Shift Your Destiny with Kute Blackson

Transcript

Kute, it’s great to have you on the show.

It’s great to be here. I’ve been looking forward to it.

Let’s start by talking about your bestselling book, You Are The One. What inspired you to write that book?

I’ve always been inspired to write. It was my first book. I put my heart and soul into it. I saw so many people around the world especially in our age of social media and celebrity looking to heroes, whether it was an Oprah or Gandhi, whether they’re dead or alive. They’re looking to heroes for the answers, for inspiration. I wanted to write a book and felt it was a life-changing book that inspired people to take full responsibility for their lives and realize that no one is coming. It’s great to have heroes, be inspired by the models and examples of the great ones. Inside of each and every one of us, we have that seed inside of us. We have that potentiality inside of us. The essence of the book is no one’s coming. If you’re waiting, stop waiting because you’re already here. You’ve been given the power and the greatness inside that needs to be mined, unleashed, and given to the world. That’s how the book came about.

The book was an evolution of my entire life. From a very young age, I’ve always felt a deep calling to write a book. I’ve known that I’ve wanted to write a book since I was probably eight, nine, ten years old. I remembered being seven, eight years old feeling a deep calling to serve humanity. I didn’t know what that would look like, what shape or form that would take. For me, even the evolution of the book and what I’m doing now began when I was a child. I remembered being probably seven, eight years old, a chubby kid lost in the crowd in Ghana, West Africa. I was born in Ghana, West Africa. My father is from Ghana, my mother’s Japanese. I grew up in London. I saw this crippled woman crawling on the floor. She picked up the sand that this man walked on, wiped it on her face, and stood up, which you could call a miracle.

Week after week, I grew up seeing blind people see and deaf people hear. There’s a man, the sand she picked up, he was my father. He looked at a woman in a wheelchair and said, “Stand up. You’re not sick.” He had 300 churches in Ghana, West Africa, and a huge church in London. I grew up in this spiritual environment and that inspired me. At age eight, I started speaking in front of my father’s churches. At age fourteen, I was ordained as a minister and given the mandate to take over my father’s entire spiritual organization. I was the successor, but I knew that that wasn’t my path. What impacted my life were books. Aged eight, aged nine, I read the first self-help book that turned some huge light bulbs on for me. I felt the power of the written word, the power of inspiration from materials. From the aged of eight to probably eighteen, I read 800 books on psychology, self-help, personal development, spirituality, meditation, mysticism. I became obsessed with trying to understand the human experience, trying to understand who am I? Where am I going? What’s the purpose of life? Why am I here and what’s my purpose?

Growing up in London, I looked around and saw so many folks who had every reason to be happy but didn’t seem to be happy. They had every reason to be fulfilled but seemed unhappy or dissatisfied. I saw so many folks that had every reason to not be happy, that seemed fulfilled and happy, so I went on a quest. My whole life has been a quest of trying to understand why we’re here. Surely, life has to be more than waking up, going to sleep, eat, make money, and then die. What is this whole thing about? That’s been my life’s quest. This book is a distillation of the wisdom that has been accumulated throughout my life. I wanted to share that with people in a way that was simple, inspiring, and inspired by my work. That’s a bit about the journey.

I’m inspired by hearing that story. You said 800 books you read from age eight to eighteen.

I would be reading books on my way to school, on my lunch break, on the train, and coming home from school. I’d run home to do my homework and read books until midnight. This was maybe more than 800? It was my total obsession. My father had all these spiritual books on the bookshelf from Wayne Dyer, Louise Hay, Dan Millman, Stuart Wilde, the Eastern mystics, the guys who started Religious Science, Unity Charles Fillmore, Ernest Holmes, to Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the Founder of TM, to Madame Blavatsky the theosophist, Deepak Chopra, Marianne Williamson, the whole range.

As a young boy, all of these people impacted me. I didn’t grow up with a lot of money and in fact, we didn’t have very much. Everything we had with my father’s life and my mother’s life was about serving people. Everything went back to the church. We lived in a little apartment behind the church. My room was an 8×10 literally. One of the ways I would dream and expand my horizons was through the perspective of books. These books and these authors were my best friends. That’s a part of my passion for why I wrote You Are The One and why I wanted to inspire people. I had so many dreams inside my heart. You may feel like you have a dream, or you have a vision.

As I looked at my resources, in my physical environment, in my circumstances, my circumstance was so limited but as I read these books, these books told me, “You are not your circumstance and you are bigger than your circumstance.” As a young kid, I believed everything these books said. I would sneak into my father’s church as an eleven-year-old boy in the middle of the night. We lived right next to it, literally attached to the church. Not a lot of people know this about me because now I get to speak around the world with audiences everywhere from twenty to 500 to 2,000 and up. People would say, “Kute, you’re such a great speaker,” but what they don’t realize is as an eleven-year-old kid, I would sneak into my father’s church and with the lights off, right in the darkness for two, three, four, five hours a night, his was five, six days a week until age eighteen and left the US. I would speak and give seminars to the empty chairs, imagining an audience of men and women from around the world laughing, clapping, and responding to my inspirational talks.

That was how I practiced and how I got my training. That was how I honed my skills. It was thousands of hours envisioning myself in hotel rooms. It’s an amazing feeling now when I stand in front of an audience and have the opportunity to stand in front of them. I feel such humility and gratitude because I feel like, “Now, I’m living the vision and the dream that I put into motion back then.” If you have a dream, I believe that your dream chose you. You might think you chose your dream, but your dream chose you. It chose you for a reason. It chose you because you are the perfect person to fulfill that dream. Every single thing you’ve been through, you might think, “I’m not qualified. Who am I? I don’t have the education and the resources. Can I do it?” Everything you’ve been through, your pain, trauma, failures, heartbreak, divorce, bankruptcy, successes, every single thing has been preparing you. Every single experience you’ve been through has been marinating you as part of the spice that life has been using as ingredients to cook you, to prepare you so that you can give your gifts to the world.

Our role, as what I found for myself, is we don’t have to know how the vision will come about, but we do have to say yes to the calling that we feel in our heart. Once we say yes, we begin to tap into an inner resource, an inner knowing and inner intelligence inside of us. As a young boy, I would read all these books and I felt like I wanted to come to the US. When I was fourteen, my father ordained me. My entire life was set out for me. I was told that this was who I was going to be, and this was the path in my life. I was told that this was my life. I was taking over these churches.

There was my father’s expectation, there was everyone, the whole 300,000 to 400,000 people who had these expectations on me for my life and what my life was going to be. What I found was no shortage of people in life will tell you who you should be, what you can achieve, and what’s acceptable for you. If you live your life for other people, you’ll never be happy no matter what you have. As I looked into my future, I could take the safe route. I could take the expected route and the conventional route. I might be successful by everyone else’s standards, but if I don’t have myself, my authenticity, and who I am, then what do I have? That’s not true success.

I looked at the other path, which was following my heart, my soul, my intuition, my knowing, and it was the path of the unknown. It was like the hero’s journey and I knew that was right. I knew the truth when I was fourteen years old that that wasn’t my path. Our audience might feel a sense, a knowing of something pulling you in another direction. The truth was I was too afraid as a young boy to acknowledge the truth in my heart. I was afraid. that if I acknowledged my truth, my authenticity, knowing my truth, I would be an outcast. I would lose my father’s life. I would be abandoned and be an outcast by the community. I wouldn’t be loved so I suppressed my truth. For four years I went along with it even though I felt a discontent in my heart. It took me four years to muster up the courage.

A lot of people asked me, “Kute, how can I shift my life? What’s the first step to shifting, changing, and transforming my life?” I believe it’s simple. The first thing to do is be willing to tell the truth to ourselves. One of the things that keep us stuck are all the ways we’d lie to ourselves, all the ways we BS ourselves, or the ways we don’t tell the truth to ourselves when deep down we have known. Perhaps you’re in a relationship and you know that it’s not aligned, but you stay out of guilt, out of fear, or because of what other people will think. Perhaps you’re in a job or you’re working in a career that you know is not in alignment with your soul’s true purpose, but you stay because of fear or survival fear. Telling the truth to yourself is the beginning of transforming life. One of the ways that we keep ourselves in a loop is when we lie to ourselves.

What happened then to your father’s congregations? Is he still alive?

When I was eighteen, I had to muster up the courage to have a conversation. Every moment of our life is filled with decisions. The decisions that we make each moment shape our destiny. When I realized that I had to follow my truth, I had a conversation with my father that truly transformed my life. I decided that nothing was worth my true freedom in life. I had a conversation with him and told him, “I love you. I’m not taking over.” My father and I didn’t speak for two years, but I knew what I had to do. At that moment, he was deeply disappointed.

When you follow your truth, many times people think that following your purpose is easy. “I want to find my purpose, then everything is going to be angels, unicorns, and rainbows.” Sometimes when you find your true purpose in life, it can be deeply challenging and that is when the challenges start. It’s as though life begins to test you. It tests you to prepare you, test you to make sure that you have developed the mental, emotional, spiritual, and psychological muscles to be able to be the one who is able to fulfill the dream and the vision you’re given. Mandela connected to his purpose and spent 27 years in prison. It doesn’t have to be like that for everyone.

To me, those 27 years in prison was his soul’s training. It was his spiritual, mental, emotional, and psychological training so he could prepare himself, heart, mind, soul, and body to be the visionary, compassionate leader that he ended up being who has changed the course of history. If you found your purpose and things are challenging, it doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing something wrong or you’re not on the right path. It might mean you’re on the right path, you’re just being trained and being prepared so that you can fulfill the work you were here to do. If you’re in a moment of challenge, persevere. If you’re in a moment of challenge but you’re living your purpose, trust that you are on the right path and keep moving through.

I had a conversation with my father and decided not to go to a university. I felt like life had more to teach me. I remembered saying, “Universe, you’ve given me this vision. What do I do? What now? I feel stuck. I don’t have my father’s support. We have very little money.” I ended up winning a green card in the lottery to come to the US. That was another miraculous moment in my life that confirmed to me that when you follow your truth, when you live in alignment with what is true, it may not be easy, but it will be real. It may not be easy, but it will be fulfilling. That was when the universe synchronizes to support you. I saw so many amazing things like winning this green card, coming to the US with two suitcases and $1,000.

I knew no one in the country. I had one suitcase filled with books, tapes from people like Jim Rohn and Brian Tracy, another suitcase full of clothes. I landed in the US and said goodbye to my father and some of the congregation. Since then, my father’s church has continued in Ghana and in London. Everyone has their own path in life. The purpose of life is to truly find your purpose. Find what you’re here to do and give your gifts to the world. That’s what I’ve endeavored to do, came to the US, went and found teachers and mentors. Many of the folks whom you’ve heard about, who’ve written best-selling books, went and found some of those unknown folks in the middle of nowhere and went on a quest.

In the first few years, I ended up doing a radio show, Achieve the Level of Success with That, but reached a point of dissatisfaction. That’s what took me to another level of seeking. It took me traveling around the world to places like Northern Spain walking the Camino to Japan, studying with Zen monks to Israel, studying with rabbis to Bali, Indonesia, to Thailand, to India, which has inspired my book a lot. That’s what took me on a quest. It was out of my travels many years ago. I came back and started to coach people. I built my transformational business, which started about sixteen, seventeen years ago. It’s been an amazing journey ever since.

You’re talking about this hero’s journey going on this quest, I’m guessing that you’ve read a lot of Joseph Campbell’s work and you’re a fan of his.

I’ve read a little bit. I’ve never immersed myself in Joseph Campbell’s work but I have lived it intuitively.

You have been to Israel and studied under rabbis. I’m in Tel Aviv now and I’m here for five months. My wife is an Israeli, so we are visiting a family. It’s an amazing country. Tell us more about what your experience has been.

I first went to Israel when I was six, seven years old with my father. Then I went back when I was eight. To me, Israel has an energy, a pulse, a vibration, a frequency, and a history of amazing things that have happened there for a reason. I’ve always felt a very strange connection with the Israeli people. When I first started my coaching business sixteen, seventeen years ago, one of my first clients were Israeli. There was a period of time that about 30% to 40% of my one-on-one clients were Israeli because the word spread. I have an incredible connection with Israel. I traveled all over Israel to Jerusalem. I had profound spiritual experiences in Jerusalem and the vortex that Jerusalem is. I had amazing experiences meeting with Bedouins, some of being on the receiving end of the kindness. I’ll never forget an amazing Bedouin man who took me in for the day and invited me to be with his family in the desert in the middle of nowhere. It taught me about life, patience, and pure, simple human kindness. It was beautiful. My time in Israel was special, very spiritually charged, connected to time, being in the land of Israel and same with India.

Israel and India are two very special places in my heart as well. I have had amazing, powerful, spiritual breakthroughs, awakenings in both places, definitely vortices there. 

This is something I don’t often share. When I was aged eight, I was in Israel with my father. He took his church there. My father is a very spiritual man and mystical. He went to the River of Jordan where it was said that Jesus was baptized. We went there, and I remembered being baptized in the River of Jordan. I didn’t think anything of it until the moment I was dunked under the water and prayers were being done. I came out and my entire body was buzzing like on fire and electrical energy. I remembered changing in the changing rooms, telling people, “Can you feel that?” That was a moment of my life I would never forget. The sense of everything coming alive like something rewired in my body. It was beautiful.

I had an awakening experience in India where it changed the whole course of my life. I felt this deep connection with the Creator. It was a from a Deeksha Oneness Blessing. It was incredible. I was in Udaipur. I had gotten in touch with this Oneness monk. I felt this deep sense of peace. I had never felt anything like that before. I was agnostic my whole life because I was raised by Jehovah’s Witness and a Catholic. My two great-grandparents were diametrically opposed so I was like, “I’ll have none of that.” I was not spiritually connected at all. I not only threw all the religion out the door or out the window but threw out the spirituality too. I was 42 years old when I was in India on this very first trip. It was a Tony Robbins Platinum Partner trip that I was on. I went outside shortly afterward, and I remembered looking at the grass and all the greenery. Everything was the brightest colored green I’d ever seen in my whole life, like technicolor, a cartoon. I knew that life was going to be different for the rest of my life from that point forward. One question I had about Israel, did you go to Safed on your travels?

I don’t remember exactly but I’m sure I probably went there maybe seven times, eight times I’ve been to Israel when I was younger.

It’s the spiritual center for Kabbalah, which is the mystical branch of Jewish.

It’s in the mountains. Yes, I went there. It was beautiful, powerful.

There’s definitely a vortex there, too. It feels so energetic and plugged in. I want to hear more about Ghana. I have been to a few different countries in Africa. I’ve been to Zambia, South Africa, Botswana, and Egypt, but I’ve never been to Ghana. Give us a slice of life of what it was like as a child in Ghana.

I left when I was three. My father was the spiritual teacher to the president. I was given a president’s name. He was my official godfather. In my book, I talk about it. Ignatius Kutu Acheampong Blackson is my official name. People call me Kutu Blackson, short for Kute, so my name is Kute Blackson. We had to flee the country when I was three. I don’t have very many memories growing up in Ghana. From three until eighteen, nineteen or so, I grew up in London. I’ve been back and forth a lot and the people of Ghana are all truly amazing. They were full of heart and soulfulness. To me, you can feel that their purpose is to love.

Ghana is a beautiful land and you can feel the earth. It’s a lot of Africa. You can feel the pulse of Africa a lot in Ghana as a central core. Not just in Ghana but in Africa, there are so many amazing inventions and things have come from Africa. Africa is perhaps the next frontier for a lot of spiritual business exploration. A lot is happening in Ghana. My mother, since she was a Japanese woman, spoke no English. My mother and I were smuggled out of the country to London and we couldn’t go back for several years. My father happened to be in London at that time when they killed the president. It was a few intense turmoil fields for few years there from what I’m told.

Do you have any memories of that time?

I don’t have many memories of that time but I go back a lot now. I feel a deep calling and a purpose to impact Ghana. For our audience, there are ways in which you will feel a sense of purpose and desire to make a difference. There are a lot of opportunities to live and impact a purpose and truly make a difference in places like Africa and Ghana. People in Africa, in Ghana, they need charity, but they don’t really need it. What they need are economic empowerment and opportunities. The people there are so creative, resourceful, and resilient, but there are not many opportunities.

If anyone here is wondering, “What’s my purpose?” There are so many opportunities in Africa to live your purpose and contribute, not just charity-driven, but building things. Entrepreneurial ventures in Africa that’ll give people the opportunity to live their purpose. I believe, number one; you don’t have to know what your purpose is in order to begin living it. A lot of people in a myth and self-help is we try and figure out our perfect purpose before we live it so we can articulate it, write in our journal, and put it on a poster board. I always say, “Don’t wait. Your purpose will evolve as you evolve in your own consciousness.”

To me, the first step is to go in the direction of your soul and your intuition. Go in the direction of what you love. Move in the direction of where your heart is calling you. Take a step. What will happen is when you take a step, the next step is revealed. Then you take another step. The next step is revealed. What will happen over time is your purpose gets revealed to you in the process of living itself. Don’t sit around and wait until your purpose lands on you. Start going. If your desire is to be of service, there are so many opportunities, Africa being one of them.

People needing your service, go in that direction, be of service, move and allow the universe to show you and reveal to you what’s next. Before you know it, whether it’s a year, three years, five years, your purpose will reveal itself to you and you will live in. You will not figure it out upfront necessarily, but you will live into your purpose. Many times, you’ll look around going, “I’m living my purpose right now.” I look at people like Oprah or Obama, I love them, hate them, I’m indifferent about them. Many folks like that have no idea that that’s where they were going to end up, but they began. I see so many people, we don’t stop. I look at places like Africa that are filled with opportunity for business, filled with the opportunity to help.

People waiting hungrily for opportunities to partner, and so begin. You’ll be amazed at how life then meets you at your point of action. There are four questions I usually encourage people to sit with in terms of considering or exploring their purpose. Number one is ask yourself, “What do I love? What lights me up? What would I do for free? What brings me alive?” For me, I look at myself. I love what I do, which is to speak, teach, coach, and write. I would do it for free. I was doing it for free when I started. It turns my soul on. I come most alive when I’m sharing in some capacity, serving in this way.

For me, it’s not simply a business, although I do have a structure of a business, it’s a calling. When you find what lights you up, what brings you alive, not just a business because if you don’t love it when those tough times come likely you may give up. Ask yourself and start going in that direction. Lean in, see what opens up. If it opens up, keep leaning in. See what opens up and the universe will meet you in your point of action. Number two, ask yourself, “What specific skills do I have? What am I skilled at?” If you look at your experience, if you look at everything you’ve been through, all of those things usually have crafted you to have a specific skill.

You might love basketball but being 5’1″, I never played basketball. I don’t know if that’s your purpose but look at your skills. Your skills will also point a direction to where your purpose lies. Number three, I encourage people to look at what problems you are uniquely gifted at solving? I tell people, “As you think about your purpose, don’t simply chase the money.” To me, money will come and go. You take none of that with you at the end of your life. It is great. It’s an energetic exchange. It’s necessary and an important part of life as a function to facilitate. It’s a vehicle to facilitate experiences and impact people in specific ways. Look at what problems can I solve and how can I add value?

To me, money is a function of adding value. You add value when you’re able to solve a problem, pain or challenge for people. When you look at what problems I am uniquely gifted at solving, many times we don’t value what comes easily to us. We don’t value what we’re naturally good at because we think, “I can do this in my sleep. It can’t be that valuable,” but for someone else what comes naturally to you, what problems you’re easily able to solve is someone else’s pain, problem or challenge. Your ability to relieve them of that, your ability to serve them in some capacity in that area is a gift that is valuable, so money follows the ability to add value.

Thirdly, look at the group of people you have an affinity to. Maybe you feel a connection with teenage kids, single mothers, the elderly, those that are incarcerated in prison or the mentally challenged in some way. Whatever group of people, if we go on a spiritual level, your soul has a connection for a reason. You feel a soul, a pull or a connection with that group of people for a specific reason. It’s no accident. As a result, that that will also point you in the direction of the group of people you may be uniquely qualified or connected to being of service to who will point you in the direction of your purpose. If you can reflect on those questions, move in a direction that will move you in the direction of finding, unfolding, having your purpose revealed to you.

Africa is certainly a great place to focus on. There’s so much you can do with not a lot of resources. You can have a huge impact. That question of what my purpose is can be answered by the universe with just a whisper. You get this little intuition or this little thought that maybe I should explore this. It’s so easy to ignore it and move on but it’s those little whispers that you need to act on it. One was when I had this strange coincidence. I was in Zambia for a Tony Robbins’ Platinum Partner trip. One of the days there was a contribution day. We were at a school in Zambia helping to rebuild desks, painting classrooms, and fixing doors. It was very rewarding.

The school children sang to us and were very grateful. It was nice. Two weeks later, I’m at a different event, not at all associated with Tony Robbins. It was a Neil Strauss’ intensive and one of the people there had founded a nonprofit that builds schools in rural Zambia. He was telling me what he does. He was an early Yelp employee and had a successful exit of his own. Then he was able to start this nonprofit and not have to worry about income, making the rent every month. It was such a great story. I was there in Zambia, this can’t be a coincidence.

A lot of times people think they need to feed the kids. I’m from Africa. I would love more people to go there and impact. If one person’s starving around the world, wherever they are, whether it’s Africa or Asia, then none of us are free. We’re all interconnected as a humanity by life. We all are being lived and breathed. We all are one human family. Someone’s thinking, “How do I make a difference?” If you’re not sure where to start, then there are opportunities to begin around you. You can begin with your friends, your family or with the man down the street.

Every moment of our life is an opportunity to live, to love, to serve. You don’t have to go far. It might just be with your child, your wife, or your employee. I had a simple opportunity with two homeless people who were lying in my driveway. That wasn’t in Africa but that was an opportunity. I remembered this was where I got that lesson. I was in India and spending time with a dear friend of mine. A man called Dwarko Ji, who is now 94 years old. He was the oldest living disciple of the great Mahatma Gandhi and was one of his students. This man, Dwarko Ji, built 300 schools in the poorest state of India. Thus, the largest iCamp in the world.

It impacted children in the poorest state in India called Bihar. I went to see him probably in 2001. I spent about six weeks being with him in dire conditions. It was a very intense experience. I had these grandiose, romantic visions about being of service in Mother Teresa’s life. The reality was much different, and it was very tough. He takes kids off the streets who were living in trash heaps. He takes kids who were running around with cats and dogs, kids that aren’t socialized, can’t speak, that have been abandoned, and abused. He takes them off the streets and feeds them, clothes them, teaches them until they’re eighteen. I’ve got to be in service to these children for these weeks and it was tough because these kids don’t respond. They don’t talk, a lot of them are not social, very difficult.

After a couple of weeks, I was giving up honestly. It was too hard and it wasn’t any fun. His ashram, his orphanage was right next to the Bodhi Tree. In Bodh Gaya, which is the Buddhist Mecca, I told him after two weeks to Dwarko Jo that, “I need a little break. I’m going to go and meditate by the Bodhi tree for a week or so, and I’ll be back.” He looked at me with these eyes of compassion and simply said, “Kute, it’s great.” No judgment. He said, “Go meditate by the Bodhi tree. It is great that you go meditate by the Buddhist statue, but while you are meditating, make sure that your heart doesn’t turn to stone. Right here in this simple, humble orphanage, in front of you are children that are living Buddhists, living Christ waiting to be served.”

That moment changed my life because I realized everyone is an incarnation. Everyone is an opportunity to serve and love everyone. Even those you love, those you hate, those you don’t like, the person you don’t know. Every one of us can make a difference in the symphony of life just by playing our unique note and you can start now. Ask yourself, how can I begin? It doesn’t have to be in a huge way. It can be a smile, a moment of kindness that has a ripple. How can you today, every day, commit to being of service? At the end of your life, we take nothing with us. We take no car, no house, no money, no fame, nothing with us other than who we became in the journey and the process of this lifetime, who we became, and what we leave behind us and the impact that we make.

Thinking about these teachers that are all around us who don’t necessarily have to be a wise, altruistic, and little Buddhas running around. They could be people who were in conflict with or people who we may have looked down upon and yet they’ve got this beautiful gift for us. A couple of years ago, I was having this run-in with my neighbor above me. He was playing music loudly at different times of the day and night, sometimes when I’m trying to record podcast interviews. I was getting very frustrated. I ended up calling the police on him and that started a little war. He would pound on our ceiling in the middle of the night to get even for me calling the police. Then I’d called the police again and it kept escalating. I asked my Kabbalah teacher on what should I do about this. We’re looking to move out now and find another place because we can’t take it anymore and he is just impossible.

The message I was given by my Kabbalah teacher was to send him light. In other words, pray for him and so I did. Within a week or so, I happened to see him in the elevator and I would almost never see him in the elevator. He came into the elevator. What I would’ve done normally was get right out of the elevator and walk the rest of the way up the stairs, but I invited him in. I turned to him and told him, “I’m sorry I called the police on you.” He told me, “I appreciate you saying that. I have PTSD and I turn on the music when I’m having a panic attack. That’s the way that I cope. I’m sorry.” We had no further problems. He has even brought some mail packages that were sitting in the mail area to our door a few times. I thought, “Here’s somebody who I can’t even live in the same building with ends up being a teacher.”

Back to the topic of money being an energetic exchange. One thing I learned from Kabbalah is that money is energy. The quality of that energy is the same regardless of whether it’s $1, $0.01 or $1 million, the size of the vessel is different. It’s the same quality as the energy of the creator. If you disrespect a penny by stepping on it or not picking up or whatever, you disrespect all energy and money including pushing away tens of millions of dollars. I’d love to hear your take on this concept of energetic exchange in money. 

Money is vibration. It’s not good or bad. It’s a necessity in the 3D world. Money is an important necessary facilitation and function to navigate in this world. A lot of people in the spiritual realm say, “It’s not important.” What I found going into places like Africa and India, is to feed the less privileged you need money. I can’t look at the orphans and say, “I’m just going to pray for you.” What they need are medicine and food. I was in Africa with a dear friend of mine who had become dear friends with. I quietly support her orphanage because she does incredible work. With so little money, she has taken in 40, 50 orphans and feeds them each month. It takes money.

Money is consciousness. It’s not about how much money you have, but it’s also about how you feel about what you have and how you feel about yourself. I have many clients who are billionaires and to be honest, they are poor. They are poor in consciousness. They’re still living in scarcity. They’re still afraid of losing it. Their drive for money is simply to try and meet a need inside of themselves thinking that if I have more money, then somehow I’m more valuable. They are identified with money as for a sense of validation. They’re simply a slave to it and so they’re not free. How you feel about money and about yourself is the freedom.

True abundance is not simply how much you have but how you feel within yourself. From that standpoint, that is the foundation. It’s important as spiritual beings that we embrace the physical three-dimensional aspect, importance, and respect for money. Many times, in the spiritual context we’re like, “Money’s not important, and it is the root of all evil.” No, it is simply a tool, a vehicle to facilitate and navigate in this physical world. If we have a right relationship with it and give it its place, then it can serve an important function. If you’re using money as a vehicle to fill a void, it will never end. No amount of money will make you feel good about yourself if you don’t feel that within yourself. It just enhances who you already are and how you already feel about yourself at the core.

How did you end up getting on shows like Fox & Friends and Dr. Drew? How did that come about?

When I launched my book, we went gangbusters. I put it out to the world. I did a couple of things. I believed in my book and saw a lot of authors that don’t go all out. I decided I would have no regrets and go all out because I believed in the message of my book. I wanted as many people to read my book. I thought it was unique, different, creative, and it was truly going to impact lives. I hired a PR person who helped to a degree. When I saw that my PR person wasn’t necessarily doing the job I wanted, I assigned someone on my team and said, “We’re going to take this into our own hands. We’re going to take full responsibility. If you have a book and you have a message, you might find that your publisher doesn’t quite do what you’d like them to do. No one’s going to promote your book like you.” I took it into my own hands. I put someone on my team and gave her a script and I said, “I want you to contact every single podcast on iTunes.” She went and contacted every single podcast on iTunes and about 40, 50 responded.

We’ve got on many of the podcast self-generated and that led to different things. When you’re in motion and you’re putting energy yet, many times here’s what I found. Many times, we pray to God. “God, please help me. Please provide grace. Help,” and God will look at you and say, “What do you mean? Why do you want my help? You haven’t even done your part. Did you make the phone call?” “I’ve done everything possible.” “What’s everything?” “I made two phone calls.” “Two phone calls is not everything. Go do everything. Once you’ve done everything, then come pray to me.”

I’m joking but many times we are asking for grace, but we haven’t done our part. Grace is always flowing in our lives, but it is much more likely to accelerate in our life when we have done everything we can in our power, in our businesses. When we’ve done everything we can, then grace can truly flow, so we did everything. We sent books to everyone and everywhere. Some of it connected and some didn’t. At the end of the day, when you are launching a business or project, so long as you do everything in your power, I find that then you can be at peace.

I want to have peace within myself. I’d say, “If you’re going for a goal, you can’t always control the outcome. You can’t always control other people. You can’t always control the result, but you can control how you show up.” You can control how you give, you can control how much you love, you can control what you put out, and so at the end of the day, all you can do is the best you can do. If you do the best you can do, that’s all you can do and that’s enough. At the end of your life, make sure you have that knowing that you’ve done everything you can with the time you’ve been given and the life that you have. That’s what I wanted to do with my book. We just went through it.

At the end of life, we all, whether it’s me, you, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Bruce Lee, David Bauer, are going to die. All of us are given time. We all have one thing in common and that is time. Time waits for no one. Time is like a river that just keeps flowing. Many times, we trade time for money, but at the end of our lives, you can’t go to your Creator, you can’t go to God and say, “God, I’ve wasted three years in that relationship. I wasted two years in that job. I didn’t give 100% with that thing.” Once it’s gone, it’s gone. I say, “Live and create with no regrets.”

If you put in the work, you expand the efforts. Instead of praying for the outcome, you instead maybe pray for more desire, more certainty, more fortitude so you can achieve that outcome that you want. If folks wanted to work with you in some capacity, do you take on coaching clients or do you have any group programs? 

Pray for whatever you believe. Meditate, pray, and affirm. One thing I’ve found important is do everything you can in your power because the universe is giving you so much. The universe has given us so much potentiality. My prayer more and more are less of an outcome. Many times, we can only see and envision an outcome based on our current level of consciousness, based on our current level of conditioning which is determined by our past and our mind is limited. Many times, what we think is good for us or what we think is best for us is know when they’re aligned with what’s truly best for us.

Many times, you’re not getting what you thought you wanted which is a sign of grace of the universe. How often have things not occurred, that relationship didn’t happen or didn’t work out and years later you go, “Thank God that didn’t happen. Either I wasn’t ready or that person was crazy.” We can only see what we can see based on our current level of perspective in this moment. We can’t see the totality of what the universe is seeking to do. We can’t see from the divine perspectives. If you’re going to pray, affirm, or visualize, don’t get locked into what you think. Open your mind to infinite possibilities and let your prayer, your affirmation be universe. I invoke and I asked not just what I think, but the highest good. Let the highest good be done in this situation. I’m open to that. That to me is the ultimate prayer.

If you feel inspired by this conversation, I would love to continue the relationship, continue the conversation. You can find me on Instagram. You can find me on Facebook, Kute Blackson. My website is www.KuteBlackson.com. Send me an email, let me know you heard me on this amazing podcast, which has been a lot of fun. If you feel inspired, too, perhaps go to the next level of your life. If you feel a calling to make a difference, serve the world and feel a deep sense of purpose to make an impact and feel like you’re ready for your next level.

I do an amazing journey for visionaries, leaders and creatives called Boundless Bliss Bali. You can go to www.BoundlessBlissBali.com. We do it in July and December. I take about twenty people, billionaires, celebrities, entrepreneurs, regular folks and everyone who has a calling to make a difference and is ready to transform. Check out the video, apply and reach out. I would love to be in touch with anyone that feels inspired in any way.

Thank you so much, Kute. Thank you to our audience. In the meantime, follow your dreams.

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