If you’ve ever wondered how to unlock abundance in your life and lead unapologetically, this episode of the Marli Williams Podcast is for you! Join Marli and her special guest, Ken Daigle, as they explore what it means to live a life of true abundance—beyond just money. Hear Ken’s inspiring journey from Broadway to becoming a thought leader and discover his five-step approach to manifesting the life you truly desire. Together, they talk about building enriching relationships, finding your life’s purpose, cultivating vibrant health, and the power of intentional action. Get ready for practical strategies, mindset shifts, and powerful questions you won’t hear elsewhere.

If you’re searching for authentic leadership, personal growth, and transformation—and want a few “aha!” moments—this episode will give you the spark to step forward with intention. Tune in to start manifesting, not by accident, but by design.

Rev. Ken Daigle, author of Unapologetic Manifestation, is a teacher and visionary leader dedicated to helping people live audaciously abundant lives. A former Broadway performer and creator of the celebrated decade-long course Absolute Abundance, Ken blends timeless spiritual principles with modern science to create profound transformation. Ken resides in San Francisco with his husband, J.D. Schramm, and their children, Tobias, Roma, and Joshua

Connect with Ken:

Website- thefivesteps.org

Marli Williams is an international keynote speaker, master facilitator, and joy instigator who has worked with organizations such as Nike, United Way, Doordash, along with many colleges and schools across the United States. She first fell in love with transformational leadership as a camp counselor when she was 19 years old. After getting two degrees and 15 years of leadership training, Marli decided to give herself permission to be the “Professional Camp Counselor” she knew she was born to be. Now she helps incredible people and organizations stop waiting for permission and start taking bold action to be the leaders and changemakers they’ve always wanted to be through the power of play and cultivating joy everyday. She loves helping people go from stuck to STOKED and actually created her own deck of inspirational messages called StokeQuotes™ which was then followed by The Connect Deck™ to inspire more meaningful conversations. Her ultimate mission in the world is to help others say YES to themselves and their big crazy dreams (while having fun doing it!) To learn more about Marli’s work go to www.marliwilliams.com and follow her on Instagram @marliwilliams

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Hey everyone, what's happening? I am super stoked to welcome you to the Marli Williams Podcast where we will explore authentic leadership, transformational facilitation, and how to create epic experiences for your audiences every single time. I am your host, Marli Williams, bringing you thought provoking insights, expert interviews and actionable strategies to unlock your potential as a leader, facilitator and speaker. Thank you for joining me on this journey of growth, transformation and impact. Let's lead together. The Marli Williams Podcast begins now. Let's dive in. Well, hey everybody. I'd love to welcome you back to the Marli Williams Podcast where this week we are hanging out with Ken Daigle and getting to talk about one of my favorite topics and subjects, which is abundance.

So, Ken, welcome to the show. I'm so glad that you're here.

Elated to be here with you, Marli, and I've loved listening to your podcast and listening to your unique perspective on how to live lives and most importantly, how to lead your life and other people into an abundance, into real, energetic fulfillment. And I love being able to connect with you on that.

Beautiful. Yeah. Well, thanks for taking some time to like, listen to some previous episodes. It's always good to get like the energy and like the sense of, of the types of conversations that we get to have. And I said this before, but I think it's so cool to get to have conversations that enrich my life that other people get to benefit from. Right. So I get to meet fascinating humans like you that are doing such important work in the world. And you know, I think that this topic of abundance is something that I think that everybody that I've ever talked to who has a life coach, a business coach, a speaker, it's like we all want more of it and really understanding some of the principles and the philosophies, the mindset when it comes to, you know, creating a life of abundance.

And I love your word, and I've used this word before, but this like the idea of being unapologetic about the life that you desire. Right. And you have a book coming out. I know all about that. So we're going to geek out, we're going to dive in. But I'm curious, maybe you can share just a little bit about who you are, your journey, your story around what brought you to writing a book about being unapologetic and creating a life that you love and speaking about abundance and helping other people do the same. So you share a little bit about your journey and then we'll just take it from there.

Thank you. Great question. And it really started years ago. I moved from New Orleans, which is an incredible city to be from, right? Moved from New Orleans, filled with great food, great music, great people, great energy. And I moved to New York City because I wanted a career in show business, in musical theater and in theater in general. And I had a wonderful time and a wonderful career in New York City. And in that journey, I was led to many, many different people who expanded my vision and my horizon of what's possible in life. Well, I actually was drawn to theater because having an experience in a theater when it's really good shifts you internally.

It makes you see the human experience in a new way and opens your mind to other people's experience. The first play I saw on Broadway was a play called the Elephant Man. It was about John Merrick, the man who was deformed by an elephantitis disease and how he was marginalized and ridiculed. And it was so powerful. And remember leaving the theater, never being the same again. But when my career in show business, I was a dancer and musical theater on Broadway and all around the country and around the world. When that career started to wind down, I was looking for some more fulfillment and more purpose in my life. And it led me to starting studying what's called a new thought philosophy that our mind and our intentions can create in the world.

And it was also during that time that the AIDS epidemic was running through New York City. And I found a book by Louise Hay. It's called you Can Heal Your Life. And it was about the power of our brain to create disease and to create health. And that book led me to studying with Marianne Williamson. And she was teaching on a course in miracles in New York City and Los Angeles. So she was bouncing back and forth across, talking to groups about that. And it just led me into this whole world of mind over matter.

And so when my career in theater started to wind down, I went to school to study this. And it really expanded everything for me. It changed my whole perspective. I started a new career as a minister and a thought leader. And I started talking to people about how I've used the power of my intention, the power of affirmations, and the power of my thinking to create my lives. I used it to create a career on Broadway. I used it to overcome an HIV diagnosis in 1988. I've lived with HIV for 37 plus years now and never been sick a day in my life.

And then I've used it to create family later in life, found the love of my life. We got married 18 years ago. We have three kids. We live in this beautiful house and the hills of Marin county, north of San Francisco. And all of it has been using these principles to discern what is best for my life and to use my thoughts, my ideas, and the people that are on this journey with me to help me refine it, shape it, and create win win situations where my good doesn't take anything from anyone else. It actually lifts all of us up higher. So my book is called Unapologetic Manifestation. Five steps to create the life you really want.

Wow. Just a cool journey of really looking at where you've been and, like you said, all of the lives you've created, Right. And this idea of we don't just have one. It's like we all, I think, have different versions of our story, chapters of our life, and different iterations of who we've been and where we are and where we're going. And so I think for anyone out there listening, like, at any point in your life, there is this gift and this opportunity to create what is next for you on your path and doing it with intention. Right? And that's what I think for a lot of people, we end up kind of maybe going through the motions or life by default, versus this idea of, like, life by design and using all of these principles, like, you know, the mentors that you've studied from and learned from, Louise Hayes and Marianne Williamson. And this philosophy is like, I think that helping people unpack it today and understand what does that look like? And. And I always love, you know, giving people these, like, tangible tools.

And I love anything that's like, five steps, right? So maybe what we could do together today to unpack this for those out there listening is really kind of walking people through those steps. If you're listening to this, you're wanting to create a life of abundance. And like, again, I love the word unapologetic. It's like, what do you want just because you want it, not because you think you should want it or are supposed to want it, and really getting clear on what it is that you want. Right. So where do we begin this journey? Right. Like, if you were to step one for helping people, again, create this unapologetic life, if you want to start there or somewhere else.

Well, it's just not one step further back. And that's to define abundance, Right? Because I use the word abundance really purposefully rather than prosperity. Because prosperity for a lot of people means finances, you know, material money, resources. But for mine, I have also Five components of abundance. And abundance isn't limited to these five, but it's general containers. One is vibrant health. So that doesn't just mean the absence of diagnosis or prognosis. You can have vibrant health and have a diagnosis.

You can have vibrant health and have a disability or an ability. Vibrant health is the attitude and the energy that you bring to your life in its current form. And vibrant health will be different for us at different stages and different ages. Right. Of our life. The second one is enriching relationships. So that is work relationships, romantic relationships, family relationships, personal relationships, all those kind of really source us. And because none of us exist without those relationships, that the helpers, the nurturers, the partners, the co workers, the people who walk alongside of us and influence us, the mentors, right? Really amazing, amazing things that have enriched my life.

And then it's work you love. So it can be volunteer work, it can be work you get paid for. It can be work that you just want to do. When you get up out of bed in the morning, it may be in your garden, it may be at the soup kitchen down the road, but work that really lights you up. And I hear you talk about it in your work. You talk about that this is purpose. That is purpose. And it goes beyond what we do.

It's what we're here for. And I like to say jobs end, careers morph, purpose endures. I have been doing the same thing in almost every job and career I've had through my life. And that when you can identify that, it really gives meaning to everything you're doing. So we talk about it in the book, right? Material resources is the next component of abundance. That can mean money and finances and material things like homes that you own, but it also is the things you don't own that you take advantage of. Right outside my window here. Or is a nature preserve, right? I have acres and acres of undisturbed land that I can walk on and see all the natural wildlife in the hills of Marin.

And I can hike to the top and see the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay from the same spot. And I don't own any of that, but I get to enjoy it. And we all have access to the beauty of this planet and the material resources that come to us very much by happenstance and by purpose. You know, both ways can happen just by chance or by going out and seeking it. And that's material resources that are necessary for our, our survival and thriving. And then the last one is leisure time. None of this is possible without us having Rest and vacations and leisure time and play. And I know play is a big part of your component.

Right. We get so busy trying to be abundant and successful that we don't enjoy any of it. Right.

It's so true. Yep, 100%. Yeah. Time is such a valuable resource. Yeah, I know.

And play actually creates creativity, creates success, and yet it's the thing that we get talked out of early in our life. You've got to buckle, you've got to put your nose to the grindstone, you've got to focus, kid, and you know, achieve. Right. And so well meaning parents and mentors talk us out of play. At some point we have to reclaim it. We have to reclaim our leisure time and our play and our way of refilling. I think you put it in your talk recently, you said filling your own cup. Yeah.

So that's what leisure time means for me. And so those are the components of abundance as I describe them. And I like to talk about them and I like to encourage people to engage it with because we all have different places in our life and different times in our life, but we need to cultivate a little abundance, more abundance in one or more of those areas.

Yeah. And I think that it's so important to define, you know, some of these words that we use often. Right. Things like abundance, it can mean something different to you, different to other people. But I think to really identify those components and you know, for those listening and really looking at like those different areas of your life. And it's not either I have abundance or I don't. Right. Often it's like maybe there are certain areas you feel abundant and certain areas you're less abundant in.

But really understanding, like what is abundance for you? Right. What are those? You know, time is such a huge value for me. Freedom. Right. The ability to do what I want, where I want, with who I want. And I mean to me it's like sometimes it's like, what is your version of success? And like what do you want in. In abundance? Right. Again, like quality, relationships, vitality and health, wellness, well being.

Right. And our attitude, our energy, our perspective, meaning and purpose and all of these things and how they really create this like a life that feels really full and really rich and really abundant in all of those areas. And it's not just like you said, just our finances or just the money in our bank account or just the nice, like the type of car we have or the house that we live in. Right. It's all of those layers. Right. So I appreciate you Kind of giving us the framework for what abundance is as we dive into this conversation.

And we all know people who are materially rich but are unhappy, right? And it's like, that's not what I'm seeking, the balance in all of that. And so trying to create and in a life where what I'm doing is, has purpose for other people and lifts everyone up to something higher.

I love that Adam Grant, I saw a little video that he did, and you know, a lot of people talk about a gratitude journal, which I think is great, and it's so important, the energy of gratitude and paying attention and being grateful and. But what he said, that's even more powerful is a contribution journal of how did I contribute to someone else's life today? Like, in what way did I make someone's life better? And I think that that is ultimately what concur and that's it's a much more active engagement with life, right. I'm purposefully and meaningfully, like contributing to someone else. And that gives me meaning and purpose and gratitude. It can be active, but it can be a little bit more passive, like, oh, I'm grateful for my house, grateful for my dog, and we can almost go through the motions of gratitude versus really actually feeling gratitude, expressing gratitude, you know, all of that. So I think that that's just. I love that perspective of like the contribution piece because I think that we all want to have meaning and purpose in our life in some degree.

Right? Love that you're quoting Adam Grant because I quote him in my book. I think he is a great thought leader and great thinker about these things. And what he talks about in giving is that the people who give, who contribute like you're describing, actually have more material resources because they're in the flow of that giving and they're not hoarding. They're not just trying to collect for themselves. They're understanding that as I give, I'm getting something back. I'm getting self esteem, I'm getting resources from the other person who's enriching my perspective, enriching my worldview. And also that it is just that mindset that makes you more attractive. It's more than the law of attraction.

It's actually the energy of attraction. It's the vibration of attraction that brings more to you.

Yeah, I love it. Talking about energy, that's my jam, right? Is the energy of like, who we're being and how we show up in the world and that giving and receiving and that flow of energy is what does create abundance.

Well, and understanding that energy can't be destroyed, it only changes form. So when something we love, or we think was it for us, goes away, whether that be a job or a relationship or a situation, it's not that it's linked the planet. It's just shifting form, and we have to adjust with it to find out what the next step is. But many of us in our human journey get so caught up on form, get so caught up on, well, that was my good. As if the universe can only give us one version of our good.

Yeah, we get attached to what it's supposed to be or should be or versus what it actually is, you know.

And then we limit it. So I'm jumping ahead to the five steps.

So let's go. Let's dive in. Let's do it.

In my life experience and in the research I've done on it, from studying neuroscientists to social scientists and to spiritual teachers, I have come across five different steps that I think are essential to really create or to manifest in this world the things you really want. And the first one is to focus your mind, because what happens in vagueness stays in vagueness. If you're like, oh, this, or something better, your mind is just too open. We must focus our attention on something. We must, in some ways, name it, claim it, see it, interact with it to get started. And focusing our mind can take many different forms. It can take setting intentions, as you were talking about, rather than the vagueness of just saying, oh, let's see what happens in this day. Let's see what the day brings us to actually get up every morning and set your intention for what you want to achieve in the day, or your intention on what you want to experience in the day.

So in my classes and in my workshops, I ask my students to wake up and do a meditation to help focus their mind and set their intention on what they want to experience in the day and who they have to be to experience that.

I love that question. Who do you have to be? So good, right?

Because otherwise, if you're just your same old self, you're going to experience the same old stuff. So if I want to experience something different, say I want to experience greater financial prosperity. Let's just go there. I want to experience more. Who do I have to be? Ooh, I have to be open. I have to be someone who's willing to step outside the box. Right. And so setting your intention is a great hack.

And then what I do is I set an alarm on my watch or on some Device So that nine times a day, I just get this little buzz on my wrist, and I remember my intention whenever it buzzes on the hour, at the top of the hour. So no matter what I'm doing, I could be having a conversation with you. My watch buzzes and I know, oh, my intention today is. And it just is a subtle reminder because we all get busy. We all get lost in the day's events. It's like, how can I see this through the lens of my intention for the day? That's how we focus our mind. Focus our mind on that. Right.

I love that. So it reminds me of something that I say a lot, which is we get more of what we look for. So this idea of, like, really getting clarity, right. I always say clarity is the language of the universe. Right. It's like, if you aren't clear on your intention and where you want to go and what you want to create, then, you know, we wonder why we're not seeing it, why it's not happening. Most of the time when I ask people, what do you want? They say, I don't know. And it's like being able to really tune in.

And like you said, slow down, meditate. Checking in with yourself, focusing your energy with that intention and that purpose of, like, what? And having those reminders because we get busy and we get distracted. I always think about, how do we set ourselves up for success? And how do we make it easier to reconnect with that intention and to come back to it with that focus? And that's, like, one of my favorite questions. I love the, like, who do I need to be in order for that to be my reality or for that to be, you know, that intention to come to fruition? How would I show up differently?

That's what leads us into the second step, which is a perfect segue. It leads into. The second step is to shift your consciousness. So the second step is to do the work necessary to be somebody different. Because if nothing changes, nothing changes. We have manifested this level of our lives. We're always manifesting.

I love that. We're always manifesting.

We're always manifesting.

If you want to know what you've.

Manifested, yeah, take a look at your life. You've manifested this. And if there's something you're unhappy with, stop trying to blame others for it and own it. That you've done this, that you have allowed it, that you've unconsciously or consciously created it because you think it's what you're worthy of, what you deserve on some level or just the lot that life's dealt you? You know, karma isn't fixed. It's not. What we've done in our past is making us suffer or live this life. It's a direct result of what we think we are worthy of. And when we shift our own inner belief system, it changes.

One of my good friends calls it our bs, Our belief systems. Right. And that when we shift our belief systems, we can actually shift the world to the world we experience. Right. And then with that empowerment, we have the capacity within ourselves to actually shift to the physical world because we understand we're not the victims of it. We're not the result of the world doing things to us. We are co creators in the world we experience. And Marianne Williamson's line, stop playing small.

Yeah, And I think that, like so many people, again, it's like, well, where do people get stuck along the way? And I think this, like, feeling worthy of, like, you get to want what you want and feeling worthy of having it. And that's like the shifting our consciousness to really believing that what we want is actually possible. Because I think a lot of people, there's no way I can have that or who am I? Or it's like some of the narratives and our stories keep us stuck. Right? I always said, like, your stories can serve you or stop you. And are you aware of the ones that are like, serving you and helping you? You know, what part of you believes that that's possible versus the part of you that's like, oh, there's no way that can happen. Right?

Absolutely. And it's an inside job. It's some of the hardest work. I mean, Jung talks about it as their shadow work, but here's. And what you're touching on is really important because when we think of we're doing shadow work, we're looking at the dark parts of ourselves that we think aren't worthy and that no one else should ever see. But a lot of times what we've buried is our talents and abilities because somebody told us, oh, don't do that, you're too full of yourself, or who do you think you are that you could possibly do that? And so we learn to hide our light, to hide our great energy and our capacities so other people don't feel intimidated by us or that we fit in, in our family structure. And we taken on this cloak, right, to keep us hidden, the true us hidden from the world. And that ability to do this, to uncover that and to let it out, is truly powerful.

So there's lots of different tools. Of course, there's lots of spiritual tools, psychological tools, journaling tools that we can use to shift our consciousness. Mainly what it is normally is just becoming self aware, Self aware on a deeper and deeper level. And that opens up new horizons for us all because we stop blaming other people and own our own creation, own our own pathway out of the muck and into the life. We really.

Yeah, I always think about like that, the shifting our consciousness, it's like, what's the story we're telling ourselves about ourselves, right? And this idea of like cultivating and I think it's just such a big part of like being human, manifesting your life that you want leadership is like having that self awareness of like what are those stories? Like what's writing the show, you know, and really unpacking that and really understanding that so that you can be aware of like what's the story I'm telling myself? And kind of going back to like, who do I need to be? And what's the story that's actually going to support the life that I want to create?

And as a leader and what I've read of your work and listened to your work too, you're talking about, you need to know that so that you can have the most positive impact on the people you lead. You need to understand how you're coming across and what your effect and affect is. Right? And so that you can be a more productive leader and actually cultivate change in organizations and in individuals.

100% so important, that piece.

The thing is you've got to take concrete steps. So step three is to take concrete steps. And you know, you can sit and meditate all you want, you say your mantra and your affirmation over and over again. But you gotta sign up for the course, you gotta create the website. Even if it's not 100% ready, you've gotta put it out there. Because if you don't do that, it's just a great idea in your head. We are living in the physical world and it happens in the physical world. So you must take in the physical world.

And what I discovered from the class recently that I was just teaching on this was that it's not enough just to take the concrete steps. We've all taken concrete steps our whole life. None of us would be here if we hadn't done that. We've got to take new ones. We have to break the habit of being ourselves. We have to shift how we operate in order to affect something different. So I'll give you an example of it, you know, with the kids, with my whole life, three kids, living here at home, full time job, writing a book, doing all this work. I was like, okay, how do I juggle all this? And one of the things that came to me was, you know what? I can get up at 5 and go to bed at 10.

When I put the kids to sleep, the kids are down. I can get up at five and I can have two hours of uninterrupted time in the morning. And I started shifting to that. And the first thing I did when I got up is in the quiet, had my coffee, had my meditation time, set my intention. And I had then an hour and a half left to get the things done that were really most important for me for that day. And the busyness starts and other people's lives come in. But it was my time and my focus and my life started to shift. And it was so helpful to understand can't do things the way I've always done it and expect a different result.

Right. That's the definition of insanity. That's what they say, right? Yeah. And so I think that this idea, and I think where a lot of people get stuck with this piece that I see in here all the time is again, kind of coming back to like, I don't know what to do. Right. Or thinking that I have to choose the right step or the perfect step. Right. And kind of like letting themselves get stuck with not wanting to like, make the wrong move or do the wrong thing.

And I tell people time and time again, imperfect action is always better than perfect inaction. Right. It's like. And as a recovering perfectionist, it's kind of like I would perfectly not do anything versus, you know, try. Everything's a giant experiment. And being willing to be in action in service of that intention, in service of your vision, in service of something kind of bigger than you and being willing to, yeah, like, take the action, take the steps, and otherwise it's just a good idea.

Heard Oprah say it at a Stanford lecture I got to attend once. It was amazing. And she just talked about it. It was like, you've got to take the next step out. If it's the wrong way, you just course correct. But nobody is going to. If you're not taking that first step, you're not going anywhere. You can always adjust along the way.

Yeah, I love this metaphor of like using maps on your phone and you're like at your house and you're like, okay, well, you plug in the address and then sometimes it has to like recalibrate. And it can only do that if you start moving forward. And I tell people, like, what is literally the worst case scenario? Like, let's say you had to go right instead of left, is you go around the block, you make a U turn. But some people would just like, sit there and like, well, tell me which way to go. And it's like, you have to start going some direction in order for it to recalibrate. I love that as like a metaphor for just taking action.

And he's a great name for. For that. I say needs to know which direction you're heading in order to tell you how to get to your destination.

100%. Yeah. And, you know, just like clarity is the language of the universe. I feel like action is also the language of the universe because it says to the universe, like, oh, you not only have this intention or have this idea, but you're willing to do something about it. And so it's like. And then the more actions you take, you know, you meet different people and different resources and you have different opportunities that come up. I think when people ask me all the time, Marli, how are you booking speaking engagements? Or how did you become a speaker? And it's like, I literally just started speaking and I talked to people who were speakers. And yeah, you can read all the books that you want, but the only way to get good at it is to freaking do it.

I like to say it's fun, comfortable, right? It's like a little fun, a little uncomfortable, right? But, you know, step doing those edgy, stretchy things that put you at the edge of your comfort zone is when you're in the growth zone and when you learn and you, you know, you figure it out along the way, right?

Renee Brown calls it excruciatingly vulnerable.

Yeah, 100%. It's painful.

It's beautiful. It was just like, oh, my God, I am way out over my skis here.

So taking concrete steps, number three, number four, where do we go from there?

You just said it. You could write this book, teach this book it is. Share your journey. None of this happens in isolation. This myth of the self made person is just that. It's a myth. It's bullshit, right? It's like we have all had mentors, role models, family members, teachers, friends who have literally shaped our lives, right? You probably can name 10 of them right now off the top of your head. And everybody listening to this.

When we hold our carts too close to the vest, we're missing opportunities to fine tune our vision. Just because we had the idea, and in step one, we set the focus. Doesn't mean that it's done. Doesn't mean there's not a better version of it out there waiting for us to discover. Doesn't mean that there's not other people who would actually want to co create this with us. And they jump on the train and say, hey, let me take this to this level. What if we added this component to your idea? What if we co create this together? And when we can trust enough to share our vision with the world, it opens up pathways that we could never have imagined, never have even envisioned. And it takes it from something that's incredibly personal to something that's more global and more holistic for the planet.

And it creates what I like to call win win situations where something that seems so personal and was just for me or my vision for what it could be, that all of a sudden it opens up and blossoms and, oh, this person's going to benefit and this person's getting on and I'm creating this job for this individual. And something else happens that this little kernel of an idea goes into this full tree, right? And that's so special for me. I have a dear friend who lives on our property here. She helps us with the kids, and she built a dwelling here for herself. And she was incarcerated in Iran as a political prisoner when she was a journalist and was arrested on the Iran Iraq border and held in solitary confinement for 410 days. And she talks about it. It's exactly 15 years since she's been released, and she just celebrated her release date last Sunday. And when she talks about it now, she says, you know, sometimes I don't want to tell this story again, sometimes I don't want to do it.

But every time I share this story and share my journey, it helps cure some of my PTSD from my incarceration. And I also find the meaning that it has for me today. And the meaning it has for me today, 15 years later, is incredibly different than when I started on the journey because I've shared every step along the way of my incarceration and my recovery from it. She's gone on to create a foundation and a play, and now she's working on a documentary film about ending solitary confinement here in the United States because it's cruel and unusual punishment. So it is totally shifted her life and given her purpose and meaning in ways she could have never conceived. And so that's what I talk about. Sharing your journey is refining, defining, and transformative. It is a step not to be avoided.

Yeah. And it's transformative for her, right, to share that story, but, like, what she is able to do for other people by then, sharing that and having that and making, you know, the suffering that she went through have some sort of other meaning and other purpose and healing. Right. I think that, like, sharing our journey and sharing our story can be so healing for ourselves and for other people along the way. And I just think that that's like that idea of just kind of we're supposed to get it, you know, do it all alone. Right. And how important it is to find others along the way, like other whatever creatives or seekers or. For me, it's like finding other speakers or other people that are doing this because it's like, it can be lonely.

And sometimes it does feel like a solo activity. It's like, you know, I travel on planes and go to all these events, and I'm alone most of the time. I'm on stage. I'm still alone. I'm on stage. I mean, I'm in a room of other people. I'm sharing that journey. But, like, finding other people to support you in your path, and especially when it comes to, like, manifesting something that you've never manifested before, surround yourself with other people who've done it.

Learn from people, what worked for you. Right. It's like sometimes we want to, like, recreate the wheel. It's like, if there's something that you want to do, whether it's like, I want to create a nonprofit or I want to be a keynote speaker, I want to write a book, there are other people that have gone down that road, that have traveled that path. Learn from them. Instead of, like, I have to figure this all out by myself. So I think just also reaching out for support, asking for support. There's an African proverb, I think, that says, if you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.

And I do think that at the end of the day, you know, when I think about, well, what do you want? And for your life? And it's like, for what purpose? It's like life is meant to be shared. You know, we can have all the abundance in the world, but I do think, you know, having those purposeful, fulfilling, enriching, nourishing relationships with people is such a big piece of it. Right?

That's what I'm talking about in abundance. That that enriching abundance was like Sarah's story. I live a privileged life, readily admitted, you know, cisgendered white male Right. I live a privileged life. I had never met formerly incarcerated people before until we sponsored a fundraiser for the play here at our house. And she brought the cast, who were some formerly incarcerated people. And I got to interact with them, to hear their stories, got to ask them what were they in prison for. You know, some of them killed another person.

And they talked about it with me, and it opened my horizons beyond what my little life had been. You know, not that I'd been. I mean, been all over the place. I've been all over the world. I've met all kinds of people, but never had that kind of discussion on that level. Prisons and incarceration were something on the outside, right. That didn't touch my life, it seemed, but now it has, and I'm richer for it. I'm better for it.

And that's a gift of just being willing of her to share her journey in these men and women to share their experiences with me. So it's changed me.

What a gift. All right, so we have one final step along the way. What's step number five here?

Be open. How you think it's going to show up is probably, if you insist that your good show up in the way, in the form you want it to. That's your ego, and it's not spirit. The universe has unlimited ways to fulfill your heart's desire. And when you can be open to how it will show up, everything changes. Everything changes. But we get caught up going, oh, no, it's that job. It's that job.

It's that person that has to be my soulmate. You know, I had a friend who'd like to say, you know, there's no soulmate for me. There's no one. I said, that's right. There's 8 billion people on the planet. Not single one of them could possibly be your soulmate. It's like, what, hubris, we think, right?

Yeah. It's ego gets in the way.

Ego gets in the way. And we think it has to be a certain way. You know, when J.D. and I started our abundance journey of creating a family, we thought, you know, we knew how we're going to do it. We're going to adopt an infant from open adoption. We were going to get a foster kid from an old, slightly older foster kid. And the universe had totally different plans, right? Totally. Even adoption didn't work.

It was filled with heartbreak and disappointment, painful disappointment, and being financially scammed by people. All of that happened. And we said, what are we doing? There are 40,000 kids waiting for their forever Families in California alone in the foster care system, 40,000. And so we went to foster care and we opened the files and they have these files filled with children looking for placement for every family, which was equally heartbreaking. But this one kid wouldn't leave us alone. He was 15 years old. His picture just jumped off the page at us. And we asked and they told us about him and we met him and they made us promise not to change our minds because they didn't think he could survive another heartbreak.

He'd been in the foster care system for eight years from when he was 8 to 15. So we met him and we said, yeah, we're all in. And he moved into our house and it changed everything. It went from having no kids to a 15, a surly 15 year old. And then a month after he moved into our house, family that had been following our journey on, we had a blog and a Facebook page and a website had been following our journey called us to tell us they were pregnant and that they were giving us their. A baby, an infant. So we went from zero to 60. We had an infant and a 15 year old, a teenager within one year because we were open to how it was going to unfold and it was going to unfold differently than we had imagined.

And that's what I write about in the book. And then we have one other kid and we have one more who is another bundle of surprises and challenges. Just because we get what we want doesn't mean that our journey of manifestation is over. In Joshua's case, when we adopted Joshua, he was born with severe health challenges and he had three operations in the first two years of his life. And it has called upon us to have different resources, being open to help from other people in ways that we never could have imagined we'd need. And it is taught us how to be more open, more open to continual flow, abundance. Manifestation is not a destination. It's the journey we're all on.

It is the journey of life.

I love that idea of manifestation is not a destination, right? And you know, I, it reminds me of something that I say is like, you know, the point of life isn't to get to the end as fast as possible, right? That's like. But yet it's like every other goal that we set is how fast can I get there versus like you said, it's like how much can I actually enjoy the journey, enjoy the process, being open to who I meant to meet along the way, what I meant to learn along the way, who I get to become along the way and that's like can I be open to all of it and to let go of the how. And I think that that's again where some people get stuck in this idea of manifesting, creating your dream life is thinking that it needs to be look a certain way or the way that you're going to get it is going to happen a certain way. And I always tell people it's like your only job is to like believe that what you want is possible. It's like we want a family, you know, it's like we're calling in a family we. Or open to how that shows up. Right? And it's like how much can you. And this idea of really seeing yourself as a.

You're co creating with the universe. It's not all in the universe and it's not all on you. It's this dance, it's the both. It's like focusing, setting that intention, believing that what you want is possible, taking those actions, being open to sharing that journey with people and like. And just being open to like how it's going to show up for you. Right. So I think that like I really appreciate, I love having like steps or a framework or you know, and it's always different ways to think about it, right? And inviting people in.

Inviting people into your co creation and your journey with you. And I talk about it at the end of the book too. It's like so I had to lay these out in order but it's not linear. They're all happening at once. It's not a linear process, right. It's this spiral of dance. It's a holistic dance. Right? Just what you said, it's a dance.

So we're doing all of these. By the time we focus our mind, we are taking steps, we are focusing your mind shifts your mind, right. And when you are sharing your journey, you're actually refocusing your mind. It's all happening together. And when you're choosing, you're open because you have to choose from the infinite field of possibilities. You have to choose one. So that being open, okay, I'm going to choose this one for this moment. It may shift down the way, but I'm going to choose this.

So it's not linear. Not at all. And yet that's the world we live in. So I had to write the book in chapters. So you get a linear version of it.

Yeah, yeah. I love that idea though that it's like, is all happening and so it's like really leaning in and again coming back to this word of like this to be unapologetic, right. And to really allow yourself to get clear on what it is that you want to call in and who do you need to be and, you know, such great questions for people to like, wrestle with and think about and meditate on. And as we bring things home today and bring things to a close, I would love for you to share just any final guidance or words of wisdom you would leave people with today. And then where can people find you or learn more about you or, you know, find your book? I know it's coming out in January.

So, yeah, I love this metaphor. Tree does not apologize for taking all the light and all the water it needs to grow into a magnificent expression of itself. In fact, it does that without apology and provides shade, nutrients, oxygen, shelter, and innumerable things that bless all the people and animals and creatures and the planet itself. And neither should we apologize for taking everything we need to live our fullest and best lives. But when we do, we create more for everyone. That's why I've titled the book Unapologetic Manifestation. Your light, your shining creates more possibilities for more people. And that's what we're here to do.

That's what I truly believe. That's what we're all here to do.

I love that metaphor so much. Yeah. To not apologize for the life that you're building and creating and to want what you want and like to be open to receiving that, knowing that when you have what you need in order to grow and thrive and feel nourished, you are way. You are way more capable and able to give to others around you. And that's that ebb and flow and that's that energetic dance and the currency that's constantly moving, you know, into us and through us and out of us. You know, it's. It's all of that. Right? So I love that, love that metaphor.

Beautiful.

So since Unapologetic Manifestation is a mouthful and a long thing to write, the website is called thefivesteps.org. thefivesteps.org you can find resources. I have an abundance newsletter called Abundant Living. It's a weekly newsletter you can sign up for on that and it will give you also updates on when the book is going to be released. And it's In January, on January 27, the Work and a workbook, a companion journal workbook is being released with it. So that you can do all this work at home and, and you can just follow us and participate in everything we're doing and unfolding.

I love that. Well, thank you so much for being with us today and for sharing your heart, your knowledge, your wisdom, your energy. And you know, for those of you out there listening, you always hear this for me. But information without action isn't enough. So my hope for you is that you take what you learned here today and you leave here and you ask yourself some of these questions and walk through these steps to really help you get clear on where you are, where you want to go, and take those actions to make it happen. So thanks again Ken for being here. Thank you to all of you for listening. You love this like this, Share this, Rate it, review it, pass it along to a friend who needs it, and until next time, take care of thank you for joining us on another inspiring episode of the Marli Williams Podcast.

We hope you're leaving here with renewed energy and valuable insights to fuel your leadership, coaching and speaking endeavors. I'd love to invite you to subscribe, rate and review this podcast to help us reach more aspiring leaders and speakers like you. We have more exciting episodes and remarkable guest list lined up, so make sure to tune in next time. Until then, keep leading with purpose, coaching with heart, and speaking with conviction. This is Marli Williams signing off. See you next week.