Dream Big to Achieve Your Most Cherished Goals

Rob 00:05

Are you serious about having impact about achieving big things in your life in your business with the causes that you care about? You might be surprised that the best place to start is by dreaming by dreaming big. When you set out to really imagine what is possible to record what you really like to do in all aspects of your life, they have a way of happening. And in this episode of the truest fan podcast, you’re going to meet my new business partner, Phil Calandra. And we’re going to walk through the importance of dreaming big, the first step in the truest fan blueprint. listen in. You’ll be glad you did.

Rob 00:59

You’re listening to the truest fan podcast. And now here’s your host, Rob Brown.

Rob 01:09

Okay, welcome to the truest fan Podcast. Today is an exciting day, we’re introducing a new feature where, instead of always having an outside guest, I’m going to be speaking with Phil Calandra, a new partner who is working with me, I’ve known Phil for years, you may remember him from an early episode of the truce fan podcast. Phil is a client of mine. And he’s a financial advisor, he says Grace over more than $250 million in aum. So Phil is in the trenches working with clients, but he also does a lot of coaching. So I’m looking forward to partnering with Phil, as we do a new episodes of the truce fan podcast going forward. Welcome, Phil. 

Phil 01:52

Thank you, Rob. It’s exciting stuff. Yeah, it really is. I’m looking forward to doing this with you.  

Rob 01:58

Yeah, you know, we’ve been talking about doing this for a while. So it’s always fun. When you get to the point where you actually do something you’re talking about instead of just talking about it, which is actually a good topic based on a good segue into what we’re going to talk about today. Today, what I want to talk about is I’m gonna talk about dreaming big, dreaming big is the first step of the truest fan. Blueprint. It’s the first thing that I encourage people that are using the blueprint to become better versions of themselves to have stronger businesses. Think about because it’s so easy just to get wrapped up in the in the mundane and think about, you know, what’s a quick goal that I can accomplish? What’s a what’s a simple plan that I can put together, when in reality, we all have big dreams that we want to go after. And when we take the time to think about them, that can guide our way and make what we do so much more fulfilling. Would you agree about that? Phil, kind of talk about how you dream big?

Phil 03:00

Yeah, you know, I think the thing about it, and the reason that the Dream Big sequence, I believe has helped me in my personal endeavors, and certainly in my business life is we’re afraid to dream big, we think of dreaming as this subconscious thing we do at sleep. But it’s really not. It’s a conscious action that in our best imagination happens during our lucid time when we’re awake. And I always reminded of the Henry David Thoreau, quote, right, and I’ll read it to you let go of the past and go for the future. Go confidently in the direction of your

Phil 03:43

Live th life you’ve imagined. You’ve got to go in the direction of these dreams. But why don’t we do that? Because it’s so damn scary. It’s fearful. It’s fear that keeps us from dreaming big. We cling to our past we cling to the things that are familiar. And when you go through a dream big exercise, which you and I have done this year and do every every year is it takes us from a place of comfort, which is our past, or Historie our memories, and it puts us into something of the future. But isn’t that what Thoreau said, Go confidently in the direction of your dreams, not the baggage that we’re all carrying around. So Dream Big is it’s a key it’s the cornerstone and I believe the foundation. And that’s what we want to share with people.

Rob 04:33

Yeah, I think it’s really important because what I have found in working with advisors or or even in other endeavors in life, where I’m really kind of encouraging people, when they have dreams and they’re willing to write them down. Think about them, write them down, articulate them, hold them close repeating to themselves often those dreams have a way of happening. You know, they just it’s like this setting this course for where you’re going to go and your business in your life? That isn’t like looking at it on a Google map, you know, where you know exactly how to get there. But because you’re thinking about working your way towards that dream, it has a way of happening. I know, just as you were talking about the Thoreau quote, You reminded me of a friend who recently retired, I guess he retired about a year and a half ago. And immediately after he retired, he and his son climbed Mount Everest. And the thing that he said, What, as he was documenting that journey was that, whoa, that was one of his dreams. And as he was working through his career very successful at what he did, he held that out there, because that was the thing that he really wanted to be able to be one of the capstones to his career was to take his son on this incredible journey. And, and they did it and fantastic. They’ll never forget about and I think that’s, that’s a great example of it. 

Phil 06:09

Absolutely. 

Rob 06:11

So Phil, when you think about it, dreaming big as a relates to a financial advisor, what are some of the limiting things that maybe financial advisors, or business people in general, when when they’re thinking about their businesses do to kind of keep themselves from dreaming big? Yeah, that’s

Phil 06:29

a good question. I think that, for me, it wasn’t just the business aspect, but also the personal endeavors, the accomplishments that I’ve achieved as, as an athlete, as a father, as a husband, and also a failed husband. Because I’ve been through divorce, I think of two things that come right under or right behind the Dream Big mentality of philosophy. And that’s mindset and behavior. So break this down and how I came to realize this, and I think I shared this story with you, Rob is, I was a freshman in college, I was a average student, I was an athlete in college to swim. That’s what my passion sport was, was swimming. I was an average high school swimmer. So here I am on campus, and really struggling as a lot of young people do first time away from home, and my grandfather, and those that know me, well know that I have a lot of stories that center around this mentor that we call my grandfather, he was an Army colonel. He gave me a book. And the book was the magic of thinking big. It was by an author by the name of David Schwartz, he was marketing and finance professor at Georgia State University. And one thing that a lot of people don’t know about David Schwartz, the magic of thinking big was sold 6 million copies back when there was no amazon.com Pretty successful book. In its time for self help. David Schwartz worked and mentored Thomas Stanley, those that are financial advisors or have any ambition in financial pursuits know that Thomas Stanley was the author of The Millionaire Next Door, he tragically was killed in a car accident in 2015. But anyway, I digress. David Schwartz mentor Thomas Stanley, before The Millionaire Next Door was even thought of my grandfather gave me the magic of thinking big by David Schwartz. And to wrap this story up, my grandfather was an Army Colonel at Fort McPherson here in Atlanta, and head of Third Army recruiting. He used David Schwartz creative educational services, the company he founded for motivational and content fulfillment within his unit as an army colonel. So anyway, fast forward the story, a freshman in college trying to struggle, the two things that the magic of thinking big are really centered around our mindset and behavior. And when you think about dream big, in any pursuit, whether it’s personal business, financial advisor, CEO, entrepreneur, you’ve got to have a growth mindset. And you’ve got to have the proper behavior. And I think that’s the combination of things that most people never grasp. I was fortunate enough to be mentored and taught those things at a young age. And I was able to live my best life. I’m pursuing my best life every single day, because I’ve relied on my mindset, and the very best behaviors that are going to drive the fulfillment of the dreams because like I said, I think most people, they’re afraid to dream big, because that requires us to come out of our comfort zone, and that’s not a human. That’s not a human proclivity. That’s not something that we will naturally do. Come out of our car. For example, being uncomfortable is not something innate to humans. Yeah. So if you’re not willing to get out of your comfort zone, it’s never gonna happen.

Speaker 3 10:15

Are you ready to discover your true purpose, live with impact and build an ever greater legacy, than you need to make time for what truly matters most go to truest fan.com/challenge To begin the free, truest fan seven day Quickstart.

Rob 10:39

Yeah, and I see that all the time, as I’m meeting some advisors for the first time, even some very high performing advisors that have done great things and building their businesses, they’ll not appreciate what they’ve accomplished, and use that as a framework to thinking about doing even bigger things. And a lot of times the mentality that comes back about dreaming big, is just about the numbers. You know, I want to get to, you know, a billion dollars in assets under management. And then you dig a little bit deeper, you talk about, well, why what is that going to allow you to do? And what are those underlying dreams that you have, that you really want to be able to accomplish? You know, it’s one thing to say, I want to live a balanced life, I want to have a good work life, a good family life, who wants to have just a good family life? Don’t you want to dream big and think about making that life that you have with your family as meaningful as it possibly can be, and do things like my friend and take that trip to Mount Everest or go ahead and take a month off every summer and enjoy traveling with your family or doing that mission trip or whatever it is, and and you can’t do that if you limit your dreams, because you don’t have that positive mental picture of yourself being able to achieve those dreams and then take action on them. And so I think that’s really critical. Yeah, and

Phil 12:15

I think what happens, and I’ve seen this in my own career as a financial professional, I’ve at times modeled my goals, which we’ll have a separate conversation on goals. My goals became those of somebody else. I wanted to have X dollars of production, or I wanted my AUM to reach this level. And it somehow was translated in my mind that if I hit those objectives, that would satisfy my dream, I would be compensated, in other words, the money would would be there. And then you know what happened? You hit all those things. And it wasn’t ever the money. Although that was an important thing for you know, a barometer of your success. It wasn’t the money that motivated you. It was the sense of accomplishment. And then when you use the dream, big sequence, when you really ground yourself in that, then you’re going through your life, almost with a magic marker saying, Yep, I did that I ran the marathon. I did the Ironman Triathlon I reached 50 million in AUM 100 million in AUM 200 million, billion if that was the goal. And you know, your your magic marker eventually runs out of ink because your dreams become your reality. And a lot of people don’t ever have that satisfaction. Because again, I think people get stuck. They don’t dream big. They get accustomed to well, you know, I think people that have jobs that are not fulfilling, it’s something very rote, you do the same thing every single day? Well, they’re basically killing their spirit inside, unfortunately, because that’s the comfort. They’re carrying that around, but they keep carrying around.

Rob 14:03

Right? Yeah. And there’s so much freedom that comes from being an entrepreneur from being an advisor and running your own practice and building a team. And sometimes you do have to do rote things to accomplish your dreams, because they’re steps on the journey. But when you have a big dream, they become more meaningful because you lose the boredom and the frustration of that rote thing, because, you know, they’re a means to something that is so much more important to you, you know, when I think about dreaming big, and if I want to come up with my best personal example, it’s actually the fact that I have this whole idea of truest fan, which started, you know, with the book that I released now a couple of years ago, because that was something that I dreamed about. Back in the early 80s. I could remember reading another book The One Minute IT manager and saying one day, I am going to write a book of that genre Well, I will be able to share some of my wisdom and the things that I learned in it wasn’t something that I could have done back in the 80s. Maybe I could have written something of the same genre, the parable style book, but it wouldn’t have had the wisdom that it has in it, because I needed to live my life, working towards that dream. And just, it just had a way of coming together. So we’re coming down to the end of our time together. Today, Phil, anything you kind of want to add in here at the end, when you think about dreaming big that you think is like an important next step that somebody can do saying, you know, I really liked this idea. I like the idea. I’m gonna free up my imagination, have some have some dreams about what the future will look like?

Phil 15:51

Yeah, I think you, you have to just take action, right? It’s so easy for us to fall back into our fearful scarcity mindset, instead of our growth and adventurous mindset. Have an adventurous growth mindset. And dream big. I’m not talking about the dreams at night, I’m talking about. And this is part of what we teach. This is part of what we coach, turn the phone off, go to a quiet place, your quiet time, and really in a lucid conscious state. What is it that you dream most about? You’re just going to have to trust the process. And take that first step, which is something that a lot of people are afraid to do, don’t be afraid to do it. And I think that you’ll find it very rewarding, and then you’ll back it up. It won’t be just a one time thing. It’s an ongoing thing.

Rob 16:48

It absolutely is.

Phil 16:49

And you got to do it take action, everybody says that.

Rob 16:53

It absolutely is. And I’m really glad that you made that point. Because, you know, when you talk about dreaming big, and it sounds like this kind of woowoo thing that you can just do without having any preparation for it. It is an action step. It’s something that you need to intentionally do. It’s a process that obviously is we’re working with others get them to do and it kind of just starts by freeing yourself up and remembering that your dreams are your dreams. They aren’t anybody else’s dreams. And you kind of document that process Absolute One thing that you can do to help get started and maybe this is a great way to end. Our podcast here today is go to truest fan.com forward slash challenge. When you go there, you’ll get a chance to download a free copy of the truce fan Implementation Guide, which goes through some of the truest fan blueprint steps, including really prompting you through the idea of dreaming big and that’s a great way maybe to get started and take action because Phil you’re absolutely right. You can’t get there you can’t accomplish those big things until you start really dreaming and thinking about what it is you really want to do. So let’s call it a day. Fil A really appreciate this opportunity to finally get this series of podcast episodes going. And for those of you listening thanks for listening in beyond the lookout you’ll be hearing more from Phil and myself over the months to come. Have a great day.