Episode 2: Getting out of God's Way w/Nicole Frazier

In this episode, host Matthew Headden is joined by Nicole Frazier, a certified mindset coach, for an inspiring conversation on the pivotal role of faith and mindset in the lives of Christians. Together, they explore how integrating scripture and science can unlock the potential of entrepreneurs, enabling them to overcome self-imposed limitations and achieve true success in their endeavors.

Nicole shares her expertise in helping clients break free from mental barriers by combining biblical principles with scientific insights. She emphasizes the importance of keeping God at the center of every decision and trusting His guidance, particularly when navigating the challenges of entrepreneurship. The conversation highlights the delicate balance between ambition and humility, stressing the need to surrender ego and pride while giving God the glory for every success.

Much of the discussion focuses on the power of identity and purpose in personal transformation. Matthew and Nicole delve into how our beliefs about ourselves influence our behaviors and habits and how redefining our identity in Christ can lead to lasting, positive change. They encourage listeners to align their actions with their desired identity and to remain steadfast in their connection with God for ongoing guidance and transformation.

The episode concludes with a thoughtful piece of advice from Nicole and a compelling question posed to the next guest, leaving listeners with plenty to ponder as they reflect on their journeys.

Transcript

Matthew Headden (00:00)
Welcome to the inner outer and above blueprint. These first couple of episodes were actually on Instagram live the content was so good. We had to make it the initial launch of this podcast. So we know that the audio quality trash. So we appreciate you sticking with us, bearing with it. We hope you enjoy what we have to say. If you can actually make out what we're saying, We'd still appreciate.

the like, comment, follow, and all that self -aggrandizing stuff. But we hope most of all, we strengthen the body of Christ and that he speaks through us. We love you, we thank you, hope you enjoy the episode.

Matthew Headden (00:36)
Everybody meet my dear friend, Nicole Frazier. She is Level Up Life Co. and she is an absolute woman in the pursuit of God's own heart. And she helps so many women with their mindset. I'm gonna let her do it because I'm never gonna do it justice. Nicole, welcome to the show. Please tell everyone who the heck you are. Well, thank you, Matthew. I feel like this has been like a long time coming for you and I.

Crazy. Way too long. Way too long. So thanks for having me here with your audience. Like Matt said, Nicole Frazier, certified mindset coach, certified EFT practitioner. My company is Level Up Life & Co. and I work with Christian entrepreneurs and help them unstuck their mindset with scripture and

a lot of amazing modalities and the goal is to clear away what's blocking you so that you can have God moving more powerfully in your life. Stop putting up all those walls, all those barriers, because He is trying to lead you to success and the only thing standing in the way is your mindset. I love that. So we will dig into that.

We're gonna start a little different. I did not say this is coming and it's the first time we're gonna start this. Let's go ahead and start out with a little prayer, just real quick. If anybody else wants to join along, we'd love you to join us. Father God, we pray that we...

our vessels for you today, that we may speak your truth, that we may edify you in everything we do, and that our listeners may have open hearts and open minds to hear and receive what you have to say. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Nicole, we're going to get into what you do. First, will you tell me why God became so important to you and how you came to your faith?

blessed enough to say he's always been there because my mom and my dad have always had like Jesus in their heart. You know, so I literally grew up that way. I had them model what it means to be a good person, a giving person, a selfless person, a caring person, you know, taking me to church with them and everything like that. But even with all that being said, like,

normal, like most people, I, you know, had times in my life, especially my teens and my twenties, where God was like way on the back burner. And I was just out there like living my life, trying to do my thing. you know, not keeping God at the forefront. And that's when stuff really goes, went haywire in my life. And when I look back, you know, cause you can only connect the dots looking backwards. I'm like, man, what was missing at that time?

What wasn't I focusing on? How was I viewing myself then versus how I now view myself as that daughter of God, you know? And like, that was the missing component during all those times. And I have a gazillion stories of how God has moved powerfully in my life. And the closer, it's so true what the Bible says, the closer you move towards Him, like the more He draws nearer to you.

And the way he shows out in my life and the people around me, I am like humbled to just witness it every single day. I love that. And we will have to go live again, like you said, off the air. cause I'd love to hear some of those stories, but for right now, tell me in the audience, what do you do? Like, how do you help Christian entrepreneurs unlock their mindset? And for lack of a better term, get out of their own and God's way. So.

First and foremost, we have to acknowledge God's place in this process, right? Nothing is happening. Nothing is transforming. No power is coming into this situation absent of God. And I feel like that's the first mistake so many people make. They're like, I can do this in my own power. And then it works for short term. Like it's never long lasting. And then it's like, hello, you are missing the most important piece.

And God's rarely gonna allow it to happen long term without Him. So, you know, first and foremost, we keep God at the center of every single thing that we do. Much like this podcast, we start everything with prayer. And we look to every situation first and foremost, like what does God say about this situation in the Bible? Right? And we have that deep conversation first. And then,

I really dive into like, okay, so where's the resistance? And like, now that we know that this is the truth, what's going on in your mind? What's coming up for you? Where are you feeling like, but I, yeah, I understand that, but, yeah, I would love to do that, but what if I can't, you know, like, so then that's where my training comes in.

You know, and again, faith and science marry beautifully. You know, God gave us these brains. He wants us to use them to help people. So that's where I can go with these like amazing techniques that help you to quiet that analytical part of your mind. And when we do that, Matt, like it so helps even in your faith walk, because we are always so in this like busy beta brain.

part of our life and I've heard saying before and I feel so strongly about it, God's like, how can I speak to you if you are always filling your mind with everything else? So during this deep work, this deep mindset work, it's really just about like super getting quiet, you know, how to help bypass that analytical critical part of your mind that is excuse, excuse, excuse, so that God can bring

the answers forward. So in a nutshell, that is how I work with my clients. I'm about to hire you. Like I don't like. So there are a lot of mindset coaches out there. There are a lot of Christian coaches out there. There are a lot of there are some Christian mindset coaches out there that you mentioned and you and are both on the same page with this science and scripture play very well together. You mentioned

your formal training because there are a lot of Christian coaches and Christian of various modalities out there. But many in my experience may not have a formal education in these things. And they're using solely scripture, which is good, which is great. But I do believe that they work well together. What kind of training did you go through to be able to help people unlock this and get out of their own dead -gum way?

So I went through a really awesome certification. It was an 18 month process. It's an ICF certified program where you really just learn the neuroscience of how the brain works, right? Because just because we're looking and keeping our eyes on Jesus, it doesn't mean we have to ignore biology, right? Especially when God gave us free will and he wants you to be able to

like look to him, believe in the answer, but then how can you take inspired action? And if it's these excuses and these negative stories and these limiting ways of feeling like this is who I am, it's really hard to move forward with that. So my training is all based in neuroscience and how limiting beliefs happen in the first place, how these negative stories get stuck in your mind in the first place. And it's

There are scientific ways of how to break that down. And it's just that this isn't the kind of stuff that you learn in school. It's very hard to just read an article or read a book and do it on yourself. You know, you need somebody in the room with you to guide you through the process, keeping you out of that analytical part of your mind. So that's that's where my training lies. You know, it's interesting that you say that because

Just even the other day with a client, right? It's the proverbial, when we were kids, right? Your mom says, is your room clean? Yeah, my room's clean. It's clean to my standard? Sure is. Okay, I'm gonna go look at it. I need you to come here, Nicole. Come here, Matthew. Step outside your room, look at it with my eyes.

Does it still look clean? No. But we're in it. It's ours. We're too deep. We can't be objective.

So that is a lot of what you do, what I do is just, hey, what does this objective, like not detached view look like and what would God say here? I think that's so, so powerful. Now there has been a trend that we both been seeing a lot with clients. What is something that you see so that we can give people value here?

What pieces of wisdom can you give people that you see systemically throughout the people you work with? What's one of those challenges? What's a roadblock that you see? The roadblock is I believe in God, but. So there's always the but right now I know I know I trust God, I know he's going to do this, I know he's working in this situation, but right and they fall back on what am I seeing?

all around me. This is the proof. They want like physical proof in the material world and in what we can see around us. And if the Holy Spirit has come into your heart the way that he's come into mine, the way it's come into yours, you know that the spiritual world is so much more real than what you're seeing around you. And if you're relying solely on what you're seeing happening,

around you, you are like walking blind basically because God heard you, he's working on this, things are being moved in spiritual realms, angels are going to battle for you and all this is happening on your behalf and you're not trusting and you're like

not surrendering and you're still feeling you're still caught up in pride, which is telling you I am the one that has to make this work. I believe in God. Yeah, I said a prayer, but somehow it's all still on me kind of thing. And that's not true belief. And that's not where transformation happens. That's not where abundance comes. You know what I mean? That's not where God is like breaking chains in your life. You got a freaking

be able to humble yourself and say, it's not about me. God, I am giving this to you and I'm just gonna follow you and keep my eyes on you, right? Take the inspired action, pray for every freaking move I'm making. God, what should I say on this podcast with Matt? God, what do you want me to put in this post today? God, you know it's in my heart. How can I reach the people you want me to help?

Right? Like every single moment, it's connecting back to him, connecting back to him. And I think so the biggest piece I see is people still saying they believe they want to believe, but still holding God at like a really far arms length from the situation. So it's, it's one of these things where we believe in him just enough to where he's a machine.

And I think it's God is not your genie. And most of us approach him like a magician. And the funny thing is that, okay, I showed up to perform my magic trick so I can go home. And the interesting thing there is when we treat him like that, most of us don't believe in genies. And we

don't think that magician magicians are real. They're performing a sleight of hand in a trick. And so if you think God is a genie and you think he's a magician, but you don't think those things are real, how do those work together? They don't. And inherently, most of us, and I'm taking this from my favorite pastor, Jerry Flowers. Most of us treat Jesus like a side chick.

We don't actually love them. We don't talk about them in public. We don't come to them for everything we need. We only call them when we need something. We only call them when we're lonely and when we're desperate. Jesus is not our side -champ.

No, and so many people, it's hard for them to say Jesus. They'd rather say God, right? Like it's even hard for them to say the word Jesus and get to that level of intimacy with what he's actually like done for us. And I feel like that is so the enemy because we know from the Bible, there is no more powerful name. And at the name of Jesus, every knee bends in heaven and below the earth. Like, so he's like, don't say the name.

don't say the name. So I've seen, I've seen in so many posts and everything. It's like, they're not saying Jesus. You know, I've actually never thought of that. I love that. And it's, it's even the demons, like it's kind of like Mufasa, Mufasa, they do like they shutter. And so do we. So if someone is believed, yes, if someone is

believing but not surrendering. We often missed this, I trust God. No, no, no, no, if you trusted him you would obey him.

If I have a client that trusts me, they'll do what I program. I trust you, but the word, but invalidates everything you said before it. So how would you help somebody? So, and I know that this is circumstantial and it's very layered. So let's do the best we can. Let's play a game. So I am struggling and I am going through a brutal season and I'm supposed to walk on water. I'm pulling my best Peter here. Keep your eyes on me.

going through the storm. Let's say I'm starting a business, but I'm still tied to my old one because it's very comfortable.

And I can't let go, even though I feel the urge to let go, but I'm still craving the safety.

I know that's a top.

How might we look at that? How might we look at that? First, we gotta realize you're believing a lie. That you, that anything you had the power to create is true safety and protection. So, so often, and I have clients that I'm working with right now that feel like money is protection, money is safety, and it's like, no, you're literally building your house on sand.

that can be stripped away in a moment. So you're believing in this thing. You think this thing is providing you safety when God is the blank check. Okay. I heard this and I was like, right? When God says, I am like, when they're like, what is your name? And he said, I am right. Look at it like this. The blank check is I am your banker. I am your strength.

I am your safety. I am your provision. I am your protection. Right? Like anything you need, God is that. You can just insert it after I am. So your current business is not your safety. Right? So like that's the first thing. We're starting there. We're breaking down that limiting belief that this thing is providing you safety and getting the true reality check that

This Bible says, right, anything you're believing you create it is not fricking true. It came from God and you're in pride. If you think you created this business and that this business is going to continue to provide you safety from the myriad of things that can go wrong in today's world and that that protection isn't actually coming from God. So we start with that.

And then we reverse engineer that problem. And I actually walked this exact problem in my own life, in my own business. Take me through it. So I, you know, became a mindset coach because when I left corporate, I started a social media management business. In the beginning, my mindset blocks were all about being able to show up online and imposter syndrome and all that stuff. So I had to overcome that stuff in order to make my business succeed. Fast forward.

I am at the over 10K months. I have a team of four women working with me. I have a steady, safe business, but I am feeling called to coach and I am feeling called to lead people to Jesus. So I'm in the shower praying because I'm like, God, what do I do here? I feel so nervous, guilty.

to give up this money, to give up this business thinking that like, yeah, anybody would kill to be making this money. What do I do here? How do I know what's the right move to make? Matt, I kid you not, next day I get a message on Facebook Messenger. Company reaches out to me. I took a program of theirs like over two years prior. They're like, Nicole, have you ever been interested in coaching? And I was like, like,

Why? And they said, because we have a group program and we want to bring on another coach and we've been watching your journey and we would love to have you. It's a one year paid position. If you want it, you don't even have to interview. We know we want you. You would start next month. And I said, Rachel, this is like too freaky. I said, I just have to ask you what out of all the people who have gone through your program made you reach out to me? And she said,

Nicole, I can't explain it. It's like God put your name on my heart. I still have the screenshot of that message. And I still coach, even though I have my own business, I still coach in this program. It's been over two and a half years and they're a faith filled organization. And like, if that is not proof positive that you just have to turn to God and ask him what

You want him what you what he has in store for you and what he wants to do his way is always going to be much better faster more than you could have hoped for or imagined. I love that. That's so powerful. And there's so many layers there, right? Yeah. Because it is people say, well, everything happens for a reason. Yeah. Sometimes the reason is and very often because you're doing your own thing because you're not listening to God.

And we love to say, in God's timing. Now, He has an appointment for you. You could take your own time because you have free time.

Right? Like I highly doubt that God wanted me to be an alcoholic drug addict, however he turned around and used it.

Right? So one of the implications there is, is that God is going to not just ask, but command you get uncomfortable. Demand you let go of your ego and pride because the pride is the original sin. Eat this and you'll be like God. They had everything they needed. Lucifer, the creation of the devil. Pride. Pride. And so that really is

And very often we say, God's not telling me what to do. Is He not telling you what to do or He's not telling you what you want to hear that you've already made your mind up that He's supposed to tell you?

Because I believe that God answers in three ways. You've heard it answered in two, right? Yes, no. Or yes, no, maybe. Yes, no, not yet. But I believe it's this. Yeah. Yep, you got it.

I believe the second one is not yet.

And I believe the third one is, I have something else in mind.

It's not no, it's what I need to hear.

And it does boil down to, but the Bible tells me, He will give me the desires of your heart. Yes, but He changes the desires of your heart.

doesn't mean that he's going to give you a $10 million mansion just because you want it.

Right. And that drives me crazy. I actually just ordered a mug that says I can do all things through Christ through a Bible verse that's taken out of context. I love that. Right. Yeah. And so here you are. Fast forward. And you're doing both of these things. And I know you're doing so, so well with them.

But we do get stuck in letting go of that ego because you know the acronym for ego when it comes to biblical, right? Have you heard that? No, drop it on me. Edging God out.

good. Ego is edging God out and for notice there are both three letters.

And wherever our ego exists, he cannot.

More of you, less of me.

because we are called to die to ourselves. It's actually, I just wrote this. One of the least Christian things, one of the least biblical sound things a Christian can say is, that's just who I am. But God created me to be this. No, no, you were born in sin. You will be reborn in Christ.

So that surrender, that submission.

How hard is that? Why is that so hard? Why is it so hard just to let him take control and not just trust, but obey? Multi -layered answer for one. Easy question, very easy question. Yeah. I think that ego thing is a real problem. And I think it's one of the things that keeps people most strongly from approaching God, because they feel like

I don't want to submit. Right. And they think that obedience and surrender means somehow I'm getting less when God is trying to say surrender and obey and I'm going to give you more. Right. So it's like the thought that I have to submit or do something else. I mean, people don't want to fricking look at all the stuff like that goes on in our government. I don't want to do that. I'm not listening to that. So it's like they are

in this space where they don't want anybody telling them how to live, what to do, what's right, what's wrong. It's all about me. It's all about how I feel. It's all about chasing my dream. What makes me happy? You know, God forbid I am ever uncomfortable. If I'm uncomfortable, you need to change something, right? When it's like, my gosh. So, so I like that. That is the like one part of the answer there. And the other part

you know, I got to give you kudos because Matt and I are always sharing reels back and forth. And I think it goes back to that, pastor flowers shared flowers, real where he was like, people don't want to give God the glory because they want to take the credit. Yeah. It's like, if I have to say God did this, God got me to 10 bail.

$10 ,000 or you know, God got me to $10 ,000 monthly. It's like them what? Where's my glory? You know, like people want to take the credit. Look at the business I built. Look at the money I made. Look at the house I got, the car I got, right? And it's like, if they have to say God provided that, then all of a sudden they're not enough of an expert. They're not enough of a, you know, anything that they're trying to portray that they are especially like out here on social media.

I just, I wish I had a microphone. I'm going to buy one just so I can drop it next time. Like literally just for that. And again, it's not, those were not my words that, you know, the credit. Maybe we can, maybe I can get a Jerry on here. Maybe, maybe we can, we can get it there. cause he, he is good. Very, very good. for those of you all who don't know Jerry flowers, he is, he has therapy Thursdays. You will not leave one of those without crying.

but he is incredible. And it's to your point, there's a story of a pastor, a man goes to, he's a business owner and he goes to his pastor and he says, God, I'm, he says, Hey man, I'm struggling to understand where my hard work end and God's hand, like where, where, where, where does one start when one end, where does the other start and the other end?

Pastor says, okay, so you want to know where God's hand is on your business or this area and where your hard work took over and gets the credit. He says, I have an easy way to figure this out. Man said, okay, what is it? Pastor said, I'm going to pray that God takes His hand off your business, your health, your marriage and your entire life. And then we can figure it out.

like...

The man said, I'm not praying. You must be out of your mind. And the pastor said, great, I guess we have our answer.

That is so good. That is so good. That just got burned into my brain and I will absolutely commit that to memory for when I need to pull that out with clients. Yes, I dare you. I dare you. Yeah. I'm not that baldy. No, I would. I love pulling out stuff like that. Yeah. Give me a story. Let's have story time. So last one that I really want to hit. This is one that a lot of the people I know you're

you're an expert at it. You're as good as anybody I know. I do it surface level, you do it deeper.

Nicole, I'm coming to you and I'm struggling in my business. Matthew, I'm coming to you. And well, tell me how you view yourself. I need to see like, let's take a look at this.

Well, I'm fat and I'm tired and I'm defeated and I'm broken.

What do you hear there? And how do you work on that identity in that, in that identity? How do you work on that? Is that fixable? Everything's possible with God, right? So absolutely. it has to be a choice and a decision, but the way that I approach it again, first scripture, who does God say you are? And then who are you to say, well, God said is wrong.

You know, like, well, God said you're this. No, I'm not. So you're you're literally like opposing God. You're like literally arguing him who he's telling you you are. So so we start there. But then. Leaning back on neuroscience and the way that your brain works, right, there's like something it's like an inverted triangle. It's called the the levels of logical change. And at the very, very top of that is purpose, which is tied to like

your spirituality, right? The purpose of your life. And then right below that is identity. And the reason that so many people have trouble changing is because the very bottom of that little triangle is behaviors and habits. So people try to change behaviors and habits, but just like you said, they're stuck at the identity level of who, I believe, fat, lazy,

inconsistent, not disciplined, I can't do anything long term, right? So we have to change that first. And there are multiple layered modalities, techniques, just another word for techniques that I use with my clients, where we, again, quiet that analytical part of your mind. And we have to get back to, and it is possible to get back to this, we do it, I do it almost every session with people.

Where, when did you decide that? And that's a question like you could always ask your clients. When did you decide that, that that's who you are? When was the first occurrence of you really thinking that? Because that happened somewhere back early in your life. And then something in your brain kicked in, it's called your reticular activating system that then looked for evidence to support that belief.

And you just gather all these limiting beliefs, all these limiting beliefs, and then they become a limiting identity. Like this story you've created is who you believe you are, but that is not who God brought you into this world to be. God said you're this, the world's trying to tell you you're this. And if God did not bring you into the world like that, that means you can take off anything that is not of God. God will help you do that.

If you're committed to being like, I'm ready to move forward. So, you know, we start there and then we have to tackle things step by step because then there's things like secondary gain. People are like, but if I give up being this kind of person, then I go, then I really have to succeed. Then what's my excuse to not take action? If I do see myself as this motivated, amazing person, you know, what happens if I do become

this person that I always wish I could be. I don't even know what that would look like. So in mindset work, to really have true transformation, we tackle those things block by block by block. And so you really realize all that crap I was carrying around were stories and labels and lies. And my gosh, it feels so natural to be who God created me to be.

not work. It doesn't feel like work. And then you finally get to take that breath. And it would be like, let's say someone was sitting on your chest, and you would struggle to breathe it first.

But after them sitting on your chest for long enough, it would just be how you breathe.

And when they slowly start to get up, you start to breathe a little bit more. But it would be uncomfortable at first because you don't know why you're breathing this way. And it does go back to the old cliche of it's easy, the devil you know.

I don't know how to operate here.

I'm comfy here, but I think one of the missing pieces, and it's a layer of what you're saying here is this. Often when we try to impose order on someone's life and they've lived in chaos for so long, order feels like chaos. The other is if you feel that way, if your identity is,

Fat, failure, broken. Your actions are going to line up with those things eventually. If my identity is fat, I can fake it for a little while and eat healthy, but eventually my habits are going to go back to that in the same way that is one of the things we coach. For instance, my identity is rooted in that of a beloved child of God who is a strong, happy, healthy Christian man who

leaves everyone he meets a little bit better than he found them. And if it does not line up with that identity, I'm simply not doing it. It's not a choice.

In that it sounds restricting, but it's freedom.

It's God's laws for us sound restricting to someone who's never submitted to him, but there's actually freedom there because you no longer have the choice to go. There's no longer that whole. Right? Like, man, I'm a call up that girl, you know, like, well, so I know like I'm gonna feel guilty later. It's not even a choice. Right? Like for me, man, I'm gonna get my dealer on the phone. Not even a choice doesn't line up. It's heart change. There's a massive difference between

head knowledge and heart knowledge. And getting them in sync is very, very difficult. A surface level identity tip for those listening, because Nicole, if you want to go like way down and like, no, hate your life a little bit and then have a whole new life and be who you're supposed to be, that's your home girl. I don't know why I started talking like that. But if like on the fitness side,

one of the tools that I use, just a simple one for those listening. Write down a list of the five people, of five people you admire the most. Now we don't want to emulate those people, but we can, once you've written those five people down, we don't want to lift those people on a pedestal. That's not the goal here. Because it's their journey and it's their life, not yours. But it is their.

Let's write them down and then write down the attributes about them that you admire.

take all of those and compile.

and put them together, the pieces of those ones that most resemble the person that you want to become, that you believe God has created you to be. Put those down and begin to align your actions with those things.

Absolutely. And to touch on purpose real quick if I may, this is another one that Christians mess up and I have been very guilty of it. My purpose is to help the body of Christ honor God with their body and in their actions and in their ways. That is incorrect. Our purpose on this planet is to worship God with our entire heart, soul, mind and body.

I don't know my purpose in life. Yes, you do. You do. It is to worship God, to honor God, to lead people to Christ.

These things that we think are our purpose are tools to accomplish your purpose.

They are tools for your purpose, not your purpose. The purpose is to glorify Him, edify Him, and worship Him in all of your ways.

That is it. That is literally the whole ball game. And the world is going to try to tell you everything that matches that is wrong because that is literally the enemy.

and like people are gonna listen to that and say that sounds like that's crappy and that sounds like that stinks and I don't want to do that, right? I ask any parent, how do you feel like you're living for your child? That level of love that you would lay down your life for your child? Does that feel restricting? Does that love for your child feel restricting?

Following God in that way even more Explodes your life every area of your life like sometimes I was telling our you know mutual friend Jen LaGuardia this time I'm like sometimes I have so much joy in my body that I'm like God I don't know how I could like live in my body because like if you sustained me at this level of joy all the time I probably wouldn't be able to handle it right which is why like we can't like we that's why our

biology brings us back to like, you know, neutral sometimes because the amount of love we couldn't handle all God's love and abundance if you really unleashed it on us. You'd like melt. You would just melt.

It's, I love it. It really is. It's just, it becomes those things and you know, our mutual friend Sean Frank, he's like, bro, you cry more than any dude I know. And I'm like, yeah, cool. He's like, I don't

It blows people away. But once he sees it, it's like, dude, like that sunrise, that's the most beautiful piece of artwork, like, especially coming from a place where I didn't want to nor did I ever think I would see an idol. Right? Like turning my head to the left in the car the other day, looking at Leah, I just started weeping because I was like, God has blessed me so much. Like I

Why? I don't understand. Like, and just even when you get in your butt kit and you're like, there's a lesson here. How great is that?

And it goes back to the difference between joy and happiness. I'm not always happy.

But when you truly are in touch with the Holy Spirit, you will always have joy. Absolutely. I mean, I can tell you, as I've gotten closer to God, allowed myself to go where he actually is wanting me to go in relationship with him. There have been a million things, heavy, horrible, crazy things that have happened in my life and my mom's life. And like, but we never felt like

this is it, this is the end. And we never lost the joy. And in all of those moments, just like that footsteps poem said, we felt God so in the battle. And when you are that close to God, like I always say this, people are always watching like vampire movies and magic movies and fairies and all this stuff. They want like magic to be true and like.

the power of God and of Him moving in your life is so beyond any movie that like you could ever dream up and the closer you get to Him, you see these things happening in your life and like if you're blessed enough to have somebody to turn to and be like, can you believe that just happened? And that person with you in that same spirit of the Holy Spirit is like, I can't believe that just happened. That was literally God.

It is mind blowing and it's one of these phrases that stuck in my head recently, which is it's too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence. But it's, I was on a show recently with a guy and it's faith, not faith over a few. Yeah. Faith over a few there. Chad Jenkins, great guy. he's like, bro, we were talking about being on fire and he's like, well, how would you tell somebody to stay on fire? Well, I'll ask you a question, right?

Why is Pluto so cold?

From what? The light, the sun. So why is Pluto so cold? It's far away. From the sun? Yeah. Now, why is the sun so cold?

Go ahead, go ahead. Now, why is, can we live on the planet that's closest to the sun? No. Why? We get burned. It's too hot. Yeah. And why is it so hot? Because it's close to the sun. It's on fire and the sun's on fire. You want to stay on fire for Jesus. You want to stay on fire for life. You want to stay in a place of joy. Stay close to the sun.

like simple, I'm a dude. Like, how do you stay on fire? Stay in close orbit to the sun. How do you do that? Starting in every day with him. And honestly, a trick that's helped me a lot recently is anytime we switch tasks, we pray or listen to worship music. So if it's going from my workout into like creating some content or something or filming a show or writing programs, each switch.

Take a little breather, listen to praise music, praise, and give each next step to Him. Yeah. I mean, you and I live that and I try to instill that in my clients because it is otherworldly when you keep that level of closeness to God and He literally will guide each step, bless each step, close every door you're not supposed to walk through.

Like, yeah, but you got it. It's the closeness. It's the focus of your eyes, right? Like change your orbit in mindset. It's like, where do negative thoughts come from? It's from what you're focusing on.

So if you're focusing on Jesus, you can't be having all these negative thoughts. What's the verse say? We can go back to it. So we know that from a neuroscience standpoint, the brain has a negativity bias. It was created there. It's going to focus. It's called negativity Velcro. It's very often used.

And your brain will weigh out, I believe this number is fairly accurate, three to four times will weight on a negative more than a positive. So it was developed to keep us alive. Like, crap, there was a tiger over there. I should probably keep focusing on the fact that there was a tiger over there and stay leery of it. And it kept us safe.

But there's and it is the reticular activating system. Now what does scripture say? Meditate only on things that are good and

We're figuring it out now. They told us that one 3000 years ago. Some of it 3000, some of it 2000. Like, come on, bro. Catch. Keep up. Keep up. Every answer is in is in the Bible. It's all there. If someone is struggling.

to...

really listen. Actually, I want to change this for a second. I want to change one thing. I want to give a caveat to everyone listening. The Bible

is a place we find answers.

However, that is not the purpose of the Bible. The purpose of the Bible is to let you know who God is. So if you are still going to the Bible, God, I'm struggling right now. What do you have to teach me? That is not the purpose. You're still treating him like a genie. The purpose is to get to know who God is. And in this same way, the closer you get to him, you would know how he would react. We got it right in the early 2000s with what would Jesus do?

Exactly. Yes. If I wanted to get to know who, if you wanted to get to know who Abraham Lincoln was, what would you do?

Now you can't read him face to face, he's gone. But you'd read a biography.

And if you wanted to be a politician that acted like Abraham Lincoln, you would read the things he wrote. You would read the letters that he wrote to his wife. You would read all the accounts of the people that were around him and get to know how he would react. Correct?

That is the purpose of them.

I mean, like, I love the Abraham Lincoln analogy. And it is the truth. It's true. And people are like, who is God? This is Him. This is what He thinks. This is how He acts, how He reacts, and what He's asking you to do. It bothers me so much. People are like, this is God's love letter to us. No, it's not. This is who God is. God's love letter to us is Jesus.

Now I'm no field legend, but that's my take.

There was no chance for us without them. None. If you could give, this is going to be two questions. Number one, what is just a random piece of advice you would give to anybody listening about any topic on the planet? I don't care if it's the best way to eat vanilla bean ice cream. the best piece of advice I would give anybody on the planet.

I would say stop making it all about you. It's not about you.

Like for real, get out of your own head, out of your own problems, out of your own I wish, I want, I could be, why not me? Like dude, it's not about you, it's not about you. There's so much bigger at stake here. That's what it's about.

I like that. So much.

What questions do you want me to ask my next guest as we end that show?

my gosh. You can make it as random as possible. I don't care. as random as possible? Yeah, whatever. I don't care. my gosh. It could be something like, who wins in a fight? Mary Poppins or Ariel from The Little Mermaid. You know, like, I don't care. all right. Your next guest, you're wrapping up.

gosh I feel like it came to me and then it like slipped away.

What? Okay, this is what I want you to ask them. God, you get to the end of your life.

God's gonna show you a movie of who you could have been.

what is the one thing you need to change today so that when he shows you that movie, you're not filled with regret.

God's going to show you a movie of what your life at the end of your life of what your life could have been. Who you could have been. Who you could have been. What's the one thing you would change today? So that you're not watching that movie and in regret.

So it's basically coming down to where are you holding back? How are you not believing enough? What is limiting you? Where are you not going for it? Where are you not taking the limits off of God in your life? All of that kind of gist.

I came from God gave me that.

It's funny. It's hard. It's real. It's honest. And for anyone self reflecting, only I will just end it there, but I want to give you all an example. If you don't mind.

This is something I tell my clients. Let your life be a silent movie. There's no subtitles. There's no words. If I'm watching the movie.

What story do you tell?

I don't care what you say, I don't care what you think, what story are you telling with your actions? And that gets us to the truth, the gap between truth and fact. Your truth and the actual facts.

So good, I love it. Nicole, I appreciate you. You're amazing. Where can they find you? They can find me on Instagram at level up life and co. Drop into my DMs. I'm super chill to just communicate with, or you can go to my website, level up life and co .co. I appreciate it. She is worth it. She will respond to you. Y 'all, please, if you enjoy this,

send any messages, reach out to her, reach out to me. Be sure to like, subscribe, follow, do a dance, be joyful, be happy, worship the Lord, follow this, share with a friend, share with your mama. I don't know what I'm talking about here, but we really appreciate you listening. And Nicole, I love you and I'll talk to you soon. Thank you for having me, Matty.