379. Spiritual Millionaire with Preston Smiles

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Preston Smiles:

That wasn't just influencer Instagram stuff. That's who he was at a gas station. That's who he was in a Walmart bathroom.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Hello and welcome to The Daily Helping with Dr. Richard Shuster, food for the brain, knowledge from the experts, tools to win at life. I'm your host, Dr. Richard. Whoever you are, wherever you're from, and whatever you do, this is the show that is going to help you become the best version of yourself. Each episode you will hear from some of the most amazing, talented, and successful people on the planet who followed their passions and strived to help others. Join our movement to get a million people each day to commit acts of kindness for others. Together, we're going to make the world a better place. Are you ready? Because it's time for your Daily Helping.

Thanks for tuning into this episode of The Daily Helping Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Richard. And our guest today is awesome beyond words. I am so excited to introduce to all of you Preston Smiles. He's an abundance and personal freedom coach, a father, a husband, a best-selling author, and he embodies a journey of resilience and boundless compassion. I'm going to skip why, because he's going to tell us in a little bit. But Preston is everywhere. He's been recognized as the Millennial Mentor of the Year. He's on every major podcast you can imagine. He's been in Forbes, BBC, Entrepreneur, DailyMail.com, to name a few.

And he's going to share with us his message, which he champions. It's a message of love, purpose, and radical abundance. Preston Smiles, welcome to The Daily Helping. It is outstanding to have you with us today.

Preston Smiles:

Thank you, sir. Appreciate it.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Absolutely. This is going to be so fun. So, I intentionally left stuff out of the intro because I love people superhero origin stories, like what makes them who they are. You have overcome some adversity. But that's so helpful for people when they hear things like that, because then they understand that they can overcome pretty much anything. So, let's hop in the Preston Smiles time machine, take us back, talk to us about the journey. What ultimately put you on the path that you're on today helping so many people around the world?

Preston Smiles:

Yes. So, I'll give you the short CliffsNotes version because I'm 44 years young, but I've lived a lot of lives. The short story is by the time I was five years old, my mom and dad were arguing about whether I was special needs. By the time I was in the first grade, they decided to put me in special education. I made up a story, as we do, because children are so adaptable, that I was the dumb child, the stupid one, and that I needed to make up for being dumb, and not as attractive, and all these things. And so, I became sort of like an out of the way kid/Robin Hood. And that carried me on to seeking validation outside of myself because my parents were so stressed out battling their own demons. And that led me to joining a gang by the time I was 11 years old. I started smoking weed right around that same time.

And my dad caught me. And they were divorced by this time. And this is a key moment in the story because it'll connect a lot of dots. My dad caught me at that time, and instead of putting me on punishment or giving me a whooping like he had before, he did something really genius that is still living in me today. He said, "I'm going to give you 24 hours to think about smoking weed. And what I want you to think about is all the people you know who do it. And I want you to decide whether you want their life or not. Because if you do what they do, then you're going to have what they have. And you've told me you want to be like Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, so you go think about it."

So, 24 hours goes by, my 11 year old brain is going crazy because I'm like, "What is this? This is a trap," et cetera, et cetera. And he says, "Okay. So, what'd you decide?" And I said, "I don't think I want to smoke weed again." He said, "Tell me why?" I said, "Because all the boys on the corner and these guys smoke weed. And I don't think Michael Jordan does. And I don't think Magic Johnson does. And I want to be more like them." And he said, "Fantastic." And then, he said this, "You're a leader, and you're such a leader that if everybody else is going left, but something inside of you says go right, you will do it anyway, because that's who you are." And then, he let me go. No punishment. He didn't take my Nintendo. Nothing.

Now, fast forward to 15 years old, my best friend, Scott, calls me to go out and do stupid boy stuff like we always did. And for some reason, I heard - I couldn't even spell intuition - something said don't go. And I said, "Nah, man. I'm going to chill." And Scott being a best friend, he was 16, he's like, "Come on. Don't be a little beep." And I'm like, "Nah, man. I'm going to chill." And my dad's voice popped back in my head, so I said no. Within one hour of me saying no, every single person in that blue Astro van that I was in the night before that, the night before that, and the night before that, every single one of them was shot. And my best friend, Scott, was shot in the head and died.

Now, this was such a catalyst moment in my life because I had survivor's guilt. I didn't understand why I chose not to go in that moment. But I understood that something was speaking. I was 15, and I was the observer of the voice. And so then, I'm in this moment where I don't know what's happening and I didn't even cry at his funeral. I was so programmed and conditioned, and that had been beat out of me long ago.

So, fast forward to me graduating college from Louisiana State University, the entire time I was in college, I had imposter syndrome. I had this thought they're going to catch me. They're going to find out that I'm stupid, that I'm not supposed to be here. So, my trauma from five and seven years old is now following me into college and everywhere else. And I developed a skin disease at, like, 19 that no doctor can figure out. They just gave me steroids and medicine. That's all I got.

Now, fast forward, I graduate from college. I have an MFA in theater. I'm back in Los Angeles. And my heart starts to do funny things. And it gets so crazy that I decide to go to a doctor, and that doctor says you need to go to a cardiologist immediately today. And so, I rush over to a cardiologist, they run some tests, they do some stuff, they sort of hold me overnight. And what came back was you have something going on with your heart. We haven't quite figured it out, but you will probably have to deal with this for the rest of your life. We're going to give you some pills to support with thinning your blood. People in your family have died from heart disease, et cetera, et cetera.

Long story short, that cardiologist said to me, as a doctor, here's what I'm going to tell you, as a husband, as a father, as a citizen, here's the thing I want you to look at, your diet and your stress levels. Well, I didn't know that I wasn't eating a healthy diet. So, he said, "What do you eat?" And I said food. And he asked me to describe it. I described it. I said, McDonald's, Burger King, Jack in the Box. That's pretty much what I eat.

And then, he said, tell me about your life. And I said, well, my dad's been battling drug addiction since I was, like, nine, and so I've been trying to make it for him and my mom ever since then. And he was like, "Tell me more." And basically, I stressed myself out in such a way that my body started to break down and it was going to kill me. Because the body is a living library that stores everything, although my mind didn't remember all the traumas and the sexual abuse and certain things that happened as a child, my body still was holding all of it.

And so - this is the end of the story, but really the beginning - I went on a quest. I went cold turkey. I became a vegan that day. I denounced my religion. I started reading esoteric books and all kinds of stuff. And I went down the rabbit hole. And I came out six months later, my skin was clear. I was happier than I've ever been. And people started asking me to talk about it. And this is before the word coaching was popular, there was no word influencer, but I was doing things like that, and it just took off. There's so much more to the story, but that's how I started this path.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

I'm glad I cut it out of the intro and gave you the space because it's so powerful. And it's even more powerful that because your dad's wisdom to have you evaluate things, but then knowing that he, himself, had been struggling with substance abuse issues makes it all the more powerful and more meaningful that despite his struggles, he was able to position you to have the opportunity to choose, which is magical.

And so, much of what you said resonated with me, the physical stuff. I mean, this is something I've talked about for years, is, we can make ourselves physically ill based on our environment, and that means what we put in our body and what we put into our mind, what we put into our spirit.

So, thank you for sharing all that you did.

So, now you're the Preston Smiles. You're one of the most recognized people for doing this. And a fellow, we share a breed of dog, so I already feel a kinship with you. So, people are listening to this and I know they're excited because trauma is a relative term, so what was traumatic to you can be different to somebody listening to this. So, talk to us about how you overcame the trauma because you were very clear on how you made the shift. You stopped eating Burger King and Jack in the Box and went vegan. But talk to us about what you did to overcome your trauma.

Preston Smiles:

Yes, absolutely. So, I've been leading workshops with my wife around the nervous system and navigating trauma for the last eight years all over the world. And so, this is a near and dear subject to me. I started working on this stuff before I understood that there's an entire world of it. I didn't realize how traumatized I was because there's different layers and levels. 

There is shock trauma. Like there was a point when, I think, I was 13, we got ran over by a Mayflower truck, head-on collision. And it ran over the entire car and I was smushed at the bottom of the backseat, and my friends and everybody were crushed, bones crushed, everything. And I survived that. That's shock trauma.

But there's also developmental and more subtle traumas, like not hearing I love you often or I'm proud of you, or witnessing a sister or a brother or someone being abused, or bullying. There's a myriad of things that go into that word, and you are correct.

For me, one of the first places - and this is a principle I teach in all of my work that I went - was I made a list of all the things that did not fit into where I was going. So, I said, "Okay. Here's where I am. I have a heart condition. Things aren't working. I'm broke as hell financially. It's not necessarily lining up."

And for those of you listening, I just want you to hear this, not to impress you, but to impress upon you how this work works. Right now I'm sitting on our four acre property. There's three houses on this one. We own seven altogether. I have all the big toys and the fancy cars and all the stuff, all the physical stuff that most people would ever want, plus four kids, a wife, a dog. I take care of my mom and, like, 25 people. So, this story has a happy ending in many ways. But the beautiful thing is that I was rich before I was ever rich financially, and that's what we're going back to.

So, I made a list of all the things that didn't fit where I was going. And I call this principle elevation requires separation. So, I made a decision that if I was going to elevate, I was going to have to separate from certain people and environments. I was going to have to separate from some of the foods and things that I was eating and taking in. And one of those places was with my father. I fasted from lack, limitation, and scarcity, and my dad was a trigger for me.

Every time I saw his phone call, I would revert back to the 14, 13 year old Preston, the 17 year old whose dad was sleeping on the streets when our house got taken by the government. That would come back into my body. We can talk about goals and achieving and getting to the top of the mountain all day. But if the body is having a different experience, it's just talk. And I didn't even know this stuff, bro. I didn't know it, but I knew it. Because the phone would ring, I'd see the number, and my body would go into terrible states, very high stress states.

And so, I reached out to him and I said I'm going to need a break because I'm building something. I'm going somewhere. I love you so much, but I need a break. And I reached out to some of my friends, I said the same thing, I won't be around for a while because I'm building something and I'm going somewhere. So, that was one.

Number two, I made a list of all the people because I realized that when we are holding resentments, when we haven't forgiven ourselves and others, it hardens the heart, it hardens everything. And in real estate, they say location, location, location. And I wanted energetic real estate. I wanted space to build the mansion of my dreams. And I knew that there was no space with me being angry at my abuser as a child, with me not forgiving my mom or dad or anybody for putting me in special education, me being so mad at the government for being a throwaway person where I believe they didn't care about us. And so, I made a list of all the things and people I didn't forgive, and I spent, let's call it, 20 minutes a day meditating and forgiving, just cleaning up my side of the street.

Third, I recognized that the seed contains the blueprint for the entire tree. But the distinction between a seed that turns into a sapling and into a tree, and provides shade and food and water, and grows a thousand feet in the air, and one that grows three feet in the air and shrivels up and dies is the soil that it's planted in. So, okay, I've separated from these people. I've made my forgiveness list. And I'm meditating and I'm taking care of myself. But where am I planted? Because I can't do this by myself. We're social beings.

So, I took the money that I was using on my apartment and all that stuff, and I moved back in with my mom, and I invested into people's programs and to people's coaching. I signed myself up for Landmark, MITT, that whole kind of jazz. Nobody had to come get me. I literally just said take my money.

And so, that's three of many things I did to put myself in a position where I could just get to a baseline of health. And then, from there, it became ridiculous.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

What I love about this, and you said yourself, you were experiencing this and you didn't know there was a whole world of science behind all this, there are neurological underpinnings to what you're talking about. You know, guys who are the pillars of personal development, the Dale Carnegies the Napoleon Hills, they knew this stuff. Everybody talks about the Jim Rohn quote, you're an average of the five people you're on the most. 

But the reason why is because our brain, our body, our system is built to maintain homeostasis. It's got to be the same. So, if you want to quit smoking and you're hanging out with a bunch of smokers, you have no shot in hell. It's never going to happen. But if you change that environment, if you get around people that are going jogging and then they don't smoke and they eat right, the things happen.

You know, I had a professor many years ago that said grab the guts and the head will follow. And that was so succinctly put and it was right on. So, everything you're describing is not only practical, but there is an absolute scientific basis behind it, which I love. So, kudos for you for bringing that to people's attention the work that you do because it's so important.

Preston Smiles:

Yes, sir. I appreciate that, man.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

I want to spend a little bit of time because then you've got a new book coming out, your third book, and I'm excited about it because you flashed it up before we hit the big red button here, Spiritual Millionaire. Spiritual Millionaire. So, tell us the impetus, why did you write that book?

Preston Smiles:

Yeah. I wrote it because I had to. I wrote it because I'm uniquely positioned to write a book like this, because I have spent so many years studying the laws of the universe. And to give you an example that these laws are real, nobody, nobody contends with the law of gravity. There's no pushback. We're like, "There's gravity." Nobody contends with the law of buoyancy, for example. If you build a ship in a particular way, it's going to float.

But most people don't understand that there are other laws that they are using, whether they're conscious of them or not. And particularly spiritual and self-development type people have sort of that same thing that comes up with artists, there's an ethos, a consciousness, a starving artist. Well, a spiritual millionaire in some ways feels like an oxymoron to most people. But the truth is, is that everything from where I sit is inside of God, the universe, Allah, Krishna, Buddha, whatever you want to call it. There's nothing outside of it. It's omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. It's everywhere.

And it's like electricity. Electricity never says no. It only has one question, and that question is, do you have the infrastructure, the body, the somatic body to hold what you're plugging up? So, if you're going to plug up an iPhone, electricity says yes. If you're going to plug up a Tesla, electricity says you got the body, yes. You want to plug up this whole city, you got the body, yes.

My truth is that God, the universe is exactly the same. But most people don't understand what the body part is. They don't understand how to build an infrastructure that can hold abundance. I know I didn't. That's why I spent most of my life as a poor person. Now I experience a whole different thing, and yet I offered the vibration before I ever saw it physically. I allowed myself to get emotionally involved with what I was calling in before it was here, but not from deifying it or demonizing it.

And I think a lot of people, when it comes to the outward manifestation of anything, because humans have desires, we all have desires, even if it's just to make the room colder or the room hotter, it's a desire. The manifestation part, a lot of people, especially people in our field, will demonize things as, "Oh. Well, if you want that, then you're not as spiritual" or will deify them and will put them up on a pedestal. And my work in Spiritual Millionaire is about helping people understand how to use the laws in their favor so that they continue to be a beneficial presence on the planet.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

A lot of people hear this, their mind probably goes immediately to the law of attraction, and I'm going to quote one of your neighbors down there in Austin. Hal Elrod once said on my show that there's the law of attraction, but it's really the law of action and attraction, taking steps to achieve these goals.

And so, I know everybody has a different take and a different personal journey with this. Tell us a few of the tools that will help get people on this path.

Preston Smiles:

Oh, man. Well, Hal's not wrong. And Hal's a friend of mine. We've known each other for probably 16 years, somewhere around there. I've known him for quite a while.

However, if we had to look at it percentage-wise, it would be 80 percent mind and body, and 20 percent action, especially if you got the right actions. Because anybody could do action, the question is, is it aligned committed action? Is it the type of action that move the needle forward?

I tell my clients all the time, I only ever have three things on my list, my success list. And those are the three most important needle moving things I can do that day as it pertains to the thing that I want to accomplish that week, and as it pertains to the thing I want to accomplish that month, as that is connected to the thing I want to accomplish in the six months, all the way to a year to ten years. So, these are all connected.

The thing that I believe trips people up is they say with their mouth that they desire something. But on a subconscious level, they don't believe they are worthy of that. On a subconscious level, and that's the one. The subconscious cannot think, it can only act, it can act from. So, once something is there, and that's why reprogramming and cutting the second cord, cutting the second umbilical cord from our parents, from the environment, because we're social and historical beings born into beliefs and interpretations.

So, if I am born into a belief and interpretation that money is the root of all evil, that rich people are bad and dirty or scoundrels, or things of that nature, but my mind says I'd like to experience more abundance financially, well, I can say that until the cows come home. But if it's living in my body and my subconscious as rich people are bad, then it's gas break, gas break.

So, a big portion of my work is around helping people reprogram by way of allowing themselves to mentally rehearse in such a way that it hits the body. Because threefold beings, body, mind, soul. We're at our most powerful when all three are aligned. I've had plenty of times where I could feel the soul going, "Yep, we got this," the body kind of like teetering, and the mind is like, "Go." Now, can I still create from that space? Yes. 

The most powerful manifestations - and we're always manifesting. Always. It's never off. It's only on always - the most powerful manifestations occur, in my opinion, when all three are aligned.

And so, my biggest work then is to clear the body by way of addressing trauma and shame, toxic shame and guilt that still lives in my body by way of practices, daily practices, going to workshops, putting myself in immersive situations, and then programming my mind on a day-to-day basis by way of being in environments where I'm held and supported, reading materials where I'm held and supported and I get what's really occurring. 

And listening - the last part I'll say here - one of my favorite quotes in the entire world comes from the Gnostic Gospels of Thomas, and it reads, if you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. But if you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.

That, I feel is a fact. That's not a philosophy. And the question most people think that's just macro but that's daily. My wife and I sometimes we get into it, and I'll have a thing that says go kiss her right now. That's what you bring forth. If you do it, it'll save you. Whether she kisses me back, whether she rejects me or not, that's not on me. But if I hold, if I restrain, if I hold back, it destroys me because all of life is circulating. Does that make sense?

So, I love this quote from the perspective of literal gifts. Like, bro, this podcast is that. It's not only saving you, but it's saving us because the fruit doesn't belong to the tree. So, this isn't Dr. Richard's podcast. Dr. Richard is a conduit, a middleman to the gifts and talents and abilities and things that have come through. That's what's beautiful about this whole thing, we all have pieces to the puzzle. I love it.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

There's so much beauty in what you said, Preston. I enjoy, again, that we're dabbling a little bit of science, a little bit of spiritual, and they come together in such a perfect way.

I love asking people this and I don't ask everybody this, but I'm going to ask you. Fifty years from now, you're 94 years old, and you're still playing Nintendo in some way, shape, or form, I'm sure. But as you look back on what you've done, how you've helped people, what's important to you from a legacy standpoint?

Preston Smiles:

I think my big work is to be a demonstration of what's possible. Because information is not what we all need. It's important, but it's very challenging to be what you can't see. And so, my work is to be a demonstration of everything that I speak about. For people to look at my children, to look at my work, to look at me - and this happens often, and I'm not tooting my horn here - but I'll get into Uber, I'll go to a Starbucks, and people will go, "What do you do?" Because there's something. And for me, that's the biggest gift. It's like, "Hey, bro. You are really loving. I like your style and you're cool and all that stuff. But there's something about your energetic that feels so open."

To me, the big piece that I want to leave is a legacy of that dude walked his talk. Because even going back to the religion piece - no offense to any religion - but Jesus didn't have one. He just walked his talk. He just walked his talk. He said, all right, as I am lifted up, I draw all unto me. He said, forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do. He said, what you do to the least of my brothers, you also do to me. Like this dude was walking his talk. I love it. That's the goal for me, for my kids, and my grandkids, and everybody to go that wasn't just influencer Instagram stuff. That's who he was in a gas station. That's who he was in a Walmart bathroom.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Drop the mic. I love it. Man, so awesome. I could talk to you for hours, Preston, and I'm sure we're going to do this again sometime, whether it's on your show or mine. But I love asking my guests a single question every time I talk to somebody, and that is, what is your biggest helping? That one most important piece of information you'd like somebody to walk away with after hearing our conversation today.

Preston Smiles:

I think this rocked my world and so I'm going to drop it in everybody else's. You can't have what you want, but you may experience what you have. So, make sure that on a day-to-day basis, you're actually operating from enough gratitude. You have the blinders off and you see what's really going on because we can all be bamboozled into the weapon of mass distraction, into consumerism, into chasing the next high. But the work is to get high on your own supply, because from that space, you get to have everything. It's all frequency. And so, when I'm operating from the frequency of love and gratitude, it's easy.

Dr. Richard Shuster: 

Perfectly said. Perfectly said. Preston, tell us first when everybody will be able to get their hands on Spiritual Millionaire, and then tell us where they can learn more about you online.

Preston Smiles:

Absolutely. Spiritual Millionaire will be out October 1st. It's at prestonsmiles.com/book. If you are on YouTube or Instagram, just @prestonsmiles and I'll be everywhere. And if I never see you or hear from you again, I just want you to know from one human to another, I'm super proud of all of us. We're doing amazing. And if nobody's told you today, you are amazing.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

Amen to that. Awesome. And for those of you in the car, at the gym, we got you covered. Everything Preston Smiles will be available, including his book, in the show notes at drrichardshuster.com. Well, Preston, the time flew. This was such an epic conversation. You're an epic human being. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom and brilliance with us today.

Preston Smiles:

Absolutely. It's an absolute pleasure, man. And thank you for doing the work that you do and have done and all the work years ago, seven years ago, eight years ago, ten years ago, to get you to this place where you can hold space, listen, sift through, and call forward such magic, not just for yourself, but for all these people that you will never actually meet. That's a big deal, Dr. Richard, and I just want to say thank you for it.

Dr. Richard Shuster:

I appreciate that. And I appreciate also each and every one of you listening to this, who took time out of your day to listen to this conversation. If you're inspired, if you're going to become a spiritual millionaire, go give us a follow and a five-star review on your podcast app of choice, because this is what helps other people find the show. But most importantly, go out there today and do something nice for somebody else, even if you don't know who they are, and post it in your social media feeds using the hashtag #MyDailyHelping, because the happiest people are those that help others.