk is to live your entire life doing what you don’t want to do, not living up to your potential; and he never wanted to take that risk.

“Is this where I want to remain for the rest of my life?”

From then on throughout his life if he ever feels like he’s doing something he doesn’t enjoy or if it’s a business or industry that doesn’t bring him fulfillment — that is a challenge, he asks himself, “Is this where I want to remain for the rest of my life?” Asking himself that question gives him the mindset to keep moving forward. He never wants to be complacent in any area of his life.

Ray moved through several jobs and became successful in each one but they weren’t a good match. The process of not settling and making those changes, having the courage to not only change jobs but to succeed; gave him the confidence to do anything. 

That is one of the main themes of the book, that you don’t settle.  Make a clear decision about what you want, take baby steps, and you grow in confidence with practice. 

If you’ve listened to this podcast for any length of time this will sound very familiar to you.

Jesse’s story started out differently but ends up in a similar place. She was working her way through college at a department store makeup counter while attending classes full-time. It gave her flexibility and time for job hunting.  She had started looking for marketing jobs so she could use her new degree but most of them didn’t pay much more than minimum wage. You could be there for 10 years without getting a promotion or raise and it didn’t seem worth it. Jess wanted something reliable that could support her and it looked like an entry-level job even with a degree, wasn’t going to provide that.

Unlike Ray, she didn’t see this first job at the makeup counter as a dead end. she had decided she could work her way up the ladder at the store and get into management. She was ready to follow the rules, put in her time, and reap the rewards.  However, that did not happen.

She had a very creative idea and she hosted a makeup event for the store. She brought in about 50 women who were her friends and various clients for whom she had done makeovers. The 50 women spent tons of money in the store that night. Because she needed help with the event she had recruited some of her co-workers so she didn’t even receive all of the commission’s.  However, she figured planning an event that benefited all her colleagues and the store would demonstrate her willingness to work there and would advance her career, so she considered everything to be great.

But the very next week, was her annual review and her manager told her she was in trouble because she had been late on a Tuesday morning about a month earlier and he could not give her a good review. His comments would be in her record for as long as she worked at the store. She was astounded! After going above and beyond to prove to the store that she was committed to being exactly the employee they needed her to be, this one man had the power to derail all all of it.  

She said she was so devastated in that moment that she didn’t realize that he was afraid of her work ethic. That he knew that her drive and ideas meant she would get his job and probably very soon, so he had decided to give her a horrible annual review in the hopes that his bosses wouldn’t promote her and demote him. 

All the good work Jess had been doing was never going to show up on paper. No one higher than her insecure manager even knew that she organized the event. At that moment she realized that if she really wanted the life she knew she could have, that she knew she was capable of creating for herself, she needed to go down a different path. She left and started her own business shortly thereafter. 

After struggling for some time with the transition from being an employee to an entrepreneur (something that keeps many people from accomplishing their goals) she found a clear path to freedom, with a multi-level marketing company. She met all her goals, ended up at the top of her industry. and today she is no longer at the mercy of a manager. She writes her own rules.

Rule #1: Get Mad

So this explains why the Rule #1 in their book is called, Get Mad. Ray and Jess had a lot of reasons to get mad. Really bad things happened to them and in spite of their efforts to do the right things, there were many disappointments before they reaped the rewards. However, they didn’t give up and now they are helping others in so many ways. They not only turned lemons into lemonade, but they learned how to achieve life mastery. (And they used many of the same principles we use in the DreamBuilder Program. They are really universal principles or Laws of Success.)

Are You Happy?

And like me, the Higdons are passionate about motivating people to look at their lives. They say, “Are you happy in your job? Are you happy with your income? Are you content with where you live? If not it’s time to make a change. It’s time to let go of complacency, time to sit up and take the necessary steps in your life to get what you want, what you deserve. It’s time to live a life you actually enjoy and not one you simply tolerate.”

They go on to say that “many people are too afraid to take the risk. They’re afraid of what could be on the other side. They think “what if it doesn’t work out?” “What if I fail?” “What if I give up a steady paycheck for nothing?” 

“What if I Fail?”

You may be asking yourself these same questions right now, feeling those same fears and uncertainties.

And they point out that you don’t have to put yourself through that agony and doubt because you don’t have to take a big leap, just a small step.

• Step #1 is to figure out what’s holding you back. 
• Step #2 is to carve out some time to research a plan for overcoming those challenges, and 
• Step #3 is to invest time into making small changes. 

Those small changes will grow into bigger changes and ultimately you will achieve time and money freedom. 

And they go on to say that once you take ownership, the uneasiness about what will happen, ” starts to weaken. It’s never going to be completely comfortable to make the leap, but always keep in mind that it’s not a life-or-death situation. 

“It’s Not a Life or Death Situation

Also, you will have to be accountable to yourself; and once you take ownership of that, the uneasiness of the question “what will happen?” starts to weaken. It’s never going to be completely comfortable to make that leap, but always keep in mind that it’s not a life-or-death situation. 

So what thoughts are coming up for you now?  Is fear coming up for you or worries about being able to hold yourself accountable? Or are you inspired, like me to dream bigger and make a bigger impact in the world.

Share in the Comments

I’d love to see your thoughts in the comments below.

Be a Guest on the Podcast

Would you like some coaching to get you started or unstuck?  Be a guest on this podcast and I’ll coach you through it.  We will spend a whole hour together and bust through anything that’s holding you back. Click Here

In any case I hope you have found the Higdons’ story inspiring and that you will make the commitment to yourself to dream big and bloom and take action.

Your Next Steps:

If you’d like to go deeper and learn more about how the DreamBuilder principles apply to YOUR life, here’s what you can do next.

1. Post your questions in the comments section below.
2. Listen to the other episodes of this podcast, especially #7, #8 & #9 which is my Power of Vision Workshop as a three part series and will walk you through the process of creating your vision statement. You can find always find them at https://dreambigandbloom.com/workshop/ 
3. Be a guest on the show and receive coaching and you can always go to https://dreambigandbloomguest.com

Now as you go remember…

1. You are capable of far more than you know 
2. You were created to have an amazing and fulfilling life. It’s your birthright.
3. You DON’T HAVE TO SETTLE for just “good enough”
4. You are more powerful than any circumstance, situation or condition
5. You absolutely can create the life of your dreams.

And I’m here to help you.

Here’s to living happy, rich and free!

Here are the next steps you can take:

1. Join the conversation in the comments and post any questions you have.
2. Listen to my other podcasts, especially #7, 8 & 9 The Power of Vision Workshop Series
3. Be a guest on the show and get coaching and answers to your questions.
4. Book a complimentary Discovery Session on my calendar. We’ll get clarity on exactly where you are now, where you would love to be, and the best next step you can take to move you forward.

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