Michael:

Hello, and welcome to The Natural Evolution produced by Rebel Health Tribe, a radio show focused on providing you with inspiration, education, and tools for true healing and transformation. I’m Michael, and I’ll be your guide on this adventure as together we explore the very nature of the healing journey.

            I am here with my friend, Kyle Brown. Kyle, thanks man. Thanks for doing this.

Kyle Brown:

Thanks so much for having me. I’m excited.

Michael:

Yeah, this is going to be a fun conversation. We actually grew up not that far away from each other in Illinois, and have walked similar … I don’t know, parallel journeys for a while. And so, it’ll be really interesting for those who have listened to the earlier episode where I kind of share my journey and story to hear this one, and some of the parallels. But I’ll do a little bit of an intro. Kyle Brown has empowered busy entrepreneurs for over two decades, to break down barriers for physical, mental, and emotional mastery. This is a process he calls Rapid Harmony. World changers, top CEOs, Fortune 500 companies, professional Olympic athletes, and countless celebrities have worked with Kyle to develop a sustainable, fit, happy, peaceful, aligned, and balanced lifestyle. Kyle’s also the CEO and founder of Fit 365, an all natural delicious is gourmet meal in a shake.

            And I feel like that bio sells you a little bit short, but we’ll keep it to that for now. And you’re no stranger to podcasting either. I didn’t see that mentioned in the bio, but you had your own podcast on ESPN for several years, which we’ll talk about. So, this season is all about the healing journey, and yours mirrors mine more than it mirrors some of the others that might have been more physical disease, although physical illness and disease played a role in yours, but it wasn’t your physical illness and disease necessarily. So, I guess I’d like to start, how did you get into doing this kind of work? Were you growing up and you’re like, “I’m going to be a trainer and a coach when I grow up”? How did that happen?

Kyle Brown:

Awesome question. It’s almost a full circle sort of thing. So, I started as a little kid around six years old, my oldest brother’s eight years older, so he’s 14. And it was lifting weights in the old school Midwest basement with sand dumb bells, punching bags, pictures of girls, and Van Halen on the wall. And I was lifting and training, and I was doing it for stress, anxiety, just not feeling like I fit in, and just really like taking it all out on the weights [crosstalk 00:02:44]

Michael:

So, when you were six?

Kyle Brown:

Yeah, six. First book I read that I remember actually reading myself, was Franco Columbu’s body building book. So, I just got into that side of it really young. And what was so unique was on the other side of that, my dad was really into entrepreneurship, and we had Tony Robbins on tape. And then in the mystical space, we’ll call it, or metaphysical space, he had his two sisters, which were kind of the weirdos of the family. And I embrace the word weirdo now, who were a combination of a Medium, a Hawaiian shaman, astrology, numerology experts, [inaudible 00:03:26], NLP, and kind of had done all of that stuff. And they were the ones who had moved out west already, and had gotten into this stuff in like the ’60s.

            So, it was a really interesting mix where I really took to both sides. And then professionally, I had really shut all that off. Just completely shut it off. And then slowly, around 2006, I brought it back into my life in a very unique sort of way.

Michael:

Gotcha. That’s an interesting mix of influences. Your dad works on eyes. Your brother was the weightlifter that got you into the weightlifting. And then your-

Kyle Brown:

[crosstalk 00:04:01] financial guy.

Michael:

Interesting. And then your aunts were out here.

Kyle Brown:

Yes. And-

Michael:

They were in California?

Kyle Brown:

One was California, and one was … Worked at University of New Mexico because she wanted to be near the space ships.

Michael:

The alien space ships.

Kyle Brown:

Yep.

Michael:

Yeah. Wow. So, that’s an interesting mix of things, and I’ve never seen a six-year-old pump iron before, but I bet you were like the most ripped kid in third grade.

Kyle Brown:

I personally have an eight-year-old son and I was actually just getting him going with some stuff this morning, which was a lot of fun. I’m slowly teaching him biomechanics. And it’s a lot of-

Michael:

All right. So, then you’re kind of a distillation of all of those different influences in a sense. But you started, you said 2006, you started in fitness, right?

Kyle Brown:

Well, 2006 is when I started with emotional freedom technique, but professionally, 2002 I got into fitness, and the story behind that was actually pretty interesting. I went to go interview over at one of the top investment banking firms where my brother was at the time, got to like my 18th interview of the day, and the woman sits down and she’s like, “Hey, so your brother tells me your bodybuilder.” And I’ve been regurgitating all this fitness stuff, or all this financial stuff I’ve been studying all day. And I was like, “Yeah, I’m competing in the next little bit.” She says, “You know, I got this problem where I’m trying figure out how do I take my dogs for walks, and make all this stuff work.” And all of a sudden she pulls me over and she looks at me, and she goes, “You’re interviewing for the wrong job.” So, I was like, “Oh,” because she saw where the passion was. So, I called my aunt, who I just mentioned out in California and said, “Hey, do you have a spare room? I want to move on out there and just pursue my dreams.” And it was an industry that didn’t even really exist at the time. It was fanny packs, and parachute pants.

Michael:

In 2002?

Kyle Brown:

Yeah, 2002.

Michael:

I think that like whole personal training, fitness, nutrition as an industry probably kicked off around … Later in that decade.

Kyle Brown:

Yep.

Michael:

And you started out in fitness, and you mentioned emotional freedom technique, which others might know as tapping. That was 2006. You found that?

Kyle Brown:

2006 I started doing it myself. Yeah.

Michael:

How did you find that?

Kyle Brown:

You know, I had been really getting into natural health and I had seen, at the time, Dr. Mercola had had the top natural health website. So, back in 2006, I had my 10 year high school reunion coming back, so I flew back out to Chicago and I set up an appointment with Mercola’s office, because I was setting up my own clinical nutrition fitness practice. And I said, “I want to see what you guys do.” So, they took my blood work, and I was like, “Hey, I’m not sick at all. I’m actually in fantastic health. I just want to see what you guys are doing here.” And so, then I went to my meeting with somebody to do tapping, and as I was going through this, I was just like, “This is the weirdest thing ever.”

Michael:

Yeah, it is.

Kyle Brown:

But it also was so funny to me that everything you learn through fitness is hustle, and push, and results take years. And this was instantaneous. So, it really caught my eye.

Michael:

Yeah. And you can’t like do it harder.

Kyle Brown:

Yeah. I watch clients now when they’re really off and they’re tapping. I’m like, “It’s energetic. You don’t [crosstalk 00:07:12]

Michael:

You can’t do it harder, faster. It’s not going to work, which goes against like our whole everything. So, interesting. I started fitness around 2008, which was cutting edge in Illinois at the time. And then I had a mentor of mine introduce me to tapping, but I blew it off because it was too hokey and weird. So, I tried it once and it was like, I don’t feel awesome. This is nonsense. And now I run another platform that actually features practitioners of EFT and tapping. So, that’s-

Kyle Brown:

Awesome.

Michael:

… interesting. But it’s a Meridian touch point thing for those who are not aware, that can cause emotional shifts, and mental shifts, and stress reduction. So, you were probably the only trainer who was doing that in 2006.

Kyle Brown:

Oh definitely.

Michael:

Because what I learned, I got a master’s in exercise physiology and went through like NASM’s higher level training certifications for athletes, and corrective exercise stuff, and whatever. I wanted to work with athletes. That was what I learned in grad school was starve yourself and your clients, eat chicken breast only, broccoli only, with no fat on it, except maybe like a spritz of olive oil with about 100 servings a day of whole grains. And that’s it. And then crush your clients in the gym, like treadmill, cardio, weights, circuits, all that stuff. And what I noticed is my clients that were coming to me, they weren’t the people who needed that.

Kyle Brown:

Right. Right.

Michael:

So, who were you working with around then? When was tapping something you introduced into your clients then? Or was it just for you?

Kyle Brown:

So, when I was in the bodybuilding psych really before I … I’m going to call it real woke, I had not understood what 99% effort was. So, my first ever fitness session, I had this woman who had a double masters, she came into her session, and I was like, “All right, she’s real out of shape. I’m just going to go over basic mechanics of a squat, holding onto the Smith bar.” And on her first ever set of my first ever training session in a gym full of like 300, 400 people, she does a squat and she has a mental, emotional release, and bursts out into tears, grabbed her towel, took the ox out on me. She starts hitting me with her towel going, “I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.” And I was like, “What did I do?”

Michael:

Now that would be kind of awesome. Then you were probably terrified.

Kyle Brown:

Now I know how to hold space for that. So, it would be incredible. I’d be like, “This is the most beautiful thing ever.” At the time I’m sitting here going like, “What did I sign up for?”

Michael:

Why is this happening?

Kyle Brown:

I’m like, “Are you really being that weak?” I’m like, “It’s just a little burn in your quad, in your hamstrings.” I didn’t realize about, at the time, chakras and energy [crosstalk 00:10:08]

Michael:

Stored emotions and-

Kyle Brown:

Totally, totally.

Michael:

Interesting.

Kyle Brown:

But yeah, at the time it was just like, “Please stop embarrassing me. I’m never going to get another client if this is what they think my sessions are.”

Michael:

Yeah, don’t let anybody see it.

Kyle Brown:

[crosstalk 00:10:19] training.

Michael:

No one wants to work with the guy whose clients are crying in the corner.

Kyle Brown:

Unless you’re on biggest loser.

Michael:

How long were you doing that personal fitness training and nutrition for in San Diego? The general population type fitness, want to wait, want to feel better type clients?

Kyle Brown:

So, I did that all the way up until, the Thanksgiving before COVID I closed down my in-person practice.

Michael:

Wow.

Kyle Brown:

And as I was doing this, I had this-

Michael:

I bet you were a lot better at it in 2020 than you were in 2006.

Kyle Brown:

Oh yeah. Yeah. And I had this dual thing going on where, I always say that people tend to look at you through the lens that they met you at. So, if it’s your parents, they’re like, “I changed your diaper.” [crosstalk 00:11:05] insightful really to teach me. But if they’re your client and they came in through fitness, and you’re like, “Hey, I’ve learned and studied all this new stuff,” I couldn’t get one of them open to that realm. None. They still looked at me as the fitness nutrition expert. So, as that was going on, I was virtually building this business that was focused on physical, mental, and emotional mastery, with a really heavy look into the spiritual, and intertwining that all in, really.

Michael:

But you weren’t able to pull the original clientele along with you.

Kyle Brown:

Literally zero. When I closed it, zero out of 13 of my remaining in-person people transitioned over.

Michael:

You were making that transition. They were like, “Just teach me how to do pushups.”

Kyle Brown:

Precisely. Help me get a six pack.

Michael:

Yeah. When you talk about everything else, it was kind of like Charlie Brown teacher.

Kyle Brown:

Oh yeah. [inaudible 00:11:57]

Michael:

So, you built this training fitness, nutrition business, while you were going through your own kind of growth process and trying to drag others along, but probably picking up new clients that were a little different along the way that were more interested in that stuff. And it in your bio, it mentions that you’ve worked with a lot of high level athletes, a lot of celebrity types, a lot of high profile clientele. I’m curious how that came about, because that doesn’t happen for every trainer in the gym.

Kyle Brown:

No, no. So, I got into a lot-

Michael:

This is your time to brag, by the way. A little bit.

Kyle Brown:

Yeah. I got into a lot of things. My nickname I was using when I had my ESPN radio show was The Trendsetter. And when it comes down to setting trends, a lot of times it’s really not a good thing. They always say that the first people there, the pioneers, are the ones who get the arrows in the back. And for me, a lot of that was I had gotten into like celebrity training and stuff back in the days, where there wasn’t social media, and everything was really done through a lens of nondisclosure agreements. So, I had a publicist who I was coaching at the time, and she’s like, “Hey, I train this rockstar,” who happened to be one of my favorite rockstar, or, “I work with him and I want you to work with him and his family. And then you can now officially say you’re a celebrity trainer. So, you’re going to do it for free. And you’re going to drive 30 minutes each way to go coach them.”

Michael:

Coach the guy who has the most money of any client you’ve ever worked with for free.

Kyle Brown:

The irony. The irony. The billionaires I’ve worked with have actually been some of the most frugal clients I’ve ever had. [crosstalk 00:13:41]

Michael:

So, then you got introduced to this rockstar, and then I’m guessing at the time that kind of thing is word of mouth-

Kyle Brown:

Totally.

Michael:

… then. So, he has friends, she has other friends.

Kyle Brown:

Right. And [crosstalk 00:13:52]

Michael:

And you don’t talk about what you’re doing, which they like.

Kyle Brown:

Bingo. Bingo. They wanted total privacy. It’s not like now where it’s like, “I want to be seen on Instagram. And me working out is actually a plus.” It’s more like, “Oh, I just look this way. I don’t exercise.” And that has really shifted that whole culture.

Michael:

Interesting.

Kyle Brown:

So yeah, in general it started there, and then my entire business pretty much up into this has been a referral based business. I’ve been that guy behind the scenes and referral-wise, I’ve worked with probably about 50 different celebs, or pro athletes, or rockstar, rap stars. And then I started getting into the world of saying, “You know what? I want the visionaries, the world changers.” And that’s where I spend a lot of my time now where I’m coaching people who are just really focused on, maybe conscious entrepreneurship could be one of the best ways of looking at it, where they’re focused on making the world a better place, and big impact.

Michael:

Cool. That’s quite the transition from crying squats. Interesting. I know you signed NDA, so I won’t try to pry interesting stories out of you. That could be a secret podcast another time.

Kyle Brown:

Okay, yeah.

Michael:

Behind the scenes Hollywood trainer. So, you’re cruising along with this like perfect situation. Oh, then you get a podcast at ESPN, which we talked about a little bit before you went on air, you went on a podcast on ESPN as a guest. Basically told them you could do it better.

Kyle Brown:

Yeah. I was kind of like, “You know what?” I’m like, “I’ve got a phenomenal network and I love talking about heroes journeys. So, why don’t I just do this myself?” And it just kind of all came into fruition. I launched a show called The Empower Hour through ESPN radio. And then just was like, “You know, I can leverage this to go to some really cool events in LA through all the publicists and people I know there,” and got to go on and interview like one of my heroes, Bob Weir from The Dead, and a lot of just wild impromptu cool experiences.

Michael:

What was Bob Weir doing on ESPN?

Kyle Brown:

So, Bob Weir was at the American Music Awards gifting suite with his daughter or granddaughter. Probably I think his daughter. Yeah, it was his daughter. And he was just hanging out there, and nobody knew who he was. And he’s just sitting on a couch. I look over and go, “Oh my God, that’s Bob Weir. And there’s nobody even talking to him.” So, I walked up to him and I’m like, “Hey,” I’m like, “First concert I ever went to, ’91 at Soldier Field, you guys.” I’m like, “I’m a huge, huge, Dead fan.” I’m like, “Any chance I could just shoot the breeze with you and interview you?” He’s like, “Great.” So, the camera people I had with me was a little 16-year-old kid who was one of my training clients. And he and his buddy just held up the camera, and put the mic up. And I just got to interview him on the spot in that really loud [crosstalk 00:16:36]

Michael:

Oh Wow. So, who is your favorite interview on your ESPN podcast? If you got to pick one, or just one that comes off top of your head that you liked a lot.

Kyle Brown:

I’ll just say the most shocking interview I did, I did a story called Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover, and the adult film star, Ron Jeremy, came on for that. And the whole thing was about he is not who you think he is, that he is like the Joan Rivers of that industry. And he was a special ed teacher. And then, as we go through this whole thing at the end, I knew a lot of his behind-the-scenes secrets because I’m friends with his publicist. And I said, “So, I heard you play the harmonica.” And he goes, “How you know that?” And I said, “And I heard John Popper from Blues Traveler is your teacher.” He’s like, “What?” He goes, “Hold on.” And he was in a meeting while doing our interview. So, he did it virtually, and he was doing this meeting, and then talking to me, and he grabs this harmonica out and he plays this beautiful version of Amazing Grace. And then he goes, “And for all my fellow Jews, Hava Nagila.” And he pulls out Hava Nagila, plays it online. And I was like, “Okay, this is awesome.”

Michael:

Wow.

Kyle Brown:

This is so unexpected. Because we’re so [crosstalk 00:17:40]

Michael:

Ron Jeremy on the harmonica on ESPN radio. All right, that’s a strange sentence I never thought I would say. Everything is cruising along and you got the radio show, you got your business, you got the supplement company, you got sunny Southern California, you got a nice place to live. And then things go a little sideways. And I know that you had a nice 20 minute stretch there that kind of shifted your life at one point. You have one daughter or do you have two [crosstalk 00:18:14]

Kyle Brown:

I have two kids. I have a nine-year-old daughter and then I have a seven-year-old son.

Michael:

Seven-year-old son. So, I connected with you, I don’t even … I think it was like two or three years ago now, someone introduced us because they knew what I was going through with my wife’s health struggles. And our life had kind of collapsed and gone sideways. And my wife has multiple autoimmune conditions, and she’d gone into a horrific flare and it had totally did what that does. I had actually just come through a really rough patch, and that’s why they introduced us. And when we talked, you told me about your experience with your daughter who I believe has type one diabetes, correct?

Kyle Brown:

Yep.

Michael:

And what year was she born?

Kyle Brown:

So she’s nine. She was born in October of 2011. And she ended up getting diagnosed on her fifth birthday.

Michael:

Okay. So, 2016, about five years ago-

Kyle Brown:

2016, and 2016 was my spiral year, we’ll call it.

Michael:

Okay. Well, since that’s what we’re doing on this season of the podcast, I think we can go into the spiral a little bit if that’s okay with you?

Kyle Brown:

Absolutely.

Michael:

How did you know something was up with her?

Kyle Brown:

So, on her birthday, which was the day before she was diagnosed, we took her out of transitional kindergarten, brought her over to Disney, the happiest place on earth, and we did their Halloween thing. So, we’re sitting there and she’s wanting to trick-or-treat, she’s drinking so much water so I’m all proud as a nutritionist dad saying, “Yay, you’re drinking all this water.” She’d gotten thinner, but we thought it was a growth spurt. And she’s this fearless kid. But she was like, “I don’t want to be here. I don’t want to go on the roller coasters.” And we’re like, “What’s wrong with you?” And so, she’s sitting here saying, “I’m scared.” And we took a little funny video of brother dancing around her sitting there moping. And I pull her aside and I start giving her a little lecture on gratitude. She looks at me, and pukes on my shoes. And I go, “She got sick from the roller coaster. Let’s go back.”

And then the next day I was doing some filming out in Anaheim. So, my wife brought her back and then I took my car separately, and I get a message from my wife that she’s having some breathing stuff. So, I come home, we FaceTime with my buddy who’s an ER doc and he’s like, “Take her to the hospital now.” And we bring her over there and she was in keto acidosis, meaning her organs were shutting down, and her blood sugar wasn’t coming down, and basically with type one it really is an autoimmune disease. And I think diabetes and type one diabetes need different names. And basically it means that her system was shutting down, and her pancreas stopped producing insulin. So, she was knocking on death’s door at that moment. And fortunately, we got her there and in the hospital.

Michael:

Do you know how high her blood sugar was?

Kyle Brown:

Yeah, she was about 360s at the time. And so, as a reference, most of us sit between 80 and 120, and on like a big sugar high day where you have like a [crosstalk 00:21:21]

Michael:

Maybe 200.

Kyle Brown:

Maybe. You’re getting [crosstalk 00:21:24]

Michael:

And you’ll feel like hell too, if-

Kyle Brown:

Right.

Kyle Brown:

Imagine sitting in the threes and fours as a diabetic, who’s literally having 25 grams of carbs without enough insulin to support it.

Michael:

Yeah. That’s wild. I mean, within 24 hours you went from my daughter’s fine, to my daughter’s in a pretty dangerous situation right now. And will have this condition forever.

Kyle Brown:

Exactly.

Michael:

And you probably got a crash course on what that means. I don’t know how well versed you were on type one diabetes, but-

Kyle Brown:

Was not, was not. I understood type two, and it worked with people, and I was like, “Well, we just put them into ketosis, and you’ll be fine.” And it’s like, “Oh yeah. Well, if you go too low as a type one, you die. You go into a coma and don’t wake up.” So, that doesn’t really work. So, I had a lot of-

Michael:

Because they not only can’t lower their blood sugar, their body doesn’t raise it very well either.

Kyle Brown:

I have a thing on my phone, an app, that works with her, kind of the joys of modern technology, where when she’s high we get some beeping. When she’s low, we get an emergency siren because that’s the one you worry about the most where-

Michael:

Body needs the sugar to go-

Kyle Brown:

Exactly. To function.

Michael:

Yeah. So, she has a all the time monitor?

Kyle Brown:

It’s called a Dexcom. And what you do is every few days you click that thing on there, and it gives you an updated reading every five minutes. And it’s about 20 minutes advance of where you are. It’s just beautiful technology.

Michael:

Wow.

Kyle Brown:

And so, I can always monitor where her blood sugar is at all times.

Michael:

That’s amazing. And now it’s amazing to talk about that, that that exists. And we can talk about it like this. I’m sure that that experience was terrifying. And-

Kyle Brown:

Absolutely terrifying.

Michael:

… what was that first week or so like? I’m sure there was a period of disbelief when the doctor told you what was going on, and then it’s like, “What is this?” Because I know with me, when we figured out what was going on with [Mira 00:23:23], immediately my brain went through like the 117 ways that my life was about to be different. And like, holy shit, I kind of liked my life the way it was before. This is not what I wanted. And then there’s this, for me, there was a period of intense resistance to this can’t be, or we can fix this, or this can’t be like this. Did you have something like that?

Kyle Brown:

Oh, completely. I think at first it was like shock and denial, and everything slows down, and you don’t even feel like you’re present. The first week almost you’re in the hospital. So, they really have to regulate things, and get you set, we’ll just say. And so, during that time there was just massive fear because there’s so much uncertainty. And then it’s just like, “Okay. So what you’re saying is I have a new full-time job that I need to do in addition to my current full-time jobs.” So, you start wondering how is the time going to happen to work to manage all this? And in addition, they’re so young, at five, that it’s not like they can be self-reliant. So, it was pretty intense.

Michael:

My dad actually is type two diabetic and he went into diabetic coma when my freshman year in college, I got a phone call from my mom saying, “We’re at the hospital. Dad collapsed.” And I didn’t even know he was sick or anything. His blood sugar was like six something. And the nurse in the ER told my mom, “Oh, you’re really lucky. Most people die if it gets this high.” And that was not the most enlightened compassion thing to say to someone. And yeah, he was in the hospital for about a week and a half, and has been managing it since then. And that was ’98. So, he’s done well. But it was really scary. And then I learned about diabetes. And so, that’s a different type, way different. I agree they should have different names because people are confused as to what’s what, and one of them is an autoimmune condition that doesn’t … I’ve heard stories of improved function and reversal with type one diabetes, but I’ve not witnessed it or encountered it, where type two is much more manageable and easier to get on top of.

So, you mentioned that was a spiral. I’m guessing that means that that wasn’t the only thing that happened in 2016.

Kyle Brown:

If you know the thing from the game shows when they say, “But wait, there’s more,” I got a, “But wait, there’s more.” So, within 2016, we went from the external on top of the world visual, to the internal collapse sort of happened all within about a 20 minute period. So, after that happened a little bit later, I was doing all my fitness training out of my house. So, I’m training out of my house, and I’ve got my clients coming there for the privacy. And then I also got the ESPN show going on. So, all within that-

Michael:

You did that out of your house, you had a studio?

Kyle Brown:

No. So, I would go to ESPN studio in San Diego. They had some studios there. So, I was doing all that stuff there. And so, within about a 20 minute time period, we had had a little spat with a neighbor whose dogs had come after our stroller out on an Easter Sunday. And we were like, “Put your dogs on a leash. I’m trying to watch my kids.” And ended up telling my wife to go F herself, which then turned into mama bear coming out, because she’s trying to protect her kids. And us telling them we’ll call animal control if he’s not going to take care of his dogs, especially one of them had bit somebody before. And long story short, we call animal control. And then he goes to our landlord and says, “If you don’t evict Kyle for his illegal personal training business in your house, I’m going to kick you out.”

And landlord said, “Don’t worry. I’ve got your back.” And then within about two days I had an eviction notice, and within 20 minutes of getting the eviction notice, which basically means you’re losing your house and also where your business is, because I was somewhere where there was no HOA so I actually could train there. And in the midst of that, I also got a notice from my biggest sponsor that they brought on an external marketing firm and that pulled my funding for my ESPN show, because I’m a man of integrity and didn’t want to use your beer commercials when I don’t drink that stuff. And I wanted to get all my own sponsors. Everything was natural health related. My main sponsor pulled the plug in that same 20 minutes. And I was like … So, I had [crosstalk 00:28:04]

Michael:

So, totally unrelated.

Kyle Brown:

Totally unrelated.

Michael:

That wasn’t related at all to what was going on at your house.

Kyle Brown:

It was just the vibration. I was tuned into chaos vibration. And so, everything chaos gave my way.

Michael:

Wow.

Kyle Brown:

So, found a new place to train, but I couldn’t … But it wasn’t a house. We couldn’t find a house that had no HOA in the area. So, then for the short term, I ended up moving into a one bedroom in my parents’ place with a brand new baby, plus my daughter. So, we’ve got all of this stuff going on, and then on the outside everything is awesome. And the eternal optimists had to come out of me.

Michael:

So, home, business, well temporarily training business, home, podcast, the same year that your daughter got sick.

Kyle Brown:

Yeah.

Michael:

Wow. I’m pretty familiar with that feeling of everything is slipping away, and going away, and why is this happening, and how do I stop it? And what am I going to do? And do I deserve this? Was there any thoughts that were going through, and stories that were coming up and all this kind of stuff when all that was going?

Kyle Brown:

All the stories were coming up. And what I tried doing at that time was for the next … Let’s see, this was 2016 to 2019 I tried the art of compartmentalization, which I’ve learned since was a total fallacy, where I said, “All right, all I’m going to do is focus in on work, go into hustle mode, compartmentalize my life and look for wins on the outside,” which were all self sabotage and hustle. So, what ended up happening is I hustled, hustle, hustled. I worked like 100 hours a week, did everything I could to try to dig myself out of this grave, so to speak. And I was listening to all the motivational speaking. I was in the midst of all this spiritual stuff. And I kept hearing this whole saying of, “Hey, keep digging. You’re really just three feet from gold.” And I realized that those guys were way off. That in reality, all I was doing is digging a six foot grave.

So, what that led to was January 2019, January 2nd, 2019, I was out on a hike and started feeling my lungs. And I’m like, “I never get sick. I haven’t been sick in six, seven years.” And turned out, long story short, I did the whole mind over matter thing. And I ended up reaching out to one of my uncles, who’s a doc. And he said, “Get your butt over to the hospital.” Now, went over to the hospital and realized I was … When I went in for a lung x-ray they called code sepsis, and I was in full organ shut down, darn near death. In double pneumonia. They put everything in my body they could, antibiotic-wise, to try to save my [crosstalk 00:30:58]

Michael:

That happened from pneumonia? The infection came in through the lungs?

Kyle Brown:

Yep. Double pneumonia. This is pre-COVID. One of my buddies said, “Were you patient one?” Who knows? And yeah, I was in critical condition, and I’d basically done the whole Japanese art of, I think they called it Karoshi, which is like working yourself to death.

Michael:

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So, you were at your parents, in a one bedroom spot with your wife, your two kids. So, that was four people in a room.

Kyle Brown:

Four of us in a room.

Michael:

So, your response to this whole giant scenario was like, “I’ll just bust my harder than anyone possibly can. And I’ll fix this-

Kyle Brown:

Bingo.

Michael:

… and make a bunch of money, and get us out of here, and rebuild the whole thing. And it’ll be great. And I’ll do it really fast, because I’m going to work really hard.” And what did that do for your life that wasn’t work?

Kyle Brown:

Oh man.

Michael:

How did that translate to Kyle husband, and Kyle dad, and Kyle son, and Kyle friend?

Kyle Brown:

It’s heavy. It’s heavy. I got very, very heavy, not weight-wise, but energetically. So, at the time I’ve thought of this whole illusion of compartmentalization, and I was that [crosstalk 00:33:06]

Michael:

You can be like this guy over here, and then be this guy over here, and-

Kyle Brown:

I can be [crosstalk 00:33:09] over here. And I can be this guy over here, and find my wins on the side. And I just completely closed my give hand if it didn’t have something to do with work. And I’ve been this big go giver. And I also was completely closed with my receive hand, meaning there was nothing that I could do to be open to receiving, because I was stuck in these emotions of guilt and shame. And if you’re vibing guilt and shame, there’s nothing that’s going to get through to you. So, everything starts to align that way. My marriage was a hoax. It was like, I’m married and I’m here, but I’m like, “Hey, I’ll work and I’ll address this once I made enough money.” So, I was just so not mentally and emotionally present for a long while. It was like, okay, my wife can help take care of the diabetes stuff, and she can cook all the meals, and she can raise the kids and I can show up and show them love when I’m here.

But only in these little bursts, almost like the uncle that shows, or the fun friend that shows up. But I wasn’t a present dad at all for that first while. And she had to bear all of that, and I was thinking, “Well, I need to be the one with the weight of the world on my shoulders to dig us out of this, and keep this … Get this boulder.” It was like Atlas Shrugged. I’m walking uphill with this giant Boulder on my shoulders. And I need to also be the one to lift up my clients, keep my problems private, and be this motivational speaker. So, what I did during that time is I started studying transcendental meditation. That was kind of one of my first ins, and then stand up comedy.

Michael:

Interesting.

Kyle Brown:

Because I looked at the most spiritually impressive humans. So, with transcendental meditation, they were talking about Maharishi Mahesh yogi, who’s the founder of it. And he’s known as the Giggling Guru. And I was sitting back, and I was like, “You know what? The wisest people that truly have this joy and happiness that I want so-

Michael:

They’re always laughing.

Kyle Brown:

They’re hilarious. I’m like, “I want more of that.” So, started studying observational humor and actually did standup comedy university at the comedy … The world famous Comedy Store in LA Jolla, out in San Diego.

Michael:

Wow. Yeah. I love standup, and standup comedians are brilliant, and they’re also extremely tormented.

Kyle Brown:

Completely. And the whole observational humor. I feel like a lot of standup comedians who do observational humor had a spiritual awakening and had no idea how to handle it.

Michael:

Yeah, because then everything looks ridiculous. Everything seems ridiculous that we do, like our life, our culture, our society, whatever. And then you start seeing that’s ridiculous. And I think a lot of times, yeah, I think it’s just a different way to deal with it. I think it’s pointing out the absurdity of all of it in a way, because the reason they’re so funny and everyone laughs, like George Carlin towards like the second half of his career, when he became fully like social commentary, instead of just going on TV to swear, he would go on TV to go on rants and raves about different things. Everyone laughed at it, and then would kind of look around and be like, “He’s kind of right.”

Kyle Brown:

Right. He was actually speaking the truth there.

Michael:

Yeah. This is funny and awkward because it’s true. Let’s just laugh at it, because that’s more comfortable than facing it. But yeah, so that’s an interesting … So, comedy, learning comedy helped you get through, and transcendental meditation is mantra meditation, right?

Kyle Brown:

Right. It’s mantra driven. I’d always been a huge Beatles fan, so that’s when I first learned about it in high school.

Michael:

Did they do transcendental meditation or was it like a-

Kyle Brown:

They did. They actually went and studied with the Maharishi, and spent a ton of time. And if you look at the Beatles music, and also their attire [crosstalk 00:37:10]

Michael:

Yeah, a little shift.

Kyle Brown:

Went through that. There was a huge [crosstalk 00:37:12]

Michael:

I think they found meditation and acid at the same time. [crosstalk 00:37:15] Okay. So, that’s been kind of, the meditation and the comedy, has kind of been what’s pulled you back to more of [crosstalk 00:37:25] yourself.

Kyle Brown:

Meditation, comedy, EFT, and the biggest thing over all of it was that whole experience was, without a doubt, the opportunity where the universe said, “Do you want to be here or not? And if you don’t want to be here, okay. But if you do want to be here …” As I was sitting in critical condition, it was a true, true opportunity of like, “If you’re going to be here, you need to focus everything on soul alignment, happiness and joy, in being in the present moment.” And that’s where I shifted everything. They told me I’m going to be spending a month in the hospital when I was there. And I’m like, “Nope, I’m going to put all these tools in.” And so, I was in critical condition and I got myself out in a day, into a regular room. And they’re like, “Okay, you’re going to be here for about a month.”

And I was like, “Nope, I’m going to be out of here today or by tomorrow.” And so, we got to of that tomorrow when I was sitting there, and she said, “Oh no, we’ll check your lungs.” And I said, “No, you’re going to come back.” And she came back in two hours and I’m walking around the hall, saying, “Every day in every way I’m getting stronger and stronger.” I’m literally sitting on the top of my lungs looking like a smelly terrorist with my unshaven-ness, and disheveled-ness, and she’s … And I’m speed walking laps around there. And she’s like, “What the heck?” Did some tests, they sent me home and I slept a month.

Michael:

Wow. Okay. So, that was your kind of, if you’re going to keep going, you got to do this in a different way lesson. And mine was too. I’ve spent the last three years, I just finished two training programs in trauma, and neuroscience, and spirituality, and meditation, and all these things. And I didn’t choose that. I had to start to learn those things if I was going to survive my new way, my new life. I needed new tools, and skills, and things to be able to show up and be. Otherwise, it was going to drive me into the ground. And it’s interesting, we get these lessons, and it can show up … I mean, yours was that physical disease that came on and tied to the emotional, mental of losing all those things and then finding yourself in a … I was at my parents’ place for about six months when I was 36. And that’s not where you want to be.

Kyle Brown:

The best word I can use is like retreat. [crosstalk 00:39:52]

Michael:

Yeah. It is, it’s retreat to the only place left that you can go. It’s the castle. Yeah. And there’s shame. And you mentioned shame and guilt. And to me, there is no … Guilt, I think guilt can be okay. Guilt is I did something wrong. Shame is I am something wrong. And to me, shame is what almost killed me a few years ago when I was suicidal, and shame to me is like, it’s the end. It’s the heaviest weight, it’s the heaviest emotion, it’s the heaviest energy. It’s the thing that is the sand in the gears of all the other things. And there’s a lot of that, even though that wasn’t your fault, those things that happened, that put you in that position, there’s still this story we have that we like to go right to, that is like, “I’m here because I suck.”

My wife’s career was in jeopardy with her, and she’s a nurse, with her auto immunity, and she was making over half our money in San Diego. And then all of a sudden she can’t go to work for a while. And I’m like, “I can’t pay for us to have a house and insurance.” And we did all functional medicine stuff for her health, which is a lot of money. So, tons of health stuff, and taking care of her, and taking care of the house, and taking care of the bills, and doing this and living three blocks from the beach, and all … I can’t do it. And then I did, I put my head down and I just worked my ass off, which then caused more stress for everybody, and did not help her health situation one bit.

So, I was pouring gasoline on something that I was trying to make money to buy the water to go on the gasoline. Yeah. And then finally it just all collapsed. And I was like, “No, if you’re going to survive, you have to do it this way.” And it pointed me towards these things that I needed to learn how to do.

Kyle Brown:

The fine balance is the, it’s not my fault, and not being a victim and saying, “But it’s my opportunity to get out.” I have the power, He-Man style, meaning I have the choices for the next steps. When I finally realized all the power was within, it was like, “Okay, I don’t need to do this anymore because it hasn’t helping at all. This is so disempowering, and there’s …” I love the whole, if you’re pointing one finger at me, you’re pointing three back to yourself. So, I was like, “Okay, so it’s right here, which means I get to take ownership over, not what happens, but how I respond.”

Michael:

Those types of periods in life, when you lose your house, and you lose your health of your daughter, and you lose your training business location, and you lose your podcast. We were about to move to Mexico on the beach when my wife got sick the first time. And that was like a dream of mine to move somewhere like that, and do that. And that was gone. And then all these different things are taken away, and then it’s the resistance to it. It’s the, this can’t be like this. This is unacceptable. It’s those moments, at least for me, that broke me to realize that like you don’t get a say in what’s going to happen.

We can put ourselves in situations that have a greater likelihood for certain outcomes, and things are going to happen that we didn’t sign up for, that we didn’t want to happen, that we wouldn’t choose to happen. Even though it’s kicked off a chain reaction of events that brought you to here, you never would’ve wished for your daughter to become type one diabetic.

Kyle Brown:

Without a doubt.

Michael:

The tools that you’ve learned, and the tools that I’ve learned, they’re kind of different, but they both serve in the ability to adapt to things happening that are outside of our control. Instead of just raging against it harder, you’re not going to win.

Kyle Brown:

A big part of my healing with all of this, that I heard originally from a psychic Medium. And at first I was like a little insulted, but then I sort of took it in for a little bit, which was, she was just like, “You know, you and your daughter planned all this, that this is all part of your pre-planned path for spiritual growth, and opportunity where she can teach people that beauty is not only on the outside, but can be on the inside and the outside simultaneously.” My initial thought was like, F you. Then as I took it in, and then saw … I brought her with me, even when she was six, we went to San Diego State University to their dance marathon. There’s 500 kids dancing for Children’s Hospital. And she’s standing on stage talking with me at six years old, saying, “I’m a warrior, not a worrier. And I’m an athlete, not just a kid with diabetes.” And I was just like, “Man, my little teacher here next to me.” I started piecing all these little [crosstalk 00:45:04]

Michael:

Have her start coaching your clients.

Kyle Brown:

Bingo, she needs to be the coach [crosstalk 00:45:07] Oh, she’s the greatest saleswoman of all time. She sits there, with our shakes, she’s like, “Dad, can I go door to door and ring the doorbell and introduce everybody to them?” I’m like, “These are our neighbors. We just moved here to Colorado.” I’m like, “Don’t go …” She’s like, “But they need to know about it.”

Michael:

That’s awesome. The relax, nothing’s under control, and the resistance piece, and these tools to adapt to these life curve balls. And I use curve balls as a light word, but these things are serious, and heavy, and we don’t want them. And I’ve had a similar experience where I learned that I signed up for this. And I don’t know what people out there, what your spiritual beliefs are, or anything like that. But I had an experience that in a very real way showed me that I signed up for this, all of it. And if someone would’ve told me that when I was in the thick of it, I would’ve wanted to punch their face.

Kyle Brown:

Exactly.

Michael:

And what’s come out of the thick of it is everything now that I am, and that I have, and the practices, and the shift, and the transitions, and learning all these things that I never would’ve gone to a school for two years that’s focused on like meditation, and spirituality, and energy. I didn’t even believe that was a thing three or four years ago. And for people out there who are in it, in it right now, I’m not going to … We were talking about this before we went on air. That the last thing you ever want to hear when you’re in the middle of it is, “You know, you’re going to learn some cool things from this, and you’re going to come out the other side in this way that’s really spectacular.”

You can just tune that part out right now, and just know that there is another side. I mean, what, what would you want to say to the people, that right now either themselves or somebody in their life is in it. And they’re either in it themselves, or they’re in it supporting somebody, whether that’s a health crisis, or a life crisis or something that seems … Because when you’re in it, you’re in a hole, and it doesn’t seem like there’s a way out. What did you say? You said you didn’t want to hear about the light at the end of the tunnel when you’re in the tunnel.

Kyle Brown:

Yeah. It’s kind of like, as you’re going through this, I say when people are hearing stories, nobody wants to hear of your own personal heroes journey when you’re in the middle of the S storm. You want to hear it from people like, “Hey look what I went through. It’s so great. Now buy my book.” But when somebody’s in the middle of it, all you can say is, “Oh, I feel so sorry for you.” Or, “Don’t worry, everything will get better.” And when you’re in that, nobody wants to hear that. You want to know there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, but you also … You shouldn’t feel shame about feeling those emotions. That just compounds the shame. That’s lighter fluid on shame. It is so important that you feel the emotions. And then when the time is right for you, you let them go.

You don’t want to store them in your body for eternity, but it’s okay to feel it, and let it go. Which again, with emotional freedom techniques, with tapping, it’s about feeling the emotion, amplifying it, having awareness of, okay, this is what shame feels like. This is what sadness feels like. This is what anger feels. Now I feel it, and now I can let it go. [crosstalk 00:48:33]

Michael:

Yeah, because you store those things all up, and you end up with sepsis, or autoimmune conditions, or cancer, or … And I’m not saying those are the only … That’s the only thing that causes these conditions, for those scientific folks out there. But it goes somewhere, and that somewhere then is in here.

Kyle Brown:

Precisely. There’s a couple thought processes that I’ve studied where they say, “Your subconscious mind is your body,” which I found fairly interesting to think about it. Like, okay, you’re storing so much of this stuff in your body. And then the other thing is I love a lot of the Eastern ancient wisdom, where they say, “Anger is drinking poison and expecting the other person to die.” And if you just take it anecdotally, and you don’t want to look at it through like a, “Well, from a scientific, Western scientific lens, this isn’t good.” But if you just take it anecdotally it’s like, when have you ever been angry at another person and also felt really good and enjoyed life? Never. [crosstalk 00:49:31]

Michael:

I think it’s physically impossible.

Kyle Brown:

Bingo, bingo. You can’t vibrate on two different planes at the same time, meaning you can’t have two polar opposite emotions that you’re operating from at the same time.

Michael:

Yeah. I don’t even know if you know this. I was a producer, and helped out with the Human Longevity Project documentary series that aired a few years ago. And our filmmakers went around the world, they filmed in all these places. The people that live the longest, they have the least disease, like Costa Rica, and Okinawa, and Greece, and Sardinia, and Italy and different places. And the American audience wanted to know what’s their diet, and what do they do to work out. And when you ask these people, who are 104 and ride their bike to the interview, or 99 and they climb fruit trees or whatever, if you ask them those questions they think the questions are silly. If you ask them, “How are you so healthy?” Or, “What’s the key to being so healthy for so long?” They said, don’t hold grudges.

And don’t worry about things that don’t matter. And that was it. And then, our marketing people were like, “Well, how do we sell that?” Where’s the diet? Where’s the pill? Where’s the training program? Where’s the whatever? And that was it. Don’t hold grudges, which anger I think can be okay. Anger expressed, if it’s expressed in a healthy way is fine, but anger in here … Well, I guess they use the word resentment often, but resentment or unspoken anger, unprocessed anger, and then worrying about things that don’t matter. Because when you’re in it too, it spirals.

So, when you were dealing with all that stuff, I bet the smallest little thing could happen to you one day, somebody misses a meeting, or a client doesn’t show up, or somebody doesn’t return an email and they’re supposed to, and it starts this cascade in your head of these stories, and this thing, and this other. And it just goes in this [inaudible 00:51:35] And it’s like, that doesn’t matter. I can talk to that person tomorrow. But the things matter so much when you’re wound, when you’re, [crosstalk 00:51:43]

Kyle Brown:

You’re so heavy, it’s like you can’t have outside perspective. And you’re so-

Michael:

The rain cloud.

Kyle Brown:

… you’re almost in a constant state of fight or flight, because you’re just trying to solve this basic human need of survival, of safety for my family, let alone thriving. So, when you’re in that state, you can’t see the forest through the trees, and you feel like the forest is on fire. So, you’re just looking, almost through binoculars, all day long, and you’re missing all the beauty that’s going on alongside.

Michael:

It does [crosstalk 00:52:16]

Kyle Brown:

And people were like, “Tell me my wins,” and I’d be like, “F off, I’m [crosstalk 00:52:19]

Michael:

Yeah, wins. I don’t win. Only losses happen to me. [crosstalk 00:52:22] Yeah. Everything is awful, and I hate it all. But it does, and it puts you in that. And I think there’s physiological things about that, too. When you’re in the fight or flight response, it screws with neurotransmitters, brain things. It actually is increases the danger responses in the brain. And the amygdala gets more reactive, and then the small things seem like big things. And so, if you feel like we’re describing you, that’s okay. And I’ve been there at least three or four times in my life as an adult. I think a lot of my childhood, I just existed in that state, and I didn’t know it. But as an adult, three or four big runs through that space, and just know that there is a light.

Kyle Brown:

I was there all of high school, and I tried to imitate Cheech and Chong throughout high school for that exact reason, all day, every day, to numb it out.

Michael:

Yeah, I did as well. If you’re talking about smoking tons of weed, I was right there with you. [crosstalk 00:53:26] I think I actually bought it from a guy from Woodstock. So, there you go. That’s where he’s from.

Kyle Brown:

Probably a friend, probably friends [crosstalk 00:53:32]

Michael:

Yeah, because the kids out in the country would grow the weed, and then they would bring it in towards the city to sell it to the city kids.

Kyle Brown:

Definitely a friend then.

Michael:

But yeah, I didn’t realize that. I didn’t realize that I drank, and I smoked, and I did these things to … It’s because everyone else did. It was cool. I thought I was doing it because it was cool, and because everybody else did. But then I noticed when I got older, and I stopped doing those things, all of a sudden I had severe anxiety, I had panic attacks, I had depression, I had insomnia, and I was like, “What? What’s going on? Why do I have all these things?” And it’s because I took away the things that I was using to-

Kyle Brown:

Mask it.

Michael:

… mask it without the tools and the processing of going through it. I was in this limbo period, and I realized yeah, that I had lived my whole life like that. And I didn’t know I had anxiety, or depression, or panic attacks until I was like 30 years old.

Kyle Brown:

You didn’t know you had them because you weren’t feeling them.

Michael:

Yeah, because I wasn’t feeling them, but you can’t selectively not feel things. So, I also wasn’t feeling anything happy either.

Kyle Brown:

Exactly. You’re masking … Well put, you’re masking the joy, you’re masking the thing. So, what I did with all this, career-wise, is I said, “All right, I’m going to set up my core values.” And through the comedy, actually, my biggest core values of my business is laugh 400 times a day.

Michael:

That’s a tall order.

Kyle Brown:

Yeah. And it’s a conceptual concept. And I looked at it this way, where I said, “All right, the average child, they say, laughs 400 times a day.”

Michael:

Wow.

Kyle Brown:

The average adult, how many times you think?

Michael:

Four

Kyle Brown:

You actually hit the number on the head, it’s four.

Michael:

Really?

Michael:

Yep. I just went 100th of a child.

Kyle Brown:

One 100th, you’re right.

Michael:

Wow.

Kyle Brown:

And when I heard that statistic, that was the statistic that rocked me to the core more than any statistic I ever heard in my life. And [crosstalk 00:55:22]

Michael:

That’s really sad.

Kyle Brown:

It’s so sad.

Michael:

Like what are we doing?

Kyle Brown:

We’re adulting. What’s this adulting thing? It’s so overrated.

Michael:

Yeah. All we are is kids with grownup bodies anyway.

Kyle Brown:

Exactly. Exactly.

Michael:

Wow. So, you’ve shifted from what I’ll call stereotypical fitness and nutrition over the years, to … Really well done stereotypical fitness and nutrition. I’ll throw that in there, to … What’s your practice now like with clients and-

Kyle Brown:

Physical, mental, and emotional mastery, all focused on soul alignment. And when people can keep … Intention is everything. My focus, my whole business is on intention. When you set the right intentions, and you realize that we’re more in a spider web where it’s all interrelated, and you pull up on one thing, it pulls everything else up. You pull down on one thing, it pulls everything else down, versus this illusion of compartmentalization, which I had to learn the hard way. It just makes everything better.

And the whole purpose behind everything is the true improved quality of life. So, you get to experience this heaven on earth experience. And again, I don’t believe personally that it’s like, okay, static and maintenance. Like, okay, you get to this pearly gate, and you show up, and you just sit there. I’m like, “This sounds really boring.” My ADD would go nuts. I’d go crazy. I’d be like, “Is this heaven or hell? I hell I can’t tell.”

Michael:

Yeah. We’re not going to find you in a monastery anytime soon.

Kyle Brown:

Nope, nope. Exactly. So, that’s really what I’ve shifted everything too. And what I’ve focused on is that being, and I realized when I was in those dark spots, so much of it, and in that hustle energy, where it was only hustle and no flow, before I focused on harmony, is that I actually never was really present. I was never living in the now, I was living everything on when I, then I. So, everything is like, “When I finally get this money and solve this problem, then I can actually hang out with my friends. When I get the ability to take a vacation, then I will.” I used to say, “The world is right at my fingertips. It’s so close.”

And I visualized this idea of what if I actually walked up to my source and said, “Hey, the world is right at my fingertips. And so close.” And my source looked at me and it’s like, “Yes, the world is right at your fingertips. And so close.” Whatever I would’ve said, like it’s genie would’ve said exactly back to me parallel. And I finally solved the problem when I realized it’s already here now.

Michael:

It’s never not here. Yeah, the if, then, when scenario, I lived in that for quite a while. That’s why Mira getting sick and the Mexico thing falling apart crushed me, because I was going to get to be happy when I lived on a beach in Mexico.

Kyle Brown:

Bingo.

Michael:

And I had worked my ass off for this movie launch, this film thing, this huge work thing. And it sucked, and it was a million hours a week, and it was terrible and it made her sick. But when it was done, it was going to be worth it because then we were going to get this thing. And when we got the thing, then everything’s going to be fine. So, I can do this awful period that’s going to be awful, and then in the meantime she got sick the day after that ended. Literally her pain started the day after the film launch ended, literally the day after. I had about 12 hours of that being done, relaxing, cool, pain, worsening, spiral. It was like a sick joke. And then there was the guilt and the shame of I made her sick by doing that thing. And so, not only did we not get the when, the thing that I wanted, we got this whole other thing that was not what I signed up for. And then, the then that you’re chasing is now all the time.

Kyle Brown:

All the time.

Michael:

Yeah. There isn’t a then.

Kyle Brown:

What’s so fascinating that, again, we learn some of our lessons the hard way, was willpower versus enthusiasm. And that we use this willpower to push through and do amazing things, like finish the marathon. So, it’s like you have this willpower to push, push, push, you get to the finish line and you can finally get out of fight or flight and relax. And that’s when everything sets in.

Michael:

Yeah. I think that’s what happened-

Kyle Brown:

Versus enthusiasm, it’s like with enthusiasm, enthusiasm is from the Greek [Greek 00:59:46], meaning with source, with spirit. You’re connected to your friends, to your family, to those things you care about, nature, and just such a better way to operate. So, that’s where I push all my attention now. It’s like if I’m not fired up and excited about what I’m doing, I’m either going to outsource it, or I’ll do it with that willpower for just a little bit, but I won’t stay there.

Michael:

Yeah. Get to verse have to. Yeah. I’m outsourcing as many have-to’s as I can nowadays because it just doesn’t work for me. And that’s a great luxury that I have. I’m very grateful that I can outsource some have-to’s, I realize some people can’t do that. But that differentiation between willpower, and forcing, and suppressing the I don’t want to do this, versus the enthusiasm of I’m going to do the things that I love doing all the time, which you can make money doing that. It’s causes a shift for a lot of … I bet a lot of your clients probably don’t end up doing the same things professionally they were doing when they started talking to you.

Kyle Brown:

Total shifts happen so many times, and I’ll add the piece that that can help anybody. So, let’s say you’re sitting here and you’re like, “Man, my wife will divorce me if I try to outsource the dishes.” So, I had that one and I said, “Okay, if I understand vibration well, how can I shift doing the dishes from a have to, to get to?” And so, what I did is I started a ritual where I tune in either Beatles frequency, or Bob Marley, and I’ll play those. And I’ll wash the dishes while singing Three Little Birds, and I’ll play it in the background. And I get into this flow, and I’m cleaning the dishes from a happier state versus like, “Man, this sucks. I hate dishes.” Because if I try outsourcing that job [crosstalk 01:01:29]

Michael:

Yeah, I hate dishes so much. I just got really excited about someone else hating dishes like I do.

Kyle Brown:

Oh my God.

Michael:

I’m averse to cooking because of dishes. I used to love cooking and now every time I go to cook something, I just see a dish. But yeah, that’s the music, and the dancing is one way. And then Thich Nhat Hanh his book Peace Is Every Step, is one of my favorite intro books for spirituality. And there’s a chapter in there about implementing mindfulness into like, what does this look like in everyday life? And doing the dishes in a mindful way where he’s like, “I’m grateful I have this dish, I’m grateful I have food to go on this dish. I’m grateful that I have water that runs, that’s hot, that cleans the dish, and the sponge, and the soap to clean the dish. And I’m happy I have multiple dishes so that we can eat at the same time.”

And he went through this whole like thing. And then for the first three or four of them, I’m like, “Man, I hate this guy.” And then by the time he got to like 15, I’m like, “Wow, that just entirely completely shifted my perspective on this thing,” because there’s people who would literally sell their left foot to have dishes, which … And food, and running water, and a kitchen, and a sink, and somebody to eat a meal with. And I try to remember that when I get rage-y towards the dishes. So, I’ll do that and listen to Bob Marley, and I’ll report back-

Kyle Brown:

Pop the two together, report back. And I always say our triggers are usually our biggest opportunities for growth. I look at those triggers. I still struggle with country music for example, but that’s probably a lesson there I haven’t learned yet.

Michael:

Me too. So, when you figure that one out, let me know, because it makes me want to pull out my eardrums.

Kyle Brown:

Straight up.

Michael:

All right. Which is surprising, because Woodstock’s pretty country.

Kyle Brown:

So, Woodstock, for those who are listening and don’t know, which is what, like 30 minutes from where you grew up, is where they filmed the movie Groundhog Day. And one day [crosstalk 01:03:23]

Michael:

I did not know that.

Kyle Brown:

Oh yes. And the Buddhists love Groundhog Day, because it’s really about making the best of your situation. I truly believe my lesson from being from there was to be Bill Murray, and to really find the joy in the mundane, and not to … Not that I had to stay there. I escaped, unlike Bill who built a house there. But I think the whole idea was like, there’s no coincidences there. Yeah. They filmed it out in Woodstock.

Michael:

Wow. That’s amazing. Okay. That’s my trivia for the day, that I just learned, and it is exciting. So, cool. Well, I think we’re at a good point to wrap things up here. And I appreciate the sharing, and the vulnerability. I know that sometimes when we talk about stuff that was really hard, often and openly, it doesn’t carry the same charge. So, like if you guys hear us talking about my wife getting really sick, or his daughter getting sick, or losing this, or losing that, and going through these things, and we’re able to talk about it like this, for me personally it wasn’t always like that. The strength comes from the sharing, and the talking about it. Because when I used to talk about those things, I would lose it. And I just don’t want people to hear that, us talk about it so casually as if these things were not hugely emotionally charged. They-

Kyle Brown:

Same. I’ll add to that for me, total agreement. And again, one of my personal best life lessons is to understand that vulnerability is power. And I was so worried about that outside image, I’m training these people who are celebrities. And I took on that same type of energy of I need to look perfect, and this perfectionism on the outside. And when I finally let go of that, and was willing to share, and shake in my voice, and in my whole body and soul as I’m sharing these things in my life that are feeling moments of helpless, and shame, that helped me heal to the point that I could be like this with you now, and say it in a way where the charge is mostly gone. And I can’t recommend doing that enough. Eventually it takes that charge away. You hit it on ahead.

Michael:

Awesome. All right. Well, I’m glad that all that awful stuff happened to you, and that it drove you in the direction that it did because it’s really cool to see, and to watch, and to be in connection.

Kyle Brown:

It was.

Michael:

And I look forward to collaborating more in the future. So, if they want to find you where will they go to do that?

Kyle Brown:

Awesome. So first off, thank you so much for having me today. Everybody listening, thank you for hearing my story. I really appreciate your taking the time, and hopefully you got some good gems out of it, and you can reach out anytime @FitKyleBrown on all social media platforms. You can go to FitKyleBrown.com, connect anytime, you don’t have to get through my people. I’m here to help, connect, and serve. So, thank you so much.

Michael:

Cool. And we’ll have the links down below, too, in the show notes and everywhere. So, thank you so much, Kyle. It was tons of fun. I hope it was a good interview for you. I get a little intimidated when I have professional interviewers on things. So, it was a lot of fun for me, and I look forward to connecting more.

Kyle Brown:

Thank you. Thank you so much.

Michael:

And this brings us to the end of today’s episode. Head on over to RebelHealthTribe.com\kit to access the RHT quick start bundle, which includes four full length presentations from our RHT master classes, two downloadable PDF guides, and a 15% off coupon which you can use in our retail shop. If you’re on Facebook, come join our Rebel Health Tribe group over there. And finally, if you like the show, please subscribe, leave a review, and share with your friends. Thanks for joining us. We’ll see you again soon.