Natalie Ledwell: Hi! I'm Natalie Ledwell and this is The Inspiration Show. Now today my special guest is the wonderful Mr. Paul Hoffman. Now he's a transformational musician, a speaker, an author and a teacher. Now he's composed and produced music for internationally acclaimed speakers and best-selling authors and fortune 500 corporations, for films, for television, for commercial, and for radio for over 25 years. Now he's also composed the music for the beginning of The Inspiration Show. And you can access some of this uplifting, positive, amazing music in the mind movie software under the tab of success songs. Now Paul has had a very interesting story. Now during the 70's, he was working on the road with the, many famous bands such as Pink Floyd, Emerson Lake and Palmer, and Blood Sweat and Tears. So you can imagine the stories he would have from those times. Then, his love of music leads him to write jingles for TV. His most famous jingle, which you might have heard of, is Have You Driven a Ford Lately. Now he's also worked with others such as BB King, Isaac Hayes, Tony Bennett, The Four Tops and Kim Khans just to name a few. Now it wasn't always easy selling. He's gonna share some of his journey with you in the following video. So get comfortable, and enjoy!

Natalie: So Paul, I've asked for you today cause you are someone who admire and who lives a life of passion. So, has it always been like that for you? What is you background?

Paul Hoffman: Well' that's a great question. It wasn't always like that. I had some very defining moments in my life that really allowed me to get a lot more present to what I want to decorate my life. And, you know, I started out in, I want to be a professional athlete and play basketball, and then I, when I went on the road as a tour manager for rock bands, and I did that for a few years. And then I got into the music advertisement business. And I wrote a little song this in the advertising Hall of Fame, Have You Driven a Ford Lately. But you know, I was, I had this burning desire within me to really go the next level in my life and make a difference. And I just kind of feel like I was making a difference by doing what I was doing. And so, What I, What I really found is that when I have the opportunity to, I've been sober the 22 years, I can tell us all If you want, when I found that I got to the point of my life where I was actually living my life from an external view point. Okay? That, you know, I was letting the outside world determine what my inner reality was. You know, I found that my life was really a mess. And so, so when I got to the point of the pain was so great that I changed my view point, I got to the, I got present to my desire to truly help people. And to really be a presence in a planet that was serving people to find that passion with in them. To have joy, happiness, love, creativity and success in their life. And by doing that, then I found my passion was really in a line with that. Does it make sense?

Natalie: It does make sense. So, I mean after fine, it's fine threads that take us from the life that we were living to living the passion that we want. So, what type of things happened to you that lead you, all this succession of events that lead you to where you are now?

Paul: Well, as I mention a moment ago, I was highly successful, very successful in music for the advertisement world, in making a lot of money, being getting a lot of accolades, being interviewed on TV, in CNN and all this things. And yet I was living a dull life. You know, on the outside people look at me and go: He's all want you would have. If they only knew on the inside, that you really don't want what I have. I mean there were day when I didn't even wanna talk to myself. And what happened was I had a really bad driven alcohol problem. And I say that because, you know, everything in life for me lead me to what I am today. That I am actually sitting with you. Every event that happens to me has a beautiful meaning to it. So I never get caught up in like the good, the bad. I never put a label on it. And so what happen was, I got sober and I realized that, you know, my life was, I was, I wasn't having, I wasn't really having a spiritual, I wasn't really live in a spiritual place. I was living in a place of materialistic, non-gratitude, non-appreciation. And when I got sober, I really appreciate who I was and I really felt that I had finally turned a corner in my life so that I could really get out of the shadows of my darkness and into the light. And it got me to where I am today which is I write, you know, empowerment songs, my success songs, band, I coach people, I train people, I have wonderful products that teach provided create their life one day at a time. I'm all balance inspiring people to just live in their passion and their dream.

Natalie: Yes, so it begun as, whether you're coming from a dark place, is completely possible to come into an enlightened place of passion and self-will.

Paul: Absolutely! You know, sometimes you think, you know, people say, you know, sometimes you gonna get in the dark to see the light. But yeah, absolutely. And it go as I said, I look at everyday as an opportunity, you know. And I'm about being present. You know, so today is a really great day for me. You know, I'm here with you guys, I'm having a good time, I'm not worried about tomorrow. You know, whatever I'm thinking about, yesterday, is really the lesson of yesterday. And so, you know, if your present and you're aware, because we, sometimes we are not aware, like you know, our conscious mind sometimes will play trick on us, tricks on us and we'll do things that are so habitual that we didn't even know that we're doing them. But if you can practice presence, and I know you're a big fan of gratitude, and have gratitude and appreciation in your life, then your life will absolutely look like you want it to be because you'll be present to what you'll be doing things that you want to do.

Natalie: Absolutely. Now, we were having this discussion before about how success is not an accident. You know, and all the successful that I've spoken to have certain habits that they've adopted to keep them on track. So, what are some of the things that you form day to day to keep you focused and on track with your goals?

Paul: I get up at 4 o'clock in the morning, i think I shared that with you a little early, okay I got, I think we had a little laugh about that. And I write, I write every morning. And I write an inspirational message called Good Morning, Great day. And that's the first thing that I do, well first thing I do is I get up and drink a nice glass of water and I hydrate myself and then I sit down and I write this thing and that really gets me present to what I wanna be in that day. So I write that and then what I do is I go to meditation. I meditate for about 30 minutes a day. And then what I do is I read something that's really inspirational. Because I know, you know, just from what I do in the music world, I know that whatever you put into your body, whether it's the music, whatever you read, whatever you watch, whatever you eat, determines what could draw you. Cause it long has an energetic effect and how you live your life. So I read something that is really inspirational. And then what I do is I write my gratitude journal. I have a gratitude journal and I'm grateful, you know, and I will, really get present to what I'm grateful for about my life and the people in my life and actually what I'm grateful about me. What am I, what are the qualities that I am grateful for about me. And the last thing I'll do is I'll do forgiveness exercise. You know, forgive myself for anything that I need to forgive myself for. And I'll never hold, I don't hold grudges so I've, I forgive other people cause again if your holding like those things, it's just you're blocking the energy. So the forgiveness works. And it's kind of what I do everyday.

Natalie: Awesome. Impressive.

Paul: And you say I'm a little tired after that. But it's okay. No, I'm kidding.

Natalie: You are getting up at 4 a.m. in the morning, I mean, my goodness. Now, I actually receive a lot of emails, And I'm sure that you do as well, about people that find it very difficult to think outside of the situation that they were in. SO for example, it's happening to be in an energy or vibration of abundance when they don't have enough money to pay their bills? So what are the advice you have to people in that situation?

Paul: You know, it's interesting. I've been in that situation. You might have been too. You know, and What I found was when you're present and you know you really want the life, you know, we talked a little about this earlier, then that we say the "how we take care of ourselves?" So I tend to, I think the best advice I'd give to people is: the reason that you don't get what you want in your life is because you get in the way. And what happens when you get in the way, you are making up, you're living in the old story of who you are. You're living in the old story, the situation. And you're letting the circ, the other circumstance create chain reality. And what happens is you need to shift your consciousness, you need to shift your thought process so that you may create your outer reality from your inner circumstance. What do you wanna do in your life? How, you know, what is it that you have that really inspires and empowers you, and you know, that burning desire. You know, cause we all have a calling. We all have the gift, you know, and what I do is not what you do but what, you know, both of us do is a necessary piece to what I call life puzzle. The life puzzle. And so, you know, it's like don't get caught up in the circumstance of it. We're given the opportunity to have the choice in life. You know, and so we can wake up in the morning and we can choose to get into the beauty of the day and the possibility that has, what we have out there. Cause every moment is an opportunity. And if you can look at every moment as an opportunity, what happens is you'll be able to see that there is a lesson that you can learn and there is a path that you can take. But if you get up every morning and go: you know, my God, what am I gonna do today? I don't know enough, I don't have enough money, I don't blah blah, blah blah, blah blah, blah blah. So what's gonna happen, you'll gonna stuck in the same energy. There's, you know, the greatest inventions in life, the greatest accomplishments in life, I mean, what you guys are doing with your work, started out, in a dream, or an idea. So there was an idea. You woke up one day with you, and Glenn, and Ryan and everybody else in your company and we had this idea for mind movies. Okay, it wasn't like: Oh we have of this mind movies. Oh, how're we gonna do that? No, we had an idea about mind movies, and you worked, and you formulated, and you visioned, and you meditated on it, and you dialogued on it, and you mastered minded on another and you did all that stuff I'm sure. And what happened was you found out a way to do it. And so if people would just wake up and understand that there's, each day there's an opportunity for them to step into their greatness, which they already are. Then all they need to do is put one foot in the next and go in the direction of what they truly want. And just get out of your own way. You wreck to get paid, if you decide you want to get paid. Those people were resourceful. We really are. You know, it's one we just realizes why we hold our selves back? So I would just say, you know, get out of your own way. Don't be afraid to ask for help.

Natalie: Yup. Which is very important.

Paul: You know, and don't beat yourself up. And just see you again. Look at yourself in the mirror and say say to yourself every morning, you know, I'm truly an abundant, prosperous, magnificent, amazing, brilliant, great person. I can have anything I want in my life.

Natalie: Excellent. Now and it's just probably be difficult to narrow this down to one thing. But if you could share one actionable step that people watching this video will be able to implement into their life today to make a difference, what would that one actionable step be?

Paul: Yeah I do talk a lot, but I think I'll go for one now, okay. That's okay. So the one actionable step that I would have them do is I would get, I would encourage you to get very clear. Okay. The one of my process in the morning is, you know, as I said I get up in and dress up. But in that process, I declare the three intentional steps I'm going to take that day. Now I know you asked me to do one thing, but my three is worthy one. So I'll just sit down and I go: okay, I wanna get from here to this point today. And in order to get through I got to do three things. What are those three things? Once you get really clear? And what steps you need to take? And everything else will fall into place. So don't get caught into the minutia of the inconsequential, I call it "babblycock." Okay. Or BS whatever it is. Just get really present to what it is you wanna do. And then the universe will take care of you when you'll be able to do it. But it's about action. And so, So one a of that, of that question that you want one thing, the second part of that is to take action. If you don't take the action you won't be, in the same situation, you'll gonna be stationary.

Natalie: Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for joining us today and answering those questions for us. So it's a lot of wisdom made packed into a little video. Thank you very much.

Paul: I appreciate. Nah, just go for it in life cause life is where you show up.

Natalie: So thanks for joining us today. And remember to live large, choose courageously and love without limits. I'll see you next time.