Why You Can't Leave Your Work Stress at the Office w/ Neo Positivity

Feeling lost? The biggest thing holding your practice probably isn't your team, your overhead, or the economy — it’s the stories you’re telling yourself.

In this episode, Neo Positivity, creator of the Thoughts Become Things movement and author of Your ATM, explains how the brain's "algorithm" can keep you stuck and how to take back control of your thoughts. You'll learn daily exercises and mental habits that combat negative thinking and change how you lead your practice.

Topics discussed:

• Why most of your thoughts run on autopilot
• The stories you tell yourself about your practice
• Why the leader is often the real problem
• How to stop a negative thought
• Why your home and work mindset can't be separated
• The question that reveals your purpose

This episode was produced by Podcast Boutique https://www.podcastboutique.com

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Transcript

The Stories That Limit Your Practice

Paul Etchison 0:01

What if the biggest thing holding your practice back right now isn't your team? It's not insurance. It's not the overhead. It's not the economy. But what if it is really just the story that you've been telling yourself over and over? Because whether we realize it or not, most of us spend our days running the same mental scripts over and over again and saying things like, This is just the way my team is, the patients, they're not going to pay for that. I'm just too busy. I'm overwhelmed. I'll deal with that later. And after a while, those stops stop feeling like just opinions. They start to feel like facts. But I want you to think about what if they're not? What if it isn't true? What if the way that you're thinking is quietly shaping the results that you're getting every single day? Now, today I am joined by Neo Positivity. He's the creator of the Thoughts Become Things movement, a keynote speaker, a mindset coach, and the author of your ATM, The Ability to Manifest. Now, Neo, he has spent years helping people understand how their thought patterns influence everything from their business and their relationships to their happiness, confidence, a sense of purpose. So in this conversation, him and I talk about how our minds operate on autopilot and why so many of our beliefs go unquestioned, how we can interrupt those negative thought patterns that we know we are all guilty of, and why changing your results, it often starts with just changing those stories that you tell yourself. So if you've been feeling a little lost or you're just looking for something to get you going today and get you moving, this is the episode that you need to hear. Now you're listening to the Dental Practice Heroes podcast, where we help dentists stop feeling trapped by their practices and start building businesses that actually support the life that they want. I'm your host, Dr. Paul Etchison. I'm a practicing dentist, author, coach, and the owner of a multi-doctor practice in the south suburbs of Chicago. And there's one thing that I've learned over the years is that every single system in your practice has a ceiling if the person leading it is stuck in the same patterns of thinking. So let's change those thoughts. Let's question our thoughts and let's get into this interview.

Neo’s Turning Point With The Secret

Paul Etchison 2:11

So now you've been on a lot of stages. You've had a lot of success. You've got this very, I know from speaking to you, this very fulfilling thing that you're doing now. I mean, I'd love to start here. I mean, was there a moment in your personal life where your mindset just completely failed you? And that was like a transformational moment that led you to what you do now. You know what?

SPEAKER_01 2:31

I'm gonna say no to that because for the first 28 years of my life, so many of my thought processes were failing me. But I never gave my thoughts a second thought. They were just something like breathing. It was happening in the background. I couldn't do nothing about it. Anytime I tried to stop, you only get two seconds before you think, oh, I gotta get milk on the way home, or something just pops into your head. So I never gave my thoughts a second thought until, you know, I learned about this phrase from the movie The Secret. And then that's when all the puzzle pieces from my past lined up. It was like, that's why that happened. That's why I thought that way. And then it just added up and made so much sense to me that I ran with it. It became my main area of focus, and it's been that, you know, for the past 18 years or so.

Paul Etchison 3:13

So, did you have anything specifically that after seeing that, watching The Secret? I mean, the secret, just that listeners have never, I think most people know what that is. But I guess if they if they've never had, it's about manifesting things in life. But did you manifest something shortly after that that you said, this is it? Here we go. I mean everything.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

When in the movie, they break down, you know, how your thoughts, how we vibrate as people. And any two things vibrate at the same frequency will naturally pull towards each other. And like this desk, it's vibrational frequency, you know, it's an actual code, like a number. It's not going to really change. Maybe with age and discoloration, this desk, this microphone, it's not really gonna change. But us as people, we vibrate at according to whatever we're thinking about, which is constantly changing. And thus we're pulling those things towards us. And once I really wrapped my head around that, I started to think in the past, what things was I stressing about or thinking about a lot, and then it ended up happening. Everything and what things were that I was confident about and I felt good about, it ended up happening. Everything it just made so much sense. So my next goal was to get as many thoughts as I can go on the path that I want them to be. And that's when the real work came in because that's when I learned that the brain has an algorithm and it's throwing at us what it's just what it's used to throwing at us. And over 94% of our thoughts are on autopilot, and like all these things added up to me saying, I really need to tackle this. Like this needs to be my main area of focus, my health, my mouth, my love, my happiness, all that stuff. Yeah, I'm gonna work on that. But this needs to be first because this is dictating the rest of those.

Paul Etchison 4:46

And it's interesting, it's a good way to think because I think none of us even it's this whole idea, and I think I read this somewhere. I think this might be a Michael Singer idea. I'm really into Michael Singer. I always thought he was just a really cool the untethered path or untethered mind, untethered soul. Untethered soul living untethered. That's my book. Yeah, I love that thing. And what really blew me away about that book is when it started talking about who are you? You are the one that is in there witnessing. You are not your thoughts, but you are the one witnessing your thoughts. And it's almost like I almost felt like I was tripping, like I had to step back and press pause, and I'm like to like write it down. I'm like, what does this mean? But the brain is an algorithm. You know, our thoughts are happening.

The Brain Algorithm And Autopilot Thoughts

Paul Etchison 5:26

We are witnessing them, they're happening. We do have some level of control over them, but also at the same time, they're just going to happen regardless. But explain what you mean by the brain algorithm. What does that mean?

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Well, like you said, the brain, think of it as a room full of reporters, right? You see a football game or basketball game, you got a room full of reporters, and they're all raising their hand and they all have an idea and something they want you to listen to. That's these thoughts. My brain's got lots of reporters, I think. And so you point at one and you're like, go ahead, speak, and it throws at you this idea, and it's up to you whether to believe it or not. And one of the great things about Untethered Soul is it taught me to see that thought as just a thought from some I'm observing it. It's coming from somewhere else, a batch of thoughts, and I'm choosing to observe it. I don't have to believe it, but people choose to. Perfect example. Let's say you and you were in high school and you were you were courting somebody, you were dating somebody, right? And then you call them and they don't answer. And you call back and they don't answer. What's the first thing you think? Man, am I in trouble? What did I do? Lo and behold, they were just in a shower or something like that. And it's these ideas that were entertaining, and it's up to you to see them as just suggestions and shoe them away, like a dog jumping on your leg while you're in an important meeting, or to take them to heart and start to make your decisions based off of this idea that some weird reporter is throwing at you. That's a huge way that I use to step back and realize that these are just ideas that I don't have to entertain. And once you've got a grasp on that, then you can start to do other things with your thoughts.

Paul Etchison 7:00

It's interesting that, and I think the listeners, everyone listening can relate to this. At some point in your life, you had a reality based on some story that you told yourself. And when you got a little bit more information about it, you said, wow, what I was thinking and what I thought had happened was completely off. I mean, if I was calling, I actually married my high school sweetheart. So if I was calling her house and nobody was answering, I would have been like, where the hell is her family? Because back then all the phones were attached to the wall and they rang out through the whole house. I was explaining that to my 14-year-old the other day. She couldn't believe it. She's like, What do you mean it rang everywhere? I'm like, it rang everywhere. And everyone could pick it up. She goes, How do you know who's got to pick it up? I'm like, somebody picks it up. She goes, What if nobody picks it up? I'm like, that never happened. It was exciting. That's great. But you know, it's like you get to choose what you get to believe, is what I think is a great lesson out of that. I love if you could like you see this algorithm. You're working with dentists and you're working with dental offices. I think that's worth saying is building culture in dental offices, building people gelling together. Do you have a story of somebody that you really helped that you were able to change their algorithm and you saw some transformation in them?

SPEAKER_01 8:09

You know what? As I was saying before we started a podcast, it's typically like a couple reasons why someone will call me in. And it'll be like Amy and Joan are beefing over a sandwich that was in the refrigerator. It just so happens Amy's black and Joan is white. And a month later, the office is racially divided, and it has nothing to do with race. And so to be able to come in there and to not just fix the situation and have everybody peaceful, but to really, really highlight the fact that this didn't start off as race and have everyone take a step back and say, wow, like I went down that rabbit hole. I think that was a big one for me. That was just opening eyes to certain situations. Another reason that I normally would get called in is if like a dentist is or an office owner is really into mindset and he just wants to get his staff on that page. And for me, those are the best ones to take a group of 12 or 20 people who think of this as hippie talk and have them all doing mental exercises, breathing techniques, attempting meditation, and then taking it home and it filtering down through their families and then hearing their stories a month or two months later about how their daughter's report cards are way higher than it. That's where it hits home for me. Those are the best ones for me when you're when it's trickling outward to other people, then I know what I said effectively it got through to somebody. Because I can give you great advice and you could think it's great, but then you go home and don't implement it, even though it's great. But if I do it like Inception, the movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, if I plant the seed right to where you're thinking about it on your drive on your drive home while you're using the bathroom, and during commercial breaks, you're really thinking about it. That's when you're gonna implement it into your life and it's gonna start to work. And people around you are gonna see that not only are you in a better mood, you're making better decisions, and you're getting the things that you want out of life, they're gonna wanna do that too. They're gonna want to mimic you. In this day and age where kids are being raised by YouTube, how hard is it to get your child to follow you, you know, in an area? And this right here, leading by example, winning, feeling great, having everyone around you, your peers look up to you. Kids like that. They want that. And they start to look up to you more than that guy on YouTube. And so things like that are the big ones for me, like family. I'm I'm huge on family and community.

Paul Etchison 10:28

I love that. And I think a lot of dental practice owners could relate to the fact that I mean, especially listeners of this podcast, I'm not saying bad things about you guys because I'm with you here. We get really deep into our businesses, we really do. Yeah. I mean, you work with practice owners and you work with dental teams, of course. But you know, this is a podcast for practice owners for the most part. I mean, what are some, I guess, quote, default settings that you see in practice owners that we need to kind of that maybe when you're working with someone, you're like, okay, that's a typical thing I see in practice owners, and that's something we're gonna work on.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

If you bring me in to talk to your team, right? You're the leader, and after you introduce me and I begin to talk, you leave

How Mindset Shifts Office Culture

SPEAKER_01 11:12

until I'm done. That's a problem. That is the biggest problem. Because when you leave, they know that you're not interested. So, how interested are they? And then when I talk to them, they all end up unanimously eventually saying that he's the problem. He needed to hear this more than any of us. So take those two things with a bunch of other things, you end up with a problem. That's the biggest thing right there. The leader needs to be involved, the leader needs to know what's going on. He or she needs to be implementing these techniques and these mental exercises when everyone else forgets about them. Because remembering to remember to do these things, these practices, is the hardest part. That's why I try to use that, what I call inception technique, because trying to remember to do these is the hardest part by far. I've got like 30 alerts that go off on my phone a day. It's just one vibration. That's it. If I look at it, I look at it. If I don't, I'll get to it later. So it's not like super abrasive. But like I said, remembering to remember to do these is the hardest part. And having the leader remind everyone, not just with a poster on the wall that says stay positive in each in each room. No, reminding, showing them that you care. When someone knows you care about their thought process, they will work harder for you, they will work better for you, they will be better around you. And so all of that together, that's the biggest part for me. The top doll's got to be involved.

Paul Etchison 12:32

That's interesting because I've been coaching dentists now for eight years. And like I when I talk to people on the phone or I talk to them in a Zoom consultation, I can tell them when I can help them. I know I can. And I I like to say I have 100% success these days. I don't know if it's that good, but it feels like it is. But it's because I don't take on a certain type of client. And if I had to describe that client, it's just deep down, they're not living what they're wanting. They're not leading by example. And I can see that their heart is truly not in it for making their office a great place to work or a great place for patients. Their heart is in it to make as much money as possible and get the hell out of there. It's almost like a utility and a capital that having an office provides that I can't work with that. I can't make your team respect you if you do things that don't earn respect. You know?

SPEAKER_01 13:24

Yeah, it's funny because I'll get the owners that are trying to walk out, I'll pull them to the side. It was right there in front of the room. I said, Hey, come here real quick. You know, before you walk away, you gotta understand. So these days I make it known ahead of time that that's not how we're gonna do it. Yeah, you know, but back in the day, and it's funny because some of the owners would say, Oh no, I'm fine. I'm super positive. I don't really have negative thoughts. This is more for them. And I'm like, dude, just the fact that you said that means you need to sit down. You need to sit down. Yeah. Okay. So yeah, that's that's a huge part, man. A huge part.

Paul Etchison 13:58

All right, Neil. So I mean, you're really big on mindset. Some people might say, I'm not into that stuff. I would say I think you don't know what you don't know, but we all know mindset does have some effect. And the brain is one of those things that we can really get trapped in certain processes. And I mean, can people really change? Can we treat the brain like something that's malleable?

SPEAKER_01 14:20

I put it to you like this: you look like you've been to the gym a couple times. If you were to lift really heavy weights,

Leaders Must Stay In The Room

SPEAKER_01 14:28

but low reps, let's say just four reps, what happens? Your muscle bulks up. But if a month after doing that, you change it to lifting really low weights, but high reps, 20 sets per rep, your definition changes. You might shrink down a little bit, but you'll become more dense. And though the brain is an organ and acts like a muscle in that respect, it will change according to what you're giving it. And right now, it's pre-programmed to what you're currently seeing, what's currently happening around you, your current lifestyle. So once you change that muscle memory, your brain will throw more of different types of thoughts at you, and that's where majority wins. The majority of your thoughts and your expectations dictate your expectations, and what you truly expect is what's gonna happen to you next. That's why it's so important for me, and that's why it was my main area of focus to tackle that algorithm. Because I wanted my brain throwing the 94%, I wanted them to be on my side. Not all the what is I was a police officer in the most dangerous city in America. Okay, the things I saw walking into those houses, you wouldn't believe. But the thing is, I was born in that city, I was raised in that city, so I saw that stuff growing up. So you can imagine what kind of mindset I had my whole life, but I knew I needed to change that. I knew that all that 94 plus percent of my thoughts that were on autopilot were based off of the hood. I needed to change those 94%. And as soon as I did, there's no question about it, my whole life changed. Retirement, custody of my kids, this whole movement, speaking on stages, the waves have been at my back because this is what I'm meant to do. You know, when the waves are at your back, that's how you know you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. So listen for that, feel for that, and pursue it.

Paul Etchison 16:02

What would you say to like the many dental owner owners that have like gone out and sought out therapists? And they're torn between this idea of we can either change our environment or change our thoughts about our environment, and they say, you know what? I've tried the thought thing, it just doesn't change. I can't change it.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

What you truly expect is what's gonna happen. So if you go into it expecting it not to work because it didn't work for 17 of your friends, and it didn't work the last time you tried it with someone who probably doesn't even really work in this area, then that's exactly what's gonna happen. Uh what's the saying? Whether you expect it to or expect not to, you're right.

Paul Etchison 16:38

You're right, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:38

Either way. That's the thing. And as far as therapists go, therapists are going to make their money off of employee retention. It is what it is. Or climate retention, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sorry, climate retention. They're not gonna make money if you leave. One of my biggest things when I was doing one-on-one sessions was I don't want to work with you for more than six months. If you haven't gotten it after six months, then you need to go live some more life and we'll circle back or something like that. When you're more open and receptive to this actually working for you and committing yourself to doing the exercises daily, like going to the gym, but more than daily, because you don't even have to leave the house to do your mental exercises. I don't want you to be my client for a long time. That means I'm painting over rust. Painting over rust is not what I'm in this for. I'm in this to affect as many people as I can and get this message to as many people as I can. Spending three years with you, I'd love to do it because you're cool people. But I got work to do elsewhere. Let's get you on the right path, teach you all the tools. That way you know how to do this. Okay, if I teach you every nut and bolt of a car, you'll know how to fix it if it breaks down. Let's teach you that. And then I'm on to the next, you know, and then if you need refreshers, you need help, give me a shoot me an email, we'll talk. But yeah, that's the whole, you know, you gotta have somebody with your best interest in mind, not their bottom line.

Paul Etchison 17:53

So to make this relatable for dental owners, I mean, how much of this stuff is beneficial at the office and versus how much is this is focusing at home? I think a lot of us that listen to this podcast, we're very good at our practices. You know, we're very focused at our practices, but then we often go home and we don't find much purpose there. It doesn't feel challenging enough. It feels boring and slow where we keep continually get drawn back into our practices.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

You know what? I love this part about it because they go hand in hand and you cannot separate them. Every thought you have is either putting food on your dinner table or taking it off. There is no in-between. Okay, because time keeps moving on. So you're either contributing or taking off, putting money on a table or taking it off. Every single thought you have. So whether you're at the office or

Training The Brain Like A Muscle

SPEAKER_01 18:38

you're at home, things are either going to get slightly better or they're gonna get slightly worse based off of your next thoughts. And that is your drive to think better, to be better. My son used to get in trouble in school a lot, not like violence, you know, fighting and stuff, but just grades, stuff I did. He doesn't do his homework and stuff like that. And people would ask me, How's your son doing? And I would always start off like this, oh, this boy, let me tell you, every time that's it. And I realized that. And what am I doing at that point? I am positively contributing to that happening again. And I had to change the way I was answering that question. I had to change the way I thought about it. And then all of a sudden, he starts bringing home better grades. I start getting good notes from his teacher. He graduated high school, he's off to his, you know, living in his own and doing his own thing right now. I didn't think that was gonna happen. But I was contributing toward the negative side of that. And once you realize that this is affecting every part of your life, there's no separation. You want to use it for everything from getting cut off in traffic to weight gain or weight loss, to your spouse, the health, wealth, love, and happiness, the four pillars of life, you're gonna be using it for all of them, every chance you get, especially when you start to see the results because you're like, man, this is working. Like, I want to use it for this and I want to use it for that. And it's a spiral, but it's a positive spiral.

Paul Etchison 19:55

What would you say to the practice owner that feels like, you know, I don't really like going to my practice anymore. I try to spend as little time there as possible because it's just a big ball of stress, nobody gets along, and everything's in ruins, and I don't know how to fix it.

SPEAKER_01 20:08

You know, it's funny, this reminds me the question when ladies are mostly ladies, but guys too, they say, My spouse is extremely negative. There's nothing I I've tried everything, I can't change it, but I'm married. I don't want to get a divorce. We got three kids. It's kind of like one of those questions. I'm not gonna advise anyone to leave their job or their spouse or their house or any of that. What I will say is this you gotta find the peace and you got to find the happiness by finding a hobby, something you like to do. I'm obsessed with aviation, but sometimes the weather's not right. Sometimes I don't want to go spend $200 an hour to go fly a Cessna or a helicopter because I do fly both. But I have a flight simulator here that costs $100 that I can fly for free every day when it's raining outside or storming or stuff like that. Find a way. If you love golf, you get a little putting green in your office. Find a way to do what you love a little bit every day, just to bring a little bit of fuego back into your heart, you know, and then once you do that, expand outward. Find things about your job that you love, find things about your family that you love, find things about your son that you love and key in on that. Because, like I said, you're gonna be faced with a choice. When my next thought about that house, spouse, whatever it is, is gonna contribute to the future. Am I gonna contribute it to it negative or positive? Yeah, they might be working on my last nerve, but I know that if I think about them working on my last nerve, it's gonna lead to more situations where I'm feeling like they're working on my last nerve. I have to make a choice right now. I have to find something positive. It's that that inception. Once I can get you to believe that this really works and explain it to you scientifically, that's when you really start to make the motions and do what needs to be done.

Paul Etchison 21:45

So are you saying when we have a negative thought, we've got to immediately, you know, defend that or or negate that with a I it's weird to say negate that, but negate that with a positive thought. You know, counteract it with it and even if we're emotionally so emotionally charged. Into this moment. How do we do that?

SPEAKER_01 22:01

I would say that you don't have to flip it to a positive. I would say that if you have a negative thought, you have a choice to let that scenario play out for 30 seconds and water that negative seed. I consider watering seeds. If you picture like infinite flower pots in front of you, and every thought you have 65,000 thoughts on average per day per person is like a drop of water going into different flower pots. Things I like about my house, things I don't like about my house, things I like about my spouse, things I don't like about my. You're watering these seeds all day, and majority wins. Flower pots with the most nourishment where there once was nothing. Now there's a plant in your face. Some ugly enough to leave you saying, How did this get here? Why is this happening to me? You know, that's why. So when you think about it like that, and I love that I love using that watering seeds analogy because it really makes me step back. And when I am in a negative thought, I stop and I say, Whoa, I could either water this seed for the next 30 seconds or I could just stop it right now. I don't have to go to La La Land and play happy. I

Home And Work Share One Mind

SPEAKER_01 22:53

just want to stop that one because I know what it's doing to my future. I know what it's setting up, I know what it's pulling towards me. So let me just first you have to work on stopping, waking up. I do like that with my hands just to wake up to the moment. Once you wake up to this moment in this room with this desk, I've now disassociated myself with that thought that I'm just having that I was just having. And it's my choice to go back to that, water that seed or don't. And at first it'll be tough because you know your brain isn't used to doing this, but that brain muscle memory, it'll get easier over time to where you'll catch your you're automatically stopping these negative scenarios. As they're coming, you're like, nope, I don't want to be there. I don't want to do that. And that's the beauty of it, because you automatically autopilot will start to do that for you.

Paul Etchison 23:37

I'd love to hear about your your thoughts on purpose. You know, I I we've got like the whole like Steve Jobs giving that one uh commencement address. If you don't find your purpose, go find it. Like if your purpose is not what you're doing, go do something else. And there was a book by Cal Newport that kind of negated that and said, you know what? Purpose comes from mastery. You find your purpose and your passion. Your passion comes from mastering something. You really getting engaged in it. And he was saying it had more to do with the flow state than it has really to do with finding that purpose. But how important is purpose, in your opinion?

SPEAKER_01 24:09

Find what you are great at with the least or are best at with the least amount of effort. I don't know if I worded that right, but that's for me, that's how you find your purpose. What are you the best at with the least amount of effort? And then you work your butt off at that, and then the waves will be at your back. And every now and then you'll meet resistance, and you're gonna say, when you meet that resistance, you're gonna say, okay, let me shift a little bit. I had a radio show, I had a television show, they felt great, but there was a little bit something off, and I went somewhere. I knew by then shift, go somewhere else and try something else. Those things are great, but they weren't for me. Say if you're a podiatrist, right? But your purpose was to be a gastro. You might be a successful podiatrist and have four offices and a great family and happy and all that other stuff. But if you had to follow your true purpose than look for it and pursued it as a gastro, you would have been that much happier, that much more successful. You know, so it's not like you can't be successful if you don't find your purpose, but if you do and you pursue it, you'll live a different life. And by different, I like to say just more happier in all areas health, wealth, love, and happiness. Just have your family life is happier, your kids are happier, you're happier when you go to work. And that's why when you say when you have a dentist or anybody who's at work and they're just completely not satisfied and upset with it, something needs to change. I'm not saying quit today, but something needs to change. I've asked over 2,000 people live streamed. I've asked over 2,000 people what do they love to do so much that they would do it for free? Because I'm trying to find their purpose. I didn't have the verbiage that I have now. And out of those 2,000 people, I've gotten four answers. Two of them were from kids. Only two adults were able to attempt. Everybody else says, I don't know, you know, I thought about it. I don't know. And I talked to them a year later and they stood up and thought about it. They're not even trying.

Paul Etchison 26:02

You know, I was hoping you're gonna ask me what my thing would be that I would do. Bring it. I want to hear it. I would. And some listeners, if you've been listening a long time, you've heard me say this. I'm just gonna throw it out there and I'm gonna be vulnerable, and you guys can think this is as weird as hell as you want. I would just love just to just to hide behind shit and scare the hell out of people. I don't know why. I just want to hide. I don't want to be in a garbage can and they come pop out and I just go, whoa, you know, then just scare the hell out of them. I just the anticipation of it, I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

I don't know where you could go with that. I don't know where I can find that purpose, but you know. I'm telling you, if you were to pursue that, something would happen. Some YouTuber who does that would bring you on and you'd be doing that, scaring people, making money, making more money than you ever made, being happier, traveling. That could be it. YouTube videos scaring people like Neo.

Paul Etchison 26:47

I so they for last Halloween, the Halloween, the big haunted house by my place, I applied and I never went to the audition. I just chickened out. I said, dang it. And I said, I'm gonna go do it. I'm just gonna go scared. And I just couldn't get over the and so maybe next time.

SPEAKER_01 27:01

Inspired action is so huge in pursuing your purpose or pursuing anything. We get all these ideas all day, these great ideas to do things, and then we either get lazy or what are the chances? Inspired action is everything. Get up, get out, and do it. At least try. You should have went.

Paul Etchison 27:22

Halloween's coming. You guys this year. I justified it by being busy and saying, you know what, next year is the year, but I think deep down I knew I just didn't want to go to the audition. I didn't want to get out of my comfort zone. But follow up with me, Nia. We'll see what happens next next October. So, like if someone's listening, they want to hear more about thoughts become things, they want to learn more about what your movement, what you're about, because I mean you've got a website, you've got a book, you've got so many materials and just cool things out there that are just it's hard to encapsulate all that you do into one little interview, but like where can people find out

Stop Watering Negative Seeds

Paul Etchison 27:55

more about neopositivity?

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Neopositivity.com. Yeah, I made it real simple for everybody. My book is called Your ATM. ATM stands for ability to manifest. I like to play on words because an ATM, you put in something and you get out, and that's what life is about, energy-wise. You put in these thoughts, which is your energy, and you get out what you put in. That's why I set so many alarms and do so many mental exercises. But yeah, it is a lot. It's not easy, but the reward is the greatest gift a man could have, man or woman can have, which is the ability to create your future. So get the book, get the information, YouTube videos. The movie The Secret is great, but Oprah describes it as uh the icing on top of a cake. I consider the icing on top of a multi-layered cake with sprinkles and jemmies and all the fixes. There's so many other things, like from the book Untethered Soul and Eckhart Now's The Power Now or uh a new earth. But that's what I did with this book. This book is over 2,000 live streams, over 200 podcasts, and I usually, when I do podcasts, I'm usually asking you the same questions you're asking me back because I'm learning from all that is what went into this book. 18 years worth of research and development all into this book so that you don't have to go out and seek all those other things. And it, like I said, it is tough, but it's worth it. It is tough. There's no doubt about it. I was just a normal guy from the hood, you know, average everything, and no doubt about it. Everything changed after I learned this phrase, thoughts become things. And you see it on every shirt that I wear. You can get you a shirt from NeoPositivity.com, the wristband. I got these poker chips that I use, put them in my pocket. They're my reminders. I call them tokens, all that's explained in the book. But it's a one-stop shop for you to get everything you need to do to change every part of your life and the lives of the people around you.

Paul Etchison 29:42

I love that, man. Well, dude, thanks for coming on the podcast, sharing your ideas. I think you speak for so many great things that I'd say unfortunately, I and I'm sure you get this, some people just they can't come around to it. But I would urge anyone listening, even if you think this is not for you, give it a try. You might surprise yourself, and the impact that you could have in the people around you and the fulfillment in your life is truly uh it could be transformational for you, but you gotta jump in and just give something a try. So I I really appreciate you coming on, Neo. I love what you stand for. I love what you guys speak about. Um thanks for coming on.

SPEAKER_01 30:18

Can I get one thing off real quick? Yeah, let's do it. There's gonna be thousands and millions of people that are gonna hear what you do, and you're never going to be able to hear them say thank you for all that you contribute. Uh, on behalf of all those people, I want to say thank you to you for all that you're doing for the community. You know how the dental world is, you know, at the highest suicide depression rate for like 18 years in a row. The last four years come down to number four, but it's still high. So we all thank you for what you're doing, and we appreciate you and thank you for having me on.

Paul Etchison 30:49

Wow, thanks, Neil. Appreciate that, man. So, one thing I kept coming back to in this conversation is what that whether you agree with every idea that you're having or not, there is a powerful question underneath all of it. What thoughts are you repeatedly feeding every single day? Because the reality of it is that most of us spend a lot of time trying to change our circumstances. We're trying to change our environments, and we never really like examine that deeper part, that lens that we're looking through. So here's what I want you to remember from this interview. Your thoughts, they are not facts. You don't have to believe every story your brain tells you. And next, the things that you repeatedly focus on, man, well, they tend to grow, don't they? Sometimes those big changes in our practice or the big changes that are coming up in our relationships, or the big changes that we want in our happiness really just start with a simple moment of awareness in our consciousness. We just become aware. It's not perfection,

Purpose Inspired Action And Next Steps

Paul Etchison 31:50

it's not really positivity all the time. It's just that little element of awareness, the ability to notice where your mind is going and decide whether that is a path that is actually serving you and your goals. So if this episode made you feel differently about the way you're showing up as a leader, maybe a practice owner, or even just as a person in your life navigating this life as a dentist and you're trying to figure out what changes could create the biggest impact in your practice, I want you to head over to dentalpracticeherous.com/slash strategy and schedule a free strategy call. There's no pressure. We're just going to have a quick chat about what is going on in your practice, what your goals are. And I'm going to share with you whether I think dental practice heroes can help you. And if so, what that might look like. And if you enjoy conversations like this that challenge conventional thinking and help you grow on a personal level as well as professionally, I would so very much appreciate it if you left a five star review. It helps more dentists discover the show. And damn, it just keeps these conversations reaching the people who need them. So thank you so much for spending some time with me today. I really appreciate you. You have a great day at work this week, and we will talk to you next time.