Author Eric Lochtefeld: Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life

Figure out the 5 ways you like to get paid besides money, because the higher a value you place on your own Joy, the more you will enjoy and benefit from what you choose to do.

Many successful people reinvented themselves in a later period in their life. Jeff Bezos worked in Wall Street before he reinvented himself and started Amazon. Sara Blakely sold office supplies before she started Spanx. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was a WWE wrestler before he became a successful actor and filmmaker. Arnold Schwarzenegger went from a bodybuilder, to an actor to a Governor. McDonald’s founder Ray Croc was a milkshake-device salesman before starting the McDonalds franchise in his 50's.

How does one reinvent themselves? What hurdles have to be overcome to take life in a new direction? How do you overcome those challenges? How do you ignore the naysayers? How do you push through the paralyzing fear?

In this series called “Second Chapters; How I Reinvented Myself In The Second Chapter Of My Life “ we are interviewing successful people who reinvented themselves in a second chapter in life, to share their story and help empower others.

As a part of this interview series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Eric Lochtefeld.

Eric Lochtefeld, co-author of Purpose Code, is a massively successful, 8+ figure investor and developer. He established 20+ entities exceeding $250 million in revenue before starting over. With new venture Bliss Champions, he specializes in helping successful but dissatisfied entrepreneurs embrace their highest purpose; becoming potent receivers of wealth, joy and abundant bliss. Possessing a keen eye for extraordinary talent, and a gift that turns anything into a million-dollar success, he also financially invests in clients who can impact the world with their heart’s calling.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we start, our readers would love to “get to know you” a bit better. Can you tell us a bit about your childhood backstory?

I think my start as an Entrepreneur in the Personal Development Industry might be more interesting.

In 1997, I was involved with the fastest growing summer music festival in the world called the Vans Warped Tour. I was 25 years old, and my two-year-old start-up sponsorship agency was making over a hundred grand a year pulling in over a million a year in corporate sponsorship for the summer festival. My cut was 15%. Not bad for a kid with dreams in the event industry operating his very first business. But, despite my success at such a young age, I felt out of place. Not the good kind of discomfort, where you need to overcome being “outside your comfort zone” — but the bad “fish out of water” kind.

For one, I couldn’t stand punk rock music and if I had to listen to the band ‘the Deftones’ one more soundcheck while I was building sponsorship booths and hanging banners, I might actually kill someone (probably the singer). I invite you to go to YouTube to listen to this band for a minute to feel my real pain. I also did not fit in at all. I was not into action sports at all (the theme) as I grew up on team sports, and I was not into the punk rock and extreme sports lifestyle at all. I didn’t ride a skateboard (ever), I did not have a desire for a mohawk haircut and tattoos were not a consideration for this clean-cut college kid. To say that this could go unnoticed on the Warped Tour is equivalent to being at the grocery store today when another customer is coughing without wearing a mask, and you just ignore it as no big deal. I was also not into smoking weed, which is a right of passage to touring, and bonding with others, on a rock tour. It just wasn’t my scene as I preferred a well-made cocktail to smoking ganja (this is a no judgement zone!). I loved producing events, but I didn’t love this event…at all. But I did see a hidden opportunity while miserably touring the country and that was the connection between people’s passions and their chosen careers. It changed my life forever.

This discovery led to me to start my second company and my first entry into the personal development industry 23 years ago. I named it Business Camp (lame name I know — what did I say about this being a judgement free zone before?) and it was a retreat for college students to help them achieve greater success at a younger age by following their dreams.

My first retreat was a true pleasure to run but was a colossal financial failure. I lost $120,000 on the first retreat and $60,000 on the second. After just two retreats, I found myself over $200,000 in debt at the age of 27. All my financial success building my first business doing the Vans Warped Tour was now cancelled by my second company and I was broke.

Is this a story of failure? Perhaps. Or perhaps it is something different. Let’s take a closer look at who some of the speakers were at my first try in Personal Development 23 years ago and the roles they played in my life.

One of the speakers at Business Camps was a guy named Patrick Combs. Today, Patrick is my best friend and my business partner in Bliss Champions, a wildly successful personal development coaching business. He has so richly rewarded my life, that I cannot imagine living it without him playing a massive role.

David Bach was a speaker. David had not written his first of 9 New York Times Best Sellers and was so excited to step into his new bliss (writing and speaking) that he brought a video person to capture his speech so he could improve at his craft after. We remain friends to this day and he continues to give me tips on success.

Chris Howard was a speaker. Chris was actually my personal trainer at the time. I asked him to speak because I thought his previous experience working for Club Med on various islands around the world for more than a decade would interest our attendees. At our retreat, he found that he really liked speaking on stage. Chris went on to become a global sensation as a speaker doing over $100 million in sales putting on live seminars on NLP. Chris and I are still close and I turned to him when I began my comeback in the space for advice and direction.

Phil Jones was a speaker — he became my first mentor and now owns and operates the very successful company called Pure Kauai. I ran most of my retreats in Kauai, renting luxury homes from Phil, before I bought my own island property. He also acted as the officiant in my wedding, marrying Lori and I at a ceremony in Kauai. We co-own a lucrative multi-million dollar business together today.

And the legendary Brian Tracy was a speaker. He was already a rock star in the speaking world, and he did mentor me on how NOT to lose money on future retreats, which has proven to be very helpful going forward.

I lost touch with the others featured in the event, but I look back at all the good that came from my first effort in putting on a personal development retreat. Without it, I don’t think I would have become obsessed at helping people discover and pursue their dreams and if that never occurred, I certainly would not have started my next company, University of Dreams. It would help over 10,000 people do exactly that, and go on to generate $100mm in revenue, lasting over 12+ years.

My wife Lori Lochtefeld says she fell in love with me while giving my “Never Give Up” speech at one of my University of Dreams retreats, so I don’t know if I would be married to my wonderful wife if not for this journey. And if I didn’t start that company, I definitely would not have able to fulfill one of my secret ambitions, purchasing the Fox Theatre out of foreclosure and running it for 9 years. The Fox brought too many “once in a lifetime” moments to list in this story, but it included meeting a sitting U.S. President (Barack Obama) and Oprah in the same exact spot backstage, among a thousand other incredible moments, not to mention a $20 million dollar exit. This company led to an investment in a development in its parking lots, which led to a $135 million dollar exit. Call me crazy, but one little failure sure does feel like a pretty big catalyst for my success when I look at it.

What are you afraid to start today? Can you turn this virus into your reason for finally going for it? Or, are you going to let the aforementioned fear monster use it as yet another weapon in its arsenal to stop your dreams from ever beginning?

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“When you believe in yourself and a champion surrounds you, any dream can be accomplished.”

This was the advice my first mentor gave me. Her name was Beth Lochtefeld, an accomplished Entrepreneur and for many years, my best friend and first cousin. She was murdered in 2004, cutting her life short. I promised her that I would continue this belief until the day I died. I have kept my promise.

You have been blessed with much success. In your opinion, what are the top three qualities that you possess that have helped you accomplish so much? If you can, please share a story or example for each.

After three years of coaching together, my business partner Patrick Combs and I have discovered that there are four types of responses to the call to follow your bliss (aka: the journey to perfect happiness and great joy).

The first quadrant are people that simply do not care about their dreams. What they need most is inspiration. Even with it though, they are likely to remain stuck.

The second quadrant are people that say, “I dream of…….”. They find enough courage to talk about their dreams to the safe few they are willing to share them with (on a good bold day). However, they lack the most important ingredient to begin their journey in earnest. There is always hope that someday they might. They need to borrow someone else’s belief until they can find their own. I specialize in helping this group.

The third quadrant are those that want their dreams to happen with all their heart but they are too scared to commit. To put it bluntly, they are allowing fear to win. They actually have the most important ingredient but lack the second most important one. As a result, they remain stuck in what we call the “Purpose Curse”. This is when you know the Bliss Journey you want to go on, but are too afraid to commit. Each day that passes it becomes more and more, a curse, for not pursuing it. My partner Patrick specializes in helping this group.

It should be noted that many people live in both quadrants two and three. It’s not always an and/or place.

The fourth and final quadrant are people that go for it. They do so because they have activated both ingredients needed to move forward on any dream, or in our vernacular — a Bliss Journey.

What are these two all important ingredients? The most important one is the value you place on Joy. If you place little or no value on joy, you are likely to live in quadrants one or two. The second most important ingredient is how much you believe in yourself. If you place a value on joy but lack belief in yourself, you likely live in quadrant three — too scared to commit.

At Bliss Champions, we see our job as helping you move from quadrants two and three to the fourth. In quadrant four, a person both believes in themselves and places a very high value on their joy. This is where bliss resides. Until you get there, your chosen Bliss Journey cannot truly begin. Our purpose is to help you get there so you can astound yourself.

Let’s now shift to the main part of our discussion about ‘Second Chapters’. Can you tell our readers about your career experience before your Second Chapter?

I am very grateful to have founded or co-founded exactly 23 entities in my 24-year career as an Entrepreneur. I mostly brand myself as an Event Producer, as I have produced well over 1000 events in my career, but I realize that this description falls short of describing the range of my full journey as an Entrepreneur. The industries on which I have focused my entrepreneurial efforts have been Entertainment, Events, Personal Development, Real Estate, Media, Winemaking, and Investing.

Combined, my businesses have exceeded $300 million in total revenue. My most common result is quickly bootstrapping and building a quality business to $2–$5 million in annual revenue inside of 3 years, and then either keeping the business or finding a buyer so I can move on to my next endeavor. I have exited 7 businesses to date, one for the impressively massive figure of $1 (with the guarantee that the buyer would hire all of my employees, which they did!) and the largest for a $135 million valuation. Of the 23 entities I have started, 13 have achieved 7 figures in annual revenue, with two making it to 8 figures, and 1 to the lofty status of 9 figures.

My Entrepreneur Archetype is that of a founder that uses my creativity to generate value from underutilized assets. I love the challenge of monetizing assets that others give up on or don’t see value in. I call myself an “infrastructure guy” rather than a “marketing guy” — I do not write business plans or strategic plan slide decks (anymore), as I have learned from experience that taking action trumps months of trying to put a vision that you cannot fully see onto paper. I wholeheartedly believe that a successful business starts with an entrepreneur with the right attributes and that you are better off focusing on shoring up those attributes before or while you are launching your business than on writing plans that will inevitably change. I believe that new businesses must allow for enough flexibility that they can adjust and evolve away from bad initial ideas and choices so they can capitalize on new and better ideas and opportunities with maximum speed without sacrificing too much quality.

And how did you “reinvent yourself” in your Second Chapter?

Five years ago, I was on the fast track to becoming a billionaire, when I made the deliberate choice to reprioritize my life. I had 10x’ed my net worth in less than 5 years through various business ventures and real estate deals. And as I made that ascension, you know what I learned?

That to become a billionaire, you must become a monster. And, it’s not even a choice you get to make. People make it for you! After you reach a certain level of wealth from achievements in the business world, you become financially unrelatable to almost everyone you know and care about.

To most, you are a paycheck or a checkbook. That is all.

On the professional front, almost every business venture becomes a Zero-Sum game…because the ONE constant in life, is that if you BUILD something of value, someone is going to try and take it away from you. So, in order to keep winning, you have to make someone else lose, and you quickly learn that the best defense is a great offense.

So, you go on winning and accumulating at a break-neck speed. As this transformation happens to you start to change. You become hardened, less compassionate, less empathetic, aloof. But most of all, you become FEARED. THIS becomes a VERY lonely place.

And in my case, I almost died from it. Until I woke up, and decided that it just wasn’t worth it. So I transformed.

Can you tell us about the specific trigger that made you decide that you were going to “take the plunge” and make your huge transition?

That would be the story of when I almost died. It happened in 2017. I had just spent a breakneck 7 years flexing my entrepreneurial muscles, starting over a dozen businesses and acquired a LOT of real estate. And the year started with a huge WIN. I sold a property I purchased for $6 million just a few years earlier for a whopping $19 million AND invested in what would become a 20% stake in a $150 million venture. And with some of the spoils I bought an incredible home with a wine estate in Silicon Valley. Literally the day I was moving into my new mega mansion, I collapsed and was rushed to the hospital.

After running a battery of tests, the ER doctor told me that my blood sugar was over 650, and had been for several months. The healthy level for blood sugar is 77 to 99. So I was over 6 times in the wrong direction. The doctor told me I was lucky that I came in, because if I didn’t, I would have suffered a major heart attack or stroke any day. And in that moment, all I could think of was one thing.

I didn’t finish the job! The job that I believe with all my heart that I was put on this earth to do. My purpose. From that day forward, I reprioritized my life to always align with my purpose and to put joy first.

What did you do to discover that you had a new skillset inside of you that you haven’t been maximizing? How did you find that and how did you ultimately overcome the barriers to help manifest those powers?

My purpose is to be inspired to transform in the direction of my bliss. Where I derive the most joy, is from being on a Bliss Journey and getting to give my greatest gift, which is inspiring others to transform in the direction of THEIR bliss. This gives me what I like to think of as perfect alignment between my purpose and my bliss.

To get to a point where I could do this, I first had to learn the difference between joy and happiness. Happiness is an individual pursuit. It can be easily achieved by doing something, anything really, that makes you happy. But joy is something else. It can only be achieved when your heart is in another and this happens when you give your greatest gift to another and experience getting to see them shine.

I am world class at inspiring myself, and that makes me happy, but when I help someone astound themselves, that is when I come REALLY alive and I experience pure joy.

So, with this understanding, I set out to prioritize my life so I could experience this as often as possible. I started Bliss Champions with Joseph Campbell’s successor on all things bliss, Patrick Combs. I created an investment fund with Patrick to invest in Bliss Champion customers who we feel have the potential to go the furthest with their chosen bliss journeys.

Along the way, I began shedding companies and real estate that were not aligned with my purpose or were no longer bringing me any joy. I even acquired a chunk of an island in Hawaii, a long-time dream of mine, to run retreats on so I could live my purpose full time. I moved there recently and even named it Bliss Island.

And as fate would have it, I exited a lot of companies that would have been crushed by the Pandemic. So, the Universe rewarded my commitment to my purpose with the gift of great timing. Please hear me, it made me richer to follow my purpose. It did not decrease my net worth. Only this time, I got joy too!

How are things going with this new initiative? We would love to hear some specific examples or stories.

My coaching business is booming and I have a book coming out by month’s end. It’s name is Purpose Code. The Purpose Code is a secret code that unlocks your purpose and the secret ambitions and unrealized dreams locked up inside of you in your emotions and subconscious mind. Unlocking your purpose allows you to discover your greatest sense of aliveness.

The Purpose Code will give your purpose actual words and bring it forward into your conscious thoughts and with this newfound clarity you will begin to see an infinite amount of opportunities that if pursued, have the potential to bring you great joy and happiness. The Purpose Code will help you pick a specific Bliss Journey aligned with your Purpose and inspire you to commit to beginning and seeing it through. It will prepare you for your journey by giving you a map and the knowhow to navigate your way to success.

Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

The three most significant people in my life have been my wife Lori Lochtefeld, my first mentor Beth Lochtefeld and my business partner in Bliss Champions Patrick Combs. Here is a story about Beth.

Beth Lochtefeld and I truly met at my brother Charley’s wedding in Santa Cruz in the summer of 1993. I was fresh out of college and getting mentally ready to embark on an Entrepreneurial path. Beth was in her 30’s and was by far the most successful Entrepreneur our family had known this side of my grandmother, who I never met but was a great inventor in her day. I had already seen my cousin at various family outings as a child, but this was the first time we truly saw each other. That day completely transformed the trajectory of my life.

Beth and I began talking by phone from then on. She lived in New York and was the Founder & CEO of a mid sized company dominating the code consulting industry despite the heavy Mob influence. She would proudly say, “If you want to get your permits to build out in New York City, I’m the only consultant NOT controlled by the Mob.” I admired her courage, talent and most of all, her heart. After a few calls she became my mentor both in my entrepreneurial business pursuits and in life. Blending the two came naturally to her, as it does to me.
Two years later I asked her to meet me at Gladstone’s in Santa Monica. She flew out to have lunch with me. Over a couple of Strawberry Daiquiris, I nervously pulled out a business plan for my start-up idea called Grassroots Event Marketing Inc. I spent months writing the plan and it was 90 pages long. She received the plan with both hands, looked me in the eyes, took a moment to feel its weight, ran her hand across the front, and opened it to the first page. She then flipped through the 90 pages not to read it but to see how hard I worked at writing such a long document. She then set it back down, closed the cover, and asked, “How much do you need and when do you need it?”

Two days later I received a package from FedEx for the entire amount I requested. Three months later, and because I had my own company, I was invited to be on the founding team of what would become The Vans Warped Tour. I was 25 and her investment and mentorship wrote my ticket to success in the music industry. The Vans Warped Tour would endure for 25 years and become the longest running summer touring music festival in United States history.

About two years later I would again ask my mentor Beth Lochtefeld to invest in another start-up idea I had called Business Camp. After three very successful years touring the world in the music industry I had an awakening that I wanted to help people connect with their core purpose in life. I wanted to enable people to discover and pursue their dreams, as I had thus far. I could have gone on to be a really big deal in the music industry, but I was being called to do something different. Of course, this would mean that my first company and the very one she invested in might get left behind. She didn’t care though, because by this time, she was all in on my journey and she knew that I was just getting started.

Around this time, our mentorship had grown into something more. We became very close friends. She became my very best friend. We spoke on the phone regularly, visited each other often, and even began to travel the world together. She cultured me, introducing me to fine dining, broadway shows, classical music even. Beth never watched TV. She lived fully in color every day of her life. One of her steadfast rules was to always have a chilled bottle of good Champagne waiting in your fridge in case something to celebrate arose. You will never find my fridge missing a bottle of good Champagne. In fact, my best friends presented me with a bottle of Dom at 2 am at my birthday party two nights ago while dancing to our favorite songs in my kitchen. That was Beth’s kind of impromptu celebration.

I had it, had a true best friend since childhood. I lost my last best friend to a horrific car accident when I was 9, that took the life of his sister. He got pulled from school that day and I never saw him again. My first friend moved to Minnesota when I was 6, and back then that pretty much was like a death. After that, I figured, why bother with this whole best friend thing as it always ends in pain and loss. Beth made me change my mind about this, as she was just too good to pass up. I was a good best friend. She told me so much in the last letter she ever wrote me. She encouraged me to be more vulnerable and in touch with my feelings. She said she liked the authentic me a lot more than the hard charging relentless business me. It’s too private to share here, but of this I was NOT uncertain, she loved me as a mentee, a business partner, and a friend. I was lucky to have her for all three.

After producing our first couple of personal development events together with my brother Greg Lochtefeld in the mix too, I had a bigger idea. I wanted to start something called University of Dreams and take it global. This time I wrote a business plan in just four hours and it was only two pages. The rest was visualized all in my head in vivid detail. Again, I asked Beth to invest and continue mentoring me. She again enthusiastically went all in. When I got off to a rough start running the very first event that summer in 2001, she took a hiatus from her own firm in New York for a month to move into my apartment in California to provide support. She looked for where she could help and being out of her element in the event space, she figured out what I needed most were the things I had no time for as I fought for my company’s survival. She did my dishes, my laundry, filled my car up with gas, made me healthy lunches, and provided emotional support. She was incredible at emotional support. Beth was a multi millionaire by now, CEO of an important company, and here she was slumming it in my shitty apartment in Silicon Valley doing my laundry. People are always shocked by how far I go as a mentor/investor to provide support. I simply chuckle remembering how far Beth went for me.

We survived that summer and our little company would go on a torrid ten year run inventing a new industry and dominating it. The company would do over $100 million in revenue, expand globally, and like the Warped Tour, would endure for well over a decade.

University of Dreams was the second, better iteration of the original brainchild Business Camp. Today I am the proud co-founder of Bliss Champions, the third iteration of the same awakening I had 22 years ago that was funded and supported by my mentor and forever Bliss Champion Beth Lochtefeld.

Beth was brutally murdered 15 years ago today. She fought off a much larger man that out weighed her by over 100 pounds, had a big reach advantage as he was also quite tall, and had a weapon. Beth never shrunk from a challenge. She fought him off with all her might and training in martial arts. She prepared for this day. It took more than 20 stab wounds to take down this Bliss Lion. The lead investigator confided in me that he had never seen the results of anyone fighting for her life like my Beth. She fought him off in virtually every room of the house. The amount of blood was staggering. Sorry for the detail but I’ve held this part of her story in for two long and I’m damn proud of her will to live. Pretty much the only hint that didn’t have blood on it was a book she had just finished creating called “Tell Me About Your Dreams…” in tandem with her brother, and now my dear friend Tom Lochtefeld, we self published it. Tom only found recently that I secretly printed 10,000 copies to hand out to every future customer that ever goes through one of my personal development events. He found this out when he became a participant himself and it was in his arrival packet.

In one day, I lost my best friend, my mentor, and my business partner, but the world lost an epic Dream Supporter. At her funerals (yes there were two to accommodate the 1200+ people that wanted to attend), I made a commitment 15 years ago to pay the life she had inspired for me forward. I’m certain she would be proud in his regard. The cover of People Magazine said, “Every Woman’s Nightmare….” in sensationalizing the murder. I’ve intentionally set out to be the opposite of the guy that took her life. The lion’s share of my customer base and then hand picked mentorship and investments have been with female entrepreneurs. The opposite of being a nightmare in someone’s life is to be a Dream in their life. I have no doubt that I have fulfilled this role for the special females I choose to mentor or have an impact in Beths memory (Beth met Thank you Beth for being my Bliss Champion and for spawning thousands more. In your name, I go on doing THE JOB you taught and inspired me to do.

Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started in this new direction?

So many, I would not know where to begin to choose just one.

Did you ever struggle with believing in yourself? If so, how did you overcome that limiting belief about yourself? Can you share a story or example?

I did not. I had parents who instilled belief in myself from an early age so I never learned to NOT believe in myself. It has been my greatest asset all these years and I have more evidence that I should continue to believe in myself than I do otherwise. I do coach individuals through their limiting beliefs though, and what I get them to focus on is the fact that limiting beliefs only deliver consequences while empowering beliefs only deliver benefits. Once a person understands and truly believes this, anything becomes possible. Fear, Resistance and Doubt are the true obstacles to one’s dreams. This is where Limiting Beliefs permeate.

In my own work I usually encourage my clients to ask for support before they embark on something new. How did you create your support system before you moved to your new chapter?

I encourage everyone I coach to mentor up. I am a mentor to dozens of business owners and individuals. Recently, when I decided to write my first book, I asked a retired world class journalist to mentor me prior to writing the book. It made all the difference.

What is mentorship? A period of time during which a person receives guidance from a mentor.

What roles does a mentor play?

It’s important to understand the roles of a mentor. They are to be a:

1. Consultant — which means to provide wisdom
2. Listener — self explanatory
3. Champion — which means they provide support and enthusiasm

What does it mean to be a mentor?

At its core, being a mentor is being a trusted advisor.

Being a mentor involves making yourself available to support and advise someone when they need it, delivering that support in a way that makes sense to them, and always keeping that person’s best interests in mind.

What to look for in a good mentor?

A good mentor possesses the following qualities: Willingness to share skills, knowledge, and expertise. A good mentor is willing to teach what he/she knows and accept the mentee where they currently are in their professional development. Good mentors can remember what it was like just starting out in the field.

Mentoring is not therapy.

Starting a new chapter usually means getting out of your comfort zone, how did you do that? Can you share a story or example of that?

During the very first stay-at-home order during the Pandemic back in March of 2020, while nearly everyone else was trying to figure out where to get rolls of toilet paper and hand sanitizer, I began hunting to fulfill my longest held unfilled Dream. To acquire an island property that I could turn into a world class retreat center and name Bliss Island. I found the perfect property in Hawaii and entered escrow, site unseen, not knowing whether I would be able to fly there or not, as all flights from mainland US had been suspended indefinitely at the time. It was not comfortable to commit millions of dollars to a dream that has been dormant for 31 years, but I did it anyway. As luck would have it, in the last days of my 90-day escrow, Alaska Airlines started flying to Hawaii again and I was able to get on the very first flight out. There was nothing comfortable about getting on a plane during COVID at that time. I will always remember that week because it was the same week that the Black Lives Matter riots began taking place in major cities across the U.S. So posting on social media that I was in Hawaii having the time of my life pursuing my dreams would have been tone death to share. I quietly made the trip, fell in love with the property, and days later closed escrow without telling a soul. I am now the proud operator of Bliss Island on the Big Island of Hawaii.

Fantastic. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 things I wish someone told me before I started leading my organization” and why? Please share a story or example for each.

Figure out the 5 ways you like to get paid besides money, because the higher a value you place on your own Joy, the more you will enjoy and benefit from what you choose to do.

Me, I like to be paid in 5 ways

Dreams Coming True — In my 20’s my ethos was my work done my way, but as I matured and took on partners and employees, it became clearer that my favorite payments come from making my dreams come true.

Inspiration — which speaks directly to my purpose.

Bliss Moments — Goosebumps — Being Astounded!

Beauty — Scenery, Architecture.

Gratitude — I am pretty much always either the boss or at the top of the hierarchy of any organization I am involved in, so I try to have appreciation for it all.

You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?

I would inspire everyone to: Follow Your Bliss

We are very blessed that some very prominent names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this if we tag them. :-)

I would like to go on one of Paulo Coelho’s daily walks at his home in Brazil.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

If they are interested in my coaching, they can visit blisschampions.com or if they would like to purchase my book, purposecode.com. If you want to host a retreat at my Hawaiian retreat compound, go to blissisland.com.