Ep114 Brian Muka—From Bomb Technician to Fear Alchemist: How to Turn Your Darkest Moments Into Unstoppable Fuel

Brian Muka  0:00  
It's my responsibility, right? It's a duty, and then I can just change that language to "What an Honor." I'm being forged. That's heart-led courage through the unknown. Could it be that the Knights Templar shows up as a gift, so I can prove it to myself? What if all the friction and the headwinds are all about me remembering that wow, God really dwells in me?

Jason Croft  0:21  
Welcome to Strategy in Action, where we reveal how industry leaders build real market gravity-the force that naturally attracts opportunities, partnerships, and profits. You get raw insights, proven frameworks, and strategies that actually move the needle in your business. Let's Get started, Brian Muka. Welcome to the show.

Brian Muka  0:47  
Sup Jason? How are you?

Jason Croft  0:49  
I am well. Honestly, I'm stressed today. Yeah, right. Any other guest, and I would have been like, I'm doing great. Let's have a conversation. But I know you would have called me on it.

Brian Muka  1:03  
Let me give you a 321, Fuck yeah, of course, for showing up authentically. And there's something really powerful, man. So, so as you listen to this, thank you for letting me talk to your audience. This is a real pleasure and a treat. Love time with you. What we're finding, like with flow and creation, is coherent. right? So if it feels trouble and it's not quite right, and and a way for me to destroy coherence is Jason and an audience. I could lie to you. I got it all figured out, guys. What? You should run. You know, it's me lying to you. But the most insidious thing is when I lie to myself, like the self gaslight. And so, if I'm out of alignment with what's actually true for me, so you you mentioned stress, I'm stressed in a different way. We had a funeral yesterday. A buddy of mine, his son overdosed, and so the work I do, like I got to be the Kalahala bone. you know, for like 85 people. I'm channeled a message from his son, and I'm gonna be careful what I share. He said it wasn't worth it, and they try to escape through substance, isn't it? It's a wound from his mom. His mom had a brain tumor, nine years, and he didn't know how to grieve that. And he has special gifts. And he sent me a message for his dad, and it was like, "Hey, after about a week's time goes by, go over my dad's house, have a catch with him. I'll be there waiting, you know, and it's it's overwhelming in some ways, and in other ways, it's like such a joy to share my gift in such a way to hold space for that many people when they didn't know that, right? Like it's it's in the invisible, and it's it's an honor to share space with you in the stress of you know being on Earth in 2026, the ad that is something like really fucking huge, of course, of course stressed. And the other two points is that if I want to destroy coherence with you, I could be confused. So at any point I ever say something that doesn't make sense to you because it's shortcut or it's an acronym or whatever, stop me for the interest of coherence. And then the third way to destroy coherence is to delay. Like when I know something and I don't take action on it, I'm not going to be in flow. So, just because you know you were forthright and transparent, we get to have a really groovy conversation where there's no mass, there's no body armor, and we just get to show up.

Jason Croft  3:41  
Yeah, that's fantastic. I know for me, that's that stuck point is between is that third one, right? Is this is this is what comes up? That's the spark. It's the inspiration, and the action doesn't happen, and that's that that wedge for sure. And I'm sure we'll dig into that and more, yeah. In this, so for the audience watching, you already know, yeah, like you got it right from the beginning who Brian is, and and I love that. You know, I shared with Brian that you know I don't do these shows in a typical. Okay, who are you? What do you do now? You know, we jump in and we we anchor these around a core topic, and we're gonna be deep and all over the place a bit, but in this overall foundation topic of alignment, that's something that Brian really helps his people with, and just people he interacts with in the world, as you can tell and as you can hear already. So I want to go deep with all of this stuff, but I also want to make sure that that our audience has that context, right? So, so. What is this entry point even into this world? Because you have a nice, amazing origin story that is not remotely typical of other people in this space or anywhere else. I

Brian Muka  5:16  
appreciate that. I get chills this year, and as we continue, we're going to that place for me. There's times when this is the wealth. There's sometimes that it's the roomy quote. Don't look away from the banished place, or it's here that the light first entered. I'm going to take on a journey to where the light first entered. And if I could, I need to take three deep breaths. And if you want to join me in that, by all means. But I just want to get a heart coherence with y'all as you listen, as we actually have this remembrance experience together, and it's my intention to really connect with you in, you know, the shame, the guilt, the failures, the frustrations, the you know, the messy life stuff that the spiritual world tries to like escape, you know, and it's the alignment to both spirituality and also the messy human at the same time. So this is my messy human. I'm just going to take you to scene in Iraq. I was a platoon commander, which it was because I was relieved of command. And Saturdays was kind of a low tempo day. I'm trying to make it a little bit like a recharge. Instead of operating with my platoon, I was at headquarters, which sucked. It's kind of like mommy, daddy, mommy, daddy, grandparents. Everybody's watching me in a fishbowl because I had failed. And was my fault. I do it again. My chief, Aaron, his dad was dying of cancer, and he found out right before we deployed, and the first month we were with the Green Berets in northern Iraq. It was an ODA detachment. Those guys were awesome. They they did their own intelligence. They did their own hits, helicopter missions like sexy, cool guy stuff. And I was like, finally, you know. And I sent Aaron home because his dad was dying, and I couldn't bear the thought of, well, if he get smoked, I don't want to live with the. It could have been a failure of leadership on my part. Like he's not in the headspace to cut wires and go toe to toe with bomb builders and those things. And the only problem with that is I've never done this before, and he was his job was to teach me how to be a platoon commander. Didn't happen. So four weeks later, towards the contingent that wanted me fired, that didn't think I deserved to wear the EOD badge. And well, I'm at the headquarters. I'm doing these post blast reports. That's everything. All all my friends are doing cool guy stuff, and I get to do PowerPoint presentations. How awesome! You know, at 330 in the morning, I got to work nights. I got to work days. It was challenging. Hated my life, in fact. And Skype was useful to talk to my wife and my family, my mom and dad. I had a guitar. I had a young sailor to mentor. I had church. Church was cool because, like, you know, 300 miles west of us is where this story happened. Type stories that was kind of cool. Be like near where the Bible was written. And I built a world class CrossFit gym. I figured out how to get it financed. We had bumper plates and rowing machines, and it's awesome. Made out of plywood, right? The CVs made us a gym, and it was CrossFit spiker. It's awesome, and that was the only time I felt alive. Was I was destroying the people that made my life hard in CrossFit workouts, and I didn't look the part 25 pounds heavier than everybody else. You know, I was the the fat ensign lieutenant at that time, and I remember Saturday I was training for marathon. I was in some great shape, didn't look like it, and I was 12 miles into this run, and my feet were on the edge of the hard ball, looking out into the nothing of the desert, and I had this thought: What if I didn't come back?

Brian Muka  9:20  
Stood there for a long time, Jason. Finally, I heard God's voice whisper, "I need to go back and turn around. There's a there's a pallet of water out of nowhere. It was behind me, like $10,000 worth of water, you know, plastic wrapped, waiting for me. Yeah, drank a liter of water. I ran home. Wow! And that's where it started, man. And that was the start. That wasn't the bottom yet. Did it was that first

Jason Croft  9:53  
though that first connection like that that you ever had though?

Brian Muka  9:57  
It was it was me finally not running. Me not playing to the expectations of others. Finished that deployment, got back, did another workup cycle. We're four weeks from going to Afghanistan. My life has gotten really hard. Physical anxiety. I like any moment I could be fired, and I kept jumping through the hoops. And there was a contingent of men, five, that decided I didn't deserve to be in the community. I was the sixth, and I let it happen. I let the firing happen. Then I remember Chris, my skipper, my commanding officer. I was at the training unit. I was summoned. I knew I was getting fired. He looks haggard. I've never seen him look like this. And he said, "Brian, I lost a lot of sleep over this. You're not the man. Take your team in Afghanistan. I was crushed, man, and he saved my life. I didn't. I wouldn't actually die in Afghanistan, but my dreams would have. On a plant medicine ceremony, I saw my right leg gone. Russian anti-personnel mine, and I would live the rest of my life in a wheelchair, bitter, and plucked right from that, and still had it bottom. Yep, yep. Spent a year as a contractor teaching army captains, lieutenants how to do it better than I did. Every day I showed up like a failure. Like I'm obviously what's wrong here. So do it better than I did it. Did a year. Get fired from that job too. My colonel Kelly, I reported to him in Iraq, and the government contractor or a service employee that worked for, she was an e3. He was a full Fulberg colonel, and I connected this awesome tour of Quantico, the FBI crime lab, as part of this course. She couldn't see the training value in it, and I was like, "Well, they were getting a top secret security briefing of all the most recent tactical procedures. It was awesome. They saw the reason why we collect tape and hard drive. This is it was the level four exploitation cell. Why we risked our lives to gain these pieces of evidence to defeat the network. There's nothing more relevant, and I would follow my sword again to set that up. And the day I was fired, I got picked up for medical sales. And I did, you know, I sold for quite all six years. Third year yet, I won salesman of the year. I have no idea what I'm doing sales wise. I just knew how to connect to people. And I was armed with a smile. I was armed with you can't hurt me. You know, I've already done worse to myself, so and my ukulele, and I go to these meetings and meet with these hospital directors, and they were under more stress than you can imagine. And some days I would just go and play my ukulele and just hold space and realize what the fuck am I doing in medical sales? Yeah, money was great, but it wasn't my calling, you know. And yeah, over the last over the last eight years, keep keep polishing and pressing this diamond. If it's finally finally show ready, I think

Jason Croft  12:48  
you you gave us that very first you know thing that happened. But as you were going through all of this, were you figuring out those gifts? Were those uncovering as you went through this, and how you connect with people, was that clear yet?

Brian Muka  13:04  
No, no, man. And every time I think I have it figured out, I don't. I just, I've just surrendered to it's a black box, and I set up these couple things, and then this amazing miracle reaction happens, and then the results come out the other side. I don't know what's in the box, You know, so I was in Costa Rica. I just set a stand-up paddleboard, certain surfing six foot, eight foot waves in Costa Rica on salesman of the year. You know, and so you know, I get showered up and go down to breakfast. My mentor is there, and you know, I just I just got a Mont Blanc pen the day before. I'm thinking about calling my business Fear Sherpa, and I'm like in paradise. I just got done doing something epic, and I'm writing my TED talk at the time, and I'm staring at the cap, the you know snow cap of this Mont Blanc pen, the tallest peak in Europe. I'm like, okay, this is a huge synchronicity, and then Lawrence came down. I was like, "Man, that's what I'm thinking about doing. He's like, "You got to do it. You got to do it because I can't. You know, I he's an ortho Johnson and Johnson. Those guys are the best sales professionals in medical sales, and they are not entrepreneurs. He's like, "You got to do this for me, man. You got to go and see. Okay. And then my wife at the time came downstairs, and she looked beautiful, you know. The salt water, salt air was like really good for her, and it was like the last real smile I got to see. And I saw that smile one other time. It was the day I quit medical sales to go do this full time. We went to go see Dirty Heads in concert in Richmond, Virginia, and my friends were there. We had smoked a little weed, and that was back when I still drank a little. And Dirty Heads is singing A A A. I'm on vacation every single day because I love my occupation. I love that song. Brings tears to my eyes because like that night I was like, I love my job. I love liberating people this way, and four months later, I would meet Wim Hof, and we'd spend a week together on Mount Hood, and 65 other weirdos. Weirdos being those of us with disproportionate access to magic. That's how I mean weirdo. Before it was weaponized, and then two months later, we would get divorced. That was the bottom, and the rooming quote, "Don't look away from the bandage place where it's here at the light first entered, was rolling over my tatami mat onto my yoga mat and just breathing. So those three breaths are really magical because the days that I did that, you know, I actually got out of bed and started breath work, and it sucked a lot. You know, the roots being pulled apart and being ripped open, and particle smashed, and this is the light that came through to be with people in like the darkest of times, to realize that the farther the slingshot goes, this is Bashar, the farther the slingshot gets pulled backwards, the further and faster it goes the other way. And if I can't see the end of that yet, the bridge is still being built. So that's been a huge comfort to my work and those that I work with. And

Jason Croft  16:17  
I know for a fact, even though we've never talked about it, that this wasn't. Here is the plan. This is what I will do now with this.

Brian Muka  16:30  
Here is the question, and no, it was like working with my life coach. I write these like five, six page emails, and it was just nice to have somebody on the other end of that is I'm like trying to make sense of this, and then Victor Frankel's book, Man's Search for Meaning, like, oh, got it. There's something in here. I don't know what it is yet, and I kept at it. And finally, after like the fifth or sixth email I sent to her, she's like, "Where are you getting this stuff from? Like, this is just how I'm making sense of this hurt, you know? And she goes. I've been in therapy for 30 years. I've never seen this before. Keep going, kid. You got something.

Jason Croft  17:08  
What What did she mean by like what What got her attention in those emails?

Brian Muka  17:12  
I was starting to use language that would turn into my book, Your Secret Superpower: Tame Fear to Thrive. Um, and I don't remember specifically. It just something else was working through this and being burst. I was the pen holder, Jason. I don't know. I don't know what it was. Like I tapped into something.

Jason Croft  17:32  
Was this like this is how life should be? This is what I how I want to help people. Like what was just some kind of context there,

Brian Muka  17:43  
sure. Like Jacque Crosteau under the surface of the ocean, except I was under an avalanche, a life avalanche, and I decided to take notes and report back. Here's what I'm finding in the belly of this ice monster, and I just reported from it, and it gave me some distance. If I'm reporting on this thing that I'm experiencing firsthand instead of being the victim, I was the experimenter. I was the inner explorer instead of the explorer. And then just from having the the perspective, the environment, and the identity of I'm an explorer reporting back, it gave me enough space that I could breathe again. Because before that, I didn't feel alive. This

Jason Croft  18:23  
that much this big, yeah.

Brian Muka  18:25  
Well, that's how it starts, right? It's like, oh, oh, I can, I can breathe this much in my hands. Cool, that's all I need, and then I can wiggle some more and create some more space, and then ultimately, like the beacon would go off, and you know, this heart energy would call in the people that needed to work with me to enhance their gifts, as I was learning how to facilitate at the same time. So it was this beautiful synchronicity.

Jason Croft  18:50  
Wow, certainly something that I've experienced, even in someone who follows their gut, very introspective, very okay. What is this? Like I'm open. Tell me. Let me know what's going on. But all I get so much of the time is, nope, that's not it. Like my gut's telling me that. Nope. Nope. I'm going to collapse you and shut. And so then it's years of okay, cool, I believe you. Then what? Then what? You know. And there's a, I don't know how common that is for folks who even super common. God, it's super.

Brian Muka  19:35  
It's super calm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In the instant five year old in the back seat, like, are we there yet? How about now? Now, now, now, now. It's like we may never get there, but it's like the pursuit of it. What's present right now? How to? And this, this was the hardest lesson: is the surrender that no matter how smart this is, above average intelligence. You, you and I both, maybe, maybe more than average, above average. It's this journey from my what do I think to like what do I feel and how am I being led? You know, I call it the heart swell. I just I knew I couldn't do medical sales anymore, and I was going to see it see it through, and it it cost me two relationships, you know. You know, cost me a divorce. My most recent relationship to find my person, my partner, and I needed my partner in order for my gifts to proliferate, because she saw it, she believed in it, she was a beneficiary of this work. It transformed her life, her relationship with her daughters, you know, and in a way that this isn't coaching. It's something different. I don't even know what to call it. All I know is it's just like the book. It's expressing itself through me, and been challenging, man. It's been the hardest, most rewarding thing I've ever done because it's the highest of highs. When it's like, man, I'm in flow. This is great, amazing, and then this too shall pass, you know. And now all of a sudden, I have all this reserve capacity. I've only been using this much, and now it's like, what the fuck have I been doing? And it's this like, it's this roller coaster of, well, I'm in flow. A miracle just happened to like, why am I playing so small?

Jason Croft  21:20  
That's the challenge. I mean, back to our theme of alignment here. It's it's even when you have the intent and you you you want it and you see it. How do you keep yourself aligned to it more often than not, because we know it's never 100% But how do you keep course correcting back into that?

Brian Muka  21:49  
Right, that's that's great language, and it's does it feel turbulent? It feels like oh my god, ugh, ugh, right? And does it feel good? Yuck, ugh, you guys know what I mean. Is it a person? Yeah, that I'm investing a lot of time in, and it's sucking energy out of me, business partnership, etc. etc. Not, not a imagined example. Is it that I'm on the wrong path, right? Like Jim Carrey talks about this, anxiety and depression is when the soul is like, I don't want to play this role that I've been cast into, so the body rejects it. Okay, that's something good to listen to. You know, that probably applies to me as a special operator, as a bomb technician. I go to the Monday morning meeting, and there's like, oh, that guy worked with the SEAL teams. That guy was a dev group operator. That guy eats snakes for breakfast, like literally. You know what I mean? And like, what the fuck am I doing here? I didn't like. I I I was smart enough. I was strategic enough. I was strong. You know, all the things on paper. Like, yes, I can do this job. I couldn't kill people. I couldn't pull the trigger. You know, even in training, knowing it was paint rounds, like I couldn't do it, and it was out of alignment. But I got all the asymmetric warfare training to do this frequency stuff. You know, we're we're in this sixth generation warfare of you know people's energy being stolen, and you know I love one of my one of my mentors talks about it's not a it's not a conspiracy theory when there's patents for this technology, like in Venezuela and those things. And so, you know, personally, there's energy happening between us. And so, how do I how do I use that? How do I stop the siphoning? You know, and then how do I know when I'm on the right path? Makes my heart feel good. I get I get pulled forward towards the thing, and it's like I I don't know why. I just have to do this. So I for me the only the only like free will thing is the William Shakespeare, to be or not to be. What he's really asking is, do I remember my divinity? You know that the kingdom is at hand in me, around me, around you. When I say me, I mean all all of us. Or to or to forget. And when I forget, it feels lonely and cold, and I'm trying to figure it out on my own. And if you're still doing that, that's that doesn't work. I have rammed my head repeatedly into the brick wall, and like through no amount of efforting force, did I get the answers I needed. It wasn't until I surrendered and like quit. I'm like, God, I don't know what to. I don't know what to do. And it was like in that moment of like, it's it almost feels like desperation. It's the ego like dying a lot, and it's like I quit. Breakthrough. It's this whole surrender experiment.

Jason Croft  24:49  
It's definitely one of the hardest things in the world because I'll speak for myself, who I have this. Interesting relationship with spirit, the idea of God-you know-very non-religious aspect. I found it hard, but had certainly had those moments of just obviously I don't know, right? Obviously, what I've been doing ain't working, so I'm open. Right,

Brian Muka  25:26  
that's the hardest part of the journey. Is like I don't know, and I would push back a little bit, push back a little bit. What you're doing is working. Like there's no such thing as a mistake in all of this. Every every step, even when it feels like it's off the path, it's directly on it. Well, Tony Robbins taught me this. You know, when the pain is staying the same, exceeds the pain of change, a breakthrough happens. And then even like obviously, what I'm doing isn't working. It's part of the working. That's all I was trying to say.

Jason Croft  25:58  
That's the thing. Nit, I believe it, and that's why I've done the work, you know, for 2030, years, right? Like in this world, and it's fascinating, and I love it, and it's human, and I, oh man, what is this stuff? And and net net, am I better off than if I didn't believe in any of this crap and put my head down, and whatever. Yes, I think I'm better off. I think I'm in a season, though,

Brian Muka  26:30  
of

Jason Croft  26:33  
the anger's talking more than anything else, and I'm in a season of yeah. But is it that much better off? Because obviously, I keep fucking up, you know. So that's that energy that that I've got right now, which is not honestly isn't like me talking about alignment. I don't think that's

Brian Muka  26:55  
100 100% alignment. It it's you. It is you, right? To give yourself the five minutes or whatever. I'm fucking angry. I've been after it, doing things for others, myself, my family. hasn't worked. Doesn't feel like it's working. And now you're in public sharing that with your audience. Like there's nothing more authentic than that. Who else is angry right now? And just know that the anger is the mask for hurt. You know, where's your heart broken in showing up and doing the work, and you know, doing the work, having a connection to spirit or source or whatever, it doesn't make the work easier. It actually makes it harder. But I'm getting more traction in it. I'm getting more life out of life, being with what is instead of, you know, the blissfully ignorant of how this all works, you know,

Jason Croft  27:48  
that's the constant dance. I mean, I certainly had that realization, went through that, and I think a lot of people who go into personal development world and bettering themselves world, this is a a part they have to have to get to. That when you enter it, the early you know, being in college, listening to Tony Robbins tapes at the beginning, I love it and stuff. There's this idea, conscious or otherwise, that I'm going to do this, then be successful, then things are fixed, things are done, right? And then you and you have to go through that season of realizing we're never done-that's the thing that is-you can take that two way. You can take that like, well, shant, I'm never going to be done with this. Or you can tell you like, this is amazing. I'm never done. I'm always going to get better. Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Brian Muka  28:40  
You know, there's there's no breakthrough without the trough, right? Every superhero needs a villain, and so whatever that is could be procrastination, could be porn, you know, whatever the thing is, right? That's providing the friction is amazing. I remember I was obsessed with King Arthur when I was a kid, and the Once and Future King, I think, is where this is from. There's no greater enemy to any standing harmony than peace. So there's nothing to fight against. You know the armor gets rusty, and the edge gets dull. Like, all right, well, there's got to be a happy medium between like memento mori that I'm gonna die, right? There's that. You and I know that one really well. Do this or else you're gonna die, and then there's the memento vibri. Like while we're on Earth, we should probably live a lot, like a lot. And and like lifeing is life is a medicine and it's working. You know the the adversary, the friction, the what the fuck gods. You know if you haven't had that conversation with God yet, like you know, what are you been doing? You know, like it doesn't make sense. Not supposed to. Okay, and you were talking about Tony Robbins, and you know, I did a lot of that. And you know, I love listening to Alex Ramosi and Tony, and they've got a lot of stuff figured out for them. Right, they figured out their prescription, and that works for them. And then they turn around and you're like, "Well, this will work for you too. And the age of Pisces, that that's true. I need the priest to tell me what to do, and if I do that, I'm going to be happy. Great. And beginning beginning the journey, the apprenticeship, I I should be working with someone, and someone teaching me their principles and where they started with, and eventually, like everything works until it doesn't work, and then it's like, how come this doesn't work? It's because it's not yours, man. It's Tony Robbins's. What's my prescription? Great question. You should probably go figure that out, you know. And like the shitty amazing part of all of this is no one has the answer for somebody else, and what works for me in the way that I breathe, and I know this for sure that my divine breath is different than Jason is different than yours, just like the way that you connect into source and spirit or God through the breath is different. I think that means everything else is different too, and so you know when we can come together and take the mask off and like, man, I've been after it. I'm exhausted. I'm frustrated. I'm angry, and like the greatest love, and this is part of the book too. Why I wrote your secret superpower, same fear to thrive. You may not have gone through an avalanche directly, but if I live through those eyes, maybe I don't have to, because I understand what it could be like. And there's a scene in Green Lights from Matthew McConaughey, and McConaughey he's got everything. He's got the he's got the bull, you know, the tiger by the tail. He's got money. He's got girls. His sex anytime he wants. You know these great movies. He goes this monastery because he feels empty. He goes this this retreat, and he finds this monk for four and a half hours. He just vomits on him about how hard it is. You know how empty it feels. He's like spitting and crying and all the stuff, and eventually it hits him. Holy shit! It's four and a half hours later. I said, "What the fuck did I just do to this poor guy? And and the monk holds him, and he goes, "Me too.

Speaker 1  32:17  
Wow.

Brian Muka  32:17  
Me too, Jason.

Jason Croft  32:19  
Yeah, if everyone could take that in, and if you're looking to get help along this journey in that path, that is the barometer. Like that's the measuring stick. That should be the answer in the first conversation. Yeah, me too. I don't know. I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. Some days, right? I've got some tools. The opposite is this is the way. This is how you do it. I did it. This is how you do it. That's where you run the opposite direction.

Brian Muka  32:59  
It's happening too fast right now to use an old protocol, and so so. What are the principles? It seems that in stillness, when the storm is raging on the outside, and I can be still, be still and know that I am with you. Idea that seems to be a major principle. The other principle seems to be when two are more and gathered. In my name is the biblical scripture. In that, but when two or two or more people are gathered with the same purpose, there I am. I am, right? Like our divinity shows up and access that I don't have access to by myself, you know. And you know, Jason and I have tapped into something really special with you. Like, and the way this quant reaction I think works is that by you very listening to this, no matter if it's now or a year from now, we've had an effect on each other. Like knowing that you're listening to this, and then that you listening, we're affecting each other because we're trying to figure this thing out. And remember, we're trying to remember in this amnesia. Amnesia is part of the game, be like, "Fuck, I forgot again. Yeah, yep, that's the game. Yep, and that's the perfect segue into dancing

Jason Croft  34:07  
with this seemingly opposed viewpoint of you need to be there with someone, you need to go through this with someone, and the answer's inside you. It's a solo journey that we do together. That's what I've come to. It's a solo journey that we're doing together. It's tough to to take in. I am ultimately responsible because I I do believe I believe we are responsible for ourselves. If something bad's happened, ultimately I did it. Right, I attracted it. I brought it. There's outliers. Blah blah blah. Ultimately, I'm where I am in life because of me. My decisions getting there.

Brian Muka  34:50  
Can I push back on that just a little bit? So there's something about accountability, and there's a better living through paradox. So to. Things being true, two opposites being true at the same time. There's times for sure that it was my fault. Obviously, it's my responsibility. No matter what happens, it's my responsibility. It's not always my fault, right? And the only reason I'm clarifying that is to lighten the backpack a lot. When you know my soul may have decided to have these experiences, but through no fault of my own did I go through my Iraq experience. No matter what I did, I was going to fail that. I had to. It was my Kobayashi Maru. No matter what I did, I was designed to particle smash that to make something brand new. And so, also in dealing with narcissists and folks who are like, "Oh, you're going to take responsibility for me? Cool, it is your fault. That's not fair, you know. So to know what's mine, to know what was beyond my control, and no matter what the ad answer is, I'm responsible for everything in my life.

Jason Croft  35:59  
And that's a very important distinction to, because this this conversation gets messy really fast with people and things that happen. That's why I I reference the outliers and things like that. That's better language. That it's it's ultimately my responsibility in the fact that blame and why and whose fault none of that matters and means anything anyway. It's but it's my responsibility to move forward.

Brian Muka  36:27  
Oh, it is. So that's that's a great level one. It's my responsibility. Got it. It's my cool. And there's those times, especially the relationship, when it's like I'm doing more than I'm supposed to. How come it's harder for me, and the most kingly, enlightened thing I can think of in that moment is this phrase: "What an honor! What an honor it is to serve! What an honor it is to listen with God's ears! Wow, this person's really vomiting all over me. When do I get to talk? It's my responsibility, right? It's a duty, and then I can just change that language to what an honor. I don't know the end of this yet. I'm being forged. What an honor! That's valor. That's a heart-led courage through the unknown. And if I could just remember what an honor. Like obviously, my creator has entrusted me with this mission. I don't believe I can do it, but he or she does, and so could it be that the night sampler shows up as a gift, so I can prove it to myself? What if all the friction and conflict and the headwinds are all about me remembering that wow, God really dwells in me?

Jason Croft  37:38  
It's phenomenal, and it rings true, and I'm sure it does for a lot of folks watching, listening. Where's the action part of that, or the non-action, or the just being and taking it in? But where's what? Where's the what do I do with that?

Brian Muka  37:56  
Yeah, right. It's and it's to take that action, right? That inspired action, right? So yesterday at the funeral, I can't ask Jeff what he needs because he has no idea what he needs. He needed like you know. I went up to him and I was like, "Hey, man, you got space for one more hug because I know that you just gave 100 hugs. And the way that our funerals work, and like you, as the grieving, you have to like help other people grieve. It's hard. I thought that he needed to hear his son wanted to play catch with him one more time, and it was really magical, you know. And so, as as profoundly spiritual that experience was with his son from the other side, I still need to take action and statesman that. I put a lot of thought into how I was going to language that for him as a gift in his in his state to look through the eyes, you know, and trust it. And so, you know, with these inspirations, what am I going to do with it? Because it's impossible to balance a wheel that isn't moving. So I must take action. I must continue to move through this messy physical gloriousness, you know, where I get to taste food and have physical experiences. And the other realization I had yesterday was, I trained a billion years and so many lifetimes to be on Earth right now. Maybe the greatest time in all of human history, you know, was where this AI disclosure. You know, we're gonna we're gonna have. I think we're gonna have aliens. You know, as friends very soon. You know, and that we volunteer for this. Like, am I liking? Am I really enjoying this, this thing I waited so many, so many years, so many lifetimes for? And at the end of the day, am I enjoying it? Like, I can, I can enjoy the heart, you know, the life, and serving others, serving myself, and having these Adventures, and ultimately, it's well. What's my philosophy? I'm going to try a thing. I'm going to run the experiment and see what happens because I don't know.

Jason Croft  39:49  
That's the challenge from the business perspective of this. Certainly, with what you're doing. How do you wrap that conversation up in a nutshell, in a marketing slogan that you know that conversation you and I just had, and and

Brian Muka  40:08  
I don't know run ads against it, right? Like, yeah, yeah,

Speaker 2  40:11  
yeah.

Jason Croft  40:12  
What's been the best way so far that you've been able to encapsulate this to put out? Here's who I help. If you're going through this, we should have a conversation. And what's next with that?

Brian Muka  40:28  
So I hate that question because it's hard to fit that into a genie bottle again. Exactly. And and I appreciate the the kindness. One of the ways I got around that was, you know, if it feels like a fit, have an experience. Jason and I have had that experience. You know, I don't explain the experience. I can't. I don't know what you're going to find. I typically meet folks as they are navigating burnout and crisis leadership type stuff, and trained in that. The breakthroughs, you know, when you when you when you're out in the world and you see somebody that just got smashed, you know, just got hit by a 35 foot sea monster, and you know it's a divorce, medical industry, or they've just been promoted, you know, to their dream job. Then the imposter monster is huge. It's a good time. I know that road really well. Or you know, doing all the things and it's not working. The workouts. I'm doing the marketing. I'm doing the sales, and I'm stuck. That's a good time. There's there's something out of alignment. I know what that is. Takes time, you know. And basically, like my tagline is, we can do years worth of work in 12 weeks because we cheat. You know, look around the corner. You know, break some of the rules and figure out what's really true for you. That's what not the best fit line for everybody, but what's your unique prescription? What's your way of doing it? And my job is to help you remember your way, not my way, and to apply some experience as you figure out your own life philosophy, which which is philosophy is lover of life. How do you love your life? That's the goal. How do you love it? Even when it sucks, what an honor.

Jason Croft  42:08  
Well, that's strong too because that's also. I know that you come from that place of love life. Get every drop of it out. Let's squeeze it out. Let's do this, and it's also not sit and do nothing, go off into the woods, be by yourself. Only people go there as soon as they hear like enjoy your life, you know, get the most out of it. You should be enjoying things. For some people, that can be enjoying working 60 hours a week in their business, and they're just thriving, and it's that feeds them in this beautiful way. And if they're in balance, in alignment with that, that's their version of it. You have both of those things working together.

Brian Muka  42:52  
Yeah, it's you know, how can I love way this sucks? How can I love how this is awesome? Both love it all, all of it. And you know, there's sometimes I just got to roll my sleeves up, and this is going to suck for a while, okay. And the longer it sucks, the bigger the life. I promise. The harder the squeeze, the bigger the breakthrough, and it takes courage, takes valor in order to work through that. And just remember, any any time that you have a breakthrough in all of this, when it's especially when it's hard, you're making it possible for other people. That's what I learned in my experience. That I'm going to go through this because it's part of my path, and I'm going to report back. And here's here's part of the treasure that I found to have a framework to work through, you know, these avalanches ultimately, so we could soar again on your terms, not mine. That's the biggest thing I want to add to this conversation. Why this works different than Tony's? You already have answers, all of them. It's hidden. So how do we how do we investigate? How do we explore the inner space? And I'm going to end with this. So the gods sat around. They're like, we've got this secret. We're going to hide it from man. And so initially, they hid the secret on the top of Everest. Sir Edmund Hillary and Sergey Nurga they climbed Everest and they found the secret, the treasure. Like, well, that's not going to do. Where are we going to hide it? I, I know, we're going to hide in the Marianas Trench. They can't even. They can't breathe underwater. Well, we made a submarine and we went to the bottom. And so now the gods are frustrated, and they're like, "Man, where are we going to hide this secret from man? And finally, the wisest of all the gods says, "I know exactly where to hide it. We're going to hide it inside him. He'll never look there. Every one of you listening to this has a treasure and a gift that you uniquely are meant to serve the world with. It's yours, and part of this incredible mosaic where we did this together, we cooperated, and you shared your gift, and I shared mine, and we shared them. The reason why Tony Robbins doesn't work for everybody, it's because it's his. It's his method, and there's people that it really resonates for, and it's close enough to their gift that they can just use that. And if Tony Robbins doesn't work for you, or. Alex or Mosi or whoever the guru de jour is, it's because you're the guru. That was the wisest thing Wim Hof ever said to me. Boom, the guru is in you. That's it. It's you. And my job is to find your inner guru, and then you teach me. Actually, what'd you find? Because it's not my gift. It's yours. And then I get to share that, you know, with the people that I work with, and you get to proliferate yours and and ultimately thrive because you faced your fear and you went in and did the hard hard thing. Really love living.

Jason Croft  45:29  
Beautiful.

Brian Muka  45:30  
Yeah.

Jason Croft  45:32  
Brian, thank you so much.

Brian Muka  45:33  
Ah, such a pleasure, man. Always enjoy time with you, Jason. Where do people reach out? FreedomSherpa.com. There's a booking link there if you want to spend half an hour together. Be my honor. Instagram, YouTube, Freedom Sherpa on YouTube. I should start making some more content soon. So there's some good stuff there. What we've covered so far, I go into detail kind of a how-to. So that's what the the the Freedom Sherpa YouTube channel is all about.

Jason Croft  45:59  
Fantastic. This has been just a blast, and I knew it would be. You were right in your vision, or that on World Tower.

Brian Muka  46:09  
Here's the hive. You ready? 321, Fuck yeah! Of course, man. That's right. Yeah, nice show. Great show. This was really fun, man.

Jason Croft  46:17  
Awesome, and we'll see you all next time. Thanks for joining us on Strategy in Action. Remember, true industry leaders don't chase opportunities; they attract them. Want to build your own market gravity? Visit MediaLeadsCo.com. See you next time.