[Music] welcome to on living my name is Brooke
Sproul and today I have Colin Scotland joining me Colin has been a mentor of
mine both in business and it really evolved into more of a spiritual uh
partnership and and mentorship and just just through our shared kind of connection and what evolved in in our
process and one of the things that struck me most about Colin the moment I met him was his kindness and I expected
to jump on this super salesy high pressure call and he was just so gracious and so kind and so generous
with his time and his expertise and it really modeled for me a new paradigm for
marketing this like just genuine position disposition of service and uh
I’ve just been so grateful for all the ways that Colin has helped me both personally and professional so Colin
welcome thank you so much what a delightful introduction thank you Brooke I’m
honored yeah tell us a little bit about yourself and your background before we get into things oh where to start hey so
I’m I grew up in Liverpool England and uh spent my youth on the market stalls of Liverpool with
my dad uh that was how he earned his living and that was a that was a fun
experience I can tell you watching how the market Traders kind of get the get
people to to buy things off the stall and like you know scratching a living really but it was it was interesting it
was an education and something that kind of shaped who I who I am today from that
very early age and that like that was the Genesis of my interest in
like buying how we buy things you know these guys would be sat on an empty stall no way to pay
their rent and they would like shout and make signs and do all kinds of wacky things to get people interested and you
know it was just a it was a real fast became the beginnings of a real Fascination for me and that was really
where my interest in all of the whole marketing sphere started hmm and when we
first jumped on our call you asked me why why are you doing what you’re doing why do you you know why do you want to
scale why do you want to um why do you have these Ambitions and it kind of stopped me in my tracks this was several
years ago now and I was like I don’t know why well like why like you know why
am I doing this you know I don’t I’m not just trying to make more money I’m not just you know and it really kind of sent
me into a little bit of an existential spiral where I began to really rethink a
lot of what I was doing and why and that was the Genesis for my truest North which we recently launched and
um just kind of this new desire to be in service I mean I’ve always had the
desire to be in service but to really think purposely about how can I be in greatest service of the world so I’m
going to turn the question around on you and ask you what’s what’s your why Colin oh what a wonderful question
so I think mine is really simple and it it is
I’ll tell you through a story right so for a number of years I’ve practiced Jujitsu the martial art of Jiu Jitsu and
I was teaching a class probably eight years ago or so now with
this young guy and we pick people up and throw them down on the ground right for those that don’t know and um this young
kid he just wasn’t getting the move right he wasn’t he just wasn’t doing it he was trying to put his body in the right place and I was like move your
left leg no no your other left leg right it was like bumbling through the move just couldn’t get it getting really
frustrated with himself and um I was guiding him and helping him and he he did this throw and it was beautiful it
like like lifted the guy up dropped him down on the floor and he was he came up from that move and his eyes there was a
light in his eyes Brooke and in that moment he changed he kind of he’s it was
like he came alive and I could see in his eyes this just this brightness this
newness of wow I can do that and you know I came
away from that class feeling great that I’d like not not great that I’d taught him how to do this move but more of a
something that stuck with me it was like that light in people’s eyes when they go
and do that you know and that was something in that like it was like a
light bulb moment for me and it just really connected with me with the thing
that I feel like I’m here to do and that is to help people to kind of have that light in their eyes and go
right right that’s so beautiful and I love I love that story and I think that
was a lot of my experience with you too like oh wow I can actually do these things there’s actually you know and it
was both the kind of philosophical and spiritual inquiry but it was coupled with practical skills to implement right
and that’s that’s part of the way that’s that’s part of the empowerment is we need both the kind of Spiritual
Awakening component but we also need these you know skills and principles for
implementation and execution and that that’s one of the reasons why working with you has been so rich and and
meaningful for me um and you know I’m curious too I guess
I’m reflecting on um something I think about a lot is how
business can be spiritual so I’m wondering if you have any thoughts or anything to share on that because as I
mentioned that’s really been my experience with you and I I think you’ve said that’s been an experience that you’ve had with a lot of your clients
and you know I had no idea you were a spiritual guy I was enrolled in your nurture sequence and you know I I didn’t
realize that we had that in common so it was really interesting how that emerged and how you find people halfway across
the globe and if it feels really orchestrated so do you have a sense of you know how you see business as
spiritual I think everything is spiritual
whether we see it or we realize it or not everything is energy Everything is
Everything is making an interaction in The Invisible that we’re not we’re not cognizant of
all the time and so we’re seeing glimpses these invisible forces that are at play in the
world and yet we are presented with this material Physical Realm that is
just a tiny fraction of what it means to exist what it means to be alive and so
the realization that in a small way how you show up in the world the intention
you set before you even take an action that has such a powerful impact on
your experience in the day but also your influence on others as you move through
the day so to try and just be all matter of fact about things without an
acknowledgment of the spiritual I think is just leaving so much undone
yeah how more than what right I mean there’s so there’s such an emphasis on
achievement outcome productivity at the end and how do we bring ourselves back
into a more Soulful and present way of relating with our lives with our goals
even I mean I’ve been kind of in constant conversation with these goals and dreams and so motivated and inspired
and how do I stay really really present and grounded and grateful and kind in
that Pursuit I think there’s a way that we can really find this optimal balance where the future is energizing us but
it’s not taking us away we’re not waiting for this future time when you know oh I’m going to be happy we’re
actually inspired in the present by our North Star while still being fully awake
and embodied in our values and that was one of the questions I came to this call
with because one of the things I really admire in you and in general is as I
said before your kindness and so I’m curious what practices what you know what can what can we do to cultivate
that you know how to how do how did you develop that and and what guidance can you offer me in terms of cultivating my
own kindness so it’s not it’s not an easy thing right
there’s a I love that saying by uh Buddha before Enlightenment chopping wood
fetching water after Enlightenment chopping wood fetching water right so there’s a like you mentioned before
there’s a a practical like a practice element a doing but also a being as well
and I think having a having a
grounding in that being element the feeling the emotion the connectedness to
the now that’s something that runs alongside a practice I find so
look I’m still learning this stuff like all of us right it’s a journey and so some days one helps the other so without
the practice the being is altered without the being the practice Falls away and so you have it’s like a dance
between the two and I think you have to have a a practical discipline
to meditate to journal to practice gratitude and affirmations and do all of
these things that gets you like you said into the emotion of the goal and state
keeps you connected to the goal but not in a way that’s like abstract I I don’t
I consider myself a very spiritual person but I don’t see myself as a
I guess I don’t know like um a spiritual Guru in that sense I feel like for me it
has to be practical I have to be able to get up every day and live live and be this this person that that I’m striving
to be to be and to become you know and so it has to be that balance between what
we do in every single moment and how we remain connected in that
does that make sense absolutely and and so mindfulness gratitude uh Jiu Jitsu
does that is that one of the practices you wouldn’t believe yeah how connected that makes you to your body you know
that’s like a that there isn’t time when somebody’s trying to choke you out there or break you around there isn’t there
just isn’t time to kind of have this head chatter that says hey Colin who do you think you are what do you think
you’re doing you know well it’s really interesting that you brought that up because you’re the
second person whose kindness really struck me right off the bat and this
other person who I’m also having on the show John verakee also mentioned that he practices Jiu Jitsu so there must be
something to this uh to this practice I think there’s a there’s endless list of
things that you can do the bottom line is feeling a connectedness to the body because in reality we are not the body
we are not the mind you know we are the the witness Consciousness the seat of
self the higher self however you want to describe it right we are something aside from each of those
and through the connectedness of the body and the mind and that that place of
witness Consciousness that sits behind and above all of those that’s where you
find that place of of being
in a in a Stillness it’s a it’s a place that isn’t
bothered by all of the chatter it’s a place that isn’t just constantly carried away by this
feeling of that and oh will she like me and Willie like Willy like that and and
you just you just allow you know those things are still there but you’re in a
in a different place where you’re able to just kind of just see and respond to the thing that’s in
front of you which is this this moment right now what Eckhart Tolle talks about and the power of now right this this
moment in front of you is the only one that you’ve got it’s the only one that matters and so when you’re able to
through that practice stay connected and stay focused and stay in this moment all
of a sudden it feels different so now the feeling of connectedness to what
you’re trying to do and be and Achieve is almost effortless that’s what they talk about be effortless effort right
it’s it’s not something that you need to strive for in striving for it you miss
it and that’s the difficulty I think a lot of people have is and it’s something I struggle with a lot is sometimes you
get caught up in practice I’m trying to be this and I’m trying to be that and I’m trying to do that and often it
misses the mark you know and that yes there’s just a need at a certain point for surrender and just allowance like
here I am right now and that’s all part of it that’s all part of what I am called to be present with and allowed to
move through me and then trust that in that allowance we will shift you know
one of the practices that’s really helped me to awaken more to uh greater
sense of presence and that kind of magic that happens in the present moment is
just slowing down I just you know and and I I mean I’m still you know kind of
productive inspired a lot and doing a lot of things but I stopped kind of booking myself Florida ceiling I started
to create space between appointments space between commitments and I found
that just giving myself that room to breathe even if I wasn’t necessarily taking that time to formally meditate I
just wasn’t in that constant state of I need to get there I need to be here I need to oh I need to eat lunch I need to
it was like it allowed for just the the space for me to open my eyes a little bit and just kind of savor each moment
and there was a lot of there’s been a lot of magic and kind of new Consciousness just in the kind of
slowing down and allowing and seeing myself not so much as I am the conductor
who needs to have it or the captain who needs to have it all figured out and is is make calling all the shots but rather
a conduit where I’m just allowing life to move through me and surrendering and accepting you know I mean gosh there are
times when you know I am not my body and my mind and my energy are not cooperating and you know I want to be I
want to be inspired I want to be energetic I want to be kind and I’m just grumpy and and tired and fatigued and
and you know that’s all part of the allowance I think and the you know the thing that we have to cultivate and
surrender is okay I don’t get it you know I don’t get why I’m feeling like this and you know how can I bring
kindness to myself and I think as we do it allows us to to create more kindness
and patience with others I mean I think for me my flaws more than anything have taught me about kindness and compassion
and how much nicer is it when you’re able even when the energy is not there and you don’t feel it when you lean in
to that because it’s it’s anti-everything that we’re programmed with isn’t it it’s against what our
conditioning tells us you know when when the propensity is to be busy and get
busy with busy things the last thing we think about as being a valid thing is to
stop and breathe and take a breath and yet it’s the most important thing
that we can do that’s the that’s the the difficulty isn’t it but the the difference when you practice that that
loving kindness to self first and foremost then that that’s what makes the
difference in how you show up in the world um
you were sharing really really speaks to what I find when I’m
when I don’t surrender is this sort of coercive and warlike relationship with
myself where I’m constantly kind of pressuring um
uh struggling uh forcing you know you’ve got you know shaming and I find that is
just so draining and counterproductive it doesn’t actually achieve the thing that we think it does to engage with
ourselves that way we think that kind of pressure and shame motivates us but it actually depletes us of the resourcing
of the energy of the inspiration that we’re actually trying to find and so that’s where it’s like that that
surrender is so critical to um to re-energizing restoring uh
replenishing our our reserves and we forget that we I don’t know where this
comes from but our culture has this a lot of emphasis on Willpower and kind of
top-down uh very um you know aggressive kind of how we
relate to ourselves and there’s actually a lot of research that the concept of willpower is really not valid at all
there’s no actual Empirical research for it and yet we all have this kind of myth that we can just logic our way and will
power our way and if we were just mentally stronger and actually I find that the strength and the energy emerges
in the allowance of not being so strong and energetic all the time and then when
we when we bow to that the energy naturally kind of comes back online when
it’s ready and that’s again kind of what the everything is spiritual it’s like this kind of day-to-day dance with life
with our own energies with our own bodies with our own minds with the circumstances of Our Lives how do we
kind of just allow and and stop being so coercive and what’s the relationship
between kind of agency and surrender because of course there are more moments
where we want to bring agency into you know our lives we want to be purposeful and mindful and intentional but that’s
not quite the same thing as this sort of coercive uh thing that happens it’s it’s
like knowing when is the right tool to use absolutely and I think
in that you have to recognize the universal law of Rhythm that’s at play through everything there is a time and a
season under heaven a time to live a time to die and I think in that within
the bounds of that Rhythm that universal law of Rhythm you have to accept that at
the moment the sun is in the sky and the Moon is not you have to accept that it’s the season of of this or it’s the season
of that and that’s the hardest part because we refuse to accept it’s like
going outside in the morning sun and waving your fist at the Sun and kind of saying why are you not the moon why is
it not dark right now that’s the futility of what we do to ourselves really because we’re trying to fight
against this natural Rhythm that is the universe unfolding in front of us and it
is what it is and will always be what it is no matter how hard we wave our fists no matter how hard we protest it will
always be the way that it will now within that within the bounds of that of
course there is we have agency we have our expression of who we are and that’s
where that’s where the fun I think that’s where it’s fun because within the within the bounds of the universal laws
you can play that’s what you’re here for you know there’s that saying that the
Earth is a place that souls go to evolve that’s what we’re here to do that’s what it means to grow spiritually in
Awakening and to experience the fullness the richness that is in front of you but
within the bounds of the law you know within the bounds of that Rhythm and going with that flow
yeah that dance with life yeah it’s so nice it’s like that’s the that’s the
whole like purpose of this of this short dance that we get to play out on on Earth in this physical body it’s it’s
you just got so much richness in front of you and if you just accept the Rhythm
for the Rhythm you know because people die and people get ill and things happen and nothing is good nor bad they’re just
things that happen and all of these things happen to us in different measures to different degrees and it’s
just things that happen you know we have to just flow with it flow with it yeah and I call that well one principle
that I use in that dance is what I call the reflection principle the idea that every moment every element
of Our Lives is actually here to teach us something even our problems all the things that we see as external are
actually reflections of the internal I think you actually were the first one to share the quote with me as within so
without As Above So Below you know that old I think that’s a hermetic kind of saying
um and what you originally were talking about reminds me of what I call the Paradox of control which is this idea
that the more we strive to control things the more out of control we feel and the more we surrender and allow and
accept the more empowered we feel and it’s quite it’s quite surprising and it’s a hard one lesson that I think we
all have to encounter at some point and there’s a beautiful quote by um Marcus
Aurelius the um impediment to action advances action the obstacle therefore is the way and
how beautiful is it that everything that’s put in front of us is a gift no matter how we interpret it is our choice
right but everything is a gift like you just said everything whether whether we deem it a label it a failure whether we
label it a success or anything and everything in between they’re all pathways
to growth everything is here everything is put in front of you
so that you can grow yeah it’s so amazing when you wake up to
the orchestration in things and you begin to see that and that’s not for me at least a constant state but the more I
Surrender the more I begin to see that everything in my life even the things that have felt painful problematic you
know things that I thought oh this is terrible I’ll never recover have ultimately been in service
um and I think that’s just such a beautiful thing when you begin to witness that and that’s really what
allows us to start to cultivate faith is when we you know are able to
become conscious of in advance like oh here I am in another moment where I
think there’s no you know possible Redemptive element to this experience and we go okay okay God okay Universe
okay you know um I know you’re teaching me something here I’m gonna trust you I’m gonna I I’m
I know there’s something on the other side of this and and that’s the kind of concept death and rebirth you know in
the Bible Paul says I Die daily and I think that’s just such a beautiful metaphor for you know just the constant
putting laying on the altar all of the things that all of you know the things that we identify with our ego are
um you know our sort of worldly aims that aren’t really in alignment with our true values and then just constantly
recalibrating and iterating and you know how do I how do I keep um in on the path facing toward my North
Star how do I embody my values well kind of going after the thing that I feel
called to in the world yeah and that’s where the balance between Enlightenment chopping wood
fetching water right it’s the same it’s the same thing you’re constantly trying to find that that that middle way what
latsu calls the way right the the Dow it’s the it’s that that that place of balance that is Elusive and actually
doesn’t exist and that’s part of the dance you’ve got to constantly play with that because no matter how how many
enlightened experiences you may have or may not have had or experienced it’s not actually about that it’s about
your ability to remain in this moment right now that’s in front of you the moment where we took a pause a few
minutes back that moment’s gone and will never be repeated again this moment right now
this is the one that we’re in and this is the one that we have to respond and react to and we will always
not respond in the way that we expected we will always trip up we will always
find ourselves failing and falling and not meeting the standards that we set ourselves it’s the nature of the Mind
the mind will always pull us back and tell us that we’re not good enough or we’re not doing enough or we haven’t
been productive enough and I think that’s the that’s the daily challenge for us is to be consistent in our
approach to that and consistency really is the key and then look it’s one thing saying this but then somebody dies or
you have a severe a severe trauma or something happens that’s like big man
then it’s difficult not to fall off the wagon so to speak you know and things just kind of change but that in itself
is the gift in 2013 Brooke I um
I had a business that was running multiple seven figures a year in Revenue I had more money than I could spend I
was like doing really well in business 2013 that business went bust and I lost
everything that I owned in the world and we had the saddest part about all of that wasn’t losing all of the material
things I had it was the 30 people that I employed whose families and children no
longer had an income right that was that that was the hardest thing to bear when I when that first happened to me I
felt so traumatized and so so much of a failure I never thought I’d ever get over it it
felt like it was like a grief to me because I I loved running that business and in the aftermath of that now eight
nine years on from the fact that was actually one of the best things that ever happened in my life
because through that through the fires of that that the aftermath
I actually became awake I realized I’ve I’ve got feelings I think what are these
funny things that have been stuff that have been pushing away all of these years you know what is this and and that
actually was the starting path to what you would call like being self-aware being awake being alive and and only
because of that failure that was labeled as a failure was I able to be the man I
am today yeah it’s beautiful you know death feels
sometimes like a necessary precondition of rebirth you know and it’s in the
moment you don’t see it you don’t know what’s ahead of you um you you only go oh I’m in pain I’m
decimated I’m destroyed and um it’s it’s so incredible though when
we are open to the lessons of life when we have that mindset that invites
inquiry what opens up in that it’s like that that decimation is the seeds of
this new um I’m just thinking multiple metaphors here Garden building you know this kind
of this new new based New Creation new self that emerges From the Ashes you
know and I think for me I just that’s that’s the image for me that is most
