Dreaming: The Key to Setting the Stage for Success

Rob Brown Snippet (00:05):

Dreaming is one of those things that actually makes it a little bit easier to say no to what’s right. And yes to what’s wrong. Because we’re asking ourselves questions, we’re looking at new opportunities based on the picture that we have for what success will look like. Because ultimately, that’s what a dream is. It’s a picture of your future success.

Phil Calandra Snippet (00:31):

Optimism is the only realism that’s something that I was taught. It’s something that I believe, and having dreams allows you to have hope for a bigger future and a brighter future. And optimism is a key key part of the mindset that I think has made me successful.

Rob Brown (00:56): 
Welcome to The Truest Fan Blueprint, a podcast for financial advisors, and other professionals looking to get the most out of yourself and your business. I’m Rob Brown, and my partner Phil Calandra. And I promise to walk you through a journey that will allow you to take action in your business and your life, so that you can be the best that you can possibly be. Thanks for listening.

Welcome, welcome. Time again, for another Truest Fan Blueprint. Rob Brown here with my partner, Phil Calandra. Welcome, Phil.

Phil Calandra (01:43):

Hi, Rob. Good to be here.

Rob Brown (01:45):

It absolutely is, you know, and actually, that was a little bit of a false opening, because we’ve been working pretty hard for the last couple of hours. And that work that we’ve been doing is actually spawned a topic that we want to share in today’s podcast, which is why dreaming matters. 

And what our listeners don’t know, Phil, is that we are getting ready to launch a new program is going to have elements of coursework and membership so that we can really build the truest fan community around the truest fan blueprints. And one of the first steps in our process is what we called the Dream Big framework. 

And as we were working on that module today, we create a couple of slides, as we said, you know, let’s take some time and share why dreaming matters why the Dream Big framework matters to our listeners, because it’s a way of letting folks know that we’ve got this great thing coming up. 

But it’s also such an important topic as we come here to the end of the year. And which is a time that we encourage our members, the the folks that we coach now to review their dreams and see what’s changed. So seems like a good idea. What do you think, Phil?

Phil Calandra (03:15):

Yeah, I think this is going to turn out to be a great podcast, because, as you mentioned, we get that hard to believe we’re almost midway through the month of October, going ahead into November and the last two months of 2023. And that one is everybody gonna do, they’re gonna go through their New Year’s resolutions, heaven forbid. 

And they’re gonna start setting goals. And what we believe is that you can’t set goals until you’ve had your dream big. And event your dream big session. Dreaming is the catalyst for all achievement. I tell clients in my financial planning practice all the time, you cannot invest successfully for retirement, you can’t imagine that you can’t dream of. And that’s true in every facet, facet of our life, right? 

You have to be able to envision it and see it and dream it. Every child when when they’re young. It has these vivid dreams about being a fireman, or being a schoolteacher or President of the United States. And one of the worst things we do for children is what I tell them that you know, you don’t want to be the President of the United States or you’re not going to be the CEO, or you’re not going to be the next Kobe Bryant. Dreaming is everything.

Rob Brown (04:41):

Yeah, yeah. And it’s so easy to step on dreams and sometimes we step on other people’s dreams but also too often we step on our own dream. So that’s one of the big things to remember as we’re talking about why dreaming matters and by the way, Phil and I are looking at couple of slides in the presentation that we’re going to be putting into this new program. If you’re watching on YouTube, you’re seeing these slides. 

But if you’re listening on your favorite podcast, network, and you can’t see them, go to the show notes, I’m going to have our producer put a copy of these two slides in there. Because these steps these ideas around why dreamy Mattis could help you, as you’re getting ready for the new for the new years as you start to dream, whether you’re revisiting dreams that you have had in the past, and clarifying them and getting more energy around them, or you’re doing it for the first time. 

And, you know, Phil, on the slide, it says, Why dreaming matters is kind of number two is it Stokes creativity unleashes innovative ideas, or how which sometimes goal setting doesn’t do goal setting becomes an exercise in budgeting, you know, versus really thinking about what it is, is really gonna make you feel excited about what you’re doing.

Phil Calandra (06:18):

Yeah, and I think, when we talk about dreaming big, it can be figuratively, you know, you’re thinking about your actual dreams, I guess, when you actually are at sleep. When you’re not awake. 

We’re talking about cognitive dreaming while you’re away in the context of goal setting. But think for a minute while you’re asleep while you’re at rest, and you’re dreaming. While when you do dream at sleep, you’re flying, you are doing something amazingly creative and fun. You in my dreams, that always works out perfectly the way that I always wanted it to. And why then don’t we take those, those sleep? 

When we think of dreaming, and we think of our dreams at rest or sleep? Why don’t they translate? And that’s what we’re talking about creating dreams? It cognitively while we’re awake, that unleashes this innovative idea, why is it that you’re flying when you’re sleeping? But then when you’re awake? 

Why couldn’t you do the same thing? Why couldn’t you unleash the same innovative ideas and I guarantee you all success to history has been cognitively awake dreaming. When two guys Wozniak and jobs in their garage, they were very much awake, creating what we hold in our hands as the iPhone 15 more computing power in the palm of your hand, that every single IBM mainframe that existed in the planet back in 1970, innovative ideas. 

So that’s what we’re talking about why dreaming matters?

Rob Brown (08:03):

Yeah, that’s absolutely right. And, you know, when you talk about Wozniak and jobs, you know, I think some people maybe get afraid or that say, Well, I don’t have dreams as big as they do. But you do have dreams, you do have things that you want to have happen in your life and in your business with your family. 

And that’s why dreaming has to come to for visioning and goal setting and action planning. Because it it Stokes that creativity. You know, the other thing that it does is it’s also a point of resilience, because there are going to be times when we run into obstacles to our businesses, our lives. 

And we’re saying, How are we going to fight through this and we’ve got to go back and say, you know, that’s my dream. And if it really is my dream is something I want to have happened, that it creates that resilience. So it’s, it’s a, it’s a beacon during tough times.

Phil Calandra (09:01):

I couldn’t agree more, I can speak very plainly and clearly to our listeners and viewers in my own, my dream was to become a financial adviser in a solo practice, be in complete control of the entrepreneurial journey. 

And one of my dreams was financial independence and financial freedom, financial security for my family. I was raised predominantly by a single mother who just did amazing job and raising three kids, but we didn’t have a lot of money. 

So one of my dreams was not to be put into a pecuniary position of, of not having financial resources. And you know, lo and behold, the dream played out for me in a multimillion dollar sale of my practice, and financial independence. 

But that you’re exactly right there. I had to be resilient that just didn’t happen. Overnight, it was 20 years in building what I thought was the perfect dream business. And I had to pull on a heck of a lot of positive mindset to get through some of those times, that are really, really tough the dream, the the path of least resistance is oftentimes point A to point B, dreams don’t always work out that way. 

And you better be ready, you better be damn ready to, to be resilient and and recreate the creativity and innovation as you go.

Rob Brown (10:31):

Yeah, you know, fell not to cut you short. But, you know, we could talk, I think, another two hours about what’s on the slides. So in the interest of time, let’s hit this a couple of other highlights on the slides.

And remember, if you’re watching on YouTube, you’re seeing the video, you can see these, you can see these bullet points on our wide review matters. But if you want more, if you’re if you really want to dig in and do a dream, big exercise, this will, this will help you, you know, when I look at the bullet points recreated here, you know, one of them is dreaming actually enhances problem solving. 

And one of the great ways for me to think about this is dreaming is one of those things that actually makes it a little bit easier to say no to watch right? 

And yes to what’s wrong. Because we’re asking ourselves questions, we’re looking at new opportunities, based on the picture that we have for what success will look like. Because ultimately, that’s what a dream is. It’s a picture of your future success. 

You when you have that picture of future success, and you work towards it. It has a way of working itself out. Yeah. So I think that also stretches into dreams help us to find our purpose, and helps us set that that path in life.

Phil Calandra (12:06):

Yeah, I agree. And I think that the, you know, following the bullet points there. Optimism is the only realism. That’s something that I was taught and something I believe, and having dreams allows you to have hope for a bigger future and a brighter future. And optimism is a key key part of the mindset that I think has made me successful. 

And then the next one I would just I’ll throw out there for us, Rob is the ability to focus the ability to really be laser enhanced in our focus, and it will allow you to create more momentum towards your vision.

Rob Brown (12:48):

Yeah, that’s a great point, you know, and as you were talking, Phil, what jumped into my mind is, you know, how the whole idea of truest fan and the the original truest fan book came to be it came out of a dream, a dream that I had for over 20 years. And when I would review my dreams and think about those things that I wanted to do, that would constantly come back. But it it didn’t work its way into an action step for a bunch of years. 

But now that it has, and I go back and dream some more around the idea of a truce fan, we’ve come together and created the truest fan blueprint. And we’re building this community. It’s just another extension of that dream or another iteration of that original dream that came about writing a book like truest fan. Yeah. 

And, and that’s probably a great place to, to land the plane for today. And I would say if you’re listening to this podcast, we always like to leave you with an action step. What can you do with what we’ve talked about today, if this idea resonates with you, and I think the real key is that if you are getting ready to do some goal setting or some planning, or you’ve done some in the past, and you haven’t created a big dream framework, to go with it. Take some time, over the next week. 

And start dreaming big journaling writing those ideas down that you have for what your life might look like 10 years from now, who you’ll be around, what success will you have achieved? I think that’s a really important way to to kind of bring this all together. What do you think, Phil?

Phil Calandra (14:39):

I think that’s a great advice. I think that if people will take the time before they go into this goal setting we’ve all heard about goal setting great. Take some time step that the pre work to goal setting is is dream big and couldn’t agree more.

Rob Brown (14:56):

Awesome. Let’s finish it here and as always remind Enjoy you, the folks who are part of the truest fan blueprint podcast community. Take some time, share this podcast with others who might benefit from the idea of dreaming big. And as always remember, we’re rooting for your success.

Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Truest Fan Blueprint. If you want to learn more, head over to our website truest fan.com on the site to learn more about becoming a truest fan. You’ll also find today’s show notes and links to the other gifts and resources we talked about during this episode. Again, thanks for listening and remember, we’re rooting for your success.