Becoming Unforgettable With Phil Lashley
When we can be more imaginative, we can get into that world and set our minds free. We can ease ourselves or rise above our anxieties and realize it’s not the world we have to live in. The good news is that there is creativity in each one of us. But why are many people afraid to express it?
In this conversation, Adam speaks with Phil Lashley, a highly sought-after motion designer renowned for transforming ideas into unforgettable visuals. With 15+ years in the motion design industry, Phil has worked with multiple award-winning post-production studios in Hollywood responsible for marketing feature films such as Pirates of the Caribbean, Shrek, and multiple Superbowl commercials. As an experienced visual storyteller, Phil uses his signature framework to help ultra-busy thought leaders turn their ideas into videos and visuals that stand out and are unforgettable.
Listen in as Phil teaches ways to tap into your imagination and bring that creativity forward!
Here are some power takeaways from today’s conversation:
- How expressing creativity creates fear
- How FRAME works
- What Phil was running away from and running towards
- Being intentional about getting deeper with your clients
- The power of imagination as an empowerment tool
Episode Highlights:
[09:19] How Expressing Creativity Creates Fear
We’re all born creative. When we have a problem, we then create a solution. The thoughts that are wrestling in your head don’t really create that much fear because you’re not ashamed of what it looks, feels, sounds, or smells like. But from the moment you decide to express what you’re thinking, then it becomes this whole state of almost embarrassment or risk. Hence, the more you express your creativity, the easier it becomes, like a muscle that you have to work out. There’s something about embracing change that is directly linked to this muscle of creativity
[23:01] FRAME: How to Connect with Your Audience/Customers on a Deeper Level
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- Feelings – What are the feelings you want to evoke among your audience?
- Related concept – What concept are you going to use that aligns with your message?
- Aesthetics – Make yourself familiar with any template design template, and go from there. Have some consistent fonts and colors. If you’re not a designer, collect inspirational images that you can pass on to a designer and this would save them a lot of work.
- Message – What is the one message? Focus on just one message, otherwise, the audience is not going to remember anything.
- Expression – How else can you express this piece of communication? (ex. Merch like t-shirts, hoodies, fridge magnets, etc.)
[49:22] Focus on Being Unforgettable
People are busy and tired of social media because there’s a lot of noise and distraction. And, so as you’re doing your messaging or communication, don’t focus on getting people’s attention anymore. Instead, focus on being unforgettable. Wrap your story and get deeper into what you want to say, giving the experience you want to give, and connecting on a deeper level.
Resources Mentioned:
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because people are busy and tired of social media there’s a lot of noiseright there’s a lot of distraction I would say with your messaging and withyour communication don’t focus on attention don’t focus on gettingpeople’s attention anymore I think instead of focusing on attention youfocus on being Unforgettable and that is what the framework that Imentioned earlier is all geared to like wrapping story into it’s like a deeperum like it’s going deeper into what you want to say what you want to communicate the experience you want to giveand connecting with on a deeper level hello everyone and welcome to the flowover fear podcast where it is our mission to help you to rise above fear and realize your ultimate potential inleadership and life I’m your host Adam Hill and it is my goal to share with youthe human side of high performance my guests share their experience with fear anxiety struggle Challenge and mostimportantly despite all of it how they Rose above it to achieve incredibleresults so if you’re ready to rise up let’s get started hey everyone welcometo flowover fear thank you for being here thanks for joining us today I have a great guest his name is Phil Lashleyand he is a highly sought after motion designer renowned for transforming ideasinto Unforgettable visuals with 15 plus years in the motion design industry hehas worked with multiple award-winning post-production Studios in Hollywood responsible for marketing feature filmssuch as Pirates of the Caribbean Shrek and multiple Super Bowl commercials andwe know those are the most popular things on the day of the Super Bowl right as well as the Drew Barrymore showfor CBS Phil has had the privilege of working with Grammy winner ChandlerMoore and his and his creative work has been featured for best-selling book launches including those of Max LucadoNora Jones and Timothy Keller for zondervam as an experienced visualStoryteller Phil uses his signature framework work to help the ultra busy thought leaders turn their ideas invideos into visuals that stand out and are Unforgettable thanks for joining usPhil I’m so glad you’re here oh my gosh just listening to that I was like oh man yeah it’sno there’s there’s a lot of power in that because you know when we hear ourselves and what we’ve actually doneyou’ve accomplished a lot of things I mean being in Hollywood and things like that and one of the you know one of thethings that that’s really cool about about you is that you’ve made a career out of something that many of us adultsseem to forget a lot about which is our imaginations yes right I mean so so canyou can you kind of share a little bit about how imagination has shaped your life likehow it’s become so important and how it’s become a career for you yeah yeah well I can take you back from as far asI remember um I was born and raised most of my life in Barbadosum and I remember growing up we felt television we got TV lately my threebrothers so that’s step one like we had no choice but to use our imaginationum we weren’t allowed well at the time I I used to think ourperiods were poor which they were not they were just very selective you know typical middle class familyand but we have a few Lego sets um few little Hot Wheelsjust the bare minimum plastic soldiers remember those green soldiers oh yeahand we would create um different worlds with these things and it never got bored if we got bored onthe inside we took these things on the outside and created even it was justLimitless so that led me to I guess being I guessI’ll probably at the time at a young age I was always interested in commercials when we got television howdo people think about commercials and at a time it was 7up I’m not sure if your viewers might remember this butthere was this this hand drawn Fido Dido uh character of The Seven up my wholeand that just blew my mind they were mixing world’s real life footage withhand-drawn figures and that took me down a rabbit hole of just experimenting withflip books you know flipping the pages and seeing the sequence flying by againit kind of mushroomed to a point where um during college in Barbados I wasintroduced to I got an invitation to a career fair and the Art Institute from Miami was there and the only thing Iremembered Adam was this this signage that said hey if you’re interested in knowing how to makecommercials the behind the scenes the magic we got a course for you and that was itI drank I drank the whole Kool-Aid bottle [Laughter] um it was it was just what I needed tohear um of course that was marketing at its finest so fast forward I got the opportunity toto attend school in Miami Art School not surenot certain which semester was going to be my last because my parents were funded this from no scholarships nogrants or anything like that and what I did was to force me to treateach semester like if it was my last so with that came this muscle of hustlingto do internships when they were offered um talking to my instructors who wereactually working in the field in the movie making business andit just grow deeper and wider from there this is a snapshot shot of how itstarted but I would say I guess I always was that curious guyum yeah so cure so curiosity I mean I know that’s a that’s that’s for a lot ofpeople that’s a superpower like you know you get you get curious enough you find your passion so you were you werecurious you were creative how did those two qualities play together in your life like to be curious and creative did itdid it kind of pave a way for success and where and what you’re doing now absolutely I think curiosity II’m not sure if this is you need to just a few people to be honestum I think you’re naturally interested in something right mine just happened to bea lot on the the development of videos and and good advertising and just thepsychology behind that and as far as creativity definitely I I believe forsure is not reserved for Creative agencies and and these houses that doStudio work creative directors is is something that is I think ingraining us and and is for everyonewith ideas and messages to be communicated but I think if if you go bySteve Jobs definition of creative creativity it was like as simple asjust thinking differently right yeah yeah I think everybody regardless ofyour career path your industry you you’re faced with challenges every day and you have to think creatively think differentlyfor almost like multiple times a day right um yeah so it’s not limited to just ohjust a few people are creative I think if we believe that we already have creatively in us we begin to look atproblems differently so you think everybody has a level of creativity within them that absolutelyyeah and if you don’t if you don’t believe me this think a few years ago when everything was on lockdown I meanpeople got creative with their their workouts their their um their lifestyleeverything was just oozing out like on social media you could see all the challenges and stuffum stay-at-home moms they’re forced to be creative every week yeah that’s such a great point I meanwhen we’re when it’s forced upon us I mean we get we we have that level of creativity and I never thought of it that way as far as as far as uh uh youknow what what happened within that period of time where covet came about was we were forced into be more creativefinding Creative Solutions and we did that’s an amazing uh that it feels likea lot of people have this untapped power to be creative yeah um and how do you feel like uh do youfeel like what do you feel like creative creativity’s relationship with fear is Iknow that’s kind of a an odd question to ask but yeah is is there a relationship there because I have I have this theorythat that when we’re more creative when we’re able to think more creatively we’re able tokind of Rise Above uh anxiety or fear in a lot of ways how do you feel about thatyeah I think there’s okay so you could be creative you have a problem you havea solution or you’re thinking about you’re wondering how to solve this problem I think it’s you’re two steps toit there’s one like in your head you’re wrestling with these thoughts and I don’t think the fear in that isvery high because we’re not ashamed of what it looks or feels or smells like uhwhat it sounds like but from the moment you decide to express what you’re thinking then becomes this this whole uhstate of almost embarrassment or risk you don’t want to you know you don’t want to lookstupid you know you want to always look you know so all these things you put on ourselves when it comes to expressingcreativity uh I think there’s a difference there um yeah so expressing creativity is createsthe fear really then that that’s right I really believe that yeah yeah and some people let it them and othersdon’t and I think like you know the famous scene before artists the black canvas is the the mostI guess intimidating thing they’re they’re having thoughts you know the mind is really going a million milesper hour and it’s only when that artist even an experienced artist in their sketchingwhen they have the moment to put that pencil or charcoal or paint to thecanvas then it become it becomes less fearful and as it evolves into somethingdecent and you you realize what you don’t like you get things out and then it just evolves in Something Beautifulbut yeah I think every time there’s a attempt to express creativity creativitythere’s always that fear I think some people get good at handling it and managing it but it’s I think it’s alwaysthere hmm that’s a that’s that’s a really neat perspective on that because it soundslike that barrier for your fear is not necessarily in our imagination or or maybe our ability to generate ideas butto express them that’s where that brick wall is is like once you put pen to paper or once you verbalize it yeah oronce that or typing in the case of a writer and you know when you start itgets easier and you get this ritual and maybe a daily habit of doing it and it seem really gets easierthe more you do it so it’s like a muscle that you have to work out yes absolutely absolutelyyeah yeah this is a little oh I’m sorry go aheadthere’s this little uh trick that I do with myself when I go run because I run on mornings now I’mtrying to train for a longer like a 10K or something but I’m trying to do one 5K per week and everyin my neighborhood where I am right now I try to run a different pathum every day right and I mean it may sound you know Phil where do you livebut it may ask me it may as it may be as simple as just running circles around aparking lot one day to meet the 5K or you know you go through this Trailreverse the diff just reverse the direction you get the next day and I think that keeps meI guess I don’t know it seems to have a direct correlation to how your approach workum or even your furniture in your office like every time you change that that’s the angle of the desk you send somethingto your brain okay you’re trying to get used to this oh this is going to work I’m gonna make this workum there’s something there and I’m not a scientist so I can’t really tell you the connection but there’s something aboutembracing change that is directly linked to this muscle of creativity that isalways going yeah well there’s there’s power to that because even if it’s not scientific ifit affects our minds in such a way that it kind of puts us into a flow State and it sounds like that’s that’s what you’regetting at is once you if you arrange your furniture or or you get out and and you run or you or you do the rightthings to put yourself in that state that puts you best in the flow you know how whatever whatever that is for you orwhatever that is for any person that puts them in that ability that there’s there’s power in that and I I can relatebecause I mean I used when I was cycling a lot more if I put new wheels on my bike like if Iput a new new set of wheels on my bike chances are scientifically would improvemy speed by about you know a millisecond yes but it felt so power much more yesthe feeling was better so I mean but that that feeling translated into better results so yeah it sounds like that’skind of what happens absolutely yeah yeah yeah a new pair of shoes man you feel likeyou begin to believe you’re this athlete yeah so so what I’m hearing there is buy thenew shoes buy the new Wheels rearrange the furniture yeah do everything you need to do that makesthat makes sense so so that it sounds like there’s ways in which we can tap into our imagination more effectivelyyes yes uh What uh what other pieces of advice would you have to help people totap into their imagination and kind of bring that creativity forward I lately started doing this I would say scheduleit yeah I’m kind of made it a part of mymorning routine now where after quiet time you know I pray um time for praying time for listeningjust some silence and then you just do a 10 minute block for I have it on mycalendar imagining and I itit’s like the permission that we we I think we lost when we were youngerum yeah whether it’s imagine how thepodcasts or how the the how are you going to show up today from smaller things like that to just going crazylike man what if I could really fly where would I go like the things that we were afraid to say out loud I I I’mmaking time for that now and I think it’s fun it is fun so and I know a lot of us have a lot amental block on that too like where where we say okay I’m gonna make some time for imagining but yeah but you knowa lot of times that imagination it’s like okay well where where am I gonna go and you know and and we get thosequestions is there is there kind of is there anything that like helps prompt you into getting more imaginative or oranything like that mindset kind of stuff yeah I actually started writing someum hopefully it becomes a eBook or something but um I’ll share I’ll share a few like forexample and I learned this purely by accident when I was younger my mom used to cut mehere and we used to take our chair way back and for some reason while I was waiting onmy brothers for their haircut I’m gonna look at the ceiling in the house upside down I always imagine man what ifthe house was upside down and I would imagine okay the chandelier of the lights would be like a merry-go-roundlike a you know a carousel right and you see it just starts going south like realfast and I think where you are like one Technique One exercise is wherever youare listen to this podcast if you’re driving probably don’t do it but imagine a room that you’re in orjust notice where you are and look at the ceiling and what if it was flippedright and the deaths and the chairs all stuck to the ceiling you knowum it it takes you there so it’s like a prompt so that’s one prompt that I useum another one is okay let’s pick a color maybe the color red I’m gonna look for everything that isred on my way from the house to the town while driving I’m just noticing thesethings oh if I’m being driven and little things like that even in your room sitting if you don’t have to goanywhere okay everything that is made of wood let’s go and it’s it’s a way of justtraining your mind to focus on the things that are subtle the things that are the little nuances in life that thatwe just miss because we’re so busy butthese these things are really really helping me to slow down especially with client work you know and take time takea step back and I take a step back with you know my clients and I encourage them to hey how is Kelly think about this andyeah yeah well that that’s powerful because I think the the way that youknow that just having prompts is you know there’s so many directions we can go that we just don’t know whatdirection to go in we feel like as human beings especially when we get to this Adult World we feel like we have to obeya set of rules and so it’s like all right well what rules do I have to to follow to imagine and so I love that youkind of guide people through that because I I feel like at least it’s it’s it’s it’s a theory that that when we canbe more imaginative if we can get into that world and let our minds free we can ease ourselves or rise above ouranxieties a lot of time and realize that that’s that’s not the world we have to live in and you can kind of guide yourclients through through that process so in terms of what what you do um uh I guess I’d like starting kind ofback gone on that can you kind of give us some definitions of of what what it is as far as the the the world thatyou’re you’re working in that you’re a motion designer what is that what does that mean and why is that different than say a visual Storyteller or uh creativeum um you know or other creative in that in that way what is what is the distinction there yeah so I think I needto Define motion designer first because a lot of people um if you’re not in the agency orentertainment world you’re not really familiar if it is still a relatively new feel in my opinion and this is a perfectmatchup between film disciplines of film direct graphic design and animation soit sits in the center of those three corners so just for example when you’re watchingyour evening news is this Motion Graphics all around everything that moves pretty much thetext logos everything that moves that is not footage could pretty much be in a bucket ofMotion Graphics so video Storyteller visual storytelling onthe other hand is a much wider um perspective whereI’m not just approaching a project with the intent of using motion design I’m using anything so like any kind ofmedium you know is like Limitless to help the clients connect the dotsbetween their message and being received by Their audience so that’s the simple difference andI would say for the most part these two disciplines have been used foryou know the studio just the usual suspects you know commercials and and to Summits like userexperience with apps that’s a whole different feeling itself in the tech world butI have chosen along the the way to right after school along the way togetting experience in the field um in in California I was fortunate to work and it’s a really good directorsand and motion designers I just said you know this is not veryfulfilling for me it wasn’t the craft itself and I wasn’t aware of this spot then right after school but let’s sayfour or five years in I realized instead of instead of just doing motion design where it’s typically usedwhat if I use motion design like what it what if I say it as a tool rightto help other people besides the the usual spaceshow can I Bridge again for them and maybe I can shine even more in that world that was what I was thinking so Itried it you know I got opportunity to work with some and I volunteer you know hey your author let me help you um pullsome quotes out of that book and and bring it to life and it started there and that evolved intoum the career they have right now where I’m helping um keynote speakers visualize their Frameworks theircustomer Journeys um instead of just being texts and words oror a clip art how can we tell stories with what you’re trying to say so there’s a method that I created for thisum but yeah that’s great so can you provide an example of of how you might helpsomebody like an author or a speaker somebody who’s who’s in that world to tomake a framework come alive what what is your process there yeah yeah sothe method is called frame actually it just evolved to that I basically took mybest experiences with clients for the last 10 15 years and I reverse engineered okaywhat were the secret the secret ingredients you know um that made this work and it’s calledframe his acronym it stands for f is for feelings or it’s for relatable conceptA is for Aesthetics M is for message and the E is forexpression right and I could dive a little bit into those right now so I’ll take a case study a recent client acurrent client I’m sorry she is a doctor and she is really established in hercareer but she’s wanting to do more speaking she has a book on the wig she has a course in development so she’sessentially trying to build her personal brand right and you know it as like there’s oh yeahthere’s a lot of work into that and her signature framework she had a littletrouble visualizing it right this was the main thing she wanted help with hey Phil how can you help me here um this is whatI’m trying to say so we took we took that step back you know permission to dream and imagine and let’s let’s framethis the right way so essentially this Frame acronym became a way to to see IDs you frame your ideaswith this I mean you frame the things that matter to you in life like the pictures in your officeright you you think you take careful note to what you choose to frame and youput it on this space so I’m just doing that with the ID yeah her ID sowe took the customer Journey map which was her signature signature framework and foreach point we kind of distill distill all the copy down to some shortsentences right what’s the essence of it and from there we said okay let’s run this throughframe let’s ask the five questions what are the feelings you want your audience your members right your your students inyour course what are the feelings you want to evoke here for her it happens to be females whowant to take control of their health right so this sense of ownership andshe mentioned the word adventure and she kind of mentioned it really quicklybut I stopped there say okay let’s develop deeper into that and we went through the framework okay so R let’sfind a relatable concept okay what is what if these these clients of yours these students are on an adventure withtheir health okay Adventure okay let’s think of um there’s a hike something challenging atrail so we landed on a trail in a park they’re walking through a trail and and their door is scene and discoveringdifferent parts of our framework um this might make sense visually but since we’re listening to this podcastall right I’ll keep going hopefully people can imagine what I’m saying allright so at a is the aesthetic what should this look like and if your design Savvy you can pretty muchyou know make make yourself um familiar with any template design template and go from there that way thelook is consistent and it meets you at every point you have consistent fonts and colors if you’re not a designeryou may want to just what I advise my clients to do is just collect images inspirational images you put in a folderso you can pass that on to a designer I think you would have saved them a lot of work and you would have communicatedclearly okay this is the general feel and look you know right so moving on theM is for message what is the one message and the emphasis here is on one messagebecause I mean if you look at any keynotepresentation or any talk if if there’s more than one pointforget it you’re not remember anything right I mean right right so when itcomes to slide you know slides for example it’s best to have one one one main messagefor the whole thing and even so on a micro level have one message for each slight sub message so don’t put too manyIDs on one side essentially is what I’m saying okay so her messages were clear she got herher big paragraph where she started going to condense sentence or twoand then let’s see so we are f r a m is message and E is the last oneis for expression this is the I think the most forgotten one where you’re looking at Okay sohow else can I express this idea how else can I express this piece of communicationum this message so she’s thinking about merch you know some some collateral umwell I call it merch some some t-shirts or some hoodies or something that she can give away to her students or her herclients right um for her also since she’s talking about health fridge magnets cameup as a really good reminder having her framework as a fridge magnet for herclients or her students because the fridge is this place where you go to feed yourself to to snack you want toyou wanna it’s like a tunnel into eating so sure she resonated with thatand I said you know what this this is helpful the second day we spoke she recited to me the framework and I waslike man I think we’re on to something here um even if she thinks she’s not creative at least she has a tool that makes herfeel creative and gets her thinking creatively at least yeah yeah well there’s such a huge power in FrameworksI mean and I I love the idea that that and especially with people like you knowpeople who are listening to this show who might be dealing with fear or leaders who who are struggling with likeyou know just identifying what that fear is Frameworks are so powerful yeah in that like whether it be a 12-stepprogram or a a a a a six step this or or whatever it may be yeah so actuallyputting it in those simple terms is so puts people at ease and that’s why Ilove that the idea that you’re bringing out people’s you’re not just doing it for them you’re bringing out their imagination and you’re putting oh yesforward yes yeah yeah I love that yeah we made it available to us available for download once you go to the website soanyone can use it you know for anything could be videos talks yeah any kind of experience you couldframe it and so that’s Phil lashley.com but what’s is this a uh your what arethey downloading it’s it’s essentially a method a methodology once you go to thewebsite in two seconds or so it pops it and you can just put in your information get it for free awesome yeah yeah it’s aworksheet really so you have spaces to fill in yourself and and you know interact with it a littlebit that’s great yeah it’s that that could be a powerful tool for anyone to to you know work work through thatum you know work through a lot of those those issues so this Frame method and I love the idea it’s called the framemethod since it’s you know designing you think of that kind of stuff yeah yeah exactly how yeah so how how are people[Music] um are you finding that people are responding leaders are respondingdifferently and why why the choice to go for Thought leaders or or those cut thatkind of clientele and why why’d you make the jump from from Hollywood to I mean by all intents and purposes you know alot of people might dream of that kind of job right and and you said maybe youdidn’t find it fulfilling what was the uh what was the the impetus to kind of moveon yeah so there’s two things to this so there was what I was running from what Iwas running towards what I was running from was were the the extra long hoursum I mean as a student a fresh freshly out of school it was fine you know got good experienceum I don’t discount the or disregard that experience at all it makes really really cool people but I couldn’t seemyself doing it long term right um to this day I still do freelance withtech companies on Project or project basis but more importantly what I was runningtowards was the what I considered a group of peoplethat really impacted my life at a young age and it is personal becauseif I take it back a little bit while growing up in Barbados I was actually in an I.T fieldum a computer tech if you can imagine Thai and laptop I had you know all the thingsthat would make a corporate job comfortable but yeah um I basically was not enjoying it andit was a season where it was pretty dark for me I’m going to some personal stuff andmy dad gifted me this little book by John Maxwell I didn’t know who he was or anything but was this book of purelyinspirational quotes motivational quotes um it’s called the keys to success Ibelieve and this book had very few words it had a lot of illustrationsonly to find out years after that it was John’s first book with illustrations theRepublic through his publisher and I would recite these things and justfeed over you know positive thinking um let’s just say I came a long way Adamvery long week so as an adult no I look back and say man how can I give back topeople like John who have yeah they have good ideas good messages life-changingmessages really but there’s such a disconnect with individuals they’re struggling andI know how it goes with you know big publishing houses in case of a book you know there’s a lot oftears to go through and you can’t do what you want if you’re relying on these these Publishers butthere was a need and I saw this this wide open space where I can help this group of people thatreally really impacted my life um so that’s where the root of it camefrom and it’s just cool looking back and you can connect the dots now on hindsight butI’ve always been drawn to help people who were speak speakers for like full-time speakersum course creators I I got a lot of texts hey Phil I’mabout to give a talk next Saturday take a look at this vigil what do you think like throughout my whole life that was aconstant thing and it’s only within the last two years of this podcast recording that I already took a step back andnotice well there’s something there I feel if these are my peoplelike this is really really meaningful work yeah yeah so you had so you had Clarityon where you were running toward and obviously a lot of pain from where you’re running from can you kind of whatwhat timeline did that fall in as far as when you were when you were in that suit and tie I.Tjob where was that before after you got the were in college or was it after that was before before it was actually aninternship because you’re enjoying college that turned into shorts um I think it was part-time it’s a littlefuzzy right now but I quickly got out of that into working withum an IT company but they were doing more creative stuff with touch screen information and Chaos machines andthrough designing for those interfaces is where I got uh-huh I think I likethis uh um this Photoshop thing is really it’s really cool yeah it’s chaos machinesounds frightening by the way awesome but also frightening it’s all kioskchaos machine information kiosk yeah I mean we see them all around the airportsbut it was pretty novel let’s say 15 years ago 17 years ago oh yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah I see yeah yeahum no that’s interesting I I um yeah I and and one of the things I’mfascinated by too with with you know folks like like you who have made theleap into their passion you know into something that that did light them up not a lot of people make that leap Imean a lot of people will will want it will desire it we’ll dream of it and they’ll say like I want to I want toachieve that and then they’ll stay where they are because right it’s the Comfort they know yeah what do you think was thedifference there that made you made you take the leap and not stay put yeahvery good question um I think it may come from the acute awareness thattime is short life is short um if I go back to the moments where II was thinking oh this semester is going to be my last for sure I don’t know sure how my dad is paying for for this thisis crazy expensive school um we felt alone we felt a grant so thatmentality okay this this what I have in front of me of short time me shorthow can I make them the best like how can I squeeze every drop out of this orange that’s the mindset that I had andI still do have today so when it comes to a career um I’ve left multiple full-timepositions that were healthy too but it everything served me for a season then Iit was this restlessness of man but that’s I don’t think this is ityou know and I I don’t wanna I don’t want to waste my my years right I thinkhe comes from that that perspective yeah that’s that I I I hear that a lotas far as just kind of this this and it’s not a negative but it’s a it’s likethis kind of uh reflection on our mortality of like yeah life is short we only have this one life to live in thatyeah yeah yes one life reality yeah and so so youfound um and and so you made that leap you’ve started getting clients is it how’s how’s it how’s the business goingfor you is is it is it really feeling that need in it and are you feeling feeling really good about it is growingstrong all good things so I’ll be honest and my wife and I were talking about this over the weekend where when peopleask you how are you doing the default answer oh I’m doing great I’m doing fantastic and I think we well maybethat’s a separate conversation but to answer your question truthfully this is a calculated slow season wherethe building of the personal brand the being on podcast thethe Outreach the nurturing the past clients that’s the season I mean rightnow the the clients that we do have on the books really fulfilling and so Iwould say it is slower than normal uh any any first quarter is typically like reallyslammed for for me personally as a freelancer but I’m embracing this seasonto really invest inward like I have a website nowI have a portfolio like for any designer creative person professional creative person right whois listening we know too well we don’t make time for ourselves we don’t write copy for our websites we don’t get testimonials butfor some reason I was able to I am doing that I’m I’m successfully getting thesethese moments where I can invest back into myself so I can show up a lot better soon a big high level view I’m taking the few clients and going deeper with themso they’re you know instead of trying to get a lot of claims so it’s more of along-term more sustainable approach um that’s what I’m noticing it is nobodyknow any means less terrifying but that’s what it is I I expected this sothat’s where I’m at right now yeah so it’s it’s yeah it’s it’s uh it’s strategic obviously and and I love theintentionality you’re putting into it that that you want to go deeper with your clients you’re going to learn more and it’s just gonna help you take offyes yeah that’s awesome um yeah and and you know I wanna uh Iwant to kind of dig into something that that that’s you know maybe more of a challenging question but I want to askyou because I know that from from the perspective of someone who lives with anxiety imagination can be a dark placetoo like you know for for for some of us who fear it’s it’s likeum you know I I know that some of some of our most I guess our our worstsuffering happens in our imagination like you know we’re just we’re we’re imagining things that are that are waybad yeah um but imagination obviously can be a tool for good like any tool it can be used for good or bad how do weyeah any any tips on how we can make that shift into something that we’re using itas more of an empowerment tool rather than something that’s that’s constantly kind of moving against usyeah this is a really deep one because I think you are like the sum ofyour experiences your history your past so I would say depending onwhere you are if like if you have in dark thoughts um seen a therapist I think would be agood first step like there’s no there’s no point on trying to do it on your own so yeah I I wouldn’t have anylike checklist for you to say hey on your own you you’re struggling mostlydark thoughts oh these thoughts this is a recipe no I don’t have that for you tobe honest I see a therapist too um and my wife and I we made it kind of routineeven for our marriage like these check-ins like how we check in you know our car our vehicle we get oil changeum during the pandemic um we decide you know what let’s let’s do this because a lot of couplesaround us are not they’re not like making it so I guess preventativeum mindset um get into Health you need like talking to someone overcoming that fearyeah of of doing it by yourself and get get the necessary help that would be theanswer I think I think yeah that that’s I I love thatanswer I mean there’s there’s so much power in community and therapy um especially to get the healing youneed before you can just you can’t just flip a switch from from Darkness to light yeah yeah it’s a lot of work andeven if even if you have a good day or week um the unresolved issues are still thereand you you’re battling not like physical people because your mind you know is is in you soclear that Clear the Stage get a good platform get some talk to someone get through some hard stuff and Make Way formore healthy thoughts to even say all right I’m gonna just practice visualization or imaginationas a routine and you know I think it’s a good platform to startyeah yeah that’s that’s that’s huge advice and and um and I think it’s it’s it’s great thatyou recognized to the proactivity of of something like therapy or or getting thecheck-ins like you were saying like you said yeah you know well you notice that other couples might not be making it so even though you you and your wife mighthave been okay it’s like okay well yeah you know let’s let’s do this just to be prepared have you found that there’sbeen tremendous value in that or oh yeah yeah obviously we were okay ish you knowwe were going through some stuff but before it got escalated um just some different season mindset and stuff it was really really helpfuland if we were in a better place like two months in um of the sessions so it was werecommend it to all of our friends too yeah it’s great it’s great and you guys are traveling the world now so you guysare doing a lot of like different different places you’re in a different place in the worldso yeah we’re we’re doing a digital Nomadum it was a year he’s going into our second year now umyeah this is probably the number one question I get like where are youum let’s see right after I think in 2021 the beginning of 2022we decided to instead of throwing money at rent or trying to buy our first homein Florida um the market was just crazy and maybehopefully at a time of year this podcast the market is really in a good place now but we decided what if we just do thething we always wanted to do the dream that we had on our dream boardour vision board for years um Let’s Travel Let’s Travel and live different placesand build our business um so we tried little by little um we did different states firstum stayed by some friends family you know two weeks here four weeks here and we came back to our home base in Floridait was you know what let’s try further let’s go Canada with the Toronto and we came backand said okay the clients didn’t miss me you know they didn’t ask where it was or anything we didn’t miss a beat if the time zones andsuch so we put our stuff in storage a small unit and we headed to Tulum Mexico andthat started the Bigger Adventure where we did Central America you know Costa RicaGuatemala a couple regions in Mexico in a mountain the mountain Villages umum a little bit of the Caribbean in Jamaica Saint Croix Barbados soum we’re gonna keep going until it makes sense to make the next step that’s awesome that’sso awesome yeah that’s that’s kind of living a lot of people’s dreams it’s like if you if you find yourself in that point of Freedom yeah it’s like wellyeah going going and doing the things and have you have you found that that Imean I know a lot of people have a barrier to entry on that on that travel of like saying well I just don’t havethe time or I’m working or and naturally of course yeah having a physical job that prevents you from that preventsthat right right in person financially yeah yeah otherwise financially might be a challenge to that have you seen anychallenges in that way or just you know been able to make that work well financially is actually less expensiveyeah so that’s a big a big a big excuse gone um yeah basically The Sweet Spot wassaying four weeks at least four weeks at any one Airbnb and the longer you stayyou can actually I’m not sure I’m supposed to see this you can actually negotiate the rates now yeahum you know it would be a win-win so we found a a little cheat there and theother things you said just being really aware and sensitive to the time zones I think that was the biggest challengeum if you have the opportunity to work remotely I think you’re halfway therehave that conversation with your employer hey maybe a month try four weeks see how it goes you know little bylittle and it becomes it could become a more longer thing you knowso even if the whole dream of totally detached um you have a home or apartmentbut you want to travel you can do it little by little yeah for sure yeahdo you find that there’s any specific challenges that you run into that you weren’t expecting in that or well thelibrary sure I don’t speak fluent Spanishum as yet Nina does my wife although she might she might want you to believe thatwhat um we had certain situations where it was like oh my gosh are we definitely introuble now like um sometimes we get stopped by police um just random searches because there’sa lot of you know trafficking trafficking between in Central America in particularand not being able to speak the fluent language basically is a disadvantagebut even so we use um the Google Translate app on our phone there’s similar apps that really really came along way you can you can bridge that Gap um I would say biggest the biggestchallenge though was just the stability of the environment because you can’t always predict what anactual Airbnb or house you know is going to be like the noise levels the neighbors until you actually get thereyeah so that’s the part you got to be really really strict in your criteria when you’re searching you know you chatwith the owners and you make sure it’s conducive for working sure yeah yeahyeah I can imagine yeah Wi-Fi and all that kind of stuff can be a problem Wi-Fi a major major deal like that’s adeal breaker yeah they tell us the actual speed we need to know the speed if you can’t tell us the speedright non-negotiable yeah yeah well it’s beenit’s been really awesome to um uh to see every time I talk to you see you in a different place and and just get to knowyou over these last couple years has been pretty amazing likewise yeah yeah we’reum when you know uh if there’s one like Secret Sauce that you would offer toyour clients like what would you say that that is what what is what is the the one thing the message the one thingthat’s a great one I would say because people are busy and tired ofsocial media there’s a lot of noise right there’s a lot of uh distractionum I would say with your messaging and with your communication don’t focus onattention don’t don’t focus on getting people’s attention anymore I thinkinstead of focusing on attention you focus on being Unforgettableand that is what the framework that I mentioned earlier is all geared to likewrapping story into it’s like a deeper umlike it’s going deeper into what you want to say what you want to communicate the experience you want to giveand connecting with on a deeper level so a week from now a month or now peoplestill remember what you said they remember how they felt yeah yeah that’s that’s a powerful powerfulthat’s even an episode title right there focus on being Unforgettable uh yeah focus on getting attention I love it Ilove it and um so people can find you at Phil lashley.com and where you candownload um you know free toolkits from you the free method yep yep awesome and uh andwhere else can people find you what’s what’s next for you where um uh can people find you on social or anything like that yeah on Instagram Ramis my is this my name Phil Lashley l-a-s-h-l-e-y and I am on LinkedIn aswell and those two are my main ones yeah awesome awesome well it’s been such athrill having you here I’m so grateful uh that you shared this you’re doing amazing work and helping bring outcreativity and thought leaders and and uh in our world which in turn is adding value to the world it’s so neat to seehow your story has come full circle where you read you know the Frameworks of of people like John Maxwell and thenand then you’re starting to help create help help thought leaders create that and become a thought leader yourselfum you have a lot of you have a powerful message Bill and I’m grateful for it Phil thank youso much for being thank you I appreciate it thank you thank you for having me this was a pleasure pleasure thanks and thanks to everyone else out there forlistening and we will see you next time hey everyone Thanks for tuning in to the flow over fear podcast if you’d like tolearn more about getting into flow and learn the foundations of flow I have a free video series on my website atwww.adamcliffordill.com called the foundations of flow feel free to gothere and download it and start your journey to Rising above fear and achieving greater flow in your life ifyou like this episode and I’m guessing you did if you stuck around for this long then please do me a favor and hitthe Subscribe button and you will receive notifications when I have new interviews new Recaps and new trainingsthat pop up on YouTube thanks again for joining us [Music]thank you