023: Self Mastery For Success in Business and Life With Adrienne Dorison

00:02 Beau Henderson: Welcome to the richest conversation on the radio. I’m your host, Beau Henderson, financial advisor, best-selling author, radio host, but most importantly, your guide on the journey to living your definition of a healthy, wealthy, fulfilled life on purpose. This is the one place committed to giving you the resources, tools, and expertise to live your definition of a rich life. We have a great show lined up for today, so let’s get started.

00:32 Beau Henderson: Today we have a guest that I’m excited to have on the show. As I got into her message and did a little research, her message is a RichLife message through and through. Adrienne Dorison is the host of The School of Self-Mastery podcast, a business mentor to entrepreneurs who are ready to make an impact with their work, and I think this is important ’cause it was mentioned about four times in her bio, a passionate dog mom. So, Adrienne Dorison, welcome to the RichLife Show.

01:00 Adrienne Dorison: Thank you for having me, Beau, I’m excited to be here. And, yes, if anyone ever goes to my website or sees the podcast cover or talks to me, they’ll know that I am a passionate dog mom. It’s a big part of my rich life, I would say.

01:15 Beau Henderson: I love that. For years, on the radio show, I would ask people to call in and just share kind of an attitude or gratitude to start the day right, what makes their life rich, and I would get things like their job, their work, their kids, their parents and you get some of these passionate people that it’s their pets.

01:32 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah, it really is. I mean, he brings so much joy into my life and there’s such a deep story to that dog, the main dog. I have two dogs, but most people just see the big black and white Bernese Mountain Dog, and he’s added so much love to my life in different ways, gotten me through a lot of different things and literally makes me smile. Like, I could be having the worst day ever and I look at that dog and he’s smiling.

[chuckle]

02:00 Beau Henderson: It’s funny… I don’t mean to get too sidetracked, but isn’t it funny how when you’ve had an animal like that and they’ve been with you through so many phases of life, how you just have a connection to that?

02:10 Adrienne Dorison: Oh, absolutely. And I don’t wanna get too sidetracked either, but literally, I had a very traumatic, toxic relationship that I got out of and I honestly didn’t think I was going to ever be capable of loving someone again. And I got this puppy about two weeks after that and he’s really restored my ability to love, I think. And he taught me responsibility outside of myself and that was huge, it was life changing.

02:37 Beau Henderson: So, hey, we did do the right thing by starting with the dog being part of the rich life there. Adrienne, I know you teach in the podcast the Self-Mastery, The School of Self-Mastery podcast that you really believe success is inevitable for people that are willing to pursue it, and it sounds a lot like our message here is you’re just trying to give them tools and tips on the journey to achieve the things they wanna achieve and be the biggest version of what they wanna be possible, but I know there’s a story. Whenever somebody I find with a big mission, there’s a story behind why that mission is so big to them, so I’m betting you have a story behind why this is your mission now.

03:18 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah, of course. I think that our greatest mission comes from usually a mess or something traumatic that happens or a disbelief in ourself, and that’s really where it came from was, I had a very traumatic childhood, probably set up for not a life of success, essentially, and I wasn’t gonna take that for my answer, right? And so everything that I did really stemmed from the pursuit to be better. And there’s a dangerous line that you cross of really finding your self-worth or your value in achievement versus achieving because you want to grow and help other people become the best person that you can be, and still knowing that that’s not who you are or how you’re valued as a person. And so it really did take a long time for me to disconnect those things, and it’s still a process so that I truly understand who I am and what I do are different things. But like I said, I had a pretty traumatic childhood, 10 years of eating disorders, went to grad school, got out of grad school, got a job that I thought was what I was supposed to do ’cause it was a good job by all external standards.

04:43 Adrienne Dorison: And I liked the job for a little bit, but when I started questioning if this was my end goal, if that’s really where I saw myself, because I knew I had the potential to be a VP or something like that, I knew that I had great potential within me because I was always willing to pursue it and that’s just kind of how I’ve been as an adult and as a child. But when I looked at that path, it wasn’t really exciting to me anymore, and so I had to really shift gears and say, “It’s okay to change your goal. It’s totally okay to do that,” and really move in a different direction and create the rich life that I really wanted versus something that looked rich from the outside that really wasn’t doing it for me. So I had to make a lot of changes in my life to make that happen and I have left the corporate job, I paid off $45,000 in debt in six months so that I could leave that job debt free.

05:35 Beau Henderson: Wow, congratulations on that.

05:38 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah, that was a big win for me because I think that debt stops people from doing a lot of the things that they really wanna do, whether they are willing to admit that or not. A lot of people just kind of accept that debt is a normal part of life, which doesn’t allow them to really pursue the richest life that they want, and so that was a big goal and I achieved that, and teaching other people that success is inevitable if you’re willing to chase it. It might not look exactly like what you thought it was going to. I literally have done an entire 180 since one year ago today. I didn’t have a business, I had $50,000 of debt, and I didn’t have a podcast, I didn’t have a book proposal. All of these things are a complete and drastic change from where I was a year ago, and that just took me being willing to do sometimes scary things, take some risks and pursue the success that I really desired. And I do think success is teachable. I think that you can learn it.

06:44 Beau Henderson: I think that’s worth even bringing out a point you made that I think is crucial for people to hear, and it’s been a part of a lot of people’s experience, is that in this pursuit to be the best we can be, that there’s a fine line between pursuing that and seeing that pursuit as check marks and accomplishments. And the best I’ve come up with so far, Adrienne, is maybe our accomplishment should be measured by over time. This is where it got to me, I started thinking on longer term. Maybe when I look back one day, maybe I should measure it by the… If I’m doing things today, that I can look back and realized I impacted the most amount of lives I possibly could.

07:28 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah. On my podcast, I ask people like, “What does success mean to you? What’s that definition?” Because I think that we will be on this more trained of never feeling like we’re really successful because the horizon keeps moving. You’re always gonna be chasing this horizon, and you’re never gonna get there. And that’s what I’ve really understood after interviewing tons of externally successful people, as well as on my own journey, like you’re never gonna feel like you’ve made it, so I don’t really believe in this “I’ve made it” moment that we’re chasing. And so, yeah, you have to really understand where you are right now is enough. You are successful now, but that you’re on the pursuits of growth or expansion, whatever that means. But that’s still very abstract, right?

08:17 Beau Henderson: Right.

08:18 Adrienne Dorison: And so, I heard from one person… I don’t know if it’s like this for you, but the podcast has been my own selfish act to get mentored by people.

[chuckle]

08:30 Beau Henderson: Oh, absolutely.

08:31 Adrienne Dorison: I learned so much from the people that I interviewed. Their answer was one of the best answers I ever heard about how they defined success, and it was really the waking up and being obedient to what they’ve been called to do, whatever that may be. Because otherwise, we are just chasing the next thing, the next thing, the next thing. Growth and expansion is great, but what does that really mean? And growth and expansion can still make you feel like you’re on a more train whereas, if you’re just being obedient to, if you believe in a higher power, whatever that is for you and your spiritual life, it doesn’t really matter. But if you’re just being obedient to what you’ve been called to do that day, then you’re probably being pretty successful.

[chuckle]

09:17 Beau Henderson: Right.

09:18 Adrienne Dorison: It’s like a different way of measuring that. Because how can you measure it?

09:21 Beau Henderson: Well, it’s that journey, this comes up over and over again, it’s the journey. And a parallel I’ve seen in the financial planning world over the last 15 years is I’ve seen so many people, when we get in and have a conversation, they are waiting for this certain level they hit in that corporate job. “When I hit management, then we’re gonna do these things then things are gonna change.” “When I retire, when the kids are out of college.” And they’re looking for all these milestones to start doing the things that are meaningful to them or that they really wanna do. And what always comes up, sadly, sometimes people never get there. Some people are waiting for that management, then they lose their family in the process. Things happen to people, and a theme I see that people that really have got this and it sounds like, what you’re teaching is that we’ve got to learn to be happy on the journey and it’s not like we’re building up to this big crescendo event one day.

10:15 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah. Happiness is a choice that you get to make every single day, and the same thing I believe that living a rich life is a choice that you get to make every single day. It is not, in my opinion, attached to money. Like I said, the things that bring me into a rich life are my dog, the smile I see on his face. I can choose to be happy about that every single day. And we know from research that once you make more than $75,000, once you’ve hit that security level of… We wanna feel financially secure, but after that point, and the point is $75,000 in the United States, you’re not gonna be any more happy by making any more money. But we still, as a society and still as humans, we still think that that’s gonna change something. And so until we remove that expectation that that is going to make us happier, it’s not. And so I always tell my clients and the people that I work with like, “If you’re not enjoying what you’re doing now to hit this milestone that you’re going for, then stop.” The joy is in the process. You have to create because you love what you’re creating, not because of what you think it’s going to necessarily produce, like the profits or the impact is the by-product, essentially.

[chuckle]

11:38 Beau Henderson: Right. So would it be a fair statement to make, Adrienne, that success and this mastery, it’s maybe not what we’re taught from the time we’re little with marketing and things that are popular out there in the media, but maybe that all this stuff is an inside out job?

11:55 Adrienne Dorison: Absolutely. That’s exactly what it is, because marketers want you to consume and that is their job so we can’t be mad at them for doing a great job at their job. But there’s nothing wrong with having things, to have things if you want things. And I just find it so funny I talk about this all the time with my fiance like people work so hard to buy stuff. I’m like, when you think about it that way it’s like “Oh, can’t do this, gotta work late because gotta buy that stuff.” I’m like what is stuff? What is stuff? Why do we buy stuff? Why do we want stuff and we always want more stuff so we can put stuff on our stuff, right?

12:38 Beau Henderson: That’s right.

12:39 Adrienne Dorison: It’s just so silly when you think about it that way but we are so consumer driven and there really is no… When you are consuming that way or filling voids, that’s what you’re doing, you’re filling a void. You’re filling a void that can be met with something else if you will do that inner work, that self-discovery of really, what really would make you happy, what would really help you create the life that you want. And it’s not more stuff typically, it’s usually experiences, it’s usually creative energy flowing in the right direction or people, relationships. Those are the type of things that typically will help you feel more happy, not stuff. And so it’s definitely the inner, inner working. And it’s a constant, constant battle I think because of the society we live in and the marketing that we’re faced with.

13:34 Beau Henderson: Right. Now, Adrienne people that might wanna get involved in these kind of conversations with you, how do they find and plug in to The School of Self-Mastery podcast?

13:45 Adrienne Dorison: They can find it on iTunes for sure. Just search ‘school of self-mastery.’ They can find it on Stitcher if you’re not an iPhone user as well as on my website adriennedorison.com and you’ll find the podcast there. And I also have a Facebook group where we have continued conversations and that’s called Society of Self-Mastery and they can search that in the Facebook bar as well.

14:08 Beau Henderson: Now if somebody’s working with you or they might come across some of the conversations on the podcast, is there anything else you go into into this what self-mastery really is?

14:17 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah, to me there’s five pillars of self-mastery or what I kind of defined them as because I work mainly with entrepreneurs and a lot of times we’re super laser focused on the business and then we let all of the other areas of our life that really help us be more masterful, they fall to the way side. I don’t believe in balance, I don’t believe there’s any such thing as a balanced life. I think that that is chasing a white whale. But I do believe we have to present in other areas and so those five areas would be your purpose, or your business, or your career, whatever that is for you. Your relationships, your finances, your physical health so the body that you have. And then, what did I say? Finances, purpose, spiritual, relationships.

15:09 Beau Henderson: Spiritual is the one we don’t have.

15:10 Adrienne Dorison: Oh, spiritual, yeah. And your spiritual component whatever that is for you, whether you believe in God or you believe in the universe or any sort of higher power.

15:21 Beau Henderson: Sure.

15:21 Adrienne Dorison: Or just the connection that you have with yourself, beyond yourself, I think that that is a valuable thing to take time for in your life. And like I said, it doesn’t have to be balanced ’cause I think that you’ll be disappointed in that pursuit. But to really be present in each one of those things at some point during your day.

[laughter]

15:42 Beau Henderson: You know I’m glad you brought up that concept of balance is almost a mythological thing in that it makes me think of an analogy of a farmer, sowing and reaping. Meaning, there are certain times when we need to sow and really we need to be heavy in a couple of these areas. And then there’s other times to be in other areas because if it’s the right time to really invest in our business and the opportunities are right there, or it even could be a relationship and you try to spread it equally thin over five areas, you might just miss that window that was gonna be a key component for the rest of your life.

16:21 Adrienne Dorison: Absolutely! And that’s what I talk about a lot when we think about balance, and I’m currently in a book proposal mode on this topic because I think it’s really important because a lot of marketing or even cultural society, corporate environments try to feed us the idea of balance and it really doesn’t exist and it’s not gonna get you the results that you want, right? So I talk about living life through seasons so…

16:46 Beau Henderson: Perfect!

16:47 Adrienne Dorison: Like you said sowing and reaping, right? In the beginning of this year I was building my business and so it wasn’t the time. I’m also a triathlete, it was not the time for me to be training for a big triathlon, but I was still working out everyday so it didn’t need to be like the season where I try to do everything. I’m getting married but it wasn’t the time for me to be planning a wedding but I’m still paying attention to my relationship. So having that self-mastery is paying attention to those things, not letting them completely fall off the boat but knowing that you’re gonna be going through seasons of life. And a season will not last forever, but it’s up to you to also take advantage of when you’re sowing and reaping and making sure that you’ve sown all this, it’s time to harvest. And people in your life need to know that too. I think that’s really important.

17:35 Beau Henderson: And you know I think a triathlete… One congratulations on that, that is an awesome accomplishment.

17:40 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah, thanks!

17:41 Beau Henderson: But I think that’s a great example because think about this, if you push like you were ramping up for your triathlon year round, you’d literally probably kill your body.

17:50 Adrienne Dorison: Mm-hmm, yeah. It just doesn’t make sense.

17:51 Beau Henderson: You gotta repair, recover, and build it so that’s very good. So, one of the things I was very impressed when I saw to make this transition you paid off the $45,000 in debt. Let’s talk about how you did that, how it impacted your life because I think what you already brought up I think is very key, is that some people will say, “This debt is why I can’t take this step.”

18:19 Adrienne Dorison: Mm-hmm, it is. And for me it was really important to get that debt paid off. I didn’t know how quickly I was gonna be able to do it but I knew that for a few years in the corporate world I wasn’t paying attention to it. I was just paying the minimum payment which put me at about a 25-year repayment plan.

18:35 Beau Henderson: Pay off plan.

18:36 Adrienne Dorison: And that’s what I was doing. I was like, “Well, I guess I’m just gonna have this for the next 25 years.” And I think that that’s where a lot of people, maybe not most but definitely a lot of people are when it comes to their debts, their student loans, whatever it might be, they’re in this minimum payment mindset and that they can still afford to do all the other things that they wanna do. And so, I wasn’t focused on getting it done. At the beginning of 2015, this year, I said, “Okay, I’m gonna get aggressive with this,” and this isn’t the track for everyone but it was the track for me. I wanted to get aggressive because I did wanna leave the job and I knew that having that debt there was one of the reasons I would not be able to leave.

19:15 Beau Henderson: Right.

19:15 Adrienne Dorison: If I had some payments, right? I had to be bringing in that money to make those payments. So I got really aggressive with it. I was pouring all of my corporate income onto that debt and then I started a side business. So my side business started organically from a blog, just doing something that I loved doing, and then turned it into a business. And I always tell people, “My journey might not look like yours. You might love your day job and if you love your day job, awesome, but you should also be thinking about how to monetize other things that you’re already doing in your life.” I think we’re in the era of the side business. It’s so easy to start a side business in your spare time, and if it’s something that you love doing you might as well get paid for it.

19:53 Adrienne Dorison: So, always be thinking about that, I think. And then, I just started pouring all that money onto the debt as quickly as I could. And I made sacrifices for a short period of time in order to reap the benefits in the long term, that I wasn’t gonna have to pay anyone any money besides my normal monthly payments of living expenses, and that feels really good now. And so, that whole journey of sacrificing in the short term, it helped me really get more intimate with my money, if I can say it that way because I really understood what I valued. Whereas before, like I said, I was kind of filling a void with just purchasing things for no reason. And so, I was doing a lot of unintentional spending or unconscious spending and I think that some people will be like, “Oh, I’m very conscious of everything I spend money on,” but I would challenge you for a week to think about that and be conscious every time you pull out that card or pull out that cash.

20:52 Adrienne Dorison: Do you really value this thing? Do you really want it? And what’s the trade-off? So for me the trade-off was getting out of debt in a longer time frame and I wasn’t willing to make that trade-off. I wanted to get out of debt as quickly as I could. And so, was it sacrificial? Sometimes but it didn’t feel super-restrictive because if there was something I really did value and I wanted to do, then I could do it. I could buy the coffee if I wanted to. I wasn’t living in a jail cell but I knew what my goals were. And so, I think that’s really important to know what your goals are and then know how your daily habits because financial behaviours, it’s 80% behaviour and 20% head knowledge. We all know what we should be doing, we’re just not doing it. So, really just being more conscious of our spending and really what we value, it was very eye-opening for me while I went through that debt freedom journey.

21:48 Beau Henderson: And how quick did you pay off the 45,000?

21:50 Adrienne Dorison: Six months.

21:51 Beau Henderson: Six months. So you just really hammered it.

21:53 Adrienne Dorison: I hammered it because… And people are like, “Oh, this is impossible.” I wrote a story for Business Insider and it’s sad to me because all the comments are very negative on the article. People don’t believe that I could do this. People don’t believe in themselves enough to believe that this was possible for me. Is it possible for everyone to do it that quickly? No, but it is possible to get it done and it’s just gonna depend on people’s current income, if they’re willing to… I worked my tail off during those six months because I had the corporate job and I started a side business which was essentially an entire another job. I was working a lot and so when I say it was the season of sowing it definitely was and I had to have my partner in life, my fiance, understand that.

22:40 Adrienne Dorison: I knew I wasn’t gonna be training for a triathlon at that point because when I got home from work I was working on the business and I was waking up at 4:30 AM to do my workouts because it was so important for me to stay healthy and energized, so that was still an important part of my life. On the weekends, I was working. So it was definitely a period of sowing and now when I was able to quit that job and say, “I can leave and I can leave comfortably,” because I’ve sown into this business enough where I have a consistent income here and I don’t have any debt so if my income becomes inconsistent in the side business, I’m able to plan for that.

23:16 Beau Henderson: Yeah, you’re actually able to use the money you make. Ain’t that funny? Let’s pull that out just a little bit more in that… We talk about whether it’s your definition of self-mastery, your definition of a rich life, being successful. Any of those scenarios of what everybody really wants in their life, this meaningful, happier, fulfilled life is debt takes away options. Debt imprisons you to an extent. It’s probably not too strong of a word. And then I think the second piece you brought up that I wanna pull out too is that do a side job, do something. I had somebody yesterday, literally, on a strategy call tell me they made a thousand dollars a month on the side. ‘Only,’ they said ‘only’ a thousand dollars a month on this side business. And I was like, “Holy cow, that thousand a month could be your freedom money.”

24:09 Adrienne Dorison: Mm-hmm, yeah. And I still monetize things on the side even though my full-time business is my coaching business right now and I have a full-client base. I’m making more money than I did in corporate. I’m super grateful to be able to do something like this that I love, but I also have hobbies that I monetize, and they’re not monetized at the level of my full-time business, but they’re monetized because I love doing those things, so I’m gonna do them anyways.

24:41 Beau Henderson: Right.

24:42 Adrienne Dorison: I teach classes at my gym because I like working out. I get the best workout when I’m teaching other people to work out ’cause I’m yelling at them, and sweat’s flying and things like that. But people are also watching me, so it’s kind of like it encourages me to get the best workout, as well. And I make like $20 per class. It’s not great money, but if I’m gonna be doing that thing anyways, which I am, why not make an extra $20? So, I think that that’s an important concept just to think about.

25:13 Beau Henderson: And over the course of the month, that might be paying an electricity bill.

25:17 Adrienne Dorison: Exactly. Or our groceries. It pays the groceries or something like that. And I also, as you know, love dogs, so we dog sit sometimes because I’m already here with the dogs. I don’t have any babies, but I feel like if you have one, you got two, you’re gonna be doing the same work, right? So, I’m like, if I have one dog here or three dogs here, I’m still gonna be feeding them and letting them outside, and I’m getting paid for that, to dog sit someone else’s dog who doesn’t wanna leave them at the boarding place. So, that’s another way to monetize what I love doing already.

25:52 Beau Henderson: Well, one of the things I love about principles that work, like paying off this debt. And, by the way, let’s make this contrast, too. You were on a 25-year debt plan.

26:02 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah.

26:03 Beau Henderson: And it might have been uncomfortable, and people might be hating about sacrifices somebody makes even if it is just plain hard, but you took a 25-year plan and condensed it to a six-month plan. I think people need to pay attention to that.

26:15 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah. So, first, I took the 25-year plan and I condensed it into a one-year plan.

26:21 Beau Henderson: Got it.

26:21 Adrienne Dorison: So it was incremental in that I didn’t have the side business when I started paying off that debt. So, it went from 25 years by just paying the minimum, which I just thought that that was my destiny, and then I got serious. I looked at creating a plan for my spending. What some people would call a budget, right? Restrictive talk.

26:42 Beau Henderson: We call it the “B” word here.

26:44 Adrienne Dorison: The “B” word, okay. So, I created a spending plan seems nicer. And so, I created a “B” word, and that took me from 25 years to one year with just my corporate income, if I poured everything I could from that corporate income. Once I took out rent, food, and electricity that was basically what I was on, I call it “survival expense time.” So, I was able to bring it from 25 years to one year, and so that to me was motivation. I was like, “Oh, my gosh. I can get this done in a year.” I was excited. And so then when I started the side business, it was just on from there. I was, as Dave Ramsey would say, “I was gazelle intense.”

[chuckle]

27:33 Adrienne Dorison: Every single thing I did, I was like, “Oh, that’s going right on to the debt.” When I got my tax refund, that’s right onto the debt. So, I’m not saying that this was easy. I definitely had to have people in my life who were keeping me on track. They were like, “Focus, you’re almost there.” Cheerleaders really helping support me, because people in your life will try to sidetrack you, too. Like, “Oh, come to this vacation,” or “Come out to dinner with us to this nice, fancy place.” And I just had to really think about what my goals were, and have those cheerleaders along the way.

28:06 Beau Henderson: Well, let’s talk about this, too. So, one of the things with the principles, they work with a debt and when I can tell something’s a true principle and not just an idea that worked here in this specific situation, a principle will work across different areas of our lives. So, was there anything you learned in that six-month journey of paying off the debt that you’ve been able to take and say, “You know what, some of these same things that made me successful there apply in other areas of my life, too.”?

28:33 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah, so the first thing that I always… When I write about my five-step process to pay off the debt, the first thing is deciding because oftentimes we’re interested in doing something, we’re not committed to it, right?

28:50 Beau Henderson: Mm-hmm.

28:50 Adrienne Dorison: And so, there’s a huge difference in being interested and being committed. And so, I committed to that process. I made a decision that I was going to get aggressive about the debt. I could’ve stayed on the minimum payment plan and had more money per month for the next 25 years, but I was making that decision that I can do that in every area of my life. “Okay, what are you interested in?” versus “What are you really committed to doing?” and, “Are you really committed to this goal, and seeing it through on a daily basis and changing your habits and changing your behavior to make it happen?”

29:21 Adrienne Dorison: And if you’re not, that’s okay. Just know that you’re probably not going to achieve that thing, if you’re not willing to make some behavior changes or habit changes to actually accomplish it. But you have to make that decision, and that’s a decision that only you can make. And that’s a principle. As well as the belief that I could do it. So, the belief that I could do it did not arise in the very beginning. I was very skeptical of myself. And I think a lot of people are skeptical of their own goals, they’re skeptical of other people’s accomplishments, they don’t really believe that it’s possible. And if you don’t believe something is possible, you’re not actually gonna take the action to do it. So listening to Dave Ramsey’s podcast was huge for me because you heard other people’s success stories. It’s one thing to hear Dave Ramsey’s success story because, yeah, he was a millionaire, went bankrupt, became a millionaire again.

30:11 Beau Henderson: Right.

30:11 Adrienne Dorison: And so it’s a little harder to relate to him because now he’s a millionaire and I’m like, “Oh yeah, he knew something I didn’t.” But to hear other people’s success stories who are just like me, and they were doing it, they were paying off their debt, that was enough for me to start believing in myself, and having other people believe in me too. And that’s why I share my story because I want other people to know that this isn’t just some spam story that I’m sharing, that that’s what people on Business Insider will say, which is why it’s sad because you have to believe in yourself; otherwise, no, you’re not gonna take any action ’cause why would you if you don’t actually believe it’s possible.

30:52 Adrienne Dorison: Whenever you’re setting a goal thinking about, “Do I really believe this is possible?” And if I don’t yet, it’s okay if you don’t yet, but what about it is causing me to not believe that it’s possible, and where can I find evidence that it is possible, right? Maybe it’s a different time frame or maybe it’s looking for people who have done it before because if someone’s done it before, it’s possible for you. So really helping yourself to take some action by believing it. And then it was just taking action. And so I think that that’s a very simplified version of principles to help you achieve what you wanna achieve. But the truth is, success is pretty simple and we tend to overcomplicate things as humans. And it’s really about making the decision, believing that it’s possible, and then taking one small step every single day to make it happen.

31:40 Beau Henderson: Yeah, no, I love that. And that’s the same process, and that piece there on getting around people either that have done what you’re gonna do for inspiration. And I even say let’s take it that next step and make contact, get into a mastermind with people who have done what you’re working on because I think what happens to a lot of people is they stay in their same routines, habits and relationships, and these people are not on that path or haven’t been there, and it gets really hard because it’s so easy just to fall out. Like you say, the friends wanting to go out to dinner three nights a week that takes you off your plan, it’s so easy just to slide back into those routines.

32:19 Adrienne Dorison: Absolutely, and you are a product of your surroundings, right? And so if you look around you and you’d see people that aren’t lifting you up, aren’t supporting you, or they’re not doing things that you’re excited about or even that they’re excited about, it might be the wrong circle to spend a ton of time in. And when I went through the debt repayment process, we had a group of people who were also paying off debt. And so, surrounding myself with people who were doing that, who were on that same journey, who were achieving their goals faster than me was inspiring to me. And I think that’s true in my business circles as well. If I’m the most successful person in the conversation or in the room, I need a new room, right? And that’s something I’ve always done as an athlete, I always used to play on the boy’s teams because I was the worst, and so it made me better, and that’s exactly what I wanna do in my life is be in the room where I’m not the best. And sometimes that’s intimidating, but it always makes me better at that thing and allows me to pour back into other people.

33:23 Beau Henderson: Right, and sometimes it might be an ego-stroke thing if you find yourself in situations where you’re always the smartest and the furthest along in a group, that’s actually a very bad place to be in.

33:35 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah ’cause it’s only going to stall you.

33:38 Beau Henderson: It’s gonna pull you down.

33:39 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah, absolutely. And so you have to be very careful about that, and kind of look around and say, “Yes, I do wanna pour back into other people that can learn from me, but I do need to spend the majority of my time around people that are gonna help lift me up so that I’m able to pour back into those people. Otherwise, I’m just moving back to where they are.”

34:00 Beau Henderson: Now, Adrienne, was there a… It can be recent or it can be on this journey because it’s actually been a pretty recent journey of all these you’ve accomplished. Has there been a resource or a specific book you’d recommend, somebody said, “Hey, I relate to Adrienne’s journey and I wanna do what she’s done,” or something like that. Any kind of resource that you’d recommend?

34:19 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah, so there’s two books that I read multiple times during the six months that I was paying off the debt, just because that was really my sowing into my business period. One of them was, “The Miracle Morning,” by Hal Elrod. I’m a huge Miracle Morning fan, and that really allowed me to set up my goals more properly, it allowed me to set up my schedule in a way that was going to allow me to work on the side business and stay focused on things that poured back into me, like working out. So like I said, I woke up at 4:30, I would do my morning routine, go to the gym, set my goals every morning. And so that was a really transformational piece of the process, and so that’s “The Miracle Morning,” by Hal Elrod.

35:03 Beau Henderson: And Hal, I don’t wanna interrupt, but Miracle Morning absolutely rocks. Hal was actually the first interview for this podcast.

35:10 Adrienne Dorison: Oh! I love Hal, he was on my podcast too, and he’s become a good friend. His work is very inspiring and has changed the lives of so many people. So I always recommend that. I’m glad you’re a Miracle Morning fan as well. It doesn’t mean you have to wake up at 4:30, people, so don’t think that. It just means being intentional in the morning.

[chuckle]

35:29 Beau Henderson: That’s right.

35:31 Adrienne Dorison: And the other one is someone who was a virtual mentor, now a personal mentor of mine. His name is Peter Voogd, and he wrote the book, “Six Months to Six Figures.” And I was very turned off by that title at first just because of the marketing of it. But I heard him, I think, on Hal’s podcast. And I mastered that book, I literally read that book seven to eight times, and I’m probably gonna go through it again. And I did, I made more than the six figures in six months by paying off all that debt, starting the side business, and it’s not this get rich quick scheme that Peter teaches in that book. It’s very aligned with the self-mastery mission of really how to master things, how to really set intentional goals, how to move forward in whatever you’re pursuing in your life. He specifically teaches entrepreneurs, but it’s a great book, and I’ve followed through with mastering it. Not just reading tons of books to read books, right?

[chuckle]

36:28 Beau Henderson: Right. Now, so there’s two tools right there. If you’re at the place to where you’re looking to make a shift in the self-mastery journey that Adrienne’s teaching us here, love it. I love to read, so that’s why I always ask resources and books because I’m constantly reading. But we can’t leave the show… Well, there’s one thing I need to say. In your bio, I didn’t tell one of the most critical things there. I knew we would get along and I knew our messages would just really resonate because you’re a UGA graduate. Come on.

[laughter]

37:01 Adrienne Dorison: Beau, do you know where I went first though?

37:05 Beau Henderson: Yeah, yeah. I wasn’t even gonna go there. I saw that too, yeah.

37:09 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah, but I am a UGA grad but Go Gators is my first… It is my first Alma Mater and then I went to UGA. So I always root for UGA until the Florida-Georgia game.

37:21 Beau Henderson: That’s your one game, okay.

37:23 Adrienne Dorison: That’s my one game. But I will give you a go dogs.

37:25 Beau Henderson: There you go.

37:26 Adrienne Dorison: But I won’t bark for you.

[laughter]

37:29 Beau Henderson: Well, before we wrap the show… And thanks, Adrienne. Thanks so much for adding value today and giving people some real… I’ve been taking notes the whole time we’ve been talking. Some really good stuff. And I’ll put this in the show notes for people at richlifeshow.com. And again, check out the podcast, The School of Self-Mastery. And Adrienne, do you want people checking out the website? Is there anything there as far as connecting with you, or just really…

37:55 Adrienne Dorison: Yeah, if they go to adriennedorison.com there’s a place to reach out to me. You can send me an email. People do that all the time. I love it. I love hearing from people as well as the Facebook group is where I connect with people on a daily basis, so that’s Society of Self-Mastery. And they can find everything on the website, the podcast, and the Facebook group as well. So, thank you.

38:15 Beau Henderson: Excellent. I’ll put both links. And before we go, there’s one thing I have to do. I have to ask you this. What is your definition of a rich life?

38:25 Adrienne Dorison: To me, a rich life is being present in the moment and looking at our life through the lens of gratitude. And I have so much gratitude for the life that I’ve created and for the things that make me feel rich, things that are typically not monetary. They’re not stuff.

38:50 Beau Henderson: Well, Adrienne, thank you so much for joining us on the richest conversation on the radio, and I hope you come back in the future and share. I can’t wait to see what the next year brings for you. This is just amazing what you’ve accomplished.

39:00 Adrienne Dorison: Thank you. I was really excited to be here, and hopefully next year there will be a book for us to talk about.

39:08 Beau Henderson: Love it. All right. Thanks, Adrienne.

39:09 Adrienne Dorison: Thank you.

39:10 Beau Henderson: Bye-bye. Well, Rich Lifers, that wraps another episode of the richest conversation on the radio. For the tips, tools, resources, past shows, and the book that started it all, go to richlifeshow.com. And remember, you are the asset, and I’ll see you next time right here on the RichLife Show.